scholarly journals Coping with abrupt environmental change: the impact of the coastal El Niño 2017 on artisanal fisheries and mariculture in North Peru

2018 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 1122-1130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lotta Clara Kluger ◽  
Sophia Kochalski ◽  
Arturo Aguirre-Velarde ◽  
Ivonne Vivar ◽  
Matthias Wolff

Abstract In February and March 2017, a coastal El Niño caused extraordinary heavy rains and a rise in water temperatures along the coast of northern Peru. In this work, we document the impacts of this phenomenon on the artisanal fisheries and the scallop aquaculture sector, both of which represent important socio-economic activities for the province of Sechura. Despite the perceived absence of effective disaster management and rehabilitation policies, resource users opted for a wide range of different adaptation strategies and are currently striving towards recovery. One year after the event, the artisanal fisheries fleet has returned to operating almost on a normal scale, while the aquaculture sector is still drastically impacted, with many people continuing to work in different economic sectors and even in other regions of the country. Recovery of the social-ecological system of Sechura likely depends on the occurrence of scallop seed and the financial capacity of small-scale producers to reinitiate scallop cultures. Long-term consequences of this coastal El Niño are yet to be studied, though the need to develop trans-local and trans-sectoral management strategies for coping with disturbance events of this scale is emphasized.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Blake Cohen ◽  
Daniel Hui Loong Ng ◽  
Alan Wei Lun Lim ◽  
Xin Rong Chua

Abstract. The vertical distribution of aerosols over Southeast Asia, a critical factor of aerosol lifetime, and impact on radiative forcing and precipitation, is examined for the 2006 post El-Nino fire burning season. Additionally, through analysis of measurements and modeling, we have reconfirmed the hypothesis that fire radiative power is underestimated. Our results are significantly different from what others are using. The horizontally constrained Maritime Continent’s fire plume median height, using the maximum variance of satellite observed Aerosol Optical Depth as the spatial and temporal constraint, is found to be 2.17 ± 1.53 km during the 2006 El Nino season. This is 0.96 km higher than random sampling and all other past studies, with 62 % of particles in the free troposphere. The impact is that the aerosol lifetime will be significantly longer, and that the aerosols will disperse in a direction different from if they were in the boundary layer. Application of a simple plume rise model using measurements of fire properties underestimates the median plume height by 0.34 km and more in the bottom-half of the plume. The center of the plume can be reproduced when fire radiative power is increased by 20 % (range from 0 % to 100 %). However, to reduce the biases found, improvements are required in terms of measurements of fire properties when cloud covered, representation of small scale convection, and inclusion of aerosol direct and semi-direct effects. The results provide the unique aerosol signature of fire under El-Nino conditions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1760) ◽  
pp. 20170406 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Burton ◽  
S. Rifai ◽  
Y. Malhi

To understand the impacts of extreme climate events, it is first necessary to understand the spatio-temporal characteristics of the event. Gridded climate products are frequently used to describe climate patterns but have been shown to perform poorly over data-sparse regions such as tropical forests. Often, they are uncritically employed in a wide range of studies linking tropical forest processes to large-scale climate variability. Here, we conduct an inter-comparison and assessment of near-surface air temperature fields supplied by four state-of-the-art reanalysis products, along with precipitation estimates supplied by four merged satellite-gauge rainfall products. Firstly, spatio-temporal patterns of temperature and precipitation anomalies during the 2015–2016 El Niño are shown for each product to characterize the impact of the El Niño on the tropical forest biomes of Equatorial Africa, Southeast Asia and South America. Using meteorological station data, a two-stage assessment is then conducted to determine which products most reliably model tropical climates during the 2015–2016 El Niño, and which perform best over the longer-term satellite observation period (1980–2016). Results suggest that eastern Amazonia, parts of the Congo Basin and mainland Southeast Asia all experienced significant monthly mean temperature anomalies during the El Niño, while northeastern Amazonia, eastern Borneo and southern New Guinea experienced significant precipitation deficits. Our results suggest ERA-Interim and MERRA2 are the most reliable air temperature datasets, while TRMM 3B42 V7 and CHIRPS v2.0 are the best-performing rainfall datasets. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The impact of the 2015/2016 El Niño on the terrestrial tropical carbon cycle: patterns, mechanisms and implications’.


