Climate Global Warming Research Articles

Species Diversity and Driving Factors of Benthic and Zooplanktonic Assemblages at Different Stages of Thermokarst Lake Development: A Case Study in the Lena River Delta (Middle Siberia)

Global climate change might result in permafrost thaw and the formation of thermokarst landscapes that release long-term carbon stocks as greenhouse into the atmosphere, thereby initiating a positive climate feedback. These processes are mediated by biological activity, including by microbes, vascular plants and animals, whereas the role of invertebrates in thermokarst ecosystems remains poorly understood. We investigated the diversity and assemblage structures of zooplankton (mainly Copepoda, Cladocera), microbenthos (testate amoebae) and meio- (Copepoda and Cladocera) and macrozoobenthos (mollusks, crustaceans, insects and annelids) from a range of water bodies representing different stages of thermokarst lake formation in the southern part of the Lena River Delta (Central Siberia). Altogether, 206 species of testate amoeba, mollusk, crustacean, insect and annelid taxa were identified. A total of 60 species of macrozoobenthos (mainly insects) and 62 species of testate amoebae were detected in the water bodies of the Lena River Delta for the first time. The species richness of zooplankton and meio- and macrozoobenthos was greater in the large thermokarst lakes than in the polygonal ponds due to the freezing of the latter in the winter. In contrast, the species richness of protists was higher in the polygonal ponds, which was related to the habitat preferences of testate amoebae. Fish grazing strongly affected the macrobenthos assemblages but not the smaller-sized organisms. Water acidity and temperature were the main environmental drivers of the assemblage structure of testate amoeba and microcrustacean. The species structure of the macroinvertebrate assemblages was significantly explained by water acidity, permafrost depth and size of the water area. It means that small size organisms with their short generation times are sensitive to more dynamic factors such as temperature and may serve as indicators of ecosystem changes due to global climate warming. In contrast, large size organisms are affected by driven factors that appear during thermokarst lakes formation and permafrost degradation.

Effect of different nutrient applications on seed germination of African marigold (Tagetes erecta L.)

Global warming and change in climate triggers to combat the feeding need of the population, seed represent the basic requirement for a quality plant material. The present research was carried out in 2021 at Horticulture Garden Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam to assess the effect of different nutrients application on seed germination of marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) The present study was conducted to evaluate effect of different nutrients application on seed germination of marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) Therefore, the seeds of marigold were emersed in 1% solution of ammonium sulphate ((NH4)2SO4), boric acid (H3BO3), and potassium nitrate (KNO3) to get the accuracy of seed germination. Results revealed that maximum seed germination percentage (85.27%), germination rate of index (83.84), coefficient of velocity germination (2.96), mean germination time (12.73), mean germination rate (44.45), germination index (1.55), final germination percentage (1.23%), first day of germination percentage (74.61), last day of germination (13.23) and time spread germination (14.40) was observed when 1% potassium nitrate was applied and followed by boric acid {seed germination percentage (59.20%), germination rate of index (54.93), coefficient of velocity germination (24.13), mean germination time (8.84), mean germination rate (36.20), germination index (1.04), final germination percentage (3.10), first day of germination percentage (74.36), last day of germination (15.16) and time spread germination (11.90)} while the minimum results were recorded in control with mineral water seed germination percentage (18.28%), germination rate of index (3.26), coefficient of velocity germination (0.73), mean germination time (2.70), mean germination rate (11.00), germination index (0.32), final germination percentage (10.43), first day of germination percentage (37.35), last day of germination (15.06) and time spread germination (4.83) and Pearson correlation (r) exhibited a strong positive correlation observed in MGR with CVG=0.4482, FDP=0.3696, G=0.4554, GI=0.4551, GP=0.4499 and GRI=0.3766-). This study showed that seed is directly related with germination and germination-related traits. It has a great positive impact on crop yield.

Morphology, photosynthetic physiology and biochemistry of nine herbaceous plants under water stress.

