Ocean–Atmosphere–Land Interactions and Their Roles in Climate Change

Detecting vulnerability of humid tropical forests to multiple stressors

Introduction, Ottavio Quirico and Mouloud Boumghar Part I: General Framework 1. States, Climate Change and Tripartite Human Rights: the Missing Link, Ottavio Quirico, Jurgen Brohmer and Marcel Szabo 2. Balancing Human Rights in Climate Policies, Bridget Lewis 3. Human Rights Responsibility of Private Corporations for Climate Change? The State as a Catalyst for Compliance, Anna Riddell Part II: Specific Rights 4. Climate Change and Right to Life: Limits and Potentialities of the Human Rights Protection System, Christine Bakker 5. Climate Change and Interdependent Human Rights to Food, Water and Health: the Contest between Harmony and Invention, Alessandra Franca 6. Waterworld: Climate Change, Statehood and the Right to Self-Determination, Cameron Moore 7. Two-Pronged Right to Development and Climate Change: Reciprocal Implications, Same Varyaudej . 8. Untying the Gordian Knot: towards the Human Right to a Climatically Sustainable Environment?, Francesco Francioni and Ottavio Quirico Part III: Specific Regimes 9. A Double-Edged Sword: Climate Change, Biodiversity and Human Rights, Federico Lenzerini and Erika Piergentili 10. Climate Change, Migration and Human Rights: towards Group-Specific Protection?, Benoit Mayer and Christel Cournil 11. Balancing Human Rights, Climate Change and Foreign Investment Protection, Valentina Vadi 12. Linking Trade and Climate Change: What Room for Human Rights?, Olivier De Schutter Part IV - Institutional Responses 13. Systemic Integration between Climate Change and Human Rights at the United Nations?. Spyridon Aktypis, Emmanuel Decaux and Bronwen Leroy 14. Climate Change and Human Rights in the Asia-Pacific: a Fragmented Approach, Ben Boer 15. A Wider Human Rights Spectrum to Fight Climate Change in Africa?, Faustin Ntoubandi and Roland Adjovi 16. Missing Opportunities to Shed Light on Climate Change in the Inter-American Human Rights Protection System, Mouloud Boumghar 17. European Legal Systems, Climate Change and Human Rights: Paradoxical Inconsistencies in the Jigsaw Puzzle?, Ottavio Quirico 18. Challenging the Human Rights Responsibility of States and Private Corporations for Climate Change in Domestic Jurisdictions, Tineke Lambooy and Hanneke Palm Conclusion, Ottavio Quirico and Mouloud Boumghar

In 1998, NASA launches EOS-AMI, the first of a series of the Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites. EOS will monitor the evolution of the state of the earth for 18 years, starting with the morning observations of EOS-AM1 (10:30 a.m. equatorial crossing time). An integrated view of the earth, as planned by EOS, is needed to study the interchange of energy, moisture, and carbon between the lands, oceans, and atmosphere. The launch of EOS-AM1 and other international satellites marks a new phase of climate and global change research. Both natural and anthropogenic climate change have been studied for more than a century. It is now recognized that processes that vary rapidly in time and space-e.g. aerosol, clouds, land use, and exchanges of energy and moisture-must be considered to adequately explain the temperature record and predict future climate change. Frequent measurements with adequate resolution, as only possible from spacecraft, are key tools in such an effort. The versatile and highly accurate EOS-AM1 data, together with previous satellite records, as well as data from ADEOS, TRMM, SeaWiFS, ATSR, MERIS, ENVISAT, EOS-PM1, Landsat and ground-based networks is expected to revolutionize the way scientists look at climate change. This article introduces the EOS-AM1 mission and the special issue devoted to it. Following a brief historical perspective for an insight into the purpose and objectives of the mission, the authors summarize the characteristics of the five instruments onboard EOS-AM1. Specifically, they concentrate on the innovative elements of these five instruments and provide examples of the science issues that require this type of data.

