Influences of local weather, large-scale climatic drivers, and the ca. 11 year solar cycle on lake ice breakup dates; 1905–2004

We investigate the temporal patterns in inter-annual variability in ice breakup dates for Lakes Mendota and Monona, Wisconsin, between 1905 and 2004. We analyze the contributions of long-term trends attributed to climate change, local weather, indices of sunspots, and large-scale climatic drivers, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and El Niňo Southern Ocean Index (ENSO) on time series of lake-ice breakup. The relative importance of the aforementioned explanatory variables was assessed using linear regression and variation partitioning models accounting for cyclic temporal dynamics as represented by Moran Eigenvector Maps (MEM). Model results explain an average of 58 % of the variation in ice breakup dates. A combination of the long-term linear trends, rain and snowfall in the month prior to breakup, air temperature in the winter prior to breakup, cyclic dynamics associated with sunspot numbers, ENSO, and for Lake Mendota, NAO, all significantly influence the timing of ice breakup. Significant cycle lengths were 3.5, 9, 11, and 50 years. Despite their proximity, Lakes Mendota and Monona exhibit differences in how and which explanatory variables were incorporated into the models. Our results indicate that lake ice dynamics are complex in both lakes and multiple interacting processes explain the residuals around the linear warming trends that characterize lake ice records.     

Exploring pathways for sustainable water management in river deltas in a changing environment

Exploring adaptation pathways into an uncertain future can support decisionmaking in achieving sustainable water management in a changing environment. Our objective is to develop and test a method to identify such pathways by including dynamics from natural variability and the interaction between the water system and society. Present planning studies on long-term water management often use a few plausible futures for one or two projection years, ignoring the dynamic aspect of adaptation through the interaction between the water system and society. Our approach is to explore pathways using multiple realisations of transient scenarios with an Integrated Assessment Meta Model (IAMM). This paper presents the first application of the method using a hypothetical case study. The case study shows how to explore and evaluate adaptation pathways. With the pathways it is possible to identify opportunities, threats, timing and sequence of policy options, which can be used by policymakers to develop water management roadmaps into the future. By including the dynamics between the water system and society, the influence of uncertainties in both systems becomes clearer. The results show, among others, that climate variability rather than climate change appears to be important for taking decisions in water management.     

Intra-seasonal rainfall and piped water revenue variability in rural Africa

Rainfall patterns influence water usage and revenue from user payments in rural Africa. We explore these dynamics by examining monthly rainfall against 4,888 records of rural piped water revenue in Ghana, Rwanda, and Uganda and quantifying revenue changes over 635 transitions between dry and wet seasons.Results show operators experience revenue variability at regional and intra-seasonal scales. Revenues fall by an average of 30 percent during the wettest months of the year in climate regimes with consistent wet season rainfall. However, seasonally stable revenues are observed in areas where consecutive dry days are common during the wet season, potentially reflecting a dependency on reliable services. We also find changes in tariff level, waterpoint connection type, and payment approach do not consistently prevent or increase seasonal revenue variability.Local revenue generation underpins delivery of drinking water services. Where rainfall patterns remain consistent, piped water operators can expect to encounter seasonal revenue reductions regardless of whether services are provided on or off premises and of how services are paid for. Revenue projections that assume consistent volumetric demand year-round may lead to shortfalls that threaten sustainability and undermine the case for future investment. Intra-seasonal rainfall analysis can enhance rural piped water revenue planning by offering localised insight into demand dynamics and revealing where climate variability may increase dependency on reliable services.     

Long-term changes of climate and hydrological regime in the Baltic region and their causes

A complex analysis is made of the variability of climatic, hydrological, and oceanological processes and environmental factors in the Baltic Sea region in the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century. The cause-and-effect relations between the climate dynamics over the North Atlantic and hydrometeorological conditions in the Baltic basin are established. Different variants of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) indices were used as an atmospheric circulation intensity measure.     

Local air temperature tolerance: a sensible basis for estimating climate variability

The customary representation of climate using sample moments is generally biased due to the noticeably nonstationary behaviour of many climate series. In this study, we introduce a moment-free climate representation based on a statistical model fitted to a long-term daily air temperature anomaly series. This model allows us to separate the climate and weather scale variability in the series. As a result, the climate scale can be characterized using the mean annual cycle of series and local air temperature tolerance, where the latter is computed using the fitted model. The representation of weather scale variability is specified using the frequency and the range of outliers based on the tolerance. The scheme is illustrated using five long-term air temperature records observed by different European meteorological stations.     

