Climate-related Stress Research Articles

Navigating tomorrow’s horizons: exploring the interplay of environmental factors in mobility decision-making among migrants in the Lowlands

ABSTRACT Despite the growth of research in environmental migration, less research has been done on how migrants consider environmental change and weather events when making future migration decisions. Furthermore, little is known about how transnational ties are considered in this process. In this study, 36 migrants living in the Netherlands and Belgium participated in an individual or group interview or in a focus group discussion. In accordance with the framework of Findlay (2011), participants preferred not to migrate, despite climatic factors encouraging migration decisions and local weather conditions not being appealing. Return migration was preferred at a later stage of life, where dependence on the natural environment was less relevant to their livelihood. Most of this return migration was temporary, especially given the distinct welfare systems and larger dependence on these systems in the later life phases. Finally, climate risks and climate-related stress, as well as emotions related to changes to the natural environment (‘solastalgia’), were mentioned, which especially occurred in younger participants’ narratives.

A Conceptual Study on Implications of Green Finance in India

Abstract: The financial industry can help reduce the risk of climate change and lessen the effects of unfavourable climate occurrences, which is a significant contribution to the battle against climate change. Maintaining financial stability and spreading climate-related risks can be aided by long-term institutional investors. Other financial tools, such as green stock indexes, green bonds, and voluntary de-carbonization programmes, can assist reallocate investment to "green" industries. Hedging products, such as catastrophe bonds and indexed insurance, help insure against increasing natural disaster risk. For the foreseeable future, climate change is expected to remain the central political and economic issue of this century. Globally, governments, corporations, investors, and private citizens are starting to act on climate change, particularly with regard to decarbonisation strategies. It would take exceptional amounts of new capital investment—green financing, in particular—to support the kinds of initiatives that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help businesses adjust to the effects of climate change in order to transition to a low-carbon or green economy. For this reason, it's critical to comprehend what green finance is and why it matters. In order to handle the complex risks that climate change poses, central banks and other regulators are modifying their frameworks and procedures from an oversight standpoint. Among the strategies for enhancing climate risk disclosure and categorization requirements are those that will assist investors and financial institutions in evaluating their exposure to climate risk, as well as regulators in assessing systemic hazards. Supporting the development of climate-related stress tests and broader promotion of green finance, the IMF is collaborating with standard-setting organisations such as the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System. The researcher concludes that it is important to pursue this investigation in light of the aforementioned facts

Anthropogenic land-use legacies underpin climate change-related risks to forest ecosystems.

Forest ecosystems with long-lasting human imprints can emerge worldwide as outcomes of land-use cessation. However, the interaction of these anthropogenic legacies with climate change impacts on forests is not well understood. Here, we set out how anthropogenic land-use legacies that persist in forest properties, following alterations in forest distribution, structure, and composition, can interact with climate change stressors. We propose a risk-based framework to identify anthropogenic legacies of land uses in forest ecosystems and quantify the impact of their interaction with climate-related stress on forest responses. Considering anthropogenic land-use legacies alongside environmental drivers of forest ecosystem dynamics will improve our predictive capacity of climate-related risks to forests and our ability to promote ecosystem resilience to climate change.

Mental Health Impacts of Climate Change for Birthing People and the Provider's Role.

Mental Health Impacts of Climate Change for Birthing People and the Provider's Role.

Climate change and adaptation to coastal risks as perceived in two major coastal cities: An exploratory study in Marseilles and Nice (France)

Adaptation to climate change and related coastal risks are key issues for communities living close to the Mediterranean Sea. The study explores how inhabitants of Marseilles and Nice, two major cities on the French Mediterranean coast, perceive recent climate change and how competent they find themselves in coping with changing climate and coastal risks. It also analyses the influence of socio-demographic and psycho-social variables on their perceived level of coping. The tool used is the French translated and adapted version of the Climate Change Perception Inventory (CCPI) by Rishi and Mudaliar (2014), filled in by a total of 475 participants in the study. Results show that in both cities, respondents are aware of climate change, but are not really worried about it. Marseilles and Nice differ in the role played by Coastal Subjective Well-Being. In both samples, the most important predictor of Coping and Adaptation is Climate related Stress and Emotional Concern. Finally, the study highlights the importance of considering psycho-social variables in the management of Climate Change Adaptation.