Global climate warming and shifts in rainfall patterns are expected to trigger increases in the frequency and magnitude of drought and/or waterlogging stress in plants. To cope with water stress, plants develop diverse tactics. However, the adoption capability and mechanism vary depending upon the plant species identity as well as stress duration and intensity. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the species-dependent responses of alpine herbaceous species to water stress. Nine herbaceous species were subjected to different water stresses (including moderate drought and moderate waterlogging) in pot culture using a randomized complete block design with three replications for each treatment. We hypothesized that water stress would negatively impact plant growth and metabolism. We found considerable interspecies differences in morphological, physiological, and biochemical responses when plants were exposed to the same water regime. In addition, we observed pronounced interactive effects of water regime and plant species identity on plant height, root length, root/shoot ratio, biomass, and contents of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, chlorophyll (a+b), carotenoids, malondialdehyde, soluble sugar, betaine, soluble protein and proline, implying that plants respond to water regime differently. Our findings may cast new light on the ecological restoration of grasslands and wetlands in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau by helping to select stress-tolerant plant species.

FLOWERING LOCUS T mediates photo-thermal timing of inflorescence meristem arrest in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Plants integrate environmental information into their developmental program throughout their lifetime. Light and temperature are particularly critical cues for plants to correctly time developmental transitions. Here, we investigated the role of photo-thermal cues in the regulation of the end-of-flowering developmental transition in the model plant Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). We found that increased day length and higher temperature during flowering promote earlier inflorescence arrest by accelerating the rate at which the inflorescence meristem (IM) initiates floral primordia. Specifically, we show that plants arrest at a photo-thermal threshold and demonstrate that this photo-thermally mediated arrest is mediated by the floral integrator FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT), a known activator of flowering. FT expression increased over the duration of flowering, peaking during IM arrest, and we show that this is necessary and sufficient for photo-thermally induced arrest. Our data demonstrate the role of light and temperature, through FT, as key regulators of end-of-flowering. Overall, our results have important implications for understanding and modulating the flowering duration of crop species in changing light and temperature conditions in a warming global climate.

Flood Monitoring in the Middle and Lower Basin of the Yangtze River Using Google Earth Engine and Machine Learning Methods

Under the background of intensified human activities and global climate warming, the frequency and intensity of flood disasters have increased, causing many casualties and economic losses every year. Given the difficulty of mountain shadow removal from large-scale watershed flood monitoring based on Sentinel-1 SAR images and the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud platform, this paper first adopted the Support Vector Machine (SVM) to extract the water body information during flooding. Then, a function model was proposed based on the mountain shadow samples to remove the mountain shadows from the flood maps. Finally, this paper analyzed the flood disasters in the middle and lower basin of the Yangtze River (MLB) in 2020. The main results showed that: (1) compared with the other two methods, the SVM model had the highest accuracy. The accuracy and kappa coefficients of the trained SVM model in the testing dataset were 97.77% and 0.9521, respectively. (2) The function model proposed based on the samples achieved the best effect compared with other shadow removal methods with a shadow recognition rate of 75.46%, and it alleviated the interference of mountain shadows for flood monitoring in a large basin. (3) The flood inundated area was 8526 km2, among which, cropland was severely affected (6160 km2). This study could provide effective suggestions for relevant stakeholders in policy making.

Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Microplastics in Snow in the Inner Mongolia Plateau, China

Microplastics (MPs; < 5 mm) have become one of the most prominent global environmental pollution problems. MPs can spread to high altitudes through atmospheric transport and can be deposited by rainfall or snowfall, potentially threatening the structure and function of natural ecosystems. MPs in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems alter the growth and functional characteristics of organisms. However, little attention has been given to the possible harm associated with MPs deposited in snow, particularly in the context of global climate warming. MPs collected from surface snow in the Inner Mongolia Plateau, China, were used for quantitative analysis and identification. The results showed that MPs were easily detected, and the related concentration was approximately (68 ± 10)–(199 ± 22) MPs·L−1 in snow samples. Fibers were the most common morphology, the polymer composition was largely varied, and the abundance and composition of MPs were linked to human activity to a great extent. High-throughput sequencing results showed that the composition and abundance of microorganisms also differed in snow samples from areas with different MP pollution characteristics, indicating a considerable difference in microbial functional diversity. MPs may have an interference effect on the individual growth and functional expression of microorganisms in snow. In addition, the results showed that functional living areas (e.g., landfills and suburban areas) in cities play an important role in the properties of MPs. For instance, the highest abundance of MPs was found in thermal power plants, whereas the abundance of polymers per sample was significantly lower in the suburban area. The MP contaminants hidden in snow can alter microbial structure and function and are therefore a potential threat to ecosystem health.

