scholarly journals Plasticity of preferred body temperatures as means of coping with climate change?

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lumír Gvoždík

Thermoregulatory behaviour represents an important component of ectotherm non-genetic adaptive capacity that mitigates the impact of ongoing climate change. The buffering role of behavioural thermoregulation has been attributed solely to the ability to maintain near optimal body temperature for sufficiently extended periods under altered thermal conditions. The widespread occurrence of plastic modification of target temperatures that an ectotherm aims to achieve (preferred body temperatures) has been largely overlooked. I argue that plasticity of target temperatures may significantly contribute to an ectotherm's adaptive capacity. Its contribution to population persistence depends on both the effectiveness of acute thermoregulatory adjustments (reactivity) in buffering selection pressures in a changing thermal environment, and the total costs of thermoregulation (i.e. reactivity and plasticity) in a given environment. The direction and magnitude of plastic shifts in preferred body temperatures can be incorporated into mechanistic models, to improve predictions of the impact of global climate change on ectotherm populations.

2019 ◽  
Vol 887 ◽  
pp. 428-434
Author(s):  
Dorcas A. Ayeni ◽  
Olaniyi O. Aluko ◽  
Morisade O. Adegbie

Man requires a thermal environment that is within the range of his adaptive capacity and if this fluctuates outside the normal, a reaction is required beyond its adaptive capacity which results to health challenges. Therefore, the aim of building design in the tropical region is to minimize the heat gain indoors and enhance evaporative cooling of the occupants of the space so as to achieve thermal comfort. In most cases, the passive technologies are not adequate in moderating indoor climate for human comfort thereby relying on active energy technique to provide the needed comfort for the building users. The need for the use of vegetation as a panacea for achieving comfortable indoor thermal conditions in housing is recognised by architects globally. However, the practice by architects in Nigeria is still at the lower ebb. The thrust of this paper therefore is to examine the impact of vegetation in solar control reducing thermal discomfort in housing thereby enhancing the energy performance of the buildings. Using secondary data, the paper identifies the benefits of vegetation in and around buildings to include improvement of indoor air quality through the aesthetics quality of the environment and concludes that vegetation in and around building will in no small measure contributes to saving energy consumption.


Author(s):  
Stephens Tim

This chapter examines the impact of climate change and ocean acidification on the oceans and their implications for the international law of the sea. In particular, it assesses the implications of rising sea levels for territorial sea baselines, the seawards extent of maritime zones, and maritime boundaries. It also considers the restrictions placed by the UN Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) upon States in pursuing climate mitigation and adaptation policies, such as attempts to ‘engineer’ the global climate by artificially enhancing the capacity of the oceans to draw CO2 from the atmosphere. The chapter analyzes the role of the LOSC, alongside other treaty regimes, in addressing the serious threat of ocean acidification.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Climate Change & Marginalised Communities Workshop Contributors

The announcement by the Scottish Government of a global ‘climate emergency’ in May 2019, and the selection of Glasgow as the host city for the main COP26 talks to be held in late 2021 has helped focus attention to the impact of climate change in Scotland. The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought into sharp focus the disproportionate effect that shocks and stresses have on already vulnerable people and places. This short communication aims to contribute to these debates by clarifying existing strengths and open issues for an evidence-driven response to climate change in Scotland’s marginalised communities. Growing support for rapid and radical climate action, both in Scotland and overseas, brings into question the role of learned societies and reasoned debate within a climate emergency. To this end, we synthesise recent Scotland-based research into issues relating to climate justice and, drawing on the outcomes of a workshop held in summer 2019, identify aspects where good progress has been made and areas where further work is required for an evidence-driven and just response to climate change in Scotland and beyond.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kit Yu Karen Chan ◽  
Chun Sang Daniel Tong

Abstract Coastal organisms reside in highly dynamic habitats. Global climate change is expected to alter not only the mean of the physical conditions experienced but also the frequencies and/or the magnitude of fluctuations of environmental factors. Understanding responses in an ecologically relevant context is essential for formulating management strategies. In particular, there are increasing suggestions that exposure to fluctuations could alleviate the impact of climate change-related stressors by selecting for plasticity that may help acclimatization to future conditions. However, it remains unclear whether the presence of fluctuations alone is sufficient to confer such effects or whether the pattern of the fluctuations matters. Therefore, we investigated the role of frequency and initial conditions of the fluctuations on performance by exposing larval sea urchin Heliocidaris crassispina to either constant or fluctuating pH. Reduced pH alone (pH 7.3 vs 8.0) did not affect larval mortality but reduced the growth of larval arms in the static pH treatments. Changes in morphology could affect the swimming mechanics for these small organisms, and geometric morphometric analysis further suggested an overall shape change such that acidified larvae had more U-shaped bodies and shorter arms, which would help maintain stability in moving water. The relative negative impact of lower pH, computed as log response ratio, on larval arm development was smaller when larvae were exposed to pH fluctuations, especially when the change was less frequent (48- vs 24-h cycle). Furthermore, larvae experiencing an initial pH drop, i.e. those where the cycle started at pH 8.0, were more negatively impacted compared with those kept at an initial pH of 7.3 before the cycling started. Our observations suggest that larval responses to climate change stress could not be easily predicted from mean conditions. Instead, to better predict organismal performance in the future ocean, monitoring and investigation of the role of real-time environmental fluctuations along the dispersive pathway is key.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 131
Author(s):  
Gülşen Kum

