Sample records for warming treatment increased

  1. Dissolved Organic Nitrogen Inputs from Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluents Increase Responses of Planktonic Metabolic Rates to Warming.

    PubMed

    Vaquer-Sunyer, Raquel; Conley, Daniel J; Muthusamy, Saraladevi; Lindh, Markus V; Pinhassi, Jarone; Kritzberg, Emma S

    2015-10-06

    Increased anthropogenic pressures on coastal marine ecosystems in the last century are threatening their biodiversity and functioning. Global warming and increases in nutrient loadings are two major stressors affecting these systems. Global warming is expected to increase both atmospheric and water temperatures and increase precipitation and terrestrial runoff, further increasing organic matter and nutrient inputs to coastal areas. Dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) concentrations frequently exceed those of dissolved inorganic nitrogen in aquatic systems. Many components of the DON pool have been shown to supply nitrogen nutrition to phytoplankton and bacteria. Predictions of how global warming and eutrophication will affect metabolic rates and dissolved oxygen dynamics in the future are needed to elucidate their impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Here, we experimentally determine the effects of simultaneous DON additions and warming on planktonic community metabolism in the Baltic Sea, the largest coastal area suffering from eutrophication-driven hypoxia. Both bacterioplankton community composition and metabolic rates changed in relation to temperature. DON additions from wastewater treatment plant effluents significantly increased the activation energies for community respiration and gross primary production. Activation energies for community respiration were higher than those for gross primary production. Results support the prediction that warming of the Baltic Sea will enhance planktonic respiration rates faster than it will for planktonic primary production. Higher increases in respiration rates than in production may lead to the depletion of the oxygen pool, further aggravating hypoxia in the Baltic Sea.

  2. Accelerated increase in the Arctic tropospheric warming events surpassing stratospheric warming events during winter: Accelerated Increase in Arctic Warming

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wang, S. -Y. Simon; Lin, Yen-Heng; Lee, Ming-Ying

    In January 2016, a robust reversal of the Arctic Oscillation (AO) took place associated with a rapid tropospheric warming in the Arctic region; this was followed by the occurrence of a classic sudden stratospheric warming in March-April. The succession of these two distinct Arctic warming events provides a stimulating opportunity to examine their characteristics in terms of similarities and differences. Historical cases of these two types of Arctic warming were identified and validated based upon tropical linkages with the Madden-Julian Oscillation and El Niño as well as those documented in previous studies. Our results indicate a recent and accelerated increasemore » in the tropospheric warming type versus a flat trend in stratospheric warming type. Given that tropospheric warming events occur twice as fast than the stratospheric warming type, the noted increase in the former implies further intensification in midlatitude winter weather extremes similar to those experienced in early 2016. Forced simulations with an atmospheric general circulation model suggest that the reduced Arctic sea ice contributes to the observed increase in the tropospheric warming events and associated impact on the anomalously cold Siberia.« less

  3. Warming Rather Than Increased Precipitation Increases Soil Recalcitrant Organic Carbon in a Semiarid Grassland after 6 Years of Treatments

    PubMed Central

    Zhou, Xiaoqi; Chen, Chengrong; Wang, Yanfen; Smaill, Simeon; Clinton, Peter

    2013-01-01

    Improved understanding of changes in soil recalcitrant organic carbon (C) in response to global warming is critical for predicting changes in soil organic C (SOC) storage. Here, we took advantage of a long-term field experiment with increased temperature and precipitation to investigate the effects of warming, increased precipitation and their interactions on SOC fraction in a semiarid Inner Mongolian grassland of northern China since April 2005. We quantified labile SOC, recalcitrant SOC and stable SOC at 0–10 and 10–20 cm depths. Results showed that neither warming nor increased precipitation affected total SOC and stable SOC at either depth. Increased precipitation significantly increased labile SOC at the 0–10 cm depth. Warming decreased labile SOC (P = 0.038) and marginally but significantly increased recalcitrant SOC at the 10–20 cm depth (P = 0.082). In addition, there were significant interactive effects of warming and increased precipitation on labile SOC and recalcitrant SOC at the 0–10 cm depth (both P<0.05), indicating that that results from single factor experiments should be treated with caution because of multi-factor interactions. Given that the absolute increase of SOC in the recalcitrant SOC pool was much greater than the decrease in labile SOC, and that the mean residence time of recalcitrant SOC is much greater, our results suggest that soil C storage at 10–20 cm depth may increase with increasing temperature in this semiarid grassland. PMID:23341995

  4. Accelerated increase in the Arctic tropospheric warming events surpassing stratospheric warming events during winter

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, S.-Y. Simon; Lin, Yen-Heng; Lee, Ming-Ying; Yoon, Jin-Ho; Meyer, Jonathan D. D.; Rasch, Philip J.

    2017-04-01

    In January 2016, a robust reversal of the Arctic Oscillation took place associated with a rapid tropospheric warming in the Arctic region; this was followed by the occurrence of a classic sudden stratospheric warming in March. The succession of these two distinct Arctic warming events provides a stimulating opportunity to examine their characteristics in terms of similarities and differences. Historical cases of these two types of Arctic warming were identified and validated based upon tropical linkages with the Madden-Julian Oscillation and El Niño as documented in previous studies. The analysis indicates a recent and seemingly accelerated increase in the tropospheric warming type versus a flat trend in stratospheric warming type. The shorter duration and more rapid transition of tropospheric warming events may connect to the documented increase in midlatitude weather extremes, more so than the route of stratospheric warming type. Forced simulations with an atmospheric general circulation model suggest that the reduced Arctic sea ice contributes to the observed increase in the tropospheric warming events and associated remarkable strengthening of the cold Siberian high manifest in 2016.

  5. Climatic warming increases winter wheat yield but reduces grain nitrogen concentration in east China.

    PubMed

    Tian, Yunlu; Zheng, Chengyan; Chen, Jin; Chen, Changqing; Deng, Aixing; Song, Zhenwei; Zhang, Baoming; Zhang, Weijian

    2014-01-01

    Climatic warming is often predicted to reduce wheat yield and grain quality in China. However, direct evidence is still lacking. We conducted a three-year experiment with a Free Air Temperature Increase (FATI) facility to examine the responses of winter wheat growth and plant N accumulation to a moderate temperature increase of 1.5°C predicted to prevail by 2050 in East China. Three warming treatments (AW: all-day warming; DW: daytime warming; NW: nighttime warming) were applied for an entire growth period. Consistent warming effects on wheat plant were recorded across the experimental years. An increase of ca. 1.5°C in daily, daytime and nighttime mean temperatures shortened the length of pre-anthesis period averagely by 12.7, 8.3 and 10.7 d (P<0.05), respectively, but had no significant impact on the length of the post-anthesis period. Warming did not significantly alter the aboveground biomass production, but the grain yield was 16.3, 18.1 and 19.6% (P<0.05) higher in the AW, DW and NW plots than the non-warmed plot, respectively. Warming also significantly increased plant N uptake and total biomass N accumulation. However, warming significantly reduced grain N concentrations while increased N concentrations in the leaves and stems. Together, our results demonstrate differential impacts of warming on the depositions of grain starch and protein, highlighting the needs to further understand the mechanisms that underlie warming impacts on plant C and N metabolism in wheat.

  6. How warm days increase belief in global warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zaval, Lisa; Keenan, Elizabeth A.; Johnson, Eric J.; Weber, Elke U.

    2014-02-01

    Climate change judgements can depend on whether today seems warmer or colder than usual, termed the local warming effect. Although previous research has demonstrated that this effect occurs, studies have yet to explain why or how temperature abnormalities influence global warming attitudes. A better understanding of the underlying psychology of this effect can help explain the public's reaction to climate change and inform approaches used to communicate the phenomenon. Across five studies, we find evidence of attribute substitution, whereby individuals use less relevant but available information (for example, today's temperature) in place of more diagnostic but less accessible information (for example, global climate change patterns) when making judgements. Moreover, we rule out alternative hypotheses involving climate change labelling and lay mental models. Ultimately, we show that present temperature abnormalities are given undue weight and lead to an overestimation of the frequency of similar past events, thereby increasing belief in and concern for global warming.

  7. Global warming without global mean precipitation increase?

    PubMed Central

    Salzmann, Marc

    2016-01-01

    Global climate models simulate a robust increase of global mean precipitation of about 1.5 to 2% per kelvin surface warming in response to greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing. Here, it is shown that the sensitivity to aerosol cooling is robust as well, albeit roughly twice as large. This larger sensitivity is consistent with energy budget arguments. At the same time, it is still considerably lower than the 6.5 to 7% K−1 decrease of the water vapor concentration with cooling from anthropogenic aerosol because the water vapor radiative feedback lowers the hydrological sensitivity to anthropogenic forcings. When GHG and aerosol forcings are combined, the climate models with a realistic 20th century warming indicate that the global mean precipitation increase due to GHG warming has, until recently, been completely masked by aerosol drying. This explains the apparent lack of sensitivity of the global mean precipitation to the net global warming recently found in observations. As the importance of GHG warming increases in the future, a clear signal will emerge. PMID:27386558

  8. Global warming without global mean precipitation increase?

    PubMed

    Salzmann, Marc

    2016-06-01

    Global climate models simulate a robust increase of global mean precipitation of about 1.5 to 2% per kelvin surface warming in response to greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing. Here, it is shown that the sensitivity to aerosol cooling is robust as well, albeit roughly twice as large. This larger sensitivity is consistent with energy budget arguments. At the same time, it is still considerably lower than the 6.5 to 7% K(-1) decrease of the water vapor concentration with cooling from anthropogenic aerosol because the water vapor radiative feedback lowers the hydrological sensitivity to anthropogenic forcings. When GHG and aerosol forcings are combined, the climate models with a realistic 20th century warming indicate that the global mean precipitation increase due to GHG warming has, until recently, been completely masked by aerosol drying. This explains the apparent lack of sensitivity of the global mean precipitation to the net global warming recently found in observations. As the importance of GHG warming increases in the future, a clear signal will emerge.

  9. Increasing occurrence of cold and warm extremes during the recent global warming slowdown.

    PubMed

    Johnson, Nathaniel C; Xie, Shang-Ping; Kosaka, Yu; Li, Xichen

    2018-04-30

    The recent levelling of global mean temperatures after the late 1990s, the so-called global warming hiatus or slowdown, ignited a surge of scientific interest into natural global mean surface temperature variability, observed temperature biases, and climate communication, but many questions remain about how these findings relate to variations in more societally relevant temperature extremes. Here we show that both summertime warm and wintertime cold extreme occurrences increased over land during the so-called hiatus period, and that these increases occurred for distinct reasons. The increase in cold extremes is associated with an atmospheric circulation pattern resembling the warm Arctic-cold continents pattern, whereas the increase in warm extremes is tied to a pattern of sea surface temperatures resembling the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. These findings indicate that large-scale factors responsible for the most societally relevant temperature variations over continents are distinct from those of global mean surface temperature.

  10. Accelerated Increase in the Arctic Tropospheric Warming Events Surpassing StratosphericWarming Events During Winter

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wang, Simon; Lin, Yen-Heng; Lee, Ming-Ying

    2017-04-22

    In January 2016, a robust reversal of the Arctic Oscillation (AO) took place associated with a rapid tropospheric warming in the Arctic region; this was followed by the occurrence of a classic sudden stratospheric warming in March-April. The succession of these two distinct Arctic warming events provides a stimulating opportunity to examine their characteristics in terms of similarities and differences. Historical cases of these two types of Arctic warming were identified and validated based upon tropical linkages with the Madden-Julian Oscillation and El Niño as well as those documented in previous studies. Our results indicate a recent and accelerated increasemore » in the tropospheric warming type versus a flat trend in stratospheric warming type. Given that tropospheric warming events occur twice as fast than the stratospheric warming type, the noted increase in the former implies further intensification in midlatitude winter weather extremes similar to those experienced in early 2016. Forced simulations with an atmospheric general circulation model suggest that the reduced Arctic sea ice contributes to the observed increase in the tropospheric warming events and associated impact on the anomalously cold Siberia.« less

  11. Anthropogenic warming has increased drought risk in California.

    PubMed

    Diffenbaugh, Noah S; Swain, Daniel L; Touma, Danielle

    2015-03-31

    California is currently in the midst of a record-setting drought. The drought began in 2012 and now includes the lowest calendar-year and 12-mo precipitation, the highest annual temperature, and the most extreme drought indicators on record. The extremely warm and dry conditions have led to acute water shortages, groundwater overdraft, critically low streamflow, and enhanced wildfire risk. Analyzing historical climate observations from California, we find that precipitation deficits in California were more than twice as likely to yield drought years if they occurred when conditions were warm. We find that although there has not been a substantial change in the probability of either negative or moderately negative precipitation anomalies in recent decades, the occurrence of drought years has been greater in the past two decades than in the preceding century. In addition, the probability that precipitation deficits co-occur with warm conditions and the probability that precipitation deficits produce drought have both increased. Climate model experiments with and without anthropogenic forcings reveal that human activities have increased the probability that dry precipitation years are also warm. Further, a large ensemble of climate model realizations reveals that additional global warming over the next few decades is very likely to create ∼ 100% probability that any annual-scale dry period is also extremely warm. We therefore conclude that anthropogenic warming is increasing the probability of co-occurring warm-dry conditions like those that have created the acute human and ecosystem impacts associated with the "exceptional" 2012-2014 drought in California.

  12. Deep peat warming increases surface methane and carbon dioxide emissions in a black spruce-dominated ombrotrophic bog.

    PubMed

    Gill, Allison L; Giasson, Marc-André; Yu, Rieka; Finzi, Adrien C

    2017-12-01

    Boreal peatlands contain approximately 500 Pg carbon (C) in the soil, emit globally significant quantities of methane (CH 4 ), and are highly sensitive to climate change. Warming associated with global climate change is likely to increase the rate of the temperature-sensitive processes that decompose stored organic carbon and release carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and CH 4 . Variation in the temperature sensitivity of CO 2 and CH 4 production and increased peat aerobicity due to enhanced growing-season evapotranspiration may alter the nature of peatland trace gas emission. As CH 4 is a powerful greenhouse gas with 34 times the warming potential of CO 2 , it is critical to understand how factors associated with global change will influence surface CO 2 and CH 4 fluxes. Here, we leverage the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) climate change manipulation experiment to understand the impact of a 0-9°C gradient in deep belowground warming ("Deep Peat Heat", DPH) on peat surface CO 2 and CH 4 fluxes. We find that DPH treatments increased both CO 2 and CH 4 emission. Methane production was more sensitive to warming than CO 2 production, decreasing the C-CO 2 :C-CH 4 of the respired carbon. Methane production is dominated by hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis but deep peat warming increased the δ 13 C of CH 4 suggesting an increasing contribution of acetoclastic methanogenesis to total CH 4 production with warming. Although the total quantity of C emitted from the SPRUCE Bog as CH 4 is <2%, CH 4 represents >50% of seasonal C emissions in the highest-warming treatments when adjusted for CO 2 equivalents on a 100-year timescale. These results suggest that warming in boreal regions may increase CH 4 emissions from peatlands and result in a positive feedback to ongoing warming. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  13. First-aid with warm water delays burn progression and increases skin survival.

    PubMed

    Tobalem, M; Harder, Y; Tschanz, E; Speidel, V; Pittet-Cuénod, B; Wettstein, R

    2013-02-01

    First aid treatment for thermal injuries with cold water removes heat and decreases inflammation. However, perfusion in the ischemic zone surrounding the coagulated core can be compromised by cold-induced vasoconstriction and favor burn progression. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of local warming on burn progression in the rat comb burn model. 24 male Wistar rats were randomly assigned to either no treatment (control) or application of cold (17 °C) or warm (37 °C) water applied for 20 min. Evolution of burn depth, interspace necrosis, and microcirculatory perfusion were assessed with histology, planimetry, respectively with Laser Doppler flowmetry after 1 h, as well as 1, 4, and 7 days. Consistent conversion from a superficial to a deep dermal burn within 24 h was obtained in control animals. Warm and cold water significantly delayed burn depth progression, however after 4 days the burn depth was similar in all groups. Interspace necrosis was significantly reduced by warm water treatment (62±4% vs. 69±5% (cold water) and 82±3% (control); p<0.05). This was attributed to the significantly improved perfusion after warming, which was present 1 h after burn induction and was maintained thereafter (103±4% of baseline vs. 91±3% for cold water and 80±2% for control, p<0.05). In order to limit damage after burn injury, burn progression has to be prevented. Besides delaying burn progression, the application of warm water provided an additional benefit by improving the microcirculatory perfusion, which translated into increased tissue survival. Copyright © 2012 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Anthropogenic warming has increased drought risk in California

    PubMed Central

    Diffenbaugh, Noah S.; Swain, Daniel L.; Touma, Danielle

    2015-01-01

    California is currently in the midst of a record-setting drought. The drought began in 2012 and now includes the lowest calendar-year and 12-mo precipitation, the highest annual temperature, and the most extreme drought indicators on record. The extremely warm and dry conditions have led to acute water shortages, groundwater overdraft, critically low streamflow, and enhanced wildfire risk. Analyzing historical climate observations from California, we find that precipitation deficits in California were more than twice as likely to yield drought years if they occurred when conditions were warm. We find that although there has not been a substantial change in the probability of either negative or moderately negative precipitation anomalies in recent decades, the occurrence of drought years has been greater in the past two decades than in the preceding century. In addition, the probability that precipitation deficits co-occur with warm conditions and the probability that precipitation deficits produce drought have both increased. Climate model experiments with and without anthropogenic forcings reveal that human activities have increased the probability that dry precipitation years are also warm. Further, a large ensemble of climate model realizations reveals that additional global warming over the next few decades is very likely to create ∼100% probability that any annual-scale dry period is also extremely warm. We therefore conclude that anthropogenic warming is increasing the probability of co-occurring warm–dry conditions like those that have created the acute human and ecosystem impacts associated with the “exceptional” 2012–2014 drought in California. PMID:25733875

  15. Two decades of warming increases diversity of a potentially lignolytic bacterial community

    PubMed Central

    Pold, Grace; Melillo, Jerry M.; DeAngelis, Kristen M.

    2015-01-01

    As Earth's climate warms, the massive stores of carbon found in soil are predicted to become depleted, and leave behind a smaller carbon pool that is less accessible to microbes. At a long-term forest soil-warming experiment in central Massachusetts, soil respiration and bacterial diversity have increased, while fungal biomass and microbially-accessible soil carbon have decreased. Here, we evaluate how warming has affected the microbial community's capability to degrade chemically-complex soil carbon using lignin-amended BioSep beads. We profiled the bacterial and fungal communities using PCR-based methods and completed extracellular enzyme assays as a proxy for potential community function. We found that lignin-amended beads selected for a distinct community containing bacterial taxa closely related to known lignin degraders, as well as members of many genera not previously noted as capable of degrading lignin. Warming tended to drive bacterial community structure more strongly in the lignin beads, while the effect on the fungal community was limited to unamended beads. Of those bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) enriched by the warming treatment, many were enriched uniquely on lignin-amended beads. These taxa may be contributing to enhanced soil respiration under warming despite reduced readily available C availability. In aggregate, these results suggest that there is genetic potential for chemically complex soil carbon degradation that may lead to extended elevated soil respiration with long-term warming. PMID:26042112

  16. Nonlinear regional warming with increasing CO2 concentrations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Good, Peter; Lowe, Jason A.; Andrews, Timothy; Wiltshire, Andrew; Chadwick, Robin; Ridley, Jeff K.; Menary, Matthew B.; Bouttes, Nathaelle; Dufresne, Jean Louis; Gregory, Jonathan M.; Schaller, Nathalie; Shiogama, Hideo

    2015-02-01

    When considering adaptation measures and global climate mitigation goals, stakeholders need regional-scale climate projections, including the range of plausible warming rates. To assist these stakeholders, it is important to understand whether some locations may see disproportionately high or low warming from additional forcing above targets such as 2 K (ref. ). There is a need to narrow uncertainty in this nonlinear warming, which requires understanding how climate changes as forcings increase from medium to high levels. However, quantifying and understanding regional nonlinear processes is challenging. Here we show that regional-scale warming can be strongly superlinear to successive CO2 doublings, using five different climate models. Ensemble-mean warming is superlinear over most land locations. Further, the inter-model spread tends to be amplified at higher forcing levels, as nonlinearities grow--especially when considering changes per kelvin of global warming. Regional nonlinearities in surface warming arise from nonlinearities in global-mean radiative balance, the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, surface snow/ice cover and evapotranspiration. For robust adaptation and mitigation advice, therefore, potentially avoidable climate change (the difference between business-as-usual and mitigation scenarios) and unavoidable climate change (change under strong mitigation scenarios) may need different analysis methods.

  17. Large increases in Arctic biogenic volatile emissions are a direct effect of warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kramshøj, Magnus; Vedel-Petersen, Ida; Schollert, Michelle; Rinnan, Åsmund; Nymand, Josephine; Ro-Poulsen, Helge; Rinnan, Riikka

    2016-05-01

    Biogenic volatile organic compounds are reactive gases that can contribute to atmospheric aerosol formation. Their emission from vegetation is dependent on temperature and light availability. Increasing temperature, changing cloud cover and shifting composition of vegetation communities can be expected to affect emissions in the Arctic, where the ongoing climate changes are particularly severe. Here we present biogenic volatile organic compound emission data from Arctic tundra exposed to six years of experimental warming or reduced sunlight treatment in a randomized block design. By separately assessing the emission response of the whole ecosystem, plant shoots and soil in four measurements covering the growing season, we have identified that warming increased the emissions directly rather than via a change in the plant biomass and species composition. Warming caused a 260% increase in total emission rate for the ecosystem and a 90% increase in emission rates for plants, while having no effect on soil emissions. Compared to the control, reduced sunlight decreased emissions by 69% for the ecosystem, 61-65% for plants and 78% for soil. The detected strong emission response is considerably higher than observed at more southern latitudes, emphasizing the high temperature sensitivity of ecosystem processes in the changing Arctic.

  18. Ocean warming and acidification synergistically increase coral mortality

    PubMed Central

    Prada, F.; Caroselli, E.; Mengoli, S.; Brizi, L.; Fantazzini, P.; Capaccioni, B.; Pasquini, L.; Fabricius, K. E.; Dubinsky, Z.; Falini, G.; Goffredo, S.

    2017-01-01

    Organisms that accumulate calcium carbonate structures are particularly vulnerable to ocean warming (OW) and ocean acidification (OA), potentially reducing the socioeconomic benefits of ecosystems reliant on these taxa. Since rising atmospheric CO2 is responsible for global warming and increasing ocean acidity, to correctly predict how OW and OA will affect marine organisms, their possible interactive effects must be assessed. Here we investigate, in the field, the combined temperature (range: 16–26 °C) and acidification (range: pHTS 8.1–7.4) effects on mortality and growth of Mediterranean coral species transplanted, in different seasonal periods, along a natural pH gradient generated by a CO2 vent. We show a synergistic adverse effect on mortality rates (up to 60%), for solitary and colonial, symbiotic and asymbiotic corals, suggesting that high seawater temperatures may have increased their metabolic rates which, in conjunction with decreasing pH, could have led to rapid deterioration of cellular processes and performance. The net calcification rate of the symbiotic species was not affected by decreasing pH, regardless of temperature, while in the two asymbiotic species it was negatively affected by increasing acidification and temperature, suggesting that symbiotic corals may be more tolerant to increasing warming and acidifying conditions compared to asymbiotic ones. PMID:28102293

  19. Post-treatment with Ma-Huang-Tang ameliorates cold-warm-cycles induced rat lung injury.

    PubMed

    Xiao, Meng-Meng; Pan, Chun-Shui; Liu, Yu-Ying; Ma, Li-Qian; Yan, Li; Fan, Jing-Yu; Wang, Chuan-She; Huang, Rong; Han, Jing-Yan

    2017-03-22

    Frequent and drastic ambient temperature variation may cause respiratory diseases such as common cold and pneumonia, the mechanism for which is not fully understood, however, due to lack of appropriate animal models. Ma-Huang-Tang (MHT) is widely used in China for treatment of respiratory diseases. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of MHT on temperature alternation induced rat lung injury and explore underlying mechanisms. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to a cold environment for 1 h and then shifted to a warm environment for 30 min. This cold and warm alteration cycled 4 times. Rats were administrated with MHT (1.87 g/kg) by gavage 6 h after cold-warm-cycles. Cold-warm-cycles induced pulmonary microcirculatory disorders, lung edema and injury, decrease in the expression of tight junction proteins, increase in VE-cadherin activation, increase in the expression and activation of Caveolin-1, Src and NF-κB, and NADPH oxidase subunits p47 phox , p40 phox and p67 phox membrane translocation and inflammatory cytokines production. All alterations were significantly ameliorated by post-treatment with MHT. This study showed that rats subjected to cold-warm-cycles may be used as an animal model to investigate ambient temperature variation-induced lung injury, and suggested MHT as a potential strategy to combat lung injury induced by temperature variation.

  20. Is Global Warming likely to cause an increased incidence of Malaria?

    PubMed

    Nabi, Sa; Qader, Ss

    2009-03-01

    The rise in the average temperature of earth has been described as global warming which is mainly attributed to the increasing phenomenon of the greenhouse effect. It is believed that global warming can have several harmful effects on human health, both directly and indirectly. Since malaria is greatly influenced by climatic conditions because of its direct relationship with the mosquito population, it is widely assumed that its incidence is likely to increase in a future warmer world.This review article discusses the two contradictory views regarding the association of global warming with an increased incidence of malaria. On one hand, there are many who believe that there is a strong association between the recent increase in malaria incidence and global warming. They predict that as global warming continues, malaria is set to spread in locations where previously it was limited, due to cooler climate. On the other hand, several theories have been put forward which are quite contrary to this prediction. There are multiple other factors which are accountable for the recent upsurge of malaria: for example drug resistance, mosquito control programs, public health facilities, and living standards.

  1. Is Global Warming likely to cause an increased incidence of Malaria?

    PubMed Central

    Nabi, SA; Qader, SS

    2009-01-01

    The rise in the average temperature of earth has been described as global warming which is mainly attributed to the increasing phenomenon of the greenhouse effect. It is believed that global warming can have several harmful effects on human health, both directly and indirectly. Since malaria is greatly influenced by climatic conditions because of its direct relationship with the mosquito population, it is widely assumed that its incidence is likely to increase in a future warmer world. This review article discusses the two contradictory views regarding the association of global warming with an increased incidence of malaria. On one hand, there are many who believe that there is a strong association between the recent increase in malaria incidence and global warming. They predict that as global warming continues, malaria is set to spread in locations where previously it was limited, due to cooler climate. On the other hand, several theories have been put forward which are quite contrary to this prediction. There are multiple other factors which are accountable for the recent upsurge of malaria: for example drug resistance, mosquito control programs, public health facilities, and living standards. PMID:21483497

  2. Five Years of Experimental Warming Increases the Biodiversity and Productivity of Phytoplankton

    PubMed Central

    Yvon-Durocher, Gabriel; Allen, Andrew P.; Cellamare, Maria; Dossena, Matteo; Gaston, Kevin J.; Leitao, Maria; Montoya, José M.; Reuman, Daniel C.; Woodward, Guy; Trimmer, Mark

    2015-01-01

    Phytoplankton are key components of aquatic ecosystems, fixing CO2 from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and supporting secondary production, yet relatively little is known about how future global warming might alter their biodiversity and associated ecosystem functioning. Here, we explore how the structure, function, and biodiversity of a planktonic metacommunity was altered after five years of experimental warming. Our outdoor mesocosm experiment was open to natural dispersal from the regional species pool, allowing us to explore the effects of experimental warming in the context of metacommunity dynamics. Warming of 4°C led to a 67% increase in the species richness of the phytoplankton, more evenly-distributed abundance, and higher rates of gross primary productivity. Warming elevated productivity indirectly, by increasing the biodiversity and biomass of the local phytoplankton communities. Warming also systematically shifted the taxonomic and functional trait composition of the phytoplankton, favoring large, colonial, inedible phytoplankton taxa, suggesting stronger top-down control, mediated by zooplankton grazing played an important role. Overall, our findings suggest that temperature can modulate species coexistence, and through such mechanisms, global warming could, in some cases, increase the species richness and productivity of phytoplankton communities. PMID:26680314

  3. Competition magnifies the impact of a pesticide in a warming world by reducing heat tolerance and increasing autotomy.

    PubMed

    Op de Beeck, Lin; Verheyen, Julie; Stoks, Robby

    2018-02-01

    There is increasing concern that standard laboratory toxicity tests may be misleading when assessing the impact of toxicants, because they lack ecological realism. Both warming and biotic interactions have been identified to magnify the effects of toxicants. Moreover, while biotic interactions may change the impact of toxicants, toxicants may also change the impact of biotic interactions. However, studies looking at the impact of biotic interactions on the toxicity of pesticides and vice versa under warming are very scarce. Therefore, we tested how warming (+4 °C), intraspecific competition (density treatment) and exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos, both in isolation and in combination, affected mortality, cannibalism, growth and heat tolerance of low- and high-latitude populations of the damselfly Ischnura elegans. Moreover, we addressed whether toxicant exposure, potentially in interaction with competition and warming, increased the frequency of autotomy, a widespread antipredator mechanism. Competition increased the toxicity of chlorpyrifos and made it become lethal. Cannibalism was not affected by chlorpyrifos but increased at high density and under warming. Chlorpyrifos reduced heat tolerance but only when competition was high. This is the first demonstration that a biotic interaction can be a major determinant of 'toxicant-induced climate change sensitivity'. Competition enhanced the impact of chlorpyrifos under warming for high-latitude larvae, leading to an increase in autotomy which reduces fitness in the long term. This points to a novel pathway how transient pesticide pulses may cause delayed effects on populations in a warming world. Our results highlight that the interplay between biotic interactions and toxicants have a strong relevance for ecological risk assessment in a warming polluted world. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. An increase in aerosol burden due to the land-sea warming contrast

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hassan, T.; Allen, R.; Randles, C. A.

    2017-12-01

    Climate models simulate an increase in most aerosol species in response to warming, particularly over the tropics and Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes. This increase in aerosol burden is related to a decrease in wet removal, primarily due to reduced large-scale precipitation. Here, we show that the increase in aerosol burden, and the decrease in large-scale precipitation, is related to a robust climate change phenomenon—the land/sea warming contrast. Idealized simulations with two state of the art climate models, the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (NCAR CAM5) and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Atmospheric Model 3 (GFDL AM3), show that muting the land-sea warming contrast negates the increase in aerosol burden under warming. This is related to smaller decreases in near-surface relative humidity over land, and in turn, smaller decreases in large-scale precipitation over land—especially in the NH midlatitudes. Furthermore, additional idealized simulations with an enhanced land/sea warming contrast lead to the opposite result—larger decreases in relative humidity over land, larger decreases in large-scale precipitation, and larger increases in aerosol burden. Our results, which relate the increase in aerosol burden to the robust climate projection of enhanced land warming, adds confidence that a warmer world will be associated with a larger aerosol burden.

  5. Warming and Nitrogen Addition Increase Litter Decomposition in a Temperate Meadow Ecosystem

    PubMed Central

    Gong, Shiwei; Guo, Rui; Zhang, Tao; Guo, Jixun

    2015-01-01

    Background Litter decomposition greatly influences soil structure, nutrient content and carbon sequestration, but how litter decomposition is affected by climate change is still not well understood. Methodology/Principal Findings A field experiment with increased temperature and nitrogen (N) addition was established in April 2007 to examine the effects of experimental warming, N addition and their interaction on litter decomposition in a temperate meadow steppe in northeastern China. Warming, N addition and warming plus N addition reduced the residual mass of L. chinensis litter by 3.78%, 7.51% and 4.53%, respectively, in 2008 and 2009, and by 4.73%, 24.08% and 16.1%, respectively, in 2010. Warming, N addition and warming plus N addition had no effect on the decomposition of P. communis litter in 2008 or 2009, but reduced the residual litter mass by 5.58%, 15.53% and 5.17%, respectively, in 2010. Warming and N addition reduced the cellulose percentage of L. chinensis and P. communis, specifically in 2010. The lignin percentage of L. chinensis and P. communis was reduced by warming but increased by N addition. The C, N and P contents of L. chinensis and P. communis litter increased with time. Warming and N addition reduced the C content and C:N ratios of L. chinensisand P. communis litter, but increased the N and P contents. Significant interactive effects of warming and N addition on litter decomposition were observed (P<0.01). Conclusion/Significance The litter decomposition rate was highly correlated with soil temperature, soil water content and litter quality. Warming and N addition significantly impacted the litter decomposition rate in the Songnen meadow ecosystem, and the effects of warming and N addition on litter decomposition were also influenced by the quality of litter. These results highlight how climate change could alter grassland ecosystem carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus contents in soil by influencing litter decomposition. PMID:25774776

  6. Warming-related increases in soil CO2 efflux are explained by increased below-ground carbon flux

    Treesearch

    Christian P. Giardina; Creighton M. Litton; Susan E. Crow; Gregory P Asner

    2014-01-01

    The universally observed exponential increase in soil-surface CO2 effux (‘soil respiration’; FS) with increasing temperature has led to speculation that global warming will accelerate soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition, reduce SOC storage, and drive a positive feedback to future warming. However, interpreting temperature–FS relationships,...

  7. Increasing ENSO-Driven Drought and Wildfire Risks in a Warming Climate

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fasullo, J.; Otto-Bliesner, B. L.; Stevenson, S.

    2015-12-01

    ENSO-related teleconnections occurring in the transient climate states of the 20th and 21st centuries are examined using the NCAR CESM1-CAM5 Large Ensemble (LE). A focus is given to quantifying the changing nature of related variability in a warming climate, the statistical robustness of which is enhanced by the numerous members of the LE (presently ~40). It is found that while the dynamical components of ENSO's teleconnections weaken considerably in a warming world, associated variability over land is in many cases sustained by changes in the background state, such as for rainfall due to the background rise in specific humidity. In some fields, particularly those associated with associated with thermal stress (e.g. drought and wildfire), ENSO-related variance increases dramatically. This, combined with the fact that ENSO variance itself increases in a warming climate in the LE, contributes to dramatic projected increases in ENSO-driven drought and wildfire risks in a warming world.

  8. Warming increases plant biomass and reduces diversity across continents, latitudes, and species migration scenarios in experimental wetland communities.

    PubMed

    Baldwin, Andrew H; Jensen, Kai; Schönfeldt, Marisa

    2014-03-01

    Atmospheric warming may influence plant productivity and diversity and induce poleward migration of species, altering communities across latitudes. Complicating the picture is that communities from different continents deviate in evolutionary histories, which may modify responses to warming and migration. We used experimental wetland plant communities grown from seed banks as model systems to determine whether effects of warming on biomass production and species richness are consistent across continents, latitudes, and migration scenarios. We collected soil samples from each of three tidal freshwater marshes in estuaries at three latitudes (north, middle, south) on the Atlantic coasts of Europe and North America. In one experiment, we exposed soil seed bank communities from each latitude and continent to ambient and elevated (+2.8 °C) temperatures in the greenhouse. In a second experiment, soil samples were mixed either within each estuary (limited migration) or among estuaries from different latitudes in each continent (complete migration). Seed bank communities of these migration scenarios were also exposed to ambient and elevated temperatures and contrasted with a no-migration treatment. In the first experiment, warming overall increased biomass (+16%) and decreased species richness (-14%) across latitudes in Europe and North America. Species richness and evenness of south-latitude communities were less affected by warming than those of middle and north latitudes. In the second experiment, warming also stimulated biomass and lowered species richness. In addition, complete migration led to increased species richness (+60% in North America, + 100% in Europe), but this higher diversity did not translate into increased biomass. Species responded idiosyncratically to warming, but Lythrum salicaria and Bidens sp. increased significantly in response to warming in both continents. These results reveal for the first time consistent impacts of warming on biomass and

  9. Soil warming increased whole-tree water use of Pinus cembra at the treeline in the Central Tyrolean Alps

    PubMed Central

    Wieser, Gerhard; Grams, Thorsten E.E.; Matysssek, Rainer; Oberhuber, Walter; Gruber, Andreas

    2016-01-01

    The study quantified the effect of soil warming on sap flow density (Qs) of Pinus cembra at treeline in the Central Tyrolean Alps. To enhance soil temperature we installed a transparent roof construction above the forest floor around six trees. Six other trees served as controls in the absence of any manipulation. Roofing enhanced growing season mean soil temperature by 1.6, 1.3, and 1.0 °C at 5, 10, and 20 cm soil depth, respectively, while soil water availability was not affected. Sap flow density (using Granier-type thermal dissipation probes) and environmental parameters were monitored throughout three growing seasons. During the first year of treatment, no warming effect was detected on Qs. However, soil warming caused Qs to increase significantly by 11 and 19% above levels in control trees during the second and third year, respectively. This effect appeared to result from warming-induced root production, a reduction in viscosity and perhaps an increase also in root hydraulic conductivity. Hardly affected were leaf-level net CO2 uptake rate and conductance for water vapor, so that water-use efficiency stayed unchanged as confirmed by needle δ13C analysis. We conclude that tree water loss will increase with soil warming, which may alter the water balance within the treeline ecotone of the Central Austrian Alps in a future warming environment. PMID:25737326

  10. Physiological responses of Kobresia pygmaea to warming in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau permafrost region

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Y.; Wang, G. X.; Yang, L. D.; Guo, J. Y.; Li, N.

    2012-02-01

    Kobresia pygmaea (C. B. Clarke) C. B. Clarke is one dominant herbaceous species in the alpine meadows of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. From 2006 to 2009, a warming experiment was conducted in this permafrost region. Two 2-year warming treatments with an annual average warming of 2.1 °C and 4.4 °C, and one 4-year warming treatment with an annual average warming of 2.3 °C were established to examine physiological responses of K. pygmaea to warming. Our results indicated that 2-years of warming increased malondialdehyde and non-structural carbohydrates in the plants. There was no effect of 2-year warming on electrolyte leakage and free proline content. In the 2-year warming treatment, superoxide dismutase activity and peroxidase activity increased, ascorbate peroxidase activity and ascorbic acid only increased in 2-year high warming treatment, whereas in the 4-year warming treatment, active oxygen species, electrolyte leakage, UV-absorbing compounds and anthocyanins decreased. The 4-year warming treatment also significantly increased non-structural carbonhydrate and free proline accumulation for osmotic adjustment. The results of this study suggest that K. pygmaea could adapt to a warmer environment in the future.

