scholarly journals Weakened seasonality of the African rainforest precipitation in boreal winter and spring driven by tropical SST variabilities

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin-Yue Wang ◽  
Jiang Zhu ◽  
Meijiao Xin ◽  
Chentao Song ◽  
Yadi Li ◽  
...  

AbstractPrecipitation in the equatorial African rainforest plays an important role in both the regional hydrological cycle and the global climate variability. Previous studies mostly focus on the trends of drought in recent decades or long-time scales. Using two observational datasets, we reveal a remarkable weakening of the seasonal precipitation cycle over this region from 1979 to 2015, with precipitation significantly increased in the boreal winter dry season (~ 0.13 mm/day/decade) and decreased in the boreal spring wet season (~ 0.21 mm/day/decade), which account for ~ 14% (the precipitation changes from 1979 to 2015) of their respective climatological means. We further use a state-of-the-art atmospheric model to isolate the impact of sea surface temperature change from different ocean basins on the precipitation changes in the dry and wet seasons. Results show that the strengthening precipitation in the dry season is mainly driven by the Atlantic warming, whereas the weakening precipitation in the wet season can be primarily attributed to the Indian Ocean. Warming Atlantic intensifies the zonal circulation over the African rainforest, strengthening moisture convergence and intensifying precipitation in the boreal winter dry season. Warming Indian Ocean contributes more to reducing the zonal circulation and suppressing the convection in the boreal spring wet season, leading to an opposite effect on precipitation. This result has important implication on local ecology as well as global climate system.

2012 ◽  
Vol 63 (9) ◽  
pp. 788 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. E. Pettit ◽  
T. D. Jardine ◽  
S. K. Hamilton ◽  
V. Sinnamon ◽  
D. Valdez ◽  
...  

The present study indicates the critical role of hydrologic connectivity in floodplain waterholes in the wet–dry tropics of northern Australia. These waterbodies provide dry-season refugia for plants and animals, are a hotspot of productivity, and are a critical part in the subsistence economy of many remote Aboriginal communities. We examined seasonal changes in water quality and aquatic plant cover of floodplain waterholes, and related changes to variation of waterhole depth and visitation by livestock. The waterholes showed declining water quality through the dry season, which was exacerbated by more frequent cattle usage as conditions became progressively drier, which also increased turbidity and nutrient concentrations. Aquatic macrophyte biomass was highest in the early dry season, and declined as the dry season progressed. Remaining macrophytes were flushed out by the first wet-season flows, although they quickly re-establish later during the wet season. Waterholes of greater depth were more resistant to the effects of cattle disturbance, and seasonal flushing of the waterholes with wet-season flooding homogenised the water quality and increased plant cover of previously disparate waterholes. Therefore, maintaining high levels of connectivity between the river and its floodplain is vital for the persistence of these waterholes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Velautham Daksiya ◽  
Pradeep Mandapaka ◽  
Edmond Y. M. Lo

The impact of changing climate on the frequency of daily rainfall extremes in Jakarta, Indonesia, is analysed and quantified. The study used three different models to assess the changes in rainfall characteristics. The first method involves the use of the weather generator LARS-WG to quantify changes between historical and future daily rainfall maxima. The second approach consists of statistically downscaling general circulation model (GCM) output based on historical empirical relationships between GCM output and station rainfall. Lastly, the study employed recent statistically downscaled global gridded rainfall projections to characterize climate change impact rainfall structure. Both annual and seasonal rainfall extremes are studied. The results show significant changes in annual maximum daily rainfall, with an average increase as high as 20% in the 100-year return period daily rainfall. The uncertainty arising from the use of different GCMs was found to be much larger than the uncertainty from the emission scenarios. Furthermore, the annual and wet seasonal analyses exhibit similar behaviors with increased future rainfall, but the dry season is not consistent across the models. The GCM uncertainty is larger in the dry season compared to annual and wet season.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 347
Author(s):  
Kuan-Nan Lin ◽  
Chiu-Wen Chen ◽  
Chih-Feng Chen ◽  
Yee Cheng Lim ◽  
Chih-Ming Kao ◽  
...  

