How hands-on gardening impacts behaviors including healthy eating and physical activity during early childhood can be of critical importance for preventing early onsets of obesity. This research investigates how participating in hands-on gardening impacts preschoolers’ (3-5 years old) physical activity (measured by accelerometers) in childcare centers in the Semi-Arid Climate Zone. The research was conducted in eight licensed childcare centers located in West Texas with 149 children (n=149). Four childcare centers in the experimental group received hands-on garden interventions; the other four in the control group did not. In both experimental (intervention) and control (non-intervention) centers, children wore Actigraph GT3X+ accelerometers continuously for 5 days before and for 5 days after intervention (a total of 10 days). Results show that the duration of sedentary behavior of children in the experimental (intervention) group significantly decreased compared to children in the control (non-intervention) group. The finding suggests that the positive effects of childcare hands-on gardening on physical activity extend to semi-arid climate zones where gardening is challenging due to high temperatures and lack of annual rainfall. The research emphasizes the critical need to incorporate hands-on gardening in childcare centers as an obesity prevention strategy nationally in the U.S. and beyond.

Climate change represents a prevalent challenge confronted by humanity, and with cities being one of the regions most heavily impacted by such change, enhancing their climate resilience is paramount in adapting to and mitigating the associated risks and losses. This article evaluates the climate resilience of 270 major cities in China by creating an urban climate resilience indicator system centered on exposure, vulnerability, and resilience. The article analyses the spatial and temporal evolution trend of climate resilience in Chinese cities, as well as the source of regional differences using Kernel density analysis and the Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition. The article then explores the influence of financial investments on urban climate resilience, considering the moderating effect of urbanization rate.

Dengue fever is a persistent public health issue in tropical regions, including Vietnam, where climate variability plays a crucial role in disease transmission dynamics. This study focuses on developing climate-based machine learning models to forecast dengue outbreaks in Ba Ria Vung Tau (BRVT) province, Vietnam, using meteorological data from 2003 to 2022. We utilized four predictive models—Negative Binomial Regression (NBR), Seasonal AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average with Exogenous Regressors (SARIMAX), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM)—to predict weekly dengue incidence. Key climate variables, including temperature, humidity, precipitation, and wind speed, were integrated into these models, with lagged variables included to capture delayed climatic effects on dengue transmission. The NBR model demonstrated the best performance in terms of predictive accuracy, achieving the lowest Mean Absolute Error (MAE) compared to other models. The inclusion of lagged climate variables significantly enhanced the model’s ability to predict dengue cases. SARIMAX and LSTM models, although effective in capturing seasonal trends, struggled with overfitting and failed to accurately predict short-term outbreaks. XGBoost exhibited moderate predictive power but was sensitive to overfitting, particularly without fine-tuning. Our findings confirm that climate-based machine learning models, particularly the NBR model, offer valuable tools for forecasting dengue outbreaks in BRVT. However, improving the models’ ability to predict short-term peaks remains a challenge. The integration of meteorological data into early warning systems is crucial for public health authorities to plan timely and effective interventions. This research contributes to the growing body of literature on climate-based disease forecasting and underscores the need for further model refinement to address the complexities of dengue transmission in highly endemic regions.

Agricultural greenhouse is largely answered in the agricultural sphere, despite the shortcomings it has, including overheating during the day and night cooling which sometimes results in the thermal inversion mainly due to its low inertia. The glasshouse dressed chapel is relatively more efficient than the conventional tunnel greenhouse. Its proliferation on the ground is more or less timid because of its relatively high cost[14-22]. Agricultural greenhouse aims to create a favorable microclimate to the requirements of growth and development of culture, from the surrounding weather conditions, produce according to the cropping calendars fruits, vegetables and flower species out of season and widely available along the year. It is defined by its structural and functional architecture, the quality thermal, mechanical and optical of its wall, with its sealing level and the technical and technological accompanying[12-13]. The greenhouse is a very confined environment, where multiple components are exchanged between key stakeholders and them factors are light, temperature and relative humidity[8]. This state of thermal evolution is the level sealing of the cover of its physical characteristics to be transparent to solar, absorbent and reflective of infrared radiation emitted by the enclosure where the solar radiation trapping effect otherwise called "greenhouse effect" and its technical and technological means of air that accompany. The socio-economic analysis of populations in the world leaves appear especially the last two decades of rapid and profound transformations These changes are accompanied by changes in eating habits, mainly characterized by rising consumption spread along the year[14]. To effectively meet this demand, greenhouse-systems have evolved, particularly towards greater control of production conditions (climate, irrigation, ventilation techniques, CO2 supply, etc ...). Technological progress has allowed the development of greenhouses so that they become increasingly sophisticated and of an industrial nature (heating, air conditioning, control, computer, regulation, etc ...). New climate driving techniques have emerged, including the use of control devices from the classic to the use of artificial intelligence[10-11] such as neural networks and / or fuzzy logic, etc... As a result, the greenhouse growers prefer these new technologies while optimizing the investment in the field to effectively meet the supply and demand of these fresh products cheaply and widely available throughout the year.

In the global carbon cycle, atmospheric carbon emissions, both ‘natural’ and anthropogenic, are balanced by carbon uptake (i.e. sequestration) that mostly occurs via photosynthesis, plus a much smaller proportion via geological processes. Since the formation of the Earth about 4.54 billion years ago the ratio between emitted and sequestered carbon has varied considerably with atmospheric CO₂ levels ranging from 100,000 ppm to a mere 100 ppm. Over this time, a huge amount of carbon has been sequestered due to photosynthesis and essentially removed from the cycle, being buried as fossil deposits of coal, oil and gas. Relatively low atmospheric CO₂ levels were the norm for the past 10 million years, and during the past million years they averaged about 220 ppm. More recently, the Holocene epoch, starting ~11,700 years ago, has been a period of unusual climatic stability with relatively warm, moist conditions and low atmospheric CO₂ levels of between 260 and 280 ppm. During the Holocene, stable conditions facilitated a social revolution with domestication of crops and livestock leading to urbanisation and development of complex technologies. As part of the latter process, immense quantities of sequestered fossil carbon have recently been used as energy sources, resulting in a particularly rapid increase in CO₂ emissions after 1950 CE to the current value of 424 ppm, with further rises to >800 ppm predicted by 2100. This is already perturbing the previously stable Holocene climate and threatening future food production and social stability. Today, the global carbon cycle has been shifted such that carbon sequestration is no longer keeping up with recent anthropogenic emissions. In order to address this imbalance it is important to understand the roles of high-capacity carbon sequestration systems, such as natural forests and tropical croplands, and to devise strategies to facilitate net CO₂ uptake.

The concept of policy entrepreneurs has gained increasing attention in studies of climate policy and governance since it foregrounds the role of agency in understanding policy change. However, agency of policy entrepreneurs in the policy process is largely political and conceals the power that shapes how public problems and policies are framed and defined. Thus, policy entrepreneurs should be confronted with the challenge of generating legitimacy, accountability and justice of their actions and the implementation of their targeted policy change. Drawing on political-philosophical theories of liberal and deliberative democracy this paper outlines a conceptual framework for critical analytical as well as normative research on strategies and impacts of policy entrepreneurs. Empirical research on the strategies and impacts of policy entrepreneurs in recent policymaking on climate policy and governance in the EU and Sweden identifies several democratic deficits. In all, the paper brings ideology and politics into research on policy entrepreneurs. It is suggested that not only the strategies used, but also the ideologies of actors that use them, is the causal mechanism that links the policy entrepreneurs to the outcomes, and thus if their advocacy will facilitate or hamper a just transition to climate neutrality and sustainability.

The objective of this research was to study the dynamics of moisture and nutrition at the root zone and to quantify the variables linked to efficient water management in avocado orchards of mid and high-lands of Michoacán, México, in typical Andisols of low fertility with (A)C(w2) and C(w2) climates, respectively. Using the FDR (Frequency Domain Reflectometry) technology, the dynamics of soil moisture and salinity were recorded daily at four depths: 0-15, 15-30, 30-45, and 45-60 cm. The soil moisture balance model was used to determine actual evapotranspiration (ETr), crop coefficient (Kc), and water use efficiency (WUE). Results indicated that ETr is 66-73% of the total water at 0-30 cm depth; the fertilizer absorption is limited to 0-30 cm, being negligible at deeper layers. The water use efficiency is 4.4 to 5.6 kg of fruit m-3 of applied water, and the ratio of the water use index (ETr/irrigation sheet applied, ISA) is 0.65-0.70; while the annual avocado Kc is 0.72 in Cutzato and 0.78 in Tiamba. We concluded that avocado has a low water requirement, it does not cause leaching of nutrients and/or water, the absorption of water and nutrients mostly occurs at 30 cm depth, and from a hydrological point of view, the crop is environmentally friendly.

The increasing demand for transporting people and goods, rail system is needed for enhancement. An architectural design of train station can significantly impact investment from any government. However, a proper guideline for designing the train station in tropical climate is not publicized. This review examine railway station design through an analysis of student design theses in Thailand, from 1983 to 2022. Furthermore, the building analyses on architectural design theory were done in terms of service area, form, entrance structure, roof structure, style, and design development. The analysis reveals curved and gable roofs are most frequent, followed by 3D curved roofs. HSR stations' main entrances are designed to represent local culture and save walking distance. Curved and gabled porticos provide the most extravagant main entryway, a feeling of grandeur and beauty. A public building's overlapping portico or curving gabled portico lends majesty and refinement to its façade. Architects and designers strive to make buildings more attractive and practical. Besides, university-designed stations prioritize conceptual design and functional space over cost. Finally, railway station design should prioritize transparency, connectivity, movement, and cost- and time-efficiency. Research gaps are identified, such as designing user-friendly for thermal comfort and design-for-all the railway station in tropical climate, are critical for future evaluation.

Mosquito-borne diseases (MBDs) are a group of illnesses transmitted by mosquitoes and can be caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites. These diseases represent a significant global burden of infectious diseases, including morbidity and mortality. This systematic review delves into the multifaceted factors contributing to the spread of mosquito-borne diseases (MBDs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Following PRISMA guidelines, a thorough analysis of peer-reviewed articles from May 1990 to Jan 2023 was conducted, highlighting the interplay of population, environmental, disease, and mosquito factors in disease transmission and prevalence. The review incorporated 31 studies that revealed a complex relationship between various risk factors and the presence of MBDs. Significant associations were observed with age, certain occupations, environmental conditions such as rainfall and temperature, sanitation practices, specific pathogen variants, clinical symptoms, and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Conversely, gender, socioeconomic status, educational status, and certain sanitation-related factors showed inconsistent association with the spread of MBDs. The review underscores the need for targeted interventions, including vector control, improved sanitation, and educational campaigns to mitigate the spread of MBDs in the MENA region. This review could guide research studies to address data gaps and assist in developing effective surveillance programs in the MENA region. This work emphasizes the need for region-specific public health strategies and further research to understand and curb the burden of these diseases effectively.

The issue of climate change represents a significant global risk that demands immediate attention. However, higher education frequently fails to incorporate global perspectives and intricate transdisciplinary matters. In order to integrate global and transdisciplinary aspects into the curriculum of a technical university with a focus on computer science, a Master's programme has been developed. The programme's objective is to situate global risk at the core of the curriculum, thereby encouraging scientists to work beyond the boundaries of their respective disciplines. The paper considers the challenges that science and higher education must address to facilitate pathways towards a peaceful and sustainable future. It argues for a shift in focus from short-term and localised issues to a more holistic approach, emphasising the importance of considering universal problems. The curriculum, as developed, may be regarded as a guide for future university efforts in the fields of global risk and climate change.

Carbon (C) is one of the most abundant elements. It is part of all living organisms and is found in all states of matter (solid, liquid, gas, and plasma). It can take the form of one of the hardest and transparent materials (diamond) or it can be flexible and dark ( graphite), with many carbonaceous materials at both extremes. In gaseous form, C is a component of several greenhouse gas emitted during the combustion of fossil fuels. Carbon movement between the atmosphere, land (biosphere and lithosphere), and ocean (hydrosphere) can alter total amounts in each pool. Human activities accelerate C movement into the atmosphere, causing increases in climate change. This shift from terrestrial and oceanic C pools to the atmosphere cause an increase in the intensity and duration of droughts, hurricanes, snowstorms, and other natural phenomenon. Although society hears about C emissions there is a lack of understanding of its importance and the need to decrease C in the atmospheric pool to avoid exacerbating climate change. Forests and biochar are two biological methods to retain C in the terrestrial pool for long time and at very low cost. This review details where C comes from, its relationship with forests, and biochar and their roles in increasing carbon sequestration to limit the impacts of climate change and continue having future sustainable forests and ecosystems services that we enjoy today.

Climate change increases the importance of maintaining environmental conditions suitable for preventive conservation within museums. The microclimates at the Natural History Museum of Vienna, a large national collection housed within a classical building, were studied using >200 data loggers placed out from mid-2021 to provide thermo-hygrometric measurements at 15-minute intervals. Daily mean temperatures showed exhibition halls typically the warmest rooms; well heated in winter and with open windows on summer days. They may become even hotter than the outside temperature. In winter, most areas of the museum are very dry, as heating lowers the relative humidity, typically to 25–35% for the coldest season. Opening hours impose daily and weekly cycles on internal climate. There was little difference between sunny and shaded parts of the building or adjacent offices, corridors and depots. Similarly, the micro-climate at the floor resembled that of the room air at ~2 m elevation. Mechanically controlled climates in cold storage areas maintain 10 °C and relative humidity ~50%, but this has become increasingly difficult in hot summers. While there is little apparent damage to the collection, at times the museum can have an extreme indoor climate: very hot in the summer and dry in the winter.

The government of Nepal (GoN) has developed and implemented climate policies, plans and frameworks such as NAPA, National Climate Change Policy, LAPA and currently in the process of developing National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). These policies and plans are in different states of its implementation with diverse opinions and perceptions of the stakeholders. The paper has explored these opinions and experiences of climate experts in Nepal on state of climate policies, inter-linkages, roles and responsibilities of ministries/departments, important factors and subjective indicators for effective implementation of the policies. Altogether 30 experts responded the questionnaire sent via the email, LinkedIn and Skype Interview in the 1^st phase of Delphi research technique. The experiences of these experts range from 2-30 years representing government, non-government sectors, media and independent experts. As per most of the experts interviewed, the policies and plans are progressing in strategic direction with national and local priorities. The LAPA is the pioneer framework to address the local climatic issues, originated in Nepal. However, lack of clarity on roles/responsibilities and coordination among the ministries/departments; clear mechanisms for implementation of these policies; lack of sensitization, decentralization and delegation of finance and technologies; capacity of the stakeholders are the major challenges identified.

