scholarly journals Climate change in the recent geological past and the near future. Predicting its impacts: a Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 260
Author(s):  
Constantinos Perisoratis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Climatic Change ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Geological Past ◽  
Near Future

The climate changes are necessarily related to the increase of the Earth’s temperature, resulting in a sea level rise. Such continuous events, were taking place with minor and greater intensity, during the alternation of warm and cool periods in the Earth during the Late Quaternary and the Holocene periods. However, a particularly significant awareness has taken place in the scientific community, and consequently in the greater public, in the last decades: that a climatic change will take place soon, or it is on-going, and that therefore it is important to undertake drastic actions. However, such a climatic change has not been recorded yet, and hence the necessary actions are not required, for the time being.

Long-term observations at the Geodynamic Observatory Moxa: Can we identify evidence for climate change?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelius Schwarze ◽  
Thomas Jahr ◽  
Andreas Goepel ◽  
Valentin Kasburg ◽  
Nina Kukowski
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Optical Fibre ◽  
Temperature Fluctuations ◽  
Subsurface Temperature ◽  
Loading Effect ◽  
Tidal Waves ◽  
The Earth

<p>Longterm geophysical recordings of natural Earth’s parameters besides other signals also may contain past and ongoing temperature fluctuations, as they are occurring e.g. when groundwater moves or when climate changes. Similarly, repeated logs or continuous recordings reveal the amount of ongoing climate fluctuations. However, such thermal signals in the subsurface also may have other causes, e.g. groundwater motion or fluid infiltration after strong rainfall events. The Geodynamic Observatory Moxa of the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Germany, is an ideal test site for long-term monitoring of the subsurface temperature distribution in boreholes using optical fibre temperature-sensing, as it is equipped with a variety of complementary sensors.</p><p>A 100 m deep borehole on the ground of the Observatory, is equipped with an optical fibre and a water level gauge. Clearly shown in the records of the first five years of continuous recordings are seasonal temperature fluctuations. Seasonal fluctuations could be identified down to a depth of about 20 m and diurnal temperature signals down to 1.2 m. Precipitation events may influence subsurface temperature still in a depth as deep as 15 m. Besides these, temperature anomalies were detected at two depths, 20 m and 77 m below the surface. These anomalies most probably result from enhanced groundwater flow in aquifers. Recordings of deformation from laser strain meter systems installed in a gallery at Moxa, which are highly sensitive to pore pressure fluctuations, and measuring the physical properties during drilling the borehole, help to identify and quantify the causes of the observed  temperature fluctuations.</p><p>For more than 20 years variations of the Earth’s gravity field have been observed at the Observatory Moxa employing the superconducting gravimeter CD-034. Besides the free oscillations of the Earth and hydrological effects, the tides of the solid Earth are the strongest signals found in the time series. Tidal analysis of the main constituents leads to obtaining the indirect effect for all tidal waves which is mainly controlled by the loading effect of the oceans. Satellite altimetry revealed a mean global sea level rise of about 3.3 mm/a which may be caused amongst others mainly by ice melting processes in the polar regions. However, more detailed analyses and resulting global maps show that the sea level rise is not uniformly distributed over all oceans. This means that actual and future tidal water mass movements could vary regionally and even locally.  As a consequence, the tidal parameter controlled by the ocean loading effect could change over long-term observation periods and it should possibly be detectable as a trend or temporal variation of the tidal gravity parameters locally. Actually, a long-term change of the tidal parameters is observed for the main tidal waves like K1 and O1 in the diurnal and for M2 and K2 in the semi-diurnal frequency band. However, it is not clear if these changes can be correlated with sea level changes as observed from satellite data. On the other hand, surface and subsurface temperature fluctuations directly reveal the size of the thermal signal inherent to climate change.</p>

Transitioning to a Prosperous, Resilient and Carbon-Free Economy

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Early Adoption ◽  
Weather Events

This book is a comprehensive manual for decision-makers and policy leaders addressing the issues around human caused climate change, which threatens communities with increasing extreme weather events, sea level rise, and declining habitability of some regions due to desertification or inundation. The book looks at both mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming and adaption to changing conditions as the climate changes. It encourages the early adoption of climate change measures, showing that rapid decarbonisation and improved resilience can be achieved while maintaining prosperity. The book takes a sector-by-sector approach, starting with energy and includes cities, industry, natural resources, and agriculture, enabling practitioners to focus on actions relevant to their field. It uses case studies across a range of countries, and various industries, to illustrate the opportunities available. Blending technological insights with economics and policy, the book presents the tools decision-makers need to achieve rapid decarbonisation, whilst unlocking and maintaining productivity, profit, and growth.

scholarly journals Impacts of sea level rise and climate change on coastal plant species in the central California coast

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kendra Garner ◽  
Michelle Chang ◽  
Matthew Fulda ◽  
Jon Berlin ◽  
Rachel Freed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Species Distribution ◽  
Habitat Suitability ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Precipitation Regimes ◽  
Coastal Plant

