Climate Change Production Research Articles

LANDSLIDES IN SARAJEVO CANTON OBSERVED THROUGH VALID REGULATIONS AND COMPETENT INSTITUTIONS, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF ADOPTING A UNIFORM REGULATION ON LANDSLIDES

Landslides, as modern processes on the surface of the terrain, present a challenge in spatial planning, planning and construction of new settlements, and construction of infrastructure facilities. A special challenge is the planning and construction of settlements and infrastructure facilities in hillside areas. The City of Sarajevo, with its four city municipalities, represents the most populated part of Sarajevo Canton. The situation is similar with non-urban municipalities. A special challenge is the illegal settlements created on hillside areas of the four city municipalities. Many hillside settlements were created unplanned, often within the scope of registered landslides and unstable terrain. The construction of such settlements was not accompanied by the construction of the necessary infrastructure (road communications, fecal and storm sewers), which poses a danger of starting new and reactivating calmed landslides. Society's commitment to climate change brings into focus the landslides that occur as a product of climate change. Special attention is paid to unplanned urban areas on the slopes, where the risk of landslides is increased due to climate change. According to official information, about 1,000 landslides have been registered in Sarajevo Canton. The data on the number of landslides in the area of the Sarajevo Canton date back deep into the past and as such have been updated on several occasions. The last addition of data was carried out in the phase of amending the Spatial Plan, in 2010, when the Terrain Stability Map of Sarajevo Canton was updated. In Sarajevo Canton, special attention is paid to the rehabilitation of landslides that endanger people and material goods, and to the stabilization of the terrain during the development of construction land, for which considerable financial resources are allocated from different levels of government (Federation, Canton and municipalities). Aggravating circumstance are regulations that only partially treat landslides. Certain regulations are unclear, some of them set strict requirements for emergency landslide rehabilitation, while certain regulations are in conflict. The institutional approach for the purpose of research, registration, rehabilitation and monitoring of landslides is not fully aligned with the current regulations. Jurisdiction is partially prescribed and as such is often unclear. The mandated competences of individual levels of government are not harmonized. Remedial measures were implemented on many landslides in the past period, but without clear indications of the effects of the remediation. As a solution to the problem, a proposal for the adoption of a single regulation on landslides was initiated. This paper cites the example of the Sarajevo Canton, where the activities for the adoption of a law on landslides were initiated, but ended unsuccessfully several times, with recommendations for further activities.

Assessing the influence of climate controls on grapevine biophysical responses: a review of Ontario viticulture in a changing climate

Climate change presents unique challenges for grape growers across the world. In Ontario, three distinct viticultural regions are experiencing climatic shifts towards warmer growing seasons. According to historical records collected from Environment and Climate Change Canada, Lake Erie North Shore has transitioned from an intermediate-to-warm growing season classification, the Niagara Peninsula from the lower to upper limits of the intermediate zone, and Prince Edward County from cool to intermediate, when analyzing their average growing season temperatures. Terroir is directly related to vine water status, an indicator of grapevine stress. Biophysical responses controlled by air temperature and precipitation include fluctuations in vapour pressure deficits, evapotranspiration, and water-use-efficiency rates, as well as soil water content levels. By conducting an extensive literature review, the development of a conceptual model addresses how variations in climatic controls, under the scope of climate change, may influence grapevine water status, biophysical responses, and associated production outcomes for Ontario vineyards. Cool-to-intermediate air temperatures, when paired with increased precipitation will lead to no or low vine stress, increasing photosynthesis and transpiration rates, and variable plant water-use-efficiency levels, producing higher yields and lower quality grapes, if no management strategies are applied. Oppositely, higher air temperature as a product of climate change, when paired with variable precipitation may produce mild-to-severe stress, reducing yield, and increasing grape quality. With the appropriate management strategies, both traditional and new, growers may be able to accommodate for the influence of climate change on their vineyards.

