scholarly journals Swiss tree lines - a GIS-based Approximation

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erich Szerencsits
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Moving Window ◽  
Tree Line ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Geographical Regions ◽  
Moving Window Analysis ◽  
Closed Forest ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Forest Line

Mountain timber lines are relevant in the context of land abandonment and climate change. For Switzerland, GIS-compliant delimitations of the tree line and the forest line are still lacking. Recent high-resolution landcover information offers new possibilities for GIS-based approaches. In a Swiss-wide study, an analysis based on slope zones was combined with a moving-window analysis to assess tree and forest line altitude, using topographic data. The tree and the forest lines were delimited at the upper altitude reached by a tree or closed forest respectively. The model delivered a fine-scaled delimitation sensitive to local conditions. The results indicate that earlier studies underestimated the tree line altitudes for the fringes of the Alps. Also the variability inside climatic and bio-geographical regions is larger than it was estimated up to now.

Estimating future changes in Alpine flash floods using CP-RCM projections

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederiek Sperna Weiland ◽  
Pety Viguurs ◽  
Marjanne Zander ◽  
Albrecht Weerts
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Flash Floods ◽  
Climate Prediction ◽  
Alpine Region ◽  
Parameter Estimates ◽  
Projection System ◽  
The Alps

<p><span>Flash floods are a significant natural hazard in the Alpine region (FOEN, 2010). With changing rainfall regimes and decreased snow accumulation due to climate change, the risk of flash flood occurrence and timing thereof could change as well (Etchevers et al., 2002).</span></p><p><span>In this study the frequency and occurrence of flash floods in the Alpine region is estimated for current and future climate (RCP8.5) using state-of-the-art high-resolution convection permitting climate models (CP-RCMs). For the historical period and far future (2100), data from an ensemble of convection permitting climate models (Ban et al., submitted 2019) was used to drive a high-resolution distributed hydrological model, i.e. the wflow_sbm model (Imhoff et al., 2019, Verseveld et al., 2020). The model domains cover the mountainous parts of the Danube, Rhone, Rhine and Po located in the Alps.  The CP-RCM time-series available are of limited length due to computational constrains. At the same time the locations of flash floods vary per year therefore a regional scale analysis is made to assess whether in general the severity, frequency and timing of flash floods in the Alps will likely change under changing climate conditions.</span></p><p><span>This research is embedded in the EU H2020 project EUCP (EUropean Climate Prediction system) (https://www.eucp-project.eu/), which aims to support climate adaptation and mitigation decisions for the coming decades by developing a regional climate prediction and projection system based on high-resolution climate models for Europe.</span></p><p>References:</p><p>Etchevers, P.<span>, </span>Golaz, C.<span>, </span>Habets, F.<span>, and </span>Noilhan, J.<span>, </span>Impact of a climate change on the Rhone river catchment hydrology<span>, J. Geophys. Res., 107( D16), doi:, 2002. </span></p><p><span>Federal office for the environment FOEN (2010) Environment Switzerland 2011, Bern and Neuchatel 2011. Retrieved from www.environment-stat.admin.ch</span></p><p><span>Imhoff, R.O., W. van Verseveld, B. van Osnabrugge, A.H. Weerts, 2019. Scaling point-scale pedotransfer functions parameter estimates for seamless large-domain high-resolution distributed hydrological modelling: An example for the Rhine river. Submitted to Water Resources Research, 2019.</span></p><p><span>N. Ban, E. Brisson, C. Caillaud, E. Coppola, E. Pichelli, S. Sobolowski, …, M.J. Zander (submitted 2019): “The first multi-model ensemble of regional climate simulations at the kilometer-scale resolution, Part I: Evaluation of precipitation”, manuscript submitted for publication.</span></p>

The diversity of ancient woodlands in Austria: Historical developments and contemporary social importance

2018 ◽  
pp. 155-181
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Johann
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Forest Policy ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Natural Forests ◽  
Geographical Regions ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
Social Importance

Austrian landscapes range from plains at approximately 100 metres above sea-level to the Alps with peaks at almost 4,000 m. With a share of 47% the forest surface is an important element.One can assume that forests have been used intensively in the course of time and have been impacted by an increasing industry and population, but also by climate change. In some areas the utilization caused the modification of forest stands in particular with regard to the density, composition of tree species and age structure and reduced the extent of the forest area. However, despite these long-term interventions in the forest ecosystem the forests have never been cleared totally and about 30% of the territory remained wooded even in times of heavy exploitation. This is the reason why the share of natural forests is still relatively high. Today, some of these forests now form important assets of the Austrian network of protected forest areas. In this study I want to highlight the socioeconomic and ecological factors in the past which were responsible for this development. It will be illustrated by two case studies from different geographical regions. This examination can contribute to improving the knowledge base for decision making at the internodes of energy, biodiversity and forest policy as well as in forest resource management.

