Climate Commons^™

Climate Change: What Does It Mean For Nebraska?, Martha D. Shulski, Natalie A. Umphlett, Tapan B. Pathak, Kenneth G. Hubbard

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Because Nebraska’s location on the North American continent is far removed from large bodies of water, Nebraskans experience a strong continental type climate. As such, residents do not benefit from the moderating influence of the ocean, and temperatures can have wide swings from day to day and season to season. Typical characteristics for a continental climate at this latitude are large temperature variability with warm summers dominated by convective thunderstorms, and cold winters influenced by snow and wind from mid-latitude cyclones.

Rose: Roadmaps Towards Sustainable Energy Futures And Climate Protection: A Synthesis Of Results From The Rose Project, Elmar Kriegler, Ioanna Mouratiadou, Gunnar Luderer, Nico Bauer, Katherine Calvin, Enrica Decian, Robert J. Brecha, Wenying Chen, Aleh Cherp, Jae Edmonds, Kejun Jiang, Shonali Pachauri, Fabio Sferra, Massimo Tavoni, Ottmar Edenhofer

Physics Faculty Publications

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Exploring energy demand and supply uncertainty: An exploration of uncertainty on drivers of energy demand and supply is indispensable for better understanding the prospects of long-tern climate stabilization. The RoSE study is the first of its kind to systematically explore the impact of economic growth, population and fossil fuel scarcity, in scenarios with and without climate policy, using a model ensemble. A feature of RoSE is the participation of five established integrated assessment modelling teams from three important regions in international climate policy negotiations: the EU, the USA and China.

Economic growth: Neither slow nor rapid economic growth …

The Influence Of The Tibetan Plateau Elevation On The Global And Asian Monsoons, Rene Paul Acosta

Open Access Theses

It has been long hypothesized that large-scale topographic changes, such as the surface uplift of the Tibetan Plateau, impacts the development of the South Asian and East Asian monsoons and influences other monsoon regions. However, recent modeling has shown that spatial distribution of the global monsoon, which includes the South Asian and East Asian monsoons is largely unaffected by the elevation of the plateau. In this study, we present results from a series of modern day simulations using CESM1.0 in a mixed-layer (slab ocean) configuration. The Tibetan Plateau height is varied from double that of the modern maximum plateau elevation …

Black Carbon Measurements Of Snow And Ice Using The Single Particle Soot Photometer: Method Development And An Ad 1852-1999 Record Of Atmospheric Black Carbon From A Mount Logan Ice Core, James Andrew Menking

All Master's Theses

Black carbon (BC), produced by the combustion of fossil and biofuels, warms the climate by absorbing solar radiation when in the atmosphere and by reducing the albedo of snow and ice when deposited. Measuring BC in snow and ice is important for estimating albedo reduction and developing historical records of BC concentration. Experiments were conducted to further develop a method for measuring BC in snow and ice using the Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2). Results suggest the optimal procedures for sample storage, treatment, and nebulization, and analysis and calibration of BC concentrations measured using the SP2 coupled to a CETAC …

Carbon Farming In Wa, Department Of Agriculture And Food, Western Australia, Department Of Regional Development And Lands, Western Australia

Natural resources published reports

Fact sheets:

1. Applying biochar to improve soil quality and crop productivity

2. Reducing methane emissions from cattle using feed additives

3. Cattle breeding for lower greenhouse gas emissions

4. Managing genetic codes to reduce methane emissions from cattle

5. Managing pastures and stocking rate to reduce methane emissions from cattle

6. Claying as a method of increasing soil carbon content

7. Green and brown manuring as part of carbon farming

8. Permanent environmental plantings to earn carbon credits

9. Nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural soils

10. Sheep genetics in methane reduction

11. Managing sheep pastures to reduce methane production …

Changes In Net Ecosystem Production Over The Past 40 Years In Arctic Tundra Ponds Near Barrow, Alaska: Application Of Historic And Modern Techniques, Nickole Ann Miller