Response of inland lake dynamics over the Tibetan Plateau to climate change

The water balance of inland lakes on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) involves complex hydrological processes; their dynamics over recent decades is a good indicator of changes in water cycle under rapid global warming. Based on satellite images and extensive field investigations, we demonstrate that a coherent lake growth on the TP interior (TPI) has occurred since the late 1990s in response to a significant global climate change. Closed lakes on the TPI varied heterogeneously during 1976–1999, but expanded coherently and significantly in both lake area and water depth during 1999–2010. Although the decreased potential evaporation and glacier mass loss may contribute to the lake growth since the late 1990s, the significant water surplus is mainly attributed to increased regional precipitation, which, in turn, may be related to changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation, including the intensified Northern Hemisphere summer monsoon (NHSM) circulation and the poleward shift of the Eastern Asian westerlies jet stream.     

Impact of Climate Change and Variability on Irrigation Requirements: A Global Perspective

Anthropogenic climate change does not only affect water resources but also water demand. Future water and food security will depend, among other factors, on the impact of climate change on water demand for irrigation. Using a recently developed global irrigation model, with a spatial resolution of 0.5° by 0.5°, we present the first global analysis of the impact of climate change and climate variability on irrigation water requirements. We compute how long-term average irrigation requirements might change under the climatic conditions of the 2020s and the 2070s, as provided by two climate models, and relate these changes to the variations in irrigation requirements caused by long-term and interannual climate variability in the 20th century. Two-thirds of the global area equipped for irrigation in 1995 will possibly suffer from increased water requirements, and on up to half of the total area (depending on the measure of variability), the negative impact of climate change is more significant than that of climate variability.     

Climate change alters growing season flux dynamics in mesic grasslands

Changing climate could affect the functioning of grassland ecosystems through variation in climate forcings and by altering the interactions of forcings with ecological processes. Both the short and long-term effects of changing forcings and ecosystem interactions are a critical part of future impacts to ecosystem ecology and hydrology. To explore these interactions and identify possible characteristics of climate change impacts to mesic grasslands, we employ a low-dimensional modeling framework to assess the IPCC A1B scenario projections for the Central Plains of the United States; forcings include increased precipitation variability, increased potential evaporation, and earlier growing season onset. These forcings are also evaluated by simulations of vegetation photosynthetic capacity to explore the seasonal characteristics of the vegetation carbon assimilation response for species at the Konza Prairie in North Central Kansas, USA. The climate change simulations show decreases in mean annual soil moisture and and carbon assimilation and increased variation in water and carbon fluxes during the growing season. Simulations of the vegetation response show increased variation at the species-level instead of at a larger class scale, with important heterogeneity in how individual species respond to climate forcings. Understanding the drivers and relationships behind these ecosystem responses is important for understanding the likely scale of climate change impacts and for exploring the mechanisms shaping growing season dynamics in grassland ecosystems.     

Climate change drives coherent trends in physics and oxygen content in North American lakes

Using a 25-year record of monitoring data, we show that recent climate change has affected the thermal properties and oxygen content of seven lakes in south-central Ontario, Canada, and five lakes in north-central Wisconsin, USA. Coherent patterns in autumnal lake warming were driven by increased autumn air temperature in both lake districts. Temperature increases were restricted to the epilimnion and metalimnion of the lakes, resulting in increased thermal stability of the water column. Mixing depths also decreased over the study period. Shallower mixing depths in the Ontario lakes were due to climate-driven increases in lake-water dissolved organic carbon concentrations. Collectively, changes in the thermal regime of the lakes suggest autumn mixing of the water column may be delayed. Metalimnetic oxygen also increased in the Wisconsin lakes, perhaps in response to increased algal production as lake thermal regimes changed. The response of individual lakes to climate change was modified by lake chemistry in the Ontario lake district and by lake chemistry and morphometry in the Wisconsin lake district. Our results demonstrate coherent lake response to climate change and highlight the importance of both regional and local factors in regulating individual lake response to global climate change.     

