Current climate, but also long‐term climate changes and human impacts, determine the geographic distribution of European mammal diversity

Accurate remote sensing of mountainous forest cover change is important for myriad social and ecological reasons, but is challenged by topographic and illumination conditions that can affect detection of forests. Several topographic illumination correction (TIC) approaches have been developed to mitigate these effects, but existing research has focused mostly on whether TIC improves forest cover classification accuracy and has usually found only marginal gains. However, the beneficial effects of TIC may go well beyond accuracy since TIC promises to improve detection of low illuminated forest cover and thereby normalize measurements of the amount, geographic distribution, and rate of forest cover change regardless of illumination. To assess the effects of TIC on the extent and geographic distribution of forest cover change, in addition to classification accuracy, we mapped forest cover across mountainous Nepal using a 25-year (1992–2016) gap-filled Landsat time series in two ways—with and without TIC (i.e., nonTIC)—and classified annual forest cover using a Random Forest classifier. We found that TIC modestly increased classifier accuracy and produced more conservative estimates of net forest cover change across Nepal (−5.2% from 1992–2016) TIC. TIC also resulted in a more even distribution of forest cover gain across Nepal with 3–5% more net gain and 4–6% more regenerated forest in the least illuminated regions. These results show that TIC helped to normalize forest cover change across varying illumination conditions with particular benefits for detecting mountainous forest cover gain. We encourage the use of TIC for satellite remote sensing detection of long-term mountainous forest cover change.

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Long-Term Observations of Beach Variability at Hasaki, Japan

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering ◽

10.3390/jmse8110871 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (11) ◽

pp. 871

Author(s):

Masayuki Banno ◽

Satoshi Nakamura ◽

Taichi Kosako ◽

Yasuyuki Nakagawa ◽

Shin-ichi Yanagishima ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Morphological Change ◽

High Frequency ◽

Climate Changes ◽

Wave Climate ◽

Time Interval ◽

Observation Data ◽

Beach Profile ◽

Water Level Variations ◽

Monthly Variations

Long-term beach observation data for several decades are essential to validate beach morphodynamic models that are used to predict coastal responses to sea-level rise and wave climate changes. At the Hasaki coast, Japan, the beach profile has been measured for 34 years at a daily to weekly time interval. This beach morphological dataset is one of the longest and most high-frequency measurements of the beach morphological change worldwide. The profile data, with more than 6800 records, reflect short- to long-term beach morphological change, showing coastal dune development, foreshore morphological change and longshore bar movement. We investigated the temporal beach variability from the decadal and monthly variations in elevation. Extremely high waves and tidal anomalies from an extratropical cyclone caused a significant change in the long-term bar behavior and foreshore slope. The berm and bar variability were also affected by seasonal wave and water level variations. The variabilities identified here from the long-term observations contribute to our understanding of various coastal phenomena.

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How the Desert got a Past: A History of Quaternary Research in Australia’s Deserts

Historical Records of Australian Science ◽

10.1071/hr14012 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 25 (2) ◽

pp. 172 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mike Smith

Keyword(s):

Climate Changes ◽

Conceptual Space ◽

The Past ◽

History Of ◽

The 1960S

This paper examines how the past of desert landscapes has been interpreted since European explorers and scientists first encountered them. It charts the research that created the conceptual space within which archaeologists and Quaternarists now work. Studies from the 1840s–1960s created the notion of a ‘Great Australian Arid Period'. The 1960s studies of Lake Mungo and the Willandra Lakes by Jim Bowler revealed the cyclical nature of palaeolakes, that changed with climate changes in the Pleistocene, and the complexity of desert pasts. SLEADS and other researchers in the 1980s used thermoluminescence techniques that showed further complexities in desert lands beyond the Willandra particularly through new studies in the Strzelecki and Simpson Dunefields, Lake Eyre, Lake Woods and Lake Gregory. Australian deserts are varied and have very different histories. Far from ‘timeless lands', they have carried detailed information about long-term climate changes on continental scales.

