scholarly journals Climate Change, Ecosystem Processes and Biological Diversity Responses in High Elevation Communities

Climate ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Timothy R. Seastedt ◽  
Meagan Oldfather
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Woody Species ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Life History Strategies ◽  
Slope Aspect ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Mountainous Regions ◽  
Changing Climate

The populations, species, and communities in high elevation mountainous regions at or above tree line are being impacted by the changing climate. Mountain systems have been recognized as both resilient and extremely threatened by climate change, requiring a more nuanced understanding of potential trajectories of the biotic communities. For high elevation systems in particular, we need to consider how the interactions among climate drivers and topography currently structure the diversity, species composition, and life-history strategies of these communities. Further, predicting biotic responses to changing climate requires knowledge of intra- and inter-specific climate associations within the context of topographically heterogenous landscapes. Changes in temperature, snow, and rain characteristics at regional scales are amplified or attenuated by slope, aspect, and wind patterns occurring at local scales that are often under a hectare or even a meter in extent. Community assemblages are structured by the soil moisture and growing season duration at these local sites, and directional climate change has the potential to alter these two drivers together, independently, or in opposition to one another due to local, intervening variables. Changes threaten species whose water and growing season duration requirements are locally extirpated or species who may be outcompeted by nearby faster-growing, warmer/drier adapted species. However, barring non-analogue climate conditions, species may also be able to more easily track required resource regimes in topographically heterogenous landscapes. New species arrivals composed of competitors, predators and pathogens can further mediate the direct impacts of the changing climate. Plants are moving uphill, demonstrating primary succession with the emergence of new habitats from snow and rock, but these shifts are constrained over the short term by soil limitations and microbes and ultimately by the lack of colonizable terrestrial surfaces. Meanwhile, both subalpine herbaceous and woody species pose threats to more cold-adapted species. Overall, the multiple interacting direct and indirect effects of the changing climate on high elevation systems may lead to multiple potential trajectories for these systems.

scholarly journals The Water Needs of Grapevines in Central Poland

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 416
Author(s):  
Barbara Jagosz ◽  
Stanisław Rolbiecki ◽  
Roman Rolbiecki ◽  
Ariel Łangowski ◽  
Hicran A. Sadan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Temporal Variability ◽  
Time Trend ◽  
Reference Evapotranspiration ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Water Requirements ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Central Poland ◽  
Crop Coefficients ◽  
Near Future

Climate warming increases the water needs of plants. The aim of this study was to estimate the water needs of grapevines in central Poland. Water needs were calculated using the crop coefficients method. Reference evapotranspiration was assessed by the Blaney–Criddle’s equation, modified for climate conditions in Poland. Crop coefficients were assumed according to the Doorenbos and Pruitt method. Water needs were calculated using the data from four meteorological stations. Rainfall deficit with the probability occurrence of normal years, medium dry years, and very dry years was determined by the Ostromęcki’s method. Water needs of grapevines during the average growing season were estimated at 438 mm. Upward time trend in the water needs both in the period of May–October and June–August was estimated. Temporal variability in the water needs was significant for all of the provinces. These changes were mainly impacted by a significant increasing tendency in mean air temperature and less by precipitation totals that did not show a clear changing tendency. Due to climate change, vineyards will require irrigation in the near future. The use of resource-efficient irrigation requires a precise estimate of the grapevines’ water needs. The study identified the water requirements for grapevines in central Poland.

scholarly journals Potential impacts to freshwater ecosystems caused by flow regime alteration under changing climate conditions in Taiwan

2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 3005-3032 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-P. Suen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Flow Regime ◽  
River Flow ◽  
Aquatic Organisms ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystems ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Regime Changes ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Extreme Flood ◽  
Precautionary Measures

Abstract. Observed increases in the Earth's surface temperature bring with them associated changes in precipitation and atmospheric moisture that consequentially alter river flow regimes. This paper uses the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration approach to examine climate-induced flow regime changes that can potentially affect freshwater ecosystems. Analyses of the annual extreme water conditions at 23 gauging stations throughout Taiwan reveal large alterations in recent years; extreme flood and drought events were more frequent in the period after 1991 than from 1961–1990, and the frequency and duration of the flood and drought events also show high fluctuation. Climate change forecasts suggest that such flow regime alterations are going to continue into the foreseeable future. Aquatic organisms not only feel the effects of anthropogenic damage to river systems, but they also face on-going threats of thermal and flow regime alterations associated with climate change. This paper calls attention to the issue, so that water resources managers can take precautionary measures that reduce the cumulative effects from anthropogenic influence and changing climate conditions.