  11. [Treatment of patients with neuromuscular disease in a warm climate].

    PubMed

    Dahl, Arve; Skjeldal, Ola H; Simensen, Andreas; Dalen, Håkon E; Bråthen, Tone; Ahlvin, Petra; Svendsby, Ellen Kathrine; Sveinall, Anne; Fredriksen, Per Morten

    2004-07-01

    Several patient groups request treatment in a warm climate, in spite of the fact that the effects of such treatment are undocumented. 47 children and 40 adults with neuromuscular diseases were recruited, stratified according to sex, use or non-use of electric wheelchair, primary myopathy or hereditary neuropathy, and randomised into two adult and two children groups. The patients were treated in a rehabilitation centre, either on Lanzarote or in Norway. All patients were monitored with physical tests and questionnaires at the start of the study, at the end of the treatment period, after three months (all groups) and after six months (adults only). No significant differences in effect between the groups were found. In the warm climate, the adult patient group showed a statistically significant improvement regarding pain, quality of life, depression, and results of physical tests at the end of treatment. After three months, the improvement in physical tests was still present. Among adult patients treated in Norway, improvement in physical tests was statistically significant after three months, but not at the end of the treatment period. This study did not show a statistically significant difference between patients with various neuromuscular diseases treated in a warm climate compared to similar patients treated in Norway.

  12. Increasing flash droughts over China during the recent global warming hiatus

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Linying; Yuan, Xing; Xie, Zhenghui; Wu, Peili; Li, Yaohui

    2016-01-01

    The recent global warming slowdown or hiatus after the big El Niño event in 1997/98 raises the questions of whether terrestrial hydrological cycle is being decelerated and how do the hydrological extremes respond to the hiatus. However, the rapidly developing drought events that are termed as “flash droughts” accompanied by extreme heat, low soil moisture and high evapotranspiration (ET), occurred frequently around the world, and caused devastating impacts on crop yields and water supply. Here, we investigate the long-term trend and variability of flash droughts over China. Flash droughts are most likely to occur over humid and semi-humid regions, such as southern and northeastern China. Flash drought averaged over China increased by 109% from 1979 to 2010, and the increase was mainly due to a long term warming of temperature (50%), followed by the contributions from decreasing soil moisture and increasing ET. There was a slight drop in temperature after 1997, but the increasing trend of flash droughts was tripled. Further results indicate that the decreasing temperature was compensated by the accelerated drying trends of soil moisture and enhanced ET, leading to an acceleration of flash droughts during the warming hiatus. The anthropogenic warming in the next few decades may exacerbate future flash drought conditions in China. PMID:27513724

  13. Increasing frequency and duration of Arctic winter warming events

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Graham, R. M.; Cohen, L.; Petty, A.; Boisvert, L.; Rinke, A.; Hudson, S. R.; Nicolaus, M.; Granskog, M. A.

    2017-12-01

    Record low Arctic sea ice extents were observed during the last three winter seasons (March). During each of these winters, near-surface air temperatures close to 0°C were observed, in situ, over sea ice in the central Arctic. Recent media reports and scientific studies suggest that such winter warming events were unprecedented for the Arctic. Here we use in situ winter (December-March) temperature observations, such as those from Soviet North Pole drifting stations and ocean buoys, to determine how common Arctic winter warming events are. The earliest record we find of a winter warming event was in March 1896, where a temperature of -3.7˚C was observed at 84˚N during the Fram expedition. Observations of winter warming events exist over most of the Arctic Basin. Despite a limited observational network, temperatures exceeding -5°C were measured in situ during more than 30% of winters from 1954 to 2010, by either North Pole drifting stations or ocean buoys. Correlation coefficients between the atmospheric reanalysis, ERA-Interim, and these in-situ temperature records are shown to be on the order of 0.90. This suggests that ERA-Interim is a suitable tool for studying Arctic winter warming events. Using the ERA-Interim record (1979-2016), we show that the North Pole (NP) region typically experiences 10 warming events (T2m > -10°C) per winter, compared with only five in the Pacific Central Arctic (PCA). We find a positive trend in the overall duration of winter warming events for both the NP region (4.25 days/decade) and PCA (1.16 days/decade), due to an increased number of events of longer duration.

  14. Experimental warming increased soil nitrogen sink in the Tibetan permafrost

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chang, Ruiying; Wang, Genxu; Yang, Yuanhe; Chen, Xiaopeng

    2017-07-01

    In permafrost soil, warming regulates the nitrogen (N) cycle either by stimulating N transformation or by enhancing cryoturbation, the mixture of soil layers due to repeated freeze thaw. Here N isotopic values (δ15N) of plants and the soil were investigated in a 7 year warming experiment in a permafrost-affected alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The results revealed that warming significantly decreased the δ15N in the plant (aboveground and belowground parts) and different soil fractions (clay and silt fraction, aggregate, and bulk soil). The decreased soil δ15N was associated with an increase in soil N stock due to greater N fixation. The incremental N retention in plants and soil mineral-associated fractions from warming resulted in a decrease in soil inorganic N, which constrains the role of nitrification/denitrification in soil δ15N, suggesting a restrained rather than an open N cycle. Furthermore, enhanced cryoturbation under warming, identified by a downward redistribution of 137Cs into deeper layers, promoted N protection from transformation. Overall, the decrease in soil δ15N indicated higher rates of N input through fixation relative to N loss through nitrification and denitrification in permafrost-affected ecosystems under warming conditions.

  15. Design and performance of combined infrared canopy and belowground warming in the B4WarmED (Boreal Forest Warming at an Ecotone in Danger) experiment.

    PubMed

    Rich, Roy L; Stefanski, Artur; Montgomery, Rebecca A; Hobbie, Sarah E; Kimball, Bruce A; Reich, Peter B

    2015-06-01

    Conducting manipulative climate change experiments in complex vegetation is challenging, given considerable temporal and spatial heterogeneity. One specific challenge involves warming of both plants and soils to depth. We describe the design and performance of an open-air warming experiment called Boreal Forest Warming at an Ecotone in Danger (B4WarmED) that addresses the potential for projected climate warming to alter tree function, species composition, and ecosystem processes at the boreal-temperate ecotone. The experiment includes two forested sites in northern Minnesota, USA, with plots in both open (recently clear-cut) and closed canopy habitats, where seedlings of 11 tree species were planted into native ground vegetation. Treatments include three target levels of plant canopy and soil warming (ambient, +1.7°C, +3.4°C). Warming was achieved by independent feedback control of voltage input to aboveground infrared heaters and belowground buried resistance heating cables in each of 72-7.0 m(2) plots. The treatments emulated patterns of observed diurnal, seasonal, and annual temperatures but with superimposed warming. For the 2009 to 2011 field seasons, we achieved temperature elevations near our targets with growing season overall mean differences (∆Tbelow ) of +1.84°C and +3.66°C at 10 cm soil depth and (∆T(above) ) of +1.82°C and +3.45°C for the plant canopies. We also achieved measured soil warming to at least 1 m depth. Aboveground treatment stability and control were better during nighttime than daytime and in closed vs. open canopy sites in part due to calmer conditions. Heating efficacy in open canopy areas was reduced with increasing canopy complexity and size. Results of this study suggest the warming approach is scalable: it should work well in small-statured vegetation such as grasslands, desert, agricultural crops, and tree saplings (<5 m tall). © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  16. Ocean acidification and warming scenarios increase microbioerosion of coral skeletons.

    PubMed

    Reyes-Nivia, Catalina; Diaz-Pulido, Guillermo; Kline, David; Guldberg, Ove-Hoegh; Dove, Sophie

    2013-06-01

    Biological mediation of carbonate dissolution represents a fundamental component of the destructive forces acting on coral reef ecosystems. Whereas ocean acidification can increase dissolution of carbonate substrates, the combined impact of ocean acidification and warming on the microbioerosion of coral skeletons remains unknown. Here, we exposed skeletons of the reef-building corals, Porites cylindrica and Isopora cuneata, to present-day (Control: 400 μatm - 24 °C) and future pCO2 -temperature scenarios projected for the end of the century (Medium: +230 μatm - +2 °C; High: +610 μatm - +4 °C). Skeletons were also subjected to permanent darkness with initial sodium hypochlorite incubation, and natural light without sodium hypochlorite incubation to isolate the environmental effect of acidic seawater (i.e., Ωaragonite <1) from the biological effect of photosynthetic microborers. Our results indicated that skeletal dissolution is predominantly driven by photosynthetic microborers, as samples held in the dark did not decalcify. In contrast, dissolution of skeletons exposed to light increased under elevated pCO2 -temperature scenarios, with P. cylindrica experiencing higher dissolution rates per month (89%) than I. cuneata (46%) in the high treatment relative to control. The effects of future pCO2 -temperature scenarios on the structure of endolithic communities were only identified in P. cylindrica and were mostly associated with a higher abundance of the green algae Ostreobium spp. Enhanced skeletal dissolution was also associated with increased endolithic biomass and respiration under elevated pCO2 -temperature scenarios. Our results suggest that future projections of ocean acidification and warming will lead to increased rates of microbioerosion. However, the magnitude of bioerosion responses may depend on the structural properties of coral skeletons, with a range of implications for reef carbonate losses under warmer and more acidic oceans. © 2013

  17. Warming increases the sensitivity of seedling growth capacity to rainfall in six temperate deciduous tree species

    PubMed Central

    Smith, Nicholas G; Hoeppner, Susanne S; Dukes, Jeffrey S

    2018-01-01

    Abstract Predicting the effects of climate change on tree species and communities is critical for understanding the future state of our forested ecosystems. We used a fully factorial precipitation (three levels; ambient, −50 % ambient, +50 % ambient) by warming (four levels; up to +4 °C) experiment in an old-field ecosystem in the northeastern USA to study the climatic sensitivity of seedlings of six native tree species. We measured whole plant-level responses: survival, total leaf area (TLA), seedling insect herbivory damage, as well as leaf-level responses: specific leaf area (SLA), leaf-level water content (LWC), foliar nitrogen (N) concentration, foliar carbon (C) concentration and C:N ratio of each of these deciduous species in each treatment across a single growing season. We found that canopy warming dramatically increased the sensitivity of plant growth (measured as TLA) to rainfall across all species. Warm, dry conditions consistently reduced TLA and also reduced leaf C:N in four species (Acer rubrum, Betula lenta, Prunus serotina, Ulmus americana), primarily as a result of reduced foliar C, not increased foliar N. Interestingly, these conditions also harmed the other two species in different ways, increasing either mortality (Populus grandidentata) or herbivory (Quercus rubra). Specific leaf area and LWC varied across species, but did not show strong treatment responses. Our results indicate that, in the northeastern USA, dry years in a future warmer environment could have damaging effects on the growth capacity of these early secondary successional forests, through species-specific effects on leaf production (total leaves and leaf C), herbivory and mortality. PMID:29484151

  18. Soil warming increased whole-tree water use of Pinus cembra at the treeline in the Central Tyrolean Alps.

    PubMed

    Wieser, Gerhard; Grams, Thorsten E E; Matyssek, Rainer; Oberhuber, Walter; Gruber, Andreas

    2015-03-01

    This study quantified the effect of soil warming on sap flow density (Qs) of Pinus cembra L. at the treeline in the Central Tyrolean Alps. To enhance soil temperature we installed a transparent roof construction above the forest floor around six trees. Six other trees served as controls in the absence of any manipulation. Roofing enhanced growing season mean soil temperature by 1.6, 1.3 and 1.0 °C at 5, 10 and 20 cm soil depth, respectively, while soil water availability was not affected. Sap flow density (using Granier-type thermal dissipation probes) and environmental parameters were monitored throughout three growing seasons. During the first year of treatment, no warming effect was detected on Qs. However, soil warming caused Qs to increase significantly by 11 and 19% above levels in control trees during the second and third year, respectively. This effect appeared to result from warming-induced root production, a reduction in viscosity and perhaps an increase also in root hydraulic conductivity. Hardly affected were leaf-level net CO2 uptake rate and conductance for water vapour, so that water-use efficiency stayed unchanged as confirmed by needle δ(13)C analysis. We conclude that tree water loss will increase with soil warming, which may alter the water balance within the treeline ecotone of the Central Austrian Alps in a future warming environment. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  19. Ecosystem warming increases sap flow rates of northern red oak trees

    DOE PAGES

    Juice, Stephanie M.; Templer, Pamela H.; Phillips, Nathan G.; ...

    2016-03-17

    Over the next century, air temperature increases up to 5°C are projected for the northeastern United States. As evapotranspiration strongly influences water loss from terrestrial ecosystems, the ecophysiological response of trees to warming will have important consequences for forest water budgets. We measured growing season sap flow rates in mature northern red oak ( Quercus rubra L.) trees in a combined air (up to 5.5°C above ambient) and soil (up to 1.85°C above ambient at 6-cm depth) warming experiment at Harvard Forest, Massachusetts, United States. Through principal components analysis, we found air and soil temperatures explained the largest amount ofmore » variance in environmental variables associated with rates of sap flow, with relative humidity, photosynthetically active radiation and vapor pressure deficit having significant, but smaller, effects. On average, each 1°C increase in temperature increased sap flow rates by approximately 1100 kg H 2O m -2 sapwood area day-1 throughout the growing season and by 1200 kg H 2O m -2 sapwood area day -1 during the early growing season. Reductions in the number of cold winter days correlated positively with increased sap flow during the early growing season (a decrease in 100 heating-degree days was associated with a sapflow increase in approximately 5 kg H 2O m -2 sapwood area day -1). Soil moisture declined with increased treatment temperatures, and each soil moisture percentage decrease resulted in a decrease in sap flow of approximately 360 kg H2O m -22 sapwood area day -1. At night, soil moisture correlated positively with sap flow. Finally, these results demonstrate that warmer air and soil temperatures in winter and throughout the growing season lead to increased sap flow rates, which could affect forest water budgets throughout the year.« less

  20. Ecosystem warming increases sap flow rates of northern red oak trees

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Juice, Stephanie M.; Templer, Pamela H.; Phillips, Nathan G.

    Over the next century, air temperature increases up to 5°C are projected for the northeastern United States. As evapotranspiration strongly influences water loss from terrestrial ecosystems, the ecophysiological response of trees to warming will have important consequences for forest water budgets. We measured growing season sap flow rates in mature northern red oak ( Quercus rubra L.) trees in a combined air (up to 5.5°C above ambient) and soil (up to 1.85°C above ambient at 6-cm depth) warming experiment at Harvard Forest, Massachusetts, United States. Through principal components analysis, we found air and soil temperatures explained the largest amount ofmore » variance in environmental variables associated with rates of sap flow, with relative humidity, photosynthetically active radiation and vapor pressure deficit having significant, but smaller, effects. On average, each 1°C increase in temperature increased sap flow rates by approximately 1100 kg H 2O m -2 sapwood area day-1 throughout the growing season and by 1200 kg H 2O m -2 sapwood area day -1 during the early growing season. Reductions in the number of cold winter days correlated positively with increased sap flow during the early growing season (a decrease in 100 heating-degree days was associated with a sapflow increase in approximately 5 kg H 2O m -2 sapwood area day -1). Soil moisture declined with increased treatment temperatures, and each soil moisture percentage decrease resulted in a decrease in sap flow of approximately 360 kg H2O m -22 sapwood area day -1. At night, soil moisture correlated positively with sap flow. Finally, these results demonstrate that warmer air and soil temperatures in winter and throughout the growing season lead to increased sap flow rates, which could affect forest water budgets throughout the year.« less

  1. Global warming increases the interspecific competitiveness of the invasive plant alligator weed, Alternanthera philoxeroides.

    PubMed

    Wu, Hao; Ismail, Mohannad; Ding, Jianqing

    2017-01-01

    Global warming could accelerate the spread of invasive species to higher latitudes and intensify their effects on native species. Here, we report results of two years of field surveys along a latitudinal gradient (21°N to 31°N) in southern China, to determine the species structure of the invasive plant Alternanthera philoxeroides community. We also performed a replacement series experiment (mono and mixed) to evaluate the effects of elevated temperature on the competitiveness of A. philoxeroides with the native co-occurring species Digitaria sanguinalis. In the field survey, we found that the dominance of A. philoxeroides increased with increasing of latitude gradient while cover of D. sanguinalis decreased. In monospecific plantings, artificial warming reduced the length of D. sanguinalis roots. In mixed plantings, warming reduced both A. philoxeroides abundance and D. sanguinalis stem length when A. philoxeroides was more prevalent in the planting. Warming also significantly reduced D. sanguinalis biomass, but increased that of A. philoxeroides. In addition, elevated temperatures significantly reduced the relative yield (RY) of D. sanguinalis, particularly when A. philoxeroides was planted in higher proportion in the plot. These results suggest that the invasiveness of A. philoxeroides increased with increasing latitude, and that warming may increase the effectiveness of its interspecific competition with D. sanguinalis. Hence, under global warming conditions, the harm to native species from A. philoxeroides would increase at higher latitudes. Our findings are critical for predicting the invasiveness of alien species under climate change. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Land–atmosphere feedbacks amplify aridity increase over land under global warming

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Berg, Alexis; Findell, Kirsten; Lintner, Benjamin; Giannini, Alessandra; Seneviratne, Sonia I.; van den Hurk, Bart; Lorenz, Ruth; Pitman, Andy; Hagemann, Stefan; Meier, Arndt; Cheruy, Frédérique; Ducharne, Agnès; Malyshev, Sergey; Milly, Paul C. D.

    2016-01-01

    The response of the terrestrial water cycle to global warming is central to issues including water resources, agriculture and ecosystem health. Recent studies indicate that aridity, defined in terms of atmospheric supply (precipitation, P) and demand (potential evapotranspiration, Ep) of water at the land surface, will increase globally in a warmer world. Recently proposed mechanisms for this response emphasize the driving role of oceanic warming and associated atmospheric processes. Here we show that the aridity response is substantially amplified by land–atmosphere feedbacks associated with the land surface’s response to climate and CO2 change. Using simulations from the Global Land Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (GLACE)-CMIP5 experiment, we show that global aridity is enhanced by the feedbacks of projected soil moisture decrease on land surface temperature, relative humidity and precipitation. The physiological impact of increasing atmospheric CO2 on vegetation exerts a qualitatively similar control on aridity. We reconcile these findings with previously proposed mechanisms by showing that the moist enthalpy change over land is unaffected by the land hydrological response. Thus, although oceanic warming constrains the combined moisture and temperature changes over land, land hydrology modulates the partitioning of this enthalpy increase towards increased aridity.

  3. Increased resource use efficiency amplifies positive response of aquatic primary production to experimental warming.

    PubMed

    Hood, James M; Benstead, Jonathan P; Cross, Wyatt F; Huryn, Alexander D; Johnson, Philip W; Gíslason, Gísli M; Junker, James R; Nelson, Daniel; Ólafsson, Jón S; Tran, Chau

    2018-03-01

    Climate warming is affecting the structure and function of river ecosystems, including their role in transforming and transporting carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P). Predicting how river ecosystems respond to warming has been hindered by a dearth of information about how otherwise well-studied physiological responses to temperature scale from organismal to ecosystem levels. We conducted an ecosystem-level temperature manipulation to quantify how coupling of stream ecosystem metabolism and nutrient uptake responded to a realistic warming scenario. A ~3.3°C increase in mean water temperature altered coupling of C, N, and P fluxes in ways inconsistent with single-species laboratory experiments. Net primary production tripled during the year of experimental warming, while whole-stream N and P uptake rates did not change, resulting in 289% and 281% increases in autotrophic dissolved inorganic N and P use efficiency (UE), respectively. Increased ecosystem production was a product of unexpectedly large increases in mass-specific net primary production and autotroph biomass, supported by (i) combined increases in resource availability (via N mineralization and N 2 fixation) and (ii) elevated resource use efficiency, the latter associated with changes in community structure. These large changes in C and nutrient cycling could not have been predicted from the physiological effects of temperature alone. Our experiment provides clear ecosystem-level evidence that warming can shift the balance between C and nutrient cycling in rivers, demonstrating that warming will alter the important role of in-stream processes in C, N, and P transformations. Moreover, our results reveal a key role for nutrient supply and use efficiency in mediating responses of primary producers to climate warming. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  4. Increased ventilation of Antarctic deep water during the warm mid-Pliocene.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Zhongshi; Nisancioglu, Kerim H; Ninnemann, Ulysses S

    2013-01-01

    The mid-Pliocene warm period is a recent warm geological period that shares similarities with predictions of future climate. It is generally held the mid-Pliocene Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation must have been stronger, to explain a weak Atlantic meridional δ(13)C gradient and large northern high-latitude warming. However, climate models do not simulate such stronger Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, when forced with mid-Pliocene boundary conditions. Proxy reconstructions allow for an alternative scenario that the weak δ(13)C gradient can be explained by increased ventilation and reduced stratification in the Southern Ocean. Here this alternative scenario is supported by simulations with the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM-L), which simulate an intensified and slightly poleward shifted wind field off Antarctica, giving enhanced ventilation and reduced stratification in the Southern Ocean. Our findings challenge the prevailing theory and show how increased Southern Ocean ventilation can reconcile existing model-data discrepancies about Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation while explaining fundamental ocean features.

  5. Increased ventilation of Antarctic deep water during the warm mid-Pliocene

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Zhongshi; Nisancioglu, Kerim H.; Ninnemann, Ulysses S.

    2013-01-01

    The mid-Pliocene warm period is a recent warm geological period that shares similarities with predictions of future climate. It is generally held the mid-Pliocene Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation must have been stronger, to explain a weak Atlantic meridional δ13C gradient and large northern high-latitude warming. However, climate models do not simulate such stronger Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, when forced with mid-Pliocene boundary conditions. Proxy reconstructions allow for an alternative scenario that the weak δ13C gradient can be explained by increased ventilation and reduced stratification in the Southern Ocean. Here this alternative scenario is supported by simulations with the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM-L), which simulate an intensified and slightly poleward shifted wind field off Antarctica, giving enhanced ventilation and reduced stratification in the Southern Ocean. Our findings challenge the prevailing theory and show how increased Southern Ocean ventilation can reconcile existing model-data discrepancies about Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation while explaining fundamental ocean features. PMID:23422667

  6. Global warming precipitation accumulation increases above the current-climate cutoff scale

    PubMed Central

    Sahany, Sandeep; Stechmann, Samuel N.; Bernstein, Diana N.

    2017-01-01

    Precipitation accumulations, integrated over rainfall events, can be affected by both intensity and duration of the storm event. Thus, although precipitation intensity is widely projected to increase under global warming, a clear framework for predicting accumulation changes has been lacking, despite the importance of accumulations for societal impacts. Theory for changes in the probability density function (pdf) of precipitation accumulations is presented with an evaluation of these changes in global climate model simulations. We show that a simple set of conditions implies roughly exponential increases in the frequency of the very largest accumulations above a physical cutoff scale, increasing with event size. The pdf exhibits an approximately power-law range where probability density drops slowly with each order of magnitude size increase, up to a cutoff at large accumulations that limits the largest events experienced in current climate. The theory predicts that the cutoff scale, controlled by the interplay of moisture convergence variance and precipitation loss, tends to increase under global warming. Thus, precisely the large accumulations above the cutoff that are currently rare will exhibit increases in the warmer climate as this cutoff is extended. This indeed occurs in the full climate model, with a 3 °C end-of-century global-average warming yielding regional increases of hundreds of percent to >1,000% in the probability density of the largest accumulations that have historical precedents. The probabilities of unprecedented accumulations are also consistent with the extension of the cutoff. PMID:28115693

  7. Global warming precipitation accumulation increases above the current-climate cutoff scale

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Neelin, J. David; Sahany, Sandeep; Stechmann, Samuel N.; Bernstein, Diana N.

    2017-02-01

    Precipitation accumulations, integrated over rainfall events, can be affected by both intensity and duration of the storm event. Thus, although precipitation intensity is widely projected to increase under global warming, a clear framework for predicting accumulation changes has been lacking, despite the importance of accumulations for societal impacts. Theory for changes in the probability density function (pdf) of precipitation accumulations is presented with an evaluation of these changes in global climate model simulations. We show that a simple set of conditions implies roughly exponential increases in the frequency of the very largest accumulations above a physical cutoff scale, increasing with event size. The pdf exhibits an approximately power-law range where probability density drops slowly with each order of magnitude size increase, up to a cutoff at large accumulations that limits the largest events experienced in current climate. The theory predicts that the cutoff scale, controlled by the interplay of moisture convergence variance and precipitation loss, tends to increase under global warming. Thus, precisely the large accumulations above the cutoff that are currently rare will exhibit increases in the warmer climate as this cutoff is extended. This indeed occurs in the full climate model, with a 3 °C end-of-century global-average warming yielding regional increases of hundreds of percent to >1,000% in the probability density of the largest accumulations that have historical precedents. The probabilities of unprecedented accumulations are also consistent with the extension of the cutoff.

  8. Global warming precipitation accumulation increases above the current-climate cutoff scale

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Neelin, J. David; Sahany, Sandeep; Stechmann, Samuel N.

    Precipitation accumulations, integrated over rainfall events, can be affected by both intensity and duration of the storm event. Thus, although precipitation intensity is widely projected to increase under global warming, a clear framework for predicting accumulation changes has been lacking, despite the importance of accumulations for societal impacts. Theory for changes in the probability density function (pdf) of precipitation accumulations is presented with an evaluation of these changes in global climate model simulations. We show that a simple set of conditions implies roughly exponential increases in the frequency of the very largest accumulations above a physical cutoff scale, increasing withmore » event size. The pdf exhibits an approximately power-law range where probability density drops slowly with each order of magnitude size increase, up to a cutoff at large accumulations that limits the largest events experienced in current climate. The theory predicts that the cutoff scale, controlled by the interplay of moisture convergence variance and precipitation loss, tends to increase under global warming. Thus, precisely the large accumulations above the cutoff that are currently rare will exhibit increases in the warmer climate as this cutoff is extended. This indeed occurs in the full climate model, with a 3 °C end-of-century global-average warming yielding regional increases of hundreds of percent to >1,000% in the probability density of the largest accumulations that have historical precedents. The probabilities of unprecedented accumulations are also consistent with the extension of the cutoff.« less

  9. Global warming precipitation accumulation increases above the current-climate cutoff scale.

    PubMed

    Neelin, J David; Sahany, Sandeep; Stechmann, Samuel N; Bernstein, Diana N

    2017-02-07

    Precipitation accumulations, integrated over rainfall events, can be affected by both intensity and duration of the storm event. Thus, although precipitation intensity is widely projected to increase under global warming, a clear framework for predicting accumulation changes has been lacking, despite the importance of accumulations for societal impacts. Theory for changes in the probability density function (pdf) of precipitation accumulations is presented with an evaluation of these changes in global climate model simulations. We show that a simple set of conditions implies roughly exponential increases in the frequency of the very largest accumulations above a physical cutoff scale, increasing with event size. The pdf exhibits an approximately power-law range where probability density drops slowly with each order of magnitude size increase, up to a cutoff at large accumulations that limits the largest events experienced in current climate. The theory predicts that the cutoff scale, controlled by the interplay of moisture convergence variance and precipitation loss, tends to increase under global warming. Thus, precisely the large accumulations above the cutoff that are currently rare will exhibit increases in the warmer climate as this cutoff is extended. This indeed occurs in the full climate model, with a 3 °C end-of-century global-average warming yielding regional increases of hundreds of percent to >1,000% in the probability density of the largest accumulations that have historical precedents. The probabilities of unprecedented accumulations are also consistent with the extension of the cutoff.

  10. Global warming precipitation accumulation increases above the current-climate cutoff scale

    DOE PAGES

    Neelin, J. David; Sahany, Sandeep; Stechmann, Samuel N.; ...

    2017-01-23

    Precipitation accumulations, integrated over rainfall events, can be affected by both intensity and duration of the storm event. Thus, although precipitation intensity is widely projected to increase under global warming, a clear framework for predicting accumulation changes has been lacking, despite the importance of accumulations for societal impacts. Theory for changes in the probability density function (pdf) of precipitation accumulations is presented with an evaluation of these changes in global climate model simulations. We show that a simple set of conditions implies roughly exponential increases in the frequency of the very largest accumulations above a physical cutoff scale, increasing withmore » event size. The pdf exhibits an approximately power-law range where probability density drops slowly with each order of magnitude size increase, up to a cutoff at large accumulations that limits the largest events experienced in current climate. The theory predicts that the cutoff scale, controlled by the interplay of moisture convergence variance and precipitation loss, tends to increase under global warming. Thus, precisely the large accumulations above the cutoff that are currently rare will exhibit increases in the warmer climate as this cutoff is extended. This indeed occurs in the full climate model, with a 3 °C end-of-century global-average warming yielding regional increases of hundreds of percent to >1,000% in the probability density of the largest accumulations that have historical precedents. The probabilities of unprecedented accumulations are also consistent with the extension of the cutoff.« less

  11. The effects of warmed intravenous fluids, combined warming (warmed intravenous fluids with humid-warm oxygen), and pethidine on the severity of shivering in general anesthesia patients in the recovery room

    PubMed Central

    Nasiri, Ahmad; Akbari, Ayob; Sharifzade, GholamReza; Derakhshan, Pooya

    2015-01-01

    Background: Shivering is a common complication of general and epidural anesthesia. Warming methods and many drugs are used for control of shivering in the recovery room. The present study is a randomized clinical trial aimed to investigate the effects of two interventions in comparison with pethidine which is the routine treatment on shivering in patients undergoing abdominal surgery with general anesthesia. Materials and Methods: Eighty-seven patients undergoing abdominal surgery by general anesthesia were randomly assigned to three groups (two intervention groups in comparison with pethidine as routine). Patients in warmed intravenous fluids group received pre-warmed Ringer serum (38°C), patients in combined warming group received pre-warmed Ringer serum (38°C) accompanied by humid-warm oxygen, and patients in pethidine group received intravenous pethidine routinely. The elapsed time of shivering and some hemodynamic parameters of the participants were assessed for 20 min postoperatively in the recovery room. Then the collected data were analyzed by software SPSS (v. 16) with the significance level being P < 0.05. Results: The mean of elapsed time in the warmed intravenous serum group, the combined warming group, and the pethidine group were 7 (1.5) min, 6 (1.5) min, and 2.8 (0.7) min, respectively, which was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The body temperatures in both combined warming and pethidine groups were increased significantly (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Combined warming can be effective in controlling postoperative shivering and body temperature increase. PMID:26793258

  12. Sustained acceleration of soil carbon decomposition observed in a 6-year warming experiment in a warm-temperate forest in southern Japan.

    PubMed

    Teramoto, Munemasa; Liang, Naishen; Takagi, Masahiro; Zeng, Jiye; Grace, John

    2016-10-17

    To examine global warming's effect on soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition in Asian monsoon forests, we conducted a soil warming experiment with a multichannel automated chamber system in a 55-year-old warm-temperate evergreen broadleaved forest in southern Japan. We established three treatments: control chambers for total soil respiration, trenched chambers for heterotrophic respiration (R h ), and warmed trenched chambers to examine warming effect on R h . The soil was warmed with an infrared heater above each chamber to increase soil temperature at 5 cm depth by about 2.5 °C. The warming treatment lasted from January 2009 to the end of 2014. The annual warming effect on R h (an increase per °C) ranged from 7.1 to17.8% °C -1 . Although the warming effect varied among the years, it averaged 9.4% °C -1 over 6 years, which was close to the value of 10.1 to 10.9% °C -1 that we calculated using the annual temperature-efflux response model of Lloyd and Taylor. The interannual warming effect was positively related to the total precipitation in the summer period, indicating that summer precipitation and the resulting soil moisture level also strongly influenced the soil warming effect in this forest.

  13. Sustained acceleration of soil carbon decomposition observed in a 6-year warming experiment in a warm-temperate forest in southern Japan

    PubMed Central

    Teramoto, Munemasa; Liang, Naishen; Takagi, Masahiro; Zeng, Jiye; Grace, John

    2016-01-01

    To examine global warming’s effect on soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition in Asian monsoon forests, we conducted a soil warming experiment with a multichannel automated chamber system in a 55-year-old warm-temperate evergreen broadleaved forest in southern Japan. We established three treatments: control chambers for total soil respiration, trenched chambers for heterotrophic respiration (Rh), and warmed trenched chambers to examine warming effect on Rh. The soil was warmed with an infrared heater above each chamber to increase soil temperature at 5 cm depth by about 2.5 °C. The warming treatment lasted from January 2009 to the end of 2014. The annual warming effect on Rh (an increase per °C) ranged from 7.1 to17.8% °C−1. Although the warming effect varied among the years, it averaged 9.4% °C−1 over 6 years, which was close to the value of 10.1 to 10.9% °C−1 that we calculated using the annual temperature–efflux response model of Lloyd and Taylor. The interannual warming effect was positively related to the total precipitation in the summer period, indicating that summer precipitation and the resulting soil moisture level also strongly influenced the soil warming effect in this forest. PMID:27748424

  14. Facing warm temperatures during migration: cardiac mRNA responses of two adult Oncorhynchus nerka populations to warming and swimming challenges.

    PubMed

    Anttila, K; Eliason, E J; Kaukinen, K H; Miller, K M; Farrell, A P

    2014-05-01

    The main findings of the current study were that exposing adult sockeye salmon Onchorhynchus nerka to a warm temperature that they regularly encounter during their river migration induced a heat shock response at an mRNA level, and this response was exacerbated with forced swimming. Similar to the heat shock response, increased immune defence-related responses were also observed after warm temperature treatment and with a swimming challenge in two different populations (Chilko and Nechako), but with some important differences. Microarray analyses revealed that 347 genes were differentially expressed between the cold (12-13° C) and warm (18-19° C) treated fish, with stress response (GO:0006950) and response to fungus (GO:0009620) elevated with warm treatment, while expression for genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation (GO:0006119) and electron transport chain (GO:0022900) elevated for cold-treated fish. Analysis of single genes with real-time quantitative PCR revealed that temperature had the most significant effect on mRNA expression levels, with swimming and population having secondary influences. Warm temperature treatment for the Chilko population induced expression of heat shock protein (hsp) 90α, hsp90β and hsp30 as well as interferon-inducible protein. The Nechako population, which is known to have a narrower thermal tolerance window than the Chilko population, showed even more pronounced stress responses to the warm treatment and there was significant interaction between population and temperature treatment for hsp90β expression. Moreover, significant interactions were noted between temperature treatment and swimming challenge for hsp90α and hsp30, and while swimming challenge alone increased expression of these hsps, the expression levels were significantly elevated in warm-treated fish swum to exhaustion. In conclusion, it seems that adult O. nerka currently encounter conditions that induce several cellular defence mechanisms during their once

  15. Experimental warming of a mountain tundra increases soil CO2 effluxes and enhances CH4 and N2O uptake at Changbai Mountain, China

    PubMed Central

    Zhou, Yumei; Hagedorn, Frank; Zhou, Chunliang; Jiang, Xiaojie; Wang, Xiuxiu; Li, Mai-He

    2016-01-01

    Climatic warming is expected to particularly alter greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from soils in cold ecosystems such as tundra. We used 1 m2 open-top chambers (OTCs) during three growing seasons to examine how warming (+0.8–1.2 °C) affects the fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) from alpine tundra soils. Results showed that OTC warming increased soil CO2 efflux by 141% in the first growing season and by 45% in the second and third growing season. The mean CH4 flux of the three growing seasons was −27.6 and −16.7 μg CH4-C m−2h−1 in the warmed and control treatment, respectively. Fluxes of N2O switched between net uptake and emission. Warming didn’t significantly affect N2O emission during the first and the second growing season, but stimulated N2O uptake in the third growing season. The global warming potential of GHG was clearly dominated by soil CO2 effluxes (>99%) and was increased by the OTC warming. In conclusion, soil temperature is the main controlling factor for soil respiration in this tundra. Climate warming will lead to higher soil CO2 emissions but also to an enhanced CH4 uptake with an overall increase of the global warming potential for tundra. PMID:26880107

  16. Why does tropical convective available potential energy (CAPE) increase with warming?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Seeley, Jacob T.; Romps, David M.

    2015-12-01

    Recent work has produced a theory for tropical convective available potential energy (CAPE) that highlights the Clausius-Clapeyron (CC) scaling of the atmosphere's saturation deficit as a driver of increases in CAPE with warming. Here we test this so-called "zero-buoyancy" theory for CAPE by modulating the saturation deficit of cloud-resolving simulations of radiative-convective equilibrium in two ways: changing the sea surface temperature (SST) and changing the environmental relative humidity (RH). For earthlike and warmer SSTs, undilute parcel buoyancy in the lower troposphere is insensitive to increasing SST because of a countervailing CC scaling that balances the increase in the saturation deficit; however, buoyancy increases dramatically with SST in the upper troposphere. Conversely, in the RH experiment, undilute buoyancy throughout the troposphere increases monotonically with decreasing RH. We show that the zero-buoyancy theory successfully predicts these contrasting behaviors, building confidence that it describes the fundamental physics of CAPE and its response to warming.

  17. Ocean warming increases threat of invasive species in a marine fouling community.

    PubMed

    Sorte, Cascade J B; Williams, Susan L; Zerebecki, Robyn A

    2010-08-01

    We addressed the potential for climate change to facilitate invasions and precipitate shifts in community composition by testing effects of ocean warming on species in a marine fouling community in Bodega Harbor, Bodega Bay, California, USA. First, we determined that introduced species tolerated significantly higher temperatures than natives, suggesting that climate change will have a disproportionately negative impact on native species. Second, we assessed the temperature dependence of survival and growth by exposing juveniles to an ambient control temperature and increased temperatures predicted by ocean warming scenarios (+3 degrees C and +4.5 degrees C) in laboratory mesocosms. We found that responses differed between species, species origins, and demographic processes. Based on the temperature tolerance, survival, and growth results, we predict that, as ocean temperatures increase, native species will decrease in abundance, whereas introduced species are likely to increase in this system. Facilitation of invasions by climate change may already be underway; locally, invasive dominance has increased concurrent with ocean warming over the past approximately 40 years. We suggest that the effects of climate change on communities can occur via both direct impacts on the diversity and abundance of native species and indirect effects due to increased dominance of introduced species.