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Healthcare in Rural Manitoba: Resources and Related Issues of Access

Healthcare Management Forum ◽

10.1016/s0840-4704(10)61368-3 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 6-11

Author(s):

John M. Horne

Keyword(s):

Rural Communities ◽

Geographic Distribution ◽

Long Term Care ◽

Efficient Allocation ◽

Allocation Of Resources ◽

Term Care ◽

Healthcare Resources ◽

Hospital Medical ◽

Publicly Insured

This paper reviews the existing allocation of healthcare resources to and within rural Manitoba. The geographic distribution of hospital, medical and long-term care resources is described and discussed in relation to widely held perceptions of continuing problems in access to publicly insured care among residents of rural communities. Opportunities for more effective and efficient allocation of resources are identified, including various arrangements for sharing both facilities and personnel between communities.

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Extreme rainfall deficits were not the cause of recurring colonial era famines of southern Indian semi-arid regions

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-96826-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ranjini Ray ◽

Atreyee Bhattacharya ◽

Gaurav Arora ◽

Kushank Bajaj ◽

Keyle Horton ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Arid Regions ◽

Human Impacts ◽

Rainfall Variability ◽

Extreme Rainfall ◽

Southern India ◽

Colonial Era ◽

Regional Rainfall ◽

Semi Arid ◽

Rainfall Deficits

AbstractUsing information contained in the eighteenth to twentieth century British administrative documents, preserved in the National Archives of India (NAI), we present a 218-year (1729–1947 AD) record of socioeconomic disruptions and human impacts (famines) associated with ‘rain failures’ that affected the semi-arid regions (SARs) of southern India. By mapping the southern Indian famine record onto long-term spatiotemporal measures of regional rainfall variability, we demonstrate that the SARs of southern India repeatedly experienced famines when annual rainfall reduced by ~ one standard deviation (1 SD), or more, from long-term averages. In other words, ‘rain failures’ listed in the colonial documents as causes of extreme socioeconomic disruptions, food shortages and human distress (famines) in the southern Indian SARs were fluctuations in precipitation well within the normal range of regional rainfall variability and not extreme rainfall deficits (≥ 3 SD). Our study demonstrates that extreme climate events were not necessary conditions for extreme socioeconomic disruptions and human impacts rendered by the colonial era famines in peninsular India. Based on our findings, we suggest that climate change risk assessement should consider the potential impacts of more frequent low-level anomalies (e.g. 1 SD) in drought prone semi-arid regions.

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Analysis of climate change in Dnipropetrovsk Region

Ukrainian hydrometeorological journal ◽

10.31481/uhmj.20.2017.05 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 43-51

Author(s):

V. V. Hrynchak

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Air Temperature ◽

Climate Changes ◽

Absolute Temperature ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Annual Precipitation ◽

Temperature And Precipitation ◽

Weather Observations ◽

Average Annual Temperature

The decision about writing this article was made after familiarization with the "Brief Climatic Essay of Dnepropetrovsk City (prepared based on observations of 1886 – 1937)" written by the Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Weather Department of the Hydrometeorological Service A. N. Mikhailov. The guide has a very interesting fate: in 1943 it was taken by the Nazis from Dnipropetrovsk and in 1948 it returned from Berlin back to the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological and Environmental Directorate of the USSR, as evidenced by a respective entry on the Essay's second page. Having these invaluable materials and data of long-term weather observations in Dnipro city we decided to analyze climate changes in Dnipropetrovsk region. The article presents two 50-year periods, 1886-1937 and 1961-2015, as examples. Series of observations have a uniform and representative character because they were conducted using the same methodology and results processing. We compared two main characteristics of climate: air temperature and precipitation. The article describes changes of average annual temperature values and absolute temperature values. It specifies the shift of seasons' dates and change of seasons' duration. We studied the changes of annual precipitation and peculiarities of their seasonable distribution. Apart from that peculiarities of monthly rainfall fluctuations and their heterogeneity were specified. Since Dnipro city is located in the center of the region the identified tendencies mainly reflect changes of climatic conditions within the entire Dnipropetrovsk region.

