Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Global Effects Of Climate Change On Wildfire: Causal Relationships Of Fire, The Natural Environment And Human Activities, Lindon N. Pronto

Lindon N Pronto

Climate change and human activity is significantly impacting the frequency and severity of wildfires across the globe. Although climate change and human population are the overarching factors affecting wildfires in the current dialogue, the issues are more complex and often not fully understood. These issues range from global temperature increases and severe drought cycles to the relatively new phenomenon of the wildland urban interface (WUI). This is the area where structures are integrated with or immediately surrounded by areas of moderate to high fire risk and are directly linked to fuel types and topographic features. Because climate change is such …

Bryoecology In The American Southwest: Patterns Of Biodiversity And Responses To Global Change, John Carroll Brinda

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation combines investigation of the large-scale responses of bryophyte species diversity and distribution with small-scale physiological adaptations to global change. These two areas of inquiry are linked because one way to predict plant species responses to global change is to examine their distribution across current ecological gradients produced by factors such as latitude and elevation. By examining these biogeographic patterns one can identify those species that have a narrow tolerance and therefore are most sensitive to change. Selected bryophytes might then be used as indicator species in long-term monitoring programs. Where historical data exist, these can be used to …

Melting Of Major Glaciers In Himalayas: Role Of Desert Dust And Anthropogenic Aerosols, Anup K. Prasad, Hesham El-Askary, Ghassem R. Asrar, Menas Kafatos, Ashok Jaswal

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Books and Book Chapters

The Himalayan and Tibet Glaciers, that are among the largest bodies of ice and fresh water resource outside of the polar ice caps, face a significant threat of accelerated meltdown in coming decades due to climate variability and change. The rate of retreat of these glaciers and changes in their terminus (frontal dynamics) is highly variable across the Himalayan range. These large freshwater sources are critical to human activities for food production, human consumption and a whole host of other applications, especially over the Indo-Gangetic (IG) plains. They are also situated in a geo-politically sensitive area surrounded by China, India, …

The Potential For Indicators In The Management Of Climate Change Impacts On Cultural Heritage, Caithleen Daly

Conference papers

The global scale and unpredictable nature of climate change impacts on cultural heritage poses a challenge for conservation management. This article explores the potential of indicators as an aid for decision makers in the heritage sector. The author proposes a new indicator tool for addressing long-term stone recession impacts that may be related to climate change. The indicator is being installed at two World Heritage sites in Ireland but no results are available. The prototype was developed during doctoral research at the Technological University of Dublin.

Identifying Changes In Climatic Trends And The Fingerprints Of Landuse And Landcover Changes In The High Plains Of The Usa, Denis Mutiibwa

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations and Theses

Human activities such as conversion of natural ecosystem to croplands and urban-centers, deforestation and afforestation impact biophysical properties of land surface such as albedo, energy balance, and surface roughness. Alterations in these properties affect the heat and moisture exchanges between the land surface and atmospheric boundary layer. The objectives of this research were; (i) to quantitatively identify the High plains’ regional climate change in temperatures over the period 1895 to 2006, (ii) detect the signatures of anthropogenic forcing of LULC changes on the regional climate change of the High Plains, and (iii) examine the trends in evolving regional latent heat …

Uncertainty Estimation Of Extreme Precipitations Under Climate Change: A Non-Parametric Approach, Tarana A. Solaiman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Assessment of climate change impacts on hydrology at watershed scale incorporates (a) downscaling of global scale climatic variables into local scale hydrologic variables and (b) assessment of future hydrologic extremes. Atmosphere-Ocean Global Climate Models (AOGCM) are designed to simulate time series of future climate responses accounting for human induced green house gas emissions. The present study addresses the following limitations of climate change impact research: (i) limited availability of observed historical information; (ii) limited research on the detection of changes in hydrologic extremes; and (iii) coarse spatio-temporal resolution of AOGCMs for use at regional or local scale. Downscaled output from …

Slides: Environmental Water In Australia, Chris Arnott

Conversation with Water Management Reps from Colorado and Australia: "Adapting to Climate Change: Lessons Learned from Australia" (February 14)

Presenter: Chris Arnott, Managing Director, Alluvium Consulting

30 slides

Climate Change And San Francisco Bay-Delta Tidal Wetlands, V Thomas Parker, John Callaway, Lisa M. Schile, Michael C. Vasey, Ellen R. Herbert

Environmental Science

Climate change will affect tidal wetlands with higher rates of sea-level rise and higher concentrations of salt in brackish and freshwater tidal systems, in addition to causing increases in atmospheric CO2 concentration, warmer temperatures, and shifts in precipitation. In the San Francisco Bay–Delta, the areas most likely to be affected—brackish and freshwater tidal wetlands—are also the sites with the majority of endemic plant species and the greater biodiversity and productivity. Effects on the San Francisco Bay– Delta estuary are complex and difficult to predict, but a few things are clear. Biodiversity of the tidal wetland system in the San Francisco …

A Green Board As A Climate-Change Imperative: Appointing A Climate-Change Expert To The Audit Committee, Porcher L. Taylor Iii, Harris L. Kay

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

This article makes the innovative and timely case for a climate change imperative: a green board. Urgency is evident, with the arrival of "a fast-emerging new burden on board members to oversee their company's posture on climate change and to begin monitoring an area that, until now, has drawn scant attention in the boardroom."²¹ One major impetus for the proposal advocated in this Article is that there is apparently a dearth of green boards in corporate America.²² In contrast, European and Canadian companies appear to be at the vanguard of utilizing green boards.²³

The Potential For Indicators In The Management Of Climate Change Impacts On Cultural Heritage, Caithleen Daly

Conference papers

The global scale and unpredictable nature of climate change impacts on cultural heritage poses a challenge for conservation management. This article explores the potential of indicators as an aid for decision makers in the heritage sector. The author proposes a new indicator tool for addressing long-term stone recession impacts that may be related to climate change. The indicator is being installed at two World Heritage sites in Ireland but no results are available. The prototype was developed during doctoral research at the Technological University of Dublin.

A Tale Of Two Carbon Sinks: Can Forest Carbon Management Serve As A Framework To Implement Ocean Iron Fertilization As A Climate Change Treaty Compliance Mechanism?, Randall S. Abate

Journal Publications

Any post-Kyoto climate change treaty regime must seek to fully engage the use of carbon sinks to complement emissions reduction measures in order to comply with the treaty's mandates. The Kyoto Protocol did not include avoided deforestation as a mechanism for earning emission reduction credits. However, reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) quickly gained popularity as a viable climate change compliance strategy in the period immediately preceding the negotiations at the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 15) in Copenhagen in 2009. The Copenhagen Accord is replete with references to REDD as a focus for the international community's progression …