Improvement of Climate Resource Utilization Efficiency to Enhance Maize Yield through Adjusting Planting Density

The sustainable high yield of crops is critically important under the current situation of global climate warming. In order to improve regional yield, it is urgent to clarify the limiting factors of local grain yield and change the traditional planting measurements to adapt to the warming climate and make full use of climate resources. Long-term field experiments over seven years from 2014 to 2021 were conducted with the same maize cultivar (i.e., Luyu9105) with seven planting density treatments: 3.0 × 104 (D1), 4.5 × 104 (D2), 6.0 × 104 (D3), 7.5 × 104 (D4), 9.0 × 104 (D5), 10.5 × 104 (D6), and 12.0 × 104 (D7) plants per hectare in Taihe and Hefei, which belong to the southern Huang-Huai-Hai (SHHH) and southeast (SE) maize-producing areas in China. According to the field experiment data, differences in grain yield, ear number, kernel number per spike, and 1000-kernel weight of different treatments were analyzed. The utilization efficiency of climate resources in Taihe and Hefei was calculated using daily solar radiation, mean temperature, and precipitation data. The results showed that Taihe had 7.8% higher solar radiation during the growing season of maize than Hefei, while accumulated temperature ≥10 °C (AT10) was 3.9% lower than Hefei. The grain yields of different planting densities in Taihe were 9.7~23.6% higher than in Hefei. The agronomic optimal planting density (AOPD) was 8.6 × 104 plants ha−1 in Taihe and 8.0 × 104 plants ha−1 in Hefei. Compared to the actual grain yields, when the agronomic optimal planting densities were adopted, the simulated yield increased by 51.3% and 59.6%, respectively. The radiation utilization efficiency, temperature utilization efficiency, and precipitation utilization efficiency in Taihe were 12.9%, 24.6%, and 26.7% higher than the values of Hefei, respectively, and D4 and D5 treatments had significantly higher climatic resource utilization efficiency than D1 and D2 treatment. The grain yield was negatively correlated with accumulated temperature ≥10 °C and positively correlated with solar radiation. The multiple linear regression model among solar radiation, accumulated temperature was ≥10 °C, and grain yield was y = 0.550R−0.562AT10 + 14,593.6 (R = 0.379). Accumulated temperature ≥10 °C was the main climatic factor affecting the grain yield due to the higher occurrence probability of a maximum temperature ≥35 °C. Overall, in the future, increasing planting density and alleviating heat stress may enhance grain yield. These results could provide cultivation measurements with regional characteristics to adapt to the local climate and maximize the utilization efficiency of climatic resources.

Editorial for the Special Issue on Sustainable Power Systems and Optimization

In recent years, the installed capacity of renewable energy in power systems has increased rapidly to resolve global climate warming issues and promote sustainable development [...]

Mid-late holocene accretional history of low-lying, coral-reef rim islets, South-Marutea Atoll, Tuamotu, central South Pacific: The key role of marine hazard events

