Effects of Climate and Land Cover on Hydrology in the Southeastern U.S.: Potential Impacts on Watershed Planning

The hydrologic response to statistically downscaled general circulation model simulations of daily surface climate and land cover through 2099 was assessed for the Apalachicola‐Chattahoochee‐Flint River Basin located in the southeastern United States. Projections of climate, urbanization, vegetation, and surface‐depression storage capacity were used as inputs to the Precipitation‐Runoff Modeling System to simulate projected impacts on hydrologic response. Surface runoff substantially increased when land cover change was applied. However, once the surface depression storage was added to mitigate the land cover change and increases of surface runoff (due to urbanization), the groundwater flow component then increased. For hydrologic studies that include projections of land cover change (urbanization in particular), any analysis of runoff beyond the change in total runoff should include effects of stormwater management practices as these features affect flow timing and magnitude and may be useful in mitigating land cover change impacts on streamflow. Potential changes in water availability and how biota may respond to changes in flow regime in response to climate and land cover change may prove challenging for managers attempting to balance the needs of future development and the environment. However, these models are still useful for assessing the relative impacts of climate and land cover change and for evaluating tradeoffs when managing to mitigate different stressors.     

Modeling Streamflow and Water Quality Sensitivity to Climate Change and Urban Development in 20 U.S. Watersheds

Watershed modeling in 20 large, United States (U.S.) watersheds addresses gaps in our knowledge of streamflow, nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus), and sediment loading sensitivity to mid‐21st Century climate change and urban/residential development scenarios. Use of a consistent methodology facilitates regional scale comparisons across the study watersheds. Simulations use the Soil and Water Assessment Tool. Climate change scenarios are from the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program dynamically downscaled climate model output. Urban and residential development scenarios are from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Integrated Climate and Land Use Scenarios project. Simulations provide a plausible set of streamflow and water quality responses to mid‐21st Century climate change across the U.S. Simulated changes show a general pattern of decreasing streamflow volume in the central Rockies and Southwest, and increases on the East Coast and Northern Plains. Changes in pollutant loads follow a similar pattern but with increased variability. Ensemble mean results suggest that by the mid‐21st Century, statistically significant changes in streamflow and total suspended solids loads (relative to baseline conditions) are possible in roughly 30‐40% of study watersheds. These proportions increase to around 60% for total phosphorus and total nitrogen loads. Projected urban/residential development, and watershed responses to development, are small at the large spatial scale of modeling in this study.     

Governing Quasi-Public Network Services for adaptation to climate change

Adaptation takes place in both private and public sectors, or as an interrelation between the two, and often under the realm of public regulation. Thispaper uses the Swedish and the Norwegian electricity grid sector, as providers of a vital public good under strict public regulation, to analyse reforms' effects on adaptive capacity in this area. The paper shows that transformational changes in both sectors during the 1990s shifted both the formal organisational structure (rules and regulations), as well as the organisational culture, in the direction of economic efficiency. These two dimensions individually reduced adaptive capacity to climate change, although differently in the two countries. However, the formal structure and organisational culture also yielded substantial influence on each other. This leads to the conclusion that when designing public regulations and implementing reforms, organisational culture must be considered in the design. Also the paper contests previous findings in the literature by showing that under given conditions there exist some substitution between the two dimensions in influencing adaptive capacity, implying that both dimensions should be included when analysing adaptation since analysing them in isolation is likely to lead to wrong conclusions.     

Mainstreaming climate change adaptation at the local level

National authorities in many countries aim at having climate change adaptation mainstreamed into existing policy domains in order to achieve coherence and synergies, and to avoid mal-adaptation. Because of local variations in climate change impacts, the lion's share of climate adaptation work will have to take place at the local level. This means also that the mainstreaming process needs to occur locally. This article examines the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation into existing sectors in five Norwegian municipalities. Applying theories of mainstreaming and policy integration we find that policy development is slower, but perhaps more robust in the municipalities that have chosen a horizontal, cross-sectoral approach to mainstreaming than in the municipalities that have chosen a vertical sector approach to mainstreaming.     