Climate-Related Stress Testing: Transition Risk in Colombia

Climate-Related Stress Testing: Transition Risk in Colombia

Factors influencing distributional shifts and abundance at the range core of a climate-sensitive mammal.

Species are frequently responding to contemporary climate change by shifting to higher elevations and poleward to track suitable climate space. However, depending on local conditions and species' sensitivity, the nature of these shifts can be highly variable and difficult to predict. Here, we examine how the American pika (Ochotona princeps), a philopatric, montane lagomorph, responds to climatic gradients at three spatial scales. Using mixed-effects modeling in an information-theoretic approach, we evaluated a priori model suites regarding predictors of site occupancy, relative abundance, and elevational-range retraction across 760 talus patches, nested within 64 watersheds across the Northern Rocky Mountains of North America, during 2017-2020. The top environmental predictors differed across these response metrics. Warmer temperatures in summer and winter were associated with lower occupancy, lower relative abundances, and greater elevational retraction across watersheds. Occupancy was also strongly influenced by habitat patch size, but only when combined with climate metrics such as actual evapotranspiration. Using a second analytical approach, acute heat stress and summer precipitation best explained retraction residuals (i.e., the relative extent of retraction given the original elevational range of occupancy). Despite the study domain occurring near the species' geographic-range center, where populations might have higher abundances and be at lower risk of climate-related stress, 33.9% of patches showed evidence of recent extirpations. Pika-extirpated sites averaged 1.44℃ warmer in summer than did occupied sites. Additionally, the minimum elevation of pika occupancy has retracted upslope in 69% of watersheds (mean: 281m). Our results emphasize the nuance associated with evaluating species' range dynamics in response to climate gradients, variability, and temperature exceedances, especially in regions where species occupy gradients of conditions that may constitute multiple range edges. Furthermore, this study highlights the importance of evaluating diverse drivers across response metrics to improve the predictive accuracy of widely used, correlative models.

ÖĞRETMENLERİN PSİKOLOJİK SERMAYE VE ÖRGÜTSEL STRES KAYNAKLARININ BAZI DEĞİŞKENLERE GÖRE İNCELENMESİ

Çalışmanın amacı, öğretmenlerin psikolojik sermaye ve örgütsel stres kaynak düzeylerini saptamak ve bazı değişkenlere göre incelemektir. Araştırma betimsel tarama modelindedir. Araştırmanın örneklem grubunu 364 öğretmen oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmada “Psikolojik Sermeye Ölçeği” ve “Örgütsel Stres Kaynakları Ölçeği” kullanılmıştır. Verilerin analizinde, frekans ve yüzde dağılımı, aritmetik ortalama ve standart sapma, t-testi, tek yönlü varyans analizi (ANOVA) testinden yararlanılmıştır. Elde edilen bulgular sonucunda öğretmenlerin en fazla umut, öz-yeterlik, işe özgü stres ve kariyer gelişiminden kaynaklı stres; en az psikolojik dayanıklılık, iyimserlik, örgütsel yapı ve iklimden kaynaklı stres yaşadıkları bulunmuştur. Öğretmenlerin örgütsel stres kaynak düzeyleri incelendiğinde, kadın öğretmenler erkek öğretmenlere göre işteki ilişkilerden kaynaklanan stres ve örgütsel rolden kaynaklanan stres; kıdem yılı 20 yıl ve üzeri olan öğretmenlerin kariyer yaşamından kaynaklı stres, işe özgü stres kaynak düzeyleri kıdem yılı 0-5 yıl olan öğretmenlere göre daha yüksek bulunmuştur. Branş öğretmenlerinin işe özgü stres ve örgütsel stres algılarının sınıf öğretmenlerine göre daha yüksek olduğu bulgusuna ulaşılmıştır. Erkek öğretmenlerin öz-yeterlik düzeyleri kadın öğretmenlere göre daha olumludur. 20 yıl ve üzeri kıdemdeki öğretmenlerin psikolojik sermaye ve öz-yeterliğe ilişkin algıları 0-5 yıl mesleki kıdemdeki öğretmenlere göre; 0-5 yıl kıdemdeki öğretmenlerin umut ve iyimserlik algıları 20 yıl ve üzeri kıdemdeki öğretmenlere göre daha yüksek bulunmuştur. Okul türü değişkenine göre imam hatip ortaokulunda görev yapan öğretmenlerin öz-yeterlik ve psikolojik dayanıklık algıları, ilkokul öğretmenlerine göre daha olumludur. Demokratik ortamda çalışan öğretmenlerin psikolojik sermaye, iyimserlik, umut ve öz-yeterlik algıları, ilgisiz ortamda çalışan öğretmenlere göre daha yüksektir. Öğretmenlerin yaşadığı stres kaynaklarının azaltılıp, psikolojik sermaye düzeylerinin iyileştirilmesine yönelik öneriler sunulmuştur.