The Fengshan River system is one of the major rivers in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. This study investigated the concentration of eight phthalate esters (PAEs) in sediments of the river and the impact of potential ecological risks during the dry and wet seasons. The potential risk assessment of sediment PAEs was evaluated by adopting the total risk quotient (TRQ) method. The total PAEs concentrations (∑PAEs) in the sediments of the Fengshan River system are between 490–40,190 ng/g dw, with an average of 8418 ± 11,812 ng/g dw. Diisononyl phthalate (38.1%), bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (36.9%) and di-isodecyl phthalate (24.3%) accounted for more than 99.3% of ∑PAEs. The concentration of ∑PAEs in sediments at the river channel stations is higher during the wet season (616–15,281 ng/g dw) than that during the dry season (490–1535 ng/g dw). However, in the downstream and estuary stations, the wet season (3975–6768 ng/g dw) is lower than the dry season (20,216–40,190 ng/g dw). The PAEs in sediments of the Fengshan River may have low to moderate potential risks to aquatic organisms. The TQR of PAEs in sediments at the downstream and estuary (TQR = 0.13) is higher than that in the upstream (TQR = 0.04). In addition, during the wet season, rainfall transported a large amount of land-sourced PAEs to rivers, leading to increased PAEs concentration and potential ecological risks in the upper reaches of the river.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharmine Akter Simu ◽  
Yuzo Miyazaki ◽  
Eri Tachibana ◽  
Henning Finkenzeller ◽  
Jérôme Brioude ◽  
...  

Abstract. The tropical and subtropical Indian Ocean (IO) is expected to be a significant source of water-soluble organic aerosols (WSOAs), which are important factors relevant to cloud condensation nuclei and ice nuclei of aerosol particles. Current atmospheric numerical models significantly underestimate the budget of organic aerosols and their precursors, especially over tropical oceans. This is primarily due to poor knowledge of sources and the paucity of observations of these parameters considering spatial and temporal variation over the tropical open ocean. To evaluate the contribution of sources to WSOA as well as their formation processes, submicrometer aerosol sampling was conducted at the high-altitude Maïdo observatory (21.1° S, 55.4° E, 2,160 m a.s.l), located on the remote island of La Réunion in the southwest IO. The aerosol samples were continuously collected during local daytime and nighttime, which corresponded to the ambient conditions of the marine boundary layer (MBL) and free troposphere (FT), respectively, from March 15 to May 24, 2018. Chemical analysis showed that organic matter was the dominant component of submicrometer water-soluble aerosol (~45 ± 17 %) during the wet season (March 15–April 23), whereas sulfate dominated (~77 ± 17 %) during the dry season (April 24–May 24). Measurements of the stable carbon isotope ratio of water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) suggested that marine sources contributed significantly to the observed WSOC mass in both the MBL and the FT in the wet season, whereas a mixture of marine and terrestrial sources contributed to WSOC in the dry season. The distinct seasonal changes in the dominant source of WSOC were also supported by Lagrangian trajectory analysis. Positive matrix factorization analysis suggested that marine secondary OA dominantly contributed to the observed WSOC mass (~70 %) during the wet season, whereas mixtures of marine and terrestrial sources contributed during the dry season in both MBL and FT. Overall, this study demonstrates that the effect of marine secondary sources is likely important up to the FT in the wet season, which may be responsible for cloud formation as well as direct radiative forcing over oceanic regions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 117-140
Author(s):  
Nora Idiawati ◽  
Sepridawati Siregar

As the capital city of Indonesia, the Province of Jakarta encounter a problem seriously of decreasing air quality. This study analyzes the air quality of two cities in Jakarta Province, Central Jakarta and South Jakarta, from March to June 2016–2020, and the impact of COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control actions on air quality. The combined air quality index (AQI) for two cities from 2016–2019, in the wet season, indicated that it has the lowest AQI with an average of 79, and the highest AQI occurred in the dry season with averaged 118. The distribution of the six AQI classes for two cities in dry season were 2%, 24%, 63%, 11%, 0%, and 0%, and in wet season, they were 10%, 48%, 39%, 3%, 0%, and 0%, respectively. The concentrations for PM2.5 and PM10 in March, April, May, and June 2016–2019 and those for 2020 were also analyzed in this study. Based on the data from the two cities, during March, April, May, and June 2020, the average PM2.5 decreased by 23.6%, 39.5%, 41.5%, and 13.3%, respectively, and the average PM10 decreased by 22.2%, 29.9%, 36.9%, and 29.8%, respectively, compared with that in March, April, May, and June 2016–2019. It is obvious that air quality greatly improved during the COVID-19 epidemic. This study presents beneficial information to policymakers for developing scientific air pollution control strategies and is a useful reference for future research in improving urban air quality.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Lee Nyanti ◽  
Chen-Lin Soo ◽  
Afina-Yian Chundi ◽  
Elsa-Cordelia-Durie Lambat ◽  
Alvinna Tram ◽  
...  

