Precipitation regime changes in the maritime continent

<p>The growing attention to modifications in climate in several societal sectors has led to an increasing number of studies and research on the topic of climate change and especially on changes in precipitation. The analysis presented here draws a &#8220;state of the art&#8221; of changes in the Italian precipitation regime through the review of the most relevant published studies, in peer-review journals. The aim of the study is to summarize a large quantity of information derived from specific studies, in a unique analysis and to highlight the main patterns of rainfall changes in Italy in the last decades. The results of 54 selected studies are discussed through the introduction of a weight factor, which considers the importance of each study according to its geographical area, stations density, and time series length, and provides a quantitative evaluation of the review. To offer a coherent climatic classification of the review findings, Italy is subdivided in three main macro areas and studies are also subdivided in 3 groups according to the Time-Series Length: Short TSL, less than 65 years; Long TSL, until 100 years; and centennial TSL, over 100 years. The analysis is focused on the Total Precipitation (TP) and the number of Wet Days (WDs) indices at the annual and seasonal scale. Looking at the overall results of the review, most of the studies agree about a decrease at the annual scale of the Wet Days index throughout the Italian territory for short and centennial TSL. The reduction of precipitation is confirmed by the Total Precipitation index that at the annual scale reflects this tendency except for the Northern Italy. This feature also emerges from the seasonal analysis, with some heterogeneity in the results due to difference in the number of studies used in the various areas, suggesting that there is an underlying climatic pattern driving trends toward a reduction in wet days and rainfall over the Italian territory.</p>

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Precipitation Regime Changes at Four Croatian Meteorological Stations

Atmosphere ◽

10.3390/atmos12070885 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (7) ◽

pp. 885

Author(s):

Ognjen Bonacci ◽

Ivo Andrić ◽

Adrijana Vrsalović ◽

Duje Bonacci

Keyword(s):

Global Warming ◽

Air Temperature ◽

Mediterranean Climate ◽

Annual Precipitation ◽

Precipitation Regime ◽

Climatic Regions ◽

Regime Changes ◽

The Past ◽

Increasing Trend ◽

Continental Climate

The article analyses the values of daily, monthly and annual precipitation measured during the period 1948–2019 at the following four stations: (1) Split, (2) Hvar, (3) Lastovo and (4) Zagreb. The first three stations are located in a Mediterranean climate, while the station in Zagreb is located in a continental climate. The aim of the performed analyses is to detect non-stationarity (trends, jumps, and seasonality) in the precipitation regime at three-time scales (day, month, and year) over the period of the last 72 years (1948–2020). Numerous previous analyses at all four stations showed statistically significant increases in air temperature, which were particularly amplified in the late 1980s by the effect of global warming. Expressed as a percentage of the total annual precipitation at all four analysed locations, the presence of an increasing trend was calculated. The analyses carried out in this work showed that there was a redistribution of precipitation during the year, a decrease in the number of days with precipitation and an intensification of precipitation in both climatic regions. Over the past 73 years, the number of days with precipitation per year has slowly decreased. The number of days with intense precipitation, P ≥ 32.0 mm, has become more frequent.

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Potential Impacts of Climate Change on the Toxicity of Pesticides towards Earthworms

Journal of Toxicology ◽

10.1155/2021/8527991 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 ◽

pp. 1-14

Author(s):

H. Kaka ◽

P. A. Opute ◽

M. S. Maboeta

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Soil Moisture ◽

Environmental Parameters ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Original Research ◽

Precipitation Regime ◽

Dynamic Interactions ◽

Chemical Contaminants ◽

Regime Changes ◽

Change Dynamic

This review examined one of the effects of climate change that has only recently received attention, i.e., climate change impacts on the distribution and toxicity of chemical contaminants in the environment. As ecosystem engineers, earthworms are potentially threatened by the increasing use of pesticides. Increases in temperature, precipitation regime changes, and related extreme climate events can potentially affect pesticide toxicity. This review of original research articles, reviews, and governmental and intergovernmental reports focused on the interactions between toxicants and environmental parameters. The latter included temperature, moisture, acidification, hypoxia, soil carbon cycle, and soil dynamics, as altered by climate change. Dynamic interactions between climate change and contaminants can be particularly problematic for organisms since organisms have an upper and lower physiological range, resulting in impacts on their acclimatization capacity. Climate change variables such as temperature and soil moisture also have an impact on acidification. An increase in temperature will impact precipitation which might impact soil pH. Also, an increase in precipitation can result in flooding which can reduce the population of earthworms by not giving juvenile earthworms enough time to develop into reproductive adults. As an independent stressor, hypoxia can affect soil organisms, alter bioavailability, and increase the toxicity of chemicals in some cases. Climate change variables, especially temperature and soil moisture, significantly affect the bioavailability of pesticides in the soil and the growth and reproduction of earthworm species.