Mapping present-day mountain treeline pattern based on high-resolution remote sensing images

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinyue He ◽  
Zhenzhong Zeng ◽  
Dominick Spracklen ◽  
Joseph Holden ◽  
Alan D. Ziegler
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Remote Sensing ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
River Flow ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Tree Line ◽  
Mountain Forests ◽  
Remote Sensing Images ◽  
The World

<p>Mountain forests, widely distributed around the world, are hotspots of biodiversity and provide important environmental services by conserving water and soil, regulating river flow and storing carbon. The upper altitudinal limits of trees is defined as the treeline. Some field investigations indicate that treelines around the world are moving upward as a response to global climate change. However, to date, a high-resolution spatial map of global mountain treeline position is still lacking. In this study, we develop an algorithm to detect the present-day tree line positions in mountain regions globally, via integrating a high-resolution tree distribution dataset with a high-resolution digital elevation model. The results are validated with even finer resolution remote sensing images in Google Earth. We analyse a range of climate datasets to understand important climate drivers of the present-day tree line position. Further, we explore the change in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) within the buffer zone of the treeline to determine how the treeline position has shifted in the last three decades. By providing the first global mountain treeline distribution, our analysis will help to reveal how mountain forests are responding to climate change globally, and to detect how the responses vary regionally.</p>

Bringing the Future into Focus: Benefits and Challenges of High-Resolution Global Climate Change Simulations

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
Stephen Gerald Yeager ◽  
Ping Chang ◽  
Gokhan Danabasoglu ◽  
James Edwards ◽  
Nan Rosenbloom ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
The Future

scholarly journals Comparison of regional characteristics of land precipitation climatology projected by an MRI-AGCM multi-cumulus scheme and multi-SST ensemble with CMIP5 multi-model ensemble projections

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Ito ◽  
Tosiyuki Nakaegawa ◽  
Izuru Takayabu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Annual Precipitation ◽  
Cmip5 Models ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Model Ensemble ◽  
Uncertainty Range ◽  
High Performing

AbstractEnsembles of climate change projections created by general circulation models (GCMs) with high resolution are increasingly needed to develop adaptation strategies for regional climate change. The Meteorological Research Institute atmospheric GCM version 3.2 (MRI-AGCM3.2), which is listed in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5), has been typically run with resolutions of 60 km and 20 km. Ensembles of MRI-AGCM3.2 consist of members with multiple cumulus convection schemes and different patterns of future sea surface temperature, and are utilized together with their downscaled data; however, the limited size of the high-resolution ensemble may lead to undesirable biases and uncertainty in future climate projections that will limit its appropriateness and effectiveness for studies on climate change and impact assessments. In this study, to develop a comprehensive understanding of the regional precipitation simulated with MRI-AGCM3.2, we investigate how well MRI-AGCM3.2 simulates the present-day regional precipitation around the globe and compare the uncertainty in future precipitation changes and the change projection itself between MRI-AGCM3.2 and the CMIP5 multiple atmosphere–ocean coupled GCM (AOGCM) ensemble. MRI-AGCM3.2 reduces the bias of the regional mean precipitation obtained with the high-performing CMIP5 models, with a reduction of approximately 20% in the bias over the Tibetan Plateau through East Asia and Australia. When 26 global land regions are considered, MRI-AGCM3.2 simulates the spatial pattern and the regional mean realistically in more regions than the individual CMIP5 models. As for the future projections, in 20 of the 26 regions, the sign of annual precipitation change is identical between the 50th percentiles of the MRI-AGCM3.2 ensemble and the CMIP5 multi-model ensemble. In the other six regions around the tropical South Pacific, the differences in modeling with and without atmosphere–ocean coupling may affect the projections. The uncertainty in future changes in annual precipitation from MRI-AGCM3.2 partially overlaps the maximum–minimum uncertainty range from the full ensemble of the CMIP5 models in all regions. Moreover, on average over individual regions, the projections from MRI-AGCM3.2 spread over roughly 0.8 of the uncertainty range from the high-performing CMIP5 models compared to 0.4 of the range of the full ensemble.

scholarly journals Heating and Cooling Degree-Days Climate Change Projections for Portugal

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 715
Author(s):  
Cristina Andrade ◽  
Sandra Mourato ◽  
João Ramos
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Thermal Comfort ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Degree Days ◽  
Climate Change Projections ◽  
Heating And Cooling ◽  
Cooling Degree Days ◽  
Heating Energy Demand

