Geochemical evidence of tropical cyclone controls on shallow-marine sedimentation (Pliocene, Taiwan)

Geology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahin E. Dashtgard ◽  
Ludvig Löwemark ◽  
Pei-Ling Wang ◽  
Romy A. Setiaji ◽  
Romain Vaucher

Shallow-marine sediment typically contains a mix of marine and terrestrial organic material (OM). Most terrestrial OM enters the ocean through rivers, and marine OM is incorporated into the sediment through both suspension settling of marine plankton and sediment reworking by tides and waves under fair-weather conditions. River-derived terrestrial OM is delivered year-round, although sediment and OM delivery from rivers is typically highest during extreme weather events that impact river catchments. In Taiwan, tropical cyclones (TCs) are the dominant extreme weather event, and 75% of all sediment delivered to the surrounding ocean occurs during TCs. Distinguishing between sediment deposited during TCs and that redistributed by tides and waves during fair-weather conditions can be approximated using δ13Corg values and C:N ratios of OM. Lower Pliocene shallow-marine sedimentary strata in the Western Foreland Basin of Taiwan rarely exhibit physical evidence of storm-dominated deposition. Instead they comprise completely bioturbated intervals that transition upward into strata dominated by tidally generated sedimentary structures, indicating extensive sediment reworking under fair-weather conditions. However, these strata contain OM that is effectively 100% terrestrial OM in sediment that accumulated in estimated water depths <35 m. The overwhelming contribution of terrestrially sourced OM is attributed to the dominance of TCs on sedimentation, whereby ~600,000 TCs are estimated to have impacted Taiwan during accumulation of the succession. In contrast, the virtual absence of marine OM indicates that organic contributions from suspension settling of marine OM is negligible regardless of the preserved evidence of extensive reworking under fair-weather conditions. These data suggest that (1) even in the absence of physical expressions of storm deposition, TCs still completely dominate sedimentation in shallow-marine environments, and (2) the organic geochemical signal of preserved shallow-marine strata is not reflective of day-to-day depositional conditions in the environment.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahin Dashtgard ◽  
Ludvig Löwemark ◽  
Pei-Ling Wang ◽  
Romy Setiaji ◽  
Yu-Yen Pan ◽  
...  

<p> Shallow-marine sediment typically contains a mix of marine and terrestrial organic mate­rial (OM). Most terrestrial OM enters the ocean through rivers, and marine OM is incorpo­rated into the sediment through both suspension settling of marine plankton and sediment reworking by tides and waves under fairweather conditions. River-derived terrestrial OM is delivered year-round, although sediment and OM delivery from rivers is typically highest during extreme weather events that impact river catchments. In Taiwan, tropical cyclones (TCs) are the dominant extreme weather event, and 75% of all sediment delivered to the surrounding ocean occurs during TCs.</p><p>Lower Pliocene shallow-marine sedimentary strata in the Western Foreland Basin of Taiwan comprises mainly completely bioturbated intervals that transi­tion upward into strata dominated by tidally generated sedimentary structures, indicating extensive sediment reworking under fairweather conditions. Physical evidence of storm deposition is limited. However, lower Pliocene strata contain OM that is effectively 100% terrestrial OM in sediment that accumulated in estimated water depths <35 m. The overwhelming contribution of terrestrially sourced OM is attributed to the dominance of TCs on sedimentation, whereby ∼600,000 TCs are estimated to have impacted Taiwan during accumulation of a ~200 m long succession. In contrast, the virtual absence of marine OM indicates that organic contributions from suspension settling of marine OM is negligible regardless of the preserved evidence of extensive reworking via fairweather processes (i.e., waves and tides). These data suggest that (1) even in the absence of physical expressions of storm deposition, TCs still completely dominate sedimentation in shallow-marine environments, and (2) the organic geochemical signal of preserved shallow-marine strata is not reflective of day-to-day depositional conditions in the environment.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine Fleischhut ◽  
Stefan M. Herzog ◽  
Ralph Hertwig

