Complex and nonlinear climate-driven changes in freshwater insect communities over 42 years

The ongoing biodiversity crisis becomes evident in the widely observed decline in abundance and diversity of species, profound changes in community structure, and shifts in species’ phenology. Insects are among the most affected groups, with documented decreases in abundance up to 76% in the last 25–30 years in some terrestrial ecosystems. Identifying the underlying drivers is a major obstacle as most ecosystems are affected by multiple stressors simultaneously and in situ measurements of environmental variables are often missing. In our study, we investigated a headwater stream belonging to the most common stream type in Germany located in a nature reserve with no major anthropogenic impacts except climate change. We used the most comprehensive quantitative long-term data set on aquatic insects available, which includes weekly measurements of species-level insect abundance, daily water temperature and stream discharge as well as measurements of additional physicochemical variables for a 42-year period (1969–2010). Overall, water temperature increased by 1.88 °C and discharge patterns changed significantly. These changes were accompanied by an 81.6% decline in insect abundance, but an increase in richness (+8.5%), Shannon diversity (+22.7%), evenness (+22.4%), and interannual turnover (+34%). Moreover, the community's trophic structure and phenology changed: the duration of emergence increased by 15.2 days, whereas the peak of emergence moved 13.4 days earlier. Additionally, we observed short-term fluctuations (<5 years) in almost all metrics as well as complex and nonlinear responses of the community toward climate change that would have been missed by simply using snapshot data or shorter time series. Our results indicate that climate change has already altered biotic communities severely even in protected areas, where no other interacting stressors (pollution, habitat fragmentation, etc.) are present. This is a striking example of the scientific value of comprehensive long-term data in capturing the complex responses of communities toward climate change.     

Metal Fractionation Studies in Surfacial and Core Sediments in the Achankovil River Basin in India

The Fractionation of Fe, Zn, Cu, Pb, Mn and Cd in the sediments of the Achankovil River, Western Ghats, India using a sequential extraction method was carried out to understand the metal availability in the basin for biotic and abiotic activities. Spatial distribution of heavy metals has been studied. Sediment grain size has significant control over the heavy metal distribution. The fluctuations in their concentration partly depend upon the lithology of the river basin and partly the anthropogenic activities. The sediments are dominated by sand and are moderately to strongly positively skewed and are very leptokurtotic in nature. The quartzite and feldspars are abundant minerals along with significant amount of mica with low clay content. The core sediments show increasing trend of heavy metal concentration with depth due to the recent addition of anthropogenic sources and post-diagenic activities. Significant amount of Cd (18%) was found in carbonate fraction, which may pose environmental problems due to its toxic nature. Small concentrations of metals, except Cd and Cu, are in exchangeable fraction, which indicate low bio-availability. Enrichment Factor (EF) for individual metals shows the contribution from terrregious and in part from anthropogenic sources. Selective Sequential Extraction (SSE) study shows the variation in specific metal distribution pattern, their distribution in different phases and their bio-availability. Maximum amount of the metals were bound to the non-residual fractions (mainly Fe-oxides). Overall, bio-availability of these micronutrients from sediments seems to be very less. Non-residual phase is the most important phase for majority of heavy metals studied. Among the non-residual fraction, maximum amount of the heavy metals bound to Fe-oxides. The study high lights the need for in-depth study of heavy metals distribution and fractionation in the smaller river basins to get precise information on the behavior and transport of heavy metals in the fluvial environment and their contribution to the world ocean.     

Locating Co-presence in Media Messages about Global Warming

This paper responds to recent calls for alternative approaches to the analysis of environmental communication that uncover overlooked voices in the discussion of environmental issues. Borrowing core principles from critical rhetoric, it suggests a way to categorize media messages according to how human–nature relationships are constructed in media discourse. The paper illustrates how, in presenting contrasting and often oppositional constructions of human–nature relationships, the media messages examined articulate three recurrent (but not equal) discourses on global warming. These discourses include (1) nature-as-out-of-reach discourse, (2) nature-as-antagonist discourse, and (3) nature-as-co-present discourse. By juxtaposing these discourses, the paper shows how environmental communication scholars can engage in critical realism and political advocacy to illuminate latent public discourse that holds the potential to champion marginalized voices of nature and accentuate the interconnectedness of humans and the environment.     

Effect of outdoor temperature, heat primes and anchoring on belief in global warming

It is generally acknowledged that global warming is occurring, yet estimates of future climate change vary widely. Given this uncertainty, when asked about climate change, it is likely that people’s judgments may be affected by heuristics and accessible schemas. Three studies evaluated this proposition. Study 1 revealed a significant positive correlation between the outdoor temperature and beliefs in global warming. Study 2 showed that people were more likely to believe in global warming when they had first been primed with heat-related cognitions. Study 3 demonstrated that people were more likely to believe in global warming and more willing to pay to reduce global warming when they had first been exposed to a high vs. a low anchor for future increases in temperature. Together, results reveal that beliefs about global warming (and willingness to take actions to reduce global warming) are influenced by heuristics and accessible schemas. Several practical implications are discussed.     

