Face Of Climate Change Research Articles

Constraints on habitat possibilities: overwintering of a micro snail species facing climate change consequences in a harsh environment

The aim of this study was to establish the overwintering strategy and cold tolerance in V. moulinsiana. We observed a seasonal change in the SCP measurements, indicating that the species' preparation for winter results in a decrease in the SCP. Along with the results obtained from the frost survival experiment, this suggests the presence of a freezing avoidance strategy in this species. It overwinters in a buffered zone, separated from harsh conditions by a layer of leaf litter and snow, which protects it from temperature fluctuations and severe frost. The results of our research may indicate a possible poor resistance of these snails to snow-free conditions. Therefore, climate change-induced alterations could profoundly impact this species, especially considering the predicted disappearance of snow before the frost.

A Pioneering Integration of Structural Health Assessments and Dynamic Analyses: Bridge Pier Responses to the Impact of Floating Objects during Extreme Floods

This study presents a transformative dynamic amplification factor for assessing the resilience of over-river bridges, informed by the real-world conditions of flood events. Through advanced finite element analysis, we unveil how the interplay between mass and velocity of floating objects significantly influences bridge pier responses, challenging conventional assessment methods. Our findings reveal potential inadequacies in current design standards, such as AASHTO and AS5100, and introduces a dynamic multiplier that enhances structural health assessment algorithms. The core contribution of this research is a data-driven analysis approach, which is critical for the proactive maintenance and risk assessment of bridge infrastructures in areas prone to flooding. By redefining the parameters for damage-level identification, our work advocates for a shift towards more resilient infrastructure systems in the face of global climate change.

Historical Analysis of the Effects of Drought on Rice and Maize Yields in Southeast Asia

This study performs an empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis to study the relationship between rice and maize productivities and the different time scales of the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), including 1-month, 6-month, and 12-month time scales in Southeast Asia during the years 1970–2019. For the 1-month time scale, the averaged SPEI values are in the range of −1.0 to 1.0, indicating a moderate degree of dryness and humidity. Both 6-month and 12-month time scales suggest that many countries in Southeast Asia are experiencing mostly wet conditions, with SPEI values reaching up to 1.5. The relationship analysis by using EOF was indicated by the first and second principal components (PC1 and PC2) suggesting that drought events exhibit a positive orientation to crop productivity, especially maize in Southeast Asia. The pattern of climate oscillations, such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), is likely related to crop productivity in Southeast Asia. The findings emphasize the importance of considering temporal climatic patterns in agricultural decision-making, with implications for enhancing regional climate resilience and ensuring sustainable food security in the face of global climate change.

Combining multi-source data to map vineyards in a specialized district of Basilicata (Southern Italy)

ABSTRACT In agriculture, the geography of specific crops can successfully support productivity monitoring and farming practices management. Vineyards particularly have a key role in modeling and protecting Mediterranean landscapes, representing a fundamental asset in the economies of inner areas. In this paper, we mapped the 2017 coverage of vineyards of the Vulture-Melfese, a specialized agricultural district of Basilicata (Southern Italy) renowned for hosting the Aglianico grapevine variety. To achieve this objective, we combined information extracted from free-accessible multisource data by leveraging the traditional photo-interpretation technique. Then, we characterized the mapped vineyards based on simple geo-environmental variables (size, elevation, climate). This detailed inventory can help public bodies and land managers to shape more specific local agricultural policies to strengthen the profitability of the agricultural sector, preserve agrobiodiversity and face climate change effects.

Educating for variability and climate change in Uruguay, a case study

Among the possible actions to face climate change, education has a central role, great hopes have been deposited in its potential to contribute to the construction of a sustainable world. However, although there are global climate change education initiatives, they still do not generate a significant impact, especially at the local level. The deepening of the location of educational actions is key to reaching the public. It is necessary to permeate the national educational systems and non-formal education generated by local civil society. For this reason, it is important to learn about successful local initiatives that can enrich and strengthen future practices at all levels. In Uruguay, initiatives have been developed that can serve as case studies that contribute to collecting lessons learned and areas of opportunity. This paper includes three experiences developed by multidisciplinary teams from the Centre for Response to Variability and Climate Change of the University of the Republic in conjunction with key local government actors and local civil society. It is about the process of elaboration and implementation of an audio-visual educational resource for adolescents, a cycle of workshops for young people and a multimodal online course for professional adults and teachers. The experiences demonstrate the relevance of generating locally contextualized educational resources and actions to contribute to the achievement of global objectives of sustainable development. Likewise, they present some lessons learned in terms of theoretical approaches, methods and practices of education for climate change.