Modulation of El Nino-Southern Oscillation by Freshwater Flux and Salinity Variability in the Tropical Pacific

The El Nin o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is modulated by many factors; most previous studies have emphasized the roles of wind stress and heat flux in the tropical Pacific. Freshwater flux (FWF) is another environmental forcing to the ocean; its effect and the related ocean salinity variability in the ENSO region have been of increased interest recently. Currently, accurate quantifications of the FWF roles in the climate remain challenging; the related observations and coupled ocean-atmosphere modeling involve large elements of uncertainty. In this study, we utilized satellite-based data to represent FWF-induced feedback in the tropical Pacific climate system; we then incorporated these data into a hybrid coupled ocean-atmosphere model (HCM) to quantify its effects on ENSO. A new mechanism was revealed by which interannual FWF forcing modulates ENSO in a significant way. As a direct forcing, FWF exerts a significant influence on the ocean through sea surface salinity (SSS) and buoyancy flux (Q B ) in the western-central tropical Pacific. The SSS perturbations directly induced by ENSO-related interannual FWF variability affect the stability and mixing in the upper ocean. At the same time, the ENSO-induced FWF has a compensating effect on heat flux, acting to reduce interannual Q B variability during ENSO cycles. These FWF-induced processes in the ocean tend to modulate the vertical mixing and entrainment in the upper ocean, enhancing cooling during La Nin a and enhancing warming during El Nin o, respectively. The interannual FWF forcing-induced positive feedback acts to enhance ENSO amplitude and lengthen its time scales in the tropical Pacific coupled climate system.     

Climate change at the ecosystem scale: a 50-year record in New Hampshire

Observing the full range of climate change impacts at the local scale is difficult. Predicted rates of change are often small relative to interannual variability, and few locations have sufficiently comprehensive long-term records of environmental variables to enable researchers to observe the fine-scale patterns that may be important to understanding the influence of climate change on biological systems at the taxon, community, and ecosystem levels. We examined a 50-year meteorological and hydrological record from the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) in New Hampshire, an intensively monitored Long-Term Ecological Research site. Of the examined climate metrics, trends in temperature were the most significant (ranging from 0.7 to 1.3 °C increase over 40–50 year records at 4 temperature stations), while analysis of precipitation and hydrologic data yielded mixed results. Regional records show generally similar trends over the same time period, though longer-term (70–102 year) trends are less dramatic. Taken together, the results from HBEF and the regional records indicate that the climate has warmed detectably over 50 years, with important consequences for hydrological processes. Understanding effects on ecosystems will require a diversity of metrics and concurrent ecological observations at a range of sites, as well as a recognition that ecosystems have existed in a directionally changing climate for decades, and are not necessarily in equilibrium with the current climate.     

Oscillatory dynamics do not mask linear trends in the timing of ice breakup for Northern Hemisphere lakes from 1855 to 2004

Our analyses partition the relative influence of progressive climate change and large-scale climate drivers that can be associated with the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO), El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), solar sunspot cycle, and multi-decadal oscillations on lake ice breakup dates for thirteen Northern Hemisphere lakes. Oscillatory dynamics explain 26 % of the total variance in the time series compared with 15 % for linear trends, leaving 60 % unexplained and likely attributable, in part, to local weather. Significant oscillatory dynamics include frequencies in 2–3 year periods (9.4 % of the total variance), 3–6 year periods (8.2 %), 10–12 year periods (1.6 %) and various multidecadal periods (0.4–1.3 %). All 13 study lakes, although widely scattered in the Northern Hemisphere, had similar oscillatory dynamics and linear trends, emphasizing that global processes influence lake ice breakup locally. We illustrate that while quasi-periodic dynamics associated with large-scale climate drivers are important, they do not mask the clear evidence for progressive climate change.     

土地利用和土地覆盖变化对气候系统影响的研究进展

土地利用和土地覆盖变化（LUCC或LULCC）不仅对人类赖以生存的地球环境有重要影响,同时与人类福祉密切联系。人类活动对气候的强迫不仅包括温室气体排放导致的气候变暖,还通过直接改变地表物理性状以及间接改变其他生物地球物理过程和生物地球化学过程等对气候系统产生深刻影响。作者在此认识的基础上回顾了LUCC对气候系统影响的研究历史,结合新近的研究结果归纳了诸如森林砍伐、城市化、修坝等LUCC活动在区域和全球尺度的气候效应。LUCC具有高度的空间异质性,因此气候系统对它的反馈也具有明显的空间差异。由于全球平均后变化幅度相对区域上的小,LUCC对区域气候影响显著,而对全球气候影响不明显。它对区域气候的影响取决于反照率、蒸散发效率和地表粗糙率等变化的综合效应：在热带地区LUCC主要引起温度升高,在高纬度地区使温度下降。在全球尺度上LUCC导致气候的变暖主要通过减少蒸散发和潜热通量引起陆表水循环的改变,其次通过改变地表反照率导致辐射强迫改变。最后指出目前LUCC在气候变化学科中的研究所存在的问题。在此基础上提出了未来的研究首先需要评估的3个气候指标,并提倡多学科间的相互合作。     