  18. Soil microbial responses to warming and increased precipitation and their implications for ecosystem C cycling.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Naili; Liu, Weixing; Yang, Haijun; Yu, Xingjun; Gutknecht, Jessica L M; Zhang, Zhe; Wan, Shiqiang; Ma, Keping

    2013-11-01

    A better understanding of soil microbial ecology is critical to gaining an understanding of terrestrial carbon (C) cycle-climate change feedbacks. However, current knowledge limits our ability to predict microbial community dynamics in the face of multiple global change drivers and their implications for respiratory loss of soil carbon. Whether microorganisms will acclimate to climate warming and ameliorate predicted respiratory C losses is still debated. It also remains unclear how precipitation, another important climate change driver, will interact with warming to affect microorganisms and their regulation of respiratory C loss. We explore the dynamics of microorganisms and their contributions to respiratory C loss using a 4-year (2006-2009) field experiment in a semi-arid grassland with increased temperature and precipitation in a full factorial design. We found no response of mass-specific (per unit microbial biomass C) heterotrophic respiration to warming, suggesting that respiratory C loss is directly from microbial growth rather than total physiological respiratory responses to warming. Increased precipitation did stimulate both microbial biomass and mass-specific respiration, both of which make large contributions to respiratory loss of soil carbon. Taken together, these results suggest that, in semi-arid grasslands, soil moisture and related substrate availability may inhibit physiological respiratory responses to warming (where soil moisture was significantly lower), while they are not inhibited under elevated precipitation. Although we found no total physiological response to warming, warming increased bacterial C utilization (measured by BIOLOG EcoPlates) and increased bacterial oxidation of carbohydrates and phenols. Non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis as well as ANOVA testing showed that warming or increased precipitation did not change microbial community structure, which could suggest that microbial communities in semi-arid grasslands are

  19. Warming increases nutrient mobilization and gaseous nitrogen removal from sediments across cascade reservoirs.

    PubMed

    Zhou, Xingpeng; Chen, Nengwang; Yan, Zhihao; Duan, Shuiwang

    2016-12-01

    Increases in water temperature, as a result of climate change, may influence biogeochemical cycles, sediment-water fluxes and consequently environmental sustainability. Effects of rising temperature on dynamics of nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP), dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and gaseous nitrogen (N 2 and N 2 O) were examined in a subtropical river (the Jiulong River, southeast China) by microcosm experiments. Slurry sediments and overlying water were collected from three continuous cascade reservoirs, and laboratory incubations were performed at four temperature gradients (5 °C, 15 °C, 25 °C and 35 °C). Results indicated: (1) warming considerably increased sediment ammonium, DIN and DOC fluxes to overlying water; (2) warming increased retention of nitrate, and to a lesser extent, nitrite, corresponding to increases in N 2 and N 2 O emission; (3) DRP was retained but released from Fe/Al-P enriched sediments at high temperature (35 °C) due to enhanced coupled transformation of carbon and nitrogen with oxygen deficiency. Using relationships between sediment fluxes and temperature, a projected 2.3°C-warming in future would increase ammonium flux from sediment by 7.0%-16.8%, while increasing nitrate flux into sediment by 8.9%-28.6%. Moreover, substrates (e.g., grain size, carbon availability) influenced nutrient delivery and cycling across cascade reservoirs. This study highlights that warming would increase bioreactive nutrient (i.e., ammonium and phosphate) mobilization with limited gaseous N removal from sediments, consequently deteriorating water quality and increasing eutrophication with future climate change. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Warming Ocean Conditions Relate to Increased Trophic Requirements of Threatened and Endangered Salmon

    PubMed Central

    Daly, Elizabeth A.; Brodeur, Richard D.

    2015-01-01

    The trophic habits, size and condition of yearling Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) caught early in their marine residence were examined during 19 survey years (1981–1985; 1998–2011). Juvenile salmon consumed distinct highly piscivorous diets in cold and warm ocean regimes with major differences between ocean regimes driven by changes in consumption of juvenile rockfishes, followed by several other fish prey, adult euphausiids and decapod larvae. Notable, Chinook salmon consumed 30% more food in the warm versus cold ocean regime in both May and June. Additionally, there were about 30% fewer empty stomachs in the warm ocean regime in May, and 10% fewer in warm June periods. The total prey energy density consumed during the warmer ocean regime was also significantly higher than in cold. Chinook salmon had lower condition factor and were smaller in fork length during the warm ocean regime, and were longer and heavier for their size during the cold ocean regime. The significant increase in foraging during the warm ocean regime occurred concurrently with lower available prey biomass. Adult return rates of juvenile Chinook salmon that entered the ocean during a warm ocean regime were lower. Notably, our long term data set contradicts the long held assertion that juvenile salmon eat less in a warm ocean regime when low growth and survival is observed, and when available prey are reduced. Comparing diet changes between decades under variable ocean conditions may assist us in understanding the effects of projected warming ocean regimes on juvenile Chinook salmon and their survival in the ocean environment. Bioenergetically, the salmon appear to require more food resources during warm ocean regimes. PMID:26675673

  1. Warming Ocean Conditions Relate to Increased Trophic Requirements of Threatened and Endangered Salmon.

    PubMed

    Daly, Elizabeth A; Brodeur, Richard D

    2015-01-01

    The trophic habits, size and condition of yearling Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) caught early in their marine residence were examined during 19 survey years (1981-1985; 1998-2011). Juvenile salmon consumed distinct highly piscivorous diets in cold and warm ocean regimes with major differences between ocean regimes driven by changes in consumption of juvenile rockfishes, followed by several other fish prey, adult euphausiids and decapod larvae. Notable, Chinook salmon consumed 30% more food in the warm versus cold ocean regime in both May and June. Additionally, there were about 30% fewer empty stomachs in the warm ocean regime in May, and 10% fewer in warm June periods. The total prey energy density consumed during the warmer ocean regime was also significantly higher than in cold. Chinook salmon had lower condition factor and were smaller in fork length during the warm ocean regime, and were longer and heavier for their size during the cold ocean regime. The significant increase in foraging during the warm ocean regime occurred concurrently with lower available prey biomass. Adult return rates of juvenile Chinook salmon that entered the ocean during a warm ocean regime were lower. Notably, our long term data set contradicts the long held assertion that juvenile salmon eat less in a warm ocean regime when low growth and survival is observed, and when available prey are reduced. Comparing diet changes between decades under variable ocean conditions may assist us in understanding the effects of projected warming ocean regimes on juvenile Chinook salmon and their survival in the ocean environment. Bioenergetically, the salmon appear to require more food resources during warm ocean regimes.

  2. Sea Surface Warming and Increased Aridity at Mid-latitudes during Eocene Thermal Maximum 2

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Harper, D. T.; Zeebe, R. E.; Hoenisch, B.; Schrader, C.; Lourens, L. J.; Zachos, J. C.

    2017-12-01

    Early Eocene hyperthermals, i.e. abrupt global warming events characterized by the release of isotopically light carbon to the atmosphere, can provide insight into the sensitivity of the Earth's climate system and hydrologic cycle to carbon emissions. Indeed, the largest Eocene hyperthermal, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), has provided one case study of extreme and abrupt global warming, with a mass of carbon release roughly equivalent to total modern fossil fuel reserves and a release rate 1/10 that of modern. Global sea surface temperatures (SST) increased by 5-8°C during the PETM and extensive evidence from marine and terrestrial records indicates significant shifts in the hydrologic cycle consistent with an increase in poleward moisture transport in response to surface warming. The second largest Eocene hyperthermal, Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 (ETM-2) provides an additional calibration point for determining the sensitivity of climate and the hydrologic cycle to massive carbon release. Marine carbon isotope excursions (CIE) and warming at the ETM-2 were roughly half as large as at the PETM, but reliable evidence for shifts in temperature and the hydrologic cycle are sparse for the ETM-2. Here, we utilize coupled planktic foraminiferal δ18O and Mg/Ca to determine ΔSST and ΔSSS (changes in sea surface temperature and salinity) for ETM-2 at ODP Sites 1209 (28°N paleolatitude in the Pacific) and 1265 (42°S paleolatitude in the S. Atlantic), accounting for potential pH influence on the two proxies by using LOSCAR climate-carbon cycle simulated ΔpH. Our results indicate a warming of 2-4°C at both mid-latitude sites and an increase in SSS of 1-3ppt, consistent with simulations of early Paleogene hydroclimate that suggest an increase in low- to mid-latitude aridity due to an intensification of moisture transport to high-latitudes. Furthermore, the magnitude of the CIE and warming for ETM-2 scales with the CIE and warming for the PETM, suggesting that

  3. Warming shifts 'worming': effects of experimental warming on invasive earthworms in northern North America.

    PubMed

    Eisenhauer, Nico; Stefanski, Artur; Fisichelli, Nicholas A; Rice, Karen; Rich, Roy; Reich, Peter B

    2014-11-03

    Climate change causes species range shifts and potentially alters biological invasions. The invasion of European earthworm species across northern North America has severe impacts on native ecosystems. Given the long and cold winters in that region that to date supposedly have slowed earthworm invasion, future warming is hypothesized to accelerate earthworm invasions into yet non-invaded regions. Alternatively, warming-induced reductions in soil water content (SWC) can also decrease earthworm performance. We tested these hypotheses in a field warming experiment at two sites in Minnesota, USA by sampling earthworms in closed and open canopy in three temperature treatments in 2010 and 2012. Structural equation modeling revealed that detrimental warming effects on earthworm densities and biomass could indeed be partly explained by warming-induced reductions in SWC. The direction of warming effects depended on the current average SWC: warming had neutral to positive effects at high SWC, whereas the opposite was true at low SWC. Our results suggest that warming limits the invasion of earthworms in northern North America by causing less favorable soil abiotic conditions, unless warming is accompanied by increased and temporally even distributions of rainfall sufficient to offset greater water losses from higher evapotranspiration.

  4. Vocal warm-up increases phonation threshold pressure in soprano singers at high pitch.

    PubMed

    Motel, Tamara; Fisher, Kimberly V; Leydon, Ciara

    2003-06-01

    Vocal warm-up is thought to optimize singing performance. We compared effects of short-term, submaximal, vocal warm-up exercise with those of vocal rest on the soprano voice (n = 10, ages 19-21 years). Dependent variables were the minimum subglottic air pressure required for vocal fold oscillation to occur (phonation threshold pressure, Pth), and the maximum and minimum phonation fundamental frequency. Warm-up increased Pth for high pitch phonation (p = 0.033), but not for comfortable (p = 0.297) or low (p = 0.087) pitch phonation. No significant difference in the maximum phonation frequency (p = 0.193) or minimum frequency (p = 0.222) was observed. An elevated Pth at controlled high pitch, but an unchanging maximum and minimum frequency production suggests that short-term vocal exercise may increase the viscosity of the vocal fold and thus serve to stabilize the high voice.

  5. Soil warming increases metabolic quotients of soil microorganisms without changes in temperature sensitivity of soil respiration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marañón-Jiménez, Sara; Soong, Jenniffer L.; Leblans, Niki I. W.; Sigurdsson, Bjarni D.; Dauwe, Steven; Fransen, Erik; Janssens, Ivan A.

    2017-04-01

    Increasing temperatures can accelerate soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition and release large amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere, potentially inducing climate change feedbacks. Alterations to the temperature sensitivity and metabolic pathways of soil microorganisms in response to soil warming can play a key role in these soil carbon (C) losses. Here, we present results of an incubation experiment using soils from a geothermal gradient in Iceland that have been subjected to different intensities of soil warming (+0, +1, +3, +5, +10 and +20 °C above ambient) over seven years. We hypothesized that 7 years of soil warming would led to a depletion of labile organic substrates, with a subsequent decrease of the "apparent" temperature sensitivity of soil respiration. Associated to this C limitation and more sub-optimal conditions for microbial growth, we also hypothesized increased microbial metabolic quotients (soil respiration per unit of microbial biomass), which is associated with increases in the relative amount of C invested into catabolic pathways along the warming gradient. Soil respiration and basal respiration rates decreased with soil warming intensity, in parallel with a decline in soil C availability. Contrasting to our first hypothesis, we did not detect changes in the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration with soil warming or on the availability of nutrients and of labile C substrates at the time of incubation. However, in agreement to our second hypothesis, microbial metabolic quotients (soil respiration per unit of microbial biomass) increased at warmer temperatures, while the C retained in biomass decreased as substrate became limiting. Long-term (7 years) temperature increases thus triggered a change in the metabolic functioning of the soil microbial communities towards increasing energy costs for maintenance or resource acquisition, thereby lowering the capacity of C retention and stabilization of warmed soils. These results highlight the need

  6. Daytime warming has stronger negative effects on soil nematodes than night-time warming.

    PubMed

    Yan, Xiumin; Wang, Kehong; Song, Lihong; Wang, Xuefeng; Wu, Donghui

    2017-03-07

    Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, that is, stronger warming during night-time than during daytime. Here we focus on how soil nematodes respond to the current asymmetric warming. A field infrared heating experiment was performed in the western of the Songnen Plain, Northeast China. Three warming modes, i.e. daytime warming, night-time warming and diurnal warming, were taken to perform the asymmetric warming condition. Our results showed that the daytime and diurnal warming treatment significantly decreased soil nematodes density, and night-time warming treatment marginally affected the density. The response of bacterivorous nematode and fungivorous nematode to experimental warming showed the same trend with the total density. Redundancy analysis revealed an opposite effect of soil moisture and soil temperature, and the most important of soil moisture and temperature in night-time among the measured environment factors, affecting soil nematode community. Our findings suggested that daily minimum temperature and warming induced drying are most important factors affecting soil nematode community under the current global asymmetric warming.

  7. Daytime warming has stronger negative effects on soil nematodes than night-time warming.

    PubMed

    Yan, Xiumin; Wang, Kehong; Song, Lihong; Wang, Xuefeng; Wu, Donghui

    2017-03-20

    Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, that is, stronger warming during night-time than during daytime. Here we focus on how soil nematodes respond to the current asymmetric warming. A field infrared heating experiment was performed in the western of the Songnen Plain, Northeast China. Three warming modes, i.e. daytime warming, night-time warming and diurnal warming, were taken to perform the asymmetric warming condition. Our results showed that the daytime and diurnal warming treatment significantly decreased soil nematodes density, and night-time warming treatment marginally affected the density. The response of bacterivorous nematode and fungivorous nematode to experimental warming showed the same trend with the total density. Redundancy analysis revealed an opposite effect of soil moisture and soil temperature, and the most important of soil moisture and temperature in night-time among the measured environment factors, affecting soil nematode community. Our findings suggested that daily minimum temperature and warming induced drying are most important factors affecting soil nematode community under the current global asymmetric warming.

  8. Daytime warming has stronger negative effects on soil nematodes than night-time warming

    PubMed Central

    Yan, Xiumin; Wang, Kehong; Song, Lihong; Wang, Xuefeng; Wu, Donghui

    2017-01-01

    Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, that is, stronger warming during night-time than during daytime. Here we focus on how soil nematodes respond to the current asymmetric warming. A field infrared heating experiment was performed in the western of the Songnen Plain, Northeast China. Three warming modes, i.e. daytime warming, night-time warming and diurnal warming, were taken to perform the asymmetric warming condition. Our results showed that the daytime and diurnal warming treatment significantly decreased soil nematodes density, and night-time warming treatment marginally affected the density. The response of bacterivorous nematode and fungivorous nematode to experimental warming showed the same trend with the total density. Redundancy analysis revealed an opposite effect of soil moisture and soil temperature, and the most important of soil moisture and temperature in night-time among the measured environment factors, affecting soil nematode community. Our findings suggested that daily minimum temperature and warming induced drying are most important factors affecting soil nematode community under the current global asymmetric warming. PMID:28317914

  9. Daytime warming has stronger negative effects on soil nematodes than night-time warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yan, Xiumin; Wang, Kehong; Song, Lihong; Wang, Xuefeng; Wu, Donghui

    2017-03-01

    Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, that is, stronger warming during night-time than during daytime. Here we focus on how soil nematodes respond to the current asymmetric warming. A field infrared heating experiment was performed in the western of the Songnen Plain, Northeast China. Three warming modes, i.e. daytime warming, night-time warming and diurnal warming, were taken to perform the asymmetric warming condition. Our results showed that the daytime and diurnal warming treatment significantly decreased soil nematodes density, and night-time warming treatment marginally affected the density. The response of bacterivorous nematode and fungivorous nematode to experimental warming showed the same trend with the total density. Redundancy analysis revealed an opposite effect of soil moisture and soil temperature, and the most important of soil moisture and temperature in night-time among the measured environment factors, affecting soil nematode community. Our findings suggested that daily minimum temperature and warming induced drying are most important factors affecting soil nematode community under the current global asymmetric warming.

  10. Light and heavy fractions of soil organic matter in response to climate warming and increased precipitation in a temperate steppe.

    PubMed

    Song, Bing; Niu, Shuli; Zhang, Zhe; Yang, Haijun; Li, Linghao; Wan, Shiqiang

    2012-01-01

    Soil is one of the most important carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools and plays a crucial role in ecosystem C and N cycling. Climate change profoundly affects soil C and N storage via changing C and N inputs and outputs. However, the influences of climate warming and changing precipitation regime on labile and recalcitrant fractions of soil organic C and N remain unclear. Here, we investigated soil labile and recalcitrant C and N under 6 years' treatments of experimental warming and increased precipitation in a temperate steppe in Northern China. We measured soil light fraction C (LFC) and N (LFN), microbial biomass C (MBC) and N (MBN), dissolved organic C (DOC) and heavy fraction C (HFC) and N (HFN). The results showed that increased precipitation significantly stimulated soil LFC and LFN by 16.1% and 18.5%, respectively, and increased LFC:HFC ratio and LFN:HFN ratio, suggesting that increased precipitation transferred more soil organic carbon into the quick-decayed carbon pool. Experimental warming reduced soil labile C (LFC, MBC, and DOC). In contrast, soil heavy fraction C and N, and total C and N were not significantly impacted by increased precipitation or warming. Soil labile C significantly correlated with gross ecosystem productivity, ecosystem respiration and soil respiration, but not with soil moisture and temperature, suggesting that biotic processes rather than abiotic factors determine variations in soil labile C. Our results indicate that certain soil carbon fraction is sensitive to climate change in the temperate steppe, which may in turn impact ecosystem carbon fluxes in response and feedback to climate change.

  11. Methane Cycling in a Warming Wetland

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Noyce, G. L.; Megonigal, P.; Rich, R.; Kirwan, M. L.; Herbert, E. R.

    2017-12-01

    Coastal wetlands are global hotspots of carbon (C) storage, but the future of these systems is uncertain. In June 2016, we initiated an in-situ, active, whole-ecosystem warming experiment in the Smithsonian's Global Change Research Wetland to quantify how warming and elevated CO2 affect the stability of coastal wetland soil C pools and contemporary rates of C sequestration. Transects are located in two plant communities, dominated by C3 sedges or C4 grasses. The experiment has a gradient design with air and soil warming treatments ranging from ambient to +5.1 °C and heated plots consistently maintain their target temperature year-round. In April 2017, an elevated CO2 treatment was crossed with temperature in the C3community. Ongoing measurements include soil elevation, C fluxes, porewater chemistry and redox potential, and above- and below-ground growth and biomass. In both years, warming increased methane (CH4) emissions (measured at 3-4 week intervals) from spring through fall at the C3 site, but had little effect on emissions from the C4 site. Winter (Dec-Mar) emissions showed no treatment effect. Stable isotope analysis of dissolved CH4 and DIC also indicated that warming had differing effects on CH4 pathways in the two vegetation communities. To better understand temperature effects on rates of CH4 production and oxidation, 1 m soil cores were collected from control areas of the marsh in summer 2017 and incubated at temperatures ranging from 4 °C to 35 °C. Warming increased CH4 production and oxidation rates in surface samples and oxidation rates in the rooting zone samples from both sites, but temperature responses in deep (1 m) soil samples were minimal. In the surface and rooting zone samples, production rates were also consistently higher in C3 soils compared to C4 soils, but, contrary to our expectations, the temperature response was stronger in the C4 soils. However, oxidation in C3 rooting zone samples did have a strong temperature response. The

  12. Warming shifts ‘worming': effects of experimental warming on invasive earthworms in northern North America

    PubMed Central

    Eisenhauer, Nico; Stefanski, Artur; Fisichelli, Nicholas A.; Rice, Karen; Rich, Roy; Reich, Peter B.

    2014-01-01

    Climate change causes species range shifts and potentially alters biological invasions. The invasion of European earthworm species across northern North America has severe impacts on native ecosystems. Given the long and cold winters in that region that to date supposedly have slowed earthworm invasion, future warming is hypothesized to accelerate earthworm invasions into yet non-invaded regions. Alternatively, warming-induced reductions in soil water content (SWC) can also decrease earthworm performance. We tested these hypotheses in a field warming experiment at two sites in Minnesota, USA by sampling earthworms in closed and open canopy in three temperature treatments in 2010 and 2012. Structural equation modeling revealed that detrimental warming effects on earthworm densities and biomass could indeed be partly explained by warming-induced reductions in SWC. The direction of warming effects depended on the current average SWC: warming had neutral to positive effects at high SWC, whereas the opposite was true at low SWC. Our results suggest that warming limits the invasion of earthworms in northern North America by causing less favorable soil abiotic conditions, unless warming is accompanied by increased and temporally even distributions of rainfall sufficient to offset greater water losses from higher evapotranspiration. PMID:25363633

  13. Future Warming Increases Global Maize Yield Variability with Implications for Food Markets

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tigchelaar, M.; Battisti, D. S.; Naylor, R. L.; Ray, D. K.

    2017-12-01

    If current trends in population growth and dietary shifts continue, the world will need to produce about 70% more food by 2050, while earth's climate is rapidly changing. Rising temperatures in particular are projected to negatively impact agricultural production, as the world's staple crops perform poorly in extreme heat. Theoretical models suggest that as temperatures rise above plants' optimal temperature for performance, not only will mean yields decline rapidly, but the variability of yields will increase, even as interannual variations in climate remain unchanged. Here we use global datasets of maize production and climate variability combined with CMIP5 temperature projections to quantify how yield variability will change in major maize producing countries under 2°C and 4°C of global warming. Maize is the world's most produced crop, and is linked to other staple crops through substitution in consumption and production. We find that in warmer climates - absent any breeding gains in heat tolerance - the Coefficient of Variation (CV) of maize yields increases almost everywhere, to values much larger than present-day. This increase in CV is due both to an increase in the standard deviation of yields, and a decrease in mean yields. In locations where crop failures become the norm under high (4°C) warming (mostly in tropical, low-yield environments), the standard deviation of yields ultimately decreases. The probability that in any given year the most productive areas in the top three maize producing countries (United States, China, Brazil) have simultaneous production losses greater than 10% is virtually zero under present-day climate conditions, but increases to 12% under 2°C warming, and 89% under 4°C warming. This has major implications for global food markets and staple crop prices, affecting especially the 2.5 billion people that comprise the world's poor, who already spend the majority of their disposable income on food and are particularly vulnerable

  14. Light and Heavy Fractions of Soil Organic Matter in Response to Climate Warming and Increased Precipitation in a Temperate Steppe

    PubMed Central

    Song, Bing; Niu, Shuli; Zhang, Zhe; Yang, Haijun; Li, Linghao; Wan, Shiqiang

    2012-01-01

    Soil is one of the most important carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) pools and plays a crucial role in ecosystem C and N cycling. Climate change profoundly affects soil C and N storage via changing C and N inputs and outputs. However, the influences of climate warming and changing precipitation regime on labile and recalcitrant fractions of soil organic C and N remain unclear. Here, we investigated soil labile and recalcitrant C and N under 6 years' treatments of experimental warming and increased precipitation in a temperate steppe in Northern China. We measured soil light fraction C (LFC) and N (LFN), microbial biomass C (MBC) and N (MBN), dissolved organic C (DOC) and heavy fraction C (HFC) and N (HFN). The results showed that increased precipitation significantly stimulated soil LFC and LFN by 16.1% and 18.5%, respectively, and increased LFC∶HFC ratio and LFN∶HFN ratio, suggesting that increased precipitation transferred more soil organic carbon into the quick-decayed carbon pool. Experimental warming reduced soil labile C (LFC, MBC, and DOC). In contrast, soil heavy fraction C and N, and total C and N were not significantly impacted by increased precipitation or warming. Soil labile C significantly correlated with gross ecosystem productivity, ecosystem respiration and soil respiration, but not with soil moisture and temperature, suggesting that biotic processes rather than abiotic factors determine variations in soil labile C. Our results indicate that certain soil carbon fraction is sensitive to climate change in the temperate steppe, which may in turn impact ecosystem carbon fluxes in response and feedback to climate change. PMID:22479373

  15. Climate warming increases biological control agent impact on a non-target species

    PubMed Central

    Lu, Xinmin; Siemann, Evan; He, Minyan; Wei, Hui; Shao, Xu; Ding, Jianqing

    2015-01-01

    Climate change may shift interactions of invasive plants, herbivorous insects and native plants, potentially affecting biological control efficacy and non-target effects on native species. Here, we show how climate warming affects impacts of a multivoltine introduced biocontrol beetle on the non-target native plant Alternanthera sessilis in China. In field surveys across a latitudinal gradient covering their full distributions, we found beetle damage on A. sessilis increased with rising temperature and plant life history changed from perennial to annual. Experiments showed that elevated temperature changed plant life history and increased insect overwintering, damage and impacts on seedling recruitment. These results suggest that warming can shift phenologies, increase non-target effect magnitude and increase non-target effect occurrence by beetle range expansion to additional areas where A. sessilis occurs. This study highlights the importance of understanding how climate change affects species interactions for future biological control of invasive species and conservation of native species. PMID:25376303

  16. Warming and drought reduce temperature sensitivity of nitrogen transformations.

    PubMed

    Novem Auyeung, Dolaporn S; Suseela, Vidya; Dukes, Jeffrey S

    2013-02-01

    Shifts in nitrogen (N) mineralization and nitrification rates due to global changes can influence nutrient availability, which can affect terrestrial productivity and climate change feedbacks. While many single-factor studies have examined the effects of environmental changes on N mineralization and nitrification, few have examined these effects in a multifactor context or recorded how these effects vary seasonally. In an old-field ecosystem in Massachusetts, USA, we investigated the combined effects of four levels of warming (up to 4 °C) and three levels of precipitation (drought, ambient, and wet) on net N mineralization, net nitrification, and potential nitrification. We also examined the treatment effects on the temperature sensitivity of net N mineralization and net nitrification and on the ratio of C mineralization to net N mineralization. During winter, freeze-thaw events, snow depth, and soil freezing depth explained little of the variation in net nitrification and N mineralization rates among treatments. During two years of treatments, warming and altered precipitation rarely influenced the rates of N cycling, and there was no evidence of a seasonal pattern in the responses. In contrast, warming and drought dramatically decreased the apparent Q10 of net N mineralization and net nitrification, and the warming-induced decrease in apparent Q10 was more pronounced in ambient and wet treatments than the drought treatment. The ratio of C mineralization to net N mineralization varied over time and was sensitive to the interactive effects of warming and altered precipitation. Although many studies have found that warming tends to accelerate N cycling, our results suggest that warming can have little to no effect on N cycling in some ecosystems. Thus, ecosystem models that assume that warming will consistently increase N mineralization rates and inputs of plant-available N may overestimate the increase in terrestrial productivity and the magnitude of an important

  17. Seagrass ecophysiological performance under ocean warming and acidification.

    PubMed

    Repolho, Tiago; Duarte, Bernardo; Dionísio, Gisela; Paula, José Ricardo; Lopes, Ana R; Rosa, Inês C; Grilo, Tiago F; Caçador, Isabel; Calado, Ricardo; Rosa, Rui

    2017-02-01

    Seagrasses play an essential ecological role within coastal habitats and their worldwide population decline has been linked to different types of anthropogenic forces. We investigated, for the first time, the combined effects of future ocean warming and acidification on fundamental biological processes of Zostera noltii, including shoot density, leaf coloration, photophysiology (electron transport rate, ETR; maximum PSII quantum yield, F v /F m ) and photosynthetic pigments. Shoot density was severely affected under warming conditions, with a concomitant increase in the frequency of brownish colored leaves (seagrass die-off). Warming was responsible for a significant decrease in ETR and F v /F m (particularly under control pH conditions), while promoting the highest ETR variability (among experimental treatments). Warming also elicited a significant increase in pheophytin and carotenoid levels, alongside an increase in carotenoid/chlorophyll ratio and De-Epoxidation State (DES). Acidification significantly affected photosynthetic pigments content (antheraxanthin, β-carotene, violaxanthin and zeaxanthin), with a significant decrease being recorded under the warming scenario. No significant interaction between ocean acidification and warming was observed. Our findings suggest that future ocean warming will be a foremost determinant stressor influencing Z. noltii survival and physiological performance. Additionally, acidification conditions to occur in the future will be unable to counteract deleterious effects posed by ocean warming.

  18. Seagrass ecophysiological performance under ocean warming and acidification

    PubMed Central

    Repolho, Tiago; Duarte, Bernardo; Dionísio, Gisela; Paula, José Ricardo; Lopes, Ana R.; Rosa, Inês C.; Grilo, Tiago F.; Caçador, Isabel; Calado, Ricardo; Rosa, Rui

    2017-01-01

    Seagrasses play an essential ecological role within coastal habitats and their worldwide population decline has been linked to different types of anthropogenic forces. We investigated, for the first time, the combined effects of future ocean warming and acidification on fundamental biological processes of Zostera noltii, including shoot density, leaf coloration, photophysiology (electron transport rate, ETR; maximum PSII quantum yield, Fv/Fm) and photosynthetic pigments. Shoot density was severely affected under warming conditions, with a concomitant increase in the frequency of brownish colored leaves (seagrass die-off). Warming was responsible for a significant decrease in ETR and Fv/Fm (particularly under control pH conditions), while promoting the highest ETR variability (among experimental treatments). Warming also elicited a significant increase in pheophytin and carotenoid levels, alongside an increase in carotenoid/chlorophyll ratio and De-Epoxidation State (DES). Acidification significantly affected photosynthetic pigments content (antheraxanthin, β-carotene, violaxanthin and zeaxanthin), with a significant decrease being recorded under the warming scenario. No significant interaction between ocean acidification and warming was observed. Our findings suggest that future ocean warming will be a foremost determinant stressor influencing Z. noltii survival and physiological performance. Additionally, acidification conditions to occur in the future will be unable to counteract deleterious effects posed by ocean warming. PMID:28145531

  19. Indirect aerosol effect increases CMIP5 models projected Arctic warming

    DOE PAGES

    Chylek, Petr; Vogelsang, Timothy J.; Klett, James D.; ...

    2016-02-20

    Phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) climate models’ projections of the 2014–2100 Arctic warming under radiative forcing from representative concentration pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5) vary from 0.9° to 6.7°C. Climate models with or without a full indirect aerosol effect are both equally successful in reproducing the observed (1900–2014) Arctic warming and its trends. However, the 2014–2100 Arctic warming and the warming trends projected by models that include a full indirect aerosol effect (denoted here as AA models) are significantly higher (mean projected Arctic warming is about 1.5°C higher) than those projected by models without a full indirect aerosolmore » effect (denoted here as NAA models). The suggestion is that, within models including full indirect aerosol effects, those projecting stronger future changes are not necessarily distinguishable historically because any stronger past warming may have been partially offset by stronger historical aerosol cooling. In conclusion, the CMIP5 models that include a full indirect aerosol effect follow an inverse radiative forcing to equilibrium climate sensitivity relationship, while models without it do not.« less

  20. Indirect aerosol effect increases CMIP5 models projected Arctic warming

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chylek, Petr; Vogelsang, Timothy J.; Klett, James D.

    Phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) climate models’ projections of the 2014–2100 Arctic warming under radiative forcing from representative concentration pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5) vary from 0.9° to 6.7°C. Climate models with or without a full indirect aerosol effect are both equally successful in reproducing the observed (1900–2014) Arctic warming and its trends. However, the 2014–2100 Arctic warming and the warming trends projected by models that include a full indirect aerosol effect (denoted here as AA models) are significantly higher (mean projected Arctic warming is about 1.5°C higher) than those projected by models without a full indirect aerosolmore » effect (denoted here as NAA models). The suggestion is that, within models including full indirect aerosol effects, those projecting stronger future changes are not necessarily distinguishable historically because any stronger past warming may have been partially offset by stronger historical aerosol cooling. In conclusion, the CMIP5 models that include a full indirect aerosol effect follow an inverse radiative forcing to equilibrium climate sensitivity relationship, while models without it do not.« less

  1. Will Invertebrates Require Increasingly Carbon-Rich Food in a Warming World?

    PubMed

    Anderson, Thomas R; Hessen, Dag O; Boersma, Maarten; Urabe, Jotaro; Mayor, Daniel J

    2017-12-01

    Elevated temperature causes metabolism and respiration to increase in poikilothermic organisms. We hypothesized that invertebrate consumers will therefore require increasingly carbon-rich diets in a warming environment because the increased energetic demands are primarily met using compounds rich in carbon, that is, carbohydrates and lipids. Here, we test this hypothesis using a new stoichiometric model that has carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) as currencies. Model predictions did not support the hypothesis, indicating instead that the nutritional requirements of invertebrates, at least in terms of food quality expressed as C∶N ratio, may change little, if at all, at elevated temperature. Two factors contribute to this conclusion. First, invertebrates facing limitation by nutrient elements such as N have, by default, excess C in their food that can be used to meet the increased demand for energy in a warming environment, without recourse to extra dietary C. Second, increased feeding at elevated temperature compensates for the extra demands of metabolism to the extent that, when metabolism and intake scale equally with temperature (have the same Q 10 ), the relative requirement for dietary C and N remains unaltered. Our analysis demonstrates that future climate-driven increases in the C∶N ratios of autotroph biomass will likely exacerbate the stoichiometric mismatch between nutrient-limited invertebrate grazers and their food, with important consequences for C sequestration and nutrient cycling in ecosystems.

  2. Amplified Arctic warming by phytoplankton under greenhouse warming.

    PubMed

    Park, Jong-Yeon; Kug, Jong-Seong; Bader, Jürgen; Rolph, Rebecca; Kwon, Minho

    2015-05-12

    Phytoplankton have attracted increasing attention in climate science due to their impacts on climate systems. A new generation of climate models can now provide estimates of future climate change, considering the biological feedbacks through the development of the coupled physical-ecosystem model. Here we present the geophysical impact of phytoplankton, which is often overlooked in future climate projections. A suite of future warming experiments using a fully coupled ocean-atmosphere model that interacts with a marine ecosystem model reveals that the future phytoplankton change influenced by greenhouse warming can amplify Arctic surface warming considerably. The warming-induced sea ice melting and the corresponding increase in shortwave radiation penetrating into the ocean both result in a longer phytoplankton growing season in the Arctic. In turn, the increase in Arctic phytoplankton warms the ocean surface layer through direct biological heating, triggering additional positive feedbacks in the Arctic, and consequently intensifying the Arctic warming further. Our results establish the presence of marine phytoplankton as an important potential driver of the future Arctic climate changes.

  3. Amplified Arctic warming by phytoplankton under greenhouse warming

    PubMed Central

    Park, Jong-Yeon; Kug, Jong-Seong; Bader, Jürgen; Rolph, Rebecca; Kwon, Minho

    2015-01-01

    Phytoplankton have attracted increasing attention in climate science due to their impacts on climate systems. A new generation of climate models can now provide estimates of future climate change, considering the biological feedbacks through the development of the coupled physical–ecosystem model. Here we present the geophysical impact of phytoplankton, which is often overlooked in future climate projections. A suite of future warming experiments using a fully coupled ocean−atmosphere model that interacts with a marine ecosystem model reveals that the future phytoplankton change influenced by greenhouse warming can amplify Arctic surface warming considerably. The warming-induced sea ice melting and the corresponding increase in shortwave radiation penetrating into the ocean both result in a longer phytoplankton growing season in the Arctic. In turn, the increase in Arctic phytoplankton warms the ocean surface layer through direct biological heating, triggering additional positive feedbacks in the Arctic, and consequently intensifying the Arctic warming further. Our results establish the presence of marine phytoplankton as an important potential driver of the future Arctic climate changes. PMID:25902494

  4. Warming-Induced Changes to the Molecular Composition of Soil Organic Matter

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Feng, X.; Simpson, M. J.; Simpson, A. J.; Wilson, K. P.; Williams, D.

    2007-12-01

    Soil organic matter (SOM) contains two times more carbon than the atmosphere and the potential changes to SOM quantity and quality with global warming are a major concern. It is commonly believed that global warming will accelerate the decomposition of labile SOM compounds while refractory SOM constituents will remain stable. However, experimental evidence of molecular-level changes to SOM composition with global warming is currently lacking. Here we employ SOM biomarkers and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to study SOM composition and degradation in a soil warming experiment in southern Ontario, Canada. The soil warming experiment consisted of a control and a treatment plot in a mixed forest that had a temperature difference of about 5 degrees C for 14 months. Before soil warming the control and treatment plots had the same organic carbon (OC) content and SOM composition. Soil warming significantly increased soil OC content and the abundance of cutin-derived carbon originating from leaf tissues and decreased carbohydrates that are regarded as easily degradable. Lignin components, which are believed to be part of the stable and slowly-cycling SOM, were observed to be in an advanced stage of degradation. This observation is corroborated by increases in fungal biomass in the warmed soil because fungi are considered the primary decomposer of lignin in the soil environment. An NMR study of SOM in the warmed and control plots indicates that alkyl carbon, mainly originating from plant cuticles in the soil, increased in the warmed soil while O-alkyl carbon, primarily occurring in carbohydrates, decreased. Aromatic and phenolic carbon regions, which include the main structures found in lignin, decreased in the warmed soil. These data collectively suggest that there is a great potential for lignin degradation with soil warming, and that the refractory (aromatic) soil carbon storage may be reduced as a result of increased fungal growth in a warmer climate.

