Climate change – an urban problem?

Life-Cycle Low-Carbon Neighborhood: A Genetic Perspective in China

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.858.249 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 858 ◽

pp. 249-254

Author(s):

Guo Chao Zhao ◽

Xiao Ming Wang ◽

Xiao Kang Li

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Life Sciences ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Mitigation And Adaptation ◽

Rapid Economic Growth ◽

Urban Problem ◽

Gene Theory ◽

The Government ◽

The 19Th Century

In the end of the 19th century, the concept of greenhouse effect has drawn greater attention and scientists begin to consider climate change as a potentially serious problem. The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2016 has considered the failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation as the greatest potential risk of 2016. To cope with climate change, scholars agree that low carbon is the inevitable choice of global development and urban neighborhood, as the basic functional unit of a city, is the basic space to achieve low carbon. Along with rapid economic growth, carbon emissions in China have being increasing which accompanied with another urban problem: the recession in old city, so we put neighborhood low-carbon renewal as an effective way to promoting sustainability. Along with the rapid development of life sciences, scholars have shown great interest in cross-over study with it while gene theory plays a crucial role and has been obtained significant results over the years. In this paper, we comprehensively analyzed the achievement in cross-over study between building sciences and life sciences and introduced gene theory into the research of neighborhood low-carbon to provide the government a new theoretical tool.

Download Full-text

Averting robo-bees: why free-flying robotic bees are a bad idea

Emerging Topics in Life Sciences ◽

10.1042/etls20190063 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (6) ◽

pp. 723-729

Author(s):

Roslyn Gleadow ◽

Jim Hanan ◽

Alan Dorin

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Computer Simulation ◽

Food Security ◽

European Countries ◽

Plant Interactions ◽

Plant Insect Interactions ◽

Native Habitat ◽

Insect Pollinators ◽

Insect Interactions

Food security and the sustainability of native ecosystems depends on plant-insect interactions in countless ways. Recently reported rapid and immense declines in insect numbers due to climate change, the use of pesticides and herbicides, the introduction of agricultural monocultures, and the destruction of insect native habitat, are all potential contributors to this grave situation. Some researchers are working towards a future where natural insect pollinators might be replaced with free-flying robotic bees, an ecologically problematic proposal. We argue instead that creating environments that are friendly to bees and exploring the use of other species for pollination and bio-control, particularly in non-European countries, are more ecologically sound approaches. The computer simulation of insect-plant interactions is a far more measured application of technology that may assist in managing, or averting, ‘Insect Armageddon' from both practical and ethical viewpoints.

Download Full-text

Modelling ecosystem adaptation and dangerous rates of global warming

Emerging Topics in Life Sciences ◽

10.1042/etls20180113 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 221-231 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Rebecca Millington ◽

Peter M. Cox ◽

Jonathan R. Moore ◽

Gabriel Yvon-Durocher

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Global Warming ◽

Diffusion Rate ◽

Individual Species ◽

Genetic Evolution ◽

Rates Of Change ◽

Rapid Climate Change ◽

Warming Climate ◽

Intraspecies Competition ◽

High Trait

Abstract We are in a period of relatively rapid climate change. This poses challenges for individual species and threatens the ecosystem services that humanity relies upon. Temperature is a key stressor. In a warming climate, individual organisms may be able to shift their thermal optima through phenotypic plasticity. However, such plasticity is unlikely to be sufficient over the coming centuries. Resilience to warming will also depend on how fast the distribution of traits that define a species can adapt through other methods, in particular through redistribution of the abundance of variants within the population and through genetic evolution. In this paper, we use a simple theoretical ‘trait diffusion’ model to explore how the resilience of a given species to climate change depends on the initial trait diversity (biodiversity), the trait diffusion rate (mutation rate), and the lifetime of the organism. We estimate theoretical dangerous rates of continuous global warming that would exceed the ability of a species to adapt through trait diffusion, and therefore lead to a collapse in the overall productivity of the species. As the rate of adaptation through intraspecies competition and genetic evolution decreases with species lifetime, we find critical rates of change that also depend fundamentally on lifetime. Dangerous rates of warming vary from 1°C per lifetime (at low trait diffusion rate) to 8°C per lifetime (at high trait diffusion rate). We conclude that rapid climate change is liable to favour short-lived organisms (e.g. microbes) rather than longer-lived organisms (e.g. trees).

Download Full-text