From headwater tributaries to international river: Observing and adapting to climate variability and change in the Nile basin

Egypt is almost totally dependent upon water that originates from the upstream headwaters of the Nile in the humid Ethiopian and East African highlands. Analysis of rainfall and river flow records during the 20th century demonstrates high levels of interannual and interdecadal variability. This is experienced locally and regionally in the headwater regions of the Nile and internationally through its effects on downstream Nile flows in Sudan and Egypt. Examples of climate variability are presented from areas in the basin where it exerts a strong influence on society; the Ethiopian highlands (links with food security), Lake Victoria (management of non-stationary lake levels) and Egypt (exposure to interdecadal variability of Nile flows). These examples reveal adaptations across various scales by individuals and institutions acting alongside other social and economic considerations.Water resources management in the downstream riparian Egypt has involved institutional level reactive adaptations to prolonged periods of low and high Nile flows. Observed responses include the establishment of more robust contingency planning and early warning systems alongside strategic assessment of water use and planning in response to low flows during the 1980s. In the 1990s high flows have enabled Egypt to pursue opportunistic policies to expand irrigation. These policies are embedded in wider socio-political and economic considerations but increase Egypt's exposure and sensitivity to climate driven fluctuations in Nile flows. Analysis of climate change projections for the region shows there is no clear indication of how Nile flows will be affected because of uncertainty about future rainfall patterns in the basin. In many instances the most appropriate entry point for adaptation to climate change will be coping with climate variability and will play out against the certainty of looming national water scarcity in Egypt due to rapid population growth and its possible exacerbation by water demands from upstream riparians.     

Economic drivers of migration and climate change in LDCs

Environmental migration is a topic which has given rise to widespread debate and gloomy predictions about the state of the world in 2050, but where rigorous research and empirical evidence are unfortunately in short supply. In this paper, we review the existing research on and empirical evidence of how climate change and climate variability in Less Developed Countries (LDCs) affects two main drivers of migration identified by migration models in the economic literature, namely income level differentials between origin and destination areas and income variability in origin areas, and how they in turn affect migration. We find that there are serious gaps in both the economic and the environmental literature that render it impossible to make sound and robust predictions of how climate change and increased climate variability will affect the economic migration drivers, and of how these in turn may change existing migration patterns. There are some empirical indications that income differentials may increase due to lower income levels in the origin areas of LDCs, but virtually no evidence exists of the effects of climate change or increased climate variability on income variability. Furthermore, although a negative relationship between migration and rainfall has been established by many researchers, there is only very limited evidence as to what drives it. A clearer picture of the driving force behind the link between rainfall and migration would greatly benefit policymaking in this area.     

Inter-annual temperature and precipitation variations over the Litani Basin in response to atmospheric circulation patterns

This study examines the sensitivity of a mid-size basin’s temperature and precipitation response to different global and regional climate circulation patterns. The implication of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), El Ni?o Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Indian Monsoon and ten other teleconnection patterns of the Northern Hemisphere are investigated. A methodology to generate a basin-scale, long-term monthly surface temperature and precipitation time series has been established using different statistical tests. The Litani River Basin is the focus of this study. It is located in Lebanon, east of the Mediterranean Basin, which is known to have diverse geophysical and environmental characteristics. It was selected to explore the influence of the diverse physical and topographical features on its hydroclimatological response to global and regional climate patterns. We also examine the opportunity of conducting related studies in areas with limited long-term measured climate and/or hydrological data. Litani's monthly precipitation and temperature data have been collected and statistically extrapolated using remotely sensed data products from satellites and as well as in situ gauges. Correlations between 13 different teleconnection indices and the basin’s precipitation and temperature series are investigated. The study shows that some of the annual and seasonal temperature and precipitation variance can be partially associated with many atmospheric circulation patterns. This would give the opportunity to relate the natural climate variability with the watershed’s hydroclimatology performance and thus differentiate it from other anthropogenic induced climate change outcomes.     

