scholarly journals Climate change, coral bleaching and the future of the world's coral reefs

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Coral Bleaching ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Live Coral ◽  
Sea Temperature ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
The Past

Sea temperatures in many tropical regions have increased by almost 1°C over the past 100 years, and are currently increasing at ~1–2°C per century. Coral bleaching occurs when the thermal tolerance of corals and their photosynthetic symbionts (zooxanthellae) is exceeded. Mass coral bleaching has occurred in association with episodes of elevated sea temperatures over the past 20 years and involves the loss of the zooxanthellae following chronic photoinhibition. Mass bleaching has resulted in significant losses of live coral in many parts of the world. This paper considers the biochemical, physiological and ecological perspectives of coral bleaching. It also uses the outputs of four runs from three models of global climate change which simulate changes in sea temperature and hence how the frequency and intensity of bleaching events will change over the next 100 years. The results suggest that the thermal tolerances of reef-building corals are likely to be exceeded every year within the next few decades. Events as severe as the 1998 event, the worst on record, are likely to become commonplace within 20 years. Most information suggests that the capacity for acclimation by corals has already been exceeded, and that adaptation will be too slow to avert a decline in the quality of the world’s reefs. The rapidity of the changes that are predicted indicates a major problem for tropical marine ecosystems and suggests that unrestrained warming cannot occur without the loss and degradation of coral reefs on a global scale.

MONITORING CORAL RECOVERY AT NEARSHORE CORAL REEFS IN PHANGNGA PROVINCE, THE ANDAMAN SEA FOLLOWING THE 2010 CORAL BLEACHING EVENT

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Makamas Sutthacheep ◽  
Makamas Sutthacheep ◽  
Thamasak Yeemin ◽  
Thamasak Yeemin ◽  
Sittiporn Pengsakun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reef ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Coral Bleaching ◽  
Coral Cover ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Andaman Sea ◽  
Live Coral ◽  
Bleaching Event ◽  
Sea Star ◽  
Coral Recovery

Mass bleaching and subsequent mortality of scleractinian corals in response to elevated seawater temperatures has been considered as one of the most impacts of global climate change. Three extensive coral bleaching events in the Andaman Sea were reported, in the years 1991, 1995 and 2010. Studies on survival of coral colonies, coral recruitment and community structure of coral reef associated macrofauna would predict the trends for coral recovery from the impacts of coral bleaching events. The present study aimed to examine the status of coral communities, density of coral recruits and coral reef associated macrofauna at nearshore coral reefs in Phangnga Province, the Andaman Sea following the 2010 coral bleaching event. The dead coral cover was high (>50%) while the live coral cover was in the range of 13-21%. There was high diversity of coral recruits on natural substrates. The average densities of macrobenthic fauna varied from 1.9 to 2.6 individuals.m-2, with significant differences among study sites. The dominant macrobenthic species were a soft coral (Lobophytum sp.), a sea star (Linckia laevigata) and a sea urchin (Echinostrephus molaris). Coral recovery at these coral reefs would be possible but local anthropogenic stressors must be overwhelmingly reduced in order to enhance coral reef resilience. The long-term monitoring programs in the Andaman Sea are required for decision makers to support their adaptive management approaches.

scholarly journals Coral Reefs: Challenges, Opportunities and Evolutionary Strategies for Surviving Climate Change in the Caribbean

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Ron Mahabir
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Evolutionary Strategies ◽  
Temperature Sensitive ◽  
Live Coral ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Thermal Thresholds ◽  
Marine Plants ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
The Relationship

Coral reefs are some one of the most diverse marine ecosystems on Earth. They are renowned hotspots of species biodiversity and provide home to a large array of marine plants and animals. Over the past 100 years in many tropical regions sea surface temperatures have increased by almost 1°C and are currently increasing at about 1–2°C per century. Corals have very specific thermal thresholds beyond which their temperature sensitive symbiot Zooxanthellae becomes affected and causes corals to bleach. Mass bleaching has already caused significant losses to live coral in many parts of the world. This paper looks at the key role that temperature plays in affecting the health and spatial distribution of coral in the Caribbean. The relationship between coral and symbiot is examined, in addition to some of the evolutionary strategies necessary to ensure the future survival of coral with changing climate.