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Arctic environments have gained interest recently due to their sensitivity to climate change. As warming has created longer growing seasons, extended ice-free periods as well as permafrost thaw, the production in freshwater ecosystems has the potential to be greatly impacted. It is hypothesized that as climate change and warming occurs, increases in primary production will occur and ponds will become carbon sinks. Net ecosystem production (NEP) was determined using phytoplankton and periphyton samples collected weekly during the growing season (June - August) from arctic tundra ponds near Barrow, Alaska. Enrichment with 14C was used to determine both weekly photosynthetic rates …

Flexible Urban Water Distribution Systems, Seneshaw Amare Tsegaye

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With increasing global change pressures such as urbanization and climate change, cities of the future will experience difficulties in efficiently managing scarcer and less reliable water resources. However, projections of future global change pressures are plagued with uncertainties. This increases the difficulty in developing urban water systems that are adaptable to future uncertainty.

A major component of an urban water system is the distribution system, which constitutes approximately 80-85% of the total cost of the water supply system (Swamee and Sharma, 2008). Traditionally, water distribution systems (WDS) are designed using deterministic assumptions of main model input variables such as water …

A History Of Place: Using Phytolith Analysis To Discern Holocene Vegetation Change On Sanak Island, Western Gulf Of Alaska, Cricket C. Wilbur

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study investigated a terrestrial climate proxy, phytoliths, as a complimentary approach to documenting the dynamics of present and past vegetation on Sanak Island, the largest island in a small island group in the eastern Aleutian archipelago, and as a new basis by which to interpret Holocene environmental variability in Alaska. A phytolith reference collection was established from 59 selected plant species of maritime tundra belonging to 27 families. The grass species and a sedge species produced abundant phytolith forms whereas the majority of dicotyledons in this study were trace producers of phytoliths. A paleoenvironmental reconstruction from fossil phytoliths recovered …

The Use Of Tree Rings To Study The Impacts Of Stream Flow And Climate Variability On Native And Invasive Woody Species Along A Semi-Arid Riparian Ecosystem In The Great Plains, Usa, Kristen M. Skolaut

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

Forested riparian areas of the Northern Great Plains have historically been dominated by the native Populus deltoides L. vegetation type. Changes in climate, stream flow, groundwater, and management practices in the past few decades have promoted the expansion of the upland native woody species Juniperus virginiana L. and the invasion of the non-native Elaeagnus angustifolia L. into these riparian ecosystems. This study aims at using dendrochronology, or the study of tree rings, to assess the impacts of intra- and inter- annual climatic variability and stream flow over the past decades, on the annual tree ring growth, oxygen and carbon isotopic …

Agricultural Advisors: A Receptive Audience For Weather And Climate Information?, Linda Stalker Prokopy, Tonya Haigh, Amber Saylor Mase, Jim Angel, Chad Hart, Cody Knutson, Maria Carmen Lemos, Yun Jia Lo, Jean Mcguire, Lois Wright Morton, Jennifer Perron, Dennis Todey, Melissa Widhalm

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

As the climate in the midwestern United States becomes increasingly variable because of global climate change, it is critical to provide tools to the agricultural community to ensure adaptability and profitability of agricultural cropping systems. When used by farmers and their advisors, agricultural decision support tools can reduce uncertainty and risks in the planning, operation, and management decisions of the farm enterprise. Agricultural advisors have historically played a key role in providing information and guidance in these decisions. However, little is known about what these advisors know or think about weather and climate information and their willingness to incorporate this …

Climate Change Up Close And Personal: Impacts On Hampton Roads Region, Russell De Young

November 16, 2012: Best Practices for Adapting to Sea Level Rise and Flooding

No abstract provided.

Climate Change And International Trade: Conflict Or Opportunity?, Joshua Meltzer

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

How can international trade negotiations provide incentives or limit progress on domestic and international climate change policy? This presentation will explore how trade negotiations can reduce trade barriers to low carbon produced goods, the implications of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and free trade agreements, and how pricing carbon to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can lead to international competitiveness and carbon leakage concerns. This presentation will consider the implications of the November 6th election on short and long-term climate policy initiatives.

