A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systems

The papers in this volume discuss projections of climate change impacts upon humans and ecosystems under a global mean temperature rise of 4°C above preindustrial levels. Like most studies, they are mainly single-sector or single-region-based assessments. Even the multi-sector or multi-region approaches generally consider impacts in sectors and regions independently, ignoring interactions. Extreme weather and adaptation processes are often poorly represented and losses of ecosystem services induced by climate change or human adaptation are generally omitted. This paper addresses this gap by reviewing some potential interactions in a 4°C world, and also makes a comparison with a 2°C world. In a 4°C world, major shifts in agricultural land use and increased drought are projected, and an increased human population might increasingly be concentrated in areas remaining wet enough for economic prosperity. Ecosystem services that enable prosperity would be declining, with carbon cycle feedbacks and fire causing forest losses. There is an urgent need for integrated assessments considering the synergy of impacts and limits to adaptation in multiple sectors and regions in a 4°C world. By contrast, a 2°C world is projected to experience about one-half of the climate change impacts, with concomitantly smaller challenges for adaptation. Ecosystem services, including the carbon sink provided by the Earth’s forests, would be expected to be largely preserved, with much less potential for interaction processes to increase challenges to adaptation. However, demands for land and water for biofuel cropping could reduce the availability of these resources for agricultural and natural systems. Hence, a whole system approach to mitigation and adaptation, considering interactions, potential human and species migration, allocation of land and water resources and ecosystem services, will be important in either a 2°C or a 4°C world.

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Planning and Development Confront in Climate Change Context

The Initiation ◽

10.3126/init.v3i0.2503 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. 119-127

Author(s):

Bharat Gotame

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Living Organism ◽

Development Planning ◽

Change Scenario ◽

Natural Systems ◽

Mountainous Regions ◽

Key Words Climate Change ◽

Long Time ◽

To Come

There are ample of evidences to prove the impacts of Climate Change and will be with us for a long time to come. It will have significant impact on natural systems so that most of the habitat of living organism is directly influenced moreover the human being (which is heterotrophic in nature) and their roles to sustain the development and earth at summary are being vulnerable. This literature review article tries to summarize some climate change scenario and its increasing impact over the livelihood assets and their direct/indirect influence to development fronts. Nepal a developing country having more than 70% of mountainous regions with agriculture based economy is more susceptible to climate change impacts. Planning of development activities remarked with increasing trend of climate change impact with pivotal theme should make the development more sustainable and long living. Existing initiatives to make adaptation options are insufficient to halt the expected danger and redesigning the module of development is urgent in Nepal. On adaptation and vulnerability, a continuing effort must take place to exchange experiences and look for emerging best practices and frameworks. The urgency of the issue requires planners, policy makers, evaluators, practitioners and researchers to become involved in designing and in empowering communities and government as well. Key Words: Climate change, Development, Planning, Economic impact, Adaptation DOI: 10.3126/init.v3i0.2503 The Initiation Vol.3 2009 p.119-127

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In a warmer Arctic, mosquitoes avoid increased mortality from predators by growing faster

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2015.1549 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 282 (1815) ◽

pp. 20151549 ◽

Cited By ~ 43

Author(s):

Lauren E. Culler ◽

Matthew P. Ayres ◽

Ross A. Virginia

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Species Interactions ◽

Adult Stage ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

The Arctic ◽

Demographic Model ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

Daily Mortality ◽

Natural Systems ◽

Faster Development

Climate change is altering environmental temperature, a factor that influences ectothermic organisms by controlling rates of physiological processes. Demographic effects of warming, however, are determined by the expression of these physiological effects through predator–prey and other species interactions. Using field observations and controlled experiments, we measured how increasing temperatures in the Arctic affected development rates and mortality rates (from predation) of immature Arctic mosquitoes in western Greenland. We then developed and parametrized a demographic model to evaluate how temperature affects survival of mosquitoes from the immature to the adult stage. Our studies showed that warming increased development rate of immature mosquitoes ( Q 10 = 2.8) but also increased daily mortality from increased predation rates by a dytiscid beetle ( Q 10 = 1.2–1.5). Despite increased daily mortality, the model indicated that faster development and fewer days exposed to predators resulted in an increased probability of mosquito survival to the adult stage. Warming also advanced mosquito phenology, bringing mosquitoes into phenological synchrony with caribou. Increases in biting pests will have negative consequences for caribou and their role as a subsistence resource for local communities. Generalizable frameworks that account for multiple effects of temperature are needed to understand how climate change impacts coupled human–natural systems.

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Climate change impacts in multispecies systems: drought alters food web size structure in a field experiment

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2012.0245 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 367 (1605) ◽

pp. 2990-2997 ◽

Cited By ~ 49

Author(s):

Guy Woodward ◽

Lee E. Brown ◽

Francois K. Edwards ◽

Lawrence N. Hudson ◽

Alexander M. Milner ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Experimental Data ◽

Food Web ◽

Size Structure ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Large Species ◽

Stream Channels ◽

Natural Systems ◽

Network Properties ◽

Multispecies Systems

Experimental data from intergenerational field manipulations of entire food webs are scarce, yet such approaches are essential for gauging impacts of environmental change in natural systems. We imposed 2 years of intermittent drought on stream channels in a replicated field trial, to measure food web responses to simulated climate change. Drought triggered widespread losses of species and links, with larger taxa and those that were rare for their size, many of which were predatory, being especially vulnerable. Many network properties, including size–scaling relationships within food chains, changed in response to drought. Other properties, such as connectance, were unaffected. These findings highlight the need for detailed experimental data from different organizational levels, from pairwise links to the entire food web. The loss of not only large species, but also those that were rare for their size, provides a newly refined way to gauge likely impacts that may be applied more generally to other systems and/or impacts.

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