AbstractAs climate change unfolds, extreme weather events are on the rise worldwide. According to experts, extreme weather risks already outrank those of terrorism and migration in likelihood and impact. But how well does the public understand weather risks and forecast uncertainty and thus grasp the amplified weather risks that climate change poses for the future? In a nationally representative survey (N = 1004; Germany), we tested the public’s weather literacy and awareness of climate change using 62 factual questions. Many respondents misjudged important weather risks (e.g., they were unaware that UV radiation can be higher under patchy cloud cover than on a cloudless day) and struggled to connect weather conditions to their impacts (e.g., they overestimated the distance to a thunderstorm). Most misinterpreted a probabilistic forecast deterministically, yet they strongly underestimated the uncertainty of deterministic forecasts. Respondents with higher weather literacy obtained weather information more often and spent more time outside but were not more educated. Those better informed about climate change were only slightly more weather literate. Overall, the public does not seem well equipped to anticipate weather risks in the here and now and may thus also fail to fully grasp what climate change implies for the future. These deficits in weather literacy highlight the need for impact forecasts that translate what the weather may be into what the weather may do and for transparent communication of uncertainty to the public. Boosting weather literacy may help to improve the public’s understanding of weather and climate change risks, thereby fostering informed decisions and mitigation support.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 12194
Author(s):  
Iago Turba Costa ◽  
Cassio Arthur Wollmann ◽  
João Paulo Assis Gobo ◽  
Priscilla Venâncio Ikefuti ◽  
Salman Shooshtarian ◽  
...  

This research concerns the identification of a pattern between the occurrence of extreme weather conditions, such as cold waves and heat waves, and hospitalization for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), in the University Hospital of Santa Maria (HUSM) in southern Brazil between 2012 and 2017. The research employed the field experiment method to measure the biometeorological parameters associated with hospital admissions in different seasons, such as during extreme weather conditions such as a cold wave (CW) or a heat wave (HW), using five thermal comfort indices: physiologically equivalent temperature (PET), new standard effective temperature (SET), predicted mean vote (PMV), effective temperatures (ET), and effective temperature with wind (ETW). The hospitalizations were recorded as 0.775 and 0.726 admissions per day for the winter and entire study periods, respectively. The records for extreme events showed higher admission rates than those on average days. The results also suggest that emergency hospitalizations for heart diseases during extreme weather events occurred predominantly on days with thermal discomfort. Furthermore, there was a particularly high risk of hospitalization for up to seven days after the end of the CW. Further analyses showed that cardiovascular hospitalizations were higher in winter than in summer, suggesting that CWs are more life threatening in wintertime.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Fernando Melo-Velandia ◽  
Camilo Andrés Orozco-Vanegas ◽  
Daniel Parra-Amado

Given the importance of climate change and the increase of its severity under extreme weather events, we analyze the main drivers of high food prices in Colombia between 1985 and 2020 focusing on extreme weather shocks like a strong El Ni˜no.We estimate a non-stationary extreme value model for Colombian food prices. Our findings suggest that perishable foods are more exposed to extreme weather conditions in comparison to processed foods. In fact, an extremely low precipitation level explains only high prices in perishable foods. The risk of high perishable food prices is significantly larger for low rainfall levels (dry seasons) compared to high precipitation levels (rainy seasons). This risk gradually results in higher perishable food prices. It is non linear and is also significantly larger than the risk related to changes in the US dollar-Colombian peso exchange rate and fuel prices. Those covariates also explain high prices for both perishable and processed foods. Finally, we find that the events associated with the strongest El Ni˜no in 1988 and 2016 are expected to reoccur once every 50 years.