Local increases in sea level caused by global climate change pose a significant threat to the persistence of many coastal plant species through exacerbating inundation, flooding, and erosion. In addition to sea level rise (SLR), climate changes in the form of air temperature and precipitation regimes will also alter habitats of coastal plant species. Although numerous studies have analyzed the effect of climate change on future habitats through species distribution models (SDMs), none have incorporated the threat of exposure to SLR. We developed a model that quantified the effect of both SLR and climate change on habitat for 88 rare coastal plant species in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties, California, USA. Our SLR model projects that by the year 2100, 60 of the 88 species will be threatened by SLR. We found that the probability of being threatened by SLR strongly correlates with a species’ area, elevation, and distance from the coast, and that ten species could lose their entire current habitat in the study region. We modeled the habitat suitability of these 10 species under future climate using a species distribution model (SDM). Our SDM projects that 4 of the 10 species will lose all suitable current habitats in the region as a result of climate change. While SLR accounts for up to 9.2 km2 loss in habitat, climate change accounts for habitat suitability changes ranging from a loss of 1439 km2 for one species to a gain of 9795 km2 for another species. For three species, SLR is projected to reduce future suitable area by as much as 28% of total area. This suggests that while SLR poses a higher risk, climate changes in precipitation and air temperature represents a lesser known but potentially larger risk and a small cumulative effect from both.

scholarly journals Impacts of sea level rise and climate change on coastal plant species in the central California coast

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kendra Garner ◽  
Michelle Chang ◽  
Matthew Fulda ◽  
Jon Berlin ◽  
Rachel Freed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Species Distribution ◽  
Habitat Suitability ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Precipitation Regimes ◽  
Coastal Plant

Local increases in sea level caused by global climate change pose a significant threat to the persistence of many coastal plant species through exacerbating inundation, flooding, and erosion. In addition to sea level rise (SLR), climate changes in the form of air temperature and precipitation regimes will also alter habitats of coastal plant species. Although numerous studies have analyzed the effect of climate change on future habitats through species distribution models (SDMs), none have incorporated the threat of exposure to SLR. We developed a model that quantified the effect of both SLR and climate change on habitat for 88 rare coastal plant species in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties, California, USA. Our SLR model projects that by the year 2100, 60 of the 88 species will be threatened by SLR. We found that the probability of being threatened by SLR strongly correlates with a species’ area, elevation, and distance from the coast, and that ten species could lose their entire current habitat in the study region. We modeled the habitat suitability of these 10 species under future climate using a species distribution model (SDM). Our SDM projects that 4 of the 10 species will lose all suitable current habitats in the region as a result of climate change. While SLR accounts for up to 9.2 km2 loss in habitat, climate change accounts for habitat suitability changes ranging from a loss of 1439 km2 for one species to a gain of 9795 km2 for another species. For three species, SLR is projected to reduce future suitable area by as much as 28% of total area. This suggests that while SLR poses a higher risk, climate changes in precipitation and air temperature represents a lesser known but potentially larger risk and a small cumulative effect from both.

IBSE approach to study climate change from 90 degrees

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Lugaro
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Major Advance ◽  
The Earth

<p> </p><p>Scientific evidence of climate warming is today clear and well admitted within the scientific community. It is crucial to educate students about the climate crisis we are facing and the consequences that will occur at global level. Climate science is a complex topic, involving a cross-curricular learning experience linking biology, geology, physics and chemistry.  Within such a complex theme, Polar Science plays a crucial role to understand how global warming and climate change are affecting and will affect our planet. Polar Regions are indeed among the most fragile and vulnerable areas, regulating the equilibrium of the whole planet, and the effects of global warming are already showing great changes in these regions.</p><p>In this work, the IBSE (Inquiry Based Science Education) approach has been proposed to 14-16 years old students, to analyse how climate change is affecting the North Pole and South Pole, and which are the effects on the planet. Within this approach, students work independently, learning through experiments planned by themselves about the key role the Polar Regions play in the Earth’s climate system. They conducted some experiments regarding two major processes that contribute to sea level rise, by establishing whether land ice, sea ice or both contributes to sea level rise, and by determining whether the warming of the oceans contributes to sea level rise.</p><p>This test has shown valuable results about the involvement of the students and their understanding of the processes occurring at the Polar Regions and their links with the whole Earth’s climate system. With the IBSE approach, students practice and experiment several   skills they do not usually use such as working in a team, communicate and interact with other students to answer question, formulate hypothesis, share their ideas and collaborate in a group to find methodologies and possible solutions. Moreover, the design of the experiments made up by themselves has revealed to be a major advance to make the students more aware of the key role the Polar Regions play in the Earth’s climate system. IBSE approach, student-centered and problem-centered, has confirmed to be a valuable tool to encourage creativity, innovation and collaboration in the classroom, engaging and motivating pupils.</p><p> </p>

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