New York City Environmental Justice Alliance Waterfront Justice Project

This paper reviews key challenges and opportunities addressed by the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance's (NYC-EJA) Waterfront Justice Project, a citywide campaign to promote climate resilience and sustainability in urban industrial waterfront communities of New York City. NYC-EJA is a non-profit membership-driven network linking grassroots organisations from low-income neighbourhoods and communities of colour in their struggle for environmental justice. The Waterfront Justice Project is documenting community vulnerability in the context of climate change impacts, sources of industrial pollution, and demographic and socio-economic trends. This campaign is enabling community-based organisations, environmental justice communities, city planners, local and state government agencies, local business-owners, and other stakeholders to work in partnership to achieve community resilience while advocating for local jobs and promoting best practices in pollution prevention. New York City's waterfront policies ease the siting and clustering of public infrastructure, water pollution control plants, waste transfer stations, energy facilities, and heavy manufacturing uses in six areas designated as Significant Maritime and Industrial Areas (SMIAs). The SMIAs are located in environmental justice communities, largely low-income communities and communities of colour, in the South Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. New York City's local waterfront land use and zoning policies create cumulative risk exposure not only to residents and workers in the host waterfront communities, but also, in the event of storm surge or sea-level rise, to neighbouring, upland communities.     

生物炭对土壤水肥热效应的影响试验研究

本文通过野外大田小区试验以番茄（Lycopersicon esculentum Mill）为供试作物,通过在土壤中施加不同含量生物炭（Biochar）研究生物炭对土壤含水率、有机碳、速效养分含量和土壤温度的影响,从而寻求一个较为合适的施用量,为生物炭在内蒙古地区的大面积推广提供科学的理论依据。试验共设5个处理,3个重复：不施加生物炭（CK）,生物炭使用量分别为10 t·hm^-2（A）,20 t·hm^-2（B）,40 t·hm^-2（C）,60 t·hm^-2（D）,在各生育期取土样测定土壤含水率、有机碳、速效养分含量,并在各生育期连续3天测定土壤地表温度。试验结果表明：不同处理下土壤含水率随生物炭施用量增加呈先增加后减小的趋势,且均高于对照组,其中施炭量为40 t·hm^-2处理的土壤含水率增幅最明显,0～10 cm土层各生育期土壤含水率较对照组最大增幅分别为20.8%、13.7%、21.8%,10～20 cm土层各生育期土壤含水率较对照组最大增幅分别为33.9%、17.1%、21.3%;不同处理下土壤温度随着生物炭施用量的增加而升高,两者具有显著的正相关关系,各生育期各处理土壤地表温度较对照组最大增幅分别为58.1%、31.3%、55.8%;不同处理土壤有机碳含量随着生物炭施用量的增加而增大,番茄各生育期各处理土壤有机碳含量较对照组最大增幅分别为80.9%、62.7%、63.9%;不同处理土壤中碱解氮、速效钾、速效磷含量均随生物炭施用量的增加而呈现先增大后减小的趋势,且均大于对照组,各生育期各处理土壤碱解氮较对照组最大增幅分别为92.7%、45.7%、106.5%,速效磷最大增幅分别为120.1%、39.3%、250.4%,速效钾最大增幅分别为86.2%、118.5%、203.4%。综上所述,生物炭对于砂壤土具有保水、保肥、保温的特性,对于提高土壤水肥利用效率,增加土壤有机碳具有重要的作用,而且通过试验验证40 t·hm^-2的施?     

近53年山东省霾季节性特征的年代际变异

为了进一步认识山东省霾日长期变化特征,从而为政府决策和空气质量预报提供科学依据,基于山东省80 个气象站53 年（1961-2013）的观测资料分析,利用多项式及线性回归拟合、定义表示随季节和年际变化程度的变量如季节变化率、年际变化率等多种统计方法分析了近53 年来山东省霾日季节性的年际、年代际长期变化及空间分布规律,结果表明,山东上个世纪明显的冬季霾高发的典型季节性特征演变为本世纪模糊的季节差异,即霾多发时段随年际增长逐渐由冬季蔓延至秋季,夏季和春季.全省平均霾日的季节变率从60 年代的84.0%,70-80 年代的72.4%~73.6%,到90 年代跌至56.4%,而在本世纪的13 年低达42.3%,体现了山东霾日变化季节性的年代际特征,即近53 年季节差异在不断减小,霾趋于常年化发生的大气污染事件.霾日季节性的空间分布及年际变化特征还表明：近53 年山东霾日呈持续上升趋势,1990 年之前呈显著的增长趋势,1990 年之后上升缓慢,但维持霾高发的水平.霾日高发区域主要集中在济南地区,济宁-泰安-莱芜一带,枣庄-临沂一带,青岛地区和聊城西部地区,其中,高中心依次为济南的80.9 d·a^-1,临沂的78.2 d·a^-1 和青岛的69.0 d·a^-1.山东中东部的霾日年增长率整体高于西部地区,鲁中、鲁南及半岛南部地区是霾日年际增长高值区.山东省霾日年际变化趋势以夏季增长率最高,大部分地区的年际增长率都在4.5%·a^-1 以上,其次是秋季、春季霾日年际变化趋势,冬季霾日年际变化趋势普遍增长率最低,且大部分地区的变化率值为1.5%·a^-1 以上,近53 年来山东大部分地区出现了霾日模糊季节性变异.     

