scholarly journals Evaluating the Adaptation of Chinese Torreya Plantations to Climate Change

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiongwen Chen ◽  
Jianzhi Niu

Studying the capacity of some plant species to adapt to climate change is essential for ecological research and agricultural policy development. Chinese Torreya (Torreya grandis ‘Merrillii’) has been an important crop tree in subtropical China for over a thousand years. It is necessary to characterize its adaptation to climate change. In this study, the average monthly temperature and precipitation from 1901 to 2017 in the six regions with Chinese Torreya plantations at different provinces were analyzed. The results indicated that the average annual air temperature across these regions had increased by about 2.0 °C, but no general trend in the annual precipitation and incidence of drought was found. The annual air temperature that Chinese Torreya plantations had experienced was 12.96–18.23 °C; the highest and the lowest average monthly air temperatures were 30.1 °C and −0.8 °C, respectively. The lowest and the highest annual precipitation were 874.56 mm and 2501.88 mm, respectively. Chinese Torreya trees endured a severe drought period in the 1920s. The monthly air temperature at Zhuji, which is the central production region, showed a significant correlation with the air temperature in the other five regions. The monthly precipitation in Hunan and Guizhou had no significant correlation with that of Zhuji. Chinese Torreya plantations have been grown in the regions with a similar climate distance index of air temperatures but different precipitation. This tree has a high capacity to adapt to climate change based on the climate dynamics across its range. This approach may provide a way to evaluate climate adaptation in other tree species. These results may provide helpful information for the development of Chinese Torreya plantations.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Reiss ◽  
Barbara Bernard ◽  
Eckhard Jedicke

<p>The Rheingau is one of the 13 designated German wine-growing regions and produces the highest proportion of Riesling in Germany. The effects of climate change on air temperature and precipitation can already be seen in phenological observations. The result is an earlier beginning of the budding, flowering and maturing dates. If the date of the beginning of the wine harvest for Riesling in the period 1961-1990 was on October 17 on average, the time in the period 1981-2010 shifted five days to the beginning of the month to October 12. In 2019, the harvest yield was significantly lower than the average of the past ten wine harvests. A consequence of increasing drought and heat in summer, more sunburn damage, but also increasingly late frosts and hailstorms. An evaluation of climatic variables for the near future (2050) relevant to viticulture performed for the individual phenological phases indicated critical changes. An increasing probability of the occurrence of tropical nights (minimum air temperature ≥ 20°C) which would potentially endanger the character of the Riesling and an increased probability of humid conditions during maturation, with the danger of higher pest load is to be expected. Higher, increasing evaporation rates will further reduce the availability of soil water in the growing and especially in the maturing phase. A systematic and regional-specific adaptation strategy for the Rheingau is still lacking. In addition, viticulture produces monoculture agro-ecosystem and causes specific environmentally problems, like soil erosion, loss of biodiversity and nitrate leaching relating to surface and groundwater eutrophication. The KliA-Net project launched in the middle of 2019 to address these problems together with the effects of climate change and to find sustainable, nature-based and landscape-integrative solutions. The aim of the project is to establish local and, above all, inter-communal cooperation and to develop it into joint action for adaptation to climate change. The resulting impulses lead to measures to reduce climate damage under the premise of climate protection, sustainable management and the best possible provision of ecosystem services. We will present the overall theoretical framework and the integrated approach to demonstrate that the concept of Terroir reflects the interactions between people and nature. Here, the concept of Vinecology was adapted, as the integration of ecological and viticultural principles and practices; it contextualizes sustainable land management within the specific agricultural sector and serves as an entry point to biodiversity conservation in an economically and biologically important biome integrated in its adjacent landscape. Concrete measures for climate adaptation in viticulture compiled in a catalogue, which is divided into 5 areas of action: viticulture, soil protection, water, biodiversity and landscape. These represent the different vinecological scales (landscape, vineyard, plant). This catalogue forms the basis for the transfer of knowledge between science, winegrowers, communal politics, administration and NGOs. Furthermore, we also contextualize related ecosystem services to indicate benefits resulting from a concrete measure. We hypothesize, that this is a way to harmonize objectives in nature conservation, soil and water protection and sustainable economic development.</p>


Author(s):  
Viktoriia Yashkina

The article aims to determine the "portfolio" of financing ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change based on the analysis of traditional market instruments used to preserve, maintain and restore ecosystem services and biodiversity. The definition of ecosystem-based adaptation, its qualification criteria and elements of their application in contrast to traditional economic measures for biodiversity and nature conservation are revealed. The relevance of using ecosystem and nature-based approaches to adapt to climate change and reduce the risk of natural disasters given the increasing frequency of extreme weather events associated with climate change – severe droughts, floods, heatwaves, storms and other hazards are explored. Accordingly, the urgency of adaptation to climate-related risks and hazards in different economic sectors, e.g. agriculture, land use, fisheries, and natural components with a focus on the climate impacts prognosis for the European region, using effective and affordable measures with additional long term social and environmental benefits are explained. Trends and specific gaps in the international experience in financing climate adaptation measures are considered. The most common instruments for financing nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change, which are already used in world practice or have the potential of their practical implementation in various sectors, including environmental and carbon taxes, subsidies, tradable environmental permits, risk insurance, obligations, debt and equity instruments, as well as innovative forms of green loans, green bonds, and climate-related insurance types are systematized and represented. The specifics of financing such measures through international funds, development banks and European Union funds are considered. Possibilities of integrating financing of ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change to the current processes of climate change adaptation policy development of Ukraine, particularly in the context of performance of obligations under the Paris climate agreement, are considered.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Oliveira ◽  
António Lopes ◽  
Ezequiel Correia ◽  
Samuel Niza ◽  
Amílcar Soares