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Dictators and Democrats

10.23943/princeton/9780691172149.001.0001 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Stephan Haggard ◽

Robert R. Kaufman

Keyword(s):

First Century ◽

Organizational Capabilities ◽

Mass Mobilization ◽

Democratic Transitions ◽

Authoritarian Rule ◽

Emerging Democracies ◽

Regime Changes ◽

Political Landscape ◽

Transitions To Democracy ◽

Multiple Routes

From the 1980s through the first decade of the twenty-first century, the spread of democracy across the developing and postcommunist worlds transformed the global political landscape. What drove these changes and what determined whether the emerging democracies would stabilize or revert to authoritarian rule? This book takes a comprehensive look at the transitions to and from democracy in recent decades. Deploying both statistical and qualitative analysis, the book engages with theories of democratic change and advocates approaches that emphasize political and institutional factors. While inequality has been a prominent explanation for democratic transitions, the book argues that its role has been limited, and elites as well as masses can drive regime change. Examining seventy-eight cases of democratic transition and twenty-five cases of reversion to autocracy since 1980, the book shows how differences in authoritarian regimes and organizational capabilities shape popular protest and elite initiatives in transitions to democracy, and how institutional weaknesses cause some democracies to fail. The determinants of democracy lie in the strength of existing institutions and the public's capacity to engage in collective action. There are multiple routes to democracy, but those growing out of mass mobilization may provide more checks on incumbents than those emerging from intra-elite bargains. Moving beyond well-known beliefs regarding regime changes, this book explores the conditions under which transitions to democracy are likely to arise.

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Soil Moisture Regime Changes in Tephra-Mulched Soils

Soil Science Society of America Journal ◽

10.2136/sssaj2002.0202 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 66 (1) ◽

pp. 202 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

M. Tejedor ◽

C. C. Jiménez ◽

F. Díaz

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Moisture Regime ◽

Regime Changes ◽

Soil Moisture Regime

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Temperature regime changes mapping in the European part of Russia for various time periods (1881–1935 and 1961 – 1990 years)

Geodesy and Cartography ◽

10.22389/0016-7126-2014-884-2-27-35 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 884 (2) ◽

pp. 27-35

Author(s):

E.A. Bozhilina ◽

◽

V.N. Sorokina ◽

N.Z. Salikhova ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Temperature Regime ◽

European Part ◽

Regime Changes ◽

European Part Of Russia ◽

Time Periods

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The climatic imprint of bimodal distributions in vegetation cover for western Africa

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-13-3343-2016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 3343-3357 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Zun Yin ◽

Stefan C. Dekker ◽

Bart J. J. M. van den Hurk ◽

Henk A. Dijkstra

Keyword(s):

Land Cover ◽

Congo Basin ◽

Shortwave Radiation ◽

Mean Annual Precipitation ◽

Above Ground Biomass ◽

Precipitation Regime ◽

Ground Biomass ◽

Western Africa ◽

Precipitation Regimes ◽

Woody Cover

Abstract. Observed bimodal distributions of woody cover in western Africa provide evidence that alternative ecosystem states may exist under the same precipitation regimes. In this study, we show that bimodality can also be observed in mean annual shortwave radiation and above-ground biomass, which might closely relate to woody cover due to vegetation–climate interactions. Thus we expect that use of radiation and above-ground biomass enables us to distinguish the two modes of woody cover. However, through conditional histogram analysis, we find that the bimodality of woody cover still can exist under conditions of low mean annual shortwave radiation and low above-ground biomass. It suggests that this specific condition might play a key role in critical transitions between the two modes, while under other conditions no bimodality was found. Based on a land cover map in which anthropogenic land use was removed, six climatic indicators that represent water, energy, climate seasonality and water–radiation coupling are analysed to investigate the coexistence of these indicators with specific land cover types. From this analysis we find that the mean annual precipitation is not sufficient to predict potential land cover change. Indicators of climate seasonality are strongly related to the observed land cover type. However, these indicators cannot predict a stable forest state under the observed climatic conditions, in contrast to observed forest states. A new indicator (the normalized difference of precipitation) successfully expresses the stability of the precipitation regime and can improve the prediction accuracy of forest states. Next we evaluate land cover predictions based on different combinations of climatic indicators. Regions with high potential of land cover transitions are revealed. The results suggest that the tropical forest in the Congo basin may be unstable and shows the possibility of decreasing significantly. An increase in the area covered by savanna and grass is possible, which coincides with the observed regreening of the Sahara.

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Honing in on bioluminescent milky seas from space

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-94823-z ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Steven D. Miller ◽

Steven H. D. Haddock ◽

William C. Straka ◽

Curtis J. Seaman ◽

Cynthia L. Combs ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Scientific Inquiry ◽

Water Mass ◽

Marine Ecosystem ◽

Sea Surface ◽

Surface Currents ◽

Maritime Continent ◽

Low Light ◽

Composition Formation ◽

Mass Isolation ◽

New Generation

AbstractMilky seas are a rare form of marine bioluminescence where the nocturnal ocean surface produces a widespread, uniform and steady whitish glow. Mariners have compared their appearance to a daylit snowfield that extends to all horizons. Encountered most often in remote waters of the northwest Indian Ocean and the Maritime Continent, milky seas have eluded rigorous scientific inquiry, and thus little is known about their composition, formation mechanism, and role within the marine ecosystem. The Day/Night Band (DNB), a new-generation spaceborne low-light imager, holds potential to detect milky seas, but the capability has yet to be demonstrated. Here, we show initial examples of DNB-detected milky seas based on a multi-year (2012–2021) search. The massive bodies of glowing ocean, sometimes exceeding 100,000 km2 in size, persist for days to weeks, drift within doldrums amidst the prevailing sea surface currents, and align with narrow ranges of sea surface temperature and biomass in a way that suggests water mass isolation. These findings show how spaceborne assets can now help guide research vessels toward active milky seas to learn more about them.

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