Salinity, a climate-change factor affecting growth, domoic acid and isodomoic acid C content in the diatom Pseudo-nitzschia seriata (Bacillariophyceae)

In the UK, there is a growing interest in constructing on-farm irrigation reservoirs, however deciding the optimum reservoir capacity is not simple. There are two distinct approaches to generating the future daily weather datasets needed to calculate future irrigation need. The change factor approach perturbs the observed record using monthly change factors derived from downscaled climate models. This assumes that whilst the climate changes, the day-to-day climate variability itself is stationary. Problems may arise where the instrumental record is insufficient or particularly suspect. Alternatively, probabilistic weather generators can be used to identify options which are considered more robust to climate change uncertainty because they consider non-stationary climate variability. This paper explores the difference between using the change factor approach and a probabilistic weather generator for informing farm reservoir design at three sites in the UK. Decision outcomes obtained using the current normal practice of 80% probability of non-exceedance rule and simple economic optimisations are also compared. Decision outcomes obtained using the change factor approach and probabilistic weather generators are significantly different; whether these differences translate to real-world differences is discussed. This study also found that using the 80% probability of non-exceedance rule could potentially result in maladaptation.

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The Phycotoxin Domoic Acid as a Potential Factor for Oxidative Alterations Enhanced by Climate Change

Frontiers in Plant Science ◽

10.3389/fpls.2020.576971 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Joaquin Cabrera ◽

Paula Mariela González ◽

Susana Puntarulo

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Domoic Acid ◽

Potential Factor

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Analysis of the Effects of Climate Change on Urban Storm Water Runoff Using Statistically Downscaled Precipitation Data and a Change Factor Approach

Journal of Hydrologic Engineering ◽

10.1061/(asce)he.1943-5584.0001064 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 20 (7) ◽

pp. 05014022 ◽

Cited By ~ 51

Author(s):

Zahra Zahmatkesh ◽

Mohammad Karamouz ◽

Erfan Goharian ◽

Steven J. Burian

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Storm Water ◽

Water Runoff ◽

Precipitation Data ◽

Storm Water Runoff ◽

Change Factor ◽

Urban Storm

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The Ascending and Fading of a Progressive Policy Instrument: The Climate Change Factor in Southern Germany

Water ◽

10.3390/w12041050 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 1050

Author(s):

Melani Pelaez Jara

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Flood Risk ◽

Policy Instrument ◽

Flood Risk Management ◽

Flood Protection ◽

Southern Germany ◽

Instrument Choice ◽

Decision Context ◽

Change Factor ◽

Progressive Policy

The climate change factor (CCF) is a precautionary instrument for technical flood protection that was introduced in Southern Germany in the early 2000s. The CCF was designed as a surcharge value to be added to all new technical flood protection facilities, such as dams, protection walls, and retention areas. This paper deconstructs the conditions and processes that led to the creation of this new policy instrument. Following the instrument choice framework, the paper analyzes in a heuristic manner, the institutions, actors, discourses, and decision context that were part of this process from the early 1990s to 2004, when the instrument was introduced. In order to better understand the scope of this regional instrument, the paper also briefly depicts four non-representative cases of flood risk and protection management, where the instrument was either applied or avoided. The article closes with an assessment of the CCF, concluding that the innovativeness of this instrument faded once the overarching sectoral paradigm shifted from technical flood protection to more comprehensive flood risk management.

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

Journal of Animal Ecology ◽

10.1046/j.1365-2656.2001.00473.x ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 70 (1) ◽

pp. 47-61 ◽

Cited By ~ 86

Author(s):

Robert Moss ◽

James Oswald ◽

David Baines

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Breeding Success

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