Lisbon is a European Mediterranean city, greatly exposed to heatwaves (HW), according to recent trends and climate change prospects. Considering the Atlantic influence, air temperature observations from Lisbon’s mesoscale network are used to investigate the interactions between background weather and the urban thermal signal (UTS) in summer. Days are classified according to the prevailing regional wind direction, and hourly UTS is compared between HW and non-HW conditions. Northern-wind days predominate, revealing greater maximum air temperatures (up to 40 °C) and greater thermal amplitudes (approximately 10 °C), and account for 37 out of 49 HW days; southern-wind days have milder temperatures, and no HWs occur. Results show that the wind direction groups are significantly different. While southern-wind days have minor UTS variations, northern-wind days have a consistent UTS daily cycle: a diurnal urban cooling island (UCI) (often lower than –1.0 °C), a late afternoon peak urban heat island (UHI) (occasionally surpassing 4.0 °C), and a stable nocturnal UHI (1.5 °C median intensity). UHI/UCI intensities are not significantly different between HW and non-HW conditions, although the synoptic influence is noted. Results indicate that, in Lisbon, the UHI intensity does not increase during HW events, although it is significantly affected by wind. As such, local climate change adaptation strategies must be based on scenarios that account for the synergies between potential changes in regional air temperature and wind.


Author(s):  
V. V. Hrynchak

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.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre-Antoine Versini ◽  
Daniel Schertzer ◽  
Mathilde Loury

<p>Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) appear as some relevant alternatives to mitigate the consequences of climate change. For this reason, they are promoted for the implementation of the national plan for adaptation to climate change (PNACC) in France, in line with the Paris Agreement, the strategy of the European Union for adaptation to climate change and the French national strategy for biodiversity.</p><p>Nevertheless, this ambitious goal of democratizing NBS poses some institutional and technical challenges because many obstacles remain to their implementation. Overcoming these shortcomings is the objective of the LIFE integrated project called ARTISAN (Achieving Resiliency by Triggering Implementation of nature-based Solutions for climate Adaptation at a National scale). Coordinated by the French Biodiversity Office (OFB), its consortium regroups several local authorities, technical, research and education institutes.</p><p>For this purpose, ARTISAN is creating a framework promoting the implementation of NBS by improving scientific and technical knowledge about them, then by developing and disseminating relevant tools for project leaders (for the design, sizing, implementation and evaluation of ecosystem performance).</p><p>To demonstrate that NBS can respond to a diversity of climatic, ecological and institutional contexts, 10 pilot sites will be monitored in metropolitan and overseas France. The concerned issues are for example the reduction of urban heat island by the de-waterproofing of the public space, the limitation of the impact of cyclonic episodes on the urbanized coastline overseas by promoting the restoration of the mangrove, and the decrease of agricultural water stress during the low flow period by the hydromorphological restoration of wetlands. These pilot sites will serve to develop, improve and validate operational tools, methods and trainings devoted to practitioners.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Bolbot ◽  
Vasyl Grebin

<p>The current patterns estimation of the water regime under climate change is one of the most urgent tasks in Ukraine and the world. Such changes are determined by fluctuations in the main climatic characteristics - precipitation and air temperature, which are defined the value of evaporation. These parameters influence on the annual runoff distribution and long-term runoff fluctuations. In particular, the annual precipitation redistribution is reflected in the corresponding changes in the river runoff.<br>The assessment of the current state and nature of changes in precipitation and river runoff of the Siverskyi Donets River Basin was made by comparing the current period (1991-2018) with the period of the climatological normal (1961-1990).<br>In general, for this area, it was defined the close relationship between the amount of precipitation and the annual runoff. Against the background of insignificant (about 1%) increase of annual precipitation in recent decades, it was revealed their redistribution by seasons and separate months. There is a decrease in precipitation in the cold period (November-February). This causes (along with other factors) a decrease in the amount of snow and, accordingly, the spring flood runoff. There are frequent cases of unexpressed spring floods of the Siverskyi Donets River Basin. The runoff during March-April (the period of spring flood within the Ukrainian part of the basin) decreased by almost a third.<br>The increase of precipitation during May-June causes a corresponding (insignificant) increase in runoff in these months. The shift of the maximum monthly amount of precipitation from May (for the period 1961-1990) to June (in the current period) is observed.<br>There is a certain threat to water supply in the region due to the shift in the minimum monthly amount of precipitation in the warm period from October to August. Compared with October, there is a higher air temperature and, accordingly, higher evaporation in August, which reduces the runoff. Such a situation is solved by rational water resources management of the basin. The possibility of replenishing water resources in the basin through the transfer runoff from the Dnieper (Dnieper-Siverskyi Donets channel) and the annual runoff redistribution in the reservoir system causes some increase in the river runoff of summer months in recent decades. This is also contributed by the activities of the river basin management structures, which control the maintenance water users' of minimum ecological flow downstream the water intakes and hydraulic structures in the rivers of the basin.<br>Therefore, in the period of current climate change, the annual runoff distribution of the Siverskyi Donets River Basin has undergone significant changes, which is related to the annual precipitation redistribution and anthropogenic load on the basin.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Chiew ◽  
Hongxing Zheng ◽  
Jai Vaze