Climate-Related Stress Testing: Transition Risk in Colombia

Climate-Related Stress Testing: Transition Risk in Colombia

Introspecting Gender Concerns in National Action Plan for Climate Change of India

The climate sceptics faltered at COP21 Paris summit after climate change was accepted as a real threat. An agreement across tables on historical ‘polluters pay’ principle shifted the burden of curbing the emissions on developed economies. However, gender concerns were conspicuous by their absence in all agreements. Mary Robinson, a UN envoy at the summit precisely pointed out that Paris climate summit’s gender imbalance with substantial male domination is inimical to taking appropriate action to save people from climate change risks. The research shows a poor track record with minimum or no presence of women representatives in any breakthrough deal and discussion. There is a tendency to avert their voices and concerns in any stamped deals done by governments and organisations at international, national, sub-national levels. Despite such gender omission, the policy discourse carries an inherent assumption of gender neutrality while designing adaptation and mitigation efforts in averting climate-related stress. This paper is an attempt to unravel such ungendered tendency, by a critical examination of the National Action Plan for Climate Change in India to bring out an apparent masculinisation of the policy discourse.

Climate-Related Stress Testing: Transition Risks in Norway

This paper explores three possible transmission channels for transition risk shocks to the financial system in Norway. First, we estimate the direct firm-level impact of a substantial increase in domestic carbon prices under severe assumptions. Second, we map the impact of a drastic increase in global carbon prices on the domestic economy via the Norwegian oil sector. Third, we model the impact of a forced reduction in Norwegian oil firms' output on shareholder portfolios. Results show that such a sharp increase in carbon prices would have a significant but manageable impact on banks. Finally, the paper discusses ways to advance the still evolving field of transition risk stress testing.

Regional coral disease outbreak overwhelms impacts from a local dredge project.

A repeated-measures coral monitoring program established as part of the PortMiami expansion program provided an unparalleled opportunity to quantify the levels of coral mortality that resulted from both local dredging stress and as a result of climate-related bleaching stress and the subsequent outbreak of a white-plague-like disease (WPD) epizootic. By comparing measured rates of coral mortality at 30 sites throughout Miami-Dade County to predicted mortality levels from three different coral mortality scenarios, we were able to evaluate the most likely source of coral mortality at both the local and regional levels during the 2014-2016 coral bleaching and WPD event. These include scenarios that assume (1) local dredging increases coral disease mortality, (2) regional climate-related stress is the proximal driver of coral disease mortality, and (3) local and regional stressors are both responsible for coral disease mortality. Our results show that species-specific susceptibility to disease is the determining factor in 93.3% of coral mortality evaluated throughout Miami-Dade County, whereas local dredging stress only accurately predicted coral mortality levels 6.7% of the time. None of the monitoring locations adjacent to the PortMiami expansion had levels of coral mortality that exceeded predictions when coral community composition was taken into account. The novel result of this analysis is that climate-mediated coral disease mortality was more than an order of magnitude (14x) more deadly than even the largest marine construction project performed in the USA, and that until climate change is addressed, it is likely that local attempts to manage coral resilience will continue to fail.