  5. Responses of two nonlinear microbial models to warming and increased carbon input

    DOE PAGES

    Wang, Y. P.; Jiang, J.; Chen-Charpentier, Benito; ...

    2016-02-18

    A number of nonlinear microbial models of soil carbon decomposition have been developed. Some of them have been applied globally but have yet to be shown to realistically represent soil carbon dynamics in the field. A thorough analysis of their key differences is needed to inform future model developments. In this paper, we compare two nonlinear microbial models of soil carbon decomposition: one based on reverse Michaelis–Menten kinetics (model A) and the other on regular Michaelis–Menten kinetics (model B). Using analytic approximations and numerical solutions, we find that the oscillatory responses of carbon pools to a small perturbation in theirmore » initial pool sizes dampen faster in model A than in model B. Soil warming always decreases carbon storage in model A, but in model B it predominantly decreases carbon storage in cool regions and increases carbon storage in warm regions. For both models, the CO 2 efflux from soil carbon decomposition reaches a maximum value some time after increased carbon input (as in priming experiments). This maximum CO 2 efflux (F max) decreases with an increase in soil temperature in both models. However, the sensitivity of F max to the increased amount of carbon input increases with soil temperature in model A but decreases monotonically with an increase in soil temperature in model B. These differences in the responses to soil warming and carbon input between the two nonlinear models can be used to discern which model is more realistic when compared to results from field or laboratory experiments. Lastly, these insights will contribute to an improved understanding of the significance of soil microbial processes in soil carbon responses to future climate change.« less

  6. Warming and drought combine to increase pest insect fitness on urban trees

    PubMed Central

    Frank, Steven D.

    2017-01-01

    Urban habitats are characterized by impervious surfaces, which increase temperatures and reduce water availability to plants. The effects of these conditions on herbivorous insects are not well understood, but may provide insight into future conditions. Three primary hypotheses have been proposed to explain why multiple herbivorous arthropods are more abundant and damaging in cities, and support has been found for each. First, less complex vegetation may reduce biological control of pests. Second, plant stress can increase plant quality for pests. And third, urban warming can directly increase pest fitness and abundance. These hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, and the effects of temperature and plant stress are particularly related. Thus, we test the hypothesis that urban warming and drought stress combine to increase the fitness and abundance of the scale insect, Melanaspis tenebricosa, an urban tree pest that is more abundant in urban than rural areas of the southeastern U.S. We did this by manipulating drought stress across an existing mosaic of urban warming. We found support for the additive effect of temperature and drought stress such that female embryo production and body size increased with temperature and was greater on drought-stressed than watered trees. This study provides further evidence that drivers of pest insect outbreaks act in concert, rather than independently, and calls for more research that manipulates multiple abiotic factors related to urbanization and climate change to predict their effects on ecological interactions. As cities expand and the climate changes, warmer temperatures and drought conditions may become more widespread in the native range of this pest. These changes have direct physiological benefits for M. tenebricosa, and potentially other pests, that may increase their fitness and abundance in urban and natural forests. PMID:28278206

  7. Responses of two nonlinear microbial models to warming and increased carbon input

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wang, Y. P.; Jiang, J.; Chen-Charpentier, Benito

    A number of nonlinear microbial models of soil carbon decomposition have been developed. Some of them have been applied globally but have yet to be shown to realistically represent soil carbon dynamics in the field. A thorough analysis of their key differences is needed to inform future model developments. In this paper, we compare two nonlinear microbial models of soil carbon decomposition: one based on reverse Michaelis–Menten kinetics (model A) and the other on regular Michaelis–Menten kinetics (model B). Using analytic approximations and numerical solutions, we find that the oscillatory responses of carbon pools to a small perturbation in theirmore » initial pool sizes dampen faster in model A than in model B. Soil warming always decreases carbon storage in model A, but in model B it predominantly decreases carbon storage in cool regions and increases carbon storage in warm regions. For both models, the CO 2 efflux from soil carbon decomposition reaches a maximum value some time after increased carbon input (as in priming experiments). This maximum CO 2 efflux (F max) decreases with an increase in soil temperature in both models. However, the sensitivity of F max to the increased amount of carbon input increases with soil temperature in model A but decreases monotonically with an increase in soil temperature in model B. These differences in the responses to soil warming and carbon input between the two nonlinear models can be used to discern which model is more realistic when compared to results from field or laboratory experiments. Lastly, these insights will contribute to an improved understanding of the significance of soil microbial processes in soil carbon responses to future climate change.« less

  8. Climate warming increases biological control agent impact on a non-target species.

    PubMed

    Lu, Xinmin; Siemann, Evan; He, Minyan; Wei, Hui; Shao, Xu; Ding, Jianqing

    2015-01-01

    Climate change may shift interactions of invasive plants, herbivorous insects and native plants, potentially affecting biological control efficacy and non-target effects on native species. Here, we show how climate warming affects impacts of a multivoltine introduced biocontrol beetle on the non-target native plant Alternanthera sessilis in China. In field surveys across a latitudinal gradient covering their full distributions, we found beetle damage on A. sessilis increased with rising temperature and plant life history changed from perennial to annual. Experiments showed that elevated temperature changed plant life history and increased insect overwintering, damage and impacts on seedling recruitment. These results suggest that warming can shift phenologies, increase non-target effect magnitude and increase non-target effect occurrence by beetle range expansion to additional areas where A. sessilis occurs. This study highlights the importance of understanding how climate change affects species interactions for future biological control of invasive species and conservation of native species. © 2014 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and CNRS.

  9. Effect of Global Warming and Increased Freshwater Flux on Northern Hemispheric Cooling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Girihagama, L. N.; Nof, D.

    2016-02-01

    We wish to answer the, fairly complicated, question of whether global warming and an increased freshwater flux can cause Northern Hemispheric warming or cooling. Starting from the assumption that the ocean is the primary source of variability in the Northern hemispheric ocean-atmosphere coupled system, we employed a simple non-linear one-dimensional coupled ocean-atmosphere model. The simplicity of the model allows us to analytically predict the evolution of many dynamical variables of interest such as, the strength of the Atlantic Meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), temperatures of the ocean and atmosphere, mass transports, salinity, and ocean-atmosphere heat fluxes. The model results show that a reduced AMOC transport due to an increased freshwater flux causes cooling in both the atmosphere and ocean in the North Atlantic (NA) deep-water formation region. Cooling in both the ocean and atmosphere can cause reduction of the ocean-atmosphere temperature difference, which in turn reduces heat fluxes in both the ocean and atmosphere. For present day climate parameters, the calculated critical freshwater flux needed to arrest AMOC is 0.08 Sv. For a constant atmospheric zonal flow, there is minimal reduction in the AMOC strength, as well as minimal warming of the ocean and atmosphere. This model provides a conceptual framework for a dynamically sound response of the ocean and atmosphere to AMOC variability as a function of increased freshwater flux. The results are qualitatively consistent with numerous realistic coupled numerical models of varying complexity.

  10. Increased stem density and competition may diminish the positive effects of warming at alpine treeline.

    PubMed

    Wang, Yafeng; Pederson, Neil; Ellison, Aaron M; Buckley, Hannah L; Case, Bradley S; Liang, Eryuan; Julio Camarero, J

    2016-07-01

    The most widespread response to global warming among alpine treeline ecotones is not an upward shift, but an increase in tree density. However, the impact of increasing density on interactions among trees at treeline is not well understood. Here, we test if treeline densification induced by climatic warming leads to increasing intraspecific competition. We mapped and measured the size and age of Smith fir trees growing in two treelines located in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. We used spatial point-pattern and codispersion analyses to describe the spatial association and covariation among seedlings, juveniles, and adults grouped in 30-yr age classes from the 1860s to the present. Effects of competition on tree height and regeneration were inferred from bivariate mark-correlations. Since the 1950s, a rapid densification occurred at both sites in response to climatic warming. Competition between adults and juveniles or seedlings at small scales intensified as density increased. Encroachment negatively affected height growth and further reduced recruitment around mature trees. We infer that tree recruitment at the studied treelines was more cold-limited prior to 1950 and shifted to a less temperature-constrained regime in response to climatic warming. Therefore, the ongoing densification and encroachment of alpine treelines could alter the way climate drives their transitions toward subalpine forests. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

  11. Increased transpiration and plant water stress in a black spruce bog exposed to whole ecosystem warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Warren, J.; Ward, E. J.; Wullschleger, S. D.; Hanson, P. J.

    2017-12-01

    The Spruce and Peatland Responses under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) experiment (http://mnspruce.ornl.gov/) in Northern Minnesota, USA, has exposed 12.8 m diameter plots of an ombrotrophic Picea mariana-Ericaceous shrub bog to whole ecosystem warming (0, +2.25, +4.5, +6.75, +9 °C) since August 2015, and elevated CO2 treatments (ambient or +500 ppm) since June 2016. The mixed-age stand has trees up to 40 year old, and a 5-8 m tall canopy. Thermal dissipation sap flow probes were installed into dominant Picea mariana and Larix laricina trees in each of the 10 open-top chambers in fall 2015. This talk will focus on the first two years of sap flux data from the 10 treatment plots and the relationships with seasonal growth and prevailing environmental conditions. Sap flow was scaled to whole tree and plot level transpiration based on prior in situ calibrations using cut trees, establishment of a sapwood depth: tree diameter relationship, and the tree size distribution within each plot. We also assessed water potential in the trees and two dominant shrubs at the site: Rhododendron groenlandicum and Chamaedaphne calyculata. The warming treatments increased the growing season by up to 6 weeks, with sapflow beginning earlier in spring and lasting later into the fall. The deciduous Larix was the only species exhibiting substantial predawn water stress under the treatments, where water potentials reached -2.5 MPa for the warmest plots. The elevated CO2 reduced midday water stress in the Rhododendron, but not the Chamaedaphne, which could lead to shifts in shrub species composition.

  12. Increasing potential for intense tropical and subtropical thunderstorms under global warming.

    PubMed

    Singh, Martin S; Kuang, Zhiming; Maloney, Eric D; Hannah, Walter M; Wolding, Brandon O

    2017-10-31

    Intense thunderstorms produce rapid cloud updrafts and may be associated with a range of destructive weather events. An important ingredient in measures of the potential for intense thunderstorms is the convective available potential energy (CAPE). Climate models project increases in summertime mean CAPE in the tropics and subtropics in response to global warming, but the physical mechanisms responsible for such increases and the implications for future thunderstorm activity remain uncertain. Here, we show that high percentiles of the CAPE distribution (CAPE extremes) also increase robustly with warming across the tropics and subtropics in an ensemble of state-of-the-art climate models, implying strong increases in the frequency of occurrence of environments conducive to intense thunderstorms in future climate projections. The increase in CAPE extremes is consistent with a recently proposed theoretical model in which CAPE depends on the influence of convective entrainment on the tropospheric lapse rate, and we demonstrate the importance of this influence for simulated CAPE extremes using a climate model in which the convective entrainment rate is varied. We further show that the theoretical model is able to account for the climatological relationship between CAPE and a measure of lower-tropospheric humidity in simulations and in observations. Our results provide a physical basis on which to understand projected future increases in intense thunderstorm potential, and they suggest that an important mechanism that contributes to such increases may be present in Earth's atmosphere. Published under the PNAS license.

  13. Increasing potential for intense tropical and subtropical thunderstorms under global warming

    PubMed Central

    Kuang, Zhiming; Maloney, Eric D.; Hannah, Walter M.; Wolding, Brandon O.

    2017-01-01

    Intense thunderstorms produce rapid cloud updrafts and may be associated with a range of destructive weather events. An important ingredient in measures of the potential for intense thunderstorms is the convective available potential energy (CAPE). Climate models project increases in summertime mean CAPE in the tropics and subtropics in response to global warming, but the physical mechanisms responsible for such increases and the implications for future thunderstorm activity remain uncertain. Here, we show that high percentiles of the CAPE distribution (CAPE extremes) also increase robustly with warming across the tropics and subtropics in an ensemble of state-of-the-art climate models, implying strong increases in the frequency of occurrence of environments conducive to intense thunderstorms in future climate projections. The increase in CAPE extremes is consistent with a recently proposed theoretical model in which CAPE depends on the influence of convective entrainment on the tropospheric lapse rate, and we demonstrate the importance of this influence for simulated CAPE extremes using a climate model in which the convective entrainment rate is varied. We further show that the theoretical model is able to account for the climatological relationship between CAPE and a measure of lower-tropospheric humidity in simulations and in observations. Our results provide a physical basis on which to understand projected future increases in intense thunderstorm potential, and they suggest that an important mechanism that contributes to such increases may be present in Earth’s atmosphere. PMID:29078312

  14. Differential responses of invasive and native plants to warming with simulated changes in diurnal temperature ranges.

    PubMed

    Chen, Bao-Ming; Gao, Yang; Liao, Hui-Xuan; Peng, Shao-Lin

    2017-07-01

    Although many studies have documented the effects of global warming on invasive plants, little is known about whether the effects of warming on plant invasion differ depending on the imposed change in different diurnal temperature ranges (DTR). We tested the impact of warming with DTR change on seed germination and seedling growth of eight species in the family Asteraceae. Four of these are invasive ( Eupatorium catarium , Mikania micrantha , Biodens pilosa var. radiate , Ageratum conyzoides ) in China, and four are native ( Sonchus arvensis , Senecios candens , Pterocypsela indica , Eupatorium fortunei ). Four temperature treatments were set in growth chambers (three warming by 3 °C with different DTRs and control), and experiments were run to mimic wintertime and summertime conditions. The control treatment ( T c ) was set to the mean temperature for the corresponding time of year, and the three warming treatments were symmetric (i.e. equal night-and-day) (DTR sym ), asymmetric warming with increased (DTR inc ) and decreased (DTR dec ) DTR. The warming treatments did not affect seed germination of invasive species under any of the conditions, but DTR sym and DTR inc increased seed germination of natives relative to the control, suggesting that warming may not increase success of these invasive plant species via effects on seed germination of invasive plants relative to native plants. The invasive plants had higher biomass and greater stem allocation than the native ones under all of the warming treatments. Wintertime warming increased the biomass of the invasive and wintertime DTR sym and DTR inc increased that of the native plants, whereas summertime asymmetric warming decreased the biomass of the invasives but not the natives. Therefore, warming may not facilitate invasion of these invasive species due to the suppressive effects of summertime warming (particularly the asymmetric warming) on growth. Compared with DTR sym , DTR dec decreased the biomass of

  15. Differential responses of invasive and native plants to warming with simulated changes in diurnal temperature ranges

    PubMed Central

    Chen, Bao-Ming; Gao, Yang; Liao, Hui-Xuan

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Although many studies have documented the effects of global warming on invasive plants, little is known about whether the effects of warming on plant invasion differ depending on the imposed change in different diurnal temperature ranges (DTR). We tested the impact of warming with DTR change on seed germination and seedling growth of eight species in the family Asteraceae. Four of these are invasive (Eupatorium catarium, Mikania micrantha, Biodens pilosa var. radiate, Ageratum conyzoides) in China, and four are native (Sonchus arvensis, Senecios candens, Pterocypsela indica, Eupatorium fortunei). Four temperature treatments were set in growth chambers (three warming by 3 °C with different DTRs and control), and experiments were run to mimic wintertime and summertime conditions. The control treatment (Tc) was set to the mean temperature for the corresponding time of year, and the three warming treatments were symmetric (i.e. equal night-and-day) (DTRsym), asymmetric warming with increased (DTRinc) and decreased (DTRdec) DTR. The warming treatments did not affect seed germination of invasive species under any of the conditions, but DTRsym and DTRinc increased seed germination of natives relative to the control, suggesting that warming may not increase success of these invasive plant species via effects on seed germination of invasive plants relative to native plants. The invasive plants had higher biomass and greater stem allocation than the native ones under all of the warming treatments. Wintertime warming increased the biomass of the invasive and wintertime DTRsym and DTRinc increased that of the native plants, whereas summertime asymmetric warming decreased the biomass of the invasives but not the natives. Therefore, warming may not facilitate invasion of these invasive species due to the suppressive effects of summertime warming (particularly the asymmetric warming) on growth. Compared with DTRsym, DTRdec decreased the biomass of both the invasive

  16. Warming increases methylmercury production in an Arctic soil

    DOE PAGES

    Yang, Ziming; Fang, Wei; Lu, Xia; ...

    2016-04-29

    The rapid temperature rise in Arctic permafrost concerns not only the degradation of stored soil organic carbon (SOC) and climate feedback, but also the production and bioaccumulation of methylmercury (MeHg) that may endanger humans, as well as wildlife in terrestrial, aquatic, and marine ecosystems. Decomposition of SOC provides an energy source for microbial methylation, although little is known how rapid permafrost thaw affects Hg methylation and how SOC degradation is coupled to MeHg biosynthesis. We describe rates of MeHg production in Arctic soils from an 8-month warming microcosm experiment under anoxic conditions. MeHg production increased >10 fold in both organic-more » and the mineral-rich soil layers at a warmer temperature (8 C) compared to a sub-zero temperature ( 2 C). MeHg production was positively correlated to methane and ferrous ion concentrations, suggesting that Hg methylation is coupled with methanogenesis and iron reduction. Labile SOC, such as reducing sugars and alcohol, were particularly effective in fueling the initial rapid biosynthesis of MeHg. In freshly amended Hg we found that there was more bioavailable than existing Hg in the mineral soil. Finally, the data indicate that climate warming and permafrost thaw could greatly enhance MeHg production, thereby impacting Arctic aquatic and marine ecosystems through biomagnification in the food web.« less

  17. Increasing water cycle extremes in California and in relation to ENSO cycle under global warming.

    PubMed

    Yoon, Jin-Ho; Wang, S-Y Simon; Gillies, Robert R; Kravitz, Ben; Hipps, Lawrence; Rasch, Philip J

    2015-10-21

    Since the winter of 2013-2014, California has experienced its most severe drought in recorded history, causing statewide water stress, severe economic loss and an extraordinary increase in wildfires. Identifying the effects of global warming on regional water cycle extremes, such as the ongoing drought in California, remains a challenge. Here we analyse large-ensemble and multi-model simulations that project the future of water cycle extremes in California as well as to understand those associations that pertain to changing climate oscillations under global warming. Both intense drought and excessive flooding are projected to increase by at least 50% towards the end of the twenty-first century; this projected increase in water cycle extremes is associated with a strengthened relation to El Niño and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO)--in particular, extreme El Niño and La Niña events that modulate California's climate not only through its warm and cold phases but also its precursor patterns.

  18. Increasing water cycle extremes in California and in relation to ENSO cycle under global warming

    PubMed Central

    Yoon, Jin-Ho; Wang, S-Y Simon; Gillies, Robert R.; Kravitz, Ben; Hipps, Lawrence; Rasch, Philip J.

    2015-01-01

    Since the winter of 2013–2014, California has experienced its most severe drought in recorded history, causing statewide water stress, severe economic loss and an extraordinary increase in wildfires. Identifying the effects of global warming on regional water cycle extremes, such as the ongoing drought in California, remains a challenge. Here we analyse large-ensemble and multi-model simulations that project the future of water cycle extremes in California as well as to understand those associations that pertain to changing climate oscillations under global warming. Both intense drought and excessive flooding are projected to increase by at least 50% towards the end of the twenty-first century; this projected increase in water cycle extremes is associated with a strengthened relation to El Niño and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO)—in particular, extreme El Niño and La Niña events that modulate California's climate not only through its warm and cold phases but also its precursor patterns. PMID:26487088

  19. Increasing water cycle extremes in California and in relation to ENSO cycle under global warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yoon, Jin-Ho; Wang, S.-Y. Simon; Gillies, Robert R.; Kravitz, Ben; Hipps, Lawrence; Rasch, Philip J.

    2015-10-01

    Since the winter of 2013-2014, California has experienced its most severe drought in recorded history, causing statewide water stress, severe economic loss and an extraordinary increase in wildfires. Identifying the effects of global warming on regional water cycle extremes, such as the ongoing drought in California, remains a challenge. Here we analyse large-ensemble and multi-model simulations that project the future of water cycle extremes in California as well as to understand those associations that pertain to changing climate oscillations under global warming. Both intense drought and excessive flooding are projected to increase by at least 50% towards the end of the twenty-first century; this projected increase in water cycle extremes is associated with a strengthened relation to El Niño and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO)--in particular, extreme El Niño and La Niña events that modulate California's climate not only through its warm and cold phases but also its precursor patterns.

  20. Experimental evaluation of reproductive response to climate warming in an oviparous skink.

    PubMed

    Lu, Hongliang; Wang, Yong; Tang, Wenqi; DU, Weiguo

    2013-06-01

    The impact of climate warming on organisms is increasingly being recognized. The experimental evaluation of phenotypically plastic responses to warming is a critical step in understanding the biological effects and adaptive capacity of organisms to future climate warming. Oviparous Scincella modesta live in deeply-shaded habitats and they require low optimal temperatures during embryonic development, which makes them suitable subjects for testing the effects of warming on reproduction. We raised adult females and incubated their eggs under different thermal conditions that mimicked potential climate warming. Female reproduction, embryonic development and hatchling traits were monitored to evaluate the reproductive response to warming. Experimental warming induced females to lay eggs earlier, but it did not affect the developmental stage of embryos at oviposition or the reproductive output. The high temperatures experienced by gravid females during warming treatments reduced the incubation period and increased embryonic mortality. The locomotor performance of hatchlings was not affected by the maternal thermal environment, but it was affected by the warming treatment during embryonic development. Our results suggest that climate warming might have a profound effect on fitness-relevant traits both at embryonic and post-embryonic stages in oviparous lizards. © 2012 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd, ISZS and IOZ/CAS.

  1. Increased Carbon Throughput But No Net Soil Carbon Loss in Field Warming Experiments: Combining Data Assimilation and Meta-Analyses

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    van Gestel, N.; Shi, Z.; van Groenigen, K. J.; Osenberg, C. W.; Andresen, L. C.; Dukes, J. S.; Hovenden, M. J.; Michelsen, A.; Pendall, E.; Reich, P.; Schuur, E.; Hungate, B. A.

    2017-12-01

    Minor changes in soil C dynamics in response to warming can strongly modulate climate change. Approaches to estimate long-term changes in soil carbon stocks from shorter-term warming experiments should consider temporal trends in soil carbon dynamics. Here we used data assimilation to take into account the soil carbon time series data collected from the upper soil layer (<15 cm) in 70 field warming experiments located worldwide. We used a soil carbon model with two pools, representing fast- and slow-decaying materials. We show that on average experimental warming enhanced fluxes of incoming and outgoing carbon with no change in predicted equilibrium stocks of carbon. Experimental warming increased the decomposition rates of the fast soil carbon pools by 10.7% on average, but also increased soil carbon input by 8.1%. When projecting the carbon pools to equilibrium stocks we found that warming decreased the size of the fast pool (-3.7%), but did not affect the slow or total carbon pools. We demonstrate that warming increases carbon throughput without an overall effect on total equilibrium carbon stocks. Hence, our findings do not support a generalizable soil carbon-climate feedback for soil carbon in the upper soil layer.

  2. Progress towards an ab initio real-time treatment of warm dense matter

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baczewski, Andrew; Cangi, Attila; Hansen, Stephanie; Jensen, Daniel

    2017-10-01

    Time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) provides an accurate description of equilibrium properties of warm dense matter, such as the dynamic structure factor (Baczewski et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 116(11), 2016). While non-equilibrium properties, such as stopping power, have also been demonstrated to be within the grasp of TDDFT, the ultrafast isochoric heating of condensed matter into the warm dense state, enabled by recent advances in XFELs, remains beyond its capabilities. In this talk, we will describe the successes of and continuing challenges for TDDFT for warm dense matter, and present progress towards a more complete ab initio treatment of isochoric x-ray heating. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

  3. Experimental warming and antecedent fire alter leaf element composition and increase soil C:N ratio in sub-alpine open heathland.

    PubMed

    White-Monsant, A C; Clark, G J; Ng Kam Chuen, M A G; Tang, C

    2017-10-01

    Plant communities in alpine ecosystems worldwide are being altered by climate warming. In the alpine open heathland of the Bogong High Plains, Australia, warming and fire have affected the growth and phenology of plants, and have recently been found to alter soil nutrient availability. We examined the effects of nine years of passive warming by open-top chambers and nine years post-fire on (i) the soluble and extractable nutrients and toxic elements available for plant uptake in the soil and (ii) on the element composition of leaves of seven dominant sub-alpine open heathland plants. Warming increased soil C, soil C:N, and decreased soil δ 13 C, indicating an accumulation of soil organic matter and C sequestration. Warming increased soil δ 15 N, indicating increased N mineralization, which concurred with the increased availability of NH 4 + (measured by ion-exchange membranes). Leaf element composition varied among the plant species in response to changes in soil element availabilities, suggesting the importance of species-specific knowledge. Warming decreased leaf N concentration and increased leaf C:N, generally in the plant community, and specifically in Asterolasia trymalioides, Carex breviculmis, Poa hiemata, and Rytidosperma nudiflorum. Warming increased soil P availability, but did not significantly affect leaf P in any species. Antecedent fire increased soil C:N, and decreased concentrations of Ca and Mg in Celmisia pugioniformis more than in the other species. The results suggest that warming and fire changed the nutrient composition of plants and increased soil C:N, which might lead to progressive N limitation in the alpine ecosystem. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Warming reduces the cover and diversity of biocrust-forming mosses and lichens, and increases the physiological stress of soil microbial communities in a semi-arid Pinus halepensis plantation

    PubMed Central

    Maestre, Fernando T.; Escolar, Cristina; Bardgett, Richard D.; Dungait, Jennifer A. J.; Gozalo, Beatriz; Ochoa, Victoria

    2015-01-01

    Soil communities dominated by lichens and mosses (biocrusts) play key roles in maintaining ecosystem structure and functioning in drylands worldwide. However, few studies have explicitly evaluated how climate change-induced impacts on biocrusts affect associated soil microbial communities. We report results from a field experiment conducted in a semiarid Pinus halepensis plantation, where we setup an experiment with two factors: cover of biocrusts (low [<15%] versus high [>50%]), and warming (control versus a ∼2°C temperature increase). Warming reduced the richness and cover (∼45%) of high biocrust cover areas 53 months after the onset of the experiment. This treatment did not change the ratios between the major microbial groups, as measured by phospholipid fatty acid analysis. Warming increased the physiological stress of the Gram negative bacterial community, as indicated by the cy17:0/16:1ω7 ratio. This response was modulated by the initial biocrust cover, as the increase in this ratio with warming was higher in areas with low cover. Our findings suggest that biocrusts can slow down the negative effects of warming on the physiological status of the Gram negative bacterial community. However, as warming will likely reduce the cover and diversity of biocrusts, these positive effects will be reduced under climate change. PMID:26379642

  5. [Response of seed reproduction of two dominant lakeside species to experimental warming in a typical plateau wetland in Northwestern Yunnan Plateau, China].

    PubMed

    Wang, Zhi Bao; Sun, Mei; Liu, Zhen Ya; Zhang, Xiao Ning; Wang, Hang; Zhang, Yun; Xiao, De Rong

    2018-03-01

    Based on the forecasted warming scenarios by IPCC, we studied the impacts of warming (increased by 2.0 and 3.5 ℃) on seed reproduction of two lakeside dominant species (Schoeno-plectus tabernaemontani and Sparganium stoloniferum) in a typical plateau wetland (Napahai) in Northwestern Yunnan, by using "open-top chamber" technique. The results showed that warming had significant effects on the seed setting rate of both species, though with interspecific variation. The seed setting rate of S. tabernaemontani was significantly increased under two warming treatments, while that of S. stoloniferum was significantly decreased under the 2.0 ℃ warming treatment and had no variation under the 3.5 ℃ warming treatment. Warming promoted the spike growth of both species. For S. tabernaemontani, under the warming of 2.0 and 3.5 ℃ treatments, the spike length was increased by 82.9% and 89.0%, the spikelet number was increased by 133.3% and 150.0%, the biomass of each individual was increased by 10.1% and 89.6%, and the rate between biomass of per plant panicle and total biomass was increased by 79.5% and 409.3%, respectively. For S. stoloniferum, under the warming of 2.0 and 3.5 ℃ treatments, the spike length was increased by 66.1% and 95.2%, and the rate between biomass of per plant panicle and total biomass was increased by 878.8% and 1052.6%, respectively. Warming significantly increased seed yield of both species. Under the warming of 2.0 and 3.5 ℃ treatments, the seed yield per panicle of S. tabernaemontani was increased by 33.7% and 58.3%, respectively. For S. stoloniferum, the seed yield was increased by 3.4% and 69.5%, respectively. Under the warming of 2.0 and 3.5 ℃ treatments, the seed length of S. tabernaemontani was increased by 5.4% and 6.9%, and the seed length/width was increased by 9.1% and 5.3%, respectively. Warming had no significant effects on the seed shape of S. stoloniferum. The maximum and minimum temperatures were dominant factors affecting

  6. Effects of Soil Warming and Nitrogen Addition on Soil Respiration in a New Zealand Tussock Grassland

    PubMed Central

    Graham, Scott L.; Hunt, John E.; Millard, Peter; McSeveny, Tony; Tylianakis, Jason M.; Whitehead, David

    2014-01-01

    Soil respiration (R S) represents a large terrestrial source of CO2 to the atmosphere. Global change drivers such as climate warming and nitrogen deposition are expected to alter the terrestrial carbon cycle with likely consequences for R S and its components, autotrophic (R A) and heterotrophic respiration (R H). Here we investigate the impacts of a 3°C soil warming treatment and a 50 kg ha−1 y−1 nitrogen addition treatment on R S, R H and their respective seasonal temperature responses in an experimental tussock grassland. Average respiration in untreated soils was 0.96±0.09 μmol m−2 s−1 over the course of the experiment. Soil warming and nitrogen addition increased R S by 41% and 12% respectively. These treatment effects were additive under combined warming and nitrogen addition. Warming increased R H by 37% while nitrogen addition had no effect. Warming and nitrogen addition affected the seasonal temperature response of R S by increasing the basal rate of respiration (R 10) by 14% and 20% respectively. There was no significant interaction between treatments for R 10. The treatments had no impact on activation energy (E 0). The seasonal temperature response of R H was not affected by either warming or nitrogen addition. These results suggest that the additional CO2 emissions from New Zealand tussock grassland soils as a result of warming-enhanced R S constitute a potential positive feedback to rising atmospheric CO2 concentration. PMID:24621790

  7. Increased wintertime CO2 loss as a result of sustained tundra warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Webb, Elizabeth E.; Schuur, Edward A. G.; Natali, Susan M.; Oken, Kiva L.; Bracho, Rosvel; Krapek, John P.; Risk, David; Nickerson, Nick R.

    2016-02-01

    Permafrost soils currently store approximately 1672 Pg of carbon (C), but as high latitudes warm, this temperature-protected C reservoir will become vulnerable to higher rates of decomposition. In recent decades, air temperatures in the high latitudes have warmed more than any other region globally, particularly during the winter. Over the coming century, the arctic winter is also expected to experience the most warming of any region or season, yet it is notably understudied. Here we present nonsummer season (NSS) CO2 flux data from the Carbon in Permafrost Experimental Heating Research project, an ecosystem warming experiment of moist acidic tussock tundra in interior Alaska. Our goals were to quantify the relationship between environmental variables and winter CO2 production, account for subnivean photosynthesis and late fall plant C uptake in our estimate of NSS CO2 exchange, constrain NSS CO2 loss estimates using multiple methods of measuring winter CO2 flux, and quantify the effect of winter soil warming on total NSS CO2 balance. We measured CO2 flux using four methods: two chamber techniques (the snow pit method and one where a chamber is left under the snow for the entire season), eddy covariance, and soda lime adsorption, and found that NSS CO2 loss varied up to fourfold, depending on the method used. CO2 production was dependent on soil temperature and day of season but atmospheric pressure and air temperature were also important in explaining CO2 diffusion out of the soil. Warming stimulated both ecosystem respiration and productivity during the NSS and increased overall CO2 loss during this period by 14% (this effect varied by year, ranging from 7 to 24%). When combined with the summertime CO2 fluxes from the same site, our results suggest that this subarctic tundra ecosystem is shifting away from its historical function as a C sink to a C source.

  8. An investigation of the effects from a urethral warming system on temperature distributions during cryoablation treatment of the prostate: a phantom study.

    PubMed

    Favazza, C P; Gorny, K R; King, D M; Rossman, P J; Felmlee, J P; Woodrum, D A; Mynderse, L A

    2014-08-01

    Introduction of urethral warmers to aid cryosurgery in the prostate has significantly reduced the incidence of urethral sloughing; however, the incidence rate still remains as high as 15%. Furthermore, urethral warmers have been associated with an increase of cancer recurrence rates. Here, we report results from our phantom-based investigation to determine the impact of a urethral warmer on temperature distributions around cryoneedles during cryosurgery. Cryoablation treatments were simulated in a tissue mimicking phantom containing a urethral warming catheter. Four different configurations of cryoneedles relative to urethral warming catheter were investigated. For each configuration, the freeze-thaw cycles were repeated with and without the urethral warming system activated. Temperature histories were recorded at various pre-arranged positions relative to the cryoneedles and urethral warming catheter. In all configurations, the urethral warming system was effective at maintaining sub-lethal temperatures at the simulated surface of the urethra. The warmer action, however, was additionally demonstrated to potentially negatively impact treatment lethality in the target zone by elevating minimal temperatures to sub-lethal levels. In all needle configurations, rates of freezing and thawing were not significantly affected by the use of the urethral warmer. The results indicate that the urethral warming system can protect urethral tissue during cryoablation therapy with cryoneedles placed as close as 5mm to the surface of the urethra. Using a urethral warming system and placing multiple cryoneedles within 1cm of each other delivers lethal cooling at least 5mm from the urethral surface while sparing urethral tissue. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Hyperactivity in anorexia nervosa: to warm or not to warm. That is the question (a translational research one).

    PubMed

    Carrera, Olaia; Gutiérrez, Emilio

    2018-01-01

    In the Editorial 'Is the neglect of exercise in anorexia nervosa research a case of "running out" of ideas or do we need to take a "LEAP" of faith into the future?' these authors express their doubts concerning the suitability of keeping patients warm as a beneficial treatment option in managing excessive activity in anorexia nervosa (AN) patients. The case for warming as an adjunctive treatment for AN patients is based on strong experimental evidence gathered from research on animals with Activity-Based Anorexia (ABA). We posit that the beneficial effect of heat results, at least in part, from heat blocking the vicious cycle that hyperactivity plays on AN. Hyperactivity decreases caloric intake by interfering with feeding and increases energy expenditure through excess motor activity which in turn increases emaciation that further strengthens anorexic thinking.

  10. Climate warming could increase recruitment success in glacier foreland plants.

    PubMed

    Mondoni, Andrea; Pedrini, Simone; Bernareggi, Giulietta; Rossi, Graziano; Abeli, Thomas; Probert, Robin J; Ghitti, Michele; Bonomi, Costantino; Orsenigo, Simone

    2015-11-01

    Glacier foreland plants are highly threatened by global warming. Regeneration from seeds on deglaciated terrain will be crucial for successful migration and survival of these species, and hence a better understanding of the impacts of climate change on seedling recruitment is urgently needed to predict future plant persistence in these environments. This study presents the first field evidence of the impact of climate change on recruitment success of glacier foreland plants. Seeds of eight foreland species were sown on a foreland site at 2500 m a.s.l., and at a site 400 m lower in altitude to simulate a 2·7 °C increase in mean annual temperature. Soil from the site of origin was used to reproduce the natural germination substrate. Recruitment success, temperature and water potential were monitored for 2 years. The response of seed germination to warming was further investigated in the laboratory. At the glacier foreland site, seedling emergence was low (0 to approx. 40 %) and occurred in summer in all species after seeds had experienced autumn and winter seasons. However, at the warmer site there was a shift from summer to autumn emergence in two species and a significant increase of summer emergence (13-35 % higher) in all species except two. Survival and establishment was possible for 60-75 % of autumn-emerged seedlings and was generally greater under warmer conditions. Early snowmelt in spring caused the main ecological factors enhancing the recruitment success. The results suggest that warming will influence the recruitment of glacier foreland species primarily via the extension of the snow-free period in spring, which increases seedling establishment and results in a greater resistance to summer drought and winter extremes. The changes in recruitment success observed here imply that range shifts or changes in abundance are possible in a future warmer climate, but overall success may be dependent on interactions with shifts in other components of the

  11. Warm hands, cold heart: progressive whole-body cooling increases warm thermosensitivity of human hands and feet in a dose-dependent fashion.