<p>This paper addresses the implications of UPH19 in extrapolating hydrological models to predict the future and assessing water resources adaptation to climate change. Many studies have now shown that traditional application of hydrological models calibrated against past observations will underestimate the range in the projected future hydrological impact, that is, it will underestimate the decline in runoff where a runoff decrease is projected, and underestimate the increase in runoff where a runoff increase is projected. This study opportunistically uses data from south-eastern Australia which recently experienced a long and severe drought lasting more than ten years and subsequent partial hydrological recovery from the drought. The paper shows that a more robust calibration of rainfall-runoff models to produce good calibration metrics in both the dry periods and wet periods, at the expense of the best calibration over the entire data period, can produce a more accurate estimate of the uncertainty in the projected future runoff, but cannot entirely eliminate the modelling limitation of underestimating the projected range in future runoff. This is because of the need to consider trade-offs between the calibration objectives, particularly in simulating the dry periods, versus enhanced bias that results from the consideration. Hydrological models must therefore also need to be adapted to reflect the non-stationary nature of catchment and vegetation responses in a changing climate under warmer conditions, higher CO<sub>2</sub> and changed precipitation patterns. This is an active area of research in UPH19, and some ideas relevant to this region will be presented.</p>


Author(s):  
Rod J. Snowdon ◽  
Benjamin Wittkop ◽  
Tsu-Wei Chen ◽  
Andreas Stahl

AbstractMajor global crops in high-yielding, temperate cropping regions are facing increasing threats from the impact of climate change, particularly from drought and heat at critical developmental timepoints during the crop lifecycle. Research to address this concern is frequently focused on attempts to identify exotic genetic diversity showing pronounced stress tolerance or avoidance, to elucidate and introgress the responsible genetic factors or to discover underlying genes as a basis for targeted genetic modification. Although such approaches are occasionally successful in imparting a positive effect on performance in specific stress environments, for example through modulation of root depth, major-gene modifications of plant architecture or function tend to be highly context-dependent. In contrast, long-term genetic gain through conventional breeding has incrementally increased yields of modern crops through accumulation of beneficial, small-effect variants which also confer yield stability via stress adaptation. Here we reflect on retrospective breeding progress in major crops and the impact of long-term, conventional breeding on climate adaptation and yield stability under abiotic stress constraints. Looking forward, we outline how new approaches might complement conventional breeding to maintain and accelerate breeding progress, despite the challenges of climate change, as a prerequisite to sustainable future crop productivity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 899-921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nithya Natarajan ◽  
Katherine Brickell ◽  
Laurie Parsons

An emerging body of work has critiqued the concept of climate adaptation, highlighting the structural constraints impeding marginalised communities across the Global South from being able to adapt. This article builds on such work through analysis of debt-bonded brick workers in Cambodia, formerly small farmers. It argues that the detrimental impacts of climate change experienced by farmers-turned-workers across the rural – urban divide is due to their precarity. In doing so, this article draws on a conceptualisation of precarity which recognises it as emerging from the specific political economy of Cambodia, and as something that is neither new, nor confined to conditions of labour alone. As such, in looking to precarity as a means of conceptualising the relations of power which shape impacts of climate change, we advance a ‘climate precarity’ lens as a means of understanding how adaptation to climate change is an issue of power, rooted in a specific geographical context, and mobile over the rural–urban divide.


2020 ◽  
pp. 107808741991082
Author(s):  
Linda Shi

Planners and activists are identifying ways to promote equitable adaptation that counter climate injustice. This article explores how this progressive turn in adaptation compares with past progressive movements. I argue urban progressive politics have cyclical tendencies toward liberalism and radicalism, and that the evolution of planning for climate adaptation mirrors these waves. I review 10 recent guidance documents that recommend strategies for enhancing racially just adaptation. I then assess how these recommendations advance the three pillars of progressive reforms: redistribution, expansion of democracy, and structural reform. I find that proposed strategies for racially just resilience are a welcome advance from mainstream, unjust resilience planning. However, history suggests that the focus on procedural justice for oppressed communities seen in recent discourse may limit their scope and durability. I conclude with suggestions for areas where climate activists and scholars can expand given emerging political space for ambitious thinking under a Green New Deal.


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