South-Marutea Atoll is located in the Gambier Island Group, at the south-eastern end of the Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia, central South Pacific. Understanding the modalities of islet building from low-lying atolls over the mid to late Holocene, in relation to sea-level changes and cycles of marine hazard events, is a prerequisite for better anticipate future geomorphic changes to which the islets will likely be faced in the next decades under global climate warming. Herein is presented the depositional history of two selected atoll islets, based on chronostratigraphic analysis of sedimentary, coral-dominated sequences from six excavations. Identified as Motu Aramu and Motu Vainono, these islets are located respectively in north-north-east and due south of the atoll rim. Additional surficial sampling was conducted on modern ocean-facing shingle ridges, respectively on north-north-west (Motu Oire), west (Motu Aranui) and east (Motu Tekava) rim areas, in order to date the latest ridge-emplacement stages. Oire and Aranui sites, located along the leeward atoll sites, are protected from trade winds, Aramu, Vainono and Tekava are located on the windward sides, directly exposed to northeasterly and southeasterly storm swells respectively. A total of 88 coral clasts were collected to be U/Th dated. The excavated sequences range between 2.50 ​m and 0.90 ​m in thickness, from the outer islet sides lagoonwards. Five lithofacies, including two subfacies, were recognized based on texture and biological composition: a coral boulder-cobble-dominated, a coral pebble-dominated – pebble-supported and sand-supported subfacies – and a foraminifera-rich, sand-dominated and an organic-rich, pebble to sand facies. These facies tend to be distributed from ocean sides landwards according to a decreasing grain-size gradient. A model of atoll-island accretion emerges in relation with changes in frequency and intensity of marine hazard events. The islet foundations consist of conglomerate platforms, locally up to 1.0 ​m thick, deposited from about 5,000 to 1,000 ​calendar year (cal yr) BP. Islets began to accrete from 5,000 ​yr cal BP. While at Motu Vainono, islet building occurred continuously over the last 5,000 years, at Motu Aramu, there is an apparent non-depositional episode, from 4,000 to 2,000 ​yr cal BP, interpreted as caused by a marked decreased in enso-related cyclone activity. The outer shingle ridges in all studied sites were regularly reshaped during the last millennium. During the last 5,000 years, the major accretion-islet episodes occurred irrespective of the course of sea level, indicating that sea-level change was not a driver of islet accretion. Periodical, marine high-energy events clearly appear to be the key controls of islet shaping. Shifts of cyclone source areas further south and increasing cyclone intensity, but lower frequency, due to enhanced enso variability throughout the 21st century, is postulated to expose the Gambier island Group to stronger, but fewer disturbance events when compared to the last millennia.

Meta-analysis reveals cyanotoxins risk across African inland waters

Global eutrophication and climate warming exacerbate production of cyanotoxins such as microcystins (MCs), presenting risks to human and animal health. Africa is a continent suffering from severe environmental crises, including MC intoxication, but with very limited understanding of the occurrence and extent of MCs. By analysing 90 publications from 1989 to 2019, we found that in various water bodies where MCs have been detected so far, the concentrations were 1.4–2803 times higher than the WHO provisional guideline for human lifetime exposure via drinking water (1 µg/L) in 12 of 15 African countries where data were available. MCs were relatively high in the Republic of South Africa (averaged 2803 μg/L) and Southern Africa as a whole (702 μg/L) when compared to other regions. Values were higher in reservoirs (958 μg/L) and lakes (159 μg/L) than in other water types, and much higher in temperate (1381 μg/L) than in arid (161 μg/L) and tropical (4 μg/L) zones. Highly significant positive relationships were found between MCs and planktonic chlorophyll a. Further assessment revealed high ecological risk for 14 of the 56 water bodies, with half used as human drinking water sources. Recognizing the extremely high MCs and exposure risk in Africa, we recommend routine monitoring and risk assessment of MCs be prioritized to ensure safe water use and sustainability in this region.

New and Noteworthy Taxa of the Genus Dactylorhiza Necker ex Nevski (Orchidaceae Juss.) in Kazakhstan Flora and Its Response to Global Warming

A critical study of the herbarium material representing the orchid genus Dactylorhiza Necker ex Nevski in Kazakhstan was conducted in 2019–2020. The information on the species composition was clarified. Dactylorhiza fuchsii subsp. hebridensis (Wilmott) Soó and D. × kerneri (Soó) Soó were identified for the first time in the country. New taxa were noted for individual botanical and geographical areas. All taxa were presented in the list and annotated with studied herbarium materials from the Kazakhstan area. Based on the collected and available locations for the studied taxa, distribution modeling was carried out for the four taxa (D. incarnata, D. majalis subsp. baltica, D. salina, and D. umbrosa). Bioclimatic data for the present and future (2041–2060) based on four possible scenarios were used. The occurrence of Dactylorhiza representatives in Kazakhstan is threatened by global climate warming. It is likely that some of them may not occur in the country in the future (D. incarnata and D. majalis subsp. baltica), losing up to 99.87% of their modern range or their range may be significantly reduced (D. salina and D. umbrosa), losing up to 80.83% of their present distribution. It is worth considering global changes in planning conservation activities and identifying areas that may play a significant role in the functioning of the national flora in the future.