Differentiated Trust Strategies and Rebellious Acceptance: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of the Trust Strategies Used by Scientist Communicators and Citizen Science Communicators in Chinese Online Climate Communication

Trust is a core issue in online climate communication where communicators are found to be diverse. This study explores the trust strategies used by different communicators and their audience acceptance in climate communication on Zhihu through Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The results indicate there are structured differences in the trust strategies adopted by scientist communicators and citizen science communicators when facing climate change issues. In terms of audience acceptance, audiences have shown considerable initiative and exhibited an acceptance characteristic with certain Chinese cultural features which highlights the context of acceptance in the research and practices of trust issues in climate communication.

The future of endemic and threatened birds of the Amazon in the face of global climate change.

The anthropogenic impacts on the environment, including deforestation and the escalating emissions of greenhouse gases, have significantly contributed to global climate change that can lead to alterations in ecosystems. In this context, protected areas (PAs) are pillars for biodiversity conservation by being able, for example, to maintain the viability of populations of endangered species. On the other hand, the species range shifts do not follow the limits of PAs, jeopardizing the conservation of these species. Furthermore, the effectiveness of PAs is consistently undermined by impacts stemming from land use, hunting activities, and illegal exploitation, both within the designated areas and in their adjacent zones. The objectives of this study are to quantify the impacts of climate change on the distribution of threatened and endemic birds of the Amazon biome, evaluate the effectiveness of PAs in protecting the richness of threatened birds, and analyze the representativeness of species within PAs. We found with our results that climate suitability loss is above 80 for 65% of taxa in the optimistic scenario and above 93% in the pessimistic scenario. The results show that PAs are not effective in protecting the richness of Amazonian birds, just as they are ineffective in protecting most of the taxa studied when analyzed individually Although some taxa are presented as "Protected," in future scenarios these taxa may suffer major shrinkages in their distributions and consequently present population unviability. The loss of climatically suitable areas and the effectiveness of PAs can directly influence the loss of ecosystem services, fundamental to maintaining the balance of biodiversity. Therefore, our study paves the way for conservation actions aimed at these taxa so that they can mitigate current and future extinctions due to climate change.

Rural households' livelihood adaptation strategies in the face of changing climate: A case study from Pakistan

Rural and agricultural communities' adaptation to climate change has gained significant attention owing to many countries' vulnerability to climate change risks. A similar trend has been witnessed in South Asia, a highly climate-vulnerable region, where research has grown dramatically considering the agriculture sector's vulnerability to climate-induced disasters. However, little attention has been paid to the adaptation of the livelihoods of rural households. This research, therefore, takes the case of Pakistan to explore livelihood adaptation strategies of rural households to climate change and investigate the factors that expedite or halt the adoption of livelihood diversification strategies. A multistage sampling design is used in this research, where 480 rural households from the Punjab province of Pakistan were selected and interviewed using stratified and random sampling approaches. A multivariate probit (MVP) regression model is employed to analyze the factors affecting households' adoption of livelihood adaptation strategies. The results show that besides adaptation of agronomic operations (agricultural adaptation strategies), rural households in the study area employed a wide range of strategies to adapt their livelihoods to climate change. These strategies include poultry and livestock farming, value addition of farm produce, trading of animals and farm commodities, small businesses (shops, etc.), daily wage labor, horticultural crop farming, and non-farming jobs. The estimates of the MVP model revealed that respondents' education, household size, income, access to a credit facility, access to farm advisory services, and access to climate forecasts have significantly influenced the choice of livelihood adaptation strategies. Based on these findings, this research recommends that the authorities should make efforts to improve farmers' understanding of the adaptation of climate change risks and educate them to adopt multiple livelihood options to improve the resilience of their livelihoods to climate-induced risks. This research has important policy implications for other countries with similar socio-economic features.