Herein, we examined the effects of weather parameters and individual clinicodemographic risk factors on hemorrhagic stroke (HS) incidence, severity on admission, and disability at discharge in a harsh desert climate. In a retrospective design we studied patients admitted to a stroke unit in Arab Emirates in 2016-2019. With a distributed lag nonlinear model we explored immediate and delayed effects of weather on stroke incidence. Supervised machine learning was used to build models predictive of scores in NIHSS and mRS scales. We assessed model performance by calculating ROC AUC, F1 scores, specificity, and sensitivity. HS risk increased after a significant change in any weather parameter. The risk was reduced below baseline after 1-week adjustment to environmental changes. Climate input from the previous 3 days yielded reliable classification models. Humidex was a better predictor of severity than air temperature, whereas body mass index, age, and time of day at stroke onset were the strongest clinical predictors. Weather parameters before admission were stronger predictors of disease severity than individual clinical factors. We addressed limitations of previous studies by analyzing a full set of climate parameters: ambient temperature, relative humidity, humidex, atmospheric pressure, and wind speed. Predictive models may help to optimize patient management and develop preventative strategies.

The Australian tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) is home to approximately 18 percent of the nation’s total vascular plant species. Over the past century, human activity and industrial development have caused global climate changes, posing a severe and irreversible danger to the entire land-based ecosystem, and WTWHA is no exception. The current average annual temperature of WTWHA in FNQ is 24 °C. However, in the coming years (by 2030), the average annual temperature increase is estimated to be between 0.5 and 1.4 °C compared to the climate observed between 1986 and 2005. Looking further ahead to 2070, the anticipated temperature rise is projected to be between 1.0 and 3.2 °C, with the exact range depending on future emissions. We identified 84 plant species endemic to the WTWHA in FNQ, which are already experiencing climate change threats. Few of these plants are used in herbal medicines. This study comprehensively reviewed metabolomics studies conducted on these 84 plant species until now toward understanding their physiological and metabolomics responses to global climate change. This review also discusses: i) recent developments in plant metabolomics studies that can be applied to study and understand the interactions of wet tropical plants with climatic stress, ii) medicinal plants and isolated phytochemicals with structural diversity, and iii) reported biological activities of crude extracts and isolated compounds.

Contemporary urban areas are often characterized by various forms of enclaves, isolated from their surrounding geographical context. Urban Green Infrastructures provide an opportunity to open these enclaves, establishing physical and functional connections with the broader city, while also contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation. This study examines the district of San Bartolomeo in the Italian city of Cagliari as an example of urban enclave and employs a participatory planning process to design a project that transforms it into a hub open to the wider city community. The result is a neighborhood shaped by its community, where social, economic, and environmental needs are balanced, fostering constant interaction between residents and the city as a whole.

This essay review explores the concept of climate-smart forestry as an approach to mitigating and adapting to climate change. It highlights the need for a holistic approach to forestry that considers regional differences and synergies between ecosystem services. The essay discusses various management strategies at different scales, including species selection, mixed species cultivation, and the promotion of the bioeconomy. It also examines the trade-offs and synergies between different forest uses and the effects of forest management on ecosystem services. Furthermore, the review addresses major abiotic and biotic damage risks to forests, such as wildfires, windstorms, and bark beetle attacks, and proposes risk management strategies. Lastly, the review delves into the management of peatland forests, discussing the role of drainage, the impact of ditch network maintenance, and the challenges of peat ash fertilization. Overall, the review provides valuable insights into climate-smart forestry and its potential to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The inherited ‘EIA’ process at Brexit is based on a ‘Project’ period from Inception tothe start of construction works. The ‘Incompleteness’ of the process covers andidentifies stages that will impact on the environmental cycle: construction period,operational life, de-commissioning and a return to acceptable environmental footprint.A master environment structure-plan framework is required to commence with theupgrading of the complete ‘EIA’ process, embracing separate limbs for the UK’spriority environmental targets for climate change, and other major adverse effectswhich result in serious ‘harm’ to the UK environment. The identification of the processfor ‘incompleteness’ requires effective sustainability, and inclusion of effectivemanagement tools, for the essential ‘monitoring/control/recording’ proceduresthroughout the project life and the natural environmental cycle. This will allow theopportunity for a new approach to a structured ‘Suite of EIAR Directives’, to enable a‘EIAR’ regime that ‘will remain fit and proper for UK purpose’.

Hands-on gardening is linked with healthy eating behaviors, increased outdoor activities, and overall well-being. Although these positive associations are widely established for adults and school-agers, little evidence can be found on how such relationships may extend to early childhood, especially in the preschool years (3-5 years). One recent study conducted in North Carolina (NC) showed that participating in hands-on gardening significantly increased preschoolers’ accurate identification of fruits and vegetables (FV) and FV consumption compared to children who did not participate in hands-on gardening, but no association was found between participation in hands-on gardening and children’s liking (eating preferences) of FV. FV identification and liking during the early years may lead to lifelong healthy eating behaviors and preferences, making hands-on gardening a critical health intervention in early childhood environments, especially in childcare centers where a majority of the 13 million children in the United States between the ages of 0 and 5 spend most of their waking hours. This research aimed to investigate how hands-on gardening in childcare centers may impact preschoolers’ (3-5 years old) FV knowledge (identification) and liking in a semi-arid climate zone with a high concentration of Hispanic families by conducting experimental research with eight childcare centers and one hundred forty-nine children (n=149) in Lubbock County located in West Texas. Findings showed changes in average liking scores are generally positive in the experiment group of children who participated in hands-on gardening (compared to the control non-gardening group), implying improved liking. The findings indicate that the benefits of hands-on gardening in childcare centers for enhancing healthy eating preferences are evident even in a semi-arid climate zone, where high temperatures and limited rainfall present significant gardening challenges. This research underscores the importance of integrating hands-on gardening into childcare programs, highlighting its potential as an effective obesity prevention strategy not only within the U.S. but also in other regions with similar environmental constraints.

The 20th century, global temperatures underwent significant changes, impacting agricultural climate zones worldwide. Xinjiang, China, a key player in machine-picked cotton production, was influenced by various heat-related indicators(sum of active temperature ≥ 10℃、mean temperature in July、climatological growing season length, April-May sum active temperature、Last spring frost, and Defoliator spray time). Using meteorological data from 58 weather stations in Xinjiang, we examined the spatio-temporal trends of these indicators during the period of 1981-2020. Additionally, we considered the effects of climate warming and plastic mulching on the sowing area and zoning area of machine-picked cotton in different suitable zones. Overall, Xinjiang experienced an trend in heat resources, with a pattern of "more in the southern part than the northern part, and more in plains and basins than in mountainous areas." Under climate warming conditions, the sowing area of the most suitable cotton zone and the suitable cotton zone has increased, while the sowing area of the moderately suitable cotton zone and unsuitable cotton zone has decreased. Under the plastic mulching mechanism, a comparison of the zoning area and sowing area from 1991 to 2020 revealed that there was no difference in the zoning area of the most suitable zone compared to the sowing area, while the zoning area of the suitable zone increased by 15.7% (2.15×103km2) compared to the sowing area. The zoning area of the moderately suitable zone decreased by 14.5% (0.26×103km2), and the unsuitable zone decreased by 7.8% (0.17×103km2) compared to their respective sowing areas. These results indicate that climate warming and plastic mulching have increased the cultivable area of machine-picked cotton in Xinjiang, but there are also instances of unreasonable zoning. It is necessary to allocate land resources reasonably based on climatic conditions to ensure the healthy development of the cotton industry in Xinjiang.

As climate is not only a valuable tourism resource but also a factor influencing travel experience, estimating climate change can provide implications to sustainable development of the tourism industry. This study develops Climate Volatility Index (CVI) using GARCH model and estimates the relationship between CVI and Japanese tourism demand for Korea using a tourism demand model, based on data from January 2000 to December 2013. Time lag is applied based on a decision making process regarding travel destinations. The result shows that an increase in volatility of climate change leads to a decrease in tourism demand.

Climate variability and change has been found to be one of the factors that affect economies leading to food insecurity in various parts of the world. Kenya is no exception. This study looks at how climate variability has contributed to food insecurity in Kisii County, Kenya. The objectives of this study is therefore to, (i) to examine the rainfall and temperature trends in Kisii County for a period of approximately 30 years, (ii) to examine the effect of climate variability on food production and (iii) to assess the perception of local farmers on weather and climate information, (iv) to evaluate the coping strategies adopted at to bridge the gap on food deficit at different household level and (v) to assess the nutritional status of children and the elderly. The study was conducted in two sub-counties of Kisii County; Marani and Bomachoge Chache. The data used was mainly rainfall and temperature data from meteorological stations and sample data gathered from selected groups. The study population comprised of children between 6 months and 59 months, household heads, elderly people and agricultural officers. Purposive sampling was used to select agricultural officers while multistage sampling was used to select respondents at household level. Data was collected by use of a pre-tested questionnaire. The MUAC tape was used to collect nutritional status of children while BMI data was obtained from elderly people. Mann Kendall statistic was used to determine whether the trend of rainfall and temperature observed is significant while Chi-square test was used to determine whether the coping strategies observed varied significantly at household level. From the analysis, rainfall has not shown any significant change in Kisii County while temperature trend has been significantly increasing over the years at 95% confidence level. This could explain the observed reduction in river levels. Analysis of crop production and price trends of major food crops in Kisii County showed a decreasing trend of food production leading to increase in price over the years. This meant that farmers could not produce enough to take them to the next harvesting season making farmers to adopt different coping strategies at household level which differed significantly according to Chi-Square test. Malnutrition status of both elderly people above 59 years and children between 6-59 months were similar with 23% of both children/elderly being severely malnourished/malnourished. This study has only looked at climatic factors such as rainfall and temperature. Other aspects such as depth of underground water, ph level of soil and the effects of land fragmentation also need to be looked at. This study is important to both farmers in choosing the right crop to plant, and policy makers and planners in formulating the best mitigation and intervention strategies for Kisii County food insecurity problem. This will further contribute to national efforts towards achievement of vision 2030.

Ultrasound, as mechanical waves with frequencies exceeding 20 thousand hertz, has found wide applications in medicine, physiotherapy, and more recently in agriculture. This study aimed to investigate the impact of ultrasound on potato yield and its parameters, particularly on seed potato yield, quantity, mass, and multiplication coefficient of potato tubers. The research was based on a three-year field experiment, utilizing the randomized block design in a split-split-plot arrangement, in the central-eastern region of Poland. The primary factor were technologies: a) technology with employing ultrasonic pre-planting treatment, b) traditional cultivation without this treatment. The secondary factors were potato varieties. Sonication of tubers was conducted using a bath-type ultrasonic device equipped with piezoe-lectric transducers. Results revealed a significant influence of cultivation technology, cultivar, and weather conditions on seed tubers yield, quantity, and multiplication coefficient of potato tubers. However, genetic traits of the examined varieties and random factors significantly affected the individual seed tuber mass and the number of shoots emerging from a single tuber. Future Outlook: Future research could focus on further optimizing ultrasound application techniques in potato cultivation, considering diverse varieties and environmental conditions. Additionally, it would be worthwhile to analyze the long-term effects of ultrasound on tuber seed potato quality and their ability to adapt to changing climatic and soil conditions. Furthermore, studies investi-gating the impact of ultrasound on other plant species could broaden our understanding of po-tential benefits in agriculture.

Sweden has long been hailed as a role model in climate policy. But the new right-wing government supported by a far-right populist party is undertaking a paradigm shift in Swedish climate policy and governance. This paper critically analyses this paradigm shift and its impacts on legitimacy, accountability and justice. These are democratic norms important in the analysis of a just transition to climate neutrality. Severe democratic deficits of the policy process and the policies proposed and adopted are identified, suggesting ‘nasty politics’ characterised by populist, divisive, and contentious rhetoric that entrenches polarization and us/them narratives. Climate scientists and the climate justice movement are discriminated in the policy process, the latter also being accused of terrorism and seen as a threat to democracy by the government. The deficits are partly explained by the neo-corporatist political system of Sweden and the dominance of the (neo)liberal discourse of ecological modernization in Swedish environmental policy, but primarily with the ongoing process of autocratization driven by anti-democratic far-right populist parties throughout Europe. The anti-democratic climate policy reforms in Sweden are foreboding an unwelcome development in the EU given the boost of far-right populist parties in the upcoming elections to the European Parliament in June 2024.

In order to better understand the extent to which global climate variability is linked to the frequency and intensity of heat waves and overall changes in temperature throughout the United States (US), correlations between long-term monthly mean, minimum, and maximum temperatures measured at sites throughout the contiguous US and low-frequency variability of multiple climate indices (CIs) are analyzed over the period 1948 to 2018 using correlation analysis. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient is used to assess correlation strength, while Leave-One-Out Cross-Validation and a bootstrapping technique (p-value) are used to address potential serial and spurious correlation and assess the significance of each correlation. Three parameters defined the sliding windows over which surface temperature and CI values were averaged: window size, lag time between the temperature and CI windows, and the beginning month of the temperature window. A 60-month sliding window size and 0 lag time resulted in the strongest correlations overall; beginning months were optimized on an individual site basis. Strong (r >= 0.60) and significant (p-value <= 0.05) correlations were identified. The Western Hemisphere Warm Pool (WHWP) and El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) exhibited the strongest links to temperatures in the western US, tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures to temperatures in the central US, the WHWP to temperatures throughout much of the eastern US, and atmospheric patterns over the northern Atlantic to temperatures in the Northeast and Southeast. The final results were compared to results from previous studies focused on precipitation and coastal sea levels. Regional consistency was found regarding links between the northern Atlantic and overall weather and coastal sea levels in the Northeast and Southeast as well as on weather in the upper Midwest. Though the MJO and WHWP revealed dominant links with precipitation and temperature, respectively, throughout the West, ENSO revealed consistent links to sea levels and surface temperatures along the West Coast. These results help focus future research regarding specific mechanisms of climate variability that appear the exhibit strong links to US regional weather and sea level variability and prediction.

