The Earth System and Climate Science: Understanding a Very Complex Entity

2019 ◽  
pp. 35-41
Author(s):  
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber ◽  
Maria A. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Science ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Complex Entity ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Science Understanding

scholarly journals Identifying Crucial Issues in Climate Science: Drastic Change in the Earth System During Global Warming; Sapporo, Japan, 24 June 2008

Eos ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Motoyoshi Ikeda ◽  
Ralf Greve ◽  
Toshika Hara ◽  
Yutaka W. Watanabe ◽  
Atsumu Ohmura ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Drastic Change ◽  
Earth System ◽  
The Earth

scholarly journals Topology of sustainable management of dynamical systems with desirable states: from defining planetary boundaries to safe operating spaces in the Earth system

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Heitzig ◽  
T. Kittel ◽  
J. F. Donges ◽  
N. Molkenthin
Keyword(s):  
State Space ◽  
Classical Mechanics ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The State ◽  
System Modelling ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Planetary Boundaries ◽  
Management Options ◽  
The Earth

Abstract. To keep the Earth system in a desirable region of its state space, such as defined by the recently suggested "tolerable environment and development window", "guardrails", "planetary boundaries", or "safe (and just) operating space for humanity", one needs to understand not only the quantitative internal dynamics of the system and the available options for influencing it (management) but also the structure of the system's state space with regard to certain qualitative differences. Important questions are, which state space regions can be reached from which others with or without leaving the desirable region, which regions are in a variety of senses "safe" to stay in when management options might break away, and which qualitative decision problems may occur as a consequence of this topological structure? In this article, we develop a mathematical theory of the qualitative topology of the state space of a dynamical system with management options and desirable states, as a complement to the existing literature on optimal control which is more focussed on quantitative optimization and is much applied in both the engineering and the integrated assessment literature. We suggest a certain terminology for the various resulting regions of the state space and perform a detailed formal classification of the possible states with respect to the possibility of avoiding or leaving the undesired region. Our results indicate that, before performing some form of quantitative optimization such as of indicators of human well-being for achieving certain sustainable development goals, a sustainable and resilient management of the Earth system may require decisions of a more discrete type that come in the form of several dilemmas, e.g. choosing between eventual safety and uninterrupted desirability, or between uninterrupted safety and larger flexibility. We illustrate the concepts and dilemmas drawing on conceptual models from climate science, ecology, coevolutionary Earth system modelling, economics, and classical mechanics, and discuss their potential relevance for the climate and sustainability debate, in particular suggesting several levels of planetary boundaries of qualitatively increasing safety.

scholarly journals Topology of sustainable management in dynamical Earth system models with desirable states

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 435-488
Author(s):  
J. Heitzig ◽  
T. Kittel
Keyword(s):  
State Space ◽  
Sustainable Management ◽  
Classical Mechanics ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
The State ◽  
System Modelling ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Management Options ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Operating Space

Abstract. To keep the Earth system in a desirable region of its state space, such as the recently suggested "tolerable environment and development window", "planetary boundaries", or "safe (and just) operating space", one not only needs to understand the quantitative internal dynamics of the system and the available options for influencing it (management), but also the structure of the system's state space with regard to certain qualitative differences. Important questions are: which state space regions can be reached from which others with or without leaving the desirable region? Which regions are in a variety of senses "safe" to stay in when management options might break away, and which qualitative decision problems may occur as a consequence of this topological structure? In this article, as a complement to the existing literature on optimal control which is more focussed on quantitative optimization and is much applied in both the engineering and the integrated assessment literature, we develop a mathematical theory of the qualitative topology of the state space of a dynamical system with management options and desirable states. We suggest a certain terminology for the various resulting regions of the state space and perform a detailed formal classification of the possible states with respect to the possibility of avoiding or leaving the undesired region. Our results indicate that before performing some form of quantitative optimization, the sustainable management of the Earth system may require decisions of a more discrete type that come in the form of several dilemmata, e.g., choosing between eventual safety and uninterrupted desirability, or between uninterrupted safety and increasing flexibility. We illustrate the concepts and dilemmata with conceptual models from classical mechanics, climate science, ecology, economics, and coevolutionary Earth system modelling and discuss their potential relevance for the climate and sustainability debate.