Desertification in the Sahel Region: A Product of Climate Change or Human Activities? A Case of Desert Encroachment Monitoring in North-Eastern Nigeria Using Remote Sensing Techniques

Desertification has become one of the most pronounced ecological disasters, affecting arid and semi-arid areas of Nigeria. This phenomenon is more pronounced in the northern region, particularly the eleven frontline states of Nigeria, sharing borders with the Niger Republic. This has been attributed to a range of natural and anthropogenic factors. Rampant felling of trees for fuelwood, unsustainable agriculture, overgrazing, coupled with unfavourable climatic conditions are among the key factors that aggravate the desertification phenomenon. This study applied geospatial analysis to explore land use/land cover changes and detect major conversions from ecologically active land covers to sand dunes. Results indicate that areas covered by sand dunes (a major indicator of desertification) have doubled over the 25 years under consideration (1990 to 2015). Even though 0.71 km2 of dunes was converted to vegetation, indicative of the success of various international, national, local and individual afforestation efforts, conversely about 10.1 km2 of vegetation were converted to sand dunes, implying around 14 times more deforestation compared to afforestation. On average, our results revealed that the sand dune in the study area is progressing at a mean annual rate of 15.2 km2 annually. The land cover conversion within the 25-year study period was from vegetated land to farmlands. Comparing the progression of a sand dune with climate records of the study area and examining the relationship between indicators of climate change and desertification suggested a mismatch between both processes, as increasing rainfall and lower temperatures observed in 1994, 2005, 2012, and 2014 did not translate into positive feedbacks for desertification in the study area. Likewise, the mean annual Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from 2000 to 2015 shows a deviation between vegetation peaks, mean temperatures and rainfall. On average, our results reveal that the sand dune is progressing at a mean annual rate of about 15.2 km2 in the study area. Based on this study’s land cover change, trend and conversion assessment, visual reconciliation of climate records of land cover data, statistical analysis, observations from ground-truthing, as well as previous literature, it can be inferred that desertification in Nigeria is less a function of climate change, but more a product of human activities driven by poverty, population growth and failed government policies. Further projections by this study also reveal a high probability of more farmlands being converted to sand dunes by the years 2030 and 2045 if current practices prevail.

Climate Change, Vulnerability, Social Conflicts and Human Displacement in the Andes: The case of Huaytapallana Glacier

The objective of this review was to identify the links between Climate Change, Vulnerability, Social Conflicts and Human Displacement in the Andes. The different factors that influence the vulnerability of people and communities are analyzed, such as the diversity of the impacts of climate change, the retreat of glaciers, the loss of biological diversity, health, agricultural production and scenarios with the presence of water scarcity. Adaptive behaviors are observed in the inhabitants of Andean communities, but they are not sufficient, because in many occasions people are forced to migrate to other cities. Five ways of responding to climate risks or hazards are suggested: 1) reduction and control of global warming, 2) adaptation to conditions resulting from climate change, 3) resistance, 4) mitigation, and 5) involuntary displacement. Finally, it concludes by stating that there is an intricate link between global warming, climate change, vulnerability and social conflicts, and that migration is a product of climate change.

Artificial Intelligence Applied to a Robotic Dairy Farm to Model Milk Productivity and Quality based on Cow Data and Daily Environmental Parameters.

Increased global temperatures and climatic anomalies, such as heatwaves, as a product of climate change, are impacting the heat stress levels of farm animals. These impacts could have detrimental effects on the milk quality and productivity of dairy cows. This research used four years of data from a robotic dairy farm from 36 cows with similar heat tolerance (Model 1), and all 312 cows from the farm (Model 2). These data consisted of programmed concentrate feed and weight combined with weather parameters to develop supervised machine learning fitting models to predict milk yield, fat and protein content, and actual cow concentrate feed intake. Results showed highly accurate models, which were developed for cows with a similar genetic heat tolerance (Model 1: n = 116, 456; R = 0.87; slope = 0.76) and for all cows (Model 2: n = 665, 836; R = 0.86; slope = 0.74). Furthermore, an artificial intelligence (AI) system was proposed to increase or maintain a targeted level of milk quality by reducing heat stress that could be applied to a conventional dairy farm with minimal technology addition.