2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (9) ◽  
pp. 2854-2870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingting Gong ◽  
Steven B. Feldstein ◽  
Dehai Luo

Abstract This study examines the relationship between intraseasonal southern annular mode (SAM) events and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) using daily 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) data. The data coverage spans the years 1979–2002, for the austral spring and summer seasons. The focus of this study is on the question of why positive SAM events dominate during La Niña and negative SAM events during El Niño. A composite analysis is performed on the zonal-mean zonal wind, Eliassen–Palm fluxes, and two diagnostic variables: the meridional potential vorticity gradient, a zonal-mean quantity that is used to estimate the likelihood of wave breaking, and the wave breaking index (WBI), which is used to evaluate the strength of the wave breaking. The results of this investigation suggest that the background zonal-mean flow associated with La Niña (El Niño) is preconditioned for strong (weak) anticyclonic wave breaking on the equatorward side of the eddy-driven jet, the type of wave breaking that is found to drive positive (negative) SAM events. A probability density function analysis of the WBI, for both La Niña and El Niño, indicates that strong anticyclonic wave breaking takes place much more frequently during La Niña and weak anticyclonic wave breaking during El Niño. It is suggested that these wave breaking characteristics, and their dependency on the background flow, can explain the strong preference for SAM events of one phase during ENSO. The analysis also shows that austral spring SAM events that coincide with ENSO are preceded by strong stratospheric SAM anomalies and then are followed by a prolonged period of wave breaking that lasts for approximately 30 days. These findings suggest that the ENSO background flow also plays a role in the excitation of stratospheric SAM anomalies and that the presence of these stratospheric SAM anomalies in turn excites and then maintains the tropospheric SAM anomalies via a positive eddy feedback.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 377
Author(s):  
Dong Eun Lee ◽  
Jaehee Kim ◽  
Yujin Heo ◽  
Hyunjin Kang ◽  
Eun Young Lee

The impact of climatic variability in atmospheric conditions on coastal environments accompanies adjustments in both the frequency and intensity of coastal storm surge events. The top winter season daily maximum sea level height events at 20 tidal stations around South Korea were examined to assess such impact of winter extratropical cyclone variability. As the investigation focusses on the most extreme sea level events, the impact of climate change is found to be invisible. It is revealed that the measures of extreme sea level events—frequency and intensity—do not correlate with the local sea surface temperature anomalies. Meanwhile, the frequency of winter extreme events exhibits a clear association with the concurrent climatic indices. It was determined that the annual frequency of the all-time top 5% winter daily maximum sea level events significantly and positively correlates with the NINO3.4 and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) indices at the majority of the 20 tidal stations. Hence, this indicates an increase in extreme event frequency and intensity, despite localized temperature cooling. This contradicts the expectation of increases in local extreme sea level events due to thermal expansion and global climate change. During El Nino, it is suggested that northward shifts of winter storm tracks associated with El Nino occur, disturbing the sea level around Korea more often. The current dominance of interannual storm track shifts, due to climate variability, over the impact of slow rise on the winter extreme sea level events, implies that coastal extreme sea level events will change through changes in the mechanical drivers rather than thermal expansion. The major storm tracks are predicted to continue shifting northward. The winter extreme sea level events in the midlatitude coastal region might not go through a monotonic change. They are expected to occur more often and more intensively in the near future, but might not continue doing so when northward shifting storm tracks move away from the marginal seas around Korea, as is predicted by the end of the century.


2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1760) ◽  
pp. 20170301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Betts ◽  
Chris D. Jones ◽  
Jeff. R. Knight ◽  
Ralph. F. Keeling ◽  
John. J. Kennedy ◽  
...  