Conservation implications of anthropogenic impacts on visual communication and camouflage

Anthropogenic environmental impacts can disrupt the sensory environment of animals and affect important processes from mate choice to predator avoidance. Currently, these effects are best understood for auditory and chemosensory modalities, and recent reviews highlight their importance for conservation. We examined how anthropogenic changes to the visual environment (ambient light, transmission, and backgrounds) affect visual communication and camouflage and considered the implications of these effects for conservation. Human changes to the visual environment can increase predation risk by affecting camouflage effectiveness, lead to maladaptive patterns of mate choice, and disrupt mutualistic interactions between pollinators and plants. Implications for conservation are particularly evident for disrupted camouflage due to its tight links with survival. The conservation importance of impaired visual communication is less documented. The effects of anthropogenic changes on visual communication and camouflage may be severe when they affect critical processes such as pollination or species recognition. However, when impaired mate choice does not lead to hybridization, the conservation consequences are less clear. We suggest that the demographic effects of human impacts on visual communication and camouflage will be particularly strong when human‐induced modifications to the visual environment are evolutionarily novel (i.e., very different from natural variation); affected species and populations have low levels of intraspecific (genotypic and phenotypic) variation and behavioral, sensory, or physiological plasticity; and the processes affected are directly related to survival (camouflage), species recognition, or number of offspring produced, rather than offspring quality or attractiveness. Our findings suggest that anthropogenic effects on the visual environment may be of similar importance relative to conservation as anthropogenic effects on other sensory modalities.     

Using environmental heterogeneity to plan for sea‐level rise

Environmental heterogeneity is increasingly being used to select conservation areas that will provide for future biodiversity under a variety of climate scenarios. This approach, termed conserving nature's stage (CNS), assumes environmental features respond to climate change more slowly than biological communities, but will CNS be effective if the stage were to change as rapidly as the climate? We tested the effectiveness of using CNS to select sites in salt marshes for conservation in coastal Georgia (U.S.A.), where environmental features will change rapidly as sea level rises. We calculated species diversity based on distributions of 7 bird species with a variety of niches in Georgia salt marshes. Environmental heterogeneity was assessed across six landscape gradients (e.g., elevation, salinity, and patch area). We used 2 approaches to select sites with high environmental heterogeneity: site complementarity (environmental diversity [ED]) and local environmental heterogeneity (environmental richness [ER]). Sites selected based on ER predicted present‐day species diversity better than randomly selected sites (up to an 8.1% improvement), were resilient to areal loss from SLR (1.0% average areal loss by 2050 compared with 0.9% loss of randomly selected sites), and provided habitat to a threatened species (0.63 average occupancy compared with 0.6 average occupancy of randomly selected sites). Sites selected based on ED predicted species diversity no better or worse than random and were not resilient to SLR (2.9% average areal loss by 2050). Despite the discrepancy between the 2 approaches, CNS is a viable strategy for conservation site selection in salt marshes because the ER approach was successful. It has potential for application in other coastal areas where SLR will affect environmental features, but its performance may depend on the magnitude of geological changes caused by SLR. Our results indicate that conservation planners that had heretofore excluded low‐lying coasts from CNS planning could include coastal ecosystems in regional conservation strategies.     

气候变化对太岳山中部油松单萜烯排放的影响

以全球气候模式NorESM1-M产生的RCP2.6,RCP4.5,RCP6.0和RCP8.5气候变化情景数据和植物VOCs排放计算模型,模拟分析了气候变化对山西太岳山中部油松叶片单萜烯排放速率的影响.结果显示,未来气候变化影响下山西太岳山中部气温呈上升趋势,降水和辐射强度波动大.在RCP2.6,RCP4.5,RCP6.0和RCP8.5情景与基准情景下,油松单萜烯日排放速率在1~210d呈上升趋势,在210~365d呈下降趋势;在未来气候变化情景下比基准情景下高约2μg/（g·d）,在RCP8.5情景下最高;油松单萜烯日排放速率在未来气候变化情景与基准情景下差异在1~95d和296~365d较小,在96~295d波动较大.同时,相比基准情景,单萜烯日排放速率增幅在1~190d较高（增加12%~14%以上）,在191~315d较小（增加9%~13%以上）,在316~365d增加12%~18%以上,在RCP8.5情景下增幅最大（增加14%以上）.另外,油松单萜烯年排放速率在未来气候变化情景下比基准情景下平均高约1000μg/（g·a）以上,在RCP8.5情景下增幅最大（约12%）.说明,未来气候变化将使油松单萜烯排放速率增加.