Climate Change And The Water Crisis In Israel, Lauren Deutsch

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

Israel’s water crisis is controlled by the availability and location of water resources that are affected by climate change and geopolitics in southwest Asia. Conflict between Israel and the Palestinian occupied territories in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have put strains on the allocation of water recourses. The goal of this research was to model how much a change in climate will affect the amount of available freshwater in Israel. Intensive research taken from Israel and the occupied territories was carried out to understand how the amount of precipitation, rainfall, and the rate of evaporation is affected by …

Droughtscape, Fall 2012, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

Director’s report

Updated resources

Drought outlook and review

2012 and past droughters

Summer impacts summary

Urban planners and drought

USDM wins CLEAN seal

Meixiu Yu's Chinese SPEI

Ethiopian project

Mexican VegDRI

Drought monitor sculpture

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 …

Planning For Sea Level Rise In Portland, Maine Using Robust Decision Making As A Guide, Sadie Lloyd

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

This paper evaluates the potential for Robust Decision Making (RDM) to guide communities preparing for the impacts of climate change, using sea level rise planning in Portland, Maine as a case study. RDM is a problem solving process that considers multiple outcomes and an uncertain future, and focuses on decisions that provide benefits regardless of which future scenarios develop, allowing for the adjustment of decisions over time to accommodate changes in the future. The flexibility of RDM makes it an appropriate model for decision makers and stakeholders unsure how to address impacts of climate change, an issue complicated by numerous …

Bait Effects In Sampling Coral Reef Fish Assemblages With Stereo-Bruvs, Stacey R. Dorman, Euan S. Harvey, Stephen J. Newman

Fisheries Research Articles

Baited underwater video techniques are increasingly being utilised for assessing and monitoring demersal fishes because they are: 1) non extractive, 2) can be used to sample across multiple habitats and depths, 3) are cost effective, 4) sample a broader range of species than many other techniques, 5) and with greater statistical power. However, an examination of the literature demonstrates that a range of different bait types are being used. The use of different types of bait can create an additional source of variability in sampling programs. Coral reef fish assemblages at the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, Western Australia, were sampled using …

A Climatological Analysis Of The Warm-Season Wind Regimes Of The Beaufort/Chukchi Seas Coasts, William J. Baule

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

Climate records for wind speed, wind direction, and temperature are analyzed for the period from 1979-2009 for the Beaufort/Chukchi Seas region of the Arctic. Wind records have historically been subject to far fewer analyses than other meteorological variables, such as temperature or precipitation. This is particularly true for data sparse regions. Data were collected for a large area in the Beaufort/Chukchi Seas region, which includes portions of Russia, the United States, and Canada. Data from 250 stations were collected from a variety of networks throughout the region and uniformly quality controlled. Eight long-term stations were identified for data completeness and …

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).

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."

Agenda: Drafting Model Laws On Indoor Pollution For Developing And Developed Nations, University Of Colorado Boulder. Center For Energy & Environmental Security, Colorado Natural Resources, Energy And Environmental Law Review

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

On July 12 and 13, 2012, experts convened at Colorado Law to demonstrate the extent to which a model law could help address the global problem of indoor air pollution from inefficient cook stoves. The air pollution that results from inefficiently burning biomass as fuel for cooking has serious health and climatic consequences. The workshop produced two sets of Model Laws and commentaries to help nations solve the problem, and the commentaries were published in the Colorado Natural Resources, Energy, and Environmental Law Review.

Drafting Model Laws On Indoor Pollution For Developing And Developed Nations Workshop, July 12-13, 2012, Boulder, Colorado: Introduction, Lakshman Guruswamy

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

11 pages.

