What drives national adaptation? A global assessment

That the climate is changing and societies will have to adapt is now unequivocal, with adaptation becoming a core focus of climate policy. Our understanding of the challenges, needs, and opportunities for climate change adaptation has advanced significantly in recent years yet remains limited. Research has identified and theorized key determinants of adaptive capacity and barriers to adaptation, and more recently begun to track adaptation in practice. Despite this, there is negligible research investigating whether and indeed if adaptive capacity is translating into actual adaptation action. Here we test whether theorized determinants of adaptive capacity are associated with adaptation policy outcomes at the national level for 117 nations. We show that institutional capacity, in particular measures of good governance, are the strongest predictors of national adaptation policy. Adaptation at the national level is limited in countries with poor governance, and in the absence of good governance other presumed determinants of adaptive capacity show limited effect on adaptation. Our results highlight the critical importance of institutional good governance as a prerequisite for national adaptation. Other elements of theorized adaptive capacity are unlikely to be sufficient, effective, or present at the national level where national institutions and governance are poor.     

Enthalpy effects associated with Al/Si ordering in anhydrous Mg-cordierite

Measurements of the heats of solution (ΔH_soln) in molten Pb₂B₂O₅ at 708°C of anhydrous magnesian cordierites, prepared with a range of structural states, show that the enthalpy effect associated with Al/Si ordering is substantial (? 9.76 ± 1.56 kcal mole^?1). Differences in the state of order between synthetic cordierites used in phase equilibrium studies and cordierites in the natural environment could lead to significant errors in the estimation of palaeo-pressures and temperatures. A continuous change of ΔH_soln with annealing time supports the suggestion of putnis (1980) that the hexagonal → orthorhombic transformation in cordierite, which can occur via a modulated structure, is truly continuous under metastable conditions. In addition, a linear relation between ΔH_soln and the logarithm of annealing time has been found, which provides some insight into the nature of the ordering mechanisms at an atomic level. Al and Si exchanges occur continuously between neighbouring tetrahedral sites with a net drift towards increasing order. No kinetic or thermochemical distinction can be made between the development of long range and short range order.The enthalpy of vitrification (~ 12 kcal mole^?1) for a metastable stuffed β-quartz polymorph of cordierite composition is similar to that for pure quartz (on a per two oxygen basis), while the heat of vitrification for even the most disordered cordierite seen in this study is more than a factor of three greater (~40 kcal mole^?1). This is consistent with the view that cordierite glass resembles the quartz structure more closely than the crystalline cordierite structure, and that crystallisation of the glass below ~900°C is controlled by a tetrahedral framework.     

Calorimetric study of high-pressure polymorphs of MnSiO3

With increasing pressure, MnSiO₃ rhodonite stable at atmospheric pressure transforms to pyroxmangite, then to clinopyroxene and further to tetragonal garnet, which finally decomposes into MnO (rocksalt) plus SiO₂ (stishovite). High temperature solution calorimetry of synthetic rhodonite, clinopyroxene and garnet forms of MnSiO₃ was used to measure the enthalpies of these transitions. ΔH ₉₇₄ ⁰ for the rhodonite-clinopyroxene and ΔH ₂₉₈ ⁰ for the clinopyroxene-garnet transition are 520±490 and 8,270±590 cal/mol, respectively. The published data on the enthalpy of the rhodonite-pyroxmangite transition, phase equilibrium boundaries, compressibility and thermal expansion data are used to calculate entropy changes for the transitions. The enthalpy, entropy and volume changes are very small for all the transitions among rhodonite, pyroxmangite and clinopyroxene. The calculated boundary for the clinopyroxene-garnet transition is consistent with the published experimental results. The pyroxene-garnet transition in several materials, including MnSiO₃, is characterized by a relatively small negative entropy change and large volume decrease, resulting in a small positiveP – T slope. The disproportionation of MnSiO₃ garnet to MnO plus stishovite and of Mn₂SiO₄ olivine to garnet plus MnO are calculated to occur at about 17–18 and 14–15 GPa, respectively, at 1,000–1,500 K.     

Energetics of nanoparticle oxides: interplay between surface energy and polymorphism†

Many oxides tend to form different structures (polymorphs) for small particles. High temperature oxide melt solution calorimetry has been used to measure the enthalpy as a function of polymorphism and surface area for oxides of Al, Ti, and Zr. The results confirm crossovers in polymorph stability at the nanoscale. The energies of internal and external surfaces of zeolitic silicas with open framework structures are an order of magnitude smaller than those of oxides of normal density.     