Multi-annual predictions of the frequency and intensity of daily temperature and precipitation extremes

The occurrence of extreme climate events in the coming years is modulated by both global warming and internal climate variability. Anticipating changes in frequency and intensity of such events in advance may help minimize the impact on climate-vulnerable sectors and society. Decadal climate predictions have been developed as a source of climate information relevant for decision-making at multi-annual timescales. We evaluate the multi-model forecast quality of the CMIP6 decadal hindcasts in predicting a set of indices measuring different characteristics of temperature and precipitation extremes for the forecast years 1–5. The multi-model ensemble skillfully predicts the temperature extremes over most land regions, while the skill is more limited for precipitation extremes. We further compare the prediction skill for these extreme indices to the skill for mean temperature and precipitation, finding that the extreme indices are predicted with lower skill, particularly those representing the most extreme days. We find only small and region-dependent improvements from model initialization in comparison to historical forcing simulations. This systematic evaluation of decadal hindcasts is essential when providing a climate service based on decadal predictions so that the user is informed on the trustworthiness of the forecasts for each specific region and extreme event.

The Expected Effect of Korea-Mongolia FTA and EPA

On December 30, 2021, the Mongolian government enacted a “New Revitalization Policy” to accelerate economic development and enhance the effectiveness of the long-term development policy “Vision 2050” after the COVID-19. Mongolia is currently a member of the Japan-Mongolia Economic Partnership Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement(APTA). The joint research on the Economic Partnership Agreement with Korea-Mongolia and Mongolia-China are completed. Joint research of a free trade agreement with Mongolia and EEU(Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan) is in progress. Economic cooperation between Korea and Mongolia is not showing good results compared to current political, social, and cultural cooperation. The expected effects of the conclusion of the Economic Partnership Agreement can be summarized as follows. First, if the tariff barriers on Korea-Mongolia trade are gradually resolved through the conclusion of the economic partnership agreement, the volume of trade is expected to increase significantly. Second, the inclusion of special information on investment in the bilateral economic partnership agreement is expected to improve Korea’s FDI environment with Mongolia, and increase investment in mining, agriculture and infrastructure and SMEs. As the tree planting campaign is a nationwide campaign, demand for forestry machines, equipments, and irrigation systems is expected to expand gradually. Korea has become a representative country that has succeeded in foresting project of Mindungsan(bald mountain). Korea’s forest diplomacy also played a major role in fields such as greening projects, desertification prevention projects, carbon emissions, and global warming climate countermeasures on the international stage. The “Planting 1 Billion Trees” campaign to respond to climate change in Mongolia can be an opportunity for Korean companies.

Nitrogen availability mediates soil carbon cycling response to climate warming: A meta-analysis.

Global climate warming may induce a positive feedback through increasing soil carbon (C) release to the atmosphere. Although warming can affect both C input to and output from soil, direct and convincing evidence illustrating that warming induces a net change in soil C is still lacking. We synthesized the results from field warming experimentsat165sites across the globe and found that climate warming had no significant effect on soil C stock. On average, warming significantly increased root biomass and soil respiration, but warming effects on root biomass and soil respiration strongly depended on soil nitrogen (N) availability. Under high N availability (soil C:N ratio < 15), warming had no significant effect on root biomass, but promoted the coupling between effect sizes of root biomass and soil C stock. Under relative N limitation (soil C:N ratio > 15), warming significantly enhanced root biomass. However, the enhancement of root biomass did not induce a corresponding C accumulation in soil, possibly because warming promoted microbial CO2 release that offset the increased root C input. Also, reactive N input alleviated warming-induced C loss from soil, but elevated atmospheric CO2 or precipitation increase/reduction did not. Together, our findings indicate that the relative availability of soil C to N (i.e., soil C:N ratio) critically mediates warming effects on soil C dynamics, suggesting that its incorporation into C-climate models may improve the prediction of soil C cycling under future global warming scenarios.

Soil bacterial communities associated with multi-nutrient cycling under long-term warming in the alpine meadow.