2014 ◽  
Vol 899 ◽  
pp. 440-445
Author(s):  
Sára Hrabovszky-Horváth

Changes in climate have various impacts on the built environment: e.g. the building design and the materials together with the operation and the maintenance. Therefore, it is extremely important to account for the future weather conditions during both the design of new buildings and the renovation of existing buildings. According to the Hungarian meteorological researches as a consequence of the global warming the climate of Hungary is going to become warmer and drier as well as the number and the intensity of the extreme weather events is expected to grow. One of the main directions of actions in the Climate Change Strategy is the adaptation to the changing circumstances, the improvement of the adaptive capacity of the built environment. In this study, the prefabricated reinforced concrete large-panel residential buildings are analysed: a bottom-up methodology was developed based on typological approach to assess the vulnerability of the ‘panel buildings’ to climate change by analysing the extreme weather events. After assessing the sensitivity and the adaptive capacity of the determined building types, their vulnerability to the increased number of windstorms and extreme rainfalls was estimated and the influence of their refurbishment was analysed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1813-1831 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Rolinski ◽  
A. Rammig ◽  
A. Walz ◽  
W. von Bloh ◽  
M. van Oijen ◽  
...  

Abstract. Extreme weather events are likely to occur more often under climate change and the resulting effects on ecosystems could lead to a further acceleration of climate change. But not all extreme weather events lead to extreme ecosystem response. Here, we focus on hazardous ecosystem behaviour and identify coinciding weather conditions. We use a simple probabilistic risk assessment based on time series of ecosystem behaviour and climate conditions. Given the risk assessment terminology, vulnerability and risk for the previously defined hazard are estimated on the basis of observed hazardous ecosystem behaviour. We apply this approach to extreme responses of terrestrial ecosystems to drought, defining the hazard as a negative net biome productivity over a 12-month period. We show an application for two selected sites using data for 1981–2010 and then apply the method to the pan-European scale for the same period, based on numerical modelling results (LPJmL for ecosystem behaviour; ERA-Interim data for climate). Our site-specific results demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method, using the SPEI to describe the climate condition. The site in Spain provides an example of vulnerability to drought because the expected value of the SPEI is 0.4 lower for hazardous than for non-hazardous ecosystem behaviour. In northern Germany, on the contrary, the site is not vulnerable to drought because the SPEI expectation values imply wetter conditions in the hazard case than in the non-hazard case. At the pan-European scale, ecosystem vulnerability to drought is calculated in the Mediterranean and temperate region, whereas Scandinavian ecosystems are vulnerable under conditions without water shortages. These first model-based applications indicate the conceptual advantages of the proposed method by focusing on the identification of critical weather conditions for which we observe hazardous ecosystem behaviour in the analysed data set. Application of the method to empirical time series and to future climate would be important next steps to test the approach.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 38-47
Author(s):  
Marta Lackowska ◽  
Barbara Nowicka ◽  
Marta Bałandin ◽  
Mirosław Grochowski

AbstractOne of the conditions for effective water resources management in protected areas is local decision makers’ knowledge about potential threats caused by climate changes. Our study, conducted in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Tuchola Forest in Poland, analyses the perception of threats by local stakeholders. Their assessments of the sensitivity of four lakes to the extreme weather events are compared with hydrological studies. The survey shows that the lakes’ varying responses to extreme weather conditions is rarely noticed by ordinary observers. Their perception is usually far from the hydrological facts, which indicates a lack of relevant information or a failure in making it widely accessible and understandable. Moreover, it is rather the human impact, not climate change, which is seen as the biggest threat to the lakes. Insufficient environmental knowledge may hinder the effective protection and management of natural resources, due to bad decisions and lack of the local communities’ support for adaptation and mitigation policies.


