scholarly journals Life in the Frequency Domain: the Biological Impacts of Changes in Climate Variability at Multiple Time Scales

2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael E. Dillon ◽  
H. Arthur Woods ◽  
George Wang ◽  
Samuel B. Fey ◽  
David A. Vasseur ◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 2113
Author(s):  
Dan Wanyama ◽  
Nathan J. Moore ◽  
Kyla M. Dahlin

Many developing nations are facing severe food insecurity partly because of their dependence on rainfed agriculture. Climate variability threatens agriculture-based community livelihoods. With booming population growth, agricultural land expands, and natural resource extraction increases, leading to changes in land use and land cover characterized by persistent vegetation greening and browning. This can modify local climate variability due to changing land–atmosphere interactions. Yet, for landscapes with significant interannual variability, such as the Mount Elgon ecosystem in Kenya and Uganda, characterizing these changes is a difficult task and more robust methods have been recommended. The current study combined trend (Mann–Kendall and Sen’s slope) and breakpoint (bfast) analysis methods to comprehensively examine recent vegetation greening and browning in Mount Elgon at multiple time scales. The study used both Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Climate Hazards group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) data and attempted to disentangle nature- versus human-driven vegetation greening and browning. Inferences from a 2019 field study were valuable in explaining some of the observed patterns. The results indicate that Mount Elgon vegetation is highly variable with both greening and browning observable at all time scales. Mann–Kendall and Sen’s slope revealed major changes (including deforestation and reforestation), while bfast detected most of the subtle vegetation changes (such as vegetation degradation), especially in the savanna and grasslands in the northeastern parts of Mount Elgon. Precipitation in the area had significantly changed (increased) in the post-2000 era than before, particularly in 2006–2010, thus influencing greening and browning during this period. The greenness–precipitation relationship was weak in other periods. The integration of Mann–Kendall and bfast proved useful in comprehensively characterizing vegetation greenness. Such a comprehensive description of Mount Elgon vegetation dynamics is an important first step to instigate policy changes for simultaneously conserving the environment and improving livelihoods that are dependent on it.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Liang ◽  
◽  
Daniele J. Cherniak ◽  
Chenguang Sun

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Bedinger ◽  
Lindsay Beevers ◽  
Lila Collet ◽  
Annie Visser

Climate change is a product of the Anthropocene, and the human–nature system in which we live. Effective climate change adaptation requires that we acknowledge this complexity. Theoretical literature on sustainability transitions has highlighted this and called for deeper acknowledgment of systems complexity in our research practices. Are we heeding these calls for ‘systems’ research? We used hydrohazards (floods and droughts) as an example research area to explore this question. We first distilled existing challenges for complex human–nature systems into six central concepts: Uncertainty, multiple spatial scales, multiple time scales, multimethod approaches, human–nature dimensions, and interactions. We then performed a systematic assessment of 737 articles to examine patterns in what methods are used and how these cover the complexity concepts. In general, results showed that many papers do not reference any of the complexity concepts, and no existing approach addresses all six. We used the detailed results to guide advancement from theoretical calls for action to specific next steps. Future research priorities include the development of methods for consideration of multiple hazards; for the study of interactions, particularly in linking the short- to medium-term time scales; to reduce data-intensivity; and to better integrate bottom–up and top–down approaches in a way that connects local context with higher-level decision-making. Overall this paper serves to build a shared conceptualisation of human–nature system complexity, map current practice, and navigate a complexity-smart trajectory for future research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (9) ◽  
pp. 2139-2154
Author(s):  
Caroline E. Weibull ◽  
Paul C. Lambert ◽  
Sandra Eloranta ◽  
Therese M. L. Andersson ◽  
Paul W. Dickman ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Jia-Rong Yeh ◽  
Chung-Kang Peng ◽  
Norden E. Huang

Multi-scale entropy (MSE) was developed as a measure of complexity for complex time series, and it has been applied widely in recent years. The MSE algorithm is based on the assumption that biological systems possess the ability to adapt and function in an ever-changing environment, and these systems need to operate across multiple temporal and spatial scales, such that their complexity is also multi-scale and hierarchical. Here, we present a systematic approach to apply the empirical mode decomposition algorithm, which can detrend time series on various time scales, prior to analysing a signal’s complexity by measuring the irregularity of its dynamics on multiple time scales. Simulated time series of fractal Gaussian noise and human heartbeat time series were used to study the performance of this new approach. We show that our method can successfully quantify the fractal properties of the simulated time series and can accurately distinguish modulations in human heartbeat time series in health and disease.


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