The resilience paradox: flooding experience,coping and climate change mitigation intentions

Climate change is projected to increase the frequency, intensity and unpredictability of extreme weather events across the globe and these events are likely to have significant mental health implications. The mental health literature broadly characterises negative emotional reactions to extreme weather experiences as undesirable impacts on wellbeing. Yet, other research in psychology suggests that negative emotional responses to extreme weather are an important motivation for personal action on climate change. This article addresses the intersection of mental health and functional perspectives on negative emotions, with a specific focus on the potential that reduced negative emotional responses to extreme weather may also translate to diminished motivation to undertake climate change mitigation actions – which we term the ‘resilience paradox’. Using survey data gathered in the aftermath of severe flooding across the UK in winter 2013/2014, we present new evidence indicating that self-appraised coping ability moderates the link between flooding experience and negative emotions and thereby attenuates the indirect link between flooding experience and climate change mitigation intentions. We conclude that support for flood victims should extend beyond addressing emotional, physical and financial stresses to include acknowledgement of the involvement of climate change and communication of the need for action to combat future climate risks.

Key policy insights

• Psychological resilience to flooding and other extreme weather events can translate to diminished motivation to mitigate climate change

• Negative emotional reactions need to occur at an optimal level to enable people to respond appropriately to climate risks.

• Flood victims’ subjective appraisal of their ability to cope does not necessarily encompass consideration of the role played by climate change. Therefore, support for victims of extreme weather should include explicit acknowledgement of the involvement of climate change and the need for action to mitigate future climate risks.

     

Pliocene trace fossils from oyster substrates in the Nijar Basin,Betic Cordillera,southern Spain

The Almería-Níjar Basin is a Neogene, intermontane depression marginal to the Mediterranean in southern Spain in the vicinity of El Argamasón, Andalucia. The Pliocene Cuevas Formation rests unconformably on the Upper Messinian rock succession in the Carboneras Fault Zone. The Cuevas Formation is a coarse-grained, bioclastic-rich, calcarenite to calcirudite shoreface deposit. Oysters, namely Saccostrea cucullata (Born), are locally common and preserve a moderate diversity of borings: Caulostrepsis taeniola Clarke; Entobia isp.; Gastrochaenolites isp. aff. G. lapidicus Kelly and Bromley; Maeandropolydora isp. cf. M. sulcans Voigt; Oichnus paraboloides Bromley; and Talpina isp. aff. T. hirsuta Voigt. All represent domiciles except for the predatory O. paraboloides trace. This suite of ichnotaxa is assigned to the Entobia ichnofacies sensu Bromley and Asgaard; they are comparable, particularly, with the Boulder Assemblage of the Pliocene of Rhodes, Greece. Physical disturbance is an important parameter in favouring this pattern of infestation, whether the bored clasts are boulders or oyster valves.     

High spatial resolution Galactic 3D extinction mapping with IPHAS

We present an algorithm (MEAD, for 'Mapping Extinction Against Distance') which will determine intrinsic  ( r '− i ')  colour, extinction, and distance for early-A to K4 stars extracted from the IPHAS   r '/ i '/Hα  photometric data base. These data can be binned up to map extinction in three dimensions across the northern Galactic plane. The large size of the IPHAS data base (∼200 million unique objects), the accuracy of the digital photometry it contains and its faint limiting magnitude  ( r '∼ 20)  allow extinction to be mapped with fine angular (∼10 arcmin) and distance (∼ 0.1 kpc) resolution to distances of up to 10 kpc, outside the solar circle. High reddening within the solar circle on occasion brings this range down to ∼2 kpc. The resolution achieved, both in angle and depth, greatly exceeds that of previous empirical 3D extinction maps, enabling the structure of the Galactic Plane to be studied in increased detail. MEAD accounts for the effect of the survey magnitude limits, photometric errors, unresolved interstellar medium (ISM) substructure and binarity. The impact of metallicity variations, within the range typical of the Galactic disc is small. The accuracy and reliability of MEAD are tested through the use of simulated photometry created with Monte Carlo sampling techniques. The success of this algorithm is demonstrated on a selection of fields and the results are compared to the literature.     