Author(s):  
Christopher P. Borick ◽  
Barry G. Rabe

The factors that determine individual perceptions of climate change have been a focus of social science research for many years. An array of studies have found that individual-level characteristics, such as partisan affiliation, ideological beliefs, educational attainment, and race, affect one’s views on the existence of global warming, as well as the levels of concern regarding this matter. But in addition to the individual-level attributes that have been shown to affect perceptions of climate change, a growing body of literature has found that individual experiences with weather can shape a variety of views and beliefs that individuals maintain regarding climate change. These studies indicate that direct experiences with extreme weather events and abnormal seasonal temperature and precipitation levels can affect the likelihood that an individual will perceive global warming to be occurring, and in some cases their policy preferences for addressing the problem. The emerging literature on this relationship indicates that individuals are more likely to express skepticism regarding the existence of global warming when experiencing below average temperatures or above average snowfall in the period preceding an interview on their views. Conversely, higher temperatures and various extreme weather events can elevate acceptance of global warming’s existence. A number of studies also find that individuals are more likely to report weather conditions such as drought and extreme heat affected their acceptance of global warming when such conditions were occurring in their region. For example, the severe drought that has encompassed much of the western United States between 2005 and 2016 has increasingly been cited by residents of the region as the primary reason for their belief that climate change is occurring. What remains unclear at this point is whether the weather conditions are actually changing opinions regarding climate change or if the preexisting opinions are causing individuals to see the weather events in a manner consistent with those opinions. Notably, the relationship between weather experiences and beliefs regarding climate change appear to be multidirectional in nature. Numerous studies have found that not only do weather experiences shape the views of individuals regarding global warming, but also individuals’ views on the existence of global warming can affect their perceptions of the weather that they have experienced. In particular, recent research has shown that individuals who are skeptical about the existence of global warming are less likely to report the weather recorded in their area accurately than individuals who believe global warming is happening.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anni Vehola ◽  
Elias Hurmekoski ◽  
Katja Lähtinen ◽  
Enni Ruokamo ◽  
Anders Roos ◽  
...  

Abstract Climate change places great pressure on the construction sector to decrease its greenhouse gas emissions and to create solutions that perform well in changing weather conditions. In the urbanizing world, wood construction has been identified as one of the opportunities for mitigating these emissions. Our study explores citizen opinions on wood usage as a building material under expected mitigation and adaptation measures aimed at a changing climate and extreme weather events. The data are founded on an internet-based survey material collected from a consumer panel from Finland and Sweden during May–June 2021, with a total of 2015 responses. By employing exploratory factor analysis, we identified similar belief structures for the two countries, consisting of both positive and negative views on wood construction. In linear regressions for predicting these opinions, the perceived seriousness of climate change was found to increase positive views on wood construction but was insignificant for negative views. Both in Finland and Sweden, higher familiarity with wooden multistory construction was found to connect with more positive opinions on the potential of wood in building, e.g., due to carbon storage properties and material attributes. Our findings underline the potential of wood material use as one avenue of climate change adaptation in the built environment. Future research should study how citizens’ concerns for extreme weather events affect their future material preferences in their everyday living environments, also beyond the Nordic region.


Author(s):  
Jolanta Nemaniute-Guziene ◽  
Justas Kazys

In Lithuania, like in other countries, climate change causes and will cause changes in natural and anthropogenic environment. The entire transport sector will be impacted, influencing the way it plans, designs, constructs and maintains infrastructure in the future. Roads are already sensitive to current climate variability. If today’s extreme weather events become both more frequent and extreme, so too will the level of disruption that they cause. Thus, roads must be adapted to changing climate conditions. The aim is to ensure resilience, to ensure that roads remain open under extreme weather conditions. The easiest and the most effective economically way is to implement adaptation measures for the new or reconstructed roads. But the existing older roads should be adapted also. The steps required to improve and maintain resilience of roads are definition of climate projections, identification of key roads and their vulnerability, identification and research on technologies for adaptation, preparation of methodologies, establishment of field operational trials. The aim of the research is to review Lithuanian roads in the context of climate change and its consequences. Methodology: climate and associated data collection and review, initial prognoses of the change (in short, medium and long term perspective) of meteorological elements, vulnerability assessment of the study area and the roads. Results: initial recommendations for adaptation action planning.


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