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Mediterranean Sea climatic indices: monitoring long term variability and climate changes

10.5194/essd-2018-51 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Athanasia Iona ◽

Athanasios Theodorou ◽

Sarantis Sofianos ◽

Sylvain Watelet ◽

Charles Troupin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Time Series ◽

Mediterranean Sea ◽

Climate Changes ◽

Salt Content ◽

Climatic Indices ◽

In Situ Observations ◽

The Mediterranean

Abstract. We present a new product composed of a set of thermohaline climatic indices from 1950 to 2015 for the Mediterranean Sea such as decadal temperature and salinity anomalies, their mean values over selected depths, decadal ocean heat and salt content anomalies at selected depth layers as well as their long times series. It is produced from a new high-resolution climatology of temperature and salinity on a 1/8° regular grid based on historical high quality in situ observations. Ocean heat and salt content differences between 1980–2015 and 1950–1979 are compared for evaluation of the climate shift in the Mediterranean Sea. The spatial patterns of heat and salt content shifts demonstrate in greater detail than ever before that the climate changes differently in the several regions of the basin. Long time series of heat and salt content for the period 1950 to 2015 are also provided which indicate that in the Mediterranean Sea there is a net mean volume warming and salting since 1950 with acceleration during the last two decades. The time series also show that the ocean heat content seems to fluctuate on a cycle of about 40 years and seems to follow the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation climate cycle indicating that the natural large scale atmospheric variability could be superimposed on to the warming trend. This product is an observations-based estimation of the Mediterranean climatic indices. It relies solely on spatially interpolated data produced from in-situ observations averaged over decades in order to smooth the decadal variability and reveal the long term trends with more accuracy. It can provide a valuable contribution to the modellers' community, next to the satellite-based products and serve as a baseline for the evaluation of climate-change model simulations contributing thus to a better understanding of the complex response of the Mediterranean Sea to the ongoing global climate change. The product is available here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1210100.

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Estimation of Water Storage Changes in Small Endorheic Lakes in Northern Kazakhstan; The Effect of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Influences

10.20944/preprints201712.0045.v1 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Vadim Yapiyev ◽

Kanat Samarkhanov ◽

Dauren Zhumabayev ◽

Nazym Tulegenova ◽

Saltanat Jumassultanova ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Remote Sensing ◽

Water Resources ◽

Water Balance ◽

Climate Model ◽

Human Impacts ◽

Water Storage ◽

Minor Importance ◽

Climatic Data

Both climate change and anthropogenic activities contribute to the deterioration of terrestrial water resources and ecosystems worldwide. Central Asian endorheic basins are among the most affected regions through both climate and human impacts. Here, we used a digital elevation model, digitized bathymetry maps and Landsat images to estimate the areal water cover extent and volumetric storage changes in small terminal lakes in Burabay National Nature Park (BNNP), located in Northern Central Asia (CA), for the period of 1986 to 2016. Based on the analysis of long-term climatic data from meteorological stations, short-term hydrometeorological network observations, gridded climate datasets (CRU) and global atmospheric reanalysis (ERA Interim), we have evaluated the impacts of historical climatic conditions on the water balance of BNNP lake catchments. We also discuss the future based on regional climate model projections. We attribute the overall decline of BNNP lakes to long-term deficit of water balance with lake evaporation loss exceeding precipitation inputs. Direct anthropogenic water abstraction has a minor importance in water balance. However, the changes in watersheds caused by the expansion of human settlements and roads disrupting water drainage may play a more significant role in lake water storage decline. More precise water resources assessment at the local scale will be facilitated by further development of freely available higher spatial resolution remote sensing products. In addition, the results of this work can be used for the development of lake/reservoir evaporation models driven by remote sensing and atmospheric reanalysis data without the direct use of ground observations.

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