Distribution patterns of soil lichens across the principal biomes of southern Africa

The present study was undertaken to assess baseline distribution patterns for soil lichens occurring in the principal biomes of southern Africa, and to analyse their relationship to selected environmental parameters. Among the lichen species found across our survey sites, four distinct groups could be delineated, each as distinct consortium of lichen species sharing particular morphological characters (e.g. growth-form, pigmentation and type of photobiont kind). These groups are largely correlated with specific environmental parameters. These findings suggest that lichens may serve as valuable bioindicators for evaluating climate and soil change in this region of Africa.     

Characteristics of Australian droughts under enhanced greenhouse conditions: Results from 14 global climate models

This paper presents characteristics of droughts simulated by global climate models (GCMs) under enhanced greenhouse gases conditions. We used a drought index called the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI) which takes both rainfall and potential evapotranspiration into account to investigate variations of droughts among 12 regions in Australia. The RDI was applied to simulated climate variables from 14 GCMs performed for the IPCC 4th Assessment Report.The results show a general increase in drought areal extent and/or frequency for most regions. However, the increases are not significant over the North West, North Queensland, Queensland East Coast and Central Queensland. For most regions, the change beyond 2030 is larger than that prior to 2030, but the uncertainty in the projections also increases with time. By 2030, there is a likely (>66% probability) risk of twice or more drought affected area and/or twice as often drought frequency over South West Western Australia. By 2050, this will include the Murray-Darling Basin, South Australia and Victoria, and by 2070 this will extend to New South Wales and Tasmania. For North Queensland such a risk is unlikely (<33% probability) for the next 100 years. This information can be considered indicative in long-term planning focussing on sustainability.     

Recent trends of temperature change under hot and cold desert climates: Comparing the Sahara (Libya) and Central Asia (Xinjiang, China)

According to trend computations at three stations each in Sahara desert (Libya), characterized by a “hot” desert type (“BWh”, according to the Koeppen climate classification), and in Central Asia (Xinjiang, China) identified as a “cold” desert type (“BWk”, after Koeppen), increasing annual temperatures were detected over the period 1955-2005 corresponding with global temperature warming. From 1955-1978, negative (decreasing) temperature trends were, however, observed at all three hot desert stations and at two of the three cold desert stations. From 1979-2005, strikingly positive temperature trends were seen at all six stations. In seasonal respects, winter (December to February) and summer (June to August) show different temperature trends over the period 1955-2005: the hot desert experienced an increasing temperature trend at a greater extent in summer than in winter; vice-versa, in the cold desert positive trends were computed for winter and negative for summer. It can also be observed that mostly hot desert warming occurred in summer, opposite to cold desert warming in winter.     

内蒙古草原的畜牧业气候

畜牧业的发展是我国农业发展的一个重要方面,天然牧草是畜牧业的主要物质基础,本文试图对影响牧草和牲畜的地理分布及生物生产力作一初步分析。     

2×CO2 Eastern Asia regional responses in the RSM/CCM3 modeling system

A global to regional modeling system has been developed to evaluate precipitation under doubled CO₂. The National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) regional spectral model (RSM) is initialized and forced by current and doubled CO₂ simulations from the NCAR community climate model (CCM3). Three RSM simulations, RSM0, RSM1, and RSM2, with resolution of 280, 50 and 15 km, are examined. The RSM0 setup resolution matches the T42 CCM3 simulations. The RSM2 simulation is centered over Taiwan. Due to incompatibility of the model physics, noticeable differences between RSM0 and CCM3 are found, especially in wintertime, which suggests that simulation from RSM0, rather than CCM3, should be used to contrast high-resolution regional variations produced by RSM1 or RSM2 simulations.While the spatial distributions of RSM1 and RSM2 simulations over Taiwan are greatly improved over the CCM3 simulation, the intensity of the unique wintertime drizzle is overestimated, especially in RSM2. There is also a spurious northward extension of the precipitation pattern from the subtropical warm-pool region. Thus the regional response to doubled CO₂, which consists of more summerlike wintertime precipitation characteristics over the northeastern and eastern sides of Taiwan, with increased intensity mostly in the extreme events, is still in doubt and must be examined with improved global and regional models.     