The functions of terrestrial ecosystems are mainly maintained by bacteria, as a key component of microorganisms, which actively participate in the nutrient cycling of ecosystems. Currently, there are few studies have been carried out on the bacteria contributing to the soil multi-nutrient cycling in responding to climate warming, which hampers our obtainment of a comprehensive understanding of the ecological function of ecosystems as a whole. In this study, the main bacteria taxa contributing to the soil multi-nutrient cycling under the long-term warming in an alpine meadow was determined based onphysichemical properties measurement and high-throughput sequencing, and the potential reasons that warming altered the main bacteria contributing to the soil multi-nutrient cycling were further analyzed. The results confirmed that the bacterial β-diversity was crucial to the soil multi-nutrient cycling. Furthermore, Gemmatimonadetes, Actinobacteria, and Proteobacteria were the main contributors to the soil multi-nutrient cycling, and played pivotal roles as keystone nodes and biomarkers throughout the entire soil profile. This suggested that warming altered and shifted the main bacteria contributing to the soil multi-nutrient cycling toward keystone taxa. Meanwhile, their relative abundance was higher, which could make them have the advantage of seizing resources in the face of environmental pressures. In summary, the results demonstrated the crucial role of keystone bacteria in the multi-nutrient cycling under the climate warming in the alpine meadow. This has important implications for understanding and exploring the multi-nutrient cycling of alpine ecosystems under the global climate warming.

China's energy policy and sustainable energy transition for sustainable development: green investment in renewable technological paradigm.

It is generally accepted that China is a significant cause of global warming and other climate change consequences. This paper applies panel cointegration tests and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) techniques to investigate the interactions among energy policy, technological innovation, economic development, trade openness, and sustainable development using panel data from China from 1990 to 2020. Results explain that renewable energy policy and technology innovation are negatively associated with sustainable development. However, research shows that energy use significantly increases both short-term and long-term environmental damage. The findings show that economic growth has a lasting impact on the environment by distorting it. The findings recommend that politicians and government officials hold the key to attaining a green and clean environment by focusing on developing the proper energy policy mix, urban planning, and pollution prevention without compromising economic growth.

Effects of high night temperature on soybean yield and compositions.

Soybean is sensitive to light and temperature. Under the background of global asymmetric climate warming. The increase of night temperature may have an important impact on soybean yield. In this study, three varieties with different level of protein were planted under 18°C and 28°C night temperatures for investigating the effects of high night temperatures on soybean yield formation and the dynamic changes of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) during the seed filling period (R5-R7). The results indicated that high night temperatures resulted in smaller seed size, lower seed weight, and a reduced number of effective pods and seeds per plant, and thus, a significant reduction in yield per plant. Analysis of the seed composition variations showed carbohydrates were more substantially affected by high night temperature than protein and oil. We observed "carbon hunger" caused by high night temperature increased photosynthesis and sucrose accumulation in the leaves during the early stage of high night temperature treatment. With elongated treated time, the excessive carbon consumption led to the decrease of sucrose accumulation in soybean seeds. Transcriptome analysis of leaves after 7 days of treatment showed that the expression of most sucrose synthase and sucrose phosphatase genes decreased significantly under the high night temperature. Which could be another important reason for the decrease of sucrose. These findings provided a theoretical basis for enhancing the tolerance of soybean to high night temperature.

Two decades of nighttime surface urban heat island intensity analysis over nine major populated cities of India and implications for heat stress

