Anthropogenic Influences on Climate Change

2014 ◽  
pp. 533-595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Rapp
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Anthropogenic Influences

scholarly journals Natural and anthropogenic influences on the Nhecolândia wetlands, SE Pantanal, Brazil

2018 ◽  
Vol 488 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emiliano Castro de Oliveira ◽  
Sila Pla-Pueyo ◽  
Christopher R. Hackney
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Saline Lakes ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Anthropogenic Influences ◽  
Historical Changes ◽  
Flood Regime ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Global And Local

AbstractThe Nhecolândia region covers the southern wetlands of the Pantanal basin in Brazil. Characterized by myriad shallow freshwater and alkaline–saline lakes, the distinct natural features of the Nhecolândia wetland make it highly sensitive to climate change and the effects of human activities. This paper summarizes the natural and social aspects that have affected this delicate wetland and potential future impacts. We analysed the response of the wetland to historical changes in climate and human activity and used this understanding to forecast the response of the wetland to future changes. The data presented here show that this region is particularly sensitive to alterations in the flood regime, droughts and deforestation, which are intrinsically related to both global and local changes in climate and the intensification of cattle-ranching activities, which include deforestation and the introduction of cultivated pastures.

scholarly journals Annual rhythms that underlie phenology: biological time-keeping meets environmental change

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1765) ◽  
pp. 20130016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Helm ◽  
Rachel Ben-Shlomo ◽  
Michael J. Sheriff ◽  
Roelof A. Hut ◽  
Russell Foster ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Thermal Conditions ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Anthropogenic Influences ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
Biological Time ◽  
Annual Rhythms

Seasonal recurrence of biological processes (phenology) and its relationship to environmental change is recognized as being of key scientific and public concern, but its current study largely overlooks the extent to which phenology is based on biological time-keeping mechanisms. We highlight the relevance of physiological and neurobiological regulation for organisms’ responsiveness to environmental conditions. Focusing on avian and mammalian examples, we describe circannual rhythmicity of reproduction, migration and hibernation, and address responses of animals to photic and thermal conditions. Climate change and urbanization are used as urgent examples of anthropogenic influences that put biological timing systems under pressure. We furthermore propose that consideration of Homo sapiens as principally a ‘seasonal animal’ can inspire new perspectives for understanding medical and psychological problems.

scholarly journals Incorporating Anthropogenic Influences into Fire Probability Models: Effects of Human Activity and Climate Change on Fire Activity in California

PLoS ONE ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. e0153589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael L. Mann ◽  
Enric Batllori ◽  
Max A. Moritz ◽  
Eric K. Waller ◽  
Peter Berck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Anthropogenic Influences ◽  
Probability Models ◽  
Fire Activity

A global attribution study on historical heat-related mortality impacts attributed to climate change.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Maria Vicedo Cabrera ◽  
Francesco Sera ◽  
Rochelle Schneider dos Santos ◽  
Aurelio Tobias ◽  
Christopher Astrom ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Excess Mortality ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Considerable Proportion ◽  
Anthropogenic Influences ◽  
Excess Heat ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Related Mortality

<p>On behalf of the Multi-Country Multi-City Collaborative (MCC) Research Network.</p><p>Background & Aim: Climate change is considered the most important environmental threat to human health. Substantial mortality and morbidity burden have been directly or indirectly attributed to climate-sensitive environmental stressors. However, limited quantitative evidence exists on how much of this burden can be attributed to man-made influences on climate. In this large health attribution study, we aimed at quantifying the proportion of excess heat-related mortality attributed to anthropogenic climate change in recent decades across 626 locations across 41 countries in various regions of the world included in MCC database.</p><p>Methods: We first estimated the location-specific heat-mortality associations through two-stage time-series analyses with quasi-Poisson regression with distributed lag non-linear models and multivariate multilevel meta-regression using observed data. We then quantified the heat-related excess mortality in each location using daily modelled series derived from historical (factual) and preindustrial control (counterfactual) simulations from 5 general circulation models (ISIMIP2b database) in the period between 1991 and 2019. We finally computed the proportion of heat-related excess mortality attributable to anthropogenic influences as the difference between the two scenarios, with associated measures of uncertainty.</p><p>Results: We found a steep increase in level of warming, expressed as the difference in annual average temperature between scenarios, with an average increase of 1.0°C (from 0.7°C  to 1.2°C) across the 626 locations between 1991 and 2019. Overall excess heat-mortality fractions of 1.92% [95% confidence interval: 0.41, 3.25] and 1.28% [0.20, 2.50] were estimated under the factual and counterfactual scenarios, respectively, with an overall difference of 0.76% [0.25,1.74]. This translates to 33% of historical heat-excess mortality that can be attributed to anthropogenic climate change. Larger proportions were found in North America (46%), Central America (47%), South America (43%), South Africa (48%), Middle-East Asia (61%), South East-Asia (50%) and Australia (42%), although highly imprecise in most of cases.</p><p>Conclusions: Our findings suggest that current warming driven by anthropogenic influences is already responsible for a considerable proportion of the heat-related mortality burden. These results stress the importance of strengthening current mitigation strategies to reduce further warming of the planet and related health impacts.</p>

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

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.

Modelling ecosystem adaptation and dangerous rates of global warming

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-231 ◽  
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).

Climate change and breeding success: decline of the capercaillie in Scotland

2001 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Moss ◽  
James Oswald ◽  
David Baines
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Breeding Success
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