In this study, the duration, frequency and the impact of heat waves on comfort conditions, experienced particularly in the summers, have been examined with the purpose of revealing how the annual and monthly temperatures in Gaziantep, a city located in the South Eastern district of Turkey, are affected by the global climate change. Initially, the data on minimum, maximum and average heat in the period from 1940 to 2015, retrieved from the Meteorological Station in the city center, were analyzed using the Mann-Kendall trend analysis, which is a non-parametric test, and the increase/decrease trends in temperature parameters were determined. Afterwards, the impact of heat waves on the comfort levels was demonstrated using the ''Heat Index (apparent temperature)'' method by Steadman (1979), analyzing the heat waves that are predicted to increase in rate and frequency with the climate change, even though the statistical distributions remain the same. According to the results produced by the Heat Index method, it is estimated that the temperatures in the region will shift towards a warmer climate in terms of thermal conditions. It is believed that this study will be highly instrumental in prompting necessary precautions to avert the heat waves reaching a disaster level in Gaziantep, which is located in a position susceptible to heat waves due to its latitude and geographical conditions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Zhang ◽  
Lu-yu Liu ◽  
Yi Liu ◽  
Man Zhang ◽  
Cheng-bang An

AbstractWithin the mountain altitudinal vegetation belts, the shift of forest tree lines and subalpine steppe belts to high altitudes constitutes an obvious response to global climate change. However, whether or not similar changes occur in steppe belts (low altitude) and nival belts in different areas within mountain systems remain undetermined. It is also unknown if these, responses to climate change are consistent. Here, using Landsat remote sensing images from 1989 to 2015, we obtained the spatial distribution of altitudinal vegetation belts in different periods of the Tianshan Mountains in Northwestern China. We suggest that the responses from different altitudinal vegetation belts to global climate change are different. The changes in the vegetation belts at low altitudes are spatially different. In high-altitude regions (higher than the forest belts), however, the trend of different altitudinal belts is consistent. Specifically, we focused on analyses of the impact of changes in temperature and precipitation on the nival belts, desert steppe belts, and montane steppe belts. The results demonstrated that the temperature in the study area exhibited an increasing trend, and is the main factor of altitudinal vegetation belts change in the Tianshan Mountains. In the context of a significant increase in temperature, the upper limit of the montane steppe in the eastern and central parts will shift to lower altitudes, which may limit the development of local animal husbandry. The montane steppe in the west, however, exhibits the opposite trend, which may augment the carrying capacity of pastures and promote the development of local animal husbandry. The lower limit of the nival belt will further increase in all studied areas, which may lead to an increase in surface runoff in the central and western regions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanyun Liu ◽  
Lian Xie ◽  
John M. Morrison ◽  
Daniel Kamykowski

The regional impact of global climate change on the ocean circulation around the Galápagos Archipelago is studied using the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) configured for a four-level nested domain system. The modeling system is validated and calibrated using daily atmospheric forcing derived from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis dataset from 1951 to 2007. The potential impact of future anthropogenic global warming (AGW) in the Galápagos region is examined using the calibrated HYCOM with forcing derived from the IPCC-AR4 climate model. Results show that although the oceanic variability in the entire Galápagos region is significantly affected by global climate change, the degree of such effects is inhomogeneous across the region. The upwelling region to the west of the Isabella Island shows relatively slower warming trends compared to the eastern Galápagos region. Diagnostic analysis suggests that the variability in the western Galápagos upwelling region is affected mainly by equatorial undercurrent (EUC) and Panama currents, while the central/east Galápagos is predominantly affected by both Peru and EUC currents. The inhomogeneous responses in different regions of the Galápagos Archipelago to future AGW can be explained by the incoherent changes of the various current systems in the Galápagos region as a result of global climate change.


Author(s):  
Viktoriia Sydorenko ◽  

This article is devoted to an overview of such a category of migrants as climate refugees. The author pays attention to the general characteristics of the impact of global climate change on migrants. Particular attention is paid to the disclosure of the term “climate refugee”, the reasons for the emergence of this category of people, as well as the problems of counting climate refugees. The author also provides examples for solving these problems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-65
Author(s):  
P. N. Mikheev

The article discusses issues related to the impact of climate change on the objects of the oil and gas industry. The main trends in climate change on a global and regional (on the territory of Russian Federation) scale are outlined. Possible approaches to the identification and assessment of climate risks are discussed. The role of climatic risks as physical factors at various stages of development and implementation of oil and gas projects is shown. Based on the example of oil and gas facilities in the Tomsk region, a qualitative assessment of the level of potential risk from a weather and climatic perspective is given. Approaches to creating a risk management and adaptation system to climate change are presented.


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