作为随机振动的海冰变化模型

本文从B.Saltzman的海温—海冰模式出发,得到了一个描述海冰范围变化的随机气候模型,接着对模型的性质进行了一些分析和讨论,并把从模型得到的模拟谱与计算的南极海冰扩展范围的观测谱做了比较。     

中国七大地区“气候变化—作物产量—经济影响”综合评价

农业作为响应气候变化最敏感的领域之一,未来作物产量可能受到深刻影响。量化气候变化冲击作物产量导致的最终经济影响,需要综合“气候变化—作物产量—经济影响”开展链式研究。文中采用系统回顾和Meta回归分析方法整合了55篇文献的667项研究结果,推导出我国七大地区主要作物（水稻、玉米、小麦）产量与地区内未来温度和降水变化的定量关系,并将其作为农业部门的损失量代入改进的多区域投入产出模型,量化七大地区内与地区间遭受的经济波及影响（ERE)。结果显示：(1)气候变化对我国作物产量的影响主要体现在温度升高上,每升温1℃减产2.6%~12.7%,东北和西北地区作物受升温影响最显著;(2) 气候变化导致的作物减产将对经济产生更严重的波及影响,GDP因作物减产每下降1%将额外产生17.8%的波及影响;(3) 21世纪末,若不考虑CO₂肥效作用,作物减产导致的ERE将占GDP的-0.1%~13.6%（负值表示收益),最悲观情况下ERE与当前我国农业总产值相当（2012年为基准年);(4)不同地区受ERE影响程度的差异较大,因各区之间产业结构、贸易联系及经济发展程度存在差异,西南地区遭受本区及来自其他地区的ERE比华东地区高2.8~8.5倍。     

Political ideology and climate change-mitigating behaviors: Insights from fixed world beliefs

Political conservatives are less likely to adopt climate change-mitigating behaviors, at least compared to their politically liberal counterparts. There thus have been extensive research explaining the so-called left–right divide. In the current research, we propose and test a novel explanation for this divide within the United States. Specifically, it is hypothesized that conservatives are more likely to see the world as fixed and unmalleable, in the sense that what they (as human beings) do to it will have little impact on diminishing the impacts of climate change. This perception and consequence of behavior should be independent of whether or not conservatives believe that global climate change is real and happening. In a study with 1,096 Americans, we find evidence for our hypotheses. Mediation analyses show that greater political conservatism predicts fewer climate change-mitigating behaviors due to greater fixed world beliefs and, consequently, lower perceptions of instrumentality of one’s actions to fight climate change, independent of climate change beliefs. Our work provides the first empirical evidence for a novel insight into why conservatives are less likely to act against climate change. Doing so, we also discuss the theoretical and practical contributions.     

The ‘co’ in co-production of climate action: Challenging boundaries within and between science,policy and practice

Effective action taken against climate change must find ways to unite scientific and practice-based knowledges associated with the various stakeholders who see themselves as invested in the global delivery of climate governance. Political decision-makers, climate scientists and practitioners approach this challenge from what are often radically different perspectives and experiences. While considerable work has been done to develop the idea of ‘co-production’ in the development of climate action outputs, questions remain over how to best unite the contrasting epistemological traditions and norms associated with different stakeholders. Drawing on the existing literatures on climate action co-production and from translational perspectives on the science-policy interface, in this paper we develop the concept of ‘boundary agency’. Defining this as the agency ‘possessed’ when willing and able to translate between different epistemological communities invested in a similar policy and governance challenge such as climate change, we offer it as a useful means to reflect on participants’ understanding of the ‘co’ in co-production. This is in contrast to the more established (often academic-led) focus on what it is that is being produced by co-production processes. We draw from two complementary empirical studies, which explicitly encouraged i) engagement and ii) reflection on cross-boundary co-production between climate action stakeholders from different backgrounds. Reflecting on the two studies, we discuss the benefits of (and barriers to) encouraging more active and sustained engagement between climate action stakeholders so as to try to actively blur the boundaries between science and policy and, in doing so, invent new epistemological communities of practice.     

Factors influencing hazard management by municipalities: The case of coastal communities

As climate and anthropogenic changes increase the vulnerability of coastal areas around the world, the threat (and reality) of coastal hazards grows. These threats arise particularly at a local level, calling out for more knowledge on how to best support coastal municipalities to deal with natural and human-induced hazards. This study seeks to add to the understanding through an examination of local-level experience with hazard planning and responses carried out by coastal municipalities, producing insights on how to reduce their vulnerability and support their resilience. It explores the factors influencing coastal municipalities’ management of relevant hazards to achieve comprehensive multi-hazard risk reduction and adaptation. We do so through a national survey of Canada’s coastal municipalities which assessed experience with hazards, risk perception, hazard prioritization, and the extent and specifics of hazard responses. We characterize the determinants of coastal municipalities’ behaviour and intervening factors, and conduct regression analyses to explain coastal municipalities’ risk perception, hazard prioritization, implementation of management processes for dealing with hazards, and the number of implemented or planned hazard responses. Six key factors were identified that influence hazard responses at the municipal level: experience with hazards; competing priorities; hazard visibility; access to resources (financial and technical capacity) and governance (institutional setting and political capacity). We conclude that municipal hazard responses can be reinforced by increasing the effectiveness of risk communication, promoting participatory processes, providing support for municipalities’ identified needs and priorities, ensuring municipalities have access to relevant information and expertise, and implementing integrated coastal governance and management.