    PubMed

    Filingeri, Davide; Morris, Nathan B; Jay, Ollie

    2017-01-01

    What is the central question of this study? Investigations on inhibitory/facilitatory modulation of vision, touch and pain show that conditioning stimuli outside the receptive field of testing stimuli modulate the central processing of visual, touch and painful stimuli. We asked whether contextual modulation also exists in human temperature integration. What is the main finding and its importance? Progressive decreases in whole-body mean skin temperature (the conditioning stimulus) significantly increased local thermosensitivity to skin warming but not cooling (the testing stimuli) in a dose-dependent fashion. In resembling the central mechanisms underlying endogenous analgesia, our findings point to the existence of an endogenous thermosensory system in humans that could modulate local skin thermal sensitivity to facilitate thermal behaviour. Although inhibitory/facilitatory central modulation of vision and pain has been investigated, contextual modulation of skin temperature integration has not been explored. Hence, we tested whether progressive decreases in whole-body mean skin temperature (T sk ; a large conditioning stimulus) alter the magnitude estimation of local warming and cooling stimuli applied to hairy and glabrous skin. On four separate occasions, eight men (27 ± 5 years old) underwent a 30 min whole-body cooling protocol (water-perfused suit; temperature, 5°C), during which a quantitative thermosensory test, consisting of reporting the perceived magnitude of warming and cooling stimuli (±8°C from 30°C baseline) applied to the hand (palm/dorsum) and foot (sole/dorsum), was performed before cooling and every 10 min thereafter. The cooling protocol resulted in large progressive reductions in T sk [10 min, -3.36°C (95% confidence interval -2.62 to -4.10); 20 min, -5.21°C (-4.47 to -5.95); and 30 min, -6.32°C (-5.58 to -7.05); P < 0.001], with minimal changes (∼0.08°C) in rectal temperature. While thermosensitivity to local skin cooling

  12. Plant phenological synchrony increases under rapid within-spring warming.

    PubMed

    Wang, Cong; Tang, Yanhong; Chen, Jin

    2016-05-05

    Phenological synchrony influences many ecological processes. Recent climate change has altered the synchrony of phenology, but little is known about the underlying mechanisms. Here using in situ phenological records from Europe, we found that the standard deviation (SD, as a measure of synchrony) of first leafing day (FLD) and the SD of first flowering day (FFD) among local plants were significantly smaller in the years and/or in the regions with a more rapid within-spring warming speed (WWS, the linear slope of the daily mean temperature against the days during spring, in (o)C/day) with correlation coefficients of -0.75 and -0.48 for FLD and -0.55 and -0.23 for FFD. We further found that the SDs of temperature sensitivity of local plants were smaller under the rapid WWS conditions with correlation coefficients of -0.46 and -0.33 for FLD and FFD respectively. This study provides the first evidence that the within-season rate of change of the temperature but not the magnitude determines plant phenological synchrony. It implies that temporally, the asymmetric seasonal climatic warming may decrease the synchrony via increasing WWS, especially in arctic regions; spatially, plants in coastal and low latitude areas with low WWS would have more diverse spring phenological traits.

  13. [Effects of diurnal warming on soil N2O emission in soybean field].

    PubMed

    Hu, Zheng-Hua; Zhou, Ying-Ping; Cui, Hai-Ling; Chen, Shu-Tao; Xiao, Qi-Tao; Liu, Yan

    2013-08-01

    To investigate the impact of experimental warming on N2O emission from soil of soybean field, outdoor experiments with simulating diurnal warming were conducted, and static dark chamber-gas chromatograph method was used to measure N2O emission fluxes. Results indicated that: the diurnal warming did not change the seasonal pattern of N2O emissions from soil. In the whole growing season, comparing to the control treatment (CK), the warming treatment (T) significantly enhanced the N2O flux and the cumulative amount of N2O by 17.31% (P = 0.019), and 20.27% (P = 0.005), respectively. The significant correlations were found between soil N2O emission and soil temperature, moisture. The temperature sensitivity values of soil N2O emission under CK and T treatments were 3.75 and 4.10, respectively. In whole growing stage, T treatment significantly increased the crop aboveground and total biomass, the nitrate reductase activity, and total nitrogen in leaves, while significantly decreased NO3(-) -N content in leaves. T treatment significantly increased soil NO3(-) -N content, but had no significant effect on soil organic carbon and total nitrogen contents. The results of this study suggested that diurnal warming enhanced N2O emission from soil in soybean field.

  14. Warm up I: potential mechanisms and the effects of passive warm up on exercise performance.

    PubMed

    Bishop, David

    2003-01-01

    Despite limited scientific evidence supporting their effectiveness, warm-up routines prior to exercise are a well-accepted practice. The majority of the effects of warm up have been attributed to temperature-related mechanisms (e.g. decreased stiffness, increased nerve-conduction rate, altered force-velocity relationship, increased anaerobic energy provision and increased thermoregulatory strain), although non-temperature-related mechanisms have also been proposed (e.g. effects of acidaemia, elevation of baseline oxygen consumption (.VO(2)) and increased postactivation potentiation). It has also been hypothesised that warm up may have a number of psychological effects (e.g. increased preparedness). Warm-up techniques can be broadly classified into two major categories: passive warm up or active warm up. Passive warm up involves raising muscle or core temperature by some external means, while active warm up utilises exercise. Passive heating allows one to obtain the increase in muscle or core temperature achieved by active warm up without depleting energy substrates. Passive warm up, although not practical for most athletes, also allows one to test the hypothesis that many of the performance changes associated with active warm up can be largely attributed to temperature-related mechanisms.

  15. Continued increase of extreme El Niño frequency long after 1.5 °C warming stabilization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Guojian; Cai, Wenju; Gan, Bolan; Wu, Lixin; Santoso, Agus; Lin, Xiaopei; Chen, Zhaohui; McPhaden, Michael J.

    2017-08-01

    The Paris Agreement aims to constrain global mean temperature (GMT) increases to 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, with an aspirational target of 1.5 °C. However, the pathway to these targets and the impacts of a 1.5 °C and 2 °C warming on extreme El Niño and La Niña events--which severely influence weather patterns, agriculture, ecosystems, public health and economies--is little known. Here, by analysing climate models participating in the Climate Model Intercomparison Project's Phase 5 (CMIP5; ref. ) under a most likely emission scenario, we demonstrate that extreme El Niño frequency increases linearly with the GMT towards a doubling at 1.5 °C warming. This increasing frequency of extreme El Niño events continues for up to a century after GMT has stabilized, underpinned by an oceanic thermocline deepening that sustains faster warming in the eastern equatorial Pacific than the off-equatorial region. Ultimately, this implies a higher risk of extreme El Niño to future generations after GMT rise has halted. On the other hand, whereas previous research suggests extreme La Niña events may double in frequency under the 4.5 °C warming scenario, the results presented here indicate little to no change under 1.5 °C or 2 °C warming.

  16. Moisture increase in response to high-altitude warming evidenced by tree-rings on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Jinbao; Shi, Jiangfeng; Zhang, David D.; Yang, Bao; Fang, Keyan; Yue, Pak Hong

    2017-01-01

    Rapid warming has been observed in the high-altitude areas around the globe, but the implications on moisture change are not fully understood. Here we use tree-rings to reveal common moisture change on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (TP) during the past five centuries, and show that regional moisture change in late spring to early summer (April-June) is closely related to large-scale temperature anomaly over the TP, with increased moisture coincident with periods of high temperature. The most recent pluvial during the 1990s-2000s is likely the wettest for the past five centuries, which coincides with the warmest period on the TP during the past millennium. Dynamic analysis reveals that vertical air convection is enhanced in response to anomalous TP surface warming, leading to an increase in lower-tropospheric humidity and effective precipitation over the southeastern TP. The coherent warm-wet relationship identified in both tree-rings and dynamic analysis implies a generally wetter condition on the southeastern TP under future warming.

  17. Using "warm handoffs" to link hospitalized smokers with tobacco treatment after discharge: study protocol of a randomized controlled trial.

    PubMed

    Richter, Kimber P; Faseru, Babalola; Mussulman, Laura M; Ellerbeck, Edward F; Shireman, Theresa I; Hunt, Jamie J; Carlini, Beatriz H; Preacher, Kristopher J; Ayars, Candace L; Cook, David J

    2012-08-01

    Post-discharge support is a key component of effective treatment for hospitalized smokers, but few hospitals provide it. Many hospitals and care settings fax-refer smokers to quitlines for follow-up; however, less than half of fax-referred smokers are successfully contacted and enrolled in quitline services. "Warm handoff" is a novel approach to care transitions in which health care providers directly link patients with substance abuse problems with specialists, using face-to-face or phone transfer. Warm handoff achieves very high rates of treatment enrollment for these vulnerable groups. The aim of this study-"EQUIP" (Enhancing Quitline Utilization among In-Patients)-is to determine the effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness, of warm handoff versus fax referral for linking hospitalized smokers with tobacco quitlines. This study employs a two-arm, individually randomized design. It is set in two large Kansas hospitals that have dedicated tobacco treatment interventionists on staff. At each site, smokers who wish to remain abstinent after discharge will be randomly assigned to groups. For patients in the fax group, staff will provide standard in-hospital intervention and will fax-refer patients to the state tobacco quitline for counseling post-discharge. For patients in the warm handoff group, staff will provide brief in-hospital intervention and immediate warm handoff: staff will call the state quitline, notify them that a warm handoff inpatient from Kansas is on the line, then transfer the call to the patients' mobile or bedside hospital phone for quitline enrollment and an initial counseling session. Following the quitline session, hospital staff provides a brief check-back visit. Outcome measures will be assessed at 1, 6, and 12 months post enrollment. Costs are measured to support cost-effectiveness analyses. We hypothesize that warm handoff, compared to fax referral, will improve care transitions for tobacco treatment, enroll more participants in quitline

  18. Seasonal exposure to drought and air warming affects soil Collembola and mites.

    PubMed

    Xu, Guo-Liang; Kuster, Thomas M; Günthardt-Goerg, Madeleine S; Dobbertin, Matthias; Li, Mai-He

    2012-01-01

    Global environmental changes affect not only the aboveground but also the belowground components of ecosystems. The effects of seasonal drought and air warming on the genus level richness of Collembola, and on the abundance and biomass of the community of Collembola and mites were studied in an acidic and a calcareous forest soil in a model oak-ecosystem experiment (the Querco experiment) at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL in Birmensdorf. The experiment included four climate treatments: control, drought with a 60% reduction in rainfall, air warming with a seasonal temperature increase of 1.4 °C, and air warming + drought. Soil water content was greatly reduced by drought. Soil surface temperature was slightly increased by both the air warming and the drought treatment. Soil mesofauna samples were taken at the end of the first experimental year. Drought was found to increase the abundance of the microarthropod fauna, but reduce the biomass of the community. The percentage of small mites (body length ≤ 0.20 mm) increased, but the percentage of large mites (body length >0.40 mm) decreased under drought. Air warming had only minor effects on the fauna. All climate treatments significantly reduced the richness of Collembola and the biomass of Collembola and mites in acidic soil, but not in calcareous soil. Drought appeared to have a negative impact on soil microarthropod fauna, but the effects of climate change on soil fauna may vary with the soil type.

  19. Seasonal Exposure to Drought and Air Warming Affects Soil Collembola and Mites

    PubMed Central

    Xu, Guo-Liang; Kuster, Thomas M.; Günthardt-Goerg, Madeleine S.; Dobbertin, Matthias; Li, Mai-He

    2012-01-01

    Global environmental changes affect not only the aboveground but also the belowground components of ecosystems. The effects of seasonal drought and air warming on the genus level richness of Collembola, and on the abundance and biomass of the community of Collembola and mites were studied in an acidic and a calcareous forest soil in a model oak-ecosystem experiment (the Querco experiment) at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL in Birmensdorf. The experiment included four climate treatments: control, drought with a 60% reduction in rainfall, air warming with a seasonal temperature increase of 1.4°C, and air warming + drought. Soil water content was greatly reduced by drought. Soil surface temperature was slightly increased by both the air warming and the drought treatment. Soil mesofauna samples were taken at the end of the first experimental year. Drought was found to increase the abundance of the microarthropod fauna, but reduce the biomass of the community. The percentage of small mites (body length 0.20 mm) increased, but the percentage of large mites (body length >0.40 mm) decreased under drought. Air warming had only minor effects on the fauna. All climate treatments significantly reduced the richness of Collembola and the biomass of Collembola and mites in acidic soil, but not in calcareous soil. Drought appeared to have a negative impact on soil microarthropod fauna, but the effects of climate change on soil fauna may vary with the soil type. PMID:22905210

  20. [Clinical research on warm acupuncture therapy for pain in postmenopausal osteoporosis].

    PubMed

    Cai, Guo-Wei; Li, Jing; Xu, Xiao-Juan; Xue, Yuan-Zhi; Li, Gang; Wu, Man; Li, Peng-Fei

    2014-01-01

    To observe the clinical efficacy on pain in postmenopausal osteoporosis treated with the warm acupuncture therapy and discuss its effect mechanism. Ninety cases of postmenopausal osteoporosis were randomized into a warm acupuncture group, an electroacupuncture group and a medication group, 30 cases in each group. In the warm acupuncture group and the electroacupuncture group, Dazhu (BL 11), Shenshu (BL 23) and Xuanzhong (GB 39) were selected bilaterally and stimulated with the warm acupuncture and electroacupuncture therapies respectively, once a day for 30 days totally. In the medication group, caltrate-D tablets were prescribed, 600 mg, once a day for 30 days totally. The changes in the bone density T value, visual analogue scale (VAS) score, serum insulin like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) were observed before and after treatment in the three groups. (1) The bone density T value in the patients of postmenopausal osteoporosis did not change obviously after 30 days treatment with the three therapies; (2) VAS score was all reduced after treatment, in which, the result in the warm acupuncture group was the most obvious (6.73 +/- 0.24 before treatment vs 4.43 +/- 0.26 after treatment). The value after treatment in the warm acupuncture group was different significantly as compared with the electroacupuncture group (5.13 +/- 0.31) and the medication group (5.17 +/- 0.33, both P < 0.05). (3) The level of serum IGF-1 was improved after treatment in the warm acupuncture therapy [(119.5 +/- 20.1) ng/mL before treatment vs (156.5 +/- 23.9) ng/mL after treatment], which was more apparent as compared with the electroacupuncture group [(136.3 +/- 24.5) ng/mL] and the medication group [(127.7 +/- 22.1) ng/mL, all P < 0.05]. Concerning to reducing the levels of IL-6 and TNF-alpha in serum, the results in the warm acupuncture group were superior to the other two groups (all P < 0.05). The warm acupuncture therapy achieves the

  1. Warming rate drives microbial limitation and enzyme expression during peat decomposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Inglett, P.; Sihi, D.; Inglett, K. S.

    2015-12-01

    Recent developments of enzyme-based decomposition models highlight the importance of enzyme kinetics with warming, but most modeling exercises are based on studies with a step-wise warming. This approach may mask the effect of temperature in controlling in-situ activities as in most ecosystems soil temperature change more gradually than air temperature. We conducted an experiment to test the effects of contrasting warming rates on the kinetics of C, N, and P degradation enzymes in subtropical peat soils. We also wanted to evaluate if the stoichiometry of enzyme kinetics shifts under contrasting warming rates and if so, how does it relate to the stoichiometry in microbial biomass. Contrasting warming rates altered microbial biomass stoichiometry leading to differing patterns of enzyme expression and microbial nutrient limitation. Activity (higher Vmax) and efficiency (lower Km) of C acquisition enzymes were greater in the step treatment; however, expressions of nutrient (N and P) acquiring enzymes were enhanced in the ramp treatment at the end of the experiment. In the step treatment, there was a typical pattern of an initial peak in the Vmax and drop in the Km for all enzyme groups followed by later adjustments. On the other hand, a consistent increase in Vmax and decline in Km of all enzyme groups were observed in the slow warming treatment. These changes were sufficient to alter microbial identity (as indicated by enzyme Km and biomass stoichiometry) with two apparently stable endpoints under contrasting warming rates. This observation resembles the concept of alternate stable states and highlights a need for improved representation of warming in models.

  2. Predator contributions to belowground responses to warming

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Maran, A. M.; Pelini, S. L.

    Identifying the factors that control soil CO 2 emissions will improve our ability to predict the magnitude of climate change–soil ecosystem feedbacks. Despite the integral role of invertebrates in belowground systems, they are excluded from climate change models. Soil invertebrates have consumptive and nonconsumptive effects on microbes, whose respiration accounts for nearly half of soil CO 2 emissions. By altering the behavior and abundance of invertebrates that interact with microbes, invertebrate predators may have indirect effects on soil respiration. We examined the effects of a generalist arthropod predator on belowground respiration under different warming scenarios. Based on research suggesting invertebratesmore » may mediate soil CO 2 emission responses to warming, we predicted that predator presence would result in increased emissions by negatively affecting these invertebrates. We altered the presence of wolf spiders ( Pardosa spp.) in mesocosms containing a forest floor community. To simulate warming, we placed mesocosms of each treatment in ten open-top warming chambers ranging from 1.5° to 5.5°C above ambient at Harvard Forest, Massachusetts, USA. As expected, CO 2 emissions increased under warming and we found an interactive effect of predator presence and warming, although the effect was not consistent through time. The interaction between predator presence and warming was the inverse of our predictions: Mesocosms with predators had lower respiration at higher levels of warming than those without predators. Carbon dioxide emissions were not significantly associated with microbial biomass. Here, we did not find evidence of consumptive effects of predators on the invertebrate community, suggesting that predator presence mediates response of microbial respiration to warming through nonconsumptive means. In our system, we found a significant interaction between warming and predator presence that warrants further research into mechanism and

  3. Predator contributions to belowground responses to warming

    DOE PAGES

    Maran, A. M.; Pelini, S. L.

    2016-09-26

    Identifying the factors that control soil CO 2 emissions will improve our ability to predict the magnitude of climate change–soil ecosystem feedbacks. Despite the integral role of invertebrates in belowground systems, they are excluded from climate change models. Soil invertebrates have consumptive and nonconsumptive effects on microbes, whose respiration accounts for nearly half of soil CO 2 emissions. By altering the behavior and abundance of invertebrates that interact with microbes, invertebrate predators may have indirect effects on soil respiration. We examined the effects of a generalist arthropod predator on belowground respiration under different warming scenarios. Based on research suggesting invertebratesmore » may mediate soil CO 2 emission responses to warming, we predicted that predator presence would result in increased emissions by negatively affecting these invertebrates. We altered the presence of wolf spiders ( Pardosa spp.) in mesocosms containing a forest floor community. To simulate warming, we placed mesocosms of each treatment in ten open-top warming chambers ranging from 1.5° to 5.5°C above ambient at Harvard Forest, Massachusetts, USA. As expected, CO 2 emissions increased under warming and we found an interactive effect of predator presence and warming, although the effect was not consistent through time. The interaction between predator presence and warming was the inverse of our predictions: Mesocosms with predators had lower respiration at higher levels of warming than those without predators. Carbon dioxide emissions were not significantly associated with microbial biomass. Here, we did not find evidence of consumptive effects of predators on the invertebrate community, suggesting that predator presence mediates response of microbial respiration to warming through nonconsumptive means. In our system, we found a significant interaction between warming and predator presence that warrants further research into mechanism and

  4. Impact of Soil Warming on the Plant Metabolome of Icelandic Grasslands.

    PubMed

    Gargallo-Garriga, Albert; Ayala-Roque, Marta; Sardans, Jordi; Bartrons, Mireia; Granda, Victor; Sigurdsson, Bjarni D; Leblans, Niki I W; Oravec, Michal; Urban, Otmar; Janssens, Ivan A; Peñuelas, Josep

    2017-08-23

    Climate change is stronger at high than at temperate and tropical latitudes. The natural geothermal conditions in southern Iceland provide an opportunity to study the impact of warming on plants, because of the geothermal bedrock channels that induce stable gradients of soil temperature. We studied two valleys, one where such gradients have been present for centuries (long-term treatment), and another where new gradients were created in 2008 after a shallow crustal earthquake (short-term treatment). We studied the impact of soil warming (0 to +15 °C) on the foliar metabolomes of two common plant species of high northern latitudes: Agrostis capillaris , a monocotyledon grass; and Ranunculus acris , a dicotyledonous herb, and evaluated the dependence of shifts in their metabolomes on the length of the warming treatment. The two species responded differently to warming, depending on the length of exposure. The grass metabolome clearly shifted at the site of long-term warming, but the herb metabolome did not. The main up-regulated compounds at the highest temperatures at the long-term site were saccharides and amino acids, both involved in heat-shock metabolic pathways. Moreover, some secondary metabolites, such as phenolic acids and terpenes, associated with a wide array of stresses, were also up-regulated. Most current climatic models predict an increase in annual average temperature between 2-8 °C over land masses in the Arctic towards the end of this century. The metabolomes of A. capillaris and R. acris shifted abruptly and nonlinearly to soil warming >5 °C above the control temperature for the coming decades. These results thus suggest that a slight warming increase may not imply substantial changes in plant function, but if the temperature rises more than 5 °C, warming may end up triggering metabolic pathways associated with heat stress in some plant species currently dominant in this region.

  5. Impact of Soil Warming on the Plant Metabolome of Icelandic Grasslands

    PubMed Central

    Gargallo-Garriga, Albert; Ayala-Roque, Marta; Granda, Victor; Sigurdsson, Bjarni D.; Leblans, Niki I. W.; Oravec, Michal; Urban, Otmar; Janssens, Ivan A.

    2017-01-01

    Climate change is stronger at high than at temperate and tropical latitudes. The natural geothermal conditions in southern Iceland provide an opportunity to study the impact of warming on plants, because of the geothermal bedrock channels that induce stable gradients of soil temperature. We studied two valleys, one where such gradients have been present for centuries (long-term treatment), and another where new gradients were created in 2008 after a shallow crustal earthquake (short-term treatment). We studied the impact of soil warming (0 to +15 °C) on the foliar metabolomes of two common plant species of high northern latitudes: Agrostis capillaris, a monocotyledon grass; and Ranunculus acris, a dicotyledonous herb, and evaluated the dependence of shifts in their metabolomes on the length of the warming treatment. The two species responded differently to warming, depending on the length of exposure. The grass metabolome clearly shifted at the site of long-term warming, but the herb metabolome did not. The main up-regulated compounds at the highest temperatures at the long-term site were saccharides and amino acids, both involved in heat-shock metabolic pathways. Moreover, some secondary metabolites, such as phenolic acids and terpenes, associated with a wide array of stresses, were also up-regulated. Most current climatic models predict an increase in annual average temperature between 2–8 °C over land masses in the Arctic towards the end of this century. The metabolomes of A. capillaris and R. acris shifted abruptly and nonlinearly to soil warming >5 °C above the control temperature for the coming decades. These results thus suggest that a slight warming increase may not imply substantial changes in plant function, but if the temperature rises more than 5 °C, warming may end up triggering metabolic pathways associated with heat stress in some plant species currently dominant in this region. PMID:28832555

  6. Evidence for increased latent heat transport during the Cretaceous (Albian) greenhouse warming

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Ufnar, David F.; Gonzalez, Luis A.; Ludvigson, Greg A.; Brenner, Richard L.; Witzke, B.J.

    2004-01-01

    Quantitative estimates of increased heat transfer by atmospheric H 2O vapor during the Albian greenhouse warming suggest that the intensified hydrologic cycle played a greater role in warming high latitudes than at present and thus represents a viable alternative to oceanic heat transport. Sphaerosiderite ??18O values in paleosols of the North American Cretaceous Western Interior Basin are a proxy for meteoric ??18O values, and mass-balance modeling results suggest that Albian precipitation rates exceeded modern rates at both mid and high latitudes. Comparison of modeled Albian and modern precipitation minus evaporation values suggests amplification of the Albian moisture deficit in the tropics and moisture surplus in the mid to high latitudes. The tropical moisture deficit represents an average heat loss of ???75 W/m2 at 10??N paleolatitude (at present, 21 W/m2). The increased precipitation at higher latitudes implies an average heat gain of ???83 W/m2 at 45??N (at present, 23 W/m2) and of 19 W/m2 at 75??N (at present, 4 W/m2). These estimates of increased poleward heat transfer by H2O vapor during the Albian may help to explain the reduced equator-to-pole temperature gradients. ?? 2004 Geological Society of America.

  7. Soil warming and CO2 enrichment induce biomass shifts in alpine tree line vegetation.

    PubMed

    Dawes, Melissa A; Philipson, Christopher D; Fonti, Patrick; Bebi, Peter; Hättenschwiler, Stephan; Hagedorn, Frank; Rixen, Christian

    2015-05-01

    Responses of alpine tree line ecosystems to increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations and global warming are poorly understood. We used an experiment at the Swiss tree line to investigate changes in vegetation biomass after 9 years of free air CO2 enrichment (+200 ppm; 2001-2009) and 6 years of soil warming (+4 °C; 2007-2012). The study contained two key tree line species, Larix decidua and Pinus uncinata, both approximately 40 years old, growing in heath vegetation dominated by dwarf shrubs. In 2012, we harvested and measured biomass of all trees (including root systems), above-ground understorey vegetation and fine roots. Overall, soil warming had clearer effects on plant biomass than CO2 enrichment, and there were no interactive effects between treatments. Total plant biomass increased in warmed plots containing Pinus but not in those with Larix. This response was driven by changes in tree mass (+50%), which contributed an average of 84% (5.7 kg m(-2) ) of total plant mass. Pinus coarse root mass was especially enhanced by warming (+100%), yielding an increased root mass fraction. Elevated CO2 led to an increased relative growth rate of Larix stem basal area but no change in the final biomass of either tree species. Total understorey above-ground mass was not altered by soil warming or elevated CO2 . However, Vaccinium myrtillus mass increased with both treatments, graminoid mass declined with warming, and forb and nonvascular plant (moss and lichen) mass decreased with both treatments. Fine roots showed a substantial reduction under soil warming (-40% for all roots <2 mm in diameter at 0-20 cm soil depth) but no change with CO2 enrichment. Our findings suggest that enhanced overall productivity and shifts in biomass allocation will occur at the tree line, particularly with global warming. However, individual species and functional groups will respond differently to these environmental changes, with consequences for ecosystem structure and functioning. © 2014

  8. [Randomized controlled clinical trials of individualized treatment of cerebral palsy children by warm-reinforcing needling combined with Bobath rehabilitation training].

    PubMed

    Zhang, Ning-Xia; Wang, Xiang-Yu; Liu, Gui-Zhen; Li, Yun-Bo; Zhang, Hong-Ying

    2014-08-01

    To observe the effect of warm-reinforcing needling combined with modern rehabilitation training on motor function of cerebral palsy (CP) children. Sixty cases of CP children were randomly divided into acupuncture combined with rehabilitation (Acu + Rehab, n = 30) group and Rehab (n = 30) group. Patients of the Acu + Rehab group were treated by warm-reinforcing needling stimulation of Jiaji (EX-B 2), Jianyu (LI 15), Quchi (LI 11), Hegu (LI 4), Zusanli (ST 36), Yinlingquan (GB 34), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Juegu (GB 39), Yanglingquan (GB 34), etc., combined with Bobath rehabilitation therapy, and those of the Rehab group treated by Bobath rehabilitation (stimulating key control points in the body, triggering reflexes that provide head and body control). The treatment was conducted every day,with three months being a therapeutic course,two courses in all. The Peabody Developmental Motor Scales 2 (PDMS-2) was used to evaluate the CP children's motor function [1) gross motor: posture (straightness ratio), locomotion and object manipulation; 2) fine motor: grasping and visual-Motor integration]. After the treatment, of the 30 and 30 cases in the Acu+ Rehab and Rehab groups, 1 (3.33%) and 0 (0%) were cured, 20 (66.67%) and 18 (60.00%) experienced marked improvement, 9 (30.00%) and 12 (40.00%) were invalid, with the effective rates being 70.00% and 60.00% respectively. The therapeutic effect of the Acu + Rehab group was markedly superior to that of the Rehab group (P < 0.05). After 6 months ' treatment, the scores of posture, locomotor, object manipulation and grasping, and visual-movement integration were significantly increased in comparison with pre-treatment in the same one group (P < 0.05), and the effects of the Acu + Rehab group were obviously superior to those of Rehab group in increasing the scores of posture, locomotor, object manipulation and grasping after 6 months' treatment (P < 0.05). Warm-reinforcing needling combined with Bobath rehabilitation has a better

  9. Experimental warming effects on the bacterial community structure and diversity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, W.; Han, S.; Adams, J.; Son, Y.

    2014-12-01

    The objective of this study is to investigate the responses of soil bacterial community to future temperature increase by conducting open-field warming experiment. We conducted an open-field experimental warming system using infra-red heater in 2011 and regulated the temperature of warmed plots by 3oC higher than that of control plots constantly. The seeds of Pinus densiflora, Abies holophylla, Abies koreana, Betula costata, Quercus variabilis, Fraxinus rhynchophylla, and Zelkova serrata were planted in each 1 m × 1 m plot (n=3) in April, 2012. We collected soil samples from the rhizosphere of 7 tree species. DNA was extracted and PCR-amplified for the bacterial 16S gene targeting V1-V3 region. The paired-end sequencing was performed at Beijing Genome Institute (BGI, Hong Kong, China) using 2× 100 bp Hiseq2000 (Illumina). This study aimed to answer the following prediction/hypothesis: 1) Experimental warming will change the structure of soil bacterial community, 2) There will be distinct 'indicator group' which response to warming treatment relatively more sensitive than other groups. 3) Warming treatment will enhance the microbial activity in terms of soil respiration. 4) The rhizoplane bacterial communities for each of 7 tree species will show different response pattern to warming treatment. Since the sequence data does not arrive before the submission deadline, therefore, we would like to present the results and discussions on December 2014, AGU Fall Meeting.

  10. Can increased poleward oceanic heat flux explain the warm Cretaceous climate?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schmidt, Gavin A.; Mysak, Lawrence A.

    1996-10-01

    The poleward transport of heat in the mid-Cretaceous (100 Ma) is examined using an idealized coupled ocean-atmosphere model. The oceanic component consists of two zonally averaged basins representing the proto-Pacific and proto-Indian oceans and models the dynamics of the meridional thermohaline circulation. The atmospheric component is a simple energy and moisture balance model which includes the diffusive meridional transport of sensible heat and moisture. The ocean model is spun up with a variety of plausible Cretaceous surface temperature and salinity profiles, and a consistent atmosphere is objectively derived based on the resultant sea surface temperature and the surface heat and freshwater fluxes. The coupled model does not exhibit climate drift. Multiple equilibria of the coupled model are found that break the initial symmetry of the ocean circulation; several of these equilibria have one-cell (northern or southern sinking) thermohaline circulation patterns. Two main classes of circulation are found: circulations where the densest water is relatively cool and is formed at the polar latitudes and circulations where the densest water is warm, but quite saline, and the strongest sinking occurs at the tropics. In all cases, significant amounts of warm, saline bottom water are formed in the proto-Indian basin which modify the deepwater characteristics in the larger (proto-Pacific) basin. Temperatures in the deep ocean are warm, 10°-17°C, in agreement with benthic foraminiferal oxygen isotope data. The poleward transport of heat in the modeled Cretaceous oceans is larger than in some comparable models of the present day thermohaline circulation and significantly larger than estimates of similar processes in the present-day ocean. It is consistently larger in the polar sinking cases when compared with that seen in the tropical sinking cases, but this represents an increase of only 10%. The largest increase over present-day model transports is in the atmospheric

  11. Plant community responses to experimental warming across the tundra biome

    PubMed Central

    Walker, Marilyn D.; Wahren, C. Henrik; Hollister, Robert D.; Henry, Greg H. R.; Ahlquist, Lorraine E.; Alatalo, Juha M.; Bret-Harte, M. Syndonia; Calef, Monika P.; Callaghan, Terry V.; Carroll, Amy B.; Epstein, Howard E.; Jónsdóttir, Ingibjörg S.; Klein, Julia A.; Magnússon, Borgþór; Molau, Ulf; Oberbauer, Steven F.; Rewa, Steven P.; Robinson, Clare H.; Shaver, Gaius R.; Suding, Katharine N.; Thompson, Catharine C.; Tolvanen, Anne; Totland, Ørjan; Turner, P. Lee; Tweedie, Craig E.; Webber, Patrick J.; Wookey, Philip A.

    2006-01-01

    Recent observations of changes in some tundra ecosystems appear to be responses to a warming climate. Several experimental studies have shown that tundra plants and ecosystems can respond strongly to environmental change, including warming; however, most studies were limited to a single location and were of short duration and based on a variety of experimental designs. In addition, comparisons among studies are difficult because a variety of techniques have been used to achieve experimental warming and different measurements have been used to assess responses. We used metaanalysis on plant community measurements from standardized warming experiments at 11 locations across the tundra biome involved in the International Tundra Experiment. The passive warming treatment increased plant-level air temperature by 1-3°C, which is in the range of predicted and observed warming for tundra regions. Responses were rapid and detected in whole plant communities after only two growing seasons. Overall, warming increased height and cover of deciduous shrubs and graminoids, decreased cover of mosses and lichens, and decreased species diversity and evenness. These results predict that warming will cause a decline in biodiversity across a wide variety of tundra, at least in the short term. They also provide rigorous experimental evidence that recently observed increases in shrub cover in many tundra regions are in response to climate warming. These changes have important implications for processes and interactions within tundra ecosystems and between tundra and the atmosphere. PMID:16428292

  12. Projected increase in lightning strikes in the United States due to global warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Romps, David M.; Seeley, Jacob T.; Vollaro, David; Molinari, John

    2014-11-01

    Lightning plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry and in the initiation of wildfires, but the impact of global warming on lightning rates is poorly constrained. Here we propose that the lightning flash rate is proportional to the convective available potential energy (CAPE) times the precipitation rate. Using observations, the product of CAPE and precipitation explains 77% of the variance in the time series of total cloud-to-ground lightning flashes over the contiguous United States (CONUS). Storms convert CAPE times precipitated water mass to discharged lightning energy with an efficiency of 1%. When this proxy is applied to 11 climate models, CONUS lightning strikes are predicted to increase 12 ± 5% per degree Celsius of global warming and about 50% over this century.

  13. Experimental warming reveals positive feedbacks to climate change in the Eurasian Steppe.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Ximei; Johnston, Eric R; Li, Linghao; Konstantinidis, Konstantinos T; Han, Xingguo

    2017-04-01

    Identifying soil microbial feedbacks to increasing temperatures and moisture alterations is critical for predicting how terrestrial ecosystems will respond to climate change. We performed a 5-year field experiment manipulating warming, watering and their combination in a semiarid temperate steppe in northern China. Warming stimulated the abundance of genes responsible for degrading recalcitrant soil organic matter (SOM) and reduced SOM content by 13%. Watering, and warming plus watering also increased the abundance of recalcitrant SOM catabolism pathways, but concurrently promoted plant growth and increased labile SOM content, which somewhat offset SOM loss. The treatments also increased microbial biomass, community complexity and metabolic potential for nitrogen and sulfur assimilation. Both microbial and plant community composition shifted with the treatment conditions, and the sample-to-sample compositional variations of the two communities (pairwise β-diversity distances) were significantly correlated. In particular, microbial community composition was substantially correlated with the dominant plant species (~0.54 Spearman correlation coefficient), much more than with measured soil indices, affirming a tight coupling between both biological communities. Collectively, our study revealed the direction and underlying mechanisms of microbial feedbacks to warming and suggested that semiarid regions of northern steppes could act as a net carbon source under increased temperatures, unless precipitation increases concurrently.

  14. Soil warming increases plant species richness but decreases germination from the alpine soil seed bank.

    PubMed

    Hoyle, Gemma L; Venn, Susanna E; Steadman, Kathryn J; Good, Roger B; McAuliffe, Edward J; Williams, Emlyn R; Nicotra, Adrienne B

    2013-05-01

    Global warming is occurring more rapidly above the treeline than at lower elevations and alpine areas are predicted to experience above average warming in the future. Temperature is a primary factor in stimulating seed germination and regulating changes in seed dormancy status. Thus, plant regeneration from seed will be crucial to the persistence, migration and post disturbance recruitment of alpine plants in future climates. Here, we present the first assessment of the impact of soil warming on germination from the persistent alpine soil seed bank. Contrary to expectations, soil warming lead to reduced overall germination from the soil seed bank. However, germination response to soil temperature was species specific such that total species richness actually increased by nine with soil warming. We further explored the system by assessing the prevalence of seed dormancy and germination response to soil disturbance, the frequency of which is predicted to increase under climate change. Seeds of a significant proportion of species demonstrated physiological dormancy mechanisms and germination of several species appeared to be intrinsically linked to soil disturbance. In addition, we found no evidence of subalpine species and little evidence of exotic weed species in the soil, suggesting that the soil seed bank will not facilitate their invasion of the alpine zone. In conclusion, changes in recruitment via the alpine soil seed bank can be expected under climate change, as a result of altered dormancy alleviation and germination cues. Furthermore, the alpine soil seed bank, and the species richness therein, has the potential to help maintain local species diversity, support species range shift and moderate species dominance. Implications for alpine management and areas for further study are also discussed. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  15. Does increasing active warm-up duration affect afternoon short-term maximal performance during Ramadan?

    PubMed

    Baklouti, Hana; Aloui, Asma; Chtourou, Hamdi; Briki, Walid; Chaouachi, Anis; Souissi, Nizar

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of active warm-up duration on short-term maximal performance assessed during Ramadan in the afternoon. Twelve healthy active men took part in the study. The experimental design consisted of four test sessions conducted at 5 p.m., before and during Ramadan, either with a 5-minute or a 15-minute warm-up. The warm-up consisted in pedaling at 50% of the power output obtained at the last stage of a submaximal multistage cycling test. During each session, the subjects performed two vertical jump tests (squat jump and counter movement jump) for measurement of vertical jump height followed by a 30-second Wingate test for measurement of peak and mean power. Oral temperature was recorded at rest and after warming-up. Moreover, ratings of perceived exertion were obtained immediately after the Wingate test. Oral temperature was higher before Ramadan than during Ramadan at rest, and was higher after the 15-minute warm-up than the 5-minute warm-up both before and during Ramadan. In addition, vertical jump heights were not significantly different between the two warm-up conditions before and during Ramadan, and were lower during Ramadan than before Ramadan after both warm-up conditions. Peak and mean power were not significantly different between the two warm-up durations before Ramadan, but were significantly higher after the 5-minute warm-up than the 15-minute warm-up during Ramadan. Moreover, peak and mean power were lower during Ramadan than before Ramadan after both warm-up conditions. Furthermore, ratings of perceived exertion were higher after the 15-minute warm-up than the 5-minute warm-up only during Ramadan. The prolonged active warm-up has no effect on vertical jump height but impairs anaerobic power assessed during Ramadan in the afternoon.

