Diversity of Global Change Factors and Tipping Points

Author(s):  
Masahiro Ryo ◽  
Matthias Rillig

<p>Global change is not only about climate change. Several changes in the Earth System occur concurrently and sequentially, and still, novel factors are being identified as emerging problems such as microplastic pollutants. Global change is diverse; nonetheless, little is known about the role of multiple global change co-occurrences. Can we safely anticipate that the effects of multiple global change factors are independent of each other? Or, should we be concerned about the potential of their synergistic interaction, where the joint effect of multiple factors can be larger than the addition of their single effects?</p><p>Our talk focuses on ‘the <em>diversity</em> of global change factors’—How the diversity of global change factors can increase, and how the diversity of global change can affect environmental systems in the context of tipping points. We also show empirical evidence that an increasing number of global change factors can cause abrupt shifts in a soil system (cf. Rillig <em>et al.</em> 2019 in <em>Science</em>). We emphasize the urgent need to investigate the expected roles of an increasing diversity of global change factors as an emerging threat to nature and society.</p>

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1351-1366 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. F. Xu ◽  
H. Q. Tian ◽  
G. S. Chen ◽  
M. L. Liu ◽  
W. Ren ◽  
...  

Abstract. Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas which also contributes to the depletion of stratospheric ozone (O3). However, the magnitude and underlying mechanisms for the spatiotemporal variations in the terrestrial sources of N2O are still far from certain. Using a process-based ecosystem model (DLEM – the Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model) driven by multiple global change factors, including climate variability, nitrogen (N) deposition, rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), tropospheric O3 pollution, N fertilizer application, and land conversion, this study examined the spatial and temporal variations in terrestrial N2O flux over North America and further attributed these variations to various driving factors. From 1979 to 2010, the North America cumulatively emitted 53.9 ± 0.9 Tg N2O-N (1 Tg = 1012 g), of which global change factors contributed 2.4 ± 0.9 Tg N2O-N, and baseline emission contributed 51.5 ± 0.6 Tg N2O-N. Climate variability, N deposition, O3 pollution, N fertilizer application, and land conversion increased N2O emission while the elevated atmospheric CO2 posed opposite effect at continental level; the interactive effect among multiple factors enhanced N2O emission over the past 32 yr. N input, including N fertilizer application in cropland and N deposition, and multi-factor interaction dominated the increases in N2O emission at continental level. At country level, N fertilizer application and multi-factor interaction made large contribution to N2O emission increase in the United States of America (USA). The climate variability dominated the increase in N2O emission from Canada. N inputs and multiple factors interaction made large contribution to the increases in N2O emission from Mexico. Central and southeastern parts of the North America – including central Canada, central USA, southeastern USA, and all of Mexico – experienced increases in N2O emission from 1979 to 2010. The fact that climate variability and multi-factor interaction largely controlled the inter-annual variations in terrestrial N2O emission at both continental and country levels indicate that projected changes in the global climate system may substantially alter the regime of N2O emission from terrestrial ecosystems during the 21st century. Our study also showed that the interactive effect among global change factors may significantly affect N2O flux, and more field experiments involving multiple factors are urgently needed.


Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 366 (6467) ◽  
pp. 886-890 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias C. Rillig ◽  
Masahiro Ryo ◽  
Anika Lehmann ◽  
Carlos A. Aguilar-Trigueros ◽  
Sabine Buchert ◽  
...  

Soils underpin terrestrial ecosystem functions, but they face numerous anthropogenic pressures. Despite their crucial ecological role, we know little about how soils react to more than two environmental factors at a time. Here, we show experimentally that increasing the number of simultaneous global change factors (up to 10) caused increasing directional changes in soil properties, soil processes, and microbial communities, though there was greater uncertainty in predicting the magnitude of change. Our study provides a blueprint for addressing multifactor change with an efficient, broadly applicable experimental design for studying the impacts of global environmental change.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 20-24
Author(s):  
Ponomareva L.I. ◽  
Gan N.Yu. ◽  
Obukhova K.A.

