New research, October 23-29, 2017

Posted on 3 November 2017 by Ari Jokimäki

A selection of new climate related research articles is shown below.

(Figure is from paper #16.)

Climate change mitigation

1. Geophysical potential for wind energy over the open oceans



"Wind speeds over open ocean areas are often higher than those in the windiest areas over land, which has motivated a quest to develop technologies that could harvest wind energy in deep water environments. However, it remains unclear whether these open ocean wind speeds are higher because of lack of surface drag or whether a greater downward transport of kinetic energy may be sustained in open ocean environments. Focusing on the North Atlantic region, we provide evidence that there is potential for greater downward transport of kinetic energy in the overlying atmosphere. As a result, wind power generation over some ocean areas can exceed power generation on land by a factor of three or more."

2. Public receptiveness of vertical axis wind turbines



"We find that the visual differences between the vertical and conventional wind turbines did not matter very much in any of the hypothetical settings in which we placed them. However, the prospect of killing fewer birds registered strongly with our survey respondents, though it could be outweighed by concern for cost. We also show that certain segments of the population, particularly those who are more educated, may be open to a more extensive deployment of vertical axis turbines in urban communities."

3. Getting the numbers right: revisiting woodfuel sustainability in the developing world



"The existing projects expect to produce offsets equivalent to ~138 MtCO 2 e. However, when we apply NRB values derived from spatially explicit woodfuel demand and supply imbalances in the region of each offset project, we find that emission reductions are between 57 and 81 MtCO 2 e: 41%–59% lower than expected."

4. Why people want to buy electric vehicle: An empirical study in first-tier cities of China



5. The Importance of Place in Communicating Climate Change to Different Facets of the American Public



6. Non-renewable and intermittent renewable energy sources: Friends and foes?

7. How do sectoral policies support climate compatible development? An empirical analysis focusing on southern Africa



8. Reflecting on a multidisciplinary collaboration to design a general education climate change course



9. Expansion of oil palm and other cash crops causes an increase of the land surface temperature in the Jambi province in Indonesia



10. Global Expansion of Renewable Energy Generation: An Analysis of Policy Instruments



11. What drives the GHG emission changes of the electric power industry in China? An empirical analysis using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index method

12. The comparative importance for optimal climate policy of discounting, inequalities and catastrophes



Climate change

13. Attributing changing rates of temperature record-breaking to anthropogenic influences



"The frequency of hot and cold record-breaking temperature occurrences is shown to be changing due to the anthropogenic influence on the climate. Using ensembles of model simulations with and without human-induced forcings, it is demonstrated that the effect of climate change on global record-breaking temperatures can be detected as far back as the 1930s. On local scales, a climate change signal is detected more recently at most locations. The anthropogenic influence on the increased occurrence of hot record-breaking temperatures is clearer than it is for the decreased occurrence of cold records."

14. Thirty-Three Years of Marine Benthic Warming Along the US Northeast Continental Shelf and Slope: Patterns, Drivers, and Ecological Consequences



"Benthic temperatures increased throughout the domain, including in the Gulf of Maine. Rates of benthic warming ranged from 0.1 to 0.4 °C per decade, with fastest rates occurring in shallow, nearshore regions and on Georges Bank, the latter exceeding rates observed in the surface. Rates of benthic warming were up to 1.6 times faster in winter than the rest of the year in many regions, with important implications for disease occurrence and energetics of overwintering species."

15. Trends in Extreme Rainfall Frequency in the Contiguous United States: Attribution to Climate Change and Climate Variability Modes



16. Investigating the local-scale influence of sea ice on Greenland surface melt

17. Modeling the response of Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden and Zachariae Isstrøm glaciers, Greenland, to ocean forcing over the next century



18. Influence of complex terrain and anthropogenic emissions on atmospheric CO 2 patterns – a high-resolution numerical analysis

19. Future land use and land cover in Southern Amazonia and resulting greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural soils



20. Seasonal and diurnal variations in methane and carbon dioxide in the Kathmandu Valley in the foothills of the central Himalayas

21. Spatial and temporal variation in methane concentrations, fluxes, and sources in lakes in Arctic Alaska



22. Estimating solar radiation using NOAA/AVHRR and ground measurement data



23. Climate variability of heat wave and projection of warming scenario in Taiwan



24. Worsening of heat stress due to global warming in South Korea based on multi-RCM ensemble projections



25. Ensemble evaluation and projection of climate extremes in China using RMIP models



26. Regional Sea Level Variability and Trends, 1960–2007: A Comparison of Sea Level Reconstructions and Ocean Syntheses



27. Biogeochemical Impact of Snow Cover and Cyclonic Intrusions on the Winter Weddell Sea Ice Pack



28. Winter sea ice export from the Laptev Sea preconditions the local summer sea ice cover and fast ice decay

29. Glacier Calving in Greenland

30. Importance of positive cloud feedback for tropical Atlantic interhemispheric climate variability



31. The midsummer drought in Mexico: perspectives on duration and intensity from the CHIRPS precipitation database



32. Linking sea level rise and socioeconomic indicators under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways



33. Predicting the patterns of change in spring onset and false springs in China during the twenty-first century



34. A 65-yr Climatology of Unusual Tracks of Tropical Cyclones in the Vicinity of China's Coastal Waters During 1949-2013



