Climate Change and Dynamics of Vegetation in the Lesser Caucasus: An Overview

Wetlands are considered critical ecosystems due to declining quality of their ecosystems services. Nevertheless, there have not been any climate related researched devoted to vegetation condition and biomass amount. Thus, this study examines the seasonal dynamics of vegetation and its correlations with climatic factors. This study is important for understanding of the regulatory function of this ecosystem during climate change. Two Landsat OLI8 images made in 2020 were analyzed. One image refers to the rainy season (April 12), and the other to the dry season (August 2). The radiometric and atmospheric corrections of the images and the determination of the boundaries of the study site (ROI) were developed in ENVI 5.3 program. The normalized differential vegetation index (NDVI) was calculated with ENVI 5.3 program (histograms allowed to determine biomass), and with ArcGIS 10.3 (for classification index). The Pearson coefficient (r) and the Statistica software were applied to determine the correlations between the variables. The linear relationship between the NDVI, the amount of biomass and the climatic variables was identified. In the rainy season (April) with higher temperature and precipitation, the NDVI was >0.5 and the biomass was 372613.0 t in the major part of “la Tembladera”, while in the dry season (August) with a lower temperature and precipitation rate, both the NDVI (0.14–0.5) and the biomass (333856.95 t) decreased in a considerable area of the wetland. Consequently, the seasonal dynamics of vegetation and its biomass is caused by fluctuations in these climatic variables. Thus, the biomass increased during the rainy season (higher precipitation, temperature, and humidity). These results can be used to further modelling the effects of climate change in these ecosystems.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF HYDROGEOLOGICAL MASSIVES OF THE GREATER, LITTLE CAUCASUS AND TALYSH (AZERBAIJAN) TAKING INTO ACCOUNT GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

Visnyk of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv Geology ◽

10.17721/1728-2713.94.12 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 95-102

Author(s):

I. Tagiyev ◽

V. Kerimov ◽

J. Sherifov

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Global Warming ◽

Global Climate Change ◽

Caspian Sea ◽

Alternative Energy ◽

Global Climate ◽

Great Influence ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

The Caspian Sea ◽

Lesser Caucasus

Issues of global warming lead to dramatic changes in hydrological and hydrogeological conditions. The Caspian Sea and mountain ranges have a great influence on the formation of the climate. Many believed that climate models and predictions are probabilistic in nature, but some will think that global climate change is important today. It is necessary to take into account that climate change is global, it occurs everywhere on our planet and affects every state and every person. Purpose: Clarification of the influence of the relief and the proximity of the Caspian Sea which determines the differences and distribution of air temperature, precipitation and other climate elements. The annual amount of precipitation falls in the cold half of the year in the form of snow, the melting of which causes violent spring floods on the rivers, evaporation and sufficient relative moisture. The characteristics of climatic zones show their close relationship with the nature of the relief and with the hypsometric position of the terrain above sea level. Ground waters within the Greater, Lesser Caucasus and Talysh are distributed everywhere. In the Greater Caucasus, there are mainly distributed gravels of the Kusar Formation (QIV), and within the Khvalynskaya, Khazar, Bakinskaya and Kusarskaya formations, clay interlayers divide the general flow of groundwater into several horizons of pressure water, the same pattern also takes place in the Lesser Caucasus and Talysh. Climate change, the nature of precipitation distribution, the growing season of plants, pH-pH, an increase in the average global temperature causing various side effects, the frequency of extreme weather events, a rise or decrease in the water level, ultimately all this affects all elements of the hydrological river systems and calculated industrial reserves of groundwater. Deforestation contributes to global warming and one of the main reasons for the intensification of the greenhouse effect, negatively affects the water cycle, the transpiration process stops. We should participate in the process of reducing CO2 emissions, pay attention to the increase of forest areas, reduction of water pollution, transfer to unconventional renewable solar and wind power, accelerate the introduction of alternative energy deposits of thermal waters.