This study contextualises the background of Japan’s “carbon neutrality and net-zero” (CNN) policy announced in October 2020, thereby identifying important changes in the country’s climate policy between 1990 and 2020. Using four research questions, four main findings were extracted from a narrative technique-based analysis of Japan’s policy documents related to CNN. The following are the findings: [i] the framing of climate change as a “climate crisis” by influential Japanese climate stakeholders was a key motivation for Japan to formally announce its CNN policy in October 2020, [ii] pressure from the international community and the political leadership of the Yoshihide Suga administration are essential factors that led the Japanese government to change its stance and announced this policy, [iii] Japan unintentionally delayed announcement of the policy until 2020 due to the concern among Japanese climate stakeholders about the problem of fairness in Kyoto Protocol’s emission reduction targets, and [iv] this delay was also due to Keidanren’s (or business sector) consistent opposition to the introduction of regulatory schemes. These results emerge for the first time in a study of Japan’s CNN politics, particularly in terms of the broader context of climate politics. Finally, we offer a possible explanation for Suga’s deliberate announcement of the CNN policy. This opens up space for future research to complement our study by providing important indicators on the trajectory of this important policy.

Landraces are considered a crucial component of biodiversity conservation, serving as a reservoir of genetic diversity. Consequently, the collection, cultivation and detailed characterization of such landraces constitute an inherent aspect of the world’s natural resource heritage. This effort holds promise for the development of elite varieties capable of thriving amidst continuous global climate fluctuations. In this context, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of the main agronomic attributes, physico-chemical properties, and functional quality traits of the major hot pepper landraces adapted to diverse climatic conditions in Tunisia. These landraces include ‘Dhirat’, ‘Semmane’, ‘Beldi’, ‘Nabeul’, ‘Jerid’, ‘Mahdia’, ‘Cayenne’, ‘Kairouan’ and ‘Baklouti’. Most of the pepper landraces exhibited satisfactory yields, ranging from 1163.25 to 1841.67 g plant-1 in ‘Jerid’ and ‘Kairouan’, respectively, indicating robust productivity, especially under prevailing climatic changes and high temperatures. Landraces such as ‘Baklouti’, ‘Beldi’, ‘Nabeul’, ‘Semmane’, ‘Kairouan’ and ‘Mahdia’ appear suitable for both fresh consumption and processing, owing to their favorable average fruit weight and soluble solids content. Functional quality and the levels of antioxidants, as well as radical scavenging activity, emerged as key discriminating factors among pepper landraces. Irrespective of genotype, capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin constituted the major capsaicinoids, accounting for at least 87% of the total. Total capsaicinoids ranged from 1.81 µg g−1 to 193.71 µg g−1, with ‘Baklouti’ and ‘Jerid’ identified as the most pungent landraces. Total carotenoids ranged from 45.94 µg g−1 to 174.52 µg g−1 with ‘Semmane and ‘Jerid’ exhibiting the highest levels. Considerable variation was observed in β-carotene content, spanning from 3% to 24% of the total carotenoids. α-Tocopherol content ranged from 19.03 µg g-1 fw in ‘Kair-ouan’ to 30.93 µg g-1 fw in ‘Beldi’, exerting a notable influence on the overall tocopherol content. Conversely, the other isomers were detected at very low concentrations. The total vitamin C content ranged from 132 mg 100g-1 fw in ‘Mahdia’ to 200 mg 100 g-1 fw in ‘Nabeul’, indicating relatively low genetic variability. However, large variability was detected in total phenolics content, ranging from 168.58 mg GAE kg-1 fw in ‘Beldi ‘to 302.98 mg GAE kg-1 fw in ‘Cayenne’. Among the pepper landraces tested, ‘Cayenne’ achieved the highest value of radical scavenging activity in both hydrophilic and lipophilic fractions (RSAHF and RSALF), with variations rang-ing from 59% to 120% for RSAHF and from 4% to 64% for RSALF. This study aims to: 1) preserve and enhance the value of local genetic resources, 2) identify desiderable traits for incorporation into breeding programs, and 3) develop high-quality, high-yielding cultivars capable of with-standing climate variations.

Sweden has long been hailed as a role model in climate policy. But the new right-wing government supported by a far-right populist party is undertaking a paradigm shift in Swedish climate policy and governance. This paper critically analyses this paradigm shift from perspectives of legitimacy, accountability and justice. These are democratic norms important in the analysis of a just transition to climate neutrality. Severe democratic deficits of the policy process and the policies proposed and adopted are identified. The deficits are explained by the neo-corporatist political system of Sweden, the dominance of the (neo)liberal discourse of ecological modernization in Swedish environmental policy, and an ongoing process of autocratization driven by anti-democratic far-right populist parties throughout Europe. The paper ends by suggesting how climate policy and governance can be democratized and re-politicized, that also give room for climate justice advocates to take part in policy processes.

Spatial planning holds a key role in preventing or mitigating the impacts of climate change on both cities and rural areas, taking a forward-thinking and holistic approach to urban and regional development. As such, spatial planning deals with challenges occurring at different scales and across sectors. The international literature points out the need for horizontal and vertical cooperation to tackle climate change impacts. While there is abundant knowledge regarding the challenges related to climate change at different spatial levels, procedural integration into planning frameworks and practice is currently under-researched. This paper presents a novel theoretical framework that integrates various steps towards a holistic, integrative and adaptive climate proofing process. An iterative process was used for conceptual development, based on literature review followed by external feedback meetings and two workshops with the core team of planning experts responsible for exchange across federal states. By specifically addressing the challenges relating to cross-regional and cross-sectoral planning, this novel framework attempts to (i) facilitate a hierarchy of measures, (ii) maximise co-benefits for various adaptation purposes and climate change mitigation and (iii) foster the long-term institutionalisation of integrative processes across sectors, planning areas and policy levels.

Severe seasonal droughts driven by global climate change significantly alter the cycling of carbon and nutrients in forest ecosystems through disturbing plant physiology and phenology, soil physicochemical properties, and soil microbial activity. While, the investigation into the impacts of floor mass and plant roots on soil microbial biomass within the context of recurrent seasonal droughts is still rare. To investigate the environmental determinants governing soil microbial biomass with the escalating severity of seasonal droughts, we conducted a study on soil microbial biomass in a comprehensive block experiment, which was manipulated to explore the interplay between floor mass and plant roots contributions, crossed with a factorial irrigation treatment, in a montane subtropical moist evergreen broad–leaved forest of southwestern China. Within control and watered plots, we respectively established four experimental subplots with plant roots and floor mass included (R+F+), plant roots included but floor mass excluded (R+F−), plant roots excluded but floor mass included (R−F+), and plant roots and floor mass excluded (R−F−) from June 2019 to May 2023. The study results revealed that soil microbial biomass as well as soil moisture, floor mass, and plant roots showed an apparent single–hump modal within one year. In the comparative analysis of soil microbial biomass fluctuation amplitudes across control and watered plots, a discernible disparity was observed, indicating that significant differences in microbial biomass dynamics between the respective experimental conditions. The pooled data revealed a statistically significant influence of seasonal drought, floor mass, plant roots, and their reciprocal interactions on the soil microbial biomass, highlighting these factors as pivotal determinants of microbial community dynamics. This study elucidates the interactive regulatory mechanisms by which seasonal drought, floor mass, and plant roots collectively modulate soil microbial biomass within tropical and subtropical forests, offering insights into the complex ecological processes governing microbial community dynamics. This interactive regulation might influence the trajectory of plant species and soil microbial communities, facilitating their adaptive development and evolutionary responses.

California has experienced a surge in wildfires, prompting research into contributing factors, including weather and climate conditions. This study investigates the complex, multiscale interactions between large-scale climate patterns, such as the Boreal Summer Intraseasonal Oscillation (BSISO), El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and their influence on moisture and temperature fluctuations, and wildfire dynamics in California. The combined impacts of PDO and BSISO on intraseasonal fire weather changes, the interplay between Fire Weather Index (FWI), relative humidity, vapor pressure deficit (VPD), and temperature in assessing wildfire risks, and geographical variations in the relationship between FWI and climatic factors within California are examined. The study employs a multi-pronged approach, analyzing wildfire frequency and burned areas alongside climate patterns and atmospheric conditions. Findings reveal significant variability in wildfire activity across different climate conditions, with heightened risks during specific BSISO phases, La-Niña, and cool PDO. The influence of BSISO varies depending on its interaction with PDO. Temperature, relative humidity, and VPD show strong predictive significance for wildfire risks, with significant relationships between FWI and temperature in elevated regions (correlation, r > 0.7, p ≤ 0.05) and FWI and relative humidity along the Sierra Nevada Mountains (r ≤ -0.7, p ≤ 0.05).

Land surface albedo determines the splitting of downwelling solar radiation into components which are either reflected back to the atmosphere or absorbed by the surface. Land surface albedo is an important variable for the climate community and therefore was defined by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) as an Essential Climate Variable (ECV). Within the scope of the Satellite Application Facility for Land Surface Analysis (LSA SAF) of EUMETSAT, a near-real time (NRT) daily albedo product was developed in the last decade from observations provided by the SEVIRI instrument on board the geostationary satellites of the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) series. In this study we present a new collection of albedo satellite products based on the same satellite data. The MSG Ten-day ALbedo (MTAL) product incorporates MSG observations over 31 days with a frequency of NRT production of 10 days. The MTAL collection is more dedicated to climate analysis studies compared to the daily albedo that was initially designed for the weather prediction community. For this reason, a homogeneous reprocessing of MTAL was done in 2018 to generate a Climate Data Record (CDR). The resulting product is called MTAL-R and has been made available to the community in addition to the NRT version of the MTAL product which has been available for several years. The retrieval algorithm behind the MTAL products comprises three distinct modules: one for atmospheric correction, one for daily inversion of a semi-empirical model of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function, and one for monthly composition that also determines surface albedo values. In this study the MTAL-R CDR is compared to ground surface measurements and concomitant albedo products collected by sensors on-board polar-orbiting satellites (SPOT-VGT and MODIS). We show that MTAL-R meets the quality requirements if MODIS or SPOT-VGT are considered as reference. This work leads to 14 years of production of geostationary land surface albedo products with a guaranteed continuity in the LSA SAF for the future years with the forthcoming third generation of European geostationary satellites.

Concerns of food and environmental security have increased enormously in recent years due to the vagaries of climate change and variability. Efforts to promote food security and environmental sustainability often reinforce each other and enable farmers to adapt to and mitigate the impact of climate change and other stresses. Some of these efforts are based on appropriate technologies and practices that restore natural ecosystems and improve the resilience of farming systems, thus enhancing food security. Climate smart agriculture (CSA) principles, for example, translate into a number of locally-devised and applied practices that work simultaneously through contextualised crop-soil-water-nutrient-pest-ecosystem management at a variety of scales. The purpose of this paper is to review concisely the current state-of-the-art literature and ascertain the potential of the Pfumvudza concept to enhance household food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation as it is promoted in Zimbabwe. The study relied heavily on data from print and electronic media. Datasets pertaining to carbon, nitrous oxide and methane storage in soils and crop yield under zero tillage and conventional tillage were compiled. Findings show that, compared to conventional farming, Pfumvudza has great potential to contribute towards household food security and reducing carbon emissions if implemented following the stipulated recommendations. These include among others, adequate land preparation and timely planting and acquiring inputs. However, nitrous oxide emissions tend to increase with reduced tillage and, the use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides is environmentally unfriendly.

Urban heat islands and rising global temperatures are increasing the need for passive cooling solutions in densely populated areas. This study examines the effectiveness of heat-reflective paint in reducing surface and indoor temperatures in a 33-year-old apartment complex in Gumi City, South Korea. Using mock structures to simulate real building conditions, the experiment measured surface and indoor temperatures in both treated and untreated groups. Data collected from thermal imaging cameras and data loggers demonstrated significant temperature reductions on the treated walls, with surface temperatures lowering by 2.2°C to 4.3°C on average, and peak reductions of up to 15.3°C. Internally, the treated structures showed temperature reductions between 2.1°C and 4.1°C, with the largest difference observed during peak heat hours at 4.14°C. The results highlight the effectiveness of heat-reflective paint in mitigating heat stress and improving indoor thermal comfort, particularly in regions with high solar exposure. Importantly, this study aims to benefit vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and economically disadvantaged residents, by providing a cost-effective, sustainable solution to reduce heat exposure in aging urban buildings, thereby enhancing their quality of life.

The influence of climate conditions and stable design on horses housed in single stalls can have significant effects, especially in regions with tropical savannah climates. A recent study observed variations in autonomic responses in horses housed in different stable designs during the summer, but there is limited information about their conditions during the monsoon. This study investigated the stable microenvironment and autonomic regulation of horses housed in different stable archi-tectures during the monsoon in a tropical savannah environment. Twenty-two horses were allo-cated to one of three stable architectures, each with varying stable microenvironments. The findings reveal that the heart rate variability (HRV) was lower in horses in a stable with a solid external wall and lower volume-to-horse ratio compared to those in a stable with a solid external wall but a higher volume-to-horse ratio or one without a solid external wall. Additionally, the study found that stable microenvironments and HRV modulation were correlated with stable architecture. Autonomic responses differed among horses in different stable architectures, indicating that stable microen-vironments and, to some extent, volume-to-horse ratio play a role in horses’ autonomic regulation. The findings have implications for improvements in housing and welfare in tropical savannah environments.

Telecoupling, interactions between social-ecological systems across large, often global, distances, drives negative impacts from the forest-based carbon market. Yet, these negative impacts have been underreported; and therefore, likely vastly underestimated. We identify how these unintended negative impacts may occur and provide recommendations for the forest-based carbon market to better account for externalities by prioritising positive social impact, expanding comprehensive ecological outcomes and improving transparency of investments. We call for a carbon market that is designed to account for its global interconnectedness.

This experiment aimed to determine the temperature limits beyond which seahorse growth and reproduction become suboptimal due to climate change. Four temperatures (16, 20, 24, and 28°C) were tested to evaluate their effect on juvenile (1-56 days post-parturition (DPP)) and adult (one year old) seahorses. Additionally, the reproductive performance of adults was observed. Another experiment measured oxygen consumption (MO2) in the same age groups and temperatures. Adults showed significantly higher growth rates at 20 and 24°C compared to 16 and 28°C. Adult mortality rates were 0%, 0%, 6.2%, and 62.5% at the respective temperatures. Juvenile growth performance was higher at 20°C and 24°C but significantly lower at 16°C, with survival rates of 8%, 62%, 10%, and 0%, respectively. Oxygen consumption increased with age and temperature, ranging from 106.3±3.1 to 203.3±3.1 μmol O2/g BW/h at 16°C, and from 128.8±3.8 to 273.3±3.1 μmol O2/g BW/h at 28°C. The study highlights that juvenile and adult H. guttulatus have narrow thermal boundaries, beyond which reproduction, growth, and survival are seriously affected. Under climate change, the species appears unable to cope, potentially leading to their rapid disappearance.