全球变化背景下多尺度干旱过程及预测研究进展

干旱是一种周期性的气候异常,主要受气候自然变率驱动,具有发展缓慢、持续时间长、影响范围广等特征。然而,气候变化使得干旱不仅有增加趋势,其特征也在发生变化。例如,发展迅速的干旱,也称骤旱,近年来频繁发生。此外,人类活动通过改变陆地水循环,直接或间接地影响干旱过程。在全球变化背景下,干旱机制研究由海-陆-气相互作用影响气象干旱的气候动力学研究扩展到包含干旱传递过程机理认识、考虑区域尺度人类活动影响,面向农业、水利、生态等行业的农业干旱和水文干旱研究,为认识干旱可预报性、发展预测方法带来了新的挑战。本文将针对多尺度干旱过程及预测,讨论相关的研究进展及未来发展方向。     

The influence of the North Atlantic on climate variations in the Barents Sea and their predictability

The effects of Atlantic water inflow on the climate variability in the Barents Sea are studied. Initial data are the series of water temperature at the Kola meridian cross-section, monthly values of ice extent, air temperature at the stations, sea level pressure from the reanalysis data, and sea surface temperature. The methods of multivariate correlation, spectral, and factor analysis and EOF decomposition are used. It was found that variations in the Atlantic water inflow define the main part of interannual variability of sea ice extent, water temperature, and air temperature in the Barents Sea in the cold season. The influence of regional atmospheric circulation on the interannual variability of these parameters is small. The effects that water temperature anomalies in the area of Newfoundland and in the equatorial part of the North Atlantic have on climate parameters in the Barents Sea are discovered. The response of these parameters lags behind the respective anomalies by 9-58 months. The high correlation between them makes it possible to develop the method of statistical forecasting of sea ice extent and water temperature in the Barents Sea with the lead time up to 4 years.     

Adaptation to climate change in Africa: Challenges and opportunities identified from Ethiopia

Africa is widely held to be highly vulnerable to future climate change and Ethiopia is often cited as one of the most extreme examples. With this in mind we seek to identify entry points to integrate short- to medium-term climate risk reduction within development activities in Africa, drawing from experiences in Ethiopia. To achieve this we employ a range of data and methods. We examine the changing nature of climate risks using analysis of recent climate variability, future climate scenarios and their secondary impacts. We assess the effects of climate variability on agricultural production and national GDP. Entry points and knowledge gaps in relation to mainstreaming climate risks in Ethiopia are identified using the Government's plan for poverty reduction. We end with a case study incorporating climate risks through drought insurance within the current social protection programme in Ethiopia, which provides support to 8.3 million people.Rainfall behaviour in Ethiopia shows no marked emergent changes and future climate projections show continued warming but very mixed patterns of rainfall change. Economic analysis highlights sensitivities within the economy to large-scale drought, however, while the effects are clear in major drought years in other years the relationship is weak. For social protection fairly small positive and negative effects on the number of recipients and frequency of cash payments during drought occur under the extreme range of climate model rainfall projections (2020s).Our analysis highlights several important challenges and opportunities for addressing climate risks. Challenges primarily relate to the large uncertainties in climate projections for parts of Africa, a weak evidence base of complex, often non-deterministic, climate-society interactions and institutional issues. Opportunities relate to the potential for low-regrets measures to reduce vulnerability to current climate variability which can be integrated with relatively modest effort within a shift in Africa from a disaster-focused view of climate to a long-term perspective that emphasises livelihood security and vulnerability reduction.     

Malnutrition and conflict in East Africa: the impacts of resource variability on human security

Changes in climate, along with anthropogenic pressures, impact vegetation productivity and related ecosystem services on which human security relies. The impacts of these climate changes on society will be experienced both through changes in mean conditions over long time periods and through increases in extreme events. Uncertainties remain on how short-term changes in ecosystems influence human security. Most studies analyzing the relationship between human security and climate are at the country level, ignoring fine-grained spatial heterogeneity in local climatic and socio-economic conditions. Here, we used detailed spatio-temporal information extracted from wide-swath satellite data (MODIS) to examine the impact of interannual variability in ecosystems on malnutrition and armed conflict in East Africa while controlling for other natural and socio-economic factors. The analysis was performed at a subnational and village scales. At the regional level, ecosystem variability was associated with malnutrition. This relationship was not statistically significant at the village level. At both levels of analysis, our results indicated that armed conflicts were more likely in regions with more vegetation. Results suggested that, in East Africa, increased levels of malnutrition were related to armed conflicts. They also showed the importance, in low-income countries, of local economic activity and accessibility to reduce the likelihood of malnutrition and insecurity.