  16. Does Increasing Active Warm-Up Duration Affect Afternoon Short-Term Maximal Performance during Ramadan?

    PubMed Central

    Baklouti, Hana; Aloui, Asma; Chtourou, Hamdi; Briki, Walid; Chaouachi, Anis; Souissi, Nizar

    2015-01-01

    Aim The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of active warm-up duration on short-term maximal performance assessed during Ramadan in the afternoon. Methods Twelve healthy active men took part in the study. The experimental design consisted of four test sessions conducted at 5 p.m., before and during Ramadan, either with a 5-minute or a 15-minute warm-up. The warm-up consisted in pedaling at 50% of the power output obtained at the last stage of a submaximal multistage cycling test. During each session, the subjects performed two vertical jump tests (squat jump and counter movement jump) for measurement of vertical jump height followed by a 30-second Wingate test for measurement of peak and mean power. Oral temperature was recorded at rest and after warming-up. Moreover, ratings of perceived exertion were obtained immediately after the Wingate test. Results Oral temperature was higher before Ramadan than during Ramadan at rest, and was higher after the 15-minute warm-up than the 5-minute warm-up both before and during Ramadan. In addition, vertical jump heights were not significantly different between the two warm-up conditions before and during Ramadan, and were lower during Ramadan than before Ramadan after both warm-up conditions. Peak and mean power were not significantly different between the two warm-up durations before Ramadan, but were significantly higher after the 5-minute warm-up than the 15-minute warm-up during Ramadan. Moreover, peak and mean power were lower during Ramadan than before Ramadan after both warm-up conditions. Furthermore, ratings of perceived exertion were higher after the 15-minute warm-up than the 5-minute warm-up only during Ramadan. Conclusion The prolonged active warm-up has no effect on vertical jump height but impairs anaerobic power assessed during Ramadan in the afternoon. PMID:25646955

  17. Peatland Woody Plant Growth Responses to Warming and Elevated CO2 in a Southern-boreal Raised Bog Ecosystem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Phillips, J. R.; Hanson, P. J.; Warren, J.; Ward, E. J.; Brice, D. J.; Graham, J.

    2017-12-01

    Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) is an in situ warming by elevated CO2 manipulation located in a high-carbon, spruce peatland in northern Minnesota. Warming treatments combined a 12-m diameter open topped chamber with internally recirculating warm air and soil deep heating to simulate a broad range of future warming treatments. Deep below ground soil warming rates are 0, +2.25, +4.5, +6.75, and +9 °C. Deep belowground warming was initiated in June 2014 followed by air warming in August 2015. In June 2016, elevated CO2 atmospheres (eCO2 at + 500 ppm) were added to half of the warming treatments in a regression design. Our objective was to track long-term vegetation responses to warming and eCO2. Annual tree growth is based on winter measurement of circumference of all Picea mariana and Larix laricina trees within each 113 m2 plot, automated dendrometers, terrestrial LIDAR scanning of tree heights and canopy volumes, and destructive allometry. Annual shrub growth is measured in late summer by destructive clipping in two 0.25 m2 sub-plots and separation of the current year tissues. During the first year of warming, tree basal area growth was reduced for Picea, but not Larix trees. Growth responses for the woody shrub vegetation remains highly variable with a trend towards increasing growth with warming. Elevated CO2 enhancements of growth are not yet evident in the data. Second-year results will also be reported. Long-term hypotheses for increased woody plant growth under warming include potential enhancements driven by increased nutrient availability from warming induced decomposition of surface peats.

  18. Simulated climate-warming increases Coleoptera activity-densities and reduces community diversity in a cereal crop

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    To assess one likely effect of global warming, we experimentally increased the temperature and precipitation of a coleopteran community (mainly Carabidae) of an agro-ecosystem. We simulated climate change on a field of spring wheat by experimentally increasing the temperature by 2°C using infrared h...

  19. Integrated rice-duck farming decreases global warming potential and increases net ecosystem economic budget in central China.

    PubMed

    Sheng, Feng; Cao, Cou-Gui; Li, Cheng-Fang

    2018-05-31

    Over the past decades, many attempts have been made to assess the effects of integrated rice-duck farming on greenhouse gas emissions, use efficient of energy, soil fertility, and economic significance. However, very few studies have been focused on the effects of the farming on net ecosystem economic budget (NEEB). Here, a 2-year field experiment was conducted to comprehensively investigate the effects of ducks raised in paddy fields on CH 4 and N 2 O emissions, global warming potential (GWP), rice grain yield, and NEEB in central China. The experiment included two treatments: integrated rice-duck farming (RD) and conventional rice farming (R). The introduction of ducks into the paddy fields markedly increased the rice grain yield due to enhanced tiller number and root bleeding rate. RD treatment significantly elevated the N 2 O emissions (p < 0.05) but decreased CH 4 emissions (p < 0.05) during rice growing seasons compared with R treatment. Analysis of GWP based on CH 4 and N 2 O emissions showed that compared with R treatment, RD treatment significantly decreased the GWP by 28.1 and 28.0% and reduced the greenhouse gas intensity by 30.6 and 29.8% in 2009 and 2010, respectively. In addition, RD treatment increased NEEB by 40.8 and 39.7% respectively in 2009 and 2010 relative to R treatment. Taken together, our results suggest that the integrated rice-duck farming system is an effective strategy to optimize the economic and environmental benefits of paddy fields in central China.

  20. Increased frequency of ENSO-related hydroclimate extremes in a warming climate

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sun, Q.; Miao, C.; AghaKouchak, A.

    2017-12-01

    Global warming will likely alter surface warming in tropical Pacific regions, leading to changes in the characteristics of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) characteristics and an incresed frequency of extreme ENSO events. The ENSO-related climatic variation and associated impacts will likely be modified in a warmer climatic state. However, little is known about the effect of changes in ENSO teleconnections with regard to future dry and wet conditions over land around the globe, especially outside tropical regions. We used the model simulations of the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) for different twenty-first-century emission scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) to investigate the changes in the ENSO' teleconnection on dry/wet condition over global land. Our results show that 64.64% and 38.12% of 181 river basins studied are expected to experience an increase in the frequency of unusually wet/dry events forced by both ENSO phases under the RCP 4.5 and 8.5, respectively. The anomalous precipitation variability forced by ENSO events will be intensified through a "wet-get-wetter, dry-get-drier" mechanism over west North America, South America, central Asia, and west Asia. More than 850 million people are at risk of exposure to unusually dry/wet events. There is a potential increased risk of high-intensity dry/wet events, with an increase/decrease in the 50-year return level of SPI value for drying/wetting regions. These results have important implications for disaster evaluation and related policies and for appropriate engineering design.

  1. TOPEX/El Nino Watch - Warm Water Pool is Increasing, Nov. 10, 1997

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1997-01-01

    This image of the Pacific Ocean was produced using sea surface height measurements taken by the U.S./French TOPEX/Poseidon satellite. The image shows sea surface height relative to normal ocean conditions on Nov. 10, 1997. The volume of extra warm surface water (shown in white) in the core of the El Nino continues to increase, especially in the area between 15 degrees south latitude and 15 degrees north latitude in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The area of low sea level (shown in purple) has decreased somewhat from late October. The white and red areas indicate unusual patterns of heat storage; in the white areas, the sea surface is between 14 centimeters and 32 cm (6 inches to 13 inches) above normal; in the red areas, it is about 10 centimeters (4 inches) above normal. The surface area covered by the warm water mass is about one-and-one-half times the size of the continental United States. The added amount of oceanic warm water near the Americas, with a temperature between 21 to 30 degrees Celsius (70 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit), is about 30 times the volume of water in all the U.S. Great Lakes combined. The green areas indicate normal conditions, while purple (the western Pacific) means at least 18 centimeters (7 inches) below normal sea level.

    The El Nino phenomenon is thought to be triggered when the steady westward blowing trade winds weaken and even reverse direction. This change in the winds allows a large mass of warm water (the red and white areas) that is normally located near Australia to move eastward along the equator until it reaches the coast of South America. The displacement of so much warm water affects evaporation, where rain clouds form and, consequently, alters the typical atmospheric jet stream patterns around the world. Using these global data, limited regional measurements from buoys and ships, and a forecasting model of the ocean-atmospheric system, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) of the National Oceanic and

  2. The Effects of Local Warming on Surgical Site Infection

    PubMed Central

    Dellinger, E. Patchen; Weber, James; Swenson, Ron Edward; Kent, Christopher D.; Swanson, Paul E.; Harmon, Kurt; Perrin, Margot

    2015-01-01

    Abstract Background: Surgical site infections (SSI) account for a major proportion of hospital-acquired infections. They are associated with longer hospital stay, readmissions, increased costs, mortality, and morbidity. Reducing SSI is a goal of the Surgical Care Improvement Project and identifying interventions that reduce SSI effectively is of interest. In a single-blinded randomized controlled trial (RCT) we evaluated the effect of localized warming applied to surgical incisions on SSI development and selected cellular (immune, endothelial) and tissue responses (oxygenation, collagen). Methods: After Institutional Review Board approval and consent, patients having open bariatric, colon, or gynecologic-oncologic related operations were enrolled and randomly assigned to local incision warming (6 post-operative treatments) or non-warming. A prototype surgical bandage was used for all patients. The study protocol included intra-operative warming to maintain core temperature ≥36°C and administration of 0.80 FIO2. Patients were followed for 6 wks for the primary outcome of SSI determined by U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) criteria and ASEPSIS scores (additional treatment; presence of serous discharge, erythema, purulent exudate, and separation of the deep tissues; isolation of bacteria; and duration of inpatient stay). Tissue oxygen (PscO2) and samples for cellular analyses were obtained using subcutaneous polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) tubes and oxygen micro-electrodes implanted adjacent to the incision. Cellular and tissue ePTFE samples were evaluated using flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, and Sircol™ collagen assay (Biocolor Ltd., Carrickfergus, United Kingdom). Results: One hundred forty-six patients participated (n=73 per group). Study groups were similar on demographic parameters and for intra-operative management factors. The CDC defined rate of SSI was 18%; occurrence of SSI between groups did not differ (p=0.27). At 2 wks, warmed

  3. Effects of experimental throughfall reduction and soil warming on fine root biomass and its decomposition in a warm temperate oak forest.

    PubMed

    Liu, Yanchun; Liu, Shirong; Wan, Shiqiang; Wang, Jingxin; Wang, Hui; Liu, Kuan

    2017-01-01

    Fine root dynamics play a critical role in regulating carbon (C) cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Examining responses of fine root biomass and its decomposition to altered precipitation pattern and climate warming is crucial to understand terrestrial C dynamics and its feedback to climate change. Fine root biomass and its decomposition rate were investigated in a warm temperate oak forest through a field manipulation experiment with throughfall reduction and soil warming conducted. Throughfall reduction significantly interacted with soil warming in affecting fine root biomass and its decomposition. Throughfall reduction substantially increased fine root biomass and its decomposition in unheated plots, but negative effects occurred in warmed plots. Soil warming significantly enhanced fine root biomass and its decomposition under ambient precipitation, but the opposite effects exhibited under throughfall reduction. Different responses in fine root biomass among different treatments could be largely attributed to soil total nitrogen (N), while fine root decomposition rate was more depended on microbial biomass C and N. Our observations indicate that decreased precipitation may offset the positive effect of soil warming on fine root biomass and decomposition. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Infrared heater system for warming tropical forest understory plants and soils.

    PubMed

    Kimball, Bruce A; Alonso-Rodríguez, Aura M; Cavaleri, Molly A; Reed, Sasha C; González, Grizelle; Wood, Tana E

    2018-02-01

    The response of tropical forests to global warming is one of the largest uncertainties in predicting the future carbon balance of Earth. To determine the likely effects of elevated temperatures on tropical forest understory plants and soils, as well as other ecosystems, an infrared (IR) heater system was developed to provide in situ warming for the Tropical Responses to Altered Climate Experiment (TRACE) in the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico. Three replicate heated 4-m-diameter plots were warmed to maintain a 4°C increase in understory vegetation compared to three unheated control plots, as sensed by IR thermometers. The equipment was larger than any used previously and was subjected to challenges different from those of many temperate ecosystem warming systems, including frequent power surges and outages, high humidity, heavy rains, hurricanes, saturated clayey soils, and steep slopes. The system was able to maintain the target 4.0°C increase in hourly average vegetation temperatures to within ± 0.1°C. The vegetation was heterogeneous and on a 21° slope, which decreased uniformity of the warming treatment on the plots; yet, the green leaves were fairly uniformly warmed, and there was little difference among 0-10 cm depth soil temperatures at the plot centers, edges, and midway between. Soil temperatures at the 40-50 cm depth increased about 3°C compared to the controls after a month of warming. As expected, the soil in the heated plots dried faster than that of the control plots, but the average soil moisture remained adequate for the plants. The TRACE heating system produced an adequately uniform warming precisely controlled down to at least 50-cm soil depth, thereby creating a treatment that allows for assessing mechanistic responses of tropical plants and soil to warming, with applicability to other ecosystems. No physical obstacles to scaling the approach to taller vegetation (i.e., trees) and larger plots were observed.

  5. Effects of Whole-Ecosystem Warming on Porewater Chemistry and Hydrology in a Northern Peatland

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Griffiths, N.; Sebestyen, S. D.

    2016-12-01

    Northern peatlands are carbon-rich ecosystems, and thus it is important to understand the effects of climate change on carbon cycle feedbacks in these vulnerable systems. An ecosystem-scale experiment is evaluating the effects of warming and elevated CO2 on an ombrotrophic bog in northern Minnesota, USA. Ten enclosures, each 12-m in diameter, were constructed in the peatland to allow for both above and belowground warming. Each enclosure receives one of five temperature treatments (+0 to +9°C), with half of the enclosures receiving elevated CO2 (+500ppm) and the other half ambient CO2. A belowground corral with a lateral drainage system surrounds each enclosure, and allows for measurements of lateral outflow volume and chemistry. Piezometers are used to sample porewater chemistry at different depths (0-3m) into the peat. We evaluated the effects of one year of whole-ecosystem warming on depth-specific porewater chemistry and outflow dynamics. Changes in porewater chemistry were observed upon initiation of whole-ecosystem warming. Total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations increased in near-surface porewater in the warmer enclosures, while concentrations were lower and similar to pre-treatment conditions in the ambient (+0°C) enclosures. The changes in TOC concentration measured in response to whole-ecosystem warming were initially limited to only the near-surface porewater (0 m); however, TOC concentrations began to increase at 0.3 m depth after several months of warming. These changes in TOC concentrations were also reflected in water draining from each enclosure, with generally higher TOC concentrations in water flowing from warmer enclosures. However, warmer treatments tended to have lower water outflow rates, possibly due to increased evapotranspiration, and thus TOC fluxes were generally lowest from the warmest enclosures. Overall, these initial results suggest that warming may increase porewater TOC concentrations, possibly due to increased mineralization

  6. Arctic warming, moisture increase and circulation changes observed in the Ny-Ålesund homogenized radiosonde record

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maturilli, Marion; Kayser, Markus

    2017-10-01

    Radiosonde measurements obtained at the Arctic site Ny-Ålesund (78.9°N, 11.9°E), Svalbard, from 1993 to 2014 have been homogenized accounting for instrumentation discontinuities by correcting known errors in the manufacturer provided profiles. The resulting homogenized radiosonde record is provided as supplementary material at http://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.845373. From the homogenized data record, the first Ny-Ålesund upper-air climatology of wind, temperature and humidity is presented, forming the background for the analysis of changes during the 22-year period. Particularly during the winter season, a strong increase in atmospheric temperature and humidity is observed, with a significant warming of the free troposphere in January and February up to 3 K per decade. This winter warming is even more pronounced in the boundary layer below 1 km, presumably amplified by mesoscale processes including e.g. orographic effects or the boundary layer capping inversion. Though the largest contribution to the increasing atmospheric water vapour column in winter originates from the lowermost 2 km, no increase in the contribution by specific humidity inversions is detected. Instead, we find an increase in the humidity content of the large-scale background humidity profiles. At the same time, the tropospheric flow in winter is found to occur less frequent from northerly directions and to the same amount more frequent from the South. We conclude that changes in the atmospheric circulation lead to an enhanced advection of warm and moist air from lower latitudes to the Svalbard region in the winter season, causing the warming and moistening of the atmospheric column above Ny-Ålesund, and link the observations to changes in the Arctic Oscillation.

  7. Global Warming: A Reduced Threat?.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Michaels, Patrick J.; Stooksbury, David E.

    1992-10-01

    One popular and apocalyptic vision of the world influenced by increasing concentrations of infrared-absorbing trace gases is that of ecological disaster brought about by rapidly rising temperatures, sea level, and evaporation rates. This vision developed from a suite of climate models that have since considerably changed in both their dynamics and their estimates of prospective warming. Observed temperatures indicate that much more warming should already have taken place than predicted by earlier models in the Northern Hemisphere, and that night, rather than day, readings in that hemisphere show a relative warming. A high-latitude polar-night warming or a general night warming could be either benign or beneficial. A large number of plant species show both increased growth and greater water-use efficiency under enhanced carbon dioxide.An extensive body of evidence now indicates that anthropo-generated sulfate emissions are mitigating some of the warming, and that increased cloudiness as a result of these emissions will further enhance night, rather than day, warming. The sulfate emissions, though, are not sufficient to explain all of the night warming. However, the sensitivity of climate to anthropogenerated aerosols, and the general lack of previously predicted warming, could drastically alter the debate on global warming in favor of less expensive policies.

  8. Projected Increase in Lightning Strikes in the United States Due to Global Warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Romps, D. M.; Seeley, J.; Vollaro, D.; Molinari, J.

    2014-12-01

    Lightning plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry and in the initiation of wildfires, but the impact of global warming on lightning rates is poorly constrained. The lightning flash rate is proposed here to be proportional to the convective available potential energy (CAPE) times the precipitation rate. Using observations, the product of CAPE and precipitation is found to explain the majority of variance in the time series of total cloud-to-ground lightning flashes over the contiguous United States (CONUS) on timescales ranging from diurnal to seasonal. The observations reveal that storms convert the CAPE of water mass to discharged lightning energy with an efficiency of about 1%. This proxy can be applied to global climate models, which provide predictions for the increase in lightning due to global warming. Results from 11 GCMs will be shown.

  9. Soil moisture mediates alpine life form and community productivity responses to warming.

    PubMed

    Winkler, Daniel E; Chapin, Kenneth J; Kueppers, Lara M

    2016-06-01

    Climate change is expected to alter primary production and community composition in alpine ecosystems, but the direction and magnitude of change is debated. Warmer, wetter growing seasons may increase productivity; however, in the absence of additional precipitation, increased temperatures may decrease soil moisture, thereby diminishing any positive effect of warming. Since plant species show individual responses to environmental change, responses may depend on community composition and vary across life form or functional groups. We warmed an alpine plant community at Niwot Ridge, Colorado continuously for four years to test whether warming increases or decreases productivity of life form groups and the whole community. We provided supplemental water to a subset of plots to alleviate the drying effect of warming. We measured annual above-ground productivity and soil temperature and moisture, from which we calculated soil degree days and adequate soil moisture days. Using an information-theoretic approach, we observed that positive productivity responses to warming at the community level occur only when warming is combined with supplemental watering; otherwise we observed decreased productivity. Watering also increased community productivity in the absence of warming. Forbs accounted for the majority of the productivity at the site and drove the contingent community response to warming, while cushions drove the generally positive response to watering and graminoids muted the community response. Warming advanced snowmelt and increased soil degree days, while watering increased adequate soil moisture days. Heated and watered plots had more adequate soil moisture days than heated plots. Overall, measured changes in soil temperature and moisture in response to treatments were consistent with expected productivity responses. We found that available soil moisture largely determines the responses of this forb-dominated alpine community to simulated climate warming. © 2016

  10. Elevated increases in human-perceived temperature under climate warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Jianfeng; Chen, Yongqin David; Gan, Thian Yew; Lau, Ngar-Cheung

    2018-01-01

    Changes in air temperature (AT), humidity and wind speed (Wind) affect apparent temperature (AP), the human-perceived equivalent temperature1-3. Here we show that under climate warming, both reanalysis data sets and Global Climate Model simulations indicate that AP has increased faster than AT over land. The faster increase in AP has been especially significant over low latitudes and is expected to continue in the future. The global land average AP increased at 0.04 °C per decade faster than AT before 2005. This trend is projected to increase to 0.06 °C (0.03-0.09 °C; minimum and maximum of the ensemble members) per decade and 0.17 °C (0.12-0.25 °C) per decade under the Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 scenario (RCP4.5) and RCP8.5, respectively, and reduce to 0.02 °C (0-0.03 °C) per decade under RCP2.6 over 2006-2100. The higher increment in AP in summer daytime is more remarkable than in winter night-time and is most prominent over low latitudes. The summertime increases in AT-based thermal discomfort are projected to balance the wintertime decreases in AT-based discomfort over low and middle latitudes, while the summertime increases in AP-based thermal discomfort are expected to outpace the wintertime decreases in AP-based thermal discomfort. Effective climate change mitigation efforts to achieve RCP2.6 can considerably alleviate the faster increase in AP.

  11. Chronic warming stimulates growth of marsh grasses more than mangroves in a coastal wetland ecotone.

    PubMed

    Coldren, G A; Barreto, C R; Wykoff, D D; Morrissey, E M; Langley, J A; Feller, I C; Chapman, S K

    2016-11-01

    Increasing temperatures and a reduction in the frequency and severity of freezing events have been linked to species distribution shifts. Across the globe, mangrove ranges are expanding toward higher latitudes, likely due to diminishing frequency of freezing events associated with climate change. Continued warming will alter coastal wetland plant dynamics both above- and belowground, potentially altering plant capacity to keep up with sea level rise. We conducted an in situ warming experiment, in northeast Florida, to determine how increased temperature (+2°C) influences co-occurring mangrove and salt marsh plants. Warming was achieved using passive warming with three treatment levels (ambient, shade control, warmed). Avicennia germinans, the black mangrove, exhibited no differences in growth or height due to experimental warming, but displayed a warming-induced increase in leaf production (48%). Surprisingly, Distichlis spicata, the dominant salt marsh grass, increased in biomass (53% in 2013 and 70% in 2014), density (41%) and height (18%) with warming during summer months. Warming decreased plant root mass at depth and changed abundances of anaerobic bacterial taxa. Even while the poleward shift of mangroves is clearly controlled by the occurrences of severe freezes, chronic warming between these freeze events may slow the progression of mangrove dominance within ecotones. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

  12. [Warming up with endotrainer prior to laparoscopic cholecystectomy].

    PubMed

    Troncoso-Bacelis, Alicia; Soto-Amaro, Jaime; Ramírez-Velázquez, Carlos

    Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is a safe and effective treatment and remains the gold standard in patients with benign disease. However it presents difficulties such as: the limited movement range of the instruments, the loss of depth perception, haptic feedback and the fulcrum effect. Previous training can optimize surgical performance in patients to master basic skills. Assess the effectiveness of surgeons warming up with an endotrainer before performing laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Single-blind controlled clinical trial with 16 surgeons who performed 2 laparoscopic cholecystectomies, the first according to standard practice and the second with warm-up comprising 5 MISTELS system exercises. Patient and surgeon demographics were recorded, in addition to findings and complications during and after surgery for each procedured. We found a decrease in surgical time of 76.88 (±18.87) minutes in the group that did not warm up to prior to surgery compared with 72.81 (±35.5) minutes in the group with warm-up (p=0.0196). In addition, increased bleeding occurred in the procedures performed with warm-up 31.25 (±30.85) ml compared with the group that had no warm-up 23.94 (±15.9) (p=0.0146). Performing warm up on a MISTELS system endotrainer before performing laparoscopic cholecystectomy reduces the operating time of surgery for all surgeons. Surgery bleeding increases in operations performed by surgeons with less experience in laparoscopic surgery. Copyright © 2016 Academia Mexicana de Cirugía A.C. Publicado por Masson Doyma México S.A. All rights reserved.

  13. Changes in substrate availability drive carbon cycle response to chronic warming

    DOE PAGES

    Pold, Grace; Grandy, A. Stuart; Melillo, Jerry M.; ...

    2017-03-22

    As earth's climate continues to warm, it is important to understand how the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to retain carbon (C) will be affected. We combined measurements of microbial activity with the concentration, quality, and physical accessibility of soil carbon to microorganisms to evaluate the mechanisms by which more than two decades of experimental warming has altered the carbon cycle in a Northeast US temperate deciduous forest. We have found that concentrations of soil organic matter were reduced in both the organic and mineral soil horizons. The molecular composition of the carbon was altered in the mineral soil with significantmore » reductions in the relative abundance of polysaccharides and lignin, and an increase in lipids. Mineral-associated organic matter was preferentially depleted by warming in the top 3 cm of mineral soil. We found that potential extracellular enzyme activity per gram of soil at a common temperature was generally unaffected by warming treatment. However, by measuring potential extracellular enzyme activities between 4 and 30 °C, we found that activity per unit microbial biomass at in-situ temperatures was increased by warming. This was associated with a tendency for microbial biomass to decrease with warming. These results indicate that chronic warming has reduced soil organic matter concentrations, selecting for a smaller but more active microbial community increasingly dependent on mineral-associated organic matter.« less

  14. Changes in substrate availability drive carbon cycle response to chronic warming

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Pold, Grace; Grandy, A. Stuart; Melillo, Jerry M.

    As earth's climate continues to warm, it is important to understand how the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to retain carbon (C) will be affected. We combined measurements of microbial activity with the concentration, quality, and physical accessibility of soil carbon to microorganisms to evaluate the mechanisms by which more than two decades of experimental warming has altered the carbon cycle in a Northeast US temperate deciduous forest. We have found that concentrations of soil organic matter were reduced in both the organic and mineral soil horizons. The molecular composition of the carbon was altered in the mineral soil with significantmore » reductions in the relative abundance of polysaccharides and lignin, and an increase in lipids. Mineral-associated organic matter was preferentially depleted by warming in the top 3 cm of mineral soil. We found that potential extracellular enzyme activity per gram of soil at a common temperature was generally unaffected by warming treatment. However, by measuring potential extracellular enzyme activities between 4 and 30 °C, we found that activity per unit microbial biomass at in-situ temperatures was increased by warming. This was associated with a tendency for microbial biomass to decrease with warming. These results indicate that chronic warming has reduced soil organic matter concentrations, selecting for a smaller but more active microbial community increasingly dependent on mineral-associated organic matter.« less

  15. The importance of warm season warming to western U.S. streamflow changes

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Das, T.; Pierce, D.W.; Cayan, D.R.; Vano, J.A.; Lettenmaier, D.P.

    2011-01-01

    Warm season climate warming will be a key driver of annual streamflow changes in four major river basins of the western U.S., as shown by hydrological model simulations using fixed precipitation and idealized seasonal temperature changes based on climate projections with SRES A2 forcing. Warm season (April-September) warming reduces streamflow throughout the year; streamflow declines both immediately and in the subsequent cool season. Cool season (October-March) warming, by contrast, increases streamflow immediately, partially compensating for streamflow reductions during the subsequent warm season. A uniform warm season warming of 3C drives a wide range of annual flow declines across the basins: 13.3%, 7.2%, 1.8%, and 3.6% in the Colorado, Columbia, Northern and Southern Sierra basins, respectively. The same warming applied during the cool season gives annual declines of only 3.5%, 1.7%, 2.1%, and 3.1%, respectively. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.

  16. Increasing water cycle extremes in California and relation to ENSO cycle under global warming

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Yoon, Jin -Ho; Wang, S. -Y. Simon; Gillies, Robert R.

    California has experienced its most severe drought in recorded history since the winter of 2013-2014. The long duration of drought has stressed statewide water resources and the economy, while fueling an extraordinary increase in wildfires. The effects of global warming on the regional climate include a hotter and drier climate, as well as earlier snowmelt, both of which exacerbate drought conditions. However, connections between a changing climate and how climate oscillations modulate regional water cycle extremes are not well understood. Here we analyze large-ensemble simulations of future climate change in California using the Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1)more » and multiple climate models participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). Both intense drought and excessive flooding are projected to increase by at least 50% toward the end of the 21st century. Furthermore, the projected increase in water cycle extremes is associated with tighter relation to El Niño and Southern Oscillation (ENSO), particularly extreme El Niño and La Niña events, which modulates California’s climate not only through its warm and cold phases, but also ENSO’s precursor patterns.« less

  17. Increasing water cycle extremes in California and relation to ENSO cycle under global warming

    DOE PAGES

    Yoon, Jin -Ho; Wang, S. -Y. Simon; Gillies, Robert R.; ...

    2015-10-21

    California has experienced its most severe drought in recorded history since the winter of 2013-2014. The long duration of drought has stressed statewide water resources and the economy, while fueling an extraordinary increase in wildfires. The effects of global warming on the regional climate include a hotter and drier climate, as well as earlier snowmelt, both of which exacerbate drought conditions. However, connections between a changing climate and how climate oscillations modulate regional water cycle extremes are not well understood. Here we analyze large-ensemble simulations of future climate change in California using the Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1)more » and multiple climate models participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). Both intense drought and excessive flooding are projected to increase by at least 50% toward the end of the 21st century. Furthermore, the projected increase in water cycle extremes is associated with tighter relation to El Niño and Southern Oscillation (ENSO), particularly extreme El Niño and La Niña events, which modulates California’s climate not only through its warm and cold phases, but also ENSO’s precursor patterns.« less

  18. Warming of subarctic tundra increases emissions of all three important greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.

    PubMed

    Voigt, Carolina; Lamprecht, Richard E; Marushchak, Maija E; Lind, Saara E; Novakovskiy, Alexander; Aurela, Mika; Martikainen, Pertti J; Biasi, Christina

    2017-08-01

    Rapidly rising temperatures in the Arctic might cause a greater release of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere. To study the effect of warming on GHG dynamics, we deployed open-top chambers in a subarctic tundra site in Northeast European Russia. We determined carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) fluxes as well as the concentration of those gases, inorganic nitrogen (N) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) along the soil profile. Studied tundra surfaces ranged from mineral to organic soils and from vegetated to unvegetated areas. As a result of air warming, the seasonal GHG budget of the vegetated tundra surfaces shifted from a GHG sink of -300 to -198 g CO 2 -eq m -2 to a source of 105 to 144 g CO 2 -eq m -2 . At bare peat surfaces, we observed increased release of all three GHGs. While the positive warming response was dominated by CO 2 , we provide here the first in situ evidence of increasing N 2 O emissions from tundra soils with warming. Warming promoted N 2 O release not only from bare peat, previously identified as a strong N 2 O source, but also from the abundant, vegetated peat surfaces that do not emit N 2 O under present climate. At these surfaces, elevated temperatures had an adverse effect on plant growth, resulting in lower plant N uptake and, consequently, better N availability for soil microbes. Although the warming was limited to the soil surface and did not alter thaw depth, it increased concentrations of DOC, CO 2, and CH 4 in the soil down to the permafrost table. This can be attributed to downward DOC leaching, fueling microbial activity at depth. Taken together, our results emphasize the tight linkages between plant and soil processes, and different soil layers, which need to be taken into account when predicting the climate change feedback of the Arctic. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  19. Climate Warming Can Increase Soil Carbon Fluxes Without Decreasing Soil Carbon Stocks in Boreal Forests

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ziegler, S. E.; Benner, R. H.; Billings, S. A.; Edwards, K. A.; Philben, M. J.; Zhu, X.; Laganiere, J.

    2016-12-01

    Ecosystem C fluxes respond positively to climate warming, however, the net impact of changing C fluxes on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks over decadal scales remains unclear. Manipulative studies and global-scale observations have informed much of the existing knowledge of SOC responses to climate, providing insights on relatively short (e.g. days to years) and long (centuries to millennia) time scales, respectively. Natural climate gradient studies capture integrated ecosystem responses to climate on decadal time scales. Here we report the soil C reservoirs, fluxes into and out of those reservoirs, and the chemical composition of inputs and soil organic matter pools along a mesic boreal forest climate transect. The sites studied consist of similar forest composition, successional stage, and soil moisture but differ by 5.2°C mean annual temperature. Carbon fluxes through these boreal forest soils were greatest in the lowest latitude regions and indicate that enhanced C inputs can offset soil C losses with warming in these forests. Respiration rates increased by 55% and the flux of dissolved organic carbon from the organic to mineral soil horizons tripled across this climate gradient. The 2-fold increase in litterfall inputs to these soils coincided with a significant increase in the organic horizon C stock with warming, however, no significant difference in the surface mineral soil C stocks was observed. The younger mean age of the mineral soil C ( 70 versus 330 YBP) provided further evidence for the greater turnover of SOC in the warmer climate soils. In spite of these differences in mean radiocarbon age, mineral SOC exhibited chemical characteristics of highly decomposed material across all regions. In contrast with depth trends in soil OM diagenetic indices, diagenetic shifts with latitude were limited to increases in C:N and alkyl to O-alkyl ratios in the overlying organic horizons in the warmer relative to the colder regions. These data indicate that the

  20. Relative roles of differential SST warming, uniform SST warming and land surface warming in determining the Walker circulation changes under global warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Lei; Li, Tim

    2017-02-01

    Most of CMIP5 models projected a weakened Walker circulation in tropical Pacific, but what causes such change is still an open question. By conducting idealized numerical simulations separating the effects of the spatially uniform sea surface temperature (SST) warming, extra land surface warming and differential SST warming, we demonstrate that the weakening of the Walker circulation is attributed to the western North Pacific (WNP) monsoon and South America land effects. The effect of the uniform SST warming is through so-called "richest-get-richer" mechanism. In response to a uniform surface warming, the WNP monsoon is enhanced by competing moisture with other large-scale convective branches. The strengthened WNP monsoon further induces surface westerlies in the equatorial western-central Pacific, weakening the Walker circulation. The increase of the greenhouse gases leads to a larger land surface warming than ocean surface. As a result, a greater thermal contrast occurs between American Continent and equatorial Pacific. The so-induced zonal pressure gradient anomaly forces low-level westerly anomalies over the equatorial eastern Pacific and weakens the Walker circulation. The differential SST warming also plays a role in driving low-level westerly anomalies over tropical Pacific. But such an effect involves a positive air-sea feedback that amplifies the weakening of both east-west SST gradient and Pacific trade winds.

  1. The December 2015 North Pole Warming Event and the Increasing Occurrence of Such Events

    PubMed Central

    Moore, G. W. K.

    2016-01-01

    In late December 2015, widespread media interest revolved around forecasts that the surface air temperature at the North Pole would rise above freezing. Although there has been significant interest in the enhanced warming that is occurring at high northern latitudes, a process known as arctic amplification, remarkably little is known about these midwinter warming events at the pole including their frequency, duration and magnitude as well as the environmental conditions responsible for their occurrence. Here we use buoy and radiosonde data along with operational weather forecasts and atmospheric reanalyses to show that such events are associated with surface cyclones near the pole as well as a highly perturbed polar vortex. They occur once or twice each decade with the earliest identified event taking place in 1959. In addition, the warmest midwinter temperatures at the North Pole have been increasing at a rate that is twice as large as that for mean midwinter temperatures at the pole. It is argued that this enhanced trend is consistent with the loss of winter sea ice from the Nordic Seas that moves the reservoir of warm air over this region northwards making it easier for weather systems to transport this heat polewards. PMID:27976745

  2. Autumn photosynthetic decline and growth cessation in seedlings of white spruce are decoupled under warming and photoperiod manipulations.

    PubMed

    Stinziano, Joseph R; Way, Danielle A

    2017-08-01

    Climate warming is expected to increase the seasonal duration of photosynthetic carbon fixation and tree growth in high-latitude forests. However, photoperiod, a crucial cue for seasonality, will remain constant, which may constrain tree responses to warming. We investigated the effects of temperature and photoperiod on weekly changes in photosynthetic capacity, leaf biochemistry and growth in seedlings of a boreal evergreen conifer, white spruce [Picea glauca (Moench) Voss]. Warming delayed autumn declines in photosynthetic capacity, extending the period when seedlings had high carbon uptake. While photoperiod was correlated with photosynthetic capacity, short photoperiods did not constrain the maintenance of high photosynthetic capacity under warming. Rubisco concentration dynamics were affected by temperature but not photoperiod, while leaf pigment concentrations were unaffected by treatments. Respiration rates at 25 °C were stimulated by photoperiod, although respiration at the growth temperatures was increased in warming treatments. Seedling growth was stimulated by increased photoperiod and suppressed by warming. We demonstrate that temperature is a stronger control on the seasonal timing of photosynthetic down-regulation than is photoperiod. Thus, while warming can stimulate carbon uptake in boreal conifers, the extra carbon may be directed towards respiration rather than biomass, potentially limiting carbon sequestration under climate change. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  3. Effects of warming on N2O fluxes in a boreal peatland of Permafrost region, Northeast China.

    PubMed

    Cui, Qian; Song, Changchun; Wang, Xianwei; Shi, Fuxi; Yu, Xueyang; Tan, Wenwen

    2018-03-01

    Climate warming is expected to increasingly influence boreal peatlands and alter their greenhouse gases emissions. However, the effects of warming on N 2 O fluxes and the N 2 O budgets were ignored in boreal peatlands. Therefore, in a boreal peatland of permafrost zone in Northeast China, a simulated warming experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of warming on N 2 O fluxes in Betula. Fruticosa community (B. Fruticosa) and Ledum. palustre community (L. palustre) during the growing seasons from 2013 to 2015. Results showed that warming treatment increased air temperature at 1.5m aboveground and soil temperature at 5cm depth by 0.6°C and 2°C, respectively. The average seasonal N 2 O fluxes ranged from 6.62 to 9.34μgm -2 h -1 in the warming plot and ranged from 0.41 to 4.55μgm -2 h -1 in the control plots. Warming treatment increased N 2 O fluxes by 147% and transformed the boreal peatlands from a N 2 O sink to a source. The primary driving factors for N 2 O fluxes were soil temperature and active layer depth, whereas soil moisture showed a weak correlation with N 2 O fluxes. The results indicated that warming promoted N 2 O fluxes by increasing soil temperature and active layer depth in a boreal peatland of permafrost zone in Northeast China. Moreover, elevated N 2 O fluxes persisted in this region will potentially drive a noncarbon feedback to ongoing climate change. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Frequency of Deep Convective Clouds and Global Warming

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Aumann, Hartmut H.; Teixeira, Joao

    2008-01-01

    This slide presentation reviews the effect of global warming on the formation of Deep Convective Clouds (DCC). It concludes that nature responds to global warming with an increase in strong convective activity. The frequency of DCC increases with global warming at the rate of 6%/decade. The increased frequency of DCC with global warming alone increases precipitation by 1.7%/decade. It compares the state of the art climate models' response to global warming, and concludes that the parametrization of climate models need to be tuned to more closely emulate the way nature responds to global warming.