A policy analysis on the inclusion of disabilities in natural disaster management in Indonesia

Climate change increases the occurrence of natural disasters. From 1909-2023, Indonesia experienced 613 natural disasters. The flood, which had 268 incidents, was the most significant natural disaster. Indonesia is known for being one of the world’s flood-prone areas. This is due to tidal water inundation, sea level rise, river overflows due to high rainfall, and land subsidence and urbanization. In facing climate change and dealing with natural disasters, no one must be left behind. Indonesia has had a policy for managing natural disasters since 1961, but Indonesia only had natural disaster management related to involving people with disabilities in 2007. This research aims to analyses the process of involving people with disabilities in managing natural disasters. The research uses qualitative methods with content analysis policy. The study finds Indonesia already has a national legal basis for involving disabilities from the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation stages as well as in the Disaster Risk Reduction Forum. This study concludes that there is a need for integrity between the central government and regional governments in managing natural disasters with the involvement of disabilities.

Bridges damaged during the 2019 Poldokhtar flood: towards flood-resilient bridges

Bridges are among the most vital parts of infrastructure networks in every country, and have been seriously damaged by natural hazards such as floods and earthquakes in the past. Engineering communities have always faced challenges protecting these structures from flood hazards. Today, the world is facing climate change, with incidences of severe floods increasing globally. Flooding brings the possibility of significant bridge damage and therefore studying bridge performance under flood hazards is of vital importance. The flood in Poldokhtar, Iran, in 2019 was one of the most destructive floods in the last decade. In this research, the performance of 14 bridges during the Poldokhtar flood was reviewed and the damage incurred was assessed through field investigations. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate, based on visual inspections and engineering judgement, the different reasons and scenarios that lead to the destruction of different types of bridges during floods. The results of this study emphasise the need to estimate bridge vulnerability and develop procedures to prevent bridge destruction. The technical and statistical information on bridge destruction due to flooding obtained in this work is vital for the management and inspection systems of bridges, the retrofit of existing bridges and the design of new flood-resilient bridges.

Community-Centred Energy Planning: Within and beyond Administrative Borders

Since its introduction in 2008, the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) has helped municipalities meet EU Climate and Energy goals and thresholds through Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Planning (SECAP). The engagement of local communities holds particular significance for smaller municipalities, which can leverage collective strategies to mutually contribute to climate change mitigation efforts, thereby optimizing results. In the realm of communities, Renewable Energy Communities (REC) have emerged as a potential tool for SECAP implementation, but although they target common objectives and constitute subsequent steps of the same planning flow, their interaction is poor. This study aimed to investigate similar tools’ integration by focusing on administrative and technical boundaries whose overlaps often hinder their interoperability. To this aim, the Italian framework was chosen due to the representation of its signatories in the CoM. Municipalities that have undertaken actions related to RECs within their Joint SECAPs have been compared through an analysis of the CoM datasets. Finally, two Italian case studies were selected to evaluate the impact of different territorial and institutional configurations on these initiatives, aiming to face climate change and achieve a green transition. This helped the authors propose practical recommendations and policy implications concerning this kind of community-centred energy planning solution as outlined in the concluding section.

Shaping the future of green hydrogen: De Nora’s electrochemical technologies for fueling the energy transition