"This Essay introduces the framework for deliberation and legislative drafting undertaken at the workshop: Drafting Model Laws on Indoor Pollution for Developing and Developed Nations on July 12-13, 2012, in Boulder, Colorado. There are a number of fundamental premises upon which the workshop was based, and this Essay refers to the most salient among them."-- Excerpted from 24 Colo. Nat. Resources, Energy & Envtl. L. Rev. 319 (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

Droughtscape, Summer 2012, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

Director’s report 1

Drought expanse 1

Upcoming ranch workshops. 3

Drought outlook and review 4

Spring impacts summary 6

Hawaii impact workshops 9

Remote sensing of drought. 10

China workshop . 12

Estimating Annual Precipitation For The Colorado River Basin Using Oceanic-Atmospheric Oscillations, Ajay Kalra, Sajjad Ahmad

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Estimating long-lead time precipitation under the stress of increased climatic variability is a challenging task in the field of hydrology. A modified Support Vector Machine (SVM) based framework is proposed to estimate annual precipitation using oceanic-atmospheric oscillations. Oceanic-atmospheric oscillations, consisting of Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) for a period of 1900–2008, are used to generate annual precipitation estimates with a 1 year lead time. The SVM model is applied to 17 climate divisions encompassing the Colorado River Basin in the western United States. The overall results revealed that …

Agenda: A Low-Carbon Energy Blueprint For The American West, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center, University Of Colorado Boulder. Renewable And Sustainable Energy Institute, Western Resource Advocates, Rocky Mountain Research Station (Fort Collins, Colo.)

A Low-Carbon Energy Blueprint for the American West (Martz Summer Conference, June 6-8)

The future of the planet may depend upon our ability to increase energy supplies even as we reduce carbon emissions. This conference will address how a low-carbon energy program might evolve with a particular focus on the American West. It will focus on the future of energy in the West--on a “managed transition” to a different energy mix, on the need to nest this effort in a framework that acknowledges interconnections, and on identifying the most salient opportunities to consider the legal, political, financial, and technical challenges.

Green Infrastructure Resource Directory, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

Green infrastructure is an approach for managing stormwater that uses vegetation and soils to capture and treat rainwater where it falls. Unlike single-purpose gray infrastructure, green infrastructure realizes multiple benefits at once, including flood mitigation, improved water and air quality, community beautification, provision of recreational opportunities, and energy and cost savings. This resource directory is intended to help communities design, implement, fund, and monitor green infrastructure practices and programs. It was compiled by the Environmental Finance Center Network through the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities program funded by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. …

The Invasion Of California Grasslands: Past, Present, And Future Implications, Danielle Simone Caziarc

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

The Relation Among Essential Habitat, Ocean Acidification, And Calcification On The Nantucket Bay Scallop (Argopecten Irradians), Bryanna Joy Broadaway

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The relation among essential habitat, ocean acidification, and calcification in Argopecten irradians (Lamarck 1819) was examined through field and laboratory research. Three major questions were addressed: 1) What habitat conditions are associated with abundant populations of bay scallops in Nantucket Harbor? 2) How might future predictions of ocean pH decline affect the biomineralization of shell by bay scallop across juvenile and adult life stages? 3) Are there biochemical indicators that can inform our understanding on how the bay scallop may cope with ocean acidifying events? Elemental fingerprinting of adult and juvenile Nantucket bay scallop shells, A. irradians, revealed distinct element/Ca …

Atmospheric Circulation Change In The Central Himalayas Indicated By A High-Resolution Ice Core Deuterium Excess Record, Hongxi Pang, Shugui Hou, Susan Kaspari, Paul Mayewski, Douglas Introne, Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Jean Jouzel, Zhenchao Li, Yuanqing He, Sungmin Hong, Dahe Qin

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Continuous measurements of both δD and δ18O were performed along a 108.8 m ice core recovered from the East Rongbuk Glacier on the northeast saddle of Mt. Qomolangma (Everest) (28.03° N, 86.96° E, 6518 m above sea level) in September 2002. They provide the first high-resolution historical record of deuterium excess (d) in the central Himalayas. In this paper, we focus on d variability from 1951 to 2001 and its relationship with large scale atmospheric circulation. The d record exhibits significant seasonal variations, with low values in summer and high values in winter, reflecting the atmospheric circulation shift between winter …