Assessment of the impacts of climate change on Mediterranean terrestrial ecosystems based on data from field experiments and long-term monitored field gradients in Catalonia

2018 ◽  
Vol 152 ◽  
pp. 49-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josep Peñuelas ◽  
Jordi Sardans ◽  
Iolanda Filella ◽  
Marc Estiarte ◽  
Joan Llusià ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Field Gradients ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

scholarly journals Impacts of climate change on the terrestrial ecosystems of Madeira

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.J. Cruz ◽  
R. Aguiar ◽  
A. Correia ◽  
T. Tavares ◽  
J.S. Pereira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

The Biochar challenge in Mediterranean viticulture: results from 10 years of field experiment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Baronti ◽  
Anita Maienza ◽  
Fabrizio Ungaro ◽  
Antonio,Antonello Montagnoli ◽  
Lorenzo Genesio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Water Relations ◽  
Soil Amendment ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Plant Water ◽  
Grape Quality ◽  
Mediterranean Countries

<p>There are extensive reports and scientific articles in literature on the applicability of biochar as soil amendment in agriculture and on the benefits that this practice can bring in terms of soil improvement and optimization of water resources. The use of biochar as a soil amendment in agriculture is a suitable option that helps to mitigate the effects of climate change. Biochar has an approximate mean residence time in the soil over 1,000 years and this long-term stability is a fundamental prerequisite for considering biochar as a suitable method for carbon sequestration. Unfortunately, most literature provides results based on one-year trials. Not enough for a soil amendment to be able to claim effectiveness for many decades and not enough for a soil treatment to be considered irreversible. An effective option to fill this knowledge gap is represented by long-term field experiments. In this study, we investigated the effect of biochar application on plant water relations and soil properties during 10 years in a field experiment in Central Italy on Vitis vinifera. Biochar was applied at a rate of 22 t ha-1 in two consecutive growing seasons: 2009 and 2010. The results obtained during these years on biochar treatment compared to the control treatment are exciting: we demonstrated an increase in grape production, up to 66%, without a decrease of the grape quality, an increase in plant-soil water relations, no effects on the concentrations of soil PAHs, no eco-toxicity soil effect and a positive effect on soil chemical and biological parameters. Surprisingly, after 10 years the biochar effect continued to demonstrate significant differences among treatments, in particular: a significant increase of soil biological quality, decrease in soil bulk density coupled with a corresponding increase in saturated hydraulic conductivity, an enhance in soil available water content and a significant improvement of plant water status. The modification of plant water availability induced by biochar application increase the resilience of vineyards to droughts, as demonstrated by the lower leaf potential and higher stomatal conductance. This effect has a significant impact on quantity and quality of grape production after 10 years. Moreover, in the long-term perspective the biochar demonstrates to have an effect on soil biological communities that resulted sensitive to biochar with positive increase of abundance of species related to soil moisture content and enhance of biodiversity index. According to these results, the viticulture is now in the position to provide an effective contribution to mitigate climate change and we expect that this will be an example for other Mediterranean countries.</p>

scholarly journals Phenotypic plasticity and adaptive evolution contribute to advancing flowering phenology in response to climate change

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1743) ◽  
pp. 3843-3852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill T. Anderson ◽  
David W. Inouye ◽  
Amy M. McKinney ◽  
Robert I. Colautti ◽  
Tom Mitchell-Olds
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Adaptive Evolution ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Flowering Phenology ◽  
Directional Selection ◽  
Major Life ◽  
Quantitative Genetic ◽  
Evolutionary Response

Anthropogenic climate change has already altered the timing of major life-history transitions, such as the initiation of reproduction. Both phenotypic plasticity and adaptive evolution can underlie rapid phenological shifts in response to climate change, but their relative contributions are poorly understood. Here, we combine a continuous 38 year field survey with quantitative genetic field experiments to assess adaptation in the context of climate change. We focused on Boechera stricta (Brassicaeae), a mustard native to the US Rocky Mountains. Flowering phenology advanced significantly from 1973 to 2011, and was strongly associated with warmer temperatures and earlier snowmelt dates. Strong directional selection favoured earlier flowering in contemporary environments (2010–2011). Climate change could drive this directional selection, and promote even earlier flowering as temperatures continue to increase. Our quantitative genetic analyses predict a response to selection of 0.2 to 0.5 days acceleration in flowering per generation, which could account for more than 20 per cent of the phenological change observed in the long-term dataset. However, the strength of directional selection and the predicted evolutionary response are likely much greater now than even 30 years ago because of rapidly changing climatic conditions. We predict that adaptation will likely be necessary for long-term in situ persistence in the context of climate change.

