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"Climatic extremes"
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Climate and Catastrophe in Cuba and the Atlantic World in the Age of Revolution
From 1750 to 1800, a critical period that saw the American Revolution, French Revolution, and Haitian Revolution, the Atlantic world experienced a series of environmental crises, including more frequent and severe hurricanes and extended drought. Drawing on historical climatology, environmental history, and Cuban and American colonial history, Sherry Johnson innovatively integrates the region's experience with extreme weather events and patterns into the history of the Spanish Caribbean and the Atlantic world.By superimposing this history of natural disasters over the conventional timeline of sociopolitical and economic events in Caribbean colonial history, Johnson presents an alternative analysis in which some of the signal events of the Age of Revolution are seen as consequences of ecological crisis and of the resulting measures for disaster relief. For example, Johnson finds that the general adoption in 1778 of free trade in the Americas was catalyzed by recognition of the harsh realities of food scarcity and the needs of local colonists reeling from a series of natural disasters. Weather-induced environmental crises and slow responses from imperial authorities, Johnson argues, played an inextricable and, until now, largely unacknowledged role in the rise of revolutionary sentiments in the eighteenth-century Caribbean.
eBook
Catastrophic weather
Explores the causes and effects of catastrophic weather and asks the question: Are we prepared to adapt our lifestyles to prevent climate change from spiraling out of control?
Book
Extreme climatic events alter the aquatic insect community in a pristine German stream
As a result of ongoing climate change, extreme climatic events (ECEs) are expected to become more frequent and severe. The high biodiversity of riverine ecosystems is susceptible to ECEs, especially to water temperature (extreme heat and extreme cold) and discharge-related (flood and drought) events. Long time series are needed to unravel the effects of ECEs on ecological communities. Here, we used 20 years (1986–2005) of unusually high-resolution data from a pristine first-order stream in Germany. Daily recordings of species-level identified aquatic insect (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera: EPT) emergence, water temperature and discharge data were used to examine the effects of four types of ECEs (extreme heat, extreme cold, flood, and drought events) on insect abundance, common taxonomic diversity metrics, and selected traits after five different time lags (2 weeks, 1, 3, 6, and 12 months). Extreme heat events increased from 1.8 ± 1.9 SE events per year before 2000 to 5.3 ± 1.9 SE events per year after 2000. Water temperature-related ECEs restructured the EPT community in abundance, species richness, and traits (community temperature index: CTI, and dispersal capacity metric: DCM). The strongest effects on the EPT community were found when it was exposed to multiple ECEs and 1 and 3 months after an ECE. The changing frequencies and durations of ECEs, especially the increasing frequency of extreme heat events and the negative cumulative effects of ECEs, paint a worrisome picture for the future of EPT communities in headwater streams. High-resolution, long-term data across sites is needed to further disentangle the effects of different ECE stressors.
Journal Article
Learning from single extreme events
Extreme climatic events (ECEs) have a disproportionate effect on ecosystems. Yet much of what we know about the ecological impact of ECEs is based on observing the effects of single extreme events. We examined what characteristics affect the strength of inference that can be drawn from single-event studies, which broadly fell into three categories: opportunistic observational studies initiated after an ECE, long-term observational studies with data before and after an ECE and experiments. Because extreme events occur rarely, inference from such single-event studies cannot easily be made under the usual statistical paradigm that relies on replication and control. However, single-event studies can yield important information for theory development and can contribute to meta-analyses. Adaptive management approaches can be used to learn from single, or a few, extreme events. We identify a number of factors that can make observations of single events more informative. These include providing robust estimates of the magnitude of ecological responses and some measure of climatic extremeness, collecting ancillary data that can inform on mechanisms, continuing to observe the biological system after the ECE and combining observational data with experiments and models. Well-designed single-event studies are an important contribution to our understanding of biological effects of ECEs.
This article is part of the themed issue ‘Behavioural, ecological and evolutionary responses to extreme climatic events’.
Journal Article
Multiple extreme climatic events strengthen selection for earlier breeding in a wild passerine
Global climate warming results in an increase in mean temperatures and in the frequency of extreme climatic events (ECEs), which could both strongly impact ecosystems and populations. Most studies assessing the impact of global warming on ecosystems have focused on warming trends while neglecting ECEs. In particular, the effects of multiple ECEs on fitness, and their consequences for selection, are still missing. Here we explored the effects of daily extreme rainfalls, as well as the occurrence of extremely hot and cold days, on clutch size and laying date in a wild blue tit population (Cyanistes caeruleus) monitored over 25 years. During the nestling phase (8–15 days old), the number of fledglings in a brood was negatively correlated with extremely hot days. The presence of extremely hot days between days 8 and 15 was also associated with an increase in the strength of selection acting on laying date, independently of mean temperature trends during the same period: when 10% of broods in the population experienced this type of ECE, selection for earlier breeding increased by 39%. Our results represent a unique quantification of the impact of multiple ECEs on the fitness landscape and emphasize their role as climatic drivers of selection.
This article is part of the themed issue ‘Behavioural, ecological and evolutionary responses to extreme climatic events’.
Journal Article
Is it weather or is it climate change? : answers to your questions about extreme weather
\"Heatwaves. Floods. Wildfires. Damaging hurricanes. The weather seems to be getting worse these days. But is it just the weather, or is it the result of a rapidly changing climate? In Is It Weather or Is It Climate Change?, author Rachel Salt answers five key questions about climate change: What is climate change? What causes it? How do we know it's real? Does climate change cause extreme weather? And can we still prevent the worst impacts? Young readers are then taken on a global survey of recent weather disasters and learn how climate change can be linked to each one. Here are the locations that will be studied in this book: British Columbia, Canada, and the Pacific Coast ; Texas, USA ; Mexico ; Germany and Central Europe ; Ethiopia ; The Third Pole (Hindu-Kush, Karakoram and Himalaya region) ; Australia. But it's not all doom and gloom. Salt also breaks down the key adaptations that need to be implemented to prevent widespread disaster as well as the broader changes we need to make at both individual and governmental levels to mitigate the worst effects of a changing climate. With illustrations, diagrams, photos and enlightening text, Is It Weather or Is It Climate Change? is essential reading for the next generation of climate warriors.\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Defining the functioning of developed karst systems through extreme climatic event analysis, application to the Krupaja Spring, Serbia
This paper aims to characterize the functioning of a karst system through spatial and temporal modeling based on time series of precipitation and discharge of karst springs. Long-term, continuous daily monitoring (2009–2020) of rainfall and discharge of the Krupaja Spring, which drains the Beljanica karst massif (Serbia), has enabled a much better understanding of the role and development of fossil karst channels within a karst system. Special emphasis is given to the data relating to extreme events, in this case the extreme discharges of 31 m3/s caused by Cyclone Tamara in 2014. According to historical records, until 2009, discharges greater than 2.8 m3/s have never been recorded at the Krupaja Spring. Newer, and very precise monitoring data indicated that the yields of this spring typically range up to a maximum of 13 m3/s. The sudden filling of the karst system made it possible for the discharge (of an already-saturated karst system) to increase from 5.7 to 31 m3/s in just 16 h. The use of data from extreme weather events can greatly contribute to a greater knowledge of speleogenesis in karst systems. The Krupaja Spring karst system features entire networks of karst conduits that are almost or completely inactive during medium and even high groundwater levels. The activation of these channels, often filled with various clay deposits, can generally be linked to extreme climatic events, where spring flow discharge increases by five to six times higher than normal conditions, accompanied by extreme water turbidity.
Journal Article