Climate Conditions and Biodiversity Decline

2022 ◽  
pp. 748-763
Author(s):  
Ashok K. Rathoure ◽  
Unnati Rajendrakumar Patel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climatic Change ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Impact Of Climate Change ◽  
Fragile Environment ◽  
Impact On Biodiversity ◽  
The Impact

Many studies in recent years have investigated the effects of climate change on the future of biodiversity. In this chapter, the authors first examined the different possible effects of climate change that can operate at individual, population, species, community, ecosystem, notably showing that species can respond to climate challenges by shifting their climatic change. Climate change is one of the most important global environmental challenges that affect all the natural ecosystems of the world. Due to the fragile environment, mountain ecosystems are the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Climatic change will affect vegetation, humans, animals, and ecosystem that will impact on biodiversity. Mountains have been recognized as important ecosystems by the Convention on Biological Diversity. Climate change will not only threaten the biodiversity, but also affect the socio-economic condition of the indigenous people of the state. Various activities like habitat loss, deforestation, and exploitation amplify the impact of climate change on biodiversity.

scholarly journals Evaluating the Tourist Climate Comfortable Period of China in a Changing Climate

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Dan-Dan Yu ◽  
Shan Li ◽  
Zhong-Yang Guo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Climate Index ◽  
Climate Indices ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Changing Climate

The evaluation of climate comfort for tourism can provide information for tourists selecting destinations and tourism operators. Understanding how climate conditions for tourism evolve is increasingly important for strategic tourism planning, particularly in rapidly developing tourism markets like China in a changing climate. Multidimensional climate indices are needed to evaluate climate for tourism, and previous studies in China have used the much criticized “climate index” with low resolution climate data. This study uses the Holiday Climate Index (HCI) and daily data from 775 weather stations to examine interregional differences in the tourist climate comfortable period (TCCP) across China and summarizes the spatiotemporal evolution of TCCP from 1981 to 2010 in a changing climate. Overall, most areas in China have an “excellent” climate for tourism, such that tourists may visit anytime with many choices available. The TCCP in most regions shows an increasing trend, and China benefits more from positive effects of climate change in climatic conditions for tourism, especially in spring and autumn. These results can provide some scientific evidence for understanding human settlement environmental constructions and further contribute in improving local or regional resilience responding to global climate change.

scholarly journals Integration of Technologies Under Climate Change for Profitability in Vegetable Cultivation: An Outlook

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Navjot Singh Brar ◽  
Tarun Kumar ◽  
Prashant Kaushik
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Climate Scenario ◽  
Vegetable Production ◽  
Vegetable Crops ◽  
Potential Yield ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Vegetable Cultivation

Climate variation and change are an unavoidable phenomenon faced by the natural habitat of this planet. For getting potential yield from vegetable crops under the changing climate conditions, the practical strategies at field level can serve as a guideline for the farmers. Moreover, there are several strategies available for mitigating the harmful effects of climate change. In this manuscript, efforts have been made for reviewing the mitigating strategies against the impact of climate change in vegetable crops via conventional approaches. Considering the situation, the information reviewed revealed that significant result of conventional approaches with climate-smart adoptions strategies has a direct bearing on vegetable production for the increasing population in frenziedly changing climate scenario.

scholarly journals Ecosystem services show variable responses to future climate conditions in the Colombian páramos

PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e11370
Author(s):  
Mauricio Diazgranados ◽  
Carolina Tovar ◽  
Thomas R. Etherington ◽  
Paula A. Rodríguez-Zorro ◽  
Carolina Castellanos-Castro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Niche Modelling ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Key Species