Ocean quahogs (Arctica islandica) and Atlantic surfclams (Spisula solidissima) on the Mid-Atlantic Bight continental shelf and Georges Bank: The death assemblage as a recorder of climate change and the reorganization of the continental shelf benthos

The degree to which evidence of range shifts in shelf biomass dominants, Atlantic surfclams and ocean quahogs, as a function of climate change is examined by comparing the dissimilarity in distribution of the living community and the record of habitation ensconced in the death assemblage. Comparison of the distribution of live animals and dead shells reveals for both species that live animals are rarely found where dead shells were not collected, but dead shells were collected at a substantively larger number of sites than where live animals were found. The geographic footprint resolved by the dead shells was much broader than that of live animals. Extensive spatially-coherent regions exist inshore and offshore of the present-day habitat of occupation where evidence of previous occupation exists. Sites where ocean quahog shells were found without live ocean quahogs included a portion of the continental shelf inshore of the present-day habitable range, an area only habitable under colder climatic conditions than observed today. Surfclam shells were found offshore of the present-day habitable region, in deeper water: additional warming of bottom waters offshore would be necessary for surfclams to occupy the region now occupied solely by dead shells. The death assemblage shows that these biomass dominants have repositioned themselves across the continental shelf during the past and this repositioning certainly is driven by changes in bottom water temperature. Moreover, the distribution of surfclam shells indicates that the death assemblage may provide a possible window into the future, as movement of the present-day population is towards these deeper-water previously-occupied regions. Overall, the death assemblage may provide an important source of information on range shifts sparing the need to carry out extensive and frequent benthic surveys and may permit reconstruction of ongoing shifts in community composition as a product of climate change when adequate survey data are not available.

Mapping of moraine dammed glacial lakes and assessment of their areal changes in the central and eastern Himalayas using satellite data

The relatively rapid recession of glaciers in the Himalayas and formation of moraine dammed glacial lakes (MDGLs) in the recent past have increased the risk of glacier lake outburst floods (GLOF) in the countries of Nepal and Bhutan and in the mountainous territory of Sikkim in India. As a product of climate change and global warming, such a risk has not only raised the level of threats to the habitation and infrastructure of the region, but has also contributed to the worsening of the balance of the unique ecosystem that exists in this domain that sustains several of the highest mountain peaks of the world. This study attempts to present an up to date mapping of the MDGLs in the central and eastern Himalayan regions using remote sensing data, with an objective to analyse their surface area variations with time from 1990 through 2015, disaggregated over six episodes. The study also includes the evaluation for susceptibility of MDGLs to GLOF with the least criteria decision analysis (LCDA). Forty two major MDGLs, each having a lake surface area greater than 0.2 km2, that were identified in the Himalayan ranges of Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim, have been categorized according to their surface area expansion rates in space and time. The lakes have been identified as located within the elevation range of 3800 m and 6800 m above mean sea level (a msl). With a total surface area of 37.9 km2, these MDGLs as a whole were observed to have expanded by an astonishing 43.6% in area over the 25 year period of this study. A factor is introduced to numerically sort the lakes in terms of their relative yearly expansion rates, based on their interpretation of their surface area extents from satellite imageries. Verification of predicted GLOF events in the past using this factor with the limited field data as reported in literature indicates that the present analysis may be considered a sufficiently reliable and rapid technique for assessing the potential bursting susceptibility of the MDGLs. The analysis also indicates that, as of now, there are eight MDGLs in the region which appear to be in highly vulnerable states and have high chances in causing potential GLOF events anytime in the recent future.

Expression pattern of heat shock proteins during acute thermal stress in the Antarctic sea urchin, Sterechinus neumayeri