scholarly journals Climate, Energy and Community: Vermont 2018

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Betts
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Systems Perspective ◽  
Political Commentary ◽  
Climate Change Denial ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Weather And Climate

This is a compilation of my 2018 columns from the Sunday Rutland Herald and Barre/Montpelier Time Argus. This is the eleventh year of a series that started in January 2008; and a 2012 overview paper is available .These columns go through the seasons, dealing with weather, climate, climate change, energy and policy issues. They blend science and opinion with a systems perspective, and encourage the reader to explore alternative and hopeful paths for their families and society. They are framed so that a scientist will perceive them as technically accurate (although simplified); while the public can relate their tangible experience of weather and climate to the much less tangible issues of climate change, energy policy and strategies for living sustainably with the earth system. The politically motivated attacks on climate science by the current administration have however sharpened my political commentary; since climate change denial may bring immense suffering to our children and all life on Earth.I believe that earth scientists have a responsibility to communicate clearly and directly to the public –as we all share responsibility for the future of the Earth. We must deepen our collective understanding, if we are to we can make a collective decision to build a resilient future.

Editorial: Fire in the Earth System

PAGES news ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Whitlock ◽  
Willy Tinner
Keyword(s):  
Earth System ◽  
The Earth

SPIES AND BLOGGERS: NEW SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY TOOLS TO UNDERSTAND MICROBIAL PROCESSES IN THE EARTH SYSTEM

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline A. Masiello ◽  
◽  
Jonathan J. Silberg ◽  
Hsiao-Ying Cheng ◽  
Ilenne Del Valle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Microbial Processes ◽  
Earth System ◽  
The Earth

scholarly journals High and specific diversity of protists in the deep-sea basins dominated by diplonemids, kinetoplastids, ciliates and foraminiferans

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Schoenle ◽  
Manon Hohlfeld ◽  
Karoline Hermanns ◽  
Frédéric Mahé ◽  
Colomban de Vargas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Cycling ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Parasitic Species ◽  
Unicellular Eukaryotes ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Dna Metabarcoding ◽  
Global Carbon ◽  
Pelagic Communities

AbstractHeterotrophic protists (unicellular eukaryotes) form a major link from bacteria and algae to higher trophic levels in the sunlit ocean. Their role on the deep seafloor, however, is only fragmentarily understood, despite their potential key function for global carbon cycling. Using the approach of combined DNA metabarcoding and cultivation-based surveys of 11 deep-sea regions, we show that protist communities, mostly overlooked in current deep-sea foodweb models, are highly specific, locally diverse and have little overlap to pelagic communities. Besides traditionally considered foraminiferans, tiny protists including diplonemids, kinetoplastids and ciliates were genetically highly diverse considerably exceeding the diversity of metazoans. Deep-sea protists, including many parasitic species, represent thus one of the most diverse biodiversity compartments of the Earth system, forming an essential link to metazoans.

scholarly journals Applicability of NGGM near-real time simulations in flood detection

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-126
Author(s):  
A. F. Purkhauser ◽  
J. A. Koch ◽  
R. Pail
Keyword(s):  
European Space Agency ◽  
Earth System ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Future Mission ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Flood Detection ◽  
The One ◽  
Real Time Simulations ◽  
Grace Mission ◽  
Gravity Mission

Abstract The GRACE mission has demonstrated a tremendous potential for observing mass changes in the Earth system from space for climate research and the observation of climate change. Future mission should on the one hand extend the already existing time series and also provide higher spatial and temporal resolution that is required to fulfil all needs placed on a future mission. To analyse the applicability of such a Next Generation Gravity Mission (NGGM) concept regarding hydrological applications, two GRACE-FO-type pairs in Bender formation are analysed. The numerical closed loop simulations with a realistic noise assumption are based on the short arc approach and make use of the Wiese approach, enabling a self-de-aliasing of high-frequency atmospheric and oceanic signals, and a NRT approach for a short latency. Numerical simulations for future gravity mission concepts are based on geophysical models, representing the time-variable gravity field. First tests regarding the usability of the hydrology component contained in the Earth System Model (ESM) by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the analysis regarding a possible flood monitoring and detection showed a clear signal in a third of the analysed flood cases. Our analysis of selected cases found that detection of floods was clearly possible with the reconstructed AOHIS/HIS signal in 20% of the tested examples, while in 40% of the cases a peak was visible but not clearly recognisable.

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