Background The páramos, the high-elevation ecosystems of the northern Andes, are well-known for their high species richness and provide a variety of ecosystem services to local subsistence-based communities and regional urbanizations. Climate change is expected to negatively affect the provision of these services, but the level of this impact is still unclear. Here we assess future climate change impact on the ecosystem services provided by the critically important páramos of the department of Boyacá in Colombia, of which over 25% of its territory is páramo. Methods We first performed an extensive literature review to identify useful species of Boyacá, and selected 103 key plant species that, based on their uses, support the provision of ecosystem services in the páramos. We collated occurrence information for each key species and using a Mahalanobis distance approach we applied climate niche modelling for current and future conditions. Results We show an overall tendency of reduction in area for all ecosystem services under future climate conditions (mostly a loss of 10% but reaching up to a loss of 40%), but we observe also increases, and responses differ in intensity loss. Services such as Food for animals, Material and Medicinal, show a high range of changes that includes both positive and negative outcomes, while for Food for humans the responses are mostly substantially negative. Responses are less extreme than those projected for individual species but are often complex because a given ecosystem service is provided by several species. As the level of functional or ecological redundancy between species is not yet known, there is an urgency to expand our knowledge on páramos ecosystem services for more species. Our results are crucial for decision-makers, social and conservation organizations to support sustainable strategies to monitor and mitigate the potential consequences of climate change for human livelihoods in mountainous settings.

scholarly journals Impacts of Climate Change on the Growing Season in the United States

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (33) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel E. Christiansen ◽  
Steven L. Markstrom ◽  
Lauren E. Hay
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Emission Scenario ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
The United States ◽  
Emission Scenarios ◽  
Season Length ◽  
Mountainous Regions ◽  
Growing Season Length ◽  
Total Length

AbstractUnderstanding the effects of climate change on the vegetative growing season is key to quantifying future hydrologic water budget conditions. The U.S. Geological Survey modeled changes in future growing season length at 14 basins across 11 states. Simulations for each basin were generated using five general circulation models with three emission scenarios as inputs to the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS). PRMS is a deterministic, distributed-parameter, watershed model developed to simulate the effects of various combinations of precipitation, climate, and land use on watershed response. PRMS was modified to include a growing season calculation in this study. The growing season was examined for trends in the total length (annual), as well as changes in the timing of onset (spring) and the end (fall) of the growing season. The results showed an increase in the annual growing season length in all 14 basins, averaging 27–47 days for the three emission scenarios. The change in the spring and fall growing season onset and end varied across the 14 basins, with larger increases in the total length of the growing season occurring in the mountainous regions and smaller increases occurring in the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast regions. The Clear Creek basin, 1 of the 14 basins in this study, was evaluated to examine the growing season length determined by emission scenario, as compared to a growing season length fixed baseline condition. The Clear Creek basin showed substantial variation in hydrologic responses, including streamflow, as a result of growing season length determined by emission scenario.

scholarly journals PREDICTION OF CHANGES IN VEGETATION DISTRIBUTION UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE SCENARIOS USING MODIS DATASET

2016 ◽  
Vol XLI-B8 ◽  
pp. 883-887
Author(s):  
Hidetake Hirayama ◽  
Mizuki Tomita ◽  
Keitarou Hara
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Slope Aspect ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Vegetation Distribution ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Distribution Maps ◽  
Sensing Data

The distribution of vegetation is expected to change under the influence of climate change. This study utilizes vegetation maps derived from Terra/MODIS data to generate a model of current climate conditions suitable to beech-dominated deciduous forests, which are the typical vegetation of Japan’s cool temperate zone. This model will then be coordinated with future climate change scenarios to predict the future distribution of beech forests. The model was developed by using the presence or absence of beech forest as the dependent variable. Four climatic variables; mean minimum daily temperature of the coldest month (TMC)，warmth index (WI)， winter precipitation (PRW) and summer precipitation (PRS): and five geophysical variables; topography (TOPO), surface geology (GEOL), soil (SOIL), slope aspect (ASP), and inclination (INCL); were adopted as independent variables. Previous vegetation distribution studies used point data derived from field surveys. The remote sensing data utilized in this study, however, should permit collecting of greater amounts of data, and also frequent updating of data and distribution maps. These results will hopefully show that use of remote sensing data can provide new insights into our understanding of how vegetation distribution will be influenced by climate change.