  5. The Once and Future North Atlantic: How the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period Can Increase Stakeholder Preparedness in a Warming World

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jacobs, P.; de Mutsert, K.

    2013-12-01

    Paleoclimatic reconstructions, particularly from periods that may serve as an analog to the present and future greenhouse-driven warming, are increasingly being used to validate climate models as well as to provide constraints on broad impacts such as global temperature and sea level change. However, paleoclimatic data remains under-utilized in decision-making processes by stakeholders, who typically rely on scenarios produced by computer models or naive extrapolation of present trends. We hope to increase the information available to stakeholders by incorporating paleoclimatic data from the mid-Pliocene Warm Period (mPWP, ~3ma) into a fisheries model of the North Atlantic. North Atlantic fisheries are economically important and are expected to be sensitive to climatic change. State of the art climate models remain unable to realistically simulate the North Atlantic, both over the observational record as well as during times in the geologic past such as the mPWP. Given that the mPWP shares many of the same boundary conditions as those likely to be seen in the near future, we seek to answer the question 'What if the climate of the future looks more like the climate of the past?' relative to what state of the art computer models currently project. To that end we have created a suite of future North Atlantic Ocean scenarios using output from the CMIP3 and CMIP5 modeling experiments, as well as the PRISM group's Mid-Pliocene ocean reconstruction. We use these scenarios to drive an ecosystem-based fisheries model using the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) software to identify differences between the scenarios as the North Atlantic Ocean changes through time. Additionally, we examine the spatial component of these differences by using the Ecospace module of EwE. Whereas the Ecosim realizations are intended to capture the dynamic response to changing oceanographic parameters (SST, SSS, DO) over time, the Ecospace experiments are intended to explore the impact of different

  6. Herbivore impacts to the moss layer determine tundra ecosystem response to grazing and warming.

    PubMed

    Gornall, Jemma L; Woodin, Sarah J; Jónsdóttir, Ingibjörg S; Van der Wal, Rene

    2009-10-01

    Herbivory and climate are key environmental drivers, shaping ecosystems at high latitudes. Here, we focus on how these two drivers act in concert, influencing the high arctic tundra. We aim to investigate mechanisms through which herbivory by geese influences vegetation and soil processes in tundra ecosystems under ambient and warmed conditions. To achieve this, two grazing treatments, clipping plus faecal additions and moss removal, were implemented in conjunction with passive warming. Our key finding was that, in many cases, the tundra ecosystem response was determined by treatment impacts on the moss layer. Moss removal reduced the remaining moss layer depth by 30% and increased peak grass biomass by 27%. These impacts were probably due to observed higher soil temperatures and decomposition rates associated with moss removal. The positive impact of moss removal on grass biomass was even greater with warming, further supporting this conclusion. In contrast, moss removal reduced dwarf shrub biomass possibly resulting from increased exposure to desiccating winds. An intact moss layer buffered the soil to increased air temperature and as a result there was no response of vascular plant productivity to warming over the course of this study. In fact, moss removal impacts on soil temperature were nearly double those of warming, suggesting that the moss layer is a key component in controlling soil conditions. The moss layer also absorbed nutrients from faeces, promoting moss growth. We conclude that both herbivory and warming influence this high arctic ecosystem but that herbivory is the stronger driver of the two. Disturbance to the moss layer resulted in a shift towards a more grass-dominated system with less abundant mosses and shrubs, a trend that was further enhanced by warming. Thus herbivore impacts to the moss layer are key to understanding arctic ecosystem response to grazing and warming.

  7. Warm fresh whole blood and thoracic traumain iraq and afghanistan.

    PubMed

    Keneally, Ryan J; Parsons, Andrew M; Willett, Peter B

    2015-01-01

    Thoracic trauma occurred in 10% of the patients seen at US military treatment facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan and 52% of those patients were transfused. Among those transfused, 281 patients received warm fresh whole blood. A previous report documented improved survival with warm fresh whole blood in patients injured in combat without stratification by injury pattern. A later report described an increase in acute lung injuries after its administration. Survivorship and warm fresh whole blood have never been analyzed in a subpopulation at highest risk for lung injuries, such as patients with thoracic trauma. There may be a heterogeneous relationship between whole blood and survival based on likelihood of a concomitant pulmonary injury. In this report, the relationship between warm fresh whole blood and survivorship was analyzed among patients at highest risk for concomitant pulmonary injuries. Patients with thoracic trauma who received a transfusion were identified in the Joint Theater Trauma Registry. Gross mortality rates were compared between whole blood recipients and patients transfused with component therapy only. The association between each blood component and mortality was determined in a regression model. The overall mortality risk was compared between warm fresh whole blood recipients and non-recipients. Patients transfused with warm fresh whole blood in addition to component therapy had a higher mortality rate than patients transfused only separated blood components (21.3% vs. 12.8%, P < 0.001). When controlling for covariates, transfusion of warm fresh whole blood in addition to component therapy was not associated with increased mortality risk compared with the transfusion of component therapy only (OR 1.247 [95% CI 0.760-2.048], P = 0.382). Patients with combat related thoracic trauma transfused with warm fresh whole blood were not at increased risk for mortality compared to those who received component therapy alone when controlling for covariates.

  8. Warming alters energetic structure and function but not resilience of soil food webs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schwarz, Benjamin; Barnes, Andrew D.; Thakur, Madhav P.; Brose, Ulrich; Ciobanu, Marcel; Reich, Peter B.; Rich, Roy L.; Rosenbaum, Benjamin; Stefanski, Artur; Eisenhauer, Nico

    2017-12-01

    Climate warming is predicted to alter the structure, stability, and functioning of food webs1-5. Yet, despite the importance of soil food webs for energy and nutrient turnover in terrestrial ecosystems, the effects of warming on these food webs—particularly in combination with other global change drivers—are largely unknown. Here, we present results from two complementary field experiments that test the interactive effects of warming with forest canopy disturbance and drought on energy flux in boreal-temperate ecotonal forest soil food webs. The first experiment applied a simultaneous above- and belowground warming treatment (ambient, +1.7 °C, +3.4 °C) to closed-canopy and recently clear-cut forest, simulating common forest disturbance6. The second experiment crossed warming with a summer drought treatment (-40% rainfall) in the clear-cut habitats. We show that warming reduces energy flux to microbes, while forest canopy disturbance and drought facilitates warming-induced increases in energy flux to higher trophic levels and exacerbates the reduction in energy flux to microbes, respectively. Contrary to expectations, we find no change in whole-network resilience to perturbations, but significant losses in ecosystem functioning. Warming thus interacts with forest disturbance and drought, shaping the energetic structure of soil food webs and threatening the provisioning of multiple ecosystem functions in boreal-temperate ecotonal forests.

  9. Warming Alters Expressions of Microbial Functional Genes Important to Ecosystem Functioning

    DOE PAGES

    Xue, Kai; Xie, Jianping; Zhou, Aifen; ...

    2016-05-06

    Soil microbial communities play critical roles in ecosystem functioning and are likely altered by climate warming. However, so far, little is known about effects of warming on microbial functional gene expressions. Here, we applied functional gene array (GeoChip 3.0) to analyze cDNA reversely transcribed from total RNA to assess expressed functional genes in active soil microbial communities after nine years of experimental warming in a tallgrass prairie. Our results showed that warming significantly altered the community wide gene expressions. Specifically, expressed genes for degrading more recalcitrant carbon were stimulated by warming, likely linked to the plant community shift toward moremore » C 4 species under warming and to decrease the long-term soil carbon stability. In addition, warming changed expressed genes in labile C degradation and N cycling in different directions (increase and decrease), possibly reflecting the dynamics of labile C and available N pools during sampling. However, the average abundances of expressed genes in phosphorus and sulfur cycling were all increased by warming, implying a stable trend of accelerated P and S processes which might be a mechanism to sustain higher plant growth. Furthermore, the expressed gene composition was closely related to both dynamic (e.g., soil moisture) and stable environmental attributes (e.g., C 4 leaf C or N content), indicating that RNA analyses could also capture certain stable trends in the long-term treatment. Overall, this study revealed the importance of elucidating functional gene expressions of soil microbial community in enhancing our understanding of ecosystem responses to warming.« less

  10. Warming Alters Expressions of Microbial Functional Genes Important to Ecosystem Functioning

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Xue, Kai; Xie, Jianping; Zhou, Aifen

    Soil microbial communities play critical roles in ecosystem functioning and are likely altered by climate warming. However, so far, little is known about effects of warming on microbial functional gene expressions. Here, we applied functional gene array (GeoChip 3.0) to analyze cDNA reversely transcribed from total RNA to assess expressed functional genes in active soil microbial communities after nine years of experimental warming in a tallgrass prairie. Our results showed that warming significantly altered the community wide gene expressions. Specifically, expressed genes for degrading more recalcitrant carbon were stimulated by warming, likely linked to the plant community shift toward moremore » C 4 species under warming and to decrease the long-term soil carbon stability. In addition, warming changed expressed genes in labile C degradation and N cycling in different directions (increase and decrease), possibly reflecting the dynamics of labile C and available N pools during sampling. However, the average abundances of expressed genes in phosphorus and sulfur cycling were all increased by warming, implying a stable trend of accelerated P and S processes which might be a mechanism to sustain higher plant growth. Furthermore, the expressed gene composition was closely related to both dynamic (e.g., soil moisture) and stable environmental attributes (e.g., C 4 leaf C or N content), indicating that RNA analyses could also capture certain stable trends in the long-term treatment. Overall, this study revealed the importance of elucidating functional gene expressions of soil microbial community in enhancing our understanding of ecosystem responses to warming.« less

  11. Warming Alters Expressions of Microbial Functional Genes Important to Ecosystem Functioning

    PubMed Central

    Xue, Kai; Xie, Jianping; Zhou, Aifen; Liu, Feifei; Li, Dejun; Wu, Liyou; Deng, Ye; He, Zhili; Van Nostrand, Joy D.; Luo, Yiqi; Zhou, Jizhong

    2016-01-01

    Soil microbial communities play critical roles in ecosystem functioning and are likely altered by climate warming. However, so far, little is known about effects of warming on microbial functional gene expressions. Here, we applied functional gene array (GeoChip 3.0) to analyze cDNA reversely transcribed from total RNA to assess expressed functional genes in active soil microbial communities after nine years of experimental warming in a tallgrass prairie. Our results showed that warming significantly altered the community wide gene expressions. Specifically, expressed genes for degrading more recalcitrant carbon were stimulated by warming, likely linked to the plant community shift toward more C4 species under warming and to decrease the long-term soil carbon stability. In addition, warming changed expressed genes in labile C degradation and N cycling in different directions (increase and decrease), possibly reflecting the dynamics of labile C and available N pools during sampling. However, the average abundances of expressed genes in phosphorus and sulfur cycling were all increased by warming, implying a stable trend of accelerated P and S processes which might be a mechanism to sustain higher plant growth. Furthermore, the expressed gene composition was closely related to both dynamic (e.g., soil moisture) and stable environmental attributes (e.g., C4 leaf C or N content), indicating that RNA analyses could also capture certain stable trends in the long-term treatment. Overall, this study revealed the importance of elucidating functional gene expressions of soil microbial community in enhancing our understanding of ecosystem responses to warming. PMID:27199978

  12. Warm-up: A Psychophysiological Phenomenon.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lopez, Richard; Dausman, Cindy

    1981-01-01

    The effectiveness of warm-up as an aid to athletic performance is related to an interaction of both psychological and physiological factors. Benefits of warm-up include an increase in blood and muscle temperatures and an increased muscular endurance. (JN)

  13. Soil warming effect on net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide during the transition from winter carbon source to spring carbon sink in a temperate urban lawn.

    PubMed

    Zhou, Xiaoping; Wang, Xiaoke; Tong, Lei; Zhang, Hongxing; Lu, Fei; Zheng, Feixiang; Hou, Peiqiang; Song, Wenzhi; Ouyang, Zhiyun

    2012-01-01

    The significant warming in urban environment caused by the combined effects of global warming and heat island has stimulated widely development of urban vegetations. However, it is less known of the climate feedback of urban lawn in warmed environment. Soil warming effect on net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of carbon dioxide during the transition period from winter to spring was investigated in a temperate urban lawn in Beijing, China. The NEE (negative for uptake) under soil warming treatment (temperature was about 5 degrees C higher than the ambient treatment as a control) was -0.71 micromol/(m2 x sec), the ecosytem was a CO2 sink under soil warming treatment, the lawn ecosystem under the control was a CO2 source (0.13 micromol/(m2 x sec)), indicating that the lawn ecosystem would provide a negative feedback to global warming. There was no significant effect of soil warming on nocturnal NEE (i.e., ecosystem respiration), although the soil temperature sensitivity (Q10) of ecosystem respiration under soil warming treatment was 3.86, much lower than that in the control (7.03). The CO2 uptake was significantly increased by soil warming treatment that was attributed to about 100% increase of alpha (apparent quantum yield) and Amax (maximum rate of photosynthesis). Our results indicated that the response of photosynthesis in urban lawn is much more sensitive to global warming than respiration in the transition period.

  14. Response to CO2 Transient Increase in the GISS Coupled Model: Regional Coolings in a Warming Climate

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Russell, Gary L.; Rind, David

    1999-01-01

    The (GISS) Goddard Institute for Space Studies coupled atmosphere-ocean model is used to investigate the effect of increased atmospheric CO2 by comparing a compounded 1 percent CO2 increase experiment with a control simulation. After 70 years of integration, the global surface air temperature in the 1 percent CO2 experiment is 1.43 C warmer. In spite of this global warming, there are two distinct regions, the northern Atlantic Ocean and the southern Pacific Ocean, where the surface air temperature is up to 4 C cooler. This situation is maintained by two positive feedbacks: a local effect on convection in the South Pacific and a non-local impact on the meridional circulation in the North Atlantic. The poleward transport of latent energy and dry static energy by the atmosphere is greater in the 1 percent CO2 experiment, caused by warming and therefore increased water vapor and greater greenhouse capacity at lower latitudes. The larger atmospheric transports tend to reduce upward vertical fluxes of heat and moisture from the ocean surface at high latitudes, which has the effect of stabilizing the ocean, reducing both convection and the thermohaline circulation. With less convection, less warm water is brought up from below, and with a reduced North Atlantic thermohaline circulation (by 30 percent at time of CO2 doubling), the poleward energy transport by the oceans decreases. The colder water then leads to further reductions in evaporation, decreases of salinity at high latitudes, continued stabilization of the ocean, and maintenance of reduced convection and meridional overturning. Although sea ice decreases globally, it increases in the cooling regions which reduces the overall climate sensitivity; its effect is most pronounced in the Southern Hemisphere. Tropical warming has been observed over the past several decades; if modeling studies such as this and others which have produced similar effects are valid, these processes may already be beginning.

  15. Effects of experimental warming on soil temperature, moisture and respiration in northern Mongolia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sharkhuu, A.; Plante, A. F.; Casper, B. B.; Helliker, B. R.; Liancourt, P.; Boldgiv, B.; Petraitis, P.

    2010-12-01

    Mean annual air temperature in the Lake Hövsgöl region of northern Mongolia has increased by 1.8 °C over the last 40 years, greater than global average temperature increases. A decrease of soil moisture due to changes in precipitation regime is also predicted over the northern region of Mongolia. Warmer temperatures generally result in higher soil CO2 efflux, but responses of soil efflux to climate change may differ among ecosystems due to response variations in soil temperature and moisture regime. The objectives of our study were to examine the environmental responses (soil temperature and moisture) to experimental warming, and to test responses of soil CO2 efflux to experimental warming, in three different ecozones. The experimental site is located in Dalbay Valley, on the eastern shore of Lake Hövsgöl in northern Mongolia (51.0234° N 100.7600° E; 1670 m elevation). Replicate plots with ITEX-style open-top passive warming chambers (OTC) and non-warmed control areas were installed in three ecosystems: (1) semi-arid grassland on the south-facing slope not underlain by permafrost, (2) riparian zone, and (3) larch forest on the north-facing slope underlain by permafrost. Aboveground air temperature and belowground soil temperature and moisture (10 and 20 cm) were monitored using sensors and dataloggers. Soil CO2 efflux was measured periodically using a portable infra-red gas analyzer with an attached soil respiration chamber. The warming chambers were installed and data collected during the 2009 and 2010 growing seasons. Passive warming chambers increased nighttime air temperatures; more so in grassland compared to the forest. Increases in daytime air temperatures were observed in the grassland, but were not significant in the riparian and forest areas. Soil temperatures in warmed plots were consistently higher in all three ecozones at 10 cm depth but not at 20 cm depth. Warming chambers had a slight drying effect in the grassland, but no consistent effect in

  16. Effects of warming on uptake and translocation of cadmium (Cd) and copper (Cu) in a contaminated soil-rice system under Free Air Temperature Increase (FATI).

    PubMed

    Ge, Li-Qiang; Cang, Long; Liu, Hui; Zhou, Dong-Mei

    2016-07-01

    Global warming has received growing attentions about its potential threats to human in recent, however little is known about its effects on transfer of heavy metals in agro-ecosystem, especially for Cd in rice. Pot experiments were conducted to evaluate Cd/Cu translocation in a contaminated soil-rice system under Free Air Temperature Increase (FATI). The results showed that warming gradually decreased soil porewater pH and increased water-soluble Cd/Cu concentration, reduced formation of iron plaque on root surface, and thus significantly increased total uptake of Cd/Cu by rice. Subsequently, warming significantly promoted Cd translocation from root to shoot, and increased Cd distribution percentage in shoot, while Cu was not significantly affected. Enhanced Cd uptake and translocation synergistically resulted in higher rice grain contamination with increasing concentration from 0.27 to 0.65 and 0.14-0.40 mg kg(-1) for Indica and Japonica rice, respectively. However increase of Cu in brown grain was only attributed to its uptake enhancement under warming. Our study provides a new understanding about the food production insecurity of heavy metal contaminated soil under the future global warming. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  17. Climate change. Projected increase in lightning strikes in the United States due to global warming.

    PubMed

    Romps, David M; Seeley, Jacob T; Vollaro, David; Molinari, John

    2014-11-14

    Lightning plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry and in the initiation of wildfires, but the impact of global warming on lightning rates is poorly constrained. Here we propose that the lightning flash rate is proportional to the convective available potential energy (CAPE) times the precipitation rate. Using observations, the product of CAPE and precipitation explains 77% of the variance in the time series of total cloud-to-ground lightning flashes over the contiguous United States (CONUS). Storms convert CAPE times precipitated water mass to discharged lightning energy with an efficiency of 1%. When this proxy is applied to 11 climate models, CONUS lightning strikes are predicted to increase 12 ± 5% per degree Celsius of global warming and about 50% over this century. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  18. Decadal evolution of the surface energy budget during the fast warming and global warming hiatus periods in the ERA-interim

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hu, Xiaoming; Sejas, Sergio A.; Cai, Ming; Taylor, Patrick C.; Deng, Yi; Yang, Song

    2018-05-01

    The global-mean surface temperature has experienced a rapid warming from the 1980s to early-2000s but a muted warming since, referred to as the global warming hiatus in the literature. Decadal changes in deep ocean heat uptake are thought to primarily account for the rapid warming and subsequent slowdown. Here, we examine the role of ocean heat uptake in establishing the fast warming and warming hiatus periods in the ERA-Interim through a decomposition of the global-mean surface energy budget. We find the increase of carbon dioxide alone yields a nearly steady increase of the downward longwave radiation at the surface from the 1980s to the present, but neither accounts for the fast warming nor warming hiatus periods. During the global warming hiatus period, the transfer of latent heat energy from the ocean to atmosphere increases and the total downward radiative energy flux to the surface decreases due to a reduction of solar absorption caused primarily by an increase of clouds. The reduction of radiative energy into the ocean and the surface latent heat flux increase cause the ocean heat uptake to decrease and thus contribute to the slowdown of the global-mean surface warming. Our analysis also finds that in addition to a reduction of deep ocean heat uptake, the fast warming period is also driven by enhanced solar absorption due predominantly to a decrease of clouds and by enhanced longwave absorption mainly attributed to the air temperature feedback.

  19. Global warming hiatus contributed to the increased occurrence of intense tropical cyclones in the coastal regions along East Asia.

    PubMed

    Zhao, Jiuwei; Zhan, Ruifen; Wang, Yuqing

    2018-04-16

    The recent global warming hiatus (GWH) was characterized by a La Niña-like cooling in the tropical Eastern Pacific accompanied with the Indian Ocean and the tropical Atlantic Ocean warming. Here we show that the recent GWH contributed significantly to the increased occurrence of intense tropical cyclones in the coastal regions along East Asia since 1998. The GWH associated sea surface temperature anomalies triggered a pair of anomalous cyclonic and anticyclonic circulations and equatorial easterly anomalies over the Northwest Pacific, which favored TC genesis and intensification over the western Northwest Pacific but suppressed TC genesis and intensification over the southeastern Northwest Pacific due to increased vertical wind shear and anticyclonic circulation anomalies. Results from atmospheric general circulation model experiments demonstrate that the Pacific La Niña-like cooling dominated the Indian Ocean and the tropical Atlantic Ocean warming in contributing to the observed GWH-related anomalous atmospheric circulation over the Northwest Pacific.

  20. Will nitrogen deposition mitigate warming-increased soil respiration in a young subtropical plantation?

    Treesearch

    Xiaofei Liu; Zhijie Yang; Chengfang Lin; Christian P. Giardina; Decheng Xiong; Weisheng Lin; Shidong Chen; Chao Xu; Guangshui Chen; Jinsheng Xie; Yiqing Li; Yusheng Yang

    2017-01-01

    Global change such as climate warming and nitrogen (N) deposition is likely to alter terrestrial carbon (C) cycling, including soil respiration (Rs), the largest CO2 source from soils to the atmosphere. To examine the effects of warming, N addition and their interactions on Rs, we...

  1. [Effects of warm needling moxibustion on knee cartilage and morphology in rats with knee osteoarthritis].

    PubMed

    Zhang, Yongliang; Mi, Yiqun; Gang, Jiahong; Wang, Huamin

    2016-02-01

    To observe the effects of warm needling moxibustion on body mass, knee cartilage andmorphology in rats with knee osteoarthritis (KOA). Forty SD rats were randomly divided into a normalgroup, a model group, a medication group and a warm needling group, 10 rats in each one. Except the normalgroup, the rats in the remaining three groups were injected with papain to establish the model of KOA. After themodeling, rats in the model group did not receive any treatment; rats in the warm needling group were treated withwarm needling moxibustion at bilateral "Xiqian"; rats in the medication group were treated with intragastric administration of meloxicam; rats in the normal group were treated with 0. 9% NaCl solution (identical dose as medication group) and immobilized as the warm needling group. The treatment was given once a day for consecutive20 days. The body mass, scale of knee cartilage and morphological changes were observed in each group after'treatment. The increasing of body mass in the medication group and warm needling group was faster than!that in the model group, but slower than that in the normal group (all P<0. 05); the difference between medication group and warm needling group was not statistically significant (P>0. 05). The scale of knee cartilage in thewarm needling group and medication group was significantly lower than that in the model group (both P<0. 05),while the scale in the warm needling group was lower than that in the medication group (P<. 05). Regarding theknee morphology under micro-CT, the relief of knee degeneration and improvement of knee recovery in the warm needlinggroup were superior to those in the medication group. The warm needling moxibustion could effectively reduce the knee pain, improve the recovery of knee cartilage, which is a safe and effective treatment.

  2. High Arctic summer warming tracked by increased Cassiope tetragona growth in the world's northernmost polar desert.

    PubMed

    Weijers, Stef; Buchwal, Agata; Blok, Daan; Löffler, Jörg; Elberling, Bo

    2017-11-01

    Rapid climate warming has resulted in shrub expansion, mainly of erect deciduous shrubs in the Low Arctic, but the more extreme, sparsely vegetated, cold and dry High Arctic is generally considered to remain resistant to such shrub expansion in the next decades. Dwarf shrub dendrochronology may reveal climatological causes of past changes in growth, but is hindered at many High Arctic sites by short and fragmented instrumental climate records. Moreover, only few High Arctic shrub chronologies cover the recent decade of substantial warming. This study investigated the climatic causes of growth variability of the evergreen dwarf shrub Cassiope tetragona between 1927 and 2012 in the northernmost polar desert at 83°N in North Greenland. We analysed climate-growth relationships over the period with available instrumental data (1950-2012) between a 102-year-long C. tetragona shoot length chronology and instrumental climate records from the three nearest meteorological stations, gridded climate data, and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Arctic Oscillation (AO) indices. July extreme maximum temperatures (JulT emx ), as measured at Alert, Canada, June NAO, and previous October AO, together explained 41% of the observed variance in annual C. tetragona growth and likely represent in situ summer temperatures. JulT emx explained 27% and was reconstructed back to 1927. The reconstruction showed relatively high growing season temperatures in the early to mid-twentieth century, as well as warming in recent decades. The rapid growth increase in C. tetragona shrubs in response to recent High Arctic summer warming shows that recent and future warming might promote an expansion of this evergreen dwarf shrub, mainly through densification of existing shrub patches, at High Arctic sites with sufficient winter snow cover and ample water supply during summer from melting snow and ice as well as thawing permafrost, contrasting earlier notions of limited shrub growth sensitivity to

  3. Intensified plant N and C pool with more available nitrogen under experimental warming in an alpine meadow ecosystem.

    PubMed

    Peng, Fei; Xue, Xian; You, Quangang; Xu, Manhou; Chen, Xiang; Guo, Jian; Wang, Tao

    2016-12-01

    Nitrogen (N) availability is projected to increase in a warming climate. But whether the more available N is immobilized by microbes (thus stimulates soil carbon (C) decomposition), or is absorbed by plants (thus intensifies C uptake) remains unknown in the alpine meadow ecosystem. Infrared heaters were used to simulate climate warming with a paired experimental design. Soil ammonification, nitrification, and net mineralization were obtained by in situ incubation in a permafrost region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). Available N significantly increased due to the stimulation of net nitrification and mineralization in 0-30 cm soil layer. Microbes immobilized N in the end of growing season in both warming and control plots. The magnitude of immobilized N was lower in the warming plots. The root N concentration significantly reduced, but root N pool intensified due to the significant increase in root biomass in the warming treatment. Our results suggest that a warming-induced increase in biomass is the major N sink and will continue to stimulate plant growth until plant N saturation, which could sustain the positive warming effect on ecosystem productivity.

  4. Artificial Warming of Arctic Meadow under Pollution Stress: Experimental design

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moni, Christophe; Silvennoinen, Hanna; Fjelldal, Erling; Brenden, Marius; Kimball, Bruce; Rasse, Daniel

    2014-05-01

    Boreal and arctic terrestrial ecosystems are central to the climate change debate, notably because future warming is expected to be disproportionate as compared to world averages. Likewise, greenhouse gas (GHG) release from terrestrial ecosystems exposed to climate warming is expected to be the largest in the arctic. Artic agriculture, in the form of cultivated grasslands, is a unique and economically relevant feature of Northern Norway (e.g. Finnmark Province). In Eastern Finnmark, these agro-ecosystems are under the additional stressor of heavy metal and sulfur pollution generated by metal smelters of NW Russia. Warming and its interaction with heavy metal dynamics will influence meadow productivity, species composition and GHG emissions, as mediated by responses of soil microbial communities. Adaptation and mitigation measurements will be needed. Biochar application, which immobilizes heavy metal, is a promising adaptation method to promote positive growth response in arctic meadows exposed to a warming climate. In the MeadoWarm project we conduct an ecosystem warming experiment combined to biochar adaptation treatments in the heavy-metal polluted meadows of Eastern Finnmark. In summary, the general objective of this study is twofold: 1) to determine the response of arctic agricultural ecosystems under environmental stress to increased temperatures, both in terms of plant growth, soil organisms and GHG emissions, and 2) to determine if biochar application can serve as a positive adaptation (plant growth) and mitigation (GHG emission) strategy for these ecosystems under warming conditions. Here, we present the experimental site and the designed open-field warming facility. The selected site is an arctic meadow located at the Svanhovd Research station less than 10km west from the Russian mining city of Nikel. A splitplot design with 5 replicates for each treatment is used to test the effect of biochar amendment and a 3oC warming on the Arctic meadow. Ten circular

  5. Contrasting effects of warming and increased snowfall on Arctic tundra plant phenology over the past two decades.

    PubMed

    Bjorkman, Anne D; Elmendorf, Sarah C; Beamish, Alison L; Vellend, Mark; Henry, Gregory H R

    2015-12-01

    Recent changes in climate have led to significant shifts in phenology, with many studies demonstrating advanced phenology in response to warming temperatures. The rate of temperature change is especially high in the Arctic, but this is also where we have relatively little data on phenological changes and the processes driving these changes. In order to understand how Arctic plant species are likely to respond to future changes in climate, we monitored flowering phenology in response to both experimental and ambient warming for four widespread species in two habitat types over 21 years. We additionally used long-term environmental records to disentangle the effects of temperature increase and changes in snowmelt date on phenological patterns. While flowering occurred earlier in response to experimental warming, plants in unmanipulated plots showed no change or a delay in flowering over the 21-year period, despite more than 1 °C of ambient warming during that time. This counterintuitive result was likely due to significantly delayed snowmelt over the study period (0.05-0.2 days/yr) due to increased winter snowfall. The timing of snowmelt was a strong driver of flowering phenology for all species - especially for early-flowering species - while spring temperature was significantly related to flowering time only for later-flowering species. Despite significantly delayed flowering phenology, the timing of seed maturation showed no significant change over time, suggesting that warmer temperatures may promote more rapid seed development. The results of this study highlight the importance of understanding the specific environmental cues that drive species' phenological responses as well as the complex interactions between temperature and precipitation when forecasting phenology over the coming decades. As demonstrated here, the effects of altered snowmelt patterns can counter the effects of warmer temperatures, even to the point of generating phenological responses

  6. Humidity trends imply increased sensitivity to clouds in a warming Arctic.

    PubMed

    Cox, Christopher J; Walden, Von P; Rowe, Penny M; Shupe, Matthew D

    2015-12-10

    Infrared radiative processes are implicated in Arctic warming and sea-ice decline. The infrared cloud radiative effect (CRE) at the surface is modulated by cloud properties; however, CRE also depends on humidity because clouds emit at wavelengths that are semi-transparent to greenhouse gases, most notably water vapour. Here we show how temperature and humidity control CRE through competing influences between the mid- and far-infrared. At constant relative humidity, CRE does not decrease with increasing temperature/absolute humidity as expected, but rather is found to be approximately constant for temperatures characteristic of the Arctic. This stability is disrupted if relative humidity varies. Our findings explain observed seasonal and regional variability in Arctic CRE of order 10 W m(-2). With the physical properties of Arctic clouds held constant, we calculate recent increases in CRE of 1-5 W m(-2) in autumn and winter, which are projected to reach 5-15 W m(-2) by 2050, implying increased sensitivity of the surface to clouds.

  7. Humidity trends imply increased sensitivity to clouds in a warming Arctic

    PubMed Central

    Cox, Christopher J.; Walden, Von P.; Rowe, Penny M.; Shupe, Matthew D.

    2015-01-01

    Infrared radiative processes are implicated in Arctic warming and sea-ice decline. The infrared cloud radiative effect (CRE) at the surface is modulated by cloud properties; however, CRE also depends on humidity because clouds emit at wavelengths that are semi-transparent to greenhouse gases, most notably water vapour. Here we show how temperature and humidity control CRE through competing influences between the mid- and far-infrared. At constant relative humidity, CRE does not decrease with increasing temperature/absolute humidity as expected, but rather is found to be approximately constant for temperatures characteristic of the Arctic. This stability is disrupted if relative humidity varies. Our findings explain observed seasonal and regional variability in Arctic CRE of order 10 W m−2. With the physical properties of Arctic clouds held constant, we calculate recent increases in CRE of 1–5 W m−2 in autumn and winter, which are projected to reach 5–15 W m−2 by 2050, implying increased sensitivity of the surface to clouds. PMID:26657324

  8. Humidity trends imply increased sensitivity to clouds in a warming Arctic

    DOE PAGES

    Cox, Christopher J.; Walden, Von P.; Rowe, Penny M.; ...

    2015-12-10

    Infrared radiative processes are implicated in Arctic warming and sea-ice decline. The infrared cloud radiative effect (CRE) at the surface is modulated by cloud properties; however, CRE also depends on humidity because clouds emit at wavelengths that are semi-transparent to greenhouse gases, most notably water vapour. Here we show how temperature and humidity control CRE through competing influences between the mid- and far-infrared. At constant relative humidity, CRE does not decrease with increasing temperature/absolute humidity as expected, but rather is found to be approximately constant for temperatures characteristic of the Arctic. This stability is disrupted if relative humidity varies. Ourmore » findings explain observed seasonal and regional variability in Arctic CRE of order 10Wm 2. With the physical properties of Arctic clouds held constant, we calculate recent increases in CRE of 1–5Wm 2 in autumn and winter, which are projected to reach 5–15Wm 2 by 2050, implying increased sensitivity of the surface to clouds.« less

  9. Rate of warming affects temperature sensitivity of anaerobic peat decomposition and greenhouse gas production.

    PubMed

    Sihi, Debjani; Inglett, Patrick W; Gerber, Stefan; Inglett, Kanika S

    2018-01-01

    Temperature sensitivity of anaerobic carbon mineralization in wetlands remains poorly represented in most climate models and is especially unconstrained for warmer subtropical and tropical systems which account for a large proportion of global methane emissions. Several studies of experimental warming have documented thermal acclimation of soil respiration involving adjustments in microbial physiology or carbon use efficiency (CUE), with an initial decline in CUE with warming followed by a partial recovery in CUE at a later stage. The variable CUE implies that the rate of warming may impact microbial acclimation and the rate of carbon-dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ) production. Here, we assessed the effects of warming rate on the decomposition of subtropical peats, by applying either a large single-step (10°C within a day) or a slow ramping (0.1°C/day for 100 days) temperature increase. The extent of thermal acclimation was tested by monitoring CO 2 and CH 4 production, CUE, and microbial biomass. Total gaseous C loss, CUE, and MBC were greater in the slow (ramp) warming treatment. However, greater values of CH 4 -C:CO 2 -C ratios lead to a greater global warming potential in the fast (step) warming treatment. The effect of gradual warming on decomposition was more pronounced in recalcitrant and nutrient-limited soils. Stable carbon isotopes of CH 4 and CO 2 further indicated the possibility of different carbon processing pathways under the contrasting warming rates. Different responses in fast vs. slow warming treatment combined with different endpoints may indicate alternate pathways with long-term consequences. Incorporations of experimental results into organic matter decomposition models suggest that parameter uncertainties in CUE and CH 4 -C:CO 2 -C ratios have a larger impact on long-term soil organic carbon and global warming potential than uncertainty in model structure, and shows that particular rates of warming are central to understand the

  10. Warming alters the energetic structure and function but not resilience of soil food webs

    PubMed Central

    Schwarz, Benjamin; Barnes, Andrew D.; Thakur, Madhav P.; Brose, Ulrich; Ciobanu, Marcel; Reich, Peter B.; Rich, Roy L.; Rosenbaum, Benjamin; Stefanski, Artur; Eisenhauer, Nico

    2017-01-01

    Climate warming is predicted to alter the structure, stability, and functioning of food webs1–5. Yet, despite the importance of soil food webs for energy and nutrient turnover in terrestrial ecosystems, warming effects on these food webs—particularly in combination with other global change drivers—are largely unknown. Here, we present results from two complementary field experiments testing the interactive effects of warming with forest canopy disturbance and drought on energy fluxes in boreal-temperate ecotonal forest soil food webs. The first experiment applied a simultaneous above- and belowground warming treatment (ambient, +1.7°C, +3.4°C) to closed canopy and recently clear-cut forest, simulating common forest disturbance6. The second experiment crossed warming with a summer drought treatment (-40% rainfall) in the clear-cut habitats. We show that warming reduces energy fluxes to microbes, while forest canopy disturbance and drought facilitates warming-induced increases in energy flux to higher trophic levels and exacerbates reductions in energy flux to microbes, respectively. Contrary to expectations, we find no change in whole-network resilience to perturbations, but significant losses of ecosystem functioning. Warming thus interacts with forest disturbance and drought, shaping the energetic structure of soil food webs and threatening the provisioning of multiple ecosystem functions in boreal-temperate ecotonal forests. PMID:29218059

  11. Shifting Foliar N:P Ratios with Experimental Soil Warming in Tussock Tundra

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jasinski, B.; Mack, M. C.; Schuur, E.; Mauritz, M.; Walker, X. J.

    2017-12-01

    Warming temperatures in the Arctic and boreal ecosystems are currently driving widespread permafrost thaw. Thermokarst is one form of thaw, in which a deepening active soil layer and associated hydrologic changes can lead to increased nutrient availability and shifts in plant community composition. Individual plant species often differ in their ability to access nutrients and adapt to new environmental conditions. While nitrogen (N) is often the nutrient most limiting to Arctic plant communities, the extent to which plant available phosphorus (P) from previously frozen mineral soil may increase as the active layer deepens is still uncertain. To understand the changing relationship between species' uptake of N and P in a thermokarst environment, we assessed foliar N:P ratios from 2015 in two species, a tussock sedge (Eriophorum vaginatum) and a dwarf shrub (Rubus chamaemorus), at a moist acidic tussock tundra experimental passive soil warming site. The passive soil warming treatment increased active layer depth in warmed plots by 35.4 cm (+/- 1.1 cm), an 80% increase over the control plots. E.vaginatum demonstrated a 16.9% decrease (p=0.012, 95% CI [-27.99%, -5.94%]) in foliar N:P ratios in warmed plots, driven mostly by an increase in foliar phosphorus. Foliar N:P ratios of R.chamaemorus showed no significant change. However, foliar samples of R.chamaemorus were significantly enriched in the isotope 15N in soil warming plots (9.9% increase (p=0.002, 95% CI [4.45%, 15.39%])), while the sedge E.vaginatum was slightly depleted. These results suggest that (1) in environments with thawing mineral soil plant available phosphorus may increase more quickly than nitrogen, and (2) that species' uptake strategies and responses to increasing N and P will vary, which has implications for future ecological shifts in thawing ecosystems.