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Vegetation dynamics and climate variability in the Portoviejo river basin

Revista de la Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad del Zulia ◽

10.47280//revfacagron(luz).v38.n3.11 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 38 (3) ◽

pp. 662-680

Author(s):

Karol Cuenca Zambrano ◽

Henry Pacheco Gil

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Variability ◽

River Basin ◽

Vegetation Dynamics ◽

Temporal Trend ◽

Multispectral Images ◽

Dense Vegetation ◽

The Earth ◽

Landsat Satellite ◽

Dynamics Of Vegetation

Climate change is currently a global problem, as it significantly affects the dynamics of vegetation. The objective of this research is to analyze the influence of climate variability on the dynamics of vegetation in the Portoviejo river basin. The methodology consisted in the calculation of the NDVI with the use of multispectral images from the Landsat satellite and the analysis of the fluviometric records. The images were downloaded from the Earth Explorer geospatial platform with a spatial resolution of 30 m, images from the period 1998-2019 were selected to analyze their temporal trend. The historical fluviometric records of the Portoviejo station, of the National Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology were used. The results showed that the vegetation experienced a discontinuous greening trend, influenced by the variability of rainfall. A homogeneous trend was found in the spatial distribution of the NDVI, with dense and very dense vegetation cover in the upper part of the basin, as well as little or no cover in the lower part. The area with the greatest coverage corresponded to dense vegetation with a percentage higher than 30%.

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Potential effects of the increase in carbon dioxide and climate change on the dynamics of vegetation

Water Air & Soil Pollution ◽

10.1007/bf00477096 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 64 (1-2) ◽

pp. 61-79 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Dieter Mueller-Dombois

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Carbon Dioxide ◽

Dynamics Of Vegetation

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Averting robo-bees: why free-flying robotic bees are a bad idea

Emerging Topics in Life Sciences ◽

10.1042/etls20190063 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (6) ◽

pp. 723-729

Author(s):

Roslyn Gleadow ◽

Jim Hanan ◽

Alan Dorin

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Computer Simulation ◽

Food Security ◽

European Countries ◽

Plant Interactions ◽

Plant Insect Interactions ◽

Native Habitat ◽

Insect Pollinators ◽

Insect Interactions

Food security and the sustainability of native ecosystems depends on plant-insect interactions in countless ways. Recently reported rapid and immense declines in insect numbers due to climate change, the use of pesticides and herbicides, the introduction of agricultural monocultures, and the destruction of insect native habitat, are all potential contributors to this grave situation. Some researchers are working towards a future where natural insect pollinators might be replaced with free-flying robotic bees, an ecologically problematic proposal. We argue instead that creating environments that are friendly to bees and exploring the use of other species for pollination and bio-control, particularly in non-European countries, are more ecologically sound approaches. The computer simulation of insect-plant interactions is a far more measured application of technology that may assist in managing, or averting, ‘Insect Armageddon' from both practical and ethical viewpoints.

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Modelling ecosystem adaptation and dangerous rates of global warming

Emerging Topics in Life Sciences ◽

10.1042/etls20180113 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 221-231 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Rebecca Millington ◽

Peter M. Cox ◽

Jonathan R. Moore ◽

Gabriel Yvon-Durocher

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Global Warming ◽

Diffusion Rate ◽

Individual Species ◽

Genetic Evolution ◽

Rates Of Change ◽

Rapid Climate Change ◽

Warming Climate ◽

Intraspecies Competition ◽

High Trait

Abstract We are in a period of relatively rapid climate change. This poses challenges for individual species and threatens the ecosystem services that humanity relies upon. Temperature is a key stressor. In a warming climate, individual organisms may be able to shift their thermal optima through phenotypic plasticity. However, such plasticity is unlikely to be sufficient over the coming centuries. Resilience to warming will also depend on how fast the distribution of traits that define a species can adapt through other methods, in particular through redistribution of the abundance of variants within the population and through genetic evolution. In this paper, we use a simple theoretical ‘trait diffusion’ model to explore how the resilience of a given species to climate change depends on the initial trait diversity (biodiversity), the trait diffusion rate (mutation rate), and the lifetime of the organism. We estimate theoretical dangerous rates of continuous global warming that would exceed the ability of a species to adapt through trait diffusion, and therefore lead to a collapse in the overall productivity of the species. As the rate of adaptation through intraspecies competition and genetic evolution decreases with species lifetime, we find critical rates of change that also depend fundamentally on lifetime. Dangerous rates of warming vary from 1°C per lifetime (at low trait diffusion rate) to 8°C per lifetime (at high trait diffusion rate). We conclude that rapid climate change is liable to favour short-lived organisms (e.g. microbes) rather than longer-lived organisms (e.g. trees).

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