Brightness of Saturn's rings with decreasing solar elevation

Early ground-based and spacecraft observations suggested that the temperature of Saturn's main rings (A, B and C) varied with the solar elevation angle, B^′. Data from the composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS) on board Cassini, which has been in orbit around Saturn for more than five years, confirm this variation and have been used to derive the temperature of the main rings from a wide variety of geometries while B^′ varied from near −24^° to 0^° (Saturn's equinox).Still, an unresolved issue in fully explaining this variation relates to how the ring particles are organized and whether even a simple mono-layer or multi-layer approximation describes this best. We present a set of temperature data of the main rings of Saturn that cover the ∼23^°—range of B^′ angles obtained with CIRS at low (α∼30^°) and high (α≥120^°) phase angles. We focus on particular regions of each ring with a radial extent on their lit and unlit sides. In this broad range of B^′, the data show that the A, B and C rings’ temperatures vary as much as 29-38, 22-34 and 18-23 K, respectively. Interestingly the unlit sides of the rings show important temperature variations with the decrease of B^′ as well. We introduce a simple analytical model based on the well known Froidevaux monolayer approximation and use the ring particles’ albedo as the only free parameter in order to fit and analyze this data and estimate the ring particle's albedo. The model considers that every particle of the ring behaves as a black body and warms up due to the direct energy coming from the Sun as well as the solar energy reflected from the atmosphere of Saturn and on its neighboring particles. Two types of shadowing functions are used. One analytical that is used in the latter model in the case of the three rings and another, numerical, that is applied in the case of the C ring alone. The model lit side albedo values at low phase are 0.59, 0.50 and 0.35-0.38 for the A, B and C rings, respectively.     

Extinction chronology of the cave lion Panthera spelaea

The cave lion, Panthera spelaea, was widespread across northern Eurasia and Alaska/Yukon during the Late Pleistocene. Both morphology and DNA indicate an animal distinct from modern lions (probably at the species level) so that its disappearance in the Late Pleistocene should be treated as a true extinction. New AMS radiocarbon dates directly on cave lion from across its range, together with published dates from other studies – totalling 111 dates – indicate extinction across Eurasia in the interval ca. 14–14.5 cal ka BP, and in Alaska/Yukon about a thousand years later. It is likely that its extinction occurred directly or indirectly in response to the climatic warming that occurred ca. 14.7 cal ka BP at the onset of Greenland Interstadial 1, accompanied by a spread of shrubs and trees and reduction in open habitats. Possibly there was also a concomitant reduction in abundance of available prey, although most of its probable prey species survived substantially later. At present it is unclear whether human expansion in the Lateglacial might have played a role in cave lion extinction. Gaps in the temporal pattern of dates suggest earlier temporary contractions of range, ca. 40–35 cal ka BP in Siberia (during MIS 3) and ca. 25–20 cal ka BP in Europe (during the ‘Last Glacial Maximum’), but further dates are required to corroborate these. The Holocene expansion of modern lion (Panthera leo) into south-west Asia and south-east Europe re-occupied part of the former range of P. spelaea, but the Late Pleistocene temporal and geographical relationships of the two species are unknown.     

The spray contribution to net evaporation from the sea: A review of recent progress

The part that sea spray plays in the air-sea transfer of heat and moisture has been a controversial question for the last two decades. With general circulation models (GCMs) suggesting that perturbations in the Earth's surface heat budget of only a few W m^–2 can initiate major climatic variations, it is crucial that we identify and quantify all the terms in that heat budget. Thus, here we review recent work on how sea spray contributes to the sea surface heat and moisture budgets. In the presence of spray, the near-surface atmosphere is characterized by a droplet evaporation layer (DEL) with a height that scales with the significant-wave amplitude. The majority of spray transfer processes occur within this layer. As a result, the DEL is cooler and more moist than the atmospheric surface layer would be under identical conditions but without the spray. Also, because the spray in the DEL provides elevated sources and sinks for heat and moisture, the vertical heat fluxes are no longer constant with height. We use Eulerian and Lagrangian models and a simple analytical model to study the processes important in spray droplet dispersion and evaporation within this DEL. These models all point to the conclusion that, in high winds (above about 15 m/s), sea spray begins to contribute significantly to the air-sea fluxes of heat and moisture. For example, we estimate that, in a 20-m/s wind, with an air temperature of 20°C, a sea surface temperature of 22°C, and a relative humidity of 80%, the latent and sensible heat fluxes resulting from the spray alone will have magnitudes of order 150 and 15 W/m², respectively, in the DEL. Finally, we speculate on what fraction of these fluxes rise out of the DEL and, thus, become available to the entire marine boundary layer.     

Radar and sodar probing of waves and turbulence in statically stable clear-air layers

This paper reviews the remote sensing of waves and turbulence in statically stable atmospheric layers, utilizing sodar and microwave radar echoes from the small-scale inhomogeneities in gaseous refractive index caused by localized fluctuations in temperature, humidity, and velocity. Scattering theory and sounding methodology are reviewed briefly, and the relative performance of typical radar and sodar systems compared. The main section of the paper takes the form of a summary and discussion of experimental progress since 1969, showing how the echo patterns obtained may be applied to the interpretation of multiple layering, gravity waves, internal fronts and the details of dynamic instability and the genesis of turbulence in stably stratified shear layers. In addition, methods for the measurement of the intensity of the small-scale ( /2) variability of wind, temperature and water vapor from the observed radar or sodar echo intensities, and the use of Doppler techniques for the measurement of mean velocity and turbulence are discussed.SODAR from SOund Detection And Ranging in analogy to RAdio Detection And Ranging.