Construction of cascade dams has been shown to have impacts on fish assemblages and biodiversity. Yet, there is no literature on fish assemblages in the Murum River that connects the cascading Bakun and Murum dams in Sarawak, Malaysia. Hence, study on this modified ecosystem is necessitated to better understand the effects of the cascade dam construction on fish fauna. For this, fish samples were caught at five stations located along the river during both dry and wet seasons. Environmental parameters were taken concurrently with fish sampling. Length-weight relationship, condition factors, and diet composition of selected fish species in the river were also determined. The present study demonstrated that there are indications of the impact of cascading dams on the formation of a complex ecosystem in the Murum River, that is, changing from the shallow downstream of the Murum Dam to the deep transitional and inundated zone of the Bakun reservoir. The transitional zone in the Murum River exhibited the lowest fish species diversity, richness, and evenness during the dry season due to low pH and DO coupled with high turbidity. The biological indices improved when the water quality improved during the wet season. On the contrary, the diversity and evenness indices at the inundated tributary station decreased remarkably during the wet season, likely due to the migration of fish during the onset of the rainy season. This study showed that Barbonymus schwanenfeldii has a wider feeding habit which contributes to its higher distribution and abundance in the Murum River. The growth patterns of B. schwanenfeldii, Cyclocheilichthys apogon, Hampala macrolepidota, Lobocheilos ovalis, and Osteochilus enneaporos were better during wet than dry season. Overall, the condition factor of all native fish species in the Murum River was in poor to fair condition, whereas the exotic species, Oreochromis mossambicus, exhibited excellent condition (K value > 2) for both seasons. The increase in the number of O. mossambicus coupled with its high condition factor indicates biological intrusion and a potential threat to the native fish species in the Murum River. Continuous monitoring is essential to detect in-time risk issues associated with environmental degradation and biological invasion in this regulated and inundated river ecosystem.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Yin Sun ◽  
Cheng Wu ◽  
Dui Wu ◽  
Chunlei Cheng ◽  
Mei Li ◽  
...  

Abstract. Black carbon (BC) is an important climate forcer in the atmosphere. Amplification of light absorption can occur by coatings on BC aerosols, an effect that remains one of the major sources of uncertainties for accessing the radiative forcing of BC. In this study, the absorption enhancement factor (Eabs) was quantified by the minimum R squared (MRS) method using elemental carbon (EC) as the tracer. Two field campaigns were conducted in urban Guangzhou at the Jinan university super site during both wet season (July 31–September 10, 2017) and dry season (November 15, 2017–January 15, 2018) to explore the temporal dynamics of BC optical properties. The average concentration of EC was 1.94 ± 0.93 and 2.81 ± 2.01 μgC m−3 in the wet and dry seasons, respectively. Mass absorption efficiency at 520 nm by primary aerosols (MAEp520) determined by MRS exhibit a strong seasonality (8.6 m2g−1 in the wet season and 16.8 m2g−1 in the dry season). Eabs520 was higher in the wet season (1.51 ± 0.50) and lower in the dry season (1.29 ± 0.28). Absorption Ångström exponent (AAE470-660) in the dry season (1.46 ± 0.12) were higher than that in the wet season (1.37 ± 0.10). Collective evidence showed that the active biomass burning (BB) in dry season effectively altered optical properties of BC, leading to elevated MAE, MAEp and AAE in dry season comparing to those in wet season. Diurnal Eabs520 was positively correlated with AAE470-660 (R2 = 0.71) and negatively correlated with the AE33 aerosol loading compensation parameter (k) (R2 = 0.74) in the wet season, but these correlations were significantly weaker in the dry season, which may be related to the impact of BB. This result suggests that lensing effect was dominating the AAE diurnal variability during the wet season. The effect of secondary processing on Eabs diurnal dynamic were also investigated. The Eabs520 exhibit a clear dependency on secondary organic carbon to organic carbon ratio (SOC/OC). Eabs520 correlated well with nitrate, implying that gas-particle partitioning of semi-volatile compounds may potentially play an important role in steering the diurnal fluctuation of Eabs520. In dry season, the diurnal variability of Eabs520 was associated with photochemical aging as evidenced by the good correlation (R2 = 0.69) between oxidant concentrations (Ox=O3+NO2) and Eabs520.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-206
Author(s):  
Thuy Hoang Luu Thu ◽  
Mui Tran Thi ◽  
Vu Vuong Van ◽  
Ly Pham Thi ◽  
Cuc Pham Thi

