Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Coastal Lagoons And Climate Change: Ecological And Social Ramifications In The U.S. Atlantic And Gulf Coast Ecosystems, Abigail Anthony, Joshua Atwood, Peter V. August, Carrie Byron, Stanley Cobb, Cheryl Foster, Crystal Fry, Arthur Gold, Kifle Hagos, Leanna Heffner, D. Q. Kellogg, Kimberly Lellis-Dibble, James J. Opaluch, Candace A. Oviatt, Anna Pfeiffer-Herbert, Nicole Rohr, Leslie Smith, Tiffany Smythe, Judith Swift, Nathan Vinhateiro

Arthur Gold

Lagoons are highly productive coastal features that provide a range of natural services that society values. Their setting within the coastal landscape leaves them especially vulnerable to profound physical, ecological, and associated societal disturbance from global climate change. Expected shifts in physical and ecological characteristics range from changes in flushing regime, freshwater inputs, and water chemistry to complete inundation and loss and the concomitant loss of natural and human communities. Therefore, managing coastal lagoons in the context of global climate change is critical. Although management approaches will vary depending on local conditions and cultural norms, all management scenarios will need …

Impacts Of Climate Change On The Surface Water Balance Of The Central United States, 1984-2007, Bo Dong

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The climate system and the hydrologic cycle are strongly connected with each other. Understanding the interactions between these two systems is important, since variations in climate can trigger extensive changes in the hydrologic cycle, with significant impacts on agriculture, ecosystems, and society. Observations over the central U.S. in recent decades show numerous changes in climatic variables. This includes decreases in cloud cover and wind speed, increases in air temperature, and seasonal shifts in precipitation rate and rain/snow fraction. To assess the impacts of these variations in climate on the regional water cycle, a terrestrial ecosystem/land surface hydrologic model (Agro-IBIS) is …

Land Use Adaptation To Climate Change: Economic Damages From Land-Falling Hurricanes In The Atlantic And Gulf States Of The Usa, 1900-2005, Asim Zia

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Global climate change, especially the phenomena of global warming, is expected to increase the intensity of land-falling hurricanes. Societal adaptation is needed to reduce vulnerability from increasingly intense hurricanes. This study quantifies the adaptation effects of potentially policy driven caps on housing densities and agricultural cover in coastal (and adjacent inland) areas vulnerable to hurricane damages in the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal regions of the U.S. Time series regressions, especially Prais-Winston and Autoregressive Moving Average (ARMA) models, are estimated to forecast the economic impacts of hurricanes of varying intensity, given that various patterns of land use emerge in the Atlantic …

Development And Dissemination Of Clean Cookstoves: A Model Law For Developed Countries, Scott Miller

Drafting Model Laws on Indoor Pollution for Developing and Developed Nations (July 12-13)

21 pages.

"This model law was developed at a legislative drafting workshop on July 12-13, 2012, entitled Drafting Model Laws on Indoor Pollution for Developing and Developed Nations, which was sponsored by the Center for Energy & Environmental Security and the Colorado Natural Resources, Energy & Environmental Law Review at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder, Colorado."-- Excerpted from 24 Colo. Nat. Resources, Energy & Envtl. L. Rev. 355 (2013).

"Scott Miller ed."

Development And Dissemination Of Clean Cookstoves: A Model Law For Developing Countries, Lakshman Guruswamy Ed.

Drafting Model Laws on Indoor Pollution for Developing and Developed Nations (July 12-13)

24 pages.

"This model law was developed at a legislative drafting workshop on July 12-13, 2012, entitled Drafting Model Laws on Indoor Pollution for Developing and Developed Nations, which was sponsored by the Center for Energy & Environmental Security and the Colorado Natural Resources, Energy & Environmental Law Review at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder, Colorado." Excerpted from 24 Colo. Nat. Resources, Energy & Envtl. L. Rev. 331 (2013).

