Climate Impact Response Functions: An Introduction

The concept of climate impact response function is introduced and placed into the context of integrated assessment models to analyze policy options under climate change constraints. An example of developing such response functions is presented that entails a global model of potential natural vegetation driven by a climate change pattern derived from a general circulation model. A large array of strenuous issues are introduced that will be addressed by the set of papers included in this Special Issue.     

Rural restructuring in Hungary in the period of socio-economic transition

Rural settlements in Hungary account for 93% of all settlements and 37% of the country's population. Since 1989 they are scenes of spectacular changes. Based on some case studies of less developed villages this paper considers the most important characteristics of the post-socialist rural transformation by examining the local economy and living conditions. The main issues are how local actors (for example, economic corporations, households and individuals) have been affected by the interaction of supralocal and local factors and how they responded to them. Such responses can be considered to be manifestations of survival strategy.     

Air–Sea \mathrm{CO}_{2} Gas Transfer Velocity in a Shallow Estuary

The air–sea transfer velocity of $\mathrm{CO}_{2}\, (k_{\mathrm{CO}_{2}})$ was investigated in a shallow estuary in March to July 2012, using eddy-covariance measurements of $\mathrm{CO}_{2}$ fluxes and measured air–sea $\mathrm{CO}_{2}$ partial-pressure differences. A data evaluation method that eliminates data by nine rejection criteria in order to heighten parametrization certainty is proposed. We tested the data evaluation method by comparing two datasets: one derived using quality criteria related solely to the eddy-covariance method, and the other derived using quality criteria based on both eddy-covariance and cospectral peak methods. The best parametrization of transfer velocity normalized to a Schmidt number of 600 $(k_{600})$ was determined to be: $k_{600} = 0.3\,{U_{10}}^{2.5}$ where $U_{10}$ is the wind speed in m $\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ at 10 m; $k_{600}$ is based on $\mathrm{CO}_{2}$ fluxes calculated by the eddy-covariance method and including the cospectral peak method criteria. At low wind speeds, the transfer velocity in the shallow water estuary was lower than in other coastal waters, possibly a symptom of low tidal amplitude leading to low intensity water turbulence. High transfer velocities were recorded above wind speeds of 5 m $\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ , believed to be caused by early-breaking waves and the large fetch (6.5 km) of the estuary. These findings indicate that turbulence in both air and water influences the transfer velocity.     

Speleothems and pine trees as sensitive indicators of environmental pollution – A case study of the effect of uranium-ore mining in Hungary

Four decades of U ore production in Hungary provides an opportunity to study the possible environmental effects of mining. The study reveals significant changes in chemical composition of a stalagmite (cave deposit). The good fit between U content changes in the studied deposit and the U ore production rate support the assumption of the relationship with mining activity. An independent chemoenviromental archive, living pine (Pinus sylvestis) trees were also investigated. Data on pine tree cores collected from the same region show different levels of pollution (Cu, Zn, Mn, U) after the 1950s and 1960s, linked to the opening of mines and subsequent dust fallout around the site. Elevated concentrations of detritally derived elements (Si, Al, Th) coupled with a rise in U concentration and change in δ²³⁴U values of the stalagmite suggest increasing amounts of mine-derived dust from 1 to 3 km distance that settled and washed into the karst system. The combined usage of different proxies not only provides historic records for the anthropogenic impact in the environment, but also allows the timing of U concentration increases within the stalagmite and the identification of elemental behavior from the pollution. This study shows that complementary geochemical archives such as stalagmites and tree rings used together can enhance understanding of past environmental contamination.     

Projected evolution of circulation types and their temperatures over Central Europe in climate models

The study deals with changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation (represented by circulation types) and associated surface air temperatures as projected in an ensemble of regional climate models (RCMs) from the ENSEMBLES project. We examine changes of circulation type frequencies and means of daily maximum and minimum temperatures within circulation types in individual seasons for two time slices of transient runs under the SRES A1B scenario (2021–2050 and 2071–2100) with respect to the control period (1961–1990). To study the influence of driving data, simulations of the driving general circulation models (GCMs) also are evaluated. We find that all models project changes of atmospheric circulation that are statistically significant for both future time slices. The models tend to project strengthening of the westerly circulation in winter and its weakening in summer. We show that increases of daily maximum and minimum temperatures in all seasons differ for individual circulation types. There are, however, only few features of the projected changes in the future circulation–temperature links that are common among the models, in particular relatively smaller warming for westerly types. Only in winter, projected changes in circulation types tend to contribute to the projected overall warming. This effect is negligible and mostly opposite in the other seasons. We also detect a strong influence of driving data on RCMs’ simulation of atmospheric circulation and temperature changes.     

Long-Term Evolution of FU Ori-Type Stars at Infrared Wavelengths

We investigated the brightness evolution of 5 FU Ori systems in the 1–200 μm wavelength range using observations from the Infrared Space Observatory, 2MASS and MSX data. The SEDs were compared with earlier ones derived from the IRAS photometry and ground-based observations around the epoch 1983. In three cases no difference was seen, in one object the near- and mid-infrared part of the spectrum became fainter by a factor of 2, and in the fifth case a marginal fading was observed. We study in detail the case of V1057 Cyg.     

A New Method for Low‐Temperature Decomposition of Chromites and Dichromium Trioxide using Bromic Acid Evaluated by Chromium Isotope Measurements

In recent years, routine application of the stable isotope determination of chromium (Cr) in environmental and health protection research has led to the search for simpler chromite decomposition techniques. As the range of Cr isotope abundance ratios in nature is very narrow, conventional chromite decomposition techniques are no longer suitable, due to the relatively high risk of contamination during laboratory procedures. We have developed a protocol for the decomposition of chromites based on oxidation by bromic acid at room temperature. The procedure takes 15 d and requires two doses of bromic acid during the reaction period (day 1 and 8), due to the limited stability of the reagent. Chromium extracted by alkaline oxidative fusion and by bromic acid decomposition yielded statistically indistinguishable δ⁵³Cr values, measured by multi‐collector inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry following addition of a ⁵⁰Cr‐⁵⁴Cr double‐spike.     

Monitoring 25 years of land cover change dynamics in Africa: A sample based remote sensing approach

The study examines the changes in sub-Saharan's natural land cover resources for a 25 year period. We assess these changes in four broad land cover classes – forests, natural non-forest vegetation, agriculture and barren – by using high spatial resolution Earth observing satellites. Two sets of sample images, one ‘historical’ targeted at 1975 and a second ‘recent’ targeted at the year 2000, have been selected through a stratified random sampling technique over the study area, targeting a sampling rate of 1% in each of the strata. The results, presented at eco-region level and aggregated at sub-Saharan level, show a 57% increase in agriculture area at the expense of natural vegetation which has itself decreased by 21% over the period, with nearly 5 million hectares forest and non-forest natural vegetation lost per year. The impacts of these changes on the environment on one site and on the socio-economy on the other site are discussed and possible pressures on human well being are highlighted.