Abstract De Nora, an Italian multinational corporation listed on Euronext Milan, stands as a notable leader in sustainable technologies, especially within the growing field of green hydrogen. Over its century-long existence, the company has undergone distinct phases, culminating in a significant global role for a greener and more sustainable future. De Nora has substantiated its international presence with a robust network of 25 operational entities, five research centers, and a workforce exceeding 2000 employees. Originating in 1923 under Oronzio De Nora’s vision, the establishment of Oronzio De Nora Impianti Elettrochimici propelled the company into pioneering electrochemical advancements. Initially focusing on chlor-alkali technologies, De Nora’s strategic collaborations and acquisitions facilitated its evolution from a specialized enterprise to a versatile multinational entity. The contemporary phase of De Nora’s journey has been fortified by strategic partnerships, notably with Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and later Snam S.p.A. These alliances align with the need to face climate change and underscore De Nora’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. As the transition to cleaner energy solutions accelerates worldwide, De Nora’s expertise in electrode technology and electrochemical processes positions it as a frontrunner in the green hydrogen revolution. Central to this evolution is the rise of green hydrogen, produced through water electrolysis using renewable sources. De Nora’s research and development initiatives have yielded transformative outcomes, including energy-efficient electrodes and innovative electrode packages tailored for alkaline electrolysis. This focus on efficiency and cost reduction enhances De Nora’s potential to drive the widespread adoption of green hydrogen technology, amplifying its influence on the global energy landscape. De Nora’s impact extends to pivotal global initiatives, exemplified by its role as a strategic partner in NEOM project, an ambitious green hydrogen production facility in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, De Nora’s contributions resonate in Europe’s largest green hydrogen generation project through collaboration with H2 Green Steel in Sweden. Moreover, a crowning achievement in De Nora’s trajectory is the visionary ‘GigaFactory’, a model of innovation and sustainability made in partnership with Snam. Located near Milan, this pioneering manufacturing hub will embody principles of Industry 4.0, flexibility and automation practices. Supported by the European IPCEI Hydrogen program and the European Commission, this initiative represents a significant stride towards a renewable hydrogen value chain. In conclusion, De Nora’s journey encapsulates a century-long evolution from its electrochemical roots to a dynamic global company propelling sustainable technologies. Anchored by an unwavering commitment to carbon neutrality and bolstered by transformative partnerships, the company embodies innovation and collaborative engagement – essential elements for steering industries towards a sustainable future. In a world united by the necessity of decarbonization, De Nora stands steadfast, carving its role as a symbol of a sustainable future.

Green Banking: Awareness of Customers in Environmental Protection

the main problems across the world to-day are environmental changes and protection and management of natural resources. Environmental change causes a number of interconnected environmental problems, including deforestation, poor air quality, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Climate change is the most complex of the aforementioned issues. Efforts are being made around the world to quantify and reduce the risks of environmental change. Numerous nations across the globe have pledged to lessen the effects of climate change. It is the responsibility of each and every one of us to work in this direction in order to minimize climate change. Every organization across the world is highly interested to make their business as green to face climate change and contribute towards sustainable development. By taking on the role of advocates for sustainability, banks may play a vital role in preserving sustainability. The corporate community's traditional bottom line approach of profit is sometimes replaced with a triple bottom line approach, which emphasizes the three Ps: people, planet, and profit, as a result of sustainable development. The present study aims to study Green Banking in depth and awareness of the clients regarding green banking concept adopted in Tiruchirappalli City. In terms of development, SBI is a model for all the steps a bank may take to overcome the problems brought up by green banking.

Analysis of Low-carbon City Construction Path in Shenzhen

In the face of global climate change characterized by climate warming, in order to protect the natural environment and restore its vitality in the past, human beings began to seek low-carbon development methods. As the center of human social and economic activities and the main source of greenhouse gas emissions, cities play a core role in the development of global low-carbon economy. This paper takes Shenzhen as the research object, explains the existing problems and suggestions of low-carbon cities, and puts forward the low-carbon development approach of Shenzhen under the premise of ensuring steady economic growth. Its green and low-carbon industrial system is accelerating, the clean and efficient energy system is becoming increasingly perfect, the green and low-carbon transportation level is leading the world, the development of green buildings is making solid progress, the ecological livable Shenzhen model is taking the lead, green and low-carbon living consumption highlights, green science and technology innovation plateau is taking shape, and green and low-carbon regional opening and cooperation is rich and colorful. All these indicate that Shenzhen has made remarkable progress in low-carbon construction.