Africa was the only continent not to achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goal of 50% poverty reduction. This paper asks whether Africa will fare better in meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) addressing poverty and hunger by 2030. To answer this question we examine literature, including our field research published over the last thirteen years. We find that ‘sustainable development’ is a failed concept immersed in the contemporary global economic system that favors growth over ecosystem stability and patriarchal systems of governance that undervalue women’s capacity for sustainability in their care-work as food providers. We examine barriers to women’s farming (climate change, gender bias, limited access to land, technology, finance) and provide examples of women’s innovative strategies for overcoming these barriers in their care practices toward family and community well-being and ecosystem health. We conclude that sustainability is only possible through transformation of thinking away from approaches that value profit over people and ecosystems and toward gender-based approaches for achieving the goals laid out in the SDGs through holistic, integrative systems of ecosystem fit.

With the rising trends in elderly populations around the world, there is a growing interest in understanding how climate sensitivity is related to their thermal perception. Therefore, we analyzed the associations between mortality in the elderly due to cardiovascular (CVD) and respiratory diseases (RD) and meteorological variables, for three cities in the State of São Paulo, Brazil: Campos do Jordão, Ribeirão Preto and Santos, from 1996 to 2017. We applied the Autoregressive Model Integrated with Moving Average (ARIMA) and the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in order to evaluate statistical associations. Results showed CVD as a major cause of mortality, particularly in the cold period, when a high mortality rate is also observed due to RD. The mortality rate was higher in Campos do Jordão and lower in Santos (and intermediate values in Ribeirão Preto). Campos do Jordão results indicate an increased probability of mortality from CVD and RD due to lower temperatures. In Ribeirão Preto, the lower relative humidity may be related to the increase in CVD and RD deaths. This study emphasizes that, even among subtropical climates, there are significant differences. Therefore, this can assist decision makers in the implementation of mitigating and adaptive measures.

The impact of climate extremes on the society has been of great concern to environmental scientist and policy makers. The destructive consequence attributed to natural hazards associated with climates extremes has been estimated to billions of dollars across the globe. To carry out a robust and effective researches that help to minimize or prevent the loss, detailed datasets of the past, present and future are needed. This will help to give an accurate prediction and early warning which is necessary for the policy making.

Air pollution, climate change and global warming show direct linkage. Introduction - Background: Research in the field has proposed and demonstrated their link to increased allergenicity in plants, leading to increased allergic diseases. Allergen patterns are changing in response to climate change. Across Europe, up to 12% of the population suffers from allergic diseases (bronchial asthma and allergic rhinitis) caused by the pollen grains. The medical costs of these types of allergies are enormous and are increasing with the spread of common ragweed - Ambrosia artemisiifolia* in Europe. In practice, more and more patients are turning to allergists. Methods: Based on these data, the research aims to identify safety measures and specific legislation to control and eradicate common ragweed in the countries most affected by the spread of this plant in Europe, increase in population exposure in countries affected by the presence of common ragweed and the socio-economic impact of allergic rhinitis and bronchial asthma at European level.[1][2] Our database search did not reveal any other research that has addressed this topic to date. Results: This research identifies specific legislation to the countries most affected by the spread of this plant pollen grains at European level, changes in allergen patterns and monitoring/safety eradication measures decided by local authorities, and data on the spread of common ragweed over the last two decades, costs per treatment, increased allergic rhinitis and bronchial asthma morbidity in the most affected areas. Conclusions: At European level, there are no universally valid models for eradicating this weed. Various methods can be used to limit the spread of common ragweed and its pollen production (e.g. mowing once or twice a year of overgrown land, ploughing, chemical control, public information, etc.). Local and regional cooperation should be considered essential to promote phytosanitary & safety measures and exchange of information on methods to identify and manage the spread of common ragweed. Unified legislation at European level would help all affected countries; reduce morbidity from respiratory allergic diseases and the costs of treating these diseases.

Primary themes in intergenerational justice are a healthy environment, the perpetuation of Earth’s biodiversity, and the sustainable management of the biosphere. However, the current rate of species declines globally, ecosystem collapses driven by accelerating and catastrophic global heating and a plethora of other threats, preclude the ability of habitat protection alone to prevent a cascade of amphibian and other species mass extinctions. Reproduction biotechnologies, biobanking, and conservation breeding programs (RBCs), enabling species restoration, offer a critical transformative change that can economically and reliably perpetuate species irrespective of environmental targets. These capacities extend indefinitely into the future and satisfy humanities needs as the biosphere expands into space. Currently applied RBCs include the hormonal stimulation of reproduction, the collection and refrigerated storage of sperm and oocytes, sperm cryopreservation, in vitro fertilisation, along biobanking. Advanced biotechnologies such as assisted evolution and cloning for species adaptation or restoration have yet to be fully realised. We broaden our discussion to include genetic management, broad political and cultural engagement, and future applications. The development and application of RBCs, and particularly assisted evolution and species restoration, raise intriguing ethical, theological, and philosophical issues. We address these themes with amphibian models to introduce the MDPI Special Issue, The Sixth Mass Extinction and Species Sustainability through Reproduction Biotechnologies, Biobanking, and Conservation Breeding Programs.

In Eucalyptus plantations, coppice rotations often yield less than initial rotations. The TECHS project (Tolerance of Eucalyptus Clones to Hydric, Thermal and Biotic Stresses) studied short rotation coppicing across a 3,000 km gradient. The main objective of this work was to compare the survival, sprouting and initial growth of Eucalyptus clones managed, and to examine factors that might influence the productivity of the coppice rotation: climate, genotypes and stocking. Eight of the TECHS sites spread from latitudes 6o S to 30o S were included in the coppice study, with 17 genotypes at each site. The initial rotation had been planted at a 3 x 3 m spacing, and also in a spacing trial at densities from 450 to 14,000 trees ha-1. Six months after harvesting the initial Eucalyptus rotation, average survival was 88%, with tropical clones showing over twice the sprouting biomass (6.7 vs 2.9 Mg ha-1) and four times the woody biomass compared to subtropical clones (4.7 vs 1.1 Mg ha-1). Greater initial water deficits had stronger sprouting and growth. Clones with higher belowground carbon allocation in the initial rotation performed better in coppicing, and precipitation became more influential after 12 months. Drought and spacing trial significantly affected growth.

Organizational climate is the ascribed psychological meanings and significance associated with the procedures, policies and practices that are recognized and rewarded in the workplace, and hence mediates the effects of environmental stimuli on individuals’ response. Safety climate is a specific organizational climate, i.e., organizational climate for safety. Previous research claimed that organizational climate provides foundation for safety climate, but without elaboration on the foundational mechanisms. This paper attempts to fill up this knowledge gap. As organizational climate is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, this paper chooses two dimensions, i.e., perceived organizational support (POS) and participative decision-making (PaDM), for illustrative purposes. Drawing on an interactive approach to forming climate perceptions, this paper introduces two interactive constructs, i.e., leader-member exchange (LMX) and team member exchange (TMX), and establishes a multiple mediation model depicting the foundational effect of organizational climate on safety climate. A random sample of Hong Kong based construction personnel is used to validate the model. The results show that both POS and PaDM are positively associated with perceived safety climate, both LMX and TMX fully mediate the effect of PaDM on safety climate, and only LMX partially mediates the effect of POS on safety climate. This study sheds light on the foundational effects of organizational climate on safety climate. POS can improve the quality of reciprocal exchange about safety matters between construction personnel and their supervisors, and hence raise construction personnel’s awareness of the priority of safety. PaDM can improve the quality of reciprocal exchange about safety matters vertically and horizontally, and hence have construction personnel aware the importance of safety. In practice, this paper suggests that project managers timely recognize and reward construction personnel’s contribution, genuinely cares about their well-being, and take their suggestions seriously in making decisions. In this way, the quality of both vertical and horizontal exchange about safety matters improves, and a sound and positive safety climate ensues.

Globally, the intensity and irregularity of weather and climate extremes are increasing due to climate change. In Ethiopia, the occurrence of extreme events has been increasing, reporting severe impacts on environment which led to losses of lives and livelihood of societies. In this study, Heat Wave Magnitude Index daily (HWMId) was used to analysis heat wave magnitude in the Middle Awash Basin of Ethiopia. Gauge data obtained from Ethiopian Meteorological Institution (EMI) for 1981-2022 period and the future projection was taken from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) under two socioeconomic pathways (SSP 2 and SSP 5) scenarios. The findings clearly showed that the area aggregated annual temperature anomaly increasing each year, 2015 was one of the warmest year on record with an anomaly of +1.8 °C. Severe to extreme heat wave recorded particularly during the last 10 years. For the future projection, under SSP 2-4.5 forcing scenario, the annual average air temperature projected to be warmer, which increasing 1.7 ℃ to 1.8 ℃ during mid-century and 2.3 ℃ to 2.4 ℃ end of century. Meanwhile, for SSP 5-8.5 forcing, the projection indicated an increment of 2.2 ℃ to 2.5 ℃ under mid-century and 4.4 ℃ to 4.8 ℃ end of century. Concerning the severity of heat wave, extreme to very extreme heat wave projected under SSP 2-4.5 forcing scenario and supper extreme heat wave projected under SSP 5-8.5 forcing scenario, respectively. The increase in extreme events may have a negative impact on health, water availability and food security. Therefore, the result of this study are essential for making wise decisions and for developing suitable strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation that could minimize the risk of unusually extreme weather events.

The representation of aerosols in climate-chemistry models is important for air quality and climate change research, but it can require significant computational resources. To overcome this, simpler modules such as modal aerosol modules with three lognormal modes (MAM3) can be used. In this study, the coupling of the Carbon Bond Mechanism, version Z (CBMZ), and MAM3 chemistry modules in WRF-CAM5 was improved by adding biomass-burning emissions to both gas- and particle-phase chemistry and incorporating a conversion mechanism between volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and secondary organic carbons (SOCs). The study conducted six simulations over the western U.S. and northeastern Pacific region and compared the model’s performance with observational benchmarks such as reanalysis, ground-based, and satellite data. The results showed that the model with enhanced chemistry capabilities had a 31% and 58% reduction in root-mean-square errors (RMSE) for black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC) surface concentrations, respectively. The earlier release of the WRF-CAM5 version had two deficiencies that were addressed in this study. This research highlights the importance of accurate aerosol representation in climate-chemistry models for improving accuracy and reducing errors in simulations.

This study uses simulation and experimental methodologies to explore the efficacy of bi-sectional horizontal kinetic shading systems (KSS) featuring horizontal fins in enhancing daylight comfort across various climates. Given the increasing energy demands and shifting climatic patterns, optimizing daylight levels while minimizing solar heat gain is vital. The paper introduces a bespoke horizontal bi-sectional KSS, simulated in three distinct climates—Wroclaw, Tehran, and Bangkok—using Climate Based Daylight Modelling methods with Ladybug and Honeybee tools in Rhino software. The study employs standard daylight metrics such as Useful Daylight Illuminance (UDI) and Daylight Glare Probability (DGP), along with custom metrics designed to capture the specific dynamics of the bi-sectional KSS. Initial simulations indicated that the KSS significantly improved daylight distribution and uniformity, reducing glare and over-illumination risks by av. 42.34%. Including KSS switching schedules, which are seldom detailed in similar research, enhances the reproducibility and understanding of findings. Subsequently, a physical reduced-scale mock-up of the bi-sectional KSS was tested under real-weather conditions in Wroclaw (lat. 51° N) during June-July 2024. The mock-up utilized two chambers: one equipped with the prototype of bi-sectional KSS and the second without any protection. The operation of fins was guided by two stepper motors controlled by a Python script running on a Raspberry Pi 3 minicomputer. The control chamber served to benchmark the bi-sectional KSS's efficiency by providing results that would be expected if no shading system were installed. The experimental outcomes supported the simulations, demonstrating the KSS's robustness in reducing high illuminance levels to the target comfort level, thus enhancing indoor visual comfort. The values below 3,000 lux were maintained for 68% of the time. However, it must be explicitly stated that during the June-July 2024 heat waves, the illuminance levels inside the test room momentarily exceeded the comfort threshold of 3,000 lux, reaching up to 4,674 lux. Through quantitative and qualitative analyses, the paper advocates for the broader application and further development of KSS as a climate-responsive shading system in diverse architectural contexts.

This manuscript describes the construction and validation of high resolution daily gridded (0.05° × 0.05°) rainfall and maximum and minimum temperature data for Bangladesh : the Enhancing National Climate Services for Bangladesh Meteorological Department (ENACTS-BMD) dataset. The dataset was generated by merging data from weather stations, satellite products (for rainfall) and reanalysis (for temperature). ENACTS-BMD is the first high-resolution gridded surface meteorological dataset developed specifically for studies of surface climate processes in Bangladesh. Its record begins in January 1981 and is updated in real-time monthly and outputs have daily, decadal and monthly time resolution. The Climate Data Tools (CDT), developed by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), Columbia University, is used to generate the dataset. This data processing includes the collection of weather and gridded data, quality control of stations data, downscaling of the reanalysis for temperature, bias correction of both satellite rainfall and downscaled reanalysis of temperature, and the combination of station and bias-corrected gridded data. The ENACTS-BMD dataset is available as an open-access product at BMD’s official website, allowing the enhancement of the provision of services, overcoming the challenges of data quality, availability, and access, promoting at the same time the engagement and use by stakeholders.