Conservation agriculture enhances resistance of maize to climate stress in a Malawian medium-term trial

Smallholder farming in southern African needs climate-smart agricultural approaches to adapt to current climate stress and climate variability, and increasing risk of these under future global climate change. There are a range of climate-smart systems that have been proposed and conservation agriculture (CA) based on minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and crop rotation is one of them. A CA trial established in 2007 in Malawi was used during cropping -seasons 2015–2016 (El Niño) and 2016–2017 (La Niña) to assess the performance and resistance of different CA maize systems under climate-related stress at anthesis, a climate sensitive growth stage. Large in-situ rainout shelters were used to simulate increased daytime temperatures and in-season droughts of 18–19 days and 27 days. CA systems better resisted climate stress around anthesis than conventional tillage practices as CA systems showed greater resistance to drought than conventional practice. This was expressed by higher CA maize grain yields, biomass yields or harvest index under conditions of natural (El Niño) or 19 day simulated drought. However, under 27 day drought simulation the resistance benefit of CA was no-longer significant. Crop diversification improved the resistance of CA systems to climate stress, more so when diversification was over time (rotation) than in space (intercropping). In all years CA systems substantially outyielded conventional practice, this highlights the benefits of medium-term (eight years) CA management before the rainout shelter experiment started. Our results from natural and simulated drought conditions confirm that CA systems can increase adaptive capacity to an increased risk of climate stress associated with projected global climate change. We show that large-scale rainout shelters are a useful means of accelerating our understanding of how long-term agricultural management practices can enhance resistance to climate stresses.

The epigenetic landscape of transgenerational acclimation to ocean warming

Epigenetic inheritance is a potential mechanism by which the environment in one generation can influence the performance of future generations1. Rapid climate change threatens the survival of many organisms; however, recent studies show that some species can adjust to climate-related stress when both parents and their offspring experience the same environmental change2,3. Whether such transgenerational acclimation could have an epigenetic basis is unknown. Here, by sequencing the liver genome, methylomes and transcriptomes of the coral reef fish, Acanthochromis polyacanthus, exposed to current day (+0 °C) or future ocean temperatures (+3 °C) for one generation, two generations and incrementally across generations, we identified 2,467 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) and 1,870 associated genes that respond to higher temperatures within and between generations. Of these genes, 193 were significantly correlated to the transgenerationally acclimating phenotypic trait, aerobic scope, with functions in insulin response, energy homeostasis, mitochondrial activity, oxygen consumption and angiogenesis. These genes may therefore play a key role in restoring performance across generations in fish exposed to increased temperatures associated with climate change. Our study is the first to demonstrate a possible association between DNA methylation and transgenerational acclimation to climate change in a vertebrate. Transgenerational acclimation to warmer oceans has been seen for some marine species. This study shows that the coral reef fish has 193 genes correlated to such acclimation traits, suggesting an epigenetic basis of acclimation.

Migration as adaptation strategy to cope with climate change

PurposeThis study aims to evaluate the link between climate/weather change and farmer migration in Bihar, India. The influence of cognitive conditions and climate-related stress on farmer migration decisions and the socioeconomic characteristics of migrating and non-migrating farm households are analysed. The focus is the role of migration in access to climate and agricultural extension services and the contribution of migration to enhanced farmer coping capacity.Design/methodology/approachA primary survey was conducted of farm households in seven districts of Bihar, India. Farmer perceptions of climate change were analysed using the mental map technique. The role of socioeconomic characteristics in farm household migration was evaluated using binary logistic regression, and the influence of migration on access to climate and agricultural extension services and the adaptive capacity of migrating households was investigated using descriptive statistics.FindingsClimate-induced livelihood risk factors are one of the major drivers of farmer’s migration. The farmers’ perception on climate change influences migration along with the socioeconomic characteristics. There is a significant difference between migrating and non-migrating farm households in the utilization of instructions, knowledge and technology based climate and agriculture extension services. Benefits from receipt of remittance, knowledge and social networks from the host region enhances migrating households’ adaptive capacity.Originality/valueThis study provides micro-evidence of the contribution of migration to farmer adaptive capacity and access to climate and agricultural extension services, which will benefit analyses of climate-induced migration in other developing countries with higher agricultural dependence. In addition, valuable insights are delivered on policy requirements to reduce farmer vulnerability to climate change.

