Seasonal variability of trends in regional hot and warm temperature extremes in Europe

<p>Extremely hot or warm weather over the course of the year may have significant impacts on many aspects of human life, economy, and the natural environment. Until now a comprehensive assessment of changes of extreme heat or warm events in Europe was hindered by the number of metrics employed, time periods examined, and most studies being conducted in the summer season only. This study was designed to systematically investigate long-term trends in the number of extremely hot or warm days in Europe over the course of the year, with a special focus on their spatial extent and intensity. Here, an extreme temperature event (ETE) is defined as a day with an unusually high temperature for a given location and season, even if such a temperature would not be considered extremely high in an absolute sense.</p><p>The research was conducted in five spatial domains representing different regions of Europe that together cover a large portion of the continent. The period from spring 1950 to winter 2019/2020 was considered using E-OBS gridded dataset v.21.0e. ETEs were analysed from a spatial perspective and were defined as days when the maximum air temperature exceeds the local percentile-based threshold across at least 10% of the area of the given domain. The severity of each ETE was assessed using the Extremity Index (EI) that combines information on the intensity and spatial range of an event. Given that EI is based on relative measures, it enables the comparison of results obtained in different geographic areas and seasons of the year. The main focus of the analysis was on the evaluation of seasonal EI trends and variability, as well as trends of frequency, spatial range, and intensity of ETEs in five spatial domains.</p><p>Climate warming in Europe during the studied 70-year period was accompanied by an increase in the frequency and severity of ETEs expressed in terms of their increasing intensity and spatial range. Yet, as our study demonstrates, every spatial domain is characterized by its own event pattern, and trends across Europe strongly vary geographically and seasonally. Our study highlights that examined trends of temperature extremes are accelerating and in the last 40 years the rate of change has been even more than three times greater than in the entire study period. The greatest changes were noted for summer season in Central Europe and Eastern Europe for the most recent 40-year period.</p>

Place-cell capacity and volatility with grid-like inputs

What factors constrain the arrangement of the multiple fields of a place cell? By modeling place cells as perceptrons that act on multiscale periodic grid-cell inputs, we analytically enumerate a place cell's repertoire - how many field arrangements it can realize without external cues while its grid inputs are unique; and derive its capacity - the spatial range over which it can achieve any field arrangement. We show that the repertoire is very large and relatively noise-robust. However, the repertoire is a vanishing fraction of all arrangements, while capacity scales only as the sum of the grid periods so field arrangements are constrained over larger distances. Thus, grid-driven place field arrangements define a large response scaffold that is strongly constrained by its structured inputs. Finally, we show that altering grid-place weights to generate an arbitrary new place field strongly affects existing arrangements, which could explain the volatility of the place code.

Barrier effects on the spatial distribution of Xylella fastidiosa in Alicante, Spain

Spatial models often assume isotropy and stationarity, implying that spatial dependence is direction invariant and uniform throughout the study area. However, these assumptions are violated when dispersal barriers are present in the form of geographical features or disease control interventions. Despite this, the issue of non-stationarity has been little explored in the context of plant health. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of different barriers in the distribution of the quarantine plant pathogenic bacterium Xylella fastidiosa in the demarcated area in Alicante, Spain. Occurrence data from the official surveys in 2018 were analyzed with four spatial Bayesian hierarchical models: i) a stationary model representing a scenario without any control interventions or geographical features; ii) a model with mountains as physical barriers; iii) a model with a continuous or iv) discontinuous perimeter barrier as control interventions surrounding the infested area. Barriers were assumed to be totally impermeable, so they should be interpreted as areas without host plants and in which it is not possible for infected vectors or propagating plant material to pass through. Inference and prediction were performed through the integrated nested Laplace approximation methodology and the stochastic partial differential equation approach. In the stationary model the posterior mean of the spatial range was 4,030.17 m 95% CI (2,907.41, 5,563.88), meaning that host plants that are closer to an infected plant than this distance would be at risk for X. fastidiosa. This distance can be used to define the buffer zone around the infested area in Alicante. In the non-stationary models, the posterior mean of the spatial range varied from 3,860.88 m 95% CI (2,918.61, 5,212.18) in the mountain barrier model to 6,141.08 m 95% CI (4,296.32, 9,042.99) in the continuous barrier model. Compared with the stationary model, the perimeter barrier models decreased the probability of X. fastidiosa presence in the area outside the barrier. Differences between the discontinuous and continuous barrier models showed that breaks in areas with low sampling intensity resulted in a higher probability of X. fastidiosa presence. These results may help authorities prioritize the areas for surveillance and implementation of control measures.

Spatio-Temporal Representativeness of Air Quality Monitoring Stations in Mexico City: Implications for Public Health

Assessment of the air quality in metropolitan areas is a major challenge in environmental sciences. Issues related include the distribution of monitoring stations, their spatial range, or missing information. In Mexico City, stations have been located spanning the entire Metropolitan zone for pollutants, such as CO, NO2, O3, SO2, PM2.5, PM10, NO, NOx, and PMCO. A fundamental question is whether the number and location of such stations are adequate to optimally cover the city. By analyzing spatio-temporal correlations for pollutant measurements, we evaluated the distribution and performance of monitoring stations in Mexico City from 2009 to 2018. Based on our analysis, air quality evaluation of those contaminants is adequate to cover the 16 boroughs of Mexico City, with the exception of SO2, since its spatial range is shorter than the one needed to cover the whole surface of the city. We observed that NO and NOx concentrations must be taken into account since their long-range dispersion may have relevant consequences for public health. With this approach, we may be able to propose policy based on systematic criteria to locate new monitoring stations.

Application of spaced system of laser interferometers and tiltmeters for sharing the earthquakes precursory events

Our previous investigations evidently show that synchronous observation of global atmosphere and lithosphere disturbances by means of 130-1,600 km spatially distributed precise instruments is the effective method of detecting precursors of large seismic events and other dangerous natural phenomena. This study expands the spatial range of our search up to 7,000-8,000 km and allows regional and global disturbances to be shared.

Turystyfikacja zasobów mieszkaniowych historycznych dzielnic śródmiejskich. Przykład Krakowa

Previously a domain of tourism studies, ‘tourismification’ (or ‘touristification’) has now becomepresent in urban studies. Although diverse empirical descriptions of the phenomenon and processes oftourismification are still dominant, the article presents the stages of the development of the studies in thisarea. The contemporary debate focuses on the consequences and externalities of the development of tourism in cities (new both in terms of the forms and the range). Special attention is given to tourismification of housing resources, which – as demonstrated on the example of Krakow’s city centre district – transforms them both visibly and invisibly. The spatial range of these changes is growing not only horizontally, but also vertically. These changes occur in accordance with various sequences and mechanisms. In spite of the context dependence of tourismification and different susceptibility of urban environments to it, for many, especially historic, cities it has become ‘the sign of the times’ in the second decade of the 21st century. At the same time, tourismification can be seen as a cause, tool or consequence of various interrelated processes observed in contemporary cities.