This study investigates the mean annual water temperature trends at the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers, along with air temperature trends at the Belgrade meteorological station, spanning from 1956 to 2020. Results reveal a consistent increase in temperature across all three measuring stations, with the Danube experiencing a rise of 0.34°C/10 years, the Sava at 0.44°C/10 years, and Belgrade's air temperature increasing by 0.39°C/10 years. Employing the RAPS method, sharp rises in water temperature were pinpointed in 1989 for the Sava and 1990 for the Danube, while Belgrade's air temperature surge began in 1998. The highest intensity of air temperature increase within the recent period (1998-2020) was observed at the Belgrade observatory, reaching 0.76°C/10 years. Notably, the Sava exhibited a faster increase in water temperature over the last thirty years compared to the Danube. August marked the peak average water temperature for both rivers, while July recorded the highest average air temperature in Belgrade. Despite differing flow rates, both rivers exhibit similar hydrological regimes, with maximum flows occurring in April and minimum flows in August for the Sava, and October for the Danube. Seasonal temperature increases were most pronounced in summer, notably in August, with the smallest rises occurring during cold periods. Additionally, an inverse proportional relationship between mean annual water temperatures and discharges was observed at both river stations.

Salt marshes in the southern North Sea are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Wadden Sea, the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats in the world. They provide a very high nature value while significantly contributing to coastal flood and erosion risk management as a nature-based element of flood and erosion risk management systems for the densely populated coastal area. Climate change-induced sea-level rise is a significant concern: An integrated approach to salt marsh management adapted to the effects of climate change necessitates a understanding of the impact of different management strategies. This review commences with a description of the biogeomorphological conditions and processes in salt marshes for a better understanding of the natural dynamics and how they are influenced by management and climate change. In a second step, the impact of salt marshes on hydrodynamic processes and their role as nature-based element of flood and erosion risk management is presented. Management options and implementation methods are discussed and analysed concerning coastal flood management and nature conservation requirements. In conclusion, a targeted salt marsh management needs to consider the initial conditions and the development aims of the specific site integrated in a conceptual framework. Salt marshes have the potential to adapt to sea-level rise, thereby contributing to the long-term protection of coastal areas.

The intricate relationship between physical and social environments within organizations plays a pivotal role in shaping sustainable innovation endeavors. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of two key dynamics that have garnered substantial scholarly attention for promoting sustainable innovation: the physical environment and the organizational climate. To elucidate the intricate interplay between these dynamics, we propose a novel three-dimensional framework that guides the modeling of the intricate processes through which the physical environment and innovation climate synergistically influence innovation outcomes. Building on this framework, we delve into an in-depth literature review concerning physical environments that exert a significant impact on innovation. Through this review, we identify and elaborate on four pivotal elements of the physical environment: communality, personalization, comfort, and healthiness. Leveraging insights gleaned from this review, we outline two promising avenues for future research in the realm of the physical environment's interaction with the innovation climate. Furthermore, we underscore the critical importance of adopting an interdisciplinary approach that seamlessly integrates insights from both the physical and social domains to comprehensively understand the sustainable innovation landscape.

This paper proposes a method to utilize weather and land cover models to generate future environmental scenarios, and presents the watershed models to simulate the hydrological impact on watershed-scale hydrology. The Weather Generator model and General Circulation Model were applied to produce rainfall and local temperature under different climate conditions, and the Conservation and Land Use and its Effects model was incorporated to simulate future land cover variability. The circumstances of future climate and land cover changes were used as inputs to drive the HEC-HMS rainfall runoff model for obtaining surface runoff in a mountainous area. The WASH123D model was then utilized for the entire watershed simulation. Modeling results were then examined to discuss hydrological impacts on three different time periods: near future (2020-2039), future (2050-2069), and distant future (2080-2099). The Fengshan Creek basin in northern Taiwan was selected as study site. Simulations results indicated that the influence of climate change revealed more relevant effects when compared to local land cover changes. The ground water levels tended to diminish as the land cover area changed. In addition, both river and groundwater levels reveal that it is drier in dry season and wetter in wet season in future.

Countless disasters have resulted from climate change, causing severe damage to infrastructure and the economy. These disasters have significant societal impacts, necessitating mental health services for the millions affected. To prepare for and respond effectively to such events, it is crucial to understand people's emotions and the life incidents they experience both before and after a disaster strikes. In this case study, we mined the emotions and life incidents expressed on Twitter during the 2017 Hurricane Harvey. Between August 20 and August 30, we collected a dataset of approximately 400,000 public tweets related to the storm. Using a BERT-based model, we predicted the emotions associated with each tweet. Following emotion prediction, we applied various natural language processing techniques to analyze the content of the tweets, aiming to uncover the 'topics' discussed alongside specific 'emotions.' To efficiently identify these topics, we utilized the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) technique for topic modeling, which allowed us to bypass manual content analysis and extract meaningful patterns from the data. However, rather than stopping at topic identification, we further refined our analysis by integrating Graph Neural Networks (GNN) and Large Language Models (LLM). The GNN was employed to generate embeddings and construct a similarity graph of the tweets, which was then used to optimize clustering. This step ensured that related tweets were accurately grouped together based on their content and context. Subsequently, we used an LLM to automatically generate descriptive names for each event cluster. This advanced approach allowed us to identify and label life incidents automatically, providing a nuanced understanding of the key issues faced by the community during the hurricane. The results revealed significant emotional shifts as the hurricane reached its most devastating phase. These shifts coincided with pressing concerns and demands from the population, such as evacuation plans, animal safety, safety updates, public policy, help requests, flood impacts, and the spread of fake news. By combining GNN and LLM for automatic event name prediction, our study not only mapped out the emotions but also accurately categorized the specific life incidents that were most relevant during the disaster, offering critical insights for disaster preparedness and response strategies.

The Canadian Prairies are associated with high natural hydroclimatic variability including the frequent periodic occurrence of droughts and pluvials. These extremes carry various risks in-cluding significant damage to the economy, environment and society. The well-documented level of damage necessitates further risk assessment and planned reductions to vulnerability, particu-larly in light of a warming climate. A logical starting point involves awareness and information about the changing characteristics of such climate extremes. We focus on the compound occurrence of droughts and pluvials as the risks from this type of event are magnified compared to the hy-droclimatic extremes in isolation. Also, research on compound droughts and pluvials is limited. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to synthesize recent literature concerning the risks of com-pound droughts and pluvials, including examples of past occurrences, with a focus on the Cana-dian Prairies. Since literature from the Prairies is limited, global work is also reviewed. Rela-tionships between drought and pluvials are characterized using the SPEI Global Monitor for the Prairies, emphasizing the recent past, and through synthesis from the Prairie literature. That re-search mostly considers drought and pluvials as separate events, but is integrated here to charac-terize the relationships of these extremes. Examples of periods of compound droughts and exces-sive rainfall provide insights into the regional hydroclimatic variability. Furthermore, most lit-erature on future projections strongly suggests that this variability is likely to increase, mainly driven by anthropogenic climate change. These findings suggest means of decreasing vulnerabil-ity and associated damages. Although the study area is the Canadian Prairies, the work is rele-vant to other regions that are becoming more vulnerable to increasing risks of and vulnerabilities to such compound extremes.

Background: The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is spreading globally at an accelerated rate. There is some previous evidence that weather may influence the incidence of COVID-19 infection. We assessed the role of meteorological factors including temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) considering the concentrations of two air pollutants, inhalable coarse particles (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in the incidence of COVID-19 infections in Finland, located in arctic-subarctic climatic zone. Methods: We retrieved daily counts of COVID-19 in Finland from Jan 1 to May 31, 2020, nationwide and separately for all 21 hospital districts across the country. The meteorological and air quality data were from the monitoring stations nearest to the central district hospital. A quasi-Poisson generalized additional model (GAM) was fitted to estimate the associations between district-specific meteorological factors and the daily counts of COVID-19 during the study period. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to test the robustness of the results. Results: The incidence rate of COVID-19 gradually increased until a peak around April 6 and then decreased. There were no associations between daily temperature and incidence rate of COVID-19. Daily average RH was negatively associated with daily incidence rate of COVID-19 in two hospital districts located inland. No such association was found nationwide. The sensitivity analyses indicate the results are robust. Conclusions: Weather conditions, such as air temperature and relative humidity, may not be important factors affecting the COVID-19 incidence in the arctic and subarctic winter and spring. More evidence is needed on the associations between weather and COVID-19 during different seasons.

The climate crisis is developing to a life-changing event on a global level. Health promotion with the aim to increase the health status of individuals, independent from the present health status has been developed on scientific basis at least for the last eight decades and follows. There are some basic principles, which are prerequisites for both, health promotion and climate protection. Those principles include (1) sustainability, (2) orientation on determinants, and (3) requirement of in-dividual as well as community approaches. People are generally aiming to protect their lifestyle habits (e.g. traveling, consumer habits) and personal properties (e.g. car, house) by easy solution with as little effort as possible, and this can affect both, health and climate. To reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and to protect our environment, changes towards a sustainable lifestyle have to be embed into everybody’s mind. Examples for domains, that need to be addressed in health promotion as well as in climate protection include education/ knowledge/ (health) literacy, physical activity, nutrition and dietary habits, mental health, and social capital. If health promo-tion fails to tackle those domains, this will continue to drive climate crisis. And climate change, in turn, will affect health. On the other hand, developing and promoting health resources in the domains mentioned could again help to mitigate the health-damaging effects of climate change.

Humans may be exposed to microbial pathogens at recreational beaches via environmental sources, such as water, sand, and aerosols. Although infectious disease risk from exposure to waterborne pathogens has been an active area of research for decades, sand is a relatively unexplored reservoir of pathogens and fecal indicator bacteria (FIB). Beach sand and water habitats provide unique advantages and challenges to pathogen introduction, growth, and persistence, as well as continuous exchange between habitats. Models of FIB and pathogen fate and transport in sandy beach habitats can help predict the risk of infectious disease from recreational water use, but filling knowledge gaps such as decay rates and potential for microbial growth in beach habitats is necessary for accurate modeling. Climatic variability, whether natural or anthropogenically-induced, adds complexity to predictive modeling, but may increase human exposure to waterborne pathogens via extreme weather events, warming of water bodies and sea level rise in many regions. The popularity of human recreational beach activities, combined with predicted climate change scenarios, could amplify the risk of human exposure to pathogens and related illnesses. Other global change trends such as increased population growth and urbanization are expected to exacerbate contamination events and the predicted impacts of increasing levels of waterborne pathogens on human health. Such changes will alter microbial population dynamics in beach habitats, and will consequently affect the assumptions and relationships used in population models and quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA). Here, we discuss the literature on microbial population and transport dynamics in sand-water continuum habitats at beaches, how these dynamics can be modeled, and how climate change and other anthropogenic influences (e.g., land use, urbanization) should be considered when using and developing more holistic, beachshed-based models.

Fracking in the UK has yet to reach full industrial development but it is still subject to significant opposition. This study uses Beck’s Risk Society theory and anti-politics to examine the views voiced by opponents to fracking in Yorkshire, England. A qualitative approach was used; local newspaper reports were evaluated alongside semi-structured interviews with protesters to provide a thematic analysis. Although there are signs of post-materialist concerns with the environment these issues did not dominate the discussion. Scientists were not held responsible for the risks involved in fracking. Instead economic greediness of politicians and austerity measures were perceived as putting the environment and people’s health at risk. Interviewees thought fossil fuel energy production was economically advantaged over more sustainable energy and jobs in the low carbon economy. Protesters’ trust in politicians had been eroded but faith in democracy remained. It is suggested a citizen-led deliberative approach to all the concerns raised, not simply those relating to scientific risk, might achieve some level of resolution over fracking in the UK.

Burnout is a factor that affects organizational performance. Researchers agree that the emotional stability provided by an ethical climate and adequate work autonomy often has a buffering effect on chronic stress. However, despite the abundant literature analyzing the relationship between work autonomy and burnout, whether work autonomy acts as a stress-reducing resource or a stress-increasing demand is not sufficiently well established. It is also unknown to what extent work autonomy contributes to explaining the relationship between ethical climate and burnout. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to examine the relationship between an ethical climate of principles and norms on burnout, using the moderating effect of work autonomy. A multivariate moderation analysis was used to address the issue. The sample consists of 448 employees in the Colombian electric sector. The results show that an ethical climate of principles and work autonomy relate positively to burnout. However, when a rule-demanding work environment is related to a high perception of work autonomy, the relationship with burnout syndrome changes from positive to negative. In conclusion, when employees have significant control over their usual tasks, they develop a behavior pattern that includes both the organization's internal standards and the principles that shape individual morale. In this case, employees are able to balance the workload with the high psychological demands of an ethical climate of principles, without it representing a disturbance to their emotional well-being.

Many pilot-based initiatives have been developed to promote awareness and use of climate information services among vulnerable smallholder farmers in Africa through million-dollar investments. However, despite their experimental nature, these pilot projects have been successful in raising participating farmers’ awareness and use of climate information services and they can inform transferrable good practices. Through a systematic literature review approach, this review sought to understand ways in which these past pilot projects have contributed to climate risk management in the context of smallholder farming and the factors that led to their success. Results showed that climate information services main contribution to climate risk management has been through facilitating farm level decision making. Factors that led to success of the pilots include: use of downscaled information; building institutional partnerships to add value to climate information; involving farmers through the co-designing and co-developing process; face-to-face way of communication; embedding pre-seasonal workshops in the activities of local institutions for sustainability; using diversity of communication channels to enhance reach among others. These factors can be borrowed as good practices to inform future efforts focused on increasing adoption of climate information services among a wider population beyond pilot project reach.

Drainage systems are usually dimensioned for design storms based on intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curves of extreme precipitation. For each location, different IDF curves are established based on local hydrological conditions. Recent research shows that these curves also vary with time, and should be updated with recent data. The purpose of this study is to evaluate IDF curves obtained from precipitation simulations from the Eta RCM, comparing them with IDF curves obtained from data of a rainfall station. Climate models can be a useful tool for assessing the impacts of climate changes on drainage systems, referring precipitation forecasts. In this study, the Eta RCM was forced by two global climate models: HadGEM2-ES and MIROC5. The bias of the precipitation data, generated by RCM models, was corrected using a Gamma distribution. The Juqueriquerê River Basin, in the cities of Caraguatatuba and São Sebastião, São Paulo State, Brazil, was chosen as a case study. The results show a good correlation between the IDF curves of simulated and observed rainfall for the control period (1960-2005), indicating the strong possibility of using the Eta RCM precipitation forecasts for 2007 - 2099 to establish future IDFs thereby, taking into account climate changes in urban drainage design.