The effects of adaptation to climate change on income of households in rural Ethiopia

Climate change is one of the most serious impediments to agricultural prosperity in Ethiopia, especially where livestock is concerned. In particular, rural farming communities in the drylands of the Afar region are severely exposed to the impacts of climate change, with stark reminders from repeating droughts followed by crop failure and livestock decimation. Locals have a long history of applying adaptation measures to maintain their sustenance. However, a growing literature challenges whether these traditional methods can continue to sustain local livelihoods. This study identifies how pastoral, semi-pastoral, agro-pastoral and mixed-farming communities in Afar perceive and adapt to climate change and whether these practices have brought about any improvement in farm income. A panel data set of five years was gathered using structured questionnaires from a sample of 313 households. Household heads pointed out indicators to identify climate-related stress such as erratic rainfall, drought, temperature change, drying of water sources, prevalence of diseases and lack of human and livestock feed. A fixed effects quantitative model on the panel data was estimated to verify the effect of adaptation strategies on income of household heads. We found that the main adaptation strategies that significantly influenced household income levels were forage production (hay and straw), access to water sources, livestock diversification and migration. The implication is that people severely affected by climate change and living in a situation demanding urgent solutions can actively apply various adaptation strategies if the strategies are linked to the creation of sustainable income benefits. Thus, integrated approaches comprising adaptation methods and expected benefits are an important way to induce farming communities to address challenges related to climatic change.

Species, Climate and Landscape Physiography Drive Variable Growth Trends in Subalpine Forests

Forests around the world are undergoing rapid changes due to changing climate and increasing physiological stress, but forest response to climate at the ecosystem scale can be highly variable due to the mixed responses of different trees across heterogeneous landscapes. To determine the response of ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains to climate stress, we investigated the response of subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) and Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii), two widely distributed subalpine forest species of Rocky Mountains, to climate warming across a region characterized by gradients of elevation, aspect and soil type. We investigated the growth trend of individual trees through time, determined the climate variables most important for driving growth and quantified the interactions between climate and topography that influence long-term growth trends and potential ecological changes across the study region. Growth trends of these two species are similar through the first part of the century, but diverge during the last several decades. Since 1975, subalpine fir growth decreased through time, while Engelmann spruce growth increased. We find that aspect and warm summer temperatures are the most important factors determining growth in subalpine fir, and subalpine fir growth declines are greatest on east- and south-facing aspects. In contrast, Engelmann spruce growth is uniformly unresponsive to climate. In addition to highlighting the importance of species-level differences in growth response to climate, our results also identify interactions between climate and local physiography as controls on long-term growth trends and suggest that the local landscape physiography can mediate climate-related stress in forested ecosystems. This work advances our understanding of how forest stress is mitigated by landscape factors at the ecosystem scale, and how interactions of species, landscape and climate will control future ecosystem composition and forest growth dynamics.

Climate-related environmental stress in intertidal grazers: scaling-up biochemical responses to assemblage-level processes.

BackgroundOrganisms are facing increasing levels of environmental stress under climate change that may severely affect the functioning of biological systems at different levels of organization. Growing evidence suggests that reduction in body size is a universal response of organisms to global warming. However, a clear understanding of whether extreme climate events will impose selection directly on phenotypic plastic responses and how these responses affect ecological interactions has remained elusive.MethodsWe experimentally investigated the effects of extreme desiccation events on antioxidant defense mechanisms of a rocky intertidal gastropod (Patella ulyssiponensis), and evaluated how these effects scaled-up at the population and assemblage levels.ResultsWith increasing levels of desiccation stress, limpets showed significant lower levels of total glutathione, tended to grow less and had reduced per capita interaction strength on their resources.DiscussionResults suggested that phenotypic plasticity (i.e., reduction in adults’ body size) allowed buffering biochemical responses to stress to scale-up at the assemblage level. Unveiling the linkages among different levels of biological organization is key to develop indicators that can anticipate large-scale ecological impacts of climate change.