Bumblebees in Europe have been in steady decline since the 1900s. This decline is expected to continue with climate change as the main driver. However, at the local scale, land use and land cover (LULC) change strongly affects the occurrence of bumblebees. At present, LULC change is rarely included in models of future distributions of species. This study's objective is to compare the roles of dynamic LULC change and climate change on the projected distribution patterns of 48 European bumblebee species for three change scenarios until 2100 at the scales of Europe, and Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg (BENELUX). We compared three types of models: (1) only climate covariates, (2) climate and static LULC covariates and (3) climate and dynamic LULC covariates. The climate and LULC change scenarios used in the models include, extreme growth applied strategy (GRAS), business as might be usual and sustainable European development goals. We analysed model performance, range gain/loss and the shift in range limits for all bumblebees. Overall, model performance improved with the introduction of LULC covariates. Dynamic models projected less range loss and gain than climate-only projections, and greater range loss and gain than static models. Overall, there is considerable variation in species responses and effects were most pronounced at the BENELUX scale. The majority of species were predicted to lose considerable range, particularly under the extreme growth scenario (GRAS; overall mean: 64%±34). Model simulations project a number of local extinctions and considerable range loss at the BENELUX scale (overall mean: 56%±39). Therefore, we recommend species-specific modelling to understand how LULC and climate interact in future modelling. The efficacy of dynamic LULC change should improve with higher thematic and spatial resolution. Nevertheless, current broad scale representations of change in major land use classes impact modelled future distribution patterns.

Shoreline changes on account of global climate change and sea level rise is one of the major problems along the coastlines in different continents of the world. This study was carried out along the coastlines of Andhra Pradesh state in India using multi-temporal satellite images from 1973 to 2015 period. Long-term coastal erosion and accretion rate over a period of 42 years has calculated using Digital Shoreline Analysis System and prepared shoreline maps by using GIS-Software. End point rate (EPR) statistical method is applied to estimate the shoreline change rate. Various coastal parameters like sea level rise, geomorphology, elevation and coastal slope were used to find out the interactive relationship between the physical parameters and shoreline changes in the area. The study revealed that the coastal changes are more dominant in Krishna and Godavari Deltaic plain. The average erosion and accretion rate observed in the Krishna Godavari delta was 10.63 and 17.29 m per year respectively. The study indicated that, climatic changes and fluvial process are playing key role in changing shoreline positions. The study exhibited that elevation and slope are played intense role in the shoreline positional change. The present study demonstrates that combined use of satellite imagery and EPR statistical method as an accurate and reliable method for shoreline change analysis.

ContextFor many organisms, responses to climate change (CC) will be affected by land-use and land-cover changes (LULCC). However, the extent to which LULCC is concurrently considered in climate change vulnerability assessments (CCVAs) is unclear.ObjectivesWe identify trends in inclusion of LULCC and CC in vulnerability assessments of species and the direction and magnitude of their combined effect on biodiversity. Further, we examine the effect size of LULCC and CC in driving changes in “currencies” of response to CC, such as distribution, abundance and survival.MethodsWe conducted a systematic literature review of articles published in the last 30 years that focused on CCVA and accounted for impacts of both CC and LULCC.ResultsAcross 116 studies, 34% assumed CC and LULCC would act additively, while 66% allowed for interactive effects. The majority of CCVAs reported similar effect sizes for CC and LULCC, although they affected different CCVA currencies. Only 14% of the studies showed larger effects of CC than of LULCC. Another 14% showed larger effects of LULCC than CC, specifically for dispersal, population viability, and reproduction, which tend to be strongly affected by fragmentation and disturbance. Although most studies found that LULCC and CC had negative effects on species currencies, in some cases effects were neutral or even positive.ConclusionsCCVAs that incorporate LULCC provided a better account of drivers of vulnerability, and highlight aspects of drivers that are generally more amenable to on-the-ground management intervention than CCVAs that focus on CC alone.

Grassland degradation received considerable concern because of its adverse impact on agronomic productivity and its capacity to provide goods and service. Climate change and human activities are commonly recognized as the two broad underlying drivers that lead to grassland degradation. In this study, a comprehensive method based on net primary productivity (NPP) was introduced to assess quantitatively the relative roles of climate change and human perturbations on worldwide grassland degradation from 2000 to 2010. The results revealed that at a global scale, 49.25 % of grassland ecosystems experienced degradation. Nearly 5 % of these grasslands experienced strong to extreme significant degradation. Climate change was the dominant cause that resulted in 45.51 % of degradation compared with 32.53 % caused by human activities. On the contrary, 39.40 % of grassland restoration was induced by human interferences, and 30.6 % was driven by climate change. The largest area of degradation and restoration both occurred in Asia. NPP losses ranged between 1.40 Tg C year−1 (in North America) and 13.61 Tg C year−1 (in Oceania) because of grassland degradation. Maximum NPP increase caused by restoration was 17.57 Tg C year−1 (in North America). Minimum NPP was estimated at 1.59 Tg C year−1 (in Europe). The roles of climate change and human activities on degradation and restoration were not consistent at continental level. Grassland ecosystems in the southern hemisphere were more vulnerable and sensitive to climate change. Therefore, climate change issues should be gradually integrated into future policies and plans for domestic grassland management and administration.