In the presented study, the authors raise the question of the need to include in the educational process of a preschool institution to familiarize children with some philosophical categories. The educational system in which the child is included, starting from preschool childhood, provides him with the opportunity to gradually and continuously enter the knowledge of the world around him. It is in preschool childhood that the child is exposed to various relationships, values of culture and health, diverse patterns in the field of different knowledge. This contributes to a broader interaction of the preschooler with the world around him, which, in turn, ensures the assimilation not of disparate ideas about objects and phenomena, but their natural integration and interpenetration, which means understanding the integrity of the picture of the world. The authors prove the idea that the assimilation of philosophical categories by children contributes to the understanding of the structure of the surrounding world. The analysis of research is presented, proving that children's fiction in an understandable and accessible language, life examples and vivid images is able to explain to children the laws of the functioning of nature and society, as well as to reveal the world of human relations and feelings. Fiction surrounds the child from the first years of his life. It is she who contributes to the development of thinking and imagination, enriches the sensory world, provides role models and teaches you to find a way out in different situations. Philosophical categories such as "love and friendship", "beautiful and ugly", "good and evil" are represented in children's literature very widely, and the efficiency of mastering philosophical categories depends on the skill of an adult in conveying the content of a work, on correctly placed accents.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Laura Hall ◽  
Urpi Pine ◽  
Tanya Shute

Abstract This paper will reflect on key findings from a Summer 2017 initiative entitled The Role of Culture and Land-Based Healing in Addressing and Ending Violence against Indigenous Women and Two-Spirited People. The Indigenist and decolonizing methodological approach of this work ensured that all research was grounded in experiential and reciprocal ways of learning. Two major findings guide the next phase of this research, complicating the premise that traditional economic activities are healing for Indigenous women and Two-Spirit people. First, the complexities of the mainstream labour force were raised numerous times. Traditional economies are pressured in ongoing ways through exploitative labour practices. Secondly, participants emphasized the importance of attending to the responsibility of nurturing, enriching, and sustaining the wellbeing of soil, water, and original seeds in the process of creating renewal gardens as a healing endeavour. In other words, we have an active role to play in healing the environment and not merely using the environment to heal ourselves. Gardening as research and embodied knowledge was stressed by extreme weather changes including hail in June, 2018, which meant that participants spent as much time talking about the healing of the earth and her systems as the healing of Indigenous women in a context of ongoing colonialism.


2020 ◽  
pp. 713-736
Author(s):  
Magdalena Łaptaś

Images of archangels and angels, which were painted on the walls, in the upper parts of the buildings and, on their structural elements, were very popular in Christian Nubian painting as attested by the discoveries from Church SWN.BV on the citadel in Old Dongola. These images, which derive from pre-Christian art, depict the eternal nature of the archangels and angels. Presenting this group of representations, the author traces the origins of these images to highlight the role of these spiritual beings as intermediaries between God and humankind. As such, they move freely between the Heavens and the Earth, so the air and cosmic space are their natural surroundings. Moreover, archangels govern the forces of nature, the planets, and the seven skies. Therefore, their sanctuaries were located on hill summits, in the upper chapels, on structural elements of ecclesiastical buildings, etc. The Nubian tradition is therefore part of a broader Mediterranean tradition, the roots of which should be sought in the Near East.


Author(s):  
Xiao Zhou ◽  
Xiao-Fei Zhang ◽  
Dong-Yan Guo ◽  
Yan-Jun Yang ◽  
Lin Liu ◽  
...  

Objective: Lingzhu San (LZS) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescription which can be effective in treating febrile seizures (FS) and has few researches on the mechanisms. In order to better guide the clinical use of LZS, we used the research ideas and methods of network pharmacology to find the potential core compounds, targets and pathways of LZS in the complex TCM system for the treatment of FS, and predict the mechanism. Materials and Methods: Databases such as BATMAN, TCMSP, TCMID, and SWISS TARGET are used to mine the active compounds and targets of LZS, and the target information of FS was obtained through GENECARDS and OMIM. Using Venny2.1.0 and Cytoscape software to locked the potential core compounds and targets of FS. The R language and ClusterProfiler software package were adopt to enrich and analyze the KEGG and GO pathways of the core targets and the biological processes and potential mechanisms of the core targets were revealed. Results: 187 active compounds and 2113 target proteins of LZS were collected. And 38 potential core compounds, 35 core targets and 775 metabolic and functional pathways were screened which involved in mediating FS. Finally, the role of the core compounds, targets and pivotal pathways of LZS regulated FS in the pathogenesis and therapeutic mechanism of FS was discussed and clarified. Conclusions: In this paper, the multi-compounds, multi-targets and multi-pathways mechanism of LZS in the treatment of FS was preliminarily revealed through the analysis of network pharmacology data, which is consistent with the principle of multi-compounds compatibility of TCM prescriptions and unified treatment of diseases from multiple angles, and it provides a new way for TCM to treat complex diseases caused by multiple factors.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document