US forest response to projected climate-related stress: a tolerance perspective.

Although it is widely recognized that climate change will require a major spatial reorganization of forests, our ability to predict exactly how and where forest characteristics and distributions will change has been rather limited. Current efforts to predict future distribution of forested ecosystems as a function of climate include species distribution models (for fine-scale predictions) and potential vegetation climate envelope models (for coarse-grained, large-scale predictions). Here, we develop and apply an intermediate approach wherein we use stand-level tolerances of environmental stressors to understand forest distributions and vulnerabilities to anticipated climate change. In contrast to other existing models, this approach can be applied at a continental scale while maintaining a direct link to ecologically relevant, climate-related stressors. We first demonstrate that shade, drought, and waterlogging tolerances of forest stands are strongly correlated with climate and edaphic conditions in the conterminous United States. This discovery allows the development of a tolerance distribution model (TDM), a novel quantitative tool to assess landscape level impacts of climate change. We then focus on evaluating the implications of the drought TDM. Using an ensemble of 17 climate change models to drive this TDM, we estimate that 18% of US ecosystems are vulnerable to drought-related stress over the coming century. Vulnerable areas include mostly the Midwest United States and Northeast United States, as well as high-elevation areas of the Rocky Mountains. We also infer stress incurred by shifting climate should create an opening for the establishment of forest types not currently seen in the conterminous United States.

Forest disturbance across the conterminous United States from 1985–2012: The emerging dominance of forest decline

Evidence of shifting dominance among major forest disturbance agent classes regionally to globally has been emerging in the literature. For example, climate-related stress and secondary stressors on forests (e.g., insect and disease, fire) have dramatically increased since the turn of the century globally, while harvest rates in the western US and elsewhere have declined. For shifts to be quantified, accurate historical forest disturbance estimates are required as a baseline for examining current trends. We report annual disturbance rates (with uncertainties) in the aggregate and by major change causal agent class for the conterminous US and five geographic subregions between 1985 and 2012. Results are based on human interpretations of Landsat time series from a probability sample of 7200 plots (30m) distributed throughout the study area. Forest disturbance information was recorded with a Landsat time series visualization and data collection tool that incorporates ancillary high-resolution data. National rates of disturbance varied between 1.5% and 4.5% of forest area per year, with trends being strongly affected by shifting dominance among specific disturbance agent influences at the regional scale. Throughout the time series, national harvest disturbance rates varied between one and two percent, and were largely a function of harvest in the more heavily forested regions of the US (Mountain West, Northeast, and Southeast). During the first part of the time series, national disturbance rates largely reflected trends in harvest disturbance. Beginning in the mid-90s, forest decline-related disturbances associated with diminishing forest health (e.g., physiological stress leading to tree canopy cover loss, increases in tree mortality above background levels), especially in the Mountain West and Lowland West regions of the US, increased dramatically. Consequently, national disturbance rates greatly increased by 2000, and remained high for much of the decade. Decline-related disturbance rates reached as high as 8% per year in the western regions during the early-2000s. Although low compared to harvest and decline, fire disturbance rates also increased in the early- to mid-2000s. We segmented annual decline-related disturbance rates to distinguish between newly impacted areas and areas undergoing gradual but consistent decline over multiple years. We also translated Landsat reflectance change into tree canopy cover change information for greater relevance to ecosystem modelers and forest managers, who can derive better understanding of forest-climate interactions and better adapt management strategies to changing climate regimes. Similar studies could be carried out for other countries where there are sufficient Landsat data and historic temporal snapshots of high-resolution imagery.