Objectives: This study validated the Japanese version of O’Donovan et al.’s (2020) composite measure of psychological safety scale and examined the associations of psychological safety with mental health and job-related outcomes. Methods: Online surveys were administered twice to Japanese employees with teams of more than three members. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability was tested using Cronbach’s α and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). Structural validity was examined using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Convergent validity was tested. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between psychological safety and psychological distress, work engagement, job performance, and job satisfaction. Results: Two hundred healthcare workers and 200 non-healthcare workers were analyzed. The Cronbach’s alpha of the total score was 0.92 - 0.96 and ICC was 0.88 - 0.92. CFA demonstrated poor fit, and EFA yielded a two-factor structure, suggesting one factor combined with peers and team. The scale showed good convergent validity. The total score of the scale showed significant associations with all outcomes in adjusted model in all workers. Conclusions: The Japanese version of the measure of the psychological safety scale presented good reliability and validity. Psychological safety is important for employees’ mental health and performance.

Walnut trees are grown worldwide for their edible fruits of high nutritional value. To address climate change, researchers have studied walnut phenology to create cultivars adapted to warmer climates. The standardisation of walnut phenological observations is needed and the Biologische Bundesanstalt, Bundessortenamt und CHemische Industrie (BBCH) scale is the most accurate and internationally accepted for this purpose. Here, the principal growth stages (PGS) of Persian walnut (Juglans regia L.) are described using stages from a previously available alphanumerical scale. This standardised phenological scale describes Persian walnut growth from the dormant vegetative state through reproductive budding to senescence. This phenological scale is expected to increase the efficiency of walnut phenological monitoring. Fifty-seven stages were used to describe the life cycle of Persian walnut in this BBCH scale. Of these 57 stages, 3 stages are dedicated to seed germination (PGS-0), 4 stages to bud development (PGS-0), 7 stages to leaf development (PGS-1), 4 stages to stem elongation (PGS-3), 8 stages to inflorescence emergence (PGS-5), 5 stages to male flowering (PGS-6), 5 stages to female flowering (PGS-6), 5 stages to fruit development (PGS-7), 12 stages to fruit ripening (PGS-8) and 4 stages to leaf senescence (PGS-9).

In this study, we employ the GARCH-MIDAS (Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity variant of Mixed Data Sampling) model to explore the predictability of commodity return volatility in relation to US climate policy uncertainty (CPU). Our analysis utilizes the 20-day annualized realized commodity volatility returns of nine global commodities (Aluminium, Cocoa, Coffee, Copper, Cotton, Rice, Soybean, Sugar, and Wheat) to construct the GARCH-MIDAS model, with Climate Policy Uncertainty (CPU) serving as the predictive variable. The outcomes of our investigation reveal a consistently positive and statistically significant relationship between CPU and the selected commodities. This implies that CPU effectively serves as a robust predictor of volatility in commodity returns. The implications drawn from our results suggest that climate change policies play a pivotal role in influencing economic activities within the commodity market. This underscores the substantial impact of climate change considerations on investment decisions and further emphasizes the integral role of climate change in shaping economic choices.

As its capital, Jakarta plays a critical role in boosting Indonesia’s economic growth and setting the precedent for broader change outside of the city. One crucial avenue of inquiry to better understand, and prepare for, the future of a country so heavily impacted by disastrous weather events is understanding the effects of climate change through data. This study investigates meteorological data collected from 1996 to 2021 and compares the application of the SARIMA and the Holt-Winters methods to predict the future influence of climatic parameters on Jakarta’s weather. The performance of the SARIMA method is proven to provide better results than the Holt-Winter models and both methods showed the best performances when forecasting the humidity data. The results of the forecast are able to demonstrate the characteristic of the climate in Jakarta, with dry season ranging from May to October and wet season ranging from November to April.

Typhulaceae Jülich is one of the cold-adapted fungal families in basidiomycetes. Typhula (Pers.) Fr. and Pistillaria Fr. representing the family are distinguished from the morphology of a stipe to a hymenium (Fries 1821). The hymenium of Typhula is distinguishable from the stipe, but indistinguishable and consecutive in the genus Pistillaria. This taxonomic criterion is ambiguous, and consequently the opinion of Karsten (1882) has been widely accepted; I the genus Typhula, basidiomata develop from sclerotia, while basidiomata develop directly from substrata in the genus Pistillaris. But, Corner (1970) observed basidiomata of Pistillaria petasitis S. Imai in Hokkaido, Japan, from sclerotia. We collected irregular sclerotia of Typhula hyperborea H. Ekstr. from Upernavik, West Greenland. This specimen had a stipe-like structure on a Poaceae plant, and sclerotia developed on its tip. In August, P. petasitis in Hokkaido, Japan, formed basidiomata directly from substrates on the ground. Similar phenomena were found from other Typhula spp. in Japan. All of these fungi had the potential to produce sclerotia in culture, and as well as the capacity of mycelial growth at ambient air temperatures in each locality when samples were collected. These findings suggest that Typhula spp. developed basidiomata not only from the sclerotia dispersed by the basidiospores but also mycelia generated by the spore germination formed basidiomata multiple times depending on their growth environments.

The Greenland ice sheet is a major contributor to sea level rise, adding an estimated 0.47 +/− 0.23 mm/yr to global mean sea level between 1991 and 2015 (van den Broeke et al., 2016). Making sea level rise projections for the future and understanding the processes controlling current observed rates of sea level rise are crucially dependent on understanding the present-day state of the ice sheet. Here, we provide an overview of the current state of the mass budget of Greenland based on satellite gravimetry and remote sensing observations of surface elevation change, ice sheet velocity and calving front positions. We also combine these essential climate variables with a regional climate model (RCM) output from an ice sheet model (ISM) to gain insight into poorly understood ice sheet dynamical and surface mass processes. On average from 1992 to 2017 the ice sheet in some locations has lost up −2.65 m/yr in elevation based on ESA Radar altimetry analysis. Calving fronts have retreated all around Greenland since the 1990s and in only two out of 28 study locations have they remained stable. The locations of grounding lines at 5 key glaciers with floating ice tongues have remained stable over the observation period. However a detailed case study at Petermann glacier with an ice fracture model shows the sensitivity of these floating ice shelves to future climate change. GRACE gravimetric mass balance (GMB) data allows us to tie together disparate lines of evidence showing that Greenland has lost about 265 +/− 25 Gt/yr of ice over the period 2002 to 2015. RCM and ISM simulations show that surface mass processes dominate the overall Greenland ice sheet mass budget except for areas of fast ice sheet flow but marked differences between models and between models and observations indicate that not all processes are captured accurately, indicating areas of greater uncertainty and directions of future research for future sea level rise projections.

This study examines the improvement in coupled intercomparison project phase six (CMIP6) models against the predecessor CMIP5 in simulating mean and extreme precipitation over the East Africa region. The study compares the climatology of the precipitation indices simulated by the CMIP models with the CHIRPS dataset using robust statistical techniques for 1981 – 2005. The results display the varying performance of the general circulation models (GCMs) in the simulation of annual and seasonal precipitation climatology over the study domain. CMIP6-MME shows improved performance in the local annual mean cycle simulation with a better representation of two peaks, especially the MAM rainfall relative to its predecessor. Moreover, simulation of extreme indices is well captured in CMIP6 models relative to its predecessor. The CMIP6-MME performed better than the CMIP5-MME with lesser biases in simulating SDII, CDD, and R20mm over East Africa. Remarkably, most CMIP6 models are unable to simulate extremely wet days (R95p). A few CMIP6 models (e.g., NorESM2-MM and CNRM-CM6-1) depicts robust performance in reproducing the observed indices across all analyses. Conversely, OND season shows the overestimation of some indices (i.e., R95p, PRCPTOT), except for SDII, CDD, and R20mm. Consistent with other studies, the mean ensemble performance for both CMIP5/6 shows better performance due to the cancellation of some systematic errors in the individual models. Generally, the CMIP6 depicts improved performance in the simulation of MAM season akin CMIP5 models. However, the new model generation is still marred with uncertainty, thereby depicting substandard performance over the East Africa domain. This calls for further investigation of attribution studies into the sources of persistent systematic biases and a prerequisite for identifying individual models with robust features that can accurately simulate observed patterns for future usage.

The study combines two critical aspects of climate research in Nigeria. The first segment focuses on improving predictive performance of global circulation models (GCMs) employing ensemble techniques. ANN ensemble displayed significant improvement in the accuracy of climate projections, particularly in high-altitude geographic areas where traditional models exhibit limitations. Performance evaluation metrics such as Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), and Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) demonstrate the effectiveness of the ANN multimodal ensemble. Building on the improved climate modelling, the second segment delves into a spatial and temporal analysis of rainfall and mean temperature patterns under climate change in Nigeria. By considering two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), namely RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, the study utilizes dynamically downscaled GCMs obtained from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5). The Mann-Kendall test reveals significant spatiotemporal variations in climate trends across the country. The warming trend is particularly pronounced in the northern regions, with RCP8.5 showing more severe impacts compared to RCP4.5. This integrated approach not only highlights the importance of multimodal ensembles in climate modelling but also provides valuable insights into the spatial and temporal patterns of climate change to inform effective adaptation and mitigation strategies for Nigeria.

Cities exemplify the evolving world with changing demographics and climates. Urban green spaces play a crucial role in improving the quality of life of people through their potential to mitigate temperatures. Therefore, comprehending their impact is of para-mount interest. Given the challenges in obtaining temperature data from urban locations, this study develops Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to predict daily and hourly temperatures in Valladolid, Spain, with a particular focus on urban allotment gardens and a forested urban park. ANNs were built and evaluated from various combinations of inputs (X), hidden neurons (Y) and outputs (Z) under the practical rule of "making net-works simple, to obtain better results". The best performing model was 6-Y-1 ANN archi-tecture with an impressive result of Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) = 0.42°C in the urban garden called Valle de Arán. However, other five ANN architectures were also tested (7-Y-5; 6-Y-5; 7-Y-1; 3-Y-Z and 2-Y-1). ANNs dedicated to urban temperature analysis hold immense potential for urban planning and research, aiding in under-standing the urban climate, forecasting future temperatures, identifying temperature mitigation strategies and even for managing urban crops

The national study analyzes sea level rise (SLR) impacts based on 36 different SLR and storm surge scenarios across 5.7 million geographic locations and 3 time periods. Taking an approach based on engineering design guidelines and current cost estimates, the study details projected cost impacts for states, counties, and cities. These impacts are presented from multiple perspectives including total cost, cost per-capita, and cost per-square mile. The purpose of the study is to identify specific locations where infrastructure is vulnerable to rising sea levels. The study finds that Sea Level Rise (SLR) and minimal storm surge is a $400 billion threat to the United States by 2040 that includes a need for at least 50,000 miles of protective barriers. The research is limited in its scope to protecting coastal infrastructure with sea walls. Additional methods exist and may be appropriate in individual situations. The study is original in that it is a national effort to identify infrastructure that is vulnerable as well as the cost associated with protecting this infrastructure.

This research concerns in to understand the link between urban heat and cool island, the Local Climatic Zones (LCZ) and atmospheric systems during the winter season in the city of Balneário Camboriú, Southern Brazil. To collect meteorological data on urban environmental, 11 permanent points in the Balneário Camboriú metropolitan region were installed. To understand the atmos-pheric systems operating in the region, a synoptic analysis of the dates was performed, and then, the LCZs map created for the city in World Urban Database and Acess Portal Tools was used to cor-relate the magnitudes of the heat and cool islands found in Balneário Camboriú in the winter period. The results indicate that the increasing verticalization with the construction of skyscrapers in Balneário Camboriú has a significant influence on local conditions for the occurrence of heat and cold islands. The findings indicate that LCZs with sparsely distributed buildings (LCZs 6, 8 and 9) and LCZs with dense vegetation (LCZ A) have lower intensity magnitudes of heat and cool con-ditions. The biggest magnitudes of heat and cool islands were reported in LCZs 1 and 3 during the timeframe. The synoptic analysis supports earlier researches that points to atmospheric stability (Anticyclonic domain) as a favorable atmospheric setting for the emergence of urban hear and coolness islands.

The thermal conditions of transitional (ranging from warm to cold) coldwater streams impact the ranges and resource availabilities for biota inhabiting these lotic systems. With ongoing climate change and increasing land modifications, thermal boundaries may shift, altering thermal transition zones and their biotic communities. The objective of this study was to investigate the condition of trout across three forks of the Whitewater River catchment and to investigate factors influencing fish community composition and distribution. Each fork was characterized into three separate sections: headwater (coolwater), middle (warmwater), and lower (coldwater). Springs were identified throughout each fork, with greatest concentrations in the lower sections of each fork. Using single-pass electrofishing, we sampled 61 sites across the three forks in the Whitewater River system (North = 21 sites, Middle = 19, South = 21), and catch statistics were used to calculate diversity, trout abundance, and trout condition. In general, diversity increased, and trout were healthier but less abundant in middle and headwater sections, whereas diversity decreased slightly, trout condition decreased, and trout abundance increased in lower reaches, with changes differing somewhat among forks. Canonical correlation analysis had strong significant correlations showing simpson diversity and condition increase going upstream with high non trout abundance and catch rates while trout catch rates and reach width decrease. The Whitewater River is a catchment exhibiting transitional temperature-pattern characteristics with generally low fish community diversity and trout conditions that range from thin, normal, and robust. Dominated by a changing landscape (agriculture) and intensifying climate change, we may begin to see stream temperatures increase along with species diversity. Understanding how spring temperature influences species composition and distribution can bring potential stressors to light increasing our understanding of thermal conditions and to help mitigate the negative impacts from land use and climate change.

The predominant management approach for municipal solid waste (MSW) remains disposal, given significant increases in generation and disposal rates of MSW in recent decades. In addition to the well-documented carbon emissions from disposal sites, these sites accumulate numerous elements, the masses of which are substantial globally yet inadequately quantified. The unique combinations of waste constituents, elements, diverse environments, and confined spaces in disposal sites create distinct biogeochemical conditions, setting them apart from any other infrastructure or geological feature on Earth. This review first presents a global summary of the cumulative masses and disposal rates of MSW constituents and associated elements. The five dominant transformation and transport processes influencing disposed elements are examined: biochemical degradation, physicochemical transformation, gas migration, leachate migration, and solid spillage. The magnitudes and rates of the processes corresponding to major disposed elements, including carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, chlorine, and several metals, are systematically summarized. We examine and quantify the potential environmental impacts and health risks associated with element transformation and transport. We also explore the existing knowledge and techniques for resource recovery and site remediation of disposal sites. The distilled compilation of measurements and insights herein serves as a valuable primer for researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers involved in MSW management.