MONITORING CORAL RECOVERY AT NEARSHORE CORAL REEFS IN PHANGNGA PROVINCE, THE ANDAMAN SEA FOLLOWING THE 2010 CORAL BLEACHING EVENT

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Makamas Sutthacheep ◽  
Makamas Sutthacheep ◽  
Thamasak Yeemin ◽  
Thamasak Yeemin ◽  
Sittiporn Pengsakun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Coral Reef ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Coral Bleaching ◽  
Coral Cover ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Andaman Sea ◽  
Live Coral ◽  
Bleaching Event ◽  
Sea Star ◽  
Coral Recovery

Mass bleaching and subsequent mortality of scleractinian corals in response to elevated seawater temperatures has been considered as one of the most impacts of global climate change. Three extensive coral bleaching events in the Andaman Sea were reported, in the years 1991, 1995 and 2010. Studies on survival of coral colonies, coral recruitment and community structure of coral reef associated macrofauna would predict the trends for coral recovery from the impacts of coral bleaching events. The present study aimed to examine the status of coral communities, density of coral recruits and coral reef associated macrofauna at nearshore coral reefs in Phangnga Province, the Andaman Sea following the 2010 coral bleaching event. The dead coral cover was high (>50%) while the live coral cover was in the range of 13-21%. There was high diversity of coral recruits on natural substrates. The average densities of macrobenthic fauna varied from 1.9 to 2.6 individuals.m-2, with significant differences among study sites. The dominant macrobenthic species were a soft coral (Lobophytum sp.), a sea star (Linckia laevigata) and a sea urchin (Echinostrephus molaris). Coral recovery at these coral reefs would be possible but local anthropogenic stressors must be overwhelmingly reduced in order to enhance coral reef resilience. The long-term monitoring programs in the Andaman Sea are required for decision makers to support their adaptive management approaches.

scholarly journals Reduced resilience of terrestrial ecosystems locally is not reflected on a global scale

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuhao Feng ◽  
Haojie Su ◽  
Zhiyao Tang ◽  
Shaopeng Wang ◽  
Xia Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystem ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Terrestrial Vegetation ◽  
Ecosystem Resilience

AbstractGlobal climate change likely alters the structure and function of vegetation and the stability of terrestrial ecosystems. It is therefore important to assess the factors controlling ecosystem resilience from local to global scales. Here we assess terrestrial vegetation resilience over the past 35 years using early warning indicators calculated from normalized difference vegetation index data. On a local scale we find that climate change reduced the resilience of ecosystems in 64.5% of the global terrestrial vegetated area. Temperature had a greater influence on vegetation resilience than precipitation, while climate mean state had a greater influence than climate variability. However, there is no evidence for decreased ecological resilience on larger scales. Instead, climate warming increased spatial asynchrony of vegetation which buffered the global-scale impacts on resilience. We suggest that the response of terrestrial ecosystem resilience to global climate change is scale-dependent and influenced by spatial asynchrony on the global scale.

scholarly journals Ensemble models on palaeoclimate to predict India's groundwater challenge

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Partha Sarathi Datta
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
Humid Climate ◽  
Ensemble Models ◽  
North West ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
14C Age

In many parts of the world, freshwater crisis is largely due to increasing water consumption and pollution by rapidly growing population and aspirations for economic development, but, ascribed usually to the climate. However, limited understanding and knowledge gaps in the factors controlling climate and uncertainties in the climate models are unable to assess the probable impacts on water availability in tropical regions. In this context, review of ensemble models on δ18O and δD in rainfall and groundwater, 3H- and 14C- ages of groundwater and 14C- age of lakes sediments helped to reconstruct palaeoclimate and long-term recharge in the North-west India; and predict future groundwater challenge. The annual mean temperature trend indicates both warming/cooling in different parts of India in the past and during 1901–2010. Neither the GCMs (Global Climate Models) nor the observational record indicates any significant change/increase in temperature and rainfall over the last century, and climate change during the last 1200 yrs BP. In much of the North-West region, deep groundwater renewal occurred from past humid climate, and shallow groundwater renewal from limited modern recharge over the past decades. To make water management to be more responsive to climate change, the gaps in the science of climate change need to be bridged.