Assessment of the degree of meteorological drought in Dak Lak province is carried out using the SPI index and the water balance index K in the period 1985 - 2019. The results show that: According to the SPI index, drought tends to occur more at the time of transition from the dry season to the rainy season, during the rainy season, and from the time of transition from the rainy season to the dry season. The K-index in the period 1985 - 2019 showed there was a dry period at the beginning of the year from January to April. The anomalous drought factor plays a very important role because its large influence can cause damages, and allows assessing the variability of rainfall and the impact of climate change on the region. The study and evaluation of meteorological drought have practical significance, supporting managers in making policies on water resource management, ensuring sustainable economic and social development in the context of global climate change.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 2659-2670 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Bovalo ◽  
C. Barthe ◽  
N. Bègue

Abstract. The World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) data have been used to perform a lightning climatology in the South-West Indian Ocean (SWIO) region from 2005 to 2011. Maxima of lightning activity were found in the Maritime Continent and southwest of Sri Lanka (>50 fl km−2 yr−1) but also over Madagascar and above the Great Lakes of East Africa (>10–20 fl km−2 yr−1). Lightning flashes within tropical storms and tropical cyclones represent 50 % to 100 % of the total lightning activity in some oceanic areas of the SWIO (between 10° S and 20° S). The SWIO is characterized by a wet season (November to April) and a dry season (May to October). As one could expect, lightning activity is more intense during the wet season as the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is present over all the basin. Flash density is higher over land in November–December–January with values reaching 3–4 fl km−2 yr−1 over Madagascar. During the dry season, lightning activity is quite rare between 10° S and 25° S. The Mascarene anticyclone has more influence on the SWIO resulting in shallower convection. Lightning activity is concentrated over ocean, east of South Africa and Madagascar. A statistical analysis has shown that El Niño–Southern Oscillation mainly modulates the lightning activity up to 56.8% in the SWIO. The Indian Ocean Dipole has a significant contribution since ~49% of the variability is explained by this forcing in some regions. The Madden–Julian Oscillation did not show significative impact on the lightning activity in our study.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (12) ◽  
pp. 170808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly VanderWaal ◽  
Marie Gilbertson ◽  
Sharon Okanga ◽  
Brian F. Allan ◽  
Meggan E. Craft

Capturing heterogeneity in contact patterns in animal populations is essential for understanding the spread of infectious diseases. In contrast to other regions of the world in which livestock movement networks are integral to pathogen prevention and control policies, contact networks are understudied in pastoral regions of Africa due to the challenge of measuring contact among mobile herds of cattle whose movements are driven by access to resources. Furthermore, the extent to which seasonal changes in the distribution of water and resources impacts the structure of contact networks in cattle is uncertain. Contact networks may be more conducive to pathogen spread in the dry season due to congregation at limited water sources. Alternatively, less abundant forage may result in decreased pathogen transmission due to competitive avoidance among herds, as measured by reduced contact rates. Here, we use GPS technology to concurrently track 49 free-roaming cattle herds within a semi-arid region of Kenya, and use these data to characterize seasonal contact networks and model the spread of a highly infectious pathogen. This work provides the first empirical data on the local contact network structure of mobile herds based on quantifiable contact events. The contact network demonstrated high levels of interconnectivity. An increase in contacts near to water resources in the dry season resulted in networks with both higher contact rates and higher potential for pathogen spread than in the wet season. Simulated disease outbreaks were also larger in the dry season. Results support the hypothesis that limited water resources enhance connectivity and transmission within contact networks, as opposed to reducing connectivity as a result of competitive avoidance. These results cast light on the impact of seasonal heterogeneity in resource availability on predicting pathogen transmission dynamics, which has implications for other free-ranging wild and domestic populations.


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