A Rising Tide in Bangladesh: livelihood adaptation to climate stress

ABSTRACT

Bangladesh is at the forefront of countries experiencing and debating climate change, despite having contributed little to global emissions, and has the greatest vulnerability to climate change due to inadequate institutional support for the dense population dispersed in low-lying terrain. A micro-level study of livelihoods in the Panpatti Union, a district of the coastal zone exposed to climate stress and an array of other social, economic and political stresses, demonstrated that adaptation strategies to a range of shocks were both reactive and proactive. The persistent nature of shocks, and the limited margins in which to respond, meant that achieving sustainable long-term livelihoods was unusually difficult. Despite cases of dynamism and flexibility, where livelihoods had been effectively diversified, rural people largely failed to reduce their exposure to vulnerability. That was especially true of extremely poor, landless and female-headed households. In such challenging circumstances external interventions were required to ensure sustainable development, but were unlikely because of the isolation of Panpatti and the number of villages and people in similar circumstances. This emphasised the need to develop a more robust livelihoods framework to support the most vulnerable communities in severe economic and environmental contexts where climate change is likely to exacerbate all existing problems.     

Scenarios on future land changes in the West African Sahel

In an attempt to anticipate possible futures of drylands of West Africa in the face of rapid socio-economic and environmental changes, we developed four scenarios based on recent survey data, the literature and our knowledge of the region. The four scenarios are inspired by those developed by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: (1) ‘downward spiral’ characterized by rapid climate change, expansion of agriculture and chaotic urban growth; (2) ‘integrated economy’ with integrated land management, food production for local markets and rural–urban exchanges; (3) ‘open doors’ characterized by large-scale out-migrations, land grabbing by foreign companies and development aid and (4) ‘climate change mitigation’ with an increase in biofuel crops, land management for carbon capture and development of off-farm activities. We conclude that the Sahel region is most likely moving away from being a highly climate-dependent region based on agriculture towards a more open and diversified economy. West African countries have to find a balance between the new opportunities and risks created by economic globalization.     

粮食安全视角下中国历史气候变化影响与响应的过程与机理

基于现代全球变化研究中关于脆弱性和粮食安全的概念,把历史时期的粮食安全分解为粮食生产安全、粮食供给安全、粮食消费安全3个层次,以气候变化直接影响粮食生产水平为起点,分析气候变化-农(牧)业收成-食物的人均供给量-饥民-社会稳定性的驱动-响应链中的关键过程,指出气候变化影响的驱动-响应关系不能归结为简单的因果关系,诸如耕地、人口、政策、外来势力都会对气候变化的影响起着放大或抑制的作用。     

西双版纳土地利用/覆盖格局的热环境效应研究

利用Landsat TM/ETM＋数据的热红外波段,通过单通道算法,反演了中国热带西双版纳地区的地表温度,并对西双版纳地表温度演变的规律进行了分析,结果显示：（1）研究期间,西双版纳土地利用/覆盖发生了剧烈变化,有林地面积不断减少,旱地、灌木林、茶园与橡胶园面积不断增加;（2）旱地、荒草地、茶园、建设用地的地表真实温度的平均值较高,水体和有林地的平均温度较低;（3）旱地、灌木林、有林地、荒草地和橡胶园对区域的热效应贡献较大,水体、水浇地、建设用地、滩涂和水体的热效应贡献较小;有林地的热单元权重有不断减少的趋势,灌木林与旱地的热单元权重有不断增加的趋势;（4）西双版纳土地利用/覆盖的剧烈变化改变了区域地表温度的分布格局,最终可能会导致地方气候变化。需要进一步开展西双版纳地区LUCC—气候—生态系统耦合研究,深入研究区域LUCC特别是橡胶园的时空变化过程及其气候/生态效应、气候变化与LUCC过程的互馈机制,为实现区域可持续发展提供科学依据。     