35. Atmospheric aerosol variability above the Paris Area during the 2015 heat wave - Comparison with the 2003 and 2006 heat waves



36. Climatic characteristics of heat waves under climate change: a case study of mid-latitudes, Iran



37. Definition of extreme El Niño and its impact on projected increase in extreme El Niño frequency



38. Using space lidar observations to decompose Longwave Cloud Radiative Effect variations over the last decade



Climate change impacts

39. The Future of Giant Clam-Dominated Lagoon Ecosystems Facing Climate Change



"The various documented cases support the hypothesis that mass mortalities of giant clams are triggered by climate variability, enhanced by the geomorphological specificities of these atolls. The exact mechanisms leading to mortalities and consequences for the whole ecosystem remain unknown and are probably case-dependent. These collapsing ecosystems represent well the fast impact that climate change can have on reef ecosystems."

40. Implications of Future Northwest Atlantic Bottom Temperatures on the American Lobster (Homarus Americanus) Fishery

"H. americanus experiences thermal stress at temperatures above 20°C, and projected increases in temperature is likely to result in changes in the distribution of optimal thermal egg hatching and settlement indicators. Inshore regions of southern New England, where H. americanus biomass and catch have been declining historically, will likely become inhospitable under either future scenario, while thermal egg hatching and settlement indicators will expand offshore and in the Gulf of Maine. These changes imply that members of the fishery based in southern New England may need to recapitalize to larger vessels to prepare for potential changes brought on by future climate warming."

41. Temporal changes in bird functional diversity across the United States



"We found increases in local bird species richness and taxonomic equitability that plateaued in the early 2000’s while total abundance declined over the whole period. Functional richness, the total range of traits in an assemblage, increased due to the rising prevalence of species with atypical life-history strategies and under-represented habitat or trophic preferences. However, these species did not trigger major changes in the functional composition of bird assemblages. Inter-annual variations in climate and primary productivity explained the richness of bird life-history traits in local assemblages, suggesting that these traits are influenced by broad-scale environmental factors, while others respond more to more local drivers."

42. Climate Change, the Economy, and Conflict



43. Understanding the Connections Between Climate Change and Conflict: Contributions From Geography and Political Ecology



44. Climate Change and Violence: Insights from Political Science



45. Environmental humanities and climate change: understanding humans geologically and other life forms ethically



46. Impact of climate change and seasonal trends on the fate of Arctic oil spills



47. Will Fluctuations in Salt Marsh - Mangrove Dominance Alter Vulnerability of a Subtropical Wetland to Sea-Level Rise?



48. Global-scale impacts of nitrogen deposition on tree carbon sequestration in tropical, temperate, and boreal forests: A meta-analysis



49. Growing at the Margins: Adaptation to Severe Weather in the Marginal Lands of the British Isles



50. Climate adaptation approaches and key policy characteristics: Cases from South Asia



51. Too weak to lead: motivation, agenda setting and constraints of local government to implement decentralized climate change adaptation policy in Ghana



52. Fail-safe and safe-to-fail adaptation: decision-making for urban flooding under climate change



53. Recent warming across the North Atlantic region may be contributing to an expansion in barley cultivation



54. Greater temperature and precipitation extremes intensify Western US droughts, wildfire severity, and Sierra Nevada tree mortality



55. What Is Currently Known About the Effects of Climate Change on the Coral Immune Response



56. Stand-level drivers most important in determining boreal forest response to climate change



57. Evidence for a climate-induced ecohydrological state shift in wetland ecosystems of the southern Prairie Pothole Region



58. Bird specimens track 135 years of atmospheric black carbon and environmental policy



59. Warming-induced upward migration of the alpine treeline in the Changbai Mountains, northeast China



60. Floating algae blooms in the East China Sea



61. Ambio special issue: Facets of Arctic Change



62. Future sea ice conditions and weather forecasts in the Arctic: Implications for Arctic shipping



63. Seafood from a changing Arctic



64. Animal responses to disturbance and climate extremes: Coping mechanisms in the new millennium



65. Is adaptation reducing vulnerability or redistributing it?



66. Quantifying the indirect impacts of climate on agriculture: an inter-method comparison



67. Climate change, fisheries management and fishing aptitude affecting spatial and temporal distributions of the Barents Sea cod fishery



68. Opposite effects of daytime and nighttime warming on top-down control of plant diversity



Other papers

69. Quantifying the influence of the terrestrial biosphere on glacial–interglacial climate dynamics

"On average across the period, the terrestrial biosphere has a −0.26 °C effect on temperature, with −0.58 °C at the Last Glacial Maximum. Depending on assumptions made about the destination of terrestrial carbon under ice sheets and where sea level has changed, the average terrestrial biosphere contribution over the last 120 kyr could be as much as −50 °C and −0.83 °C at the Last Glacial Maximum."

70. Holocene permafrost history and cryostratigraphy in the High-Arctic Adventdalen Valley, central Svalbard



71. Warming and Cooling: The Medieval Climate Anomaly in Africa and Arabia



72. Orbital signals in carbon isotopes: phase distortion as a signature of the carbon cycle



73. Predictability and non-Gaussian Characteristics of the North Atlantic Oscillation

