Functional shifts in natural forests under environmental change over the last 65 years are faster in colder regions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masumi Hisano ◽  
Han Chen ◽  
Xinli Chen ◽  
Masahiro Ryo
Keyword(s):  
Drought Tolerance ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Functional Composition ◽  
Natural Forests ◽  
Functional Responses ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Global Environmental Changes

Abstract Global environmental changes have significantly impacted plant diversity and composition over many decades. Maintaining biodiversity and composition is critical for sustainability of ecosystem functioning and related services. While global environmental changes have modified plant species and functional compositions in forest ecosystems, it remains unclear how temporal shifts in functional composition differ across regions and biomes. Utilizing extensive spatial and long-term forest inventory data (17,107 plots monitored 1951–2016) across Canada, we found that functional composition shifted toward fast-growing deciduous broadleaved trees and higher drought tolerance over time; notably, this functional shift was more rapid in colder regions. Further analysis revealed that the functional composition of colder plots shifted toward drought tolerance more rapidly with rising CO2 than warmer plots, which suggests the vulnerability of the functional composition of colder plots against global environmental changes. Future ecosystem management practices should consider spatial differences in functional responses to global environmental change, with particular attention to colder plots that experience higher rates of warming and compositional changes.

scholarly journals The Disaster Risk, Global Change, and Sustainability Nexus

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 957 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Peduzzi
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Global Change ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Compound Event ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Global Environmental Changes

Until the 1970s, disaster risk was perceived as a direct consequence of natural hazards. Gradually, disaster risk has come to be understood as a compound event, which lies at the intersection of hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of the exposed elements. After decades of research and lessons learned from mega-disasters, social scientists have introduced the social dimension of disaster risk, and the prevailing understanding is that disasters are also a human construct. Now, due to climate and global environmental changes, even the natural component of hazards is being altered by anthropogenic activities, changing hazard susceptibility, coverage, frequency, and severity. This review retraces the brief history and evolution of the global understanding of disaster risk as a compound event, in parallel with research on global environmental change. It highlights the main milestones in this area, and shows that there are tight connections between trends of disaster risk and global change. This paper aims to demonstrate the need to better consider the role of global environmental change in disaster risk assessment. In 2015, three major new agreements were reached to improve global environmental governance: the new Sendai Framework (2015–2030), the post-2015 development agenda with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Climate COP21 in Paris. These all include a clear focus on disaster risk reduction; however, several aspects of disaster risk linked with global environmental changes are still not clearly addressed by the main stakeholders (governments, insurers, or agencies). As the complexity of risk unfolds, more actors are getting together; the need for a holistic approach for disaster risk reduction has become clear, and is closely connected with achieving sustainable development.

scholarly journals Global Environmental Change and Noncommunicable Disease Risks

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 261-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Frumkin ◽  
Andy Haines
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Noncommunicable Disease ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Disease Risks ◽  
Global Environmental Changes

Multiple global environmental changes (GECs) now under way, including climate change, biodiversity loss, freshwater depletion, tropical deforestation, overexploitation of fisheries, ocean acidification, and soil degradation, have substantial, but still imperfectly understood, implications for human health. Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) make a major contribution to the global burden of disease. Many of the driving forces responsible for GEC also influence NCD risk through a range of mechanisms. This article provides an overview of pathways linking GEC and NCDs, focusing on five pathways: ( a) energy, air pollution, and climate change; ( b) urbanization; ( c) food, nutrition, and agriculture; ( d) the deposition of persistent chemicals in the environment; and ( e) biodiversity loss.

Ecological Leverage Points: Species Interactions Amplify the Physiological Effects of Global Environmental Change in the Ocean

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristy J. Kroeker ◽  
Eric Sanford
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Marine Ecosystems ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Leverage Points ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Key Species

Marine ecosystems are increasingly impacted by global environmental changes, including warming temperatures, deoxygenation, and ocean acidification. Marine scientists recognize intuitively that these environmental changes are translated into community changes via organismal physiology. However, physiology remains a black box in many ecological studies, and coexisting species in a community are often assumed to respond similarly to environmental stressors. Here, we emphasize how greater attention to physiology can improve our ability to predict the emergent effects of ocean change. In particular, understanding shifts in the intensity and outcome of species interactions such as competition and predation requires a sharpened focus on physiological variation among community members and the energetic demands and trophic mismatches generated by environmental changes. Our review also highlights how key species interactions that are sensitive to environmental change can operate as ecological leverage points through which small changes in abiotic conditions are amplified into large changes in marine ecosystems. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Marine Science, Volume 14 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals Utilizing Photovoice to Support Indigenous Accounts of Environmental Change and Injustice

Genealogy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicia M. Mitchell ◽  
Shanondora Billiot ◽  
Stephanie Lechuga-Peña
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
Ecological Changes ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Cultural Connections ◽  
Global Environmental Changes

Global environmental changes can happen quickly or over extended periods and have compounding effects. Indigenous communities experience environmental changes that can lead to a decline in quality of life, illness or disease, and unwelcome cultural adaptations that extend to future generations. Due to limited resources and political marginalization, members of these communities may not be able to respond to or prevent these conditions. Cultural connections to the land and community, along with limited resources, impact Indigenous peoples’ willingness and ability to relocate to different geographic locations experiencing less damaging ecological changes or environmental risk. In this article, we respond to the Special Issue prompt probing “[m]ethods in which Indigenous communities engage within their environment and on the land to conduct research”. We begin by describing environmental change, followed by a scoping review of Photovoice studies focused on environmental issues. Environmental changes affecting Indigenous groups are discussed, including a case study and a discussion of the ways that Photovoice can support and honor Indigenous peoples’ connection to the natural environment. This article is not intended to be an exhaustive review, but rather seeks to understand how Photovoice is being used to respond to and document environmental change, and how such visual methodologies can be used in Indigenous communities.

8. Prometheus

2018 ◽  
pp. 144-160
Author(s):  
Erle C. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Earth System ◽  
System Science ◽  
Geologic Time ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Social And Environmental Change ◽  
The Many ◽  
Global Environmental Changes

The Anthropocene continues to be controversial across the many scholarly communities that study social and environmental change, including not only archaeologists, anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, and environmental historians, but also ecologists and Earth scientists. Will creating a new unit of geologic time help to advance scientific efforts to understand Earth’s human transformation? ‘Prometheus’ considers the new challenges faced by Earth System science: the anthroposphere, geoengineering, and the need to guide efforts to adapt to an increasingly dynamic human planet. Given the overwhelming scale, rate, and diversity of harmful global environmental changes produced by human societies, it is hard not to view the Anthropocene as an unmitigated disaster, but could a better Anthropocene be a possibility?

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