In this analysis, we assess the performance of GSMaP-GNRT6 data in capturing precipitation climatology and climate variability across China from 2001 to 2020. The evaluation involves comparing four precipitation indices of accumulated precipitation, the number of rainy days, rainstorm days, and precipitation maximum with the daily precipitation data from 2419 stations in China. The findings reveal that the GSMaP data effectively captures the overall spatial distribution of annual, summer, and monthly precipitation. However, it exhibits minor limitations in accurately depicting the spatial distribution of the number of rainy days from July to September and the precipitation maximum during wintertime in eastern China. While the GSMaP data depicts a coherent annual cycle consistent with the station observations, a general underestimation is observed. Notably, the GSMaP data presents a much smoother annual cycle in precipitation maximum. Regarding accumulated precipitation, the number of rainstorm days, and precipitation maximum, the GSMaP data shows an almost consistent interannual variation and increasing trends, aligning with station observations. However, it is noteworthy that the magnitude of the increasing trend based on the GSMaP data is greater, especially entering the early 21st century. Conversely, a significant discrepancy in the annual variation and an almost opposite changing trend are noticed in the number of rainy days between the GSMaP data and station observations.

Tropical forest and savanna biomes are pivotal in the functioning of the Earth system. Tropical forests are one of the largest terrestrial biosphere carbon pools, whereas savannas exchange carbon between the biosphere and atmosphere via frequent and extensive landscape fires. Both are biodiverse and under increasing threat due to land clearing and anthropogenic climate change. Reliable mapping of tropical forest and savanna is essential to provide understanding of how anthropogenic impacts are affecting the extent of these biomes. Using Google Maps satellite imagery, we manually classified 24,239 random points as forest, savanna, or anthropogenic landscapes within the tropics. Because fire and climate are correlated, we developed separate geospatial models to rank the importance of climate, topography, and human influence on vegetation present. This modelling confirmed that those areas with more fires had lower probabilities of tropical forest, that forest was most likely in areas with high mean annual rainfall with little seasonal variation in precipitation, and that anthropogenic factors disrupt this environmental predictability. We found there were environments where tropical forest and savanna were equally probable are geographically restricted. These relationships suggest that future drier climates projected under anthropogenic climate change, combined with clearing and burning that have reduced tropical forest extent to a subset of its theoretical distribution, will lead to irreversible loss of tropical forests. Our modelling provides global mapping that can be used track further changes to distribution of rainforests.

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is a new and emerging concept in climate discourse to address the issues of climate change impacts in agriculture. Few researchers and organizations have concentrated on CSA policies and practices in Nepal. This study aims to review and analyze the policies and practices in relation to CSA and define local level CSA indicators in the Central and Western Nepal. This study adopted the scoping review of climate policies and practices in Nepal and also utilized the household survey information particularly focusing on climate adaptation relating to agriculture. Through the scoping review, it is recognized that the number of climate policies in Nepal has specifically prioritized agriculture and food security as an important thematic area. Among those policies, National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA), National Framework for Local Adaptation Plan of Action (LAPA) and National Adaptation Plan (NAP) have specific sections on CSA practices, however, these policies/plans lack specific indicators. Different categories of CSA practices are common in Nepal, but many of these practices are popular as agricultural and environmental practices prior to the CSA concept and approach. The output indicators specific to CSA practices help the communities and policymakers to measure and monitor the progress of its implementation. Additional researches are required in this field to better understand the CSA concept, approaches, and mechanisms in the Nepalese context.

The objective was to estimate the monetary loss of potato producers up to the year 2100 as a result of temperature and precipitation impacts, taking into account the A2 and B2 scenarios of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). The Pooled Production Panel Model was used, whose database was prepared taking into account climatic variables (temperature and precipitation) and agricultural variables (production, harvested area, farm-gate price) for the period 1996 - 2020, which form the independent variables of the study. The estimations used 60 observations and a total of 38 estimations were run in the econometric software EViews8, of which Equation 05 of the Production Pooled Panel Model was chosen as the best. The model obtained used temperature and precipitation forecasts from Brazil's INPE (National Institute for Space Research), validated for the study area. The results indicate a concave function between potato production (t/ha), temperature and precipitation. Finally, based on the A2 climate scenario, which is the most pessimistic and using the period 2021 - 2100, a loss for potato producers of approximately 8'927,521.48 million soles was estimated.

The atmospheric lightning is one of the natural disasters which need to be considered in the sustainable development. The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) has installed 46 lightning detection sensors (LDS) across the country. These sensors work in radio frequencies having their detection range up to 1000 km with more than 98% detection efficiency within 300 km range. The network is put in a way that sensors have about 50% sensor-to-sensor overlap in their detection ranges to enable high geolocation accuracy and maintain redundancy. The NRSC-LDS network (LDSN) estimates the current associated with each cloud to ground (CG) lightning flash which can be utilized for the risk assessment. The current estimates from one network to the other need to be inter-calibrated and harmonized. Present study compares the LDSN current estimates with Lightning Location Network (LLN) estimates and results are discussed with their impact on the estimation of vulnerable zones. A case study of lightning-induced fire event is presented to showcase the importance of the currents associated with lightning for future planning.

The impact of warming on the phenology of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) in conditions of Central Europe was evaluated at the locality of Dolné Plachtince in the Slovakian wine region. In Welschriesling and Pinot Blanc model varieties there was observed onset of phenophases as defined in BBCH scale over 1985–2018 period. Based on the data obtained there was evaluated the influence of average and average maximum temperature and GDD on the onset of phenophases. The results observed indicate earlier budburst by 5–7 days, earlier beginning of flowering by 7–10 days, and earlier berry softening by 18 days, and harvest dates advanced by 8–10 days on average. In both varieties there was found the highest influence of the average monthly temperature in March on budburst, the highest influence of the average monthly temperature and the average maximum temperature in May on the beginning of flowering, and the highest, statistically significant influence of the average maximum temperature in June on grape veraison. The warming observed in moderate climate conditions of northern wine regions in Central Europe (Slovakia) has not caused yet the changes in the grapevine phenology stable enough to require serious adaptation measures.

We have modelled the energy consumption of prototype and real buildings under present and future climatic conditions with the EnergyPlus model to develop a better understanding of the relationship between changing climate conditions and energy demand. We have produced detailed meteorological information with 50 meters of spatial resolution through dynamical downscaling process combining regional, urban and computational fluid dynamics models which include the effects of the buildings on urban wind patterns. The city of Madrid has been chosen for our experiment. The impact on energy demand and their respective economic cost are calculated for year 2100 versus 2011 based on two IPCC climate scenarios, RCP 4.5 (stabilization of emissions) and RCP 8.5 (not reduction of emissions). Findings show that climate change will have a significant impact on the energy demand for buildings. Space heating demand will be increased by the RCP 4.5 and cooling demand will be increased for the RCP 8.5 in the analysed buildings.

Tropical regions face significant energy challenges due to climatic conditions. This study investigates the interplay between sustainable architecture and building energy regulations in mitigating these challenges. The study aims to assess the effectiveness of existing building energy regulations in promoting sustainable architecture in tropical climates and identify key architectural strategies and regulatory frameworks for optimizing energy efficiency in tropical buildings. A comparative analysis of building regulations and case studies of sustainable buildings in selected tropical regions is conducted. The findings reveal that current regulations often must be revised to address tropical climates' unique energy demands. Incorporating passive design principles, renewable energy systems, and material selection is crucial for energy efficiency. It is recommended that building energy regulations be strengthened to mandate sustainable design strategies and provide incentives to promote the adoption of energy-efficient technologies.

There has been an increase in the inefficiencies of urban infrastructure services in Indian cities as a result of rapid and unplanned urbanization (UNDP, 2017). Indian cities have grown multidimensional as a result of massive industrializa-tion and technological spread backed by globalization impacting the early 2000. It has transformed the city fabric and the associated challenges. Therefore, an Urban Climate Vulnerability Assessment (UCVA) is needed to identify, target and recognize climate vulnerable urban cities, sectors, or populations. The UCVA framework consists of seven broad thematic indicators — physical, hazard, social, demographic, financial provisioning, infrastructure and admin-istration vulnerabilities, and their sub indicators to represent the climate vul-nerability of Indian cities. This assessment is for seven Indian cities namely Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Srinagar, Shillong, and Ahmedabad which were selected based on their geographical location, population, ecosystem types and hazards/ hazard trends to understand and assess the respective vul-nerabilities. The Assessment is done through a comprehensive approach using a robust and predictive qualitative framework. It helps in determining respec-tive risks and in improving community resilience to the climate hazards by in-tegrated planning and improved preparedness. UCVA can support as a deci-sion support mechanism for devising suitable mitigation and adaptation strategies for building urban climate resilience.

Leaders are failing to respond to the climate and environmental urgency the world is facing. A growing action gap, clearly visible during the recent CoP25, has been fueled by leaders' inability to respond efficiently to the mounting threats scientists—and increasingly society—are concerned about. Bridging this gap and tackling the growing polarization within society calls for leaders to accept the full complexity of the issues the world is facing. This will require them to question their understanding of these geopolitical affairs and embrace the dynamics at play, and avoid falling back on simplistic cognitive models. We propose a heuristic to convey the pathways available to decision-makers to make their way out of the current inaction impasse. By breaking free of this deadlock, a social transition will have the potential to take place, helping us to avoid crossing the climate system tipping points.

We evaluate the complexity of Colombian climate from extreme behavior of gauge temperature and precipitation, using the the novel Tsallis' non-extensive entropy principle based on physical information through the q-index. We find the spatial structure of non additive universal categories (q-index) and compare with some complex systems with the potential to have some degree of dynamical affinity. Our results evidence the great dynamical variability of regional climate expressed in the large range of values of $q$-index, and the high degree of non-extensitivity for both temperature and precipitation.

Building more energy efficient and sustainable urban areas that will both mitigate the effect of climate change and adapt for the future climate, requires the development new tools and methods that can help urban planners, architect and communities achieve this goal. In the current study, we designed a workflow that links different methodologies developed separately, to derive the energy consumption of a university school campus for the future. Three different scenarios for typical future years (2039, 2069, 2099) were run as well as a renovation scenario (Minergie-P). We analyse the impact of climate change on the heating and cooling demand of the buildings and determined the relevance of the accounting of the local climate in this particular context. The results from the simulations showed that in the future there will a constant decrease in the heating demand while for the cooling demand there will be a significant increase. It was further demonstrated that when the local climate was taken into account there was an even higher rise in the cooling demand but also that the proposed renovations were not sufficient to design resilient buildings. We then discuss the implication of this work on the simulation of building energy consumption at the neighbourhood scale and the impact of future local climate on energy system design. We finally give a few perspective regarding improved urban design and possible pathways for the future urban areas.

We investigated the response of leaf photosynthetic capacity to climate warming and its variation among provenances of Larix gmelinii (Dahurian larch). Seedlings of 11 L. gmelinii provenances were transplanted into two common gardens with different climate conditions (control and warming climate). We measured the leaf photosynthetic capacity and explored its influencing factors. The warming treatment significantly increased the maximum net photosynthetic rate (Pmax-a), photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE), maximum carboxylation rate (Vcmax), maximum electron transport rate (Jmax), triose phosphate utilization rate (TPU), mesophyll conductance (gm), leaf nitrogen content (Narea), and chlorophyll content (Chlm). The Pmax-a was significantly positively associated with Vcmax, Jmax, TPU, gm, and Narea, and the slope of the correlations between Pmax-a and Vcmax, Jmax, and TPU was steeper in the warming treatment. The responses of Pmax-a, PNUE, Vcmax, Jmax, TPU, Narea, and Chlm to warming differed among provenances. The effects of warming on Pmax-a, Vcmax, Jmax, and TPU increased and then decreased as the aridity index of the original site increased. Overall, the warming treatment improved the photosynthetic capacity of L. gmelinii, but the extent of the improvement varied among provenances. These findings provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the responses of L. gmelinii to climate warming.

Dengue Fever (DF) is an important arthropod-borne viral infection, which has repeatedly oc-curred as outbreaks in eastern and northeastern Ethiopia since 2013. A cross-sectional epidemio-logical outbreak investigation was carried out from September - November 2019 on febrile pa-tients (confirmed malaria negative) who presented with suspected and confirmed DF at both public and private health facilities in Gewane District, Afar Region, northeastern Ethiopia. Ento-mological investigation of containers found in randomly selected houses belonging to DF positive patients was undertaken, to survey for the presence of Aedes larvae or pupae. A total of 1185 DF cases was recorded from six heath facilities during the 3-month study period. The mean age of DF cases was 27.2 years and 42.7% of the cases were female. The most affected age group was 15-49 years (78.98%). However, the attack rate (AR) was highest in the 49+ age group (134.2). A total of 162 artificial containers were inspected from 62 houses, with 49.4% found positive for Aedes larva/pupae. Aedes mosquitoes were mostly found breeding in buckets/bowls, clay jars, plastic tanks, and tires. World Health Organization entomological indices classified the study site as high risk for dengue outbreaks (House Index=45.2%, Container Index=49.4% and Breteau In-dex=129). Study findings highlight the importance of vector control to prevent future dengue out-breaks in the region. The scarcity of drinking water and changing climactic conditions may have also contributed to the occurrence of this outbreak.

Paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic studies routinely rely on the usage of foraminiferal calcite through faunal, morphometric and physico-chemical proxies. The application of such proxies presupposes the extraction and cleaning of these biomineralized components from ocean sediments in the most efficient way, a process which is often labor intensive and time consuming. In this respect, in this study we performed a systematic experiment for planktonic foraminiferal specimen cleaning using different chemical treatments and evaluated the resulting data of a Late Quaternary gravity core sample from the Aegean Sea. All cleaning procedures adopted here were made on the basis of their minimum potential bias upon foraminiferal proxies, such as the faunal assemblages, degree of fragmentation, stable isotope composition (δ18O and δ13C) and/or Mg/Ca ratios that are frequently used as proxies for surface-ocean climate parameters (e.g., sea surface temperature, sea surface salinity). Six different protocols were tested, involving washing, sieving, and chemical treatment of the samples with hydrogen peroxide and/or sodium hexametaphosphate (Calgon ®). Single species foraminifera shell weighing was combined with high-resolution Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and synchrotron X-ray Microtomography (SμCT) of the material processed by each of the cleaning protocols, in order to assess the decontamination degree of specimen’s ultrastructure and interior. It appeared that a good compromise between time and cleaning efficiency is the simultaneous treatment of samples with a mixed hydrogen peroxide and Calgon solution, while the most effective way for an almost complete decontaminate of the calcareous components from undesirable sedimentary material is a two-step treatment - initially with hydrogen peroxide and subsequently with Calgon solutions.