In early 2016, we predicted that the annual rise in carbon dioxide concentration at Mauna Loa would be the largest on record. Our forecast used a statistical relationship between observed and forecast sea surface temperatures in the Niño 3.4 region and the annual CO 2 rise. Here, we provide a formal verification of that forecast. The observed rise of 3.4 ppm relative to 2015 was within the forecast range of 3.15 ± 0.53 ppm, so the prediction was successful. A global terrestrial biosphere model supports the expectation that the El Niño weakened the tropical land carbon sink. We estimate that the El Niño contributed approximately 25% to the record rise in CO 2 , with 75% due to anthropogenic emissions. The 2015/2016 CO 2 rise was greater than that following the previous large El Niño in 1997/1998, because anthropogenic emissions had increased. We had also correctly predicted that 2016 would be the first year with monthly mean CO 2 above 400 ppm all year round. We now estimate that atmospheric CO 2 at Mauna Loa would have remained above 400 ppm all year round in 2016 even if the El Niño had not occurred, contrary to our previous expectations based on a simple extrapolation of previous trends. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The impact of the 2015/2016 El Niño on the terrestrial tropical carbon cycle: patterns, mechanisms and implications’.


Weed Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadeem Iqbal ◽  
Sudheesh Manalil ◽  
Bhagirath S. Chauhan ◽  
Steve W. Adkins

AbstractSesbania [Sesbania cannabina(Retz.) Pers.] is a problematic emerging weed species in Australian cotton-farming systems. However, globally, no information is available regarding its seed germination biology, and better understanding will help in devising superior management strategies to prevent further infestations. Laboratory and glasshouse studies were conducted to evaluate the impact of various environmental factors such as light, temperature, salt, osmotic and pH stress, and burial depth on germination and emergence of two Australian biotypes ofS. cannabina. Freshly harvested seeds of both biotypes possessed physical dormancy. A boiling-water scarification treatment (100±2 C) of 5-min duration was the optimum treatment to overcome this dormancy. Once dormancy was broken, the Dalby biotype exhibited a greater germination (93%) compared with the St George biotype (87%). The nondormant seeds of both biotypes showed a neutral photoblastic response to light and dark conditions, with germination marginally improved (6%) under illumination. Maximum germination of both biotypes occurred under an alternating temperature regime of 30/20 and 35/25 C and under constant temperatures of 32 or 35 C, with no germination at 8 or 11 C. Seed germination of both biotypes decreased linearly from 87% to 14% with an increase in moisture stress from 0.0 to −0.8 MPa, with no germination possible at −1.0 MPa. There was a gradual decline in germination for both biotypes when imbibed in a range of salt solutions of 25 to 250 mM, with a 50% reduction in germination occurring at 150 mM. Both biotypes germinated well under a wide range of pH values (4.0 to 10.0), with maximum germination (94%) at pH 9.0. The greatest emergence rate of the Dalby (87%) and St George (78%) biotypes was recorded at a burial depth of 1.0 cm, with no emergence at 16.0 cm. Deep tillage seems to be the best management strategy to stopS. cannabina’s emergence and further infestation of cotton (Gossypium hirsutumL.) fields. The findings of this study will be helpful to cotton agronomists in devising effective, sustainable, and efficient integrated weed management strategies for the control ofS. cannabinain cotton cropping lands.


2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 171-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vojtěch Máca ◽  
Jan Melichar ◽  
Milan Ščasný ◽  
Markéta Braun Kohlová

Abstract Background: Monetized environmental health impact assessments help to better evaluate the environmental burden of a wide range of economic activities. Apart from the limitations and uncertainties in physical and biological science used in such assessments, assumptions taken from economic valuation may also substantially influence subsequent policy-making considerations. Aim: This study attempts to demonstrate the impact of normative policy assumptions on quantified external costs using a case study of recently discussed variants of future coal mining and use of extracted coal in electricity and heat generation in the Czech Republic. Methods: A bottom-up impact-pathway approach is used for quantification of external costs. Several policy perspectives are elaborated for aggregating impacts that differ in geographic coverage and in how valuation of quantified impacts is adjusted in a particular perspective. Results: We find that the fraction of monetized external impacts taken into policy-making considerations may vary according to choice of decision perspective up to a factor of 10. Conclusion: At present there are virtually no hard rules for defining geographical boundaries or adjusting values for a summation of monetized environmental impacts. We, however, stress that any rigorous external cost assessment should, for instance in a separate calculation, take account of impacts occurring beyond country borders.


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