Old Dominion University Climate Change And Sea Level Rise Initiative, Summer 2012, Larry P. Atkinson (Editor)

CCSLRI Newsletters

Summer 2012 Newsletter of the Old Dominion University Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Intiative

Long-Term Changes To The Frost-Free Season As A Function Of Climatic Continentality, Ian Blaylock

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The beginning, end, and length of the annual frost-free season vary considerably both spatially and temporally. The continentality of the climate of a given area has a close connection with the magnitude and nature of these variations. Long term changes in the frost-free season can be divided into three distinct phases: a lengthening of the frost-free season in the early 20^th century, a shortening in the mid-20^th century, and a renewed, intensified lengthening from 1970 to today. While oceanic and ultraoceanic climates experience decreased incidence of frosts relative to their continental counterparts, analysis has shown that overall 20 …

Nantucket Shellfish Management Plan, Kristin Uiterwyk, Steve Bliven, Dan Leavitt, Jack Wiggin, Urban Harbors Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Nantucket’s shellfish resources are an important part of the Island’s history, culture, and economy. Nantucket waters support one of the country’s last wild-caught bay scallop fisheries. Elsewhere along the Atlantic coast, fishing pressure, habitat loss, and disease have severely depleted bay scallop populations. Although Nantucketers continue to make a living harvesting shellfish from the Island’s waters, many do so with concern for the future of the resources and the habitats that support them. Urban Harbors Institute (UHI) provided technical assistance to the community to develop a Shellfish Management Plan (SMP) that addresses issues of water quality, habitat loss, climate change, …

Old Dominion University Climate Change And Sea Level Rise Initiative, Spring 2012, Larry P. Atkinson (Editor)

CCSLRI Newsletters

Summer 2012 Newsletter of the Old Dominion University Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Initiative

Interannual And Spatial Impacts Of Phenological Transitions, Growing Season Length, And Spring And Autumn Temperatures On Carbon Sequestration: A North America Flux Data Synthesis, Chaoyang Wu, Alemu Gonsamo, Jing Ming Chen, Werner A. Kurz, David T. Price, Peter M. Lafleur, Rachhpal S. Jassal, Danilo Dragoni, Gil Bohrer, Christopher M. Gough, Shashi B. Verma, Andrew E. Suyker, J. William Munger

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Understanding feedbacks of ecosystem carbon sequestration to climate change is an urgent step in developing future ecosystem models. Using 187 site-years of flux data observed at 24 sites covering three plant functional types (i.e. evergreen forests (EF), deciduous forests (DF) and non-forest ecosystems (NF) (e.g., crop, grassland, wetland)) in North America, we present an analysis of both interannual and spatial relationships between annual net ecosystem production (NEP) and phenological indicators, including the flux-based carbon uptake period (CUP) and its transitions, degree-day-derived growing season length (GSL), and spring and autumn temperatures. Diverse responses were acquired between annul NEP and these indicators …

Global Air Temperature Variability Independent Of Sea-Surface Temperature Influences, Andrew C. Comrie, Gregory J. Mccabe

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Mean global surface air temperature (SAT) and sea surface temperature (SST) display substantial variability on timescales ranging from annual to multi-decadal. We review the key recent literature on connections between global SAT and SST variability. Although individual ocean influences on SAT have been recognized, the combined contributions of worldwide SST variability on the global SAT signal have not been clearly identified in observed data.Weanalyze these relations using principal components of detrended SST, and find that removing the underlying combined annual, decadal, and multi-decadal SST variability from the SAT time series reveals a nearly monotonic global warming trend in SAT since …

Hurricane Disturbance And Recovery Of Energy Balance, Co2 Fluxes And Canopy Structure In A Mangrove Forest Of The Florida Everglades, Jordan G. Barr, Vic Engel, Thomas J. Smith, José D. Fuentes

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Eddy covariance (EC) estimates of carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes and energy balance are examined to investigate the functional responses of a mature mangrove forest to a disturbance generated by Hurricane Wilma on October 24, 2005 in the Florida Everglades. At the EC site, high winds from the hurricane caused nearly 100% defoliation in the upper canopy and widespread tree mortality. Soil temperatures down to −50 cm increased, and air temperature lapse rates within the forest canopy switched from statically stable to statically unstable conditions following the disturbance. Unstable conditions allowed more efficient transport of water vapor and CO₂ from …

Recent Changes In The Growth And Nutrient Limitation Of Benthic And Pelagic Algae In Arctic Tundra Ponds, Christina Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Arctic ponds are a dominant feature in Barrow, Alaska. Ponds may function as carbon sinks during the growing season from production of photosynthetic organisms like algae; however, little work has been done on this topic. Environmental changes have been occurring in the Arctic stemming from climate change and human perturbations. The focus of this study was to assess a historically studied region for changes in algal primary production that may have been produced due to increases in temperature over the past 40 years and increased human development. Additionally, this study aimed to determine nutrient limitation of algal production in the …