Ecosystem coupling: A unifying framework to understand the functioning and recovery of ecosystems

This comparative review of three assessment reports, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, (IPCC), The National Research Council (NRC), and United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), respectively is presented in response to comments in the press suggesting that the three reports varied substantially in their assessments of associations between global climate and infectious disease in humans. Comparisons of the assessment teams, approach, reports' findings, views on predictive modeling, recommendations to policymakers and future research are presented. All teams were interdisciplinary, two international, one US-based. Although their approaches differed somewhat, all addressed the role of climate change, El Nino and climate variability, and ultimately, human health, especially infectious disease. The panels agreed that a paucity of long-term data and complexity of relationships among factors affecting climate variability and change and human health rendered projections of current predictive models inadequate as the basis for policy decisions. Each team suggested further study of associations among climate variability/climate change and human infectious disease and downscaled models to project regional and subregional outcomes. Each added additional areas for investigation, e.g., mathematical modeling, effects of socioeconomic factors, emergence of zoonotic disease in humans, transmission dynamics of disease agents. Rather than disagreements, there were differences in emphasis on known components and on hypothesized additional contributing factors and relationships among climate and human infectious disease variables.

1. Introduction to Concepts of Climate Change Impact on Livestock and its Adaptation and Mitigation.- Part 1: Green House Gas Emission and Climate Change.- 2. Greenhouse Gas, Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration: Overview and General Principles.- 3. Contribution of Agriculture Sector to Climate Change.- Part 2: Climate change impact on Livestock.- 4. Impact of climate change on livestock production and reproduction.- 5. Thermal stress alters post-absorptive metabolism during pre- and postnatal development.- 6. Climate change and water availability for livestock: Impact on both quality and quantity.- 7. Impact of climate change on forage availability for livestock.- 8. Impact of climate change on livestock disease occurrences.- 9. Adaptive mechanisms of livestock to changing climate.- Part 3: Livestock role in climate change.- 10. Global Warming: Role of Livestock.- 11. Methane emission from enteric fermentation: Methanogenesis and Fermentation.- 12. Enteric Methane Emission under Different Feeding System.- 13. Estimation methodologies for enteric methane emission in ruminants.- 14. Metagenomic approaches in understanding the rumen function and establishing the rumen microbial diversity.- 15. Opportunities and Challenges for Carbon Trading from Livestock Sector.- Part 4: Methane mitigation strategies in livestock.- 16. Manipulation of rumen microbial eco-system for reducing enteric methane emission in livestock.- 17. Reducing enteric methane emission using plant secondary metabolites.- 18. Ration balancing - A practical approach for reducing methanogenesis in tropical feeding systems.- 19. Alternate H2 Sink for Reducing Rumen Methanogenesis.- 20. GHG emission from livestock manure and its mitigation strategies.- 21. Modelling of GHGs in livestock farms and its significance.- Part 5: Adaptation strategies to improve livestock production under changing climate.- 22. Overview on adaptation, mitigation and amelioration strategies to improve livestock production under the changing climatic scenario.- 23. Shelter design for different livestock from climate change perspective.- 24. Strategies to improve livestock reproduction under the changing climate scenario.- 25. Strategies to improve livestock genetic resources to counter climate change impact.- Part 6: Research and Development Priorities.- 26. Climate change impact on livestock sector- Visioning 2025.- 27. Conclusions and Researchable Priorities.

Climate change is an act of a significant change in weather behavior that happens in everyday perspective. In the Bicol region, Albay is one of the most common provinces which is greatly affected by climate change in which heavy rains, drought, volcanic and hurricane is an occurring event each year. This province's common problem due to climate changes is the issues on road damages. Road Damage is one of the major problems in which the assessment of the road status needs to be updated to the drivers for safe traveling road experience. The research aims to create a framework design that integrates adaptive systems to Road Damage Awareness. Using the system methodologies for creating architectural frameworks for information systems, the research used interactive architecture and model-view-control design pattern to design the framework with the integration of adaptive systems. The development of the framework allows the identification of the needed processes of the existing information data to be targeted for the integration of the adaptive systems concept. The framework consists of the improved concept that changes depending on current climate changes that can affect the services of Road Damage Awareness. The design integrated with adaptive systems from the concept can reorganize and change tactics on changes to adapt to the current situation on climate change. This concept consists of the integration of Google Mapping API and weather information services that would base the current changes. The designed framework system represents that adaptive system concepts can be implemented to road damage assessment.