Warmer global climate and urban heat islands (UHIs) interact, by exacerbating heatwaves and increasing the extreme heat days in cities. The implications of added heat stress in urban environments due to intensifying surface UHIs (SUHIs) is of utmost concern. Seasonal, annual and decadal nighttime SUHI intensities (SUHIIs), from 2001 to 2020, for nine major populated cities of India are analyzed. This includes five megacities- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, and Chennai, and four incipient megacities- Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Surat, and Pune. The key role of increasing urbanization (pre- and post-2010) in expansion and intensification of nighttime SUHIs in India is highlighted. For all cities either pre-monsoon (MAM) or winter (December-February; DJF) seasons show the strongest SUHII development. During the 2001–2010, and the 2011–2020 decade, a nighttime SUHII maxima of respectively (i) 2.1°C and 2.5°C for Delhi, (ii) 1.3°C and 1.5°C for Mumbai, (iii) 1.3°C and 1.5°C for Kolkata, (iv) 0.6°C and 1.0°C Bangalore, (v) 1.7°C and 1.9°C for Chennai, (vi) 1.8°C and 2.3°C for Hyderabad, (vii) 2.8°C and 3.1°C for Ahmedabad, (viii) 1.9°C and 2.4°C for Surat, and (ix) 0.8°C and 1.3°C for Pune is noted. Further, all incipient megacities showed a mean annual growth rate of nighttime SUHII of over 0.007°C/year, substantially greater than in the megacities. High SUHII magnitudes, greater growth rates of SUHII, and huge populations, severely compounds the vulnerability of Indian cities to excessive heat exposure risk, especially during MAM heatwaves. Lastly, the implications of nighttime SUHII findings from the present study, on the increase in heat stress, the loss of labor productivity and the rise in heat-related mortality rate is emphasized. The study recommends implementation of city-specific action plans to mitigate the heat stressed urban environment. Targeted use of cooling strategies in localized hotspots within the urban areas where high intensity SUHIs are likely to form is also suggested.

The Effect of Salinity on the Egg Production Rate of the Sac-Spawning Calanoid Copepod, Pseudodiaptomus hessei, in a Temporarily Open/Closed Southern African Estuary

Global climate change is anticipated to be associated with changes in the salinity regimes of southern African estuaries as a result of the increased frequency of occurrences of extreme weather events (droughts and coastal storms) and the rise in sea level. The current investigation assessed the impact of salinity on the egg production rate (EPR) of the numerically important sac-spawning calanoid copepod, Pseudodiaptomus hessei, in a temporarily open/closed southern African estuary. The EPR of the copepod was determined using in vitro incubations during three distinct salinity regimes corresponding to the freshwater-deprived (hypersaline-salinity 38 PSU), freshwater-dominated (mesohaline-salinity 5 PSU), and polyhaline water phase (salinity 24 PSU). The egg production rate (EPR) and clutch size of P. hessei during the study ranged from 5.9 to 28.1 eggs F−1 d−1 and between 12 and 36 eggs sac−1, respectively. The EPR and clutch size of P. hessei during the polyhaline phase was significantly higher than during the freshwater-dominated and freshwater-deprived phases (p &lt; 0.05). There were no significant differences in prosome length, egg size, or the hatching success of P. hessei during the three salinity regimes (p &gt; 0.05 in all cases). The results of the current study suggest that the salinity changes in TOCEs in response to global climate warming are likely to be associated with a decrease in the reproductive success of P. hessei along the southeastern coastline of South Africa.

Разработка интегрированной пространственно-временной базы данных, характеризующей последствия изменения климата

Currently, at the global and regional (national) levels, the expert community, as well as statesmen, have prioritized the task of practical implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (characterizing the dynamics of a development of various parameters of socio-ecological and economic systems). Achieving these goals requires serious analytical work based on a deep and comprehensive analysis of a processes taking place in various spheres, as well as the formation of an appropriate information platform, including a set of databases that adequately describe changes taking place in various spheres of state activity. However, today, in Russian practice, this tool is practically absent, which significantly complicates the qualitative and quantitative analysis, assessment and forecasting of the processes of adaptation of Russian regions (including the population living in them) to consequences of global climate change. The purpose of this study is to form a database of indicators characterizing process of adaptation of socio-ecological and economic systems of a northern regions of Western Siberia (The Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug) to global climate change. The projected database should become the basis for creating an open information resource for a wide range of users when they solve analytical and predictive tasks related to a socio-economic assessment of an impact of global climate warming on permafrost. To achieve the objectives of the study, a set of methods was used: theoretical generalization and comparison, formalization, algorithmization, structuring and grouping, economic and statistical methods (including correlation and regression analysis), cartographic method, graphical modeling method. As a result, we have formed a database representing a single, periodically updated repository containing spatio-temporal data sets characterizing processes and phenomena, on the one hand, socio-ecological and economic systems, on the other – climate change. Further work with the database assumes, on the basis of available quantitative data and methods of mathematical statistics, the identification of elements of the ecological, socio-economic systems of the KhMAO and YaNAO vulnerable to global climate change, as well as forecasting the dynamics of their (systems) transformation.