Advances in the data rescue and digitization of historical wind speed observations in Sweden: the WINDGUST project

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Engström ◽  
Cesar Azorin-Molina ◽  
Lennart Wern ◽  
Sverker Hellström ◽  
Christophe Sturm ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Wind Speed ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Weather Data ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
The 1960S

<p>Here we present the progress of the first work package (WP1) of the project “Assessing centennial wind speed variability from a historical weather data rescue project in Sweden” (WINDGUST), funded by FORMAS – A Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (ref. 2019-00509); previously introduced in EGU2019-17792-1 and EGU2020-3491. In a global climate change, one of the major uncertainties on the causes driving the climate variability of winds (i.e., the “stilling” phenomenon and the recent “recovery” since the 2010s) is mainly due to short availability (i.e., since the 1960s) and low quality of observed wind records as stated by the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).</p><p>The WINDGUST is a joint initiative between the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) and the University of Gothenburg aimed at filling the key gap of short availability and low quality of wind datasets, and improve the limited knowledge on the causes driving wind speed variability in a changing climate across Sweden.</p><p>During 2020, we worked in WP1 to rescue historical wind speed series available in the old weather archives at SMHI for the 1920s-1930s. In the process we followed the “Guidelines on Best Practices for Climate Data Rescue” of the World Meteorological Organization. Our protocol consisted on: (i) designing a template for digitization; (ii) digitizing papers by an imaging process based on scanning and photographs; and (iii) typing numbers of wind speed data into the template. We will report the advances and current status, challenges and experiences learned during the development of WP1. Until new year 2020/2021 eight out of thirteen selected stations spanning over the years 1925 to 1948 have been scanned and digitized by three staff members of SMHI during 1,660 manhours.</p>

scholarly journals Global Potato Yields Increase Under Climate Change With Adaptation and CO2 Fertilisation

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart A. Jennings ◽  
Ann-Kristin Koehler ◽  
Kathryn J. Nicklin ◽  
Chetan Deva ◽  
Steven M. Sait ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
National Scale ◽  
Modeling Studies ◽  
Potato Yields

The contribution of potatoes to the global food supply is increasing—consumption more than doubled in developing countries between 1960 and 2005. Understanding climate change impacts on global potato yields is therefore important for future food security. Analyses of climate change impacts on potato compared to other major crops are rare, especially at the global scale. Of two global gridded potato modeling studies published at the time of this analysis, one simulated the impacts of temperature increases on potential potato yields; the other did not simulate the impacts of farmer adaptation to climate change, which may offset negative climate change impacts on yield. These studies may therefore overestimate negative climate change impacts on yields as they do not simultaneously include CO2 fertilisation and adaptation to climate change. Here we simulate the abiotic impacts of climate change on potato to 2050 using the GLAM crop model and the ISI-MIP ensemble of global climate models. Simulations include adaptations to climate change through varying planting windows and varieties and CO2 fertilisation, unlike previous global potato modeling studies. Results show significant skill in reproducing observed national scale yields in Europe. Elsewhere, correlations are generally positive but low, primarily due to poor relationships between national scale observed yields and climate. Future climate simulations including adaptation to climate change through changing planting windows and crop varieties show that yields are expected to increase in most cases as a result of longer growing seasons and CO2 fertilisation. Average global yield increases range from 9 to 20% when including adaptation. The global average yield benefits of adaptation to climate change range from 10 to 17% across climate models. Potato agriculture is associated with lower green house gas emissions relative to other major crops and therefore can be seen as a climate smart option given projected yield increases with adaptation.

Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics: Lessons from the Past for the Future

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Anderson ◽  
Kirk A. Maasch
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Important Lesson ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Technological Civilization ◽  
Nuclear Warfare