Biophysical impacts of climate change on some terrestrial ecosystems in Estonia

GeoJournal ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Are Kont ◽  
Jaak Jaagus ◽  
Tõnu Oja ◽  
Arvo Järvet ◽  
Reimo Rivis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

scholarly journals Climate change and plant reproduction: trends and drivers of mast seeding change

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1839) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Hacket-Pain ◽  
Michał Bogdziewicz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Seed Production ◽  
Mast Seeding ◽  
Ecosystem Impacts ◽  
Proximate Mechanisms ◽  
Proximate Factors ◽  
Global Vegetation ◽  
Term Response ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Climate change is reshaping global vegetation through its impacts on plant mortality, but recruitment creates the next generation of plants and will determine the structure and composition of future communities. Recruitment depends on mean seed production, but also on the interannual variability and among-plant synchrony in seed production, the phenomenon known as mast seeding. Thus, predicting the long-term response of global vegetation dynamics to climate change requires understanding the response of masting to changing climate. Recently, data and methods have become available allowing the first assessments of long-term changes in masting. Reviewing the literature, we evaluate evidence for a fingerprint of climate change on mast seeding and discuss the drivers and impacts of these changes. We divide our discussion into the main characteristics of mast seeding: interannual variation, synchrony, temporal autocorrelation and mast frequency. Data indicate that masting patterns are changing but the direction of that change varies, likely reflecting the diversity of proximate factors underlying masting across taxa. Experiments to understand the proximate mechanisms underlying masting, in combination with the analysis of long-term datasets, will enable us to understand this observed variability in the response of masting. This will allow us to predict future shifts in masting patterns, and consequently ecosystem impacts of climate change via its impacts on masting. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The ecology and evolution of synchronized seed production in plants’.

scholarly journals The Potential Long-Term Impacts of Climate Change on the Hydrologic Regimes of North Carolina’s Coastal Plain Non-Riverine Wetlands

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 1591-1606
Author(s):  
J. Jack Kurki-Fox ◽  
Michael R. Burchell ◽  
Brock J. Kamrath
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
North Carolina ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Water Table ◽  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Hydrologic Model ◽  
Hydrologic Regimes ◽  
Coastal Plain Wetlands ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

HighlightsBased on current emissions, mean water table decline in these wetlands will likely range from 25 to 65 cm by 2100.Projected changes could lead to a decline or loss of the important ecosystem services that wetlands provide to society.Results indicate a potential need to allocate more resources to developing strategies for managing wetlands.Abstract. Wetlands are especially at risk from climate change because of their intermediate landscape position (i.e., transition between upland and aquatic environments), where small changes in precipitation and/or evapotranspiration can have substantial impacts on wetland hydrology. Because hydrology is the primary factor influencing wetland structure and function, the important ecosystem services that wetlands provide may be altered or lost as a result of climate change. While a great deal of uncertainty is associated with the projected impacts of climate change on wetlands, hydrologic models and downscaled climate model projections provide tools to reduce this uncertainty. DRAINMOD is one such process-based hydrologic model that has been successfully adapted to simulate the daily water level fluctuations in natural wetlands. The objective of this project was to determine the range of possible impacts of climate change on the hydrologic regimes of non-riverine, non-tidal Coastal Plain wetlands in North Carolina. DRAINMOD models were calibrated and validated for two minimally disturbed, natural wetland sites using observed water table and local weather data. Two representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios were evaluated: RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. Nine models were selected from an ensemble of 32 climate models to represent the range of possible changes in mean precipitation and temperature. Downscaled climate projections were obtained from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Simulations were run from 1986 to 2099, and results were evaluated by comparing the projected mean water table levels between the base period (1986-2015) and two future evaluation periods: 2040-2069 and 2070-2099. The model simulation results indicated that the projected mean water table level may decline by as much as 25 to 84 cm by the end of this century (2070-2099) for the RCP8.5 scenario and may decline by 4 to 61 cm for the RCP4.5 scenario. In Coastal Plain wetlands, declines in water tables can lead to the subsidence of organic soils, which can lead to the loss of stored carbon and increased risk of peat fires. Lower mean water levels can also lead to shifts in vegetation community composition and loss of habitat functions for wetland-dependent fauna. These results provide an overview of the potential impacts of climate change on North Carolina wetlands, and they provide a range of scenarios to inform and guide possible changes to water management strategies in wetland ecosystems that can be implemented now to limit the loss of ecosystem services over the long term. Keywords: Climate change, DRAINMOD, Hydrology, Modeling, North Carolina, Wetlands.

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