南京低碳经济定量研究

城市化和工业化产生的碳排放是当今中国影响气候变化的重要因素,经济增长和碳排放之间的关系是当今研究的热点问题.本文研究南京市低碳经济发展的现状、阶段及演化特点,发现30年来,南京市低碳经济发展呈现波动反复的特点,扩张负脱钩3次,较高能源消费的经济增长形式-扩张连接4次,经济发展实现与能源消费较好脱钩的弱负脱钩1次,强脱钩4次,其余为弱脱钩.基于内生经济增长模型Moon-Sonn,建立了南京经济增长预测模型,并探讨了不同发展模式下南京未来50年低碳经济水平及碳排放量演化规律,预测了不同低碳经济水平下南京碳排放量和峰值出现的时间.研究结果显示,按现行经济模式,南京2050-2060年碳总量增加速度逐步减缓,约在2058年左右实现碳总量的负增长.50年内南京市预计为扩张负脱钩和扩张连接,难以实现稳定的离水平低碳经济增长模式;设定最优能源强度参数的模式下,南京迅速实现稳定强脱钩的低碳经济,碳释放量EKC曲线呈现倒U型,2015年左右即达到峰值.综合各种因素,南京近几年将延续模式l的增长模式,在2020年左右实现向模式2转变,其碳释放量约于2028年前后出现峰值.     

Actively Dealing with Climate Change and Striving to Strengthen the Capability of Sustainable Development

Either from the perspective of the finite supply capacity of global resources and energy,or from the perspective of global environment restrictive conditions,developing countries can not repeat the old development road of developed countries,either in view of the international pressure China is currently facing,or in view of China’s own resources endowment and stages of development,we must actively face such a challenge of climate change.We must recognize that the issue of climate change may be a great restraint to the present and future eco-social development,and may also be an important driving force and new opportunity to push forward the transformation of development pattern,to take a new road of industrialization and to realize sustainable development.This demands us,on the one hand,to take the Scientific Outlook of Development as the guide to make efforts to control the emission of greenhouse gases and continuously increase the capability of adapting to climatic change,and set up the overall plan to respond to climate change of our country,and on the other hand,we should unswervingly take the road of sustainable development,save energy,optimize energy structure and strengthen biological protection in slowing and adapting to climate change.     

近49年中国夏季制冷度日数的变化

利用全国531个气象站1960~2008年逐日平均气温资料,分析了近49 a来我国夏季制冷度日数的变化趋势,并以浙江省为例分析了制冷度日数与夏季空调降温电力负荷的关系。主要结论如下：我国日平均温度等于或高于26℃的日数（1971~2000年平均）大于10 d,夏季有制冷需求的站点主要分布在新疆、四川盆地和太行山 巫山 雪峰山一线以东地区,以及云南干热河谷地区。1960~2008年我国黄河以北地区夏季有制冷需求的站点6~9月平均气温从20世纪90年代中期开始呈现出较明显的上升趋势,使得制冷日数和度日数都相应增加;黄河以南、南岭以北地区近49 a来6~9月平均气温线性趋势不明显,制冷度日数变化不大;南岭以南地区6~9月气温持续上升,夏季制冷度日数的增加最为显著。以浙江省为例的分析显示,制冷度日数与夏季空调降温电力负荷有很好的线性相关关系,可以用来预测降温耗电量。
     

Environmental assessment of garden waste management in the Municipality of Aarhus, Denmark

An environmental assessment of six scenarios for handling of garden waste in the Municipality of Aarhus (Denmark) was performed from a life cycle perspective by means of the LCA-model EASEWASTE. In the first (baseline) scenario, the current garden waste management system based on windrow composting was assessed, while in the other five scenarios alternative solutions including incineration and home composting of fractions of the garden waste were evaluated. The environmental profile (normalised to Person Equivalent, PE) of the current garden waste management in Aarhus is in the order of −6 to 8 mPE Mg⁻¹ ww for the non-toxic categories and up to 100 mPE Mg⁻¹ ww for the toxic categories. The potential impacts on non-toxic categories are much smaller than what is found for other fractions of municipal solid waste. Incineration (up to 35% of the garden waste) and home composting (up to 18% of the garden waste) seem from an environmental point of view suitable for diverting waste away from the composting facility in order to increase its capacity. In particular the incineration of woody parts of the garden waste improved the environmental profile of the garden waste management significantly.     

The climate adaptation imperative: local choices targeting global problems?

When confronted with the demands of global climate change, what causes some policy-makers to move the climate adaptation agenda forward in their communities, while others seemingly get little accomplished? To answer this question, we first discuss work on policy-drivers in a coupled human–natural systemic context. This summary review of past research helps us develop a set of competing and complementary explanations for why some communities aggressively pursue climate adaptation policies, while others do less. Following the discussion of policy-drivers, we then undertake an aggregate-level analysis of data collected across the 169 towns in Connecticut regarding climate adaptation, thus linking policy to its fundamental global cause. The quantitative data are augmented with interview data from policy-makers and activists from around the New England region.     

Global warming and environmental production efficiency ranking of the Kyoto Protocol nations

This paper analyzes the United Nations Organization's Kyoto Protocol nations to address two questions. First, what are the environmental production efficiency rankings of these nations? Second, is there a relationship between a nation's ratification status and its environmental production efficiency ranking? Our findings suggest that the nations that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol are more likely to be environmentally production efficient as compared to the nations that have not ratified the Protocol.