The potential of both plasma and nanotechnology in the production of slow-release fertilizers is immense. These technologies, when combined, may offer green and cheap nitrogen fertilizers, from rich renewable resources available in local areas. Together these technologies may overcome some limitations of conventional synthetic fertilizers which currently are expensive and associated with low nitrogen use efficiency and significant environmental concerns. This review explores how recent advances in plasma and nanotechnology together might be leveraged to formulate new slow-release nitrogen fertilizers. While no attempt has been made so far to produce slow-release nano fertilizers from low-cost liquid nitrate generated by emission-free non-thermal plasma, plasma nitrate has already been reported as effective as a conventional fertilizer for crop production. We propose a more efficient electrocatalytic conversion of plasma nitrate to ammonium salt, followed by coating using plant-based cellulose nanoparticles into a slow-release form. This would synchronize nutrient release with the dynamic N requirements of plants. Formulations using agro-based low-cost cellulose nanomaterials might then replace high-cost carrier hydrogels associated with low mechanical strength. The review also highlights the isolation of nanocellulose from various plant materials and its characterization for use in different formulations of slow-release nano plasma N fertilizer. Additionally, we discuss mechanisms of N loss, slow-release, and retention in the soil. The knowledge from this review has potential to contribute to the production and use of efficient, sustainable fertilizers, to improving food security and, consequently the health of our planet.

To bring to the fore the aim of this research, effects of fluctuating temperature, was measured against food and nutrition security in the region using food production index, and undernourished population growth rate as proxies; controlled over share of arable land, irrigation, population and labour share for agriculture. Dynamic panel of generalized method of moments (GMM) was adopted, the period 2000 to 2016 were considered and 29 countries in sub-Sahara Africa were selected within the empirical framework of global water balance as mentioned by Rai and Singh (2012). Findings from the study reveals that the short run effect of temperature increase in degrees pose at least -3.1% negative and significant impact effects on the food production while the long run elasticity hits -7.5% and the controlled effect on arable land revealed a positive impact on the food production to the tune of 3.9%. Contrarily, arable land expansion reduces the under nourished population by -8.55%. Population increase on the other hand increases undernourished population in the region to the tune of 11.95%. The study therefore recommended expansion in the arable land and encourages population control policy in order to negate the undesired effects of temperature on food and nutritional security.

Available water resources in the Middle East, as one of the most water-scarce regions of the world, have undergone extra pressure due to climatic change, population growth, and economic development during the past decades. The objective of this study is to detect the trends and quantify the changes in aridity with respect to precipitation and potential evapotranspiration in 20 countries of the Middle East and the adjacent area. A Pixel-wised trend analysis was conducted on precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, and aridity index for 71 years from 1948 to 2018. A nonparametric Mann-Kendall test was used over 14106 points in the study area to detect the trends at monthly and annual time scales. Results showed statistically significant (|Z| >1.96) upward trends in aridity (a downward trend in aridity index) up to 96 percent from December through September in most parts of the region. Aridity in October and November had a downward tendency in most parts of the study area. At the annual time scale, 62.5 percent of the statistically significant trends in aridity were found to be upward (up to 96 percent increase in aridity) due to the combined effects of the decrease in precipitation and the increase in potential evapotranspiration and 37.5 percent of the detected trends were downward (up to 61 percent decrease in aridity). The highest and the lowest trends in aridity were found in the north of Sudan (96 percent increase in aridity) and Eastern Arabia (61 percent decrease in aridity), respectively.

This paper performs non-parametric Mann Kendall (MK) trend analysis of historical hydroclimatic data (1961-2016), an ensemble climate model validation and a computation of 16 Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI) temperature and rainfall extremes indices. The climate indices are evaluated using MK test and annual trend analysis for two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP4.5 & RCP8.5) future scenarios from 2020 to 2045 over Mono River Basin (MRB) in Togo. The annual and seasonal trend analyses are assessed on historical potential evapotranspiration, mean temperature, rainfall and discharge data. Results show positive and negative trends of hydroclimatic data over MRB from1961 to 2016. Mean temperatures increase significantly in most of the stations while a negative non-significant trend is noticed for rainfall. Meanwhile, the discharge presents a significant seasonal and annual trend for three gauge stations (Corrokope, Nangbéto and Athiémé). Validation of the ensemble climate models reveals that the model under-estimates observations at Sokode, Atkakpamé and Tabligbo stations, however linear regression and spatial correlation coefficients are higher than 0.6. Moreover, the percentage of bias between climate model and observations are less than 15% at most of the stations. Finally, the computation of extreme climatic indices under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios shows a significant annual trend of some extreme climatic indices of rainfall and temperature at selected stations between 2020 and 2045 in the MRB. Therefore, relevant governmental politics are needed to elaborate strategies and measures to cope with projected climate changes impacts in the country.

Climate change-induced Sea level rise, shoreline changes, and coastal erosion are projected to drive massive population displacement and mobility in Africa. This study was conducted to examine the pattern of shoreline changes, coastal erosion, land use/Land cover dynamics their projections, and its implications on internal migration in Senegal, Kenya and Tanzania representing West and East Africa. The digitized shoreline was mapped into both erosion, accretion and trend analysis which further explains the vulnerability and physical processes that could trigger human displacement within the context of environmental/climate migration. Analysis of landuse and land cover dynamics was obtained from Landsat 5 TM of 1986, Landsat 7 ET of 2006, Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS of 2016 and Landsat 9 OLI/TIRS 2022 and computed using ArcGIS 10.7 for Land-use change and percentage change in square kilometers was conducted to examine landuse/landcover dynamics and their contributions to the risk of coastal erosion in the study regions. The outcome of the shoreline analysis reveals that 972.03sqkm of land has been lost to coastal erosion in Senegal from 1986-2022 with 2016-2022 described as the period with the highest in terms of land loss. In Kenya, -463.30sqkm of land has also been lost to coastal erosion and agents of wave processes with 1986-2006 recording the highest share of -87.74% loss of valuable land while In Tanzania, -1033.35sqkm of valuable land has been lost from 1986-2022 to coastal erosion with 2006-2016 alone recording -10.4634% of land loss. The result of the land use/land cover percentage change analysis indicates a massive loss of vegetation cover with a significant increase in settlement representing urbanization. The scenario modeling of the shoreline on 10,20 and 30ms indicates that 567 persons per sq, 25904.5 persons per sqm and 25904.5 persons per sq km for both 20 and 30ms will be displaced in Senegal while in Kenya 577.5 persons per sq km will be displaced at 10m followed by 1210.3 persons per sq km at 20m and 7737.3 sq km at 30m. In, Tanzania, 702001.9 persons per sq km are projected to be displaced at 10m shift in the shoreline. Structured Questionnaires were administered to elicit responses from coastal dwellers on their perception of coastal erosion and environmental migration as part of ground truthing and the result of the survey affirms that coastal erosion and its exposure are the major drivers of environmental migration in the study area.

In recent years, there has been an intensification of weather variability worldwide as a result of climate change. Some regions have been affected by drought, while others have experienced more intense rainfall. The incidence and severity of mouldy grain and mycotoxin contamination during the growing and harvesting seasons have increased as a result of these weather conditions. Addi-tionally, torrential rains and wet conditions may cause delays in grain drying, leading to mold growth in the field. In July 2023, a wheat field in Lecco (Lombardy, Italy) was affected by torren-tial rains that led to the development of the Claviceps fungi. In the field, dark sclerotia were identi-fied on some ears. Wheat ears, kernels and sclerotia were collected and analyzed by LC-MS/MS at IZSLER, Food Chemical Department, in Bologna. The wheat ears, kernels and sclerotia were ana-lyzed for 12 ergot alkaloids (EAs) according to (EU) Regulation 2023/915 (er-gocornine/ergocorninine; ergocristine/ergocristinine; ergocryptine/ergocryptinine; ergome-trine/ergometrinine; ergosine/ergosinine; ergotamine/ergotaminine), after QuEChERS (Z-Sep/C18) purification. The analyzed sclerotia showed significant differences in total alkaloids content that varies between 0.01-0.5% (w/w), according to the results of 2017 EFSA scientific report. EAs de-tected in sclerotia were up to 4951 mg/kg, in wheat ears up to 33 mg/kg, and in kernels were 1 mg/kg. Additional mycotoxins including ochratoxin A, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, fumonisins, T2-HT2 toxins, and aflatoxins were investigated in wheat kernels, after purification with immu-noaffinity columns (IAC). The analysis revealed the presence of deoxynivalenol in wheat kernels at a concentration of 2251 µg/kg. It is expected that climate change will increase the frequency of extreme weather events. In order to mitigate the potential risks associated with mycotox-in-producing fungi and to ensure the protection of human health, it is suggested to implement of-ficial controls in the field.

Lake Chapala is a natural ecosystem of Mexico, declared Ramsar site, currently, is an area with importance in the agricultural sector, tourism, and important source of drinking water in the Metropolitan area of Guadalajara, considered as a thermo regulatory body. This study used tools such as Rhtest, as well as analyzing extreme climate indices using RClimdex. In addition, the relationship with the change in water surface of Lake Chapala was assessed through the NDWI index, using Landsat images, between 1985 and 2018. According to the obtained results, the signs of climatic variability are detected in the study region, which, directly affects the basin runoff and water levels in the lake, as well as, the factor of water overexploitation in the basin, so it is considered that the lake conditions mostly depend on the type of management that is given to the resource. Finally, the results will help the understanding of climate variability and its water resources influence of the Lerma Chapala basin, which will assist in future research.

: Seaweeds are among the most important biomass feedstocks for the production of third generation biofuels. They are also efficient in carbon sequestration during growth, and produce a variety of high value chemicals. Given these characteristics together with the relatively high carbohydrate content, seaweeds have been discussed as an ideal means for CO2 capture and biofuel production. Though third generation biofuels have emerged as some of the best alternatives to fossil fuels, there is currently no large-scale production or mainstream use of such liquid fuels due to the many technical challenges and high production costs. The present study describes the concept of coastal marine biorefineries as the most cost-effective and sustainable approach for biofuel production from sea-weeds as well as atmospheric carbon capture and storage (CCS). The suggested refinery system makes use of marine resources, namely seawater, seaweed, and marine microorganisms. Firstly, extensive screening of the current literature was performed to determine which technologies would enable the emergence of such a novel biorefinery system and its merits over conventional refineries. Secondly, the study investigates various scenarios assessing the potential of seaweeds as a means of carbon sequestration. We demonstrate that the removal of 100 Gigatons of excess CO2 using seaweed farms can be achieved in around 4 months to less than 12 years depending on the area under cultivation and the seaweed species. The total bioethanol that could be generated from the harvested biomass is around 8 trillion litres. In addition, high-value chemicals (HVC) that could potentially be recovered from the process represent a considerable op-portunity with multi-billion-dollar commercial value. Overall, coastal marine biorefineries have strong potential for a sustainable green economy and rep-resent a rapid approach for climate change mitigation.

The complex and interconnected challenges of climate change, water stress, disasters, and health crises have far-reaching implications for sustainable development and global sustainability agendas, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, one critical issue that has been overlooked is the nexus between climate change impacts and mental health (CCMH). Recognizing and addressing the negative emotions associated with this global phenomenon is essential to fostering a holistic approach to climate action planning and building long-term resilience. In this assessment, we present a set of narratives to argue that CCMH research requires a collaborative, transdisciplinary approach that integrates socio-economic and socio-cultural complexities. For this assessment, we used a case study approach to elucidate that the mental health impacts of climate change are unequally distributed, disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups based on age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status. The assessment presented in this study concluded that adequate mental health support programs are limited due to sociocultural stigmas and limited socioeconomic resources in some regions. Existing climate-related mental health services mechanisms lack coordination and specific action plans, leaving affected populations underserved. Unlike traditional understandings of the climate-health nexus, this research calls for experts from multiple fields to work together and for enhanced attention to and investment in CCMH research to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and practical solutions. Such solutions will lead to scalable and lasting change as communities can implement research findings to support those in need and enhance disaster resilience. Furthermore, by collectively recognizing the climate and mental health nexus, global commitments such as the SDGs and the Paris Declaration can advance awareness and action in climate-related mental health, ultimately promoting a healthier relationship between humanity and nature.

We have developed additive logistic models for the occurrence of lightning, large (≥ 2 cm), and very large (≥ 5 cm) hail to investigate the evolution of these hazards in the past, in the future, and for forecasting applications. The models, trained with lightning observations, hail reports, and predictors from atmospheric reanalysis, assign an hourly probability to any location and time on a 0.25° × 0.25° × 1-hourly grid as a function of reanalysis-derived predictor parameters, selected following an ingredients- based approach. The resulting hail models outperform the Significant Hail Parameter and the simulated climatological spatial distributions and annual cycles of lightning and hail are consistent with observations from storm report databases, radar, and lightning detection data. As a corollary result, CAPE released above the -10°C isotherm was found to be a more universally skilful predictor for large hail than CAPE. In the period 1950–2021, the models applied to the ERA5 reanalysis indicate significant increases of lightning and hail across most of Europe, primarily due to rising low-level moisture. The strongest modelled hail increases occur in northern Italy with increasing rapidity after 2010. Here, very large hail has become 3 times more likely than it was in the 1950s. Across North America trends are comparatively small, apart from isolated significant increases in the direct lee of the Rocky Mountains and across the Canadian Plains. In the southern Plains, a period of enhanced storm activity occurred in the 1980s and 1990s.

We analyze the Covid-19 mortality scenario in India and compare it with those in other large-population regions such as Asia-excluding-China, Africa, European Union, South America, and USA. We compare existing fatality data and offer an interpretation for low fatality based on immunity due to endemic malaria and TB. We identify the hot climate in the past summer as a possible cause for low death count in southern-hemisphere countries without endemic malaria and TB. We also make India-specific observations for easing the lockdown and estimations for the time required to attain herd immunity. Whatever optimism we present should be viewed as a guarded optimism. There should not be room for complacency.