Climate change is expected to influence cooling and heating energy demand of residential buildings and affect overall thermal comfort. Towards this end, the heating (HDD) and cooling (CDD) degree-days along with HDD + CDD were computed from an ensemble of seven high-resolution bias-corrected simulations attained from EURO-CORDEX under two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). These three indicators were analyzed for 1971–2000 (from E-OBS) and 2011–2040, and 2041–2070, under both RCPs. Results predict a decrease in HDDs most significant under RCP8.5. Conversely, it is projected an increase of CDD values for both scenarios. The decrease in HDDs is projected to be higher than the increase in CDDs hinting to an increase in the energy demand to cool internal environments in Portugal. Statistically significant linear CDD trends were only found for 2041–2070 under RCP4.5. Towards 2070, higher(lower) CDD (HDD and HDD + CDD) anomaly amplitudes are depicted, mainly under RCP8.5. Within the five NUTS II

High-Resolution Climate Change Impact Analysis on Expected Future Water Availability in the Upper Jordan Catchment and the Middle East

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 1517-1531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Smiatek ◽  
Harald Kunstmann ◽  
Andreas Heckl
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Impact Analysis ◽  
River Flow ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Mesoscale Model ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Full Range ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The impact of climate change on the future water availability of the upper Jordan River (UJR) and its tributaries Dan, Snir, and Hermon located in the eastern Mediterranean is evaluated by a highly resolved distributed approach with the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5) run at 18.6- and 6.2-km resolution offline coupled with the Water Flow and Balance Simulation Model (WaSiM). The MM5 was driven with NCEP reanalysis for 1971–2000 and with Hadley Centre Coupled Model, version 3 (HadCM3), GCM forcings for 1971–2099. Because only one regional–global climate model combination was applied, the results may not give the full range of possible future projections. To describe the Dan spring behavior, the hydrological model was extended by a bypass approach to allow the fast discharge components of the Snir to enter the Dan catchment. Simulation results for the period 1976–2000 reveal that the coupled system was able to reproduce the observed discharge rates in the partially karstic complex terrain to a reasonable extent with the high-resolution 6.2-km meteorological input only. The performed future climate simulations show steadily rising temperatures with 2.2 K above the 1976–2000 mean for the period 2031–60 and 3.5 K for the period 2070–99. Precipitation trends are insignificant until the middle of the century, although a decrease of approximately 12% is simulated. For the end of the century, a reduction in rainfall ranging between 10% and 35% can be expected. Discharge in the UJR is simulated to decrease by 12% until 2060 and by 26% until 2099, both related to the 1976–2000 mean. The discharge decrease is associated with a lower number of high river flow years.

scholarly journals Hydrology influences breeding time in the white-throated dipper

BMC Ecology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna L. K. Nilsson ◽  
Thomas Skaugen ◽  
Trond Reitan ◽  
Jan Henning L’Abée-Lund ◽  
Marlène Gamelon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
River Discharge ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Time Window ◽  
River System ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Environmental Indices ◽  
Groundwater Levels ◽  
Breeding Time

Abstract Background Earlier breeding is one of the strongest responses to global change in birds and is a key factor determining reproductive success. In most studies of climate effects, the focus has been on large-scale environmental indices or temperature averaged over large geographical areas, neglecting that animals are affected by the local conditions in their home ranges. In riverine ecosystems, climate change is altering the flow regime, in addition to changes resulting from the increasing demand for renewable and clean hydropower. Together with increasing temperatures, this can lead to shifts in the time window available for successful breeding of birds associated with the riverine habitat. Here, we investigated specifically how the environmental conditions at the territory level influence timing of breeding in a passerine bird with an aquatic lifestyle, the white-throated dipper Cinclus cinclus. We relate daily river discharge and other important hydrological parameters, to a long-term dataset of breeding phenology (1978–2015) in a natural river system. Results Dippers bred earlier when winter river discharge and groundwater levels in the weeks prior to breeding were high, and when there was little snow in the catchment area. Breeding was also earlier at lower altitudes, although the effect dramatically declined over the period. This suggests that territories at higher altitudes had more open water in winter later in the study period, which permitted early breeding also here. Unexpectedly, the largest effect inducing earlier breeding time was territory river discharge during the winter months and not immediately prior to breeding. The territory river discharge also increased during the study period. Conclusions The observed earlier breeding can thus be interpreted as a response to climate change. Measuring environmental variation at the scale of the territory thus provides detailed information about the interactions between organisms and the abiotic environment.

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