As the twenty-first century winds onward, it is becoming increasingly clear that understanding how climate affects human cultural systems is critically important. Indeed, it has been argued by many researchers that how we respond to changing global climate is one of the greatest scientific and political challenges facing our planetary technological civilization, comparable and closely intertwined with concerns about biological or nuclear warfare, famine, disease, overpopulation, or environmental degradation. By any reasonable evaluation of the evidence, this century, and likely the several centuries that follow it, will be characterized by dramatic climate change, perhaps as significant in terms of its impact on our species as any climatic episodes that have occurred in the past. What we don’t know with much certainty is how these environmental changes will play out across the planet, and how individuals as well as nation states will respond to them. Archaeology has a major role to play in helping us move through this period of crisis, however, by showing us how human cultures in the past responded to dramatic changes in climate. As the work of many archaeological scholars has shown, climate change has not invariably proven to be a bad thing: it is how people respond to it that is critical (e.g. Anderson et al. 2007b; Cooper and Sheets 2012; Crumley 2000, 2006, 2007; Hardesty 2007; McAnany and Yoffee 2010; McIntosh et al. 2000; Redman 2004a; Sandweiss and Quilter 2008; Sassaman and Anderson 1996; Tainter 2000). Archaeology working in tandem with a host of palaeoenvironmental and historical disciplines has lessons for our modern world and, as this volume demonstrates, we as a profession are making great strides in getting our message out. Perhaps the most important lesson from the past is that people, through their actions, are the drivers of cultural change, including response to climate change. Societies are not, however, monolithic entities that ‘chose’ to succeed or fail; people as individuals, groups, or factions through their actions generate outcomes, and often some demonstrate remarkable flexibility and resilience (Cooper and Sheets 2012; Diamond 2005; McAnany and Yoffee 2010).

scholarly journals Sensitivity of atmospheric aerosol scavenging to precipitation intensity and frequency in the context of global climate change

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei Hou ◽  
Shiliang Wu ◽  
Jessica L. McCarty
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Atmospheric Aerosols ◽  
Atmospheric Aerosol ◽  
Model Simulation ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Precipitation Intensity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Precipitation Changes

Abstract. Wet deposition driven by precipitation is an important sink for atmospheric aerosols and soluble gases. We investigate the sensitivity of atmospheric aerosol lifetimes to precipitation intensity and frequency in the context of global climate change. Our study, based on the GEOS-Chem model simulation, shows that the removal efficiency and hence the atmospheric lifetime of aerosols have significantly higher sensitivities to precipitation frequencies than to precipitation intensities, indicating that the same amount of precipitation may lead to different removal efficiencies of atmospheric aerosols. Combining the long-term trends of precipitation patterns for various regions with the sensitivities of atmospheric aerosols lifetimes to various precipitation characteristics allows us to examine the potential impacts of precipitation changes on atmospheric aerosols. Analyses based on an observational dataset show that precipitation frequency in some regions have decreased in the past 14 years, which might increase the atmospheric aerosol lifetimes in those regions. Similar analyses based on multiple reanalysis meteorological datasets indicate that the precipitation changes over the past 30 years can lead to perturbations in the atmospheric aerosol lifetimes by 10 % or higher at the regional scale.

scholarly journals Global Deliberative Democracy and Climate Change: Insights from World Wide Views on Global Warming in Australia

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Riedy ◽  
Jade Herriman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Climate Change Response ◽  
Deliberative System ◽  
The World ◽  
Change Response

On 26 September 2009, approximately 4,000 citizens in 38 countries participated in World Wide Views on Global Warming (WWViews). WWViews was an ambitious first attempt to convene a deliberative mini-public at a global scale, giving people from around the world an opportunity to deliberate on international climate policy and to make recommendations to the decision-makers meeting at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP-15) in December 2009. In this paper, we examine the role that deliberative mini-publics can play in facilitating the emergence of a global deliberative system for climate change response. We pursue this intent through a reflective evaluation of the Australian component of the World Wide Views on Global Warming project (WWViews). Our evaluation of WWViews is mixed. The Australian event was delivered with integrity and feedback from Australian participants was almost universally positive. Globally, WWViews demonstrated that it is feasible to convene a global mini-public to deliberate on issues of global relevance, such as climate change. On the other hand, the contribution of WWViews towards the emergence of a global deliberative system for climate change response was limited and it achieved little influence on global climate change policy. We identify lessons for future global mini-publics, including the need to prioritise the quality of deliberation and provide flexibility to respond to cultural and political contexts in different parts of the world. Future global mini-publics may be more influential if they seek to represent discourse diversity in addition to demographic profiles, use designs that maximise the potential for transmission from public to empowered space, run over longer time periods to build momentum for change and experiment with ways of bringing global citizens together in a single process instead of discrete national events.

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