沙拐枣属(Calligonum L.)植物物候对长期气温变化的响应

由新疆维吾尔自治区气象信息中心提供的1977—2006年吐鲁番气象资料统计得知:近29年气候有变暖趋势,线性变暖速率为每10年0.72℃,29年来吐鲁番地区年平均气温共上升2.06℃。结合吐鲁番沙漠植物园沙拐枣属植物的物候观测积累资料,分析了4个组的芽膨胀、开始展叶、同化枝开始变色、同化枝初落的时间变化趋势及其与温度变化的响应关系。结果表明:(1)1977年以来,沙拐枣属(Calligonum L.)植物刺果组(Sect.Medusa Sosk.et Alexandr)物候期最晚;同化枝开始变色为泡果组(Sect.Calliphysa(Fisch.et Mey.)Borszcz)晚于翅果组;其他3种物候期中,泡果组物候期最早,基翅组(Sect.Calligonum)和翅果组(Sect.Pterococcus(Pall.)Borszcz)均居中。4个组的芽膨胀和开始展叶时间大部分呈提前趋势,同化枝开始变色和同化枝初落时间呈推后趋势。(2)4个组的芽膨胀与年平均气温、春季气温呈显著负相关(p0.05)。年平均气温每升高1℃,泡果组、刺果组、基翅组、翅果组的芽膨胀时间分别提前4.5d、4.3d、4.1d、8.3d;同化枝开始变色和同化枝初落时间变化不明显。芽膨胀对温度变化的响应程度显著大于同化枝开始变色和同化枝初落。     

1990年以来中国小麦农业气象灾害时空变化特征(英文)

Agro-meteorological disasters(AMD) have become more frequent with climate warming. In this study, the temporal and spatial changes in the occurrence frequency of major meteorological disasters on wheat production were firstly explored by analyzing the observed records at national agro-meteorological stations(AMS) of China from 1991 to 2009. Furthermore, impact of climate change on AMD was discussed by comparing the warmer decade(2000–2009) with another decade(1991–2000). It was found that drought was the most frequent disaster during the last two decades, with a highest proportion of 79%. And the frequency of AMD increased significantly with climate change. Specifically, the main disasters occurred more frequently in the reproductive period than in the vegetative period. Besides, the spatial changes in the AMD frequency were characterized by region-specific. For example, the wheat cultivation areas located on the Loess Plateau and the middle-lower reaches of the Yellow River suffered mainly from drought. All these results were strongly linked to climate change in China. Therefore, sound adaptation options should be taken based on the latest changes of AMD under global warming to reduce agricultural damages.     

Radiative forcing over China due to albedo change caused by land cover change during 1990–2010

Land cover change affects surface radiation budget and energy balance by chang- ing surface albedo and further impacts the regional and global climate. In this article, high spatial and temporal resolution satellite products were used to analyze the driving mechanism for surface albedo change caused by land cover change during 1990-2010. In addition, the annual-scale radiative forcing caused by surface albedo changes in China＇s 50 ecological regions were calculated to reveal the biophysical mechanisms of land cover change affecting climate change at regional scale. Our results showed that the national land cover changes were mainly caused by land reclamation, grassland desertification and urbanization in past 20 years, which were almost induced by anthropogenic activities. Grassland and forest area decreased by 0.60% and 0.11%, respectively. The area of urban and farmland increased by 0.60% and 0.19%, respectively. The mean radiative forcing caused by land cover changes during 1990-2010 was 0.062 W/m2 in China, indicating a warming climate effect. However, spatial heterogeneity of radiative forcing was huge among different ecological regions. Farmland conversing to urban construction land, the main type of land cover change for the urban and suburban agricultural ecological region in Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan region, caused an albedo reduction by 0.00456 and a maximum positive radiative forcing of 0.863 WIm2, which was presented as warming climate effects. Grassland and forest conversing to farmland, the main type of land cover change for the temperate humid agricultural and wetland ecological region in Sanjiang Plain, caused an albedo increase by 0.00152 and a maximum negative radiative forcing of 0.184 W/m2, implying cooling climate effects.     