scholarly journals PREDICTION OF CHANGES IN VEGETATION DISTRIBUTION UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE SCENARIOS USING MODIS DATASET

2016 ◽  
Vol XLI-B8 ◽  
pp. 883-887
Author(s):  
Hidetake Hirayama ◽  
Mizuki Tomita ◽  
Keitarou Hara
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Slope Aspect ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Vegetation Distribution ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Distribution Maps ◽  
Sensing Data

The distribution of vegetation is expected to change under the influence of climate change. This study utilizes vegetation maps derived from Terra/MODIS data to generate a model of current climate conditions suitable to beech-dominated deciduous forests, which are the typical vegetation of Japan’s cool temperate zone. This model will then be coordinated with future climate change scenarios to predict the future distribution of beech forests. The model was developed by using the presence or absence of beech forest as the dependent variable. Four climatic variables; mean minimum daily temperature of the coldest month (TMC)，warmth index (WI)， winter precipitation (PRW) and summer precipitation (PRS): and five geophysical variables; topography (TOPO), surface geology (GEOL), soil (SOIL), slope aspect (ASP), and inclination (INCL); were adopted as independent variables. Previous vegetation distribution studies used point data derived from field surveys. The remote sensing data utilized in this study, however, should permit collecting of greater amounts of data, and also frequent updating of data and distribution maps. These results will hopefully show that use of remote sensing data can provide new insights into our understanding of how vegetation distribution will be influenced by climate change.

scholarly journals Dynamics of water fluxes and storages in an Alpine karst catchment under current and potential future climate conditions

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 3807-3823 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhao Chen ◽  
Andreas Hartmann ◽  
Thorsten Wagener ◽  
Nico Goldscheider
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Karst Aquifer ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Water Fluxes ◽  
Aquifer Recharge ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Snow Storage ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Karst Systems

Abstract. Karst aquifers are difficult to manage due to their unique hydrogeological characteristics. Future climate projections suggest a strong change in temperature and precipitation regimes in European karst regions over the next decades. Alpine karst systems can be especially vulnerable under changing hydro-meteorological conditions since snowmelt in mountainous environments is an important controlling process for aquifer recharge and is highly sensitive to varying climatic conditions. Our paper presents the first study to investigate potential impacts of climate change on mountainous karst systems by using a combined lumped and distributed modeling approach with consideration of subsurface karst drainage structures. The study site is characterized by high-permeability (karstified) limestone formations and low-permeability (non-karst) sedimentary Flysch. The model simulation under current conditions demonstrates that a large proportion of precipitation infiltrates into the karst aquifer as autogenic recharge. Moreover, the result shows that surface snow storage is dominant from November to April, while subsurface water storage in the karst aquifer dominates from May to October. The climate scenario runs demonstrate that varied climate conditions significantly affect the spatiotemporal distribution of water fluxes and storages: (1) the total catchment discharge decreases under all evaluated future climate conditions. (2) The spatiotemporal discharge pattern is strongly controlled by temperature variations, which can shift the seasonal snowmelt pattern, with snow storage in the cold season (December to April) decreasing significantly under all change scenarios. (3) Increased karst aquifer recharge in winter and spring, and decreased recharge in summer and autumn, partly offset each other. (4) Impacts on the karst springs are distinct; the lowest permanent spring presents a “robust” discharge behavior, while the highest overflow outlet is highly sensitive to changing climate. This analysis effectively demonstrates that the impacts on subsurface flow dynamics are regulated by the characteristic dual flow and spatially heterogeneous distributed drainage structure of the karst aquifer. Overall, our study highlights the fast groundwater dynamics in mountainous karst catchments, which make them highly vulnerable to future changing climate conditions. Additionally, this work presents a novel holistic modeling approach, which can be transferred to similar karst systems for studying the impact of climate change on local karst water resources with consideration of their individual hydrogeological complexity and hydraulic heterogeneity.

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