Antarctic marine organisms have evolved a variety of physiological, life-history and molecular adaptations that allow them to cope with the extreme conditions in one of the coldest and most temperature-stable marine environments on Earth. The increase in temperature of the Southern Ocean, product of climate change, represents a great challenge for the survival of these organisms. It has been documented that some Antarctic marine invertebrates are not capable of generating a thermal stress response by means of an increase in the synthesis of heat shock proteins, which could be related with their low capacity for acclimatization. In order to understand the role of heat shock proteins as a compensatory response in Antarctic marine species to projected scenarios of increased seawater temperatures, we assessed the expression of the genes Hsp90, Grp78, Hyou1 and Hsc70 in the Antarctic sea urchin Sterechinus neumayeri under three thermal treatments (1 °C, 3 °C and 5 °C), for a period of exposure of 1, 24 and 48 h. The results obtained showed that these genes were expressed themselves in all of the tissues analyzed in a constitutive form. During acute thermal stress, an overexpression of the Hsp90, Grp78 and Hyou1 genes was observed in coelomocyte samples at 3 °C after 48 h, while in esophageal samples, an increase in Hsp90 and Grp78 expression was observed after 48 h. Thermal stress at 5 °C, in general, did not produce a significant increase in the expression of the genes that were studied. The expression of Hsp70 did not show modifications in its expression as a result of thermal stress. S. neumayeri is capable of overexpressing stress proteins as a result of thermal stress, however, this response is delayed and to a lesser degree compared to other Antarctic or temperate species. These results indicate that adult individuals could cope with the expected impacts caused by an increase in coastal sea temperatures in the Southern Ocean.

The influence of weather and lemmings on spatiotemporal variation in the abundance of multiple avian guilds in the arctic.

Climate change is occurring more rapidly in the Arctic than other places in the world, which is likely to alter the distribution and abundance of migratory birds breeding there. A warming climate can provide benefits to birds by decreasing spring snow cover, but increases in the frequency of summer rainstorms, another product of climate change, may reduce foraging opportunities for insectivorous birds. Cyclic lemming populations in the Arctic also influence bird abundance because Arctic foxes begin consuming bird eggs when lemmings decline. The complex interaction between summer temperature, precipitation, and the lemming cycle hinder our ability to predict how Arctic-breeding birds will respond to climate change. The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between annual variation in weather, spring snow cover, lemming abundance and spatiotemporal variation in the abundance of multiple avian guilds in a tundra ecosystem in central Nunavut, Canada: songbirds, shorebirds, gulls, loons, and geese. We spatially stratified our study area based on vegetation productivity, terrain ruggedness, and freshwater abundance, and conducted distance sampling to estimate strata-specific densities of each guild during the summers of 2010–2012. We also monitored temperature, rainfall, spring snow cover, and lemming abundance each year. Spatial variation in bird abundance matched what was expected based on previous ecological knowledge, but weather and lemming abundance also significantly influenced the abundance of some guilds. In particular, songbirds were less abundant during the cool, wet summer with moderate snow cover, and shorebirds and gulls declined with lemming abundance. The abundance of geese did not vary over time, possibly because benefits created by moderate spring snow cover were offset by increased fox predation when lemmings were scarce. Our study provides an example of a simple way to monitor the correlation between weather, spring snow cover, lemming abundance, and spatiotemporal variations in Arctic-breeding birds.

Climate Change, Millet and Ritual Relationship with the Magars of Argal, Baglung, Nepal

This paper focuses on cultural analysis and how people are coping with new situation created by climate change in production of millet. Changes relating to climate change are observed; perceived and understood on a local level. This is an important area of study for anthropologists and it is interest of climate scientists as well. This paper is based on anthropological analysis on climate change effects on finger millet production in Argal VDC of Baglung district, West of Nepal. Millet is a staple food of people of Argal and most of Hill people of Nepal. Millet is not only staple food and associated with nutrition of people. It's also associated with rituals during production and as well as during consumption. Increasing temperature, changing rainfall patterns, extreme weather events are linked with climate change which has direct effect on life of all people but also millet production and ritual activities. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v6i0.8481 Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 6, 2012 107-124

The role of zoos and aquariums in research into the effects of climate change on animal health

The role that the zoos and aquariums can play in the study into the effects of global climate change, particularly on animal health, is discussed and examples of how this could be achieved are presented. Animals in zoos and aquariums often live under environmentally controlled conditions and may not be subject to the effects of climate change or exposed to the increased numbers of parasites or pathogens that might conceivably be a product of climate change. However, climate‐change effects have been reported in both humans and livestock and so it is likely that some animals in zoos and aquariums will also be affected. In 2004, there was a report of 118 transmissible diseases affecting animals in zoos and aquariums, and 29 (25%) of these can be identified as likely to be affected by climate change. Because it is possible to simulate different environmental conditions in zoos and aquariums, and many such institutions have valuable data on animal health that have been collected historically, they may be particularly appropriate places to carry out climate‐change studies.