Thermodynamics of element partitioning: (1) Systematics of transition metals in crystalline and molten silicates and (2) Defect chemistry and “the Henry's law problem”

The distribution of Mg, Mn, Fe, Co and Ni among olivine, orthopyroxene, calcic clinopyroxene and liquid can be described by exchange reactions of the form: M (phase A) + Mg (phase B) = M (phase B) + Mg (phase A). The thermochemical data predict the observed partitioning within the limits of error of both sets of data when assumptions of ideal solid solution are used, except for Mn-Mg exchange. Because ΔS and ΔV for these exchange reactions are generally small, K_D varies relatively little with temperature and pressure, although individual ion distribution coefficients (D values) are more sensitive to these variables and to changing liquid composition.Trace elements present at the ppm level can enter crystals in normal lattice sites, can participate in point defect equilibria and can enter various defect sites present metastably in the crystal as a result of its P,T history. Metastable defect equilibria, in which the number of sites (grain boundaries, surfaces, intergrowths, etc.) is fixed, can lead to enhanced trace element solubility in the crystal at very low concentrations and thus to apparent deviations from Henry's law.     

Surface studies of water isotopes in Antarctica for quantitative interpretation of deep ice core data

Polar ice cores are unique climate archives. Indeed, most of them have a continuous stratigraphy and present high temporal resolution of many climate variables in a single archive. While water isotopic records (δD or δ¹⁸O) in ice cores are often taken as references for past atmospheric temperature variations, their relationship to temperature is associated with a large uncertainty. Several reasons are invoked to explain the limitation of such an approach; in particular, post-deposition effects are important in East Antarctica because of the low accumulation rates. The strong influence of post-deposition processes highlights the need for surface polar research programs in addition to deep drilling programs. We present here new results on water isotopes from several recent surface programs, mostly over East Antarctica. Together with previously published data, the new data presented in this study have several implications for the climatic reconstructions based on ice core isotopic data: (1) The spatial relationship between surface mean temperature and mean snow isotopic composition over the first meters in depth can be explained quite straightforwardly using simple isotopic models tuned to d-excess vs. δ¹⁸O evolution in transects on the East Antarctic sector. The observed spatial slopes are significantly higher (～ 0.7–0.8‰·°C^?1 for δ¹⁸O vs. temperature) than seasonal slopes inferred from precipitation data at Vostok and Dome C (0.35 to 0.46‰·°C^?1). We explain these differences by changes in condensation versus surface temperature between summer and winter in the central East Antarctic plateau, where the inversion layer vanishes in summer. (2) Post-deposition effects linked to exchanges between the snow surface and the atmospheric water vapor lead to an evolution of δ¹⁸O in the surface snow, even in the absence of any precipitation event. This evolution preserves the positive correlation between the δ¹⁸O of snow and surface temperature, but is associated with a much slower δ¹⁸O-vs-temperature slope than the slope observed in the seasonal precipitation. (3) Post-deposition effects clearly limit the archiving of high-resolution (seasonal) climatic variability in the polar snow, but we suggest that sites with an accumulation rate of the order of 40 kg.m^?2.yr^?1 may record a seasonal cycle at shallow depths.     

Characterization of synthetic hedenbergite (CaFeSi2O6)–petedunnite (CaZnSi2O6) solid solution series by X-ray single crystal diffraction

Clinopyroxenes of the solid solution series hedenbergite (CaFeSi₂O₆)–petedunnite (CaZnSi₂O₆) were synthesized at temperatures of 825–1200°C and pressures of 0.5–2.5 GPa. Compositions were determined by electron microprobe analysis. Selected crystals were investigated by means of single crystal diffraction and structure refinement and the structural distortion was studied depending on the substitution of iron by zinc on the octahedral M1 site. It is shown that the coordination of the M1 site has the most significant effect on M–O bond lengths, with changes on the other sites accommodating this distortion. The mean quadratic elongation and the octahedral angle variance as quantitative measures of the distortion of the coordination polyhedron were correlated with former results of ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy at 298 K. The results presented now complete an earlier work on synthetic, crystalline powders of the same material and deliver exact structural data that were not possible to obtain by Rietveld refinements on powder data.     

Public perceptions of foreign and Chinese real estate investment: intercultural relations in Global Sydney

Moving foreign human and financial capital through landed property is not a new phenomenon in Sydney. It is a recurring geopolitical strategy that is replete with intercultural tension and deep colonial roots. In contemporary Australia, there is an assumption in public policy and media rhetoric that there is a high level of public concern about foreign investment. However, there is little empirical data that examines public perceptions. In this study, we are interested in whether the dominant voices in this debate represent broad public views about this issue. We sought to fill this gap by conducting a survey of almost 900 Sydney residents, looking at their perceptions of foreign and Chinese investment. We find high levels of public concern and discontent about foreign investment amongst Sydneysiders, with Chinese investors being a key target of this discontent. In the context of high housing prices in Sydney, there were widely held concerns about housing affordability. Survey respondents had a sophisticated understanding of what influences house prices, but with an overemphasis on the role of foreign investment. There is a general lack of support for policy that encourages foreign investment, and a lack of confidence in how the government is regulating foreign investment. Half of our participants reported that they would not welcome Chinese foreign investment in their suburb.