A case study on a desert-oasis wetland ecosystem in the arid region of Northwest China measured the seasonal and interannual variation in energy partitioning and evapotranspiration to analyse the response of water and energy exchange on soil moisture, groundwater, and environmental variables. Energy partitioning showed a clear seasonal and interannual variability, and the process of water and energy exchange differed significantly in the monthly and interannual scales. The net radiation was 7.31 MJ m−2· day−1, and sensible heat flux accounted for 50.42% of net radiation in energy fluxes, 40.56% for latent heat flux, and 9.02% for ground heat flux. The parameters in energy fluxes were best described by a unimodal curve, whereas sensible heat flux followed a bimodal curve. Variations in the daily evapotranspiration and crop evapotranspiration also exhibited a single peak curve with annual values of 569.84 and 644.47 mm, respectively. Canopy conductance averaged 20.77 ± 13.75 mm s−1 and varied from 0.16 to 83.96 mm s−1 during the two hydrological years. The variation in water and energy exchange reflected environmental conditions and depended primarily on vapour pressure deficit, net radiation, soil moisture, and water depth. Although the effects of precipitation on evapotranspiration showed that the response of this ecosystem to climate changes was not obvious, the variation of air temperatures had a strong influence on evapotranspiration, resulting in a significant increase in evapotranspiration (R = 0.730; P < 0.01). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Containing elevated topography, the Tibetan Plateau (TP) has significant thermodynamic effects for regional weather and climate change, where understanding energy and water exchange process (EWEP) is an important prerequisite. However, estimation of the exact spatiotemporal variability of the land-atmosphere energy and water exchange over heterogeneous landscape of the TP remains a big challenge for scientific community. Focused on the above scientific question, a series of atmospheric scientific experiments and research programs have been conducted since the 1960s, quantitatively evaluating both the spatial distribution and the multi-timescale variation of EWEP via observation, remote sensing, and numerical simulation. Based on the three main approaches, the major advances on EWEP over the past 30 years are systematically summarized in this work. All these results advanced the understanding of different aspects of EWEP over the TP by using in situ measurements, multisource satellite data and numerical modeling. Future studies are recommended to focus on the optimization of the current three-dimensional comprehensive observation system, the development of advanced parameterization schemes and the investigation of EWEP on weather and climate changes over the TP and surrounding regions.

Systemic integration as a means of treaty interpretation in international law is receiving increasing attention in both scholarship and jurisprudence. Most recently, it featured prominently in the much-anticipated Advisory Opinion of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on climate change. This article analyses the Tribunal’s approach to systemic integration under Article 31(3)(c) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, its potential consequences, and the lessons that may be drawn therefrom. It characterises the Tribunal’s approach as both expansive, in the sense that it stretches to breaking point certain elements of the Vienna Convention rules, and selective, in the sense that it does so exclusively in relation to international environmental law despite calls from participants in the proceedings to engage with international human rights standards. Each of these facets of the Tribunal’s application of Article 31(3)(c) are explored and critiqued in detail. The article concludes with a call for greater clarity and transparency in the application of systemic integration by international courts and tribunals.

The relationship between solar activity and climate change in the past can be examined using proxy records. Variations of solar activity can be reconstructed based on carbon-14 in tree rings, which are produced by galactic cosmic rays modulated by the solar wind, while climate change can be reconstructed from changes of tree-ring growth rate or content of stable isotopes in ice cores from the polar region. A comparison of solar activity and climate change at the Maunder Minimum in the 17th century and the Early Medieval Maximum Period in the 9-10th century suggests that the sun plays an important role in climate change even on a decadal time scale. The characteristic variations detected in climate change suggest the mechanism of solar influence on climate involves galactic cosmic rays. Variable features of eleven-year and twenty-two year cycles of solar activity and consequent variations of cosmic rays are possible origins of complex variations of climate change on decadal to multi-decadal time scales. We summarize variations of solar activity and cosmic rays during the past 1200 years and their possible influence on climate change.