The total operating characteristic to measure diagnostic ability for multiple thresholds

The relative operating characteristic (ROC) is a popular statistical method to measure the association between observed and diagnosed presence of a characteristic. The diagnosis of presence or absence depends on whether the value of an index variable is above a threshold. ROC considers multiple possible thresholds. Each threshold generates a two-by-two contingency table, which contains four central entries: hits, misses, false alarms, and correct rejections. ROC reveals for each threshold only two ratios, hits/(hits + misses) and false alarms/(false alarms + correct rejections). This article introduces the total operating characteristic (TOC), which shows the total information in the contingency table for each threshold. TOC maintains desirable properties of ROC, while TOC reveals strictly more information than ROC in a manner that makes TOC more useful than ROC. We illustrate the concepts with an application to land change science.     

气候变化与人类活动联合影响下东江流域非一致性洪水频率

一致性假设一直是洪水频率分析的基本假设条件,但在气候变化与人类活动综合影响下,水文极值序列的一致性假设受到极大挑战。基于此,以东江流域为例,运用GAMLSS模型(广义可加模型),将时间、气候指标(北极涛动AO、北太平洋涛动NPO、太平洋年代际振荡PDO和南方涛动SOI)以及水库指标(Reservoir Index)统一纳入洪水频率分析中,并对东江流域1954―2009年年最大流量序列(AMS)进行频率分析,结果表明:1)龙川、河源和岭下站年最大流量序列均值与时间呈线性关系,方差为常量,而博罗站均值和方差与时间均呈非线性关系;2)水库对各水文站点AMS均值有显著线性影响;3)NPO对各站点AMS均值有显著线性影响,NPO值较高时,东江流域可能面临着较低的洪水风险,在一致性假设前提下,可能高估洪水设计值,反之亦然;而PDO对各站点方差有显著线性(岭下、博罗)/非线性(龙川、河源)影响;4)以时间为协变量构建非一致性模型,研究得出:龙川、河源和岭下3站T年一遇洪水设计值均呈单调下降趋势,博罗站1954―1995年左右洪水设计值呈下降趋势,而在1996―2009年呈上升趋势;以气候与水库为协变量构建非一致性模型,研究表明:龙川、河源和岭下3站T年一遇洪水设计值均因水库影响呈向下跃变;5)以气候和水库为协变量的非一致性模型对洪水频率具有良好的预测能力,为非一致条件下设计洪水的预测提供了新的预测方法。     

1960-2010年中国降水区域分异及年代际变化特征

利用1960-2010年中国1840个台站年降水量数据,采用经验正交函数(EOF)和旋转经验正交函数分解方法(REOF)对降水进行分区,并对各区降水的变化特征进行了研究.结果表明:基于多站点资料结合REOF方法实现的降水分区与中国降水实际区域分异特征比较符合,并与中国气候区划相一致.中国各区降水变化特征分析表明,东部各区降水在20世纪70年代末、80年代末-90年代初和21世纪初发生雨带的南北移动过程,其中夏季雨带的移动主要受东亚夏季风和大气环流年代际变化的影响.西北地区降水以1985/1986年为突变年,西北西部地区降水由前期偏少转为偏多,主要与来自阿拉伯海和里海异常偏多的水汽输送有关;西北东部地区降水由前期偏多转为偏少,主要与季风的年代际减弱有关.东北地区降水在80年代初由前期接近正常转为偏多,90年代末降水由前期偏多转为偏少,主要与季风和西北太平洋水汽输送的年代际变化相关.西南部各区降水阶段性变化明显,2000年以前西南东北部地区降水与西部地区基本呈反向变化,主要受青藏高原地形、东亚季风和副热带高压等因素的影响,降水阶段性变化明显、成因复杂.