Stand structure is more important for forest productivity stability than tree, understory plant and soil biota species diversity

IntroductionThe stability of forest productivity is an important management goal in order to sustain ecosystem services for an expanding human population and in the face of global climate change. Evidence from theoretical, observational, and experimental studies has demonstrated that higher biodiversity promotes stability of forest productivity. However, the majority of these studies have focused solely on tree diversity and have neglected the potentially important role of understory plant and soil biodiversity.MethodsIn this study, we explain the effect of tree, understory woody and herbaceous plant, and soil biota (fauna, fungi, and bacteria) species diversity on forest productivity and its stability over time (2000–2020) across an area of Northeast China covering 145 million hectares. We explore the eight stand structure variables for stability of forest productivity and the relationship between productivity stability and tree, understory plant, and soil biota species diversity.ResultsOur results show no significant, direct impact of understory plant, soil fungi, and bacteria species diversity on the stability of the forest ecosystem. Tree species diversity indirectly affects productivity stability by directly influencing stand structure, whereas soil fauna species diversity indirectly influences stability through its relationship with tree species diversity. Stand structure is more important than tree and soil fauna species diversity for forest productivity stability. Specifically, increasing crown height (CH) from its minimum to maximum value leads to a substantial gain of 20.394 in forest productivity stability. In contrast, raising tree species diversity (α-Tree) and soil fauna species diversity (α-Fauna) from their minimum to maximum values results in a modest reduction of only 0.399 and 0.231 in forest productivity stability, respectively.DiscussionTo increase the stability of forest productivity in response to climate change, we should adjust the stand structure more in the process of management rather than just considering biodiversity. Overall, this study highlights the ecological risks associated with large-scale biotic homogenization under future climate change and management practices.

Trend analysis and forecast of annual precipitation and temperature series in the Eastern Mediterranean region

The present study aims to examine the current trend of annual precipitation and temperature series referred to the Eastern Mediterranean basin on a national basis, including the annual variability of sea surface temperature anomalies and the connection effect with the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Mediterranean Oscillation indices (NAOI and MOI, respectively). The period under consideration is mainly the last 32 years, from 1990 to 2021. Additionally, the prediction of monthly and yearly temperature and precipitation series, based on the autoregressive integrated moving average model on a national base, for the next four or eight years, is another interesting feature of the present study. Results indicate rising trends in the annual precipitation during 1990-2021, mostly non-significant and significant warming trends in the annual temperature, including sea surface temperature. The NAOI is highly correlated mostly with annual temperature, whereas the MOI does not affect the variation of annual precipitation and temperature. The results of the present study are in general agreement with the results of available studies in the literature, and they could be of high interest to national authorities and environmental unions/organizations, to help decision-makers face climate change.

Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island: The Climate Crisis and Planetary Environmentalism

ABSTRACT Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island (2019), in addressing the planetary scale of the climate crisis, gestures to the possibility of, and the imperative for, multispecies as well as multi-ethnic and cross-cultural cooperation as a way of facing climate change. The parallel that Ghosh draws between human and animal migrations, resulting from climate change, underlines the novel’s emphasis on multispecies climate justice. By connecting the refugee influx into the Western world to the environmental crisis beyond the West, the novel also concerns itself with social, racial, and historical injustices, drawing attention to the role of European colonization and the present-day global capitalism in escalating the climate crisis. I discuss the characteristics of environmentalism that I identify within Gun Island using the term “planetary environmentalism.” This kind of environmentalism extends beyond any geographical boundary created by humans, as borders lose their meaning when the future of the whole planet is at threat. I argue that the novel, through planetary environmentalism, raises a cry for multispecies justice as a question of multispecies survival to face the challenges of the planetary crisis caused by climate change.

Spatial Conservation Prioritization for Land in Megacity Facing Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss

Climate change and biodiversity loss are two major threats to the world. Ecosystem conservation is an important issue for humanity, and international intergovernmental science-policy platforms highlight the mutually beneficial relationships among biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services and measures to mitigate climate change. Rapid urbanization has brought various deeply interconnected ecological problems to large cities. Therefore, key areas for conservation must be identified in an integrative manner to maximize conservation effectiveness and meet both ecological and human social needs. Spatial conservation prioritization provides a way to consider different functional needs as a whole in light of certain objectives while highlighting their contradictions and overlaps in spatial utilization. The megacity of Beijing continues to experience frequent extreme weather events despite the implementation of a series of ecological restoration measures. We integrated the potential distributions of 64 critically endangered native species to represent biodiversity and used five main ecosystem services required for climate governance to represent ecosystem services in the city. Using the spatial prioritization software Zonation 5, we assessed the spatial distribution of conservation priorities at the municipal scale and changes in conservation effectiveness in four protection scenarios. The results showed that the existing PAs in Beijing could protect 24.99% of the current distribution of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The conservation effectiveness can reach 78.75% when the PAs are increased to 30%. This efficiency rate is 4.46% lower than that of the optimal scenario, which does not consider the existing PAs. An emphasis on urban rewilding spaces may be the key to overcoming conservation bottlenecks to further enhance the efficiency of ecological conservation. To achieve future conservation targets, policy development may start with urban built-up areas.

Variations in Essential Oil Composition and Chemotype Patterns of Wild Thyme (Thymus) Species in the Natural Habitats of Hungary

A comprehensive study was conducted on the diversity and characteristics of five Thymus species native to Hungary, concerning frequency of occurrence, habitat preferences, essential oil content of the dried flowering shoots, and chemotype patterns determined by GC/MS. Our main aims were to provide an overview of the essential oil diversity of thyme resources and select the best genotypes with potential for cultivation and utilization. Based on the results obtained in 74 populations of 63 localities belonging to 15 regions of the Transdanubian and Northern Hungarian Mountains, considerable essential oil diversity was found. Thymus pannonicus (TPA), of generalist character, was proven to be the most frequent species (38 populations), while T. serpyllum (TSE) occurred only in two habitats. High average amounts of essential oil (EO) were shown for T. pannonicus (0.46 mL/100 g DW), T. pulegioides (TPU: 0.47 mL/100 g DW), and T. serpyllum (0.59 mL/100 g DW), while low EO accumulating ability was detected in T. glabrescens (TGL: 0.26 mL/100 g DW) and in T. praecox (TPR: 0.10 mL/100 g DW). In general, the thymol chemotype was the most frequent (34 populations), found together with the related molecules (p-cymene: 26; γ-terpinene: 15), while numerous other monoterpenes (M: geraniol: 12, linalool: 7) or sesquiterpenes (S: germacrene D: 25, β-caryophyllene: 21) were dominant, as well as combined (MS) chemotypes, which were also described in the Eos of Thymus species in Hungary. Our findings confirmed that T. pannonicus shows potential for cultivation with homogenous drug quality, adequate amounts of essential oil, and stability in EO composition. Data from original habitats also supports its high tolerance and adaptability to diverse environmental conditions, which is advantageous when facing climate change and extremities.

Ecophysiology of Antarctic Vascular Plants: An Update on the Extreme Environment Resistance Mechanisms and Their Importance in Facing Climate Change

Antarctic flowering plants have become enigmatic because of their unique capability to colonize Antarctica. It has been shown that there is not a single trait that makes Colobanthus quitensis and Deschampsia antarctica so special, but rather a set of morphophysiological traits that coordinately confer resistance to one of the harshest environments on the Earth. However, both their capacity to inhabit Antarctica and their uniqueness remain not fully explained from a biological point of view. These aspects have become more relevant due to the climatic changes already impacting Antarctica. This review aims to compile and update the recent advances in the ecophysiology of Antarctic vascular plants, deepen understanding of the mechanisms behind their notable resistance to abiotic stresses, and contribute to understanding their potential responses to environmental changes. The uniqueness of Antarctic plants has prompted research that emphasizes the role of leaf anatomical traits and cell wall properties in controlling water loss and CO2 exchange, the role of Rubisco kinetics traits in facilitating efficient carbon assimilation, and the relevance of metabolomic pathways in elucidating key processes such as gas exchange, nutrient uptake, and photoprotection. Climate change is anticipated to have significant and contrasting effects on the morphophysiological processes of Antarctic species. However, more studies in different locations outside Antarctica and using the latitudinal gradient as a natural laboratory to predict the effects of climate change are needed. Finally, we raise several questions that should be addressed, both to unravel the uniqueness of Antarctic vascular species and to understand their potential responses to climate change.