  12. Warm-adapted microbial communities enhance their carbon-use efficiency in warmed soils

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rousk, Johannes; Frey, Serita

    2017-04-01

    Ecosystem models predict that climate warming will stimulate microbial decomposition of soil carbon (C), resulting in a positive feedback to increasing temperatures. The current generation of models assume that the temperature sensitivities of microbial processes do not respond to warming. However, recent studies have suggested that the ability of microbial communities to adapt to warming can lead both strengthened and weakened feedbacks. A further complication is that the balance between microbial C used for growth to that used for respiration - the microbial carbon-use efficiency (CUE) - also has been shown through both modelling and empirical study to respond to warming. In our study, we set out to assess how chronic warming (+5°C over ambient during 9 years) of a temperate hardwood forest floor (Harvard Forest LTER, USA) affected temperature sensitivities of microbial processes in soil. To do this, we first determined the temperature relationships for bacterial growth, fungal growth, and respiration in plots exposed to warmed or ambient conditions. Secondly, we parametrised the established temperature functions microbial growth and respiration with plot-specific measured soil temperature data at a hourly time-resolution over the course of 3 years to estimate the real-time variation of in situ microbial C production and respiration. To estimate the microbial CUE, we also divided the microbial C production with the sum of microbial C production and respiration as a proxy for substrate use. We found that warm-adapted bacterial and fungal communities both shifted their temperature relationships to grow at higher rates in warm conditions which coincided with reduced rates at cool conditions. As such, their optimal temperature (Topt), minimum temperature (Tmin) and temperature sensitivity (Q10) were all increased. The temperature relationship for temperature, in contrast, was only marginally shifted in the same direction, but at a much smaller effect size, with

  13. El Nino-like Teleconnection Increases California Precipitation in Response to Warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Allen, R.

    2017-12-01

    Future California (CA) precipitation projections, including those from the most recent Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), remain uncertain. This uncertainty is related to several factors, including relatively large internal climate variability, model shortcomings, and because CA lies within a transition zone, where mid-latitude regions are expected to become wetter and subtropical regions drier. Here, we use a multitude of models to show CA may receive more precipitation in the future under a business-as-usual scenario. The boreal winter season-when most of the CA precipitation increase occurs-is associated with robust changes in the mean circulation reminiscent of an El Nino teleconnection. Using idealized simulations with two different models, we further show that warming of tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures accounts for these changes. Models that better simulate the observed El Nino-CA precipitation teleconnection yield larger, and more consistent increases in CA precipitation through the twenty-first century.

  14. Effects of experimental warming and elevated CO2 on surface methane and CO­2 fluxes from a boreal black spruce peatland

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gill, A. L.; Finzi, A.; Hsieh, I. F.; Giasson, M. A.

    2016-12-01

    High latitude peatlands represent a major terrestrial carbon store sensitive to climate change, as well as a globally significant methane source. While elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and warming temperatures may increase peat respiration and C losses to the atmosphere, reductions in peatland water tables associated with increased growing season evapotranspiration may alter the nature of trace gas emission and increase peat C losses as CO2 relative to methane (CH4). As CH4 is a greenhouse gas with twenty times the warming potential of CO2, it is critical to understand how surface fluxes of CO2 and CH4 will be influenced by factors associated with global climate change. We used automated soil respiration chambers to assess the influence of elevated atmospheric CO2 and whole ecosystem warming on peatland CH4 and CO2 fluxes at the SPRUCE (Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Climatic and Environmental Change) Experiment in northern Minnesota. Here we report soil iCO2 and iCH4 flux responses to the first year of belowground warming and the first season of whole ecosystem warming and elevated CO2 treatments. We find that peat methane fluxes are more sensitive to warming treatments than peat CO2 fluxes, particularly in hollow peat microforms. Surface CO2:CH4 flux ratios decreased across warming treatments, suggesting that the temperature sensitivity of methane production overshadows the effect of peat drying and surface aeration in the short term. δ13C of the emitted methane was more depleted in the early and late growing season, indicating a transition from hydrogenotrophic to acetoclastic methanogenesis during periods of high photosynthetic input. The measurement record demonstrates that belowground warming has measureable impacts on the nature of peat greenhouse gas emission within one year of treatment.

  15. Warming trumps CO2: future climate conditions suppress carbon fluxes in two dominant boreal tree species

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Way, D.; Dusenge, M. E.; Madhavji, S.

    2017-12-01

    Increases in CO2 are expected to raise air temperatures in northern latitudes by up to 8 °C by the end of the century. Boreal forests in these regions play a large role in the global carbon cycle, and the responses of boreal tree species to climate drivers will thus have considerable impacts on the trajectory of future CO2 increases. We grew two dominant North American boreal tree species at a range of future climate conditions to assess how carbon fluxes were altered by high CO2 and warming. Black spruce (Picea mariana) and tamarack (Larix laricina) were grown from seed under either ambient (400 ppm) or elevated CO2 concentrations (750 ppm) and either ambient temperatures, moderate warming (ambient +4 °C), or extreme warming (ambient +8 °C) for six months. We measured temperature responses of net photosynthesis, maximum rates of Rubisco carboxylation (Vcmax) and electron transport (Jmax) and dark respiration to determine acclimation to the climate treatments. Overall, growth temperature had a strong effect on carbon fluxes, while there were no significant effects of growth CO2. In both species, the photosynthetic thermal optimum increased and maximum photosynthetic rates were reduced in warm-grown seedlings, but the strength of these changes varied between species. Vcmax and Jmax were also reduced in warm-grown seedlings, and this correlated with reductions in leaf N concentrations. Warming increased the activation energy for Vcmax and the thermal optimum for Jmax in both species. Respiration acclimated to elevated growth temperatures, but there were no treatment effects on the Q10 of respiration (the increase in respiration for a 10 °C increase in leaf temperature). Our results show that climate warming is likely to reduce carbon fluxes in these boreal conifers, and that photosynthetic parameters used to model photosynthesis in dynamic global vegetation models acclimate to increased temperatures, but show little response to elevated CO2.

  16. Understanding why the volume of suboxic waters does not increase over centuries of global warming in an Earth System Model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gnanadesikan, A.; Dunne, J. P.; John, J.

    2012-03-01

    Global warming is expected to reduce oxygen solubility and vertical exchange in the ocean, changes which would be expected to result in an increase in the volume of hypoxic waters. A simulation made with a full Earth System model with dynamical atmosphere, ocean, sea ice and biogeochemical cycling (the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory's Earth System Model 2.1) shows that this holds true if the condition for hypoxia is set relatively high. However, the volume of the most hypoxic (i.e., suboxic) waters does not increase under global warming, as these waters actually become more oxygenated. We show that the rise in dissolved oxygen in the tropical Pacific is associated with a drop in ventilation time. A term-by-term analysis within the least oxygenated waters shows an increased supply of dissolved oxygen due to lateral diffusion compensating an increase in remineralization within these highly hypoxic waters. This lateral diffusive flux is the result of an increase of ventilation along the Chilean coast, as a drying of the region under global warming opens up a region of wintertime convection in our model. The results highlight the potential sensitivity of suboxic waters to changes in subtropical ventilation as well as the importance of constraining lateral eddy transport of dissolved oxygen in such waters.

  17. A Congeneric Comparison Shows That Experimental Warming Enhances the Growth of Invasive Eupatorium adenophorum

    PubMed Central

    He, Wei-Ming; Li, Jing-Ji; Peng, Pei-Hao

    2012-01-01

    Rising air temperatures may change the risks of invasive plants; however, little is known about how different warming timings affect the growth and stress-tolerance of invasive plants. We conducted an experiment with an invasive plant Eupatorium adenophorum and a native congener Eupatorium chinense, and contrasted their mortality, plant height, total biomass, and biomass allocation in ambient, day-, night-, and daily-warming treatments. The mortality of plants was significantly higher in E. chinense than E. adenophorum in four temperature regimes. Eupatorium adenophorum grew larger than E. chinense in the ambient climate, and this difference was amplified with warming. On the basis of the net effects of warming, daily-warming exhibited the strongest influence on E. adenophorum, followed by day-warming and night-warming. There was a positive correlation between total biomass and root weight ratio in E. adenophorum, but not in E. chinense. These findings suggest that climate warming may enhance E. adenophorum invasions through increasing its growth and stress-tolerance, and that day-, night- and daily-warming may play different roles in this facilitation. PMID:22536425

  18. Net carbon uptake has increased through warming-induced changes in temperate forest phenology

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Keenan, Trevor; Gray, Josh; Friedl, Mark

    2014-01-01

    The timing of phenological events exerts a strong control over ecosystem function and leads to multiple feedbacks to the climate system1. Phenology is inherently sensitive to temperature (though the exact sensitivity is disputed2) and recent warming is reported to have led to earlier spring, later autumn3,4 and increased vegetation activity5,6. Such greening could be expected to enhance ecosystem carbon uptake7,8, though reports also suggest decreased uptake for boreal forests4,9. Here we assess changes in phenology of temperate forests over the eastern US during the past two decades, and quantify the resulting changes in forest carbon storage. We combine long-term groundmore » observations of phenology, satellite indices, and ecosystem-scale carbon dioxide flux measurements, along with 18 terrestrial biosphere models. We observe a strong trend of earlier spring and later autumn. In contrast to previous suggestions4,9 we show that carbon uptake through photosynthesis increased considerably more than carbon release through respiration for both an earlier spring and later autumn. The terrestrial biosphere models tested misrepresent the temperature sensitivity of phenology, and thus the effect on carbon uptake. Our analysis of the temperature-phenology-carbon coupling suggests a current and possible future enhancement of forest carbon uptake due to changes in phenology. This constitutes a negative feedback to climate change, and is serving to slow the rate of warming.« less

  19. Climate warming may increase aphids' dropping probabilities in response to high temperatures.

    PubMed

    Ma, Gang; Ma, Chun-Sen

    2012-11-01

    Dropping off is considered an anti-predator behavior for aphids since previous studies have shown that it reduces the risk of predation. However, little attention is paid to dropping behavior triggered by other external stresses such as daytime high temperatures which are predicted to become more frequent in the context of climate warming. Here we defined a new parameter, drop-off temperature (DOT), to describe the critical temperature at which an aphid drops off its host plant when the ambient temperature increases gradually and slowly. Detailed studies were conducted to reveal effects of short-term acclimation (temperature, exposure time at high-temperature and starvation) on DOT of an aphid species, Sitobion avenae. Our objectives were to test if the aphids dropped off host plant to avoid high temperatures and how short-term acclimation affected the aphids' dropping behavior in response to heat stress. We suggest that dropping is a behavioral thermoregulation to avoid heat stress, since aphids started to move before they dropped off and the dropped aphids were still able to control their muscles prior to knockdown. The adults starved for 12 h had higher DOT values than those that were unstarved or starved for 6 h, and there was a trade-off between behavioral thermoregulation and energy acquisition. Higher temperatures and longer exposure times at high temperatures significantly lowered the aphids' DOT, suggested that the aphids avoid heat stress by dropping when exposed to high temperatures. Climate warming may therefore increase the aphids' dropping probabilities and consequently affect the aphids' individual development and population growth. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Increased frequency of extreme Indian Ocean Dipole events due to greenhouse warming.

    PubMed

    Cai, Wenju; Santoso, Agus; Wang, Guojian; Weller, Evan; Wu, Lixin; Ashok, Karumuri; Masumoto, Yukio; Yamagata, Toshio

    2014-06-12

    The Indian Ocean dipole is a prominent mode of coupled ocean-atmosphere variability, affecting the lives of millions of people in Indian Ocean rim countries. In its positive phase, sea surface temperatures are lower than normal off the Sumatra-Java coast, but higher in the western tropical Indian Ocean. During the extreme positive-IOD (pIOD) events of 1961, 1994 and 1997, the eastern cooling strengthened and extended westward along the equatorial Indian Ocean through strong reversal of both the mean westerly winds and the associated eastward-flowing upper ocean currents. This created anomalously dry conditions from the eastern to the central Indian Ocean along the Equator and atmospheric convergence farther west, leading to catastrophic floods in eastern tropical African countries but devastating droughts in eastern Indian Ocean rim countries. Despite these serious consequences, the response of pIOD events to greenhouse warming is unknown. Here, using an ensemble of climate models forced by a scenario of high greenhouse gas emissions (Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5), we project that the frequency of extreme pIOD events will increase by almost a factor of three, from one event every 17.3 years over the twentieth century to one event every 6.3 years over the twenty-first century. We find that a mean state change--with weakening of both equatorial westerly winds and eastward oceanic currents in association with a faster warming in the western than the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean--facilitates more frequent occurrences of wind and oceanic current reversal. This leads to more frequent extreme pIOD events, suggesting an increasing frequency of extreme climate and weather events in regions affected by the pIOD.

  1. Climatic warming destabilizes forest ant communities

    PubMed Central

    Diamond, Sarah E.; Nichols, Lauren M.; Pelini, Shannon L.; Penick, Clint A.; Barber, Grace W.; Cahan, Sara Helms; Dunn, Robert R.; Ellison, Aaron M.; Sanders, Nathan J.; Gotelli, Nicholas J.

    2016-01-01

    How will ecological communities change in response to climate warming? Direct effects of temperature and indirect cascading effects of species interactions are already altering the structure of local communities, but the dynamics of community change are still poorly understood. We explore the cumulative effects of warming on the dynamics and turnover of forest ant communities that were warmed as part of a 5-year climate manipulation experiment at two sites in eastern North America. At the community level, warming consistently increased occupancy of nests and decreased extinction and nest abandonment. This consistency was largely driven by strong responses of a subset of thermophilic species at each site. As colonies of thermophilic species persisted in nests for longer periods of time under warmer temperatures, turnover was diminished, and species interactions were likely altered. We found that dynamical (Lyapunov) community stability decreased with warming both within and between sites. These results refute null expectations of simple temperature-driven increases in the activity and movement of thermophilic ectotherms. The reduction in stability under warming contrasts with the findings of previous studies that suggest resilience of species interactions to experimental and natural warming. In the face of warmer, no-analog climates, communities of the future may become increasingly fragile and unstable. PMID:27819044

  2. Climatic warming destabilizes forest ant communities.

    PubMed

    Diamond, Sarah E; Nichols, Lauren M; Pelini, Shannon L; Penick, Clint A; Barber, Grace W; Cahan, Sara Helms; Dunn, Robert R; Ellison, Aaron M; Sanders, Nathan J; Gotelli, Nicholas J

    2016-10-01

    How will ecological communities change in response to climate warming? Direct effects of temperature and indirect cascading effects of species interactions are already altering the structure of local communities, but the dynamics of community change are still poorly understood. We explore the cumulative effects of warming on the dynamics and turnover of forest ant communities that were warmed as part of a 5-year climate manipulation experiment at two sites in eastern North America. At the community level, warming consistently increased occupancy of nests and decreased extinction and nest abandonment. This consistency was largely driven by strong responses of a subset of thermophilic species at each site. As colonies of thermophilic species persisted in nests for longer periods of time under warmer temperatures, turnover was diminished, and species interactions were likely altered. We found that dynamical (Lyapunov) community stability decreased with warming both within and between sites. These results refute null expectations of simple temperature-driven increases in the activity and movement of thermophilic ectotherms. The reduction in stability under warming contrasts with the findings of previous studies that suggest resilience of species interactions to experimental and natural warming. In the face of warmer, no-analog climates, communities of the future may become increasingly fragile and unstable.

  3. Simulated warming shifts the flowering phenology and sexual reproduction of Cardamine hirsuta under different Planting densities

    PubMed Central

    Cao, YuSong; Xiao, Yian; Huang, Haiqun; Xu, Jiancheng; Hu, Wenhai; Wang, Ning

    2016-01-01

    Climate warming can shift the reproductive phenology of plant, and hence dramatically reduced the reproductive capacity both of density-dependent and -independent plant species. But it is still unclear how climate warming affects flowering phenology and reproductive allocation of plant under different planting densities. Here, we assessed the impact of simulated warming on flowering phenology and sexual reproduction in the ephemeral herb Cardamine hirsuta under four densities. We found that simulated warming delayed the onset of flowering averagely for 3.6 days but preceded the end of flowering for about 1 day, which indicated climate warming shortened the duration of the flowering. And the flowering amplitude in the peak flowering day also dramatically increased in the simulated warming treatment, which caused a mass-flowering pattern. Climate warming significantly increased the weights of the fruits, seeds and seed, but reduced fruit length and sexual reproductive allocation under all the four densities. The duration of flowering was shortened and the weights of the fruits, seeds and seed, and sexual reproductive allocation were reduced under The highest density. PMID:27296893

  4. Recent warming by latitude associated with increased length of ragweed pollen season in central North America

    PubMed Central

    Ziska, Lewis; Knowlton, Kim; Rogers, Christine; Dalan, Dan; Tierney, Nicole; Elder, Mary Ann; Filley, Warren; Shropshire, Jeanne; Ford, Linda B.; Hedberg, Curtis; Fleetwood, Pamela; Hovanky, Kim T.; Kavanaugh, Tony; Fulford, George; Vrtis, Rose F.; Patz, Jonathan A.; Portnoy, Jay; Coates, Frances; Bielory, Leonard; Frenz, David

    2011-01-01

    A fundamental aspect of climate change is the potential shifts in flowering phenology and pollen initiation associated with milder winters and warmer seasonal air temperature. Earlier floral anthesis has been suggested, in turn, to have a role in human disease by increasing time of exposure to pollen that causes allergic rhinitis and related asthma. However, earlier floral initiation does not necessarily alter the temporal duration of the pollen season, and, to date, no consistent continental trend in pollen season length has been demonstrated. Here we report that duration of the ragweed (Ambrosia spp.) pollen season has been increasing in recent decades as a function of latitude in North America. Latitudinal effects on increasing season length were associated primarily with a delay in first frost of the fall season and lengthening of the frost free period. Overall, these data indicate a significant increase in the length of the ragweed pollen season by as much as 13–27 d at latitudes above ~44°N since 1995. This is consistent with recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections regarding enhanced warming as a function of latitude. If similar warming trends accompany long-term climate change, greater exposure times to seasonal allergens may occur with subsequent effects on public health. PMID:21368130

  5. Safety of formalin treatments on warm- and coolwater fish eggs

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Rach, Jeff J.; Howe, George E.; Schreier, Theresa M.

    1997-01-01

    Formalin is widely used for treating fungal infections of fish eggs in intensive aquaculture operations. The use of formalin in the United States is only allowed on salmonid and esocid eggs unless a special exemption is granted for use on other species. This study was conducted to determine the safety of formalin treatments on eggs of representative warm- and coolwater fish species and data was used to support a request to allow the use of formalin on the eggs of warmwater and additional coolwater fish species. Non-eyed eggs of walleye (Stizostedion vitreum), common carp (Cyprinus carpio), white sucker (Catostomus commersoni), channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), and lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) were cultured in miniature egg hatching jars and treated for 45 min every-other-day with 1500, 4500, or 7500 μL L-1 formalin up to hatch. For all species tested, the percent hatch was greater in 1500 mu L L-1 treatment groups than in untreated controls. Walleye eggs were the least sensitive species and had a hatch of 87% in the 7500 mu L L-1 treatment. Lake sturgeon were the most sensitive species with a mean hatch of 54% in 1500 mu L L-1 treatments. Adequate margins of safety exist for standard treatments (1500 mu L L-1 for 15 min) on eggs of all species tested except lake sturgeon. Fungal infections drastically reduced or eliminated hatch in most control groups whereas most treated groups were free of infections. This confirms the efficacy of formalin as an fungicide. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

  6. Long-term empirical evidence of ocean warming leading to tropicalization of fish communities, increased herbivory, and loss of kelp

    PubMed Central

    Vergés, Adriana; Doropoulos, Christopher; Malcolm, Hamish A.; Skye, Mathew; Garcia-Pizá, Marina; Marzinelli, Ezequiel M.; Campbell, Alexandra H.; Ballesteros, Enric; Hoey, Andrew S.; Vila-Concejo, Ana; Steinberg, Peter D.

    2016-01-01

    Some of the most profound effects of climate change on ecological communities are due to alterations in species interactions rather than direct physiological effects of changing environmental conditions. Empirical evidence of historical changes in species interactions within climate-impacted communities is, however, rare and difficult to obtain. Here, we demonstrate the recent disappearance of key habitat-forming kelp forests from a warming tropical–temperate transition zone in eastern Australia. Using a 10-y video dataset encompassing a 0.6 °C warming period, we show how herbivory increased as kelp gradually declined and then disappeared. Concurrently, fish communities from sites where kelp was originally abundant but subsequently disappeared became increasingly dominated by tropical herbivores. Feeding assays identified two key tropical/subtropical herbivores that consumed transplanted kelp within hours at these sites. There was also a distinct increase in the abundance of fishes that consume epilithic algae, and much higher bite rates by this group at sites without kelp, suggesting a key role for these fishes in maintaining reefs in kelp-free states by removing kelp recruits. Changes in kelp abundance showed no direct relationship to seawater temperatures over the decade and were also unrelated to other measured abiotic factors (nutrients and storms). Our results show that warming-mediated increases in fish herbivory pose a significant threat to kelp-dominated ecosystems in Australia and, potentially, globally. PMID:27849585

  7. Long-term empirical evidence of ocean warming leading to tropicalization of fish communities, increased herbivory, and loss of kelp.

    PubMed

    Vergés, Adriana; Doropoulos, Christopher; Malcolm, Hamish A; Skye, Mathew; Garcia-Pizá, Marina; Marzinelli, Ezequiel M; Campbell, Alexandra H; Ballesteros, Enric; Hoey, Andrew S; Vila-Concejo, Ana; Bozec, Yves-Marie; Steinberg, Peter D

    2016-11-29

    Some of the most profound effects of climate change on ecological communities are due to alterations in species interactions rather than direct physiological effects of changing environmental conditions. Empirical evidence of historical changes in species interactions within climate-impacted communities is, however, rare and difficult to obtain. Here, we demonstrate the recent disappearance of key habitat-forming kelp forests from a warming tropical-temperate transition zone in eastern Australia. Using a 10-y video dataset encompassing a 0.6 °C warming period, we show how herbivory increased as kelp gradually declined and then disappeared. Concurrently, fish communities from sites where kelp was originally abundant but subsequently disappeared became increasingly dominated by tropical herbivores. Feeding assays identified two key tropical/subtropical herbivores that consumed transplanted kelp within hours at these sites. There was also a distinct increase in the abundance of fishes that consume epilithic algae, and much higher bite rates by this group at sites without kelp, suggesting a key role for these fishes in maintaining reefs in kelp-free states by removing kelp recruits. Changes in kelp abundance showed no direct relationship to seawater temperatures over the decade and were also unrelated to other measured abiotic factors (nutrients and storms). Our results show that warming-mediated increases in fish herbivory pose a significant threat to kelp-dominated ecosystems in Australia and, potentially, globally.

  8. Global warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Houghton, John

    2005-06-01

    'Global warming' is a phrase that refers to the effect on the climate of human activities, in particular the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) and large-scale deforestation, which cause emissions to the atmosphere of large amounts of 'greenhouse gases', of which the most important is carbon dioxide. Such gases absorb infrared radiation emitted by the Earth's surface and act as blankets over the surface keeping it warmer than it would otherwise be. Associated with this warming are changes of climate. The basic science of the 'greenhouse effect' that leads to the warming is well understood. More detailed understanding relies on numerical models of the climate that integrate the basic dynamical and physical equations describing the complete climate system. Many of the likely characteristics of the resulting changes in climate (such as more frequent heat waves, increases in rainfall, increase in frequency and intensity of many extreme climate events) can be identified. Substantial uncertainties remain in knowledge of some of the feedbacks within the climate system (that affect the overall magnitude of change) and in much of the detail of likely regional change. Because of its negative impacts on human communities (including for instance substantial sea-level rise) and on ecosystems, global warming is the most important environmental problem the world faces. Adaptation to the inevitable impacts and mitigation to reduce their magnitude are both necessary. International action is being taken by the world's scientific and political communities. Because of the need for urgent action, the greatest challenge is to move rapidly to much increased energy efficiency and to non-fossil-fuel energy sources.

  9. Data-Constrained Projections of Methane Fluxes in a Northern Minnesota Peatland in Response to Elevated CO 2 and Warming

    DOE PAGES

    Ma, Shuang; Jiang, Jiang; Huang, Yuanyuan; ...

    2017-10-20

    Large uncertainties exist in predicting responses of wetland methane (CH 4) fluxes to future climate change. However, sources of the uncertainty have not been clearly identified despite the fact that methane production and emission processes have been extensively explored. In this study, we took advantage of manual CH 4 flux measurements under ambient environment from 2011 to 2014 at the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) experimental site and developed a data-informed process-based methane module. The module was incorporated into the Terrestrial ECOsystem (TECO) model before its parameters were constrained with multiple years of methane flux data formore » forecasting CH 4 emission under five warming and two elevated CO 2 treatments at SPRUCE. We found that 9°C warming treatments significantly increased methane emission by approximately 400%, and elevated CO 2 treatments stimulated methane emission by 10.4%–23.6% in comparison with ambient conditions. The relative contribution of plant-mediated transport to methane emission decreased from 96% at the control to 92% at the 9°C warming, largely to compensate for an increase in ebullition. The uncertainty in plant-mediated transportation and ebullition increased with warming and contributed to the overall changes of emissions uncertainties. At the same time, our modeling results indicated a significant increase in the emitted CH 4:CO 2 ratio. This result, together with the larger warming potential of CH 4, will lead to a strong positive feedback from terrestrial ecosystems to climate warming. In conclusion, the model-data fusion approach used in this study enabled parameter estimation and uncertainty quantification for forecasting methane fluxes.« less

  10. Data-Constrained Projections of Methane Fluxes in a Northern Minnesota Peatland in Response to Elevated CO2 and Warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ma, Shuang; Jiang, Jiang; Huang, Yuanyuan; Shi, Zheng; Wilson, Rachel M.; Ricciuto, Daniel; Sebestyen, Stephen D.; Hanson, Paul J.; Luo, Yiqi

    2017-11-01

    Large uncertainties exist in predicting responses of wetland methane (CH4) fluxes to future climate change. However, sources of the uncertainty have not been clearly identified despite the fact that methane production and emission processes have been extensively explored. In this study, we took advantage of manual CH4 flux measurements under ambient environment from 2011 to 2014 at the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) experimental site and developed a data-informed process-based methane module. The module was incorporated into the Terrestrial ECOsystem (TECO) model before its parameters were constrained with multiple years of methane flux data for forecasting CH4 emission under five warming and two elevated CO2 treatments at SPRUCE. We found that 9°C warming treatments significantly increased methane emission by approximately 400%, and elevated CO2 treatments stimulated methane emission by 10.4%-23.6% in comparison with ambient conditions. The relative contribution of plant-mediated transport to methane emission decreased from 96% at the control to 92% at the 9°C warming, largely to compensate for an increase in ebullition. The uncertainty in plant-mediated transportation and ebullition increased with warming and contributed to the overall changes of emissions uncertainties. At the same time, our modeling results indicated a significant increase in the emitted CH4:CO2 ratio. This result, together with the larger warming potential of CH4, will lead to a strong positive feedback from terrestrial ecosystems to climate warming. The model-data fusion approach used in this study enabled parameter estimation and uncertainty quantification for forecasting methane fluxes.

  11. Data-Constrained Projections of Methane Fluxes in a Northern Minnesota Peatland in Response to Elevated CO 2 and Warming

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ma, Shuang; Jiang, Jiang; Huang, Yuanyuan

    Large uncertainties exist in predicting responses of wetland methane (CH 4) fluxes to future climate change. However, sources of the uncertainty have not been clearly identified despite the fact that methane production and emission processes have been extensively explored. In this study, we took advantage of manual CH 4 flux measurements under ambient environment from 2011 to 2014 at the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) experimental site and developed a data-informed process-based methane module. The module was incorporated into the Terrestrial ECOsystem (TECO) model before its parameters were constrained with multiple years of methane flux data formore » forecasting CH 4 emission under five warming and two elevated CO 2 treatments at SPRUCE. We found that 9°C warming treatments significantly increased methane emission by approximately 400%, and elevated CO 2 treatments stimulated methane emission by 10.4%–23.6% in comparison with ambient conditions. The relative contribution of plant-mediated transport to methane emission decreased from 96% at the control to 92% at the 9°C warming, largely to compensate for an increase in ebullition. The uncertainty in plant-mediated transportation and ebullition increased with warming and contributed to the overall changes of emissions uncertainties. At the same time, our modeling results indicated a significant increase in the emitted CH 4:CO 2 ratio. This result, together with the larger warming potential of CH 4, will lead to a strong positive feedback from terrestrial ecosystems to climate warming. In conclusion, the model-data fusion approach used in this study enabled parameter estimation and uncertainty quantification for forecasting methane fluxes.« less

  12. Plant inputs, microbial carbon use in soil and decomposition under warming: effects of warming are depth dependent

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pendall, E.; Carrillo, Y.; Dijkstra, F. A.

    2017-12-01

    Future climate will include warmer conditions but impacts on soil C cycling remain uncertain and so are the potential warming-driven feedbacks. Net impacts will depend on the balance of effects on microbial activity and plant inputs. Soil depth is likely to be a critical factor driving this balance as it integrates gradients in belowground biomass, microbial activity and environmental variables. Most empirical studies focus on one soil layer and soil C forecasting relies on broad assumptions about effects of depth. Our limited understanding of the use of available C by soil microbes under climate change across depths is a critical source of uncertainty. Long-term labelling of plant biomass with C isotopic tracers in intact systems allows us to follow the dynamics of different soil C pools including the net accumulation of newly fixed C and the net loss of native C. These can be combined with concurrent observations of microbial use of C pools to explore the impacts of depth on the relationships between plant inputs and microbial C use. We evaluated belowground biomass, in-situ root decomposition and incorporation of plant-derived C into soil C and microbial C at 0-5 cm and 5-15 cmover 7 years at the Prairie Heating And CO2 Enrichment experiment. PHACE was a factorial manipulation of CO2 and warming in a native mixed grass prairie in Wyoming, USA. We used the continuous fumigation with labelled CO2 in the elevated CO2 treatments to study the C dynamics under unwarmed and warmed conditions. Shallower soils had three times the density of biomass as deeper soils. Warming increased biomass in both depths but this effect was weaker in deeper soils. Root litter mass loss in deeper soil was one third that of the shallow and was not affected by warming. Consistent with biomass distribution, incorporation of plant-derived C into soil and microbial C was lower in deeper soils and higher with warming. However, in contrast to the effect of warming on biomass, the effect of

  13. Acute effects of various weighted bat warm-up protocols on bat velocity.

    PubMed

    Reyes, G Francis; Dolny, Dennis

    2009-10-01

    Although research has provided evidence of increased muscular performance following a facilitation set of resistance exercise, this has not been established for use prior to measuring baseball bat velocity. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of selected weighted bat warm-up protocols to enhance bat velocity in collegiate baseball players. Nineteen collegiate baseball players (age = 20.15 +/- 1.46 years) were tested for upper-body strength by a 3-repetition maximum (RM) bench press (mean = 97.98 +/- 14.54 kg) and mean bat velocity. Nine weighted bat warm-up protocols, utilizing 3 weighted bats (light = 794 g; standard = 850 g; heavy = 1,531 g) were swung in 3 sets of 6 repetitions in different orders. A control trial involved the warm-up protocol utilizing only the standard bat. Pearson product correlation revealed a significant relationship between 3RM strength and pretest bat velocity (r = 0.51, p = 0.01). Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed no significant treatment effects of warm-up protocol on bat velocity. However, the order of standard, light, heavy bat sequence resulted in the greatest increase in bat velocity (+6.03%). These results suggest that upper-body muscle strength influences bat velocity. It appears that the standard, light, heavy warm-up order may provide the greatest benefit to increase subsequent bat velocity and may warrant use in game situations.

  14. Robust Hadley Circulation Changes and Increasing Global Dryness Due to CO2 Warming from CMIP-5 Model Projections

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lau, William K. M.; Kim, K. M.

    2015-01-01

    In this paper, we investigate changes in the Hadley Circulation (HC) and their connections to increased global dryness under CO2 warming from CMIP-5 model projections. We find a strengthening of the ascending branch of the HC manifested in a deep-tropics squeeze (DTS), i.e., a deepening and narrowing of the convective zone, increased high clouds, and a rise of the level of maximum meridional mass outflow in the upper troposphere (200-100 hectopascals) of the deep tropics. The DTS induces atmospheric moisture divergence, reduces tropospheric relative humidity in the tropics and subtropics, in conjunction with a widening of the subsiding branches of the HC, resulting in increased frequency of dry events in preferred geographic locations worldwide. Among water cycle parameters examined, global dryness has the highest signal-to-noise ratio. Our results provide scientific bases for inferring that the observed tend of prolonged droughts in recent decades is likely attributable to greenhouse warming.

  15. Volatile organic compound emissions from arctic vegetation highly responsive to experimental warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rinnan, Riikka; Kramshøj, Magnus; Lindwall, Frida; Schollert, Michelle; Svendsen, Sarah H.; Valolahti, Hanna

    2017-04-01

    Arctic areas are experiencing amplified climate warming that proceeds twice as fast as the global temperature increase. The increasing temperature is already causing evident alterations, e.g. changes in the vegetation cover as well as thawing of permafrost. Climate warming and the concomitant biotic and abiotic changes are likely to have strong direct and indirect effects on emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from arctic vegetation. We used long-term field manipulation experiments in the Subarctic, Low Arctic and High Arctic to assess effects of climate change on VOC emissions from vegetation communities. In these experiments, we applied passive warming with open-top chambers alone and in combination with other experimental treatments in well-replicated experimental designs. Volatile emissions were sampled in situ by drawing air from plant enclosures and custom-built chambers into adsorbent cartridges, which were analyzed by thermal desorption and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in laboratory. Emission increases by a factor of 2-5 were observed under experimental warming by only a few degrees, and the strong response seems universal for dry, mesic and wet ecosystems. In some cases, these vegetation community level responses were partly due to warming-induced increases in the VOC-emitting plant biomass, changes in species composition and the following increase in the amount of leaf litter (Valolahti et al. 2015). In other cases, the responses appeared before any vegetation changes took place (Lindwall et al. 2016) or even despite a decrease in plant biomass (Kramshøj et al. 2016). VOC emissions from arctic ecosystems seem more responsive to experimental warming than other ecosystem processes. We can thus expect large increases in future VOC emissions from this area due to the direct effects of temperature increase, and due to increasing plant biomass and a longer growing season. References Kramshøj M., Vedel-Petersen I., Schollert M., Rinnan

  16. Annual Removal of Aboveground Plant Biomass Alters Soil Microbial Responses to Warming

    PubMed Central

    Xue, Kai; Yuan, Mengting M.; Xie, Jianping; Li, Dejun; Qin, Yujia; Wu, Liyou; Deng, Ye; He, Zhili; Van Nostrand, Joy D.; Luo, Yiqi; Tiedje, James M.

    2016-01-01

    ABSTRACT Clipping (i.e., harvesting aboveground plant biomass) is common in agriculture and for bioenergy production. However, microbial responses to clipping in the context of climate warming are poorly understood. We investigated the interactive effects of grassland warming and clipping on soil properties and plant and microbial communities, in particular, on microbial functional genes. Clipping alone did not change the plant biomass production, but warming and clipping combined increased the C4 peak biomass by 47% and belowground net primary production by 110%. Clipping alone and in combination with warming decreased the soil carbon input from litter by 81% and 75%, respectively. With less carbon input, the abundances of genes involved in degrading relatively recalcitrant carbon increased by 38% to 137% in response to either clipping or the combined treatment, which could weaken long-term soil carbon stability and trigger positive feedback with respect to warming. Clipping alone also increased the abundance of genes for nitrogen fixation, mineralization, and denitrification by 32% to 39%. Such potentially stimulated nitrogen fixation could help compensate for the 20% decline in soil ammonium levels caused by clipping alone and could contribute to unchanged plant biomass levels. Moreover, clipping tended to interact antagonistically with warming, especially with respect to effects on nitrogen cycling genes, demonstrating that single-factor studies cannot predict multifactorial changes. These results revealed that clipping alone or in combination with warming altered soil and plant properties as well as the abundance and structure of soil microbial functional genes. Aboveground biomass removal for biofuel production needs to be reconsidered, as the long-term soil carbon stability may be weakened. PMID:27677789

  17. Below-ground carbon transfer among Betula nana may increase with warming in Arctic tundra.

    PubMed

    Deslippe, Julie R; Simard, Suzanne W

    2011-11-01

    • Shrubs are expanding in Arctic tundra, but the role of mycorrhizal fungi in this process is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that mycorrhizal networks are involved in interplant carbon (C) transfer within a tundra plant community. • Here, we installed below-ground treatments to control for C transfer pathways and conducted a (13)CO(2)-pulse-chase labelling experiment to examine C transfer among and within plant species. • We showed that mycorrhizal networks exist in tundra, and facilitate below-ground transfer of C among Betula nana individuals, but not between or within the other tundra species examined. Total C transfer among conspecific B. nana pairs was 10.7 ± 2.4% of photosynthesis, with the majority of C transferred through rhizomes or root grafts (5.2 ± 5.3%) and mycorrhizal network pathways (4.1 ± 3.3%) and very little through soil pathways (1.4 ± 0.35%). • Below-ground C transfer was of sufficient magnitude to potentially alter plant interactions in Arctic tundra, increasing the competitive ability and mono-dominance of B. nana. C transfer was significantly positively related to ambient temperatures, suggesting that it may act as a positive feedback to ecosystem change as climate warms. © 2011 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2011 New Phytologist Trust.

  18. Local insufflation of warm humidified CO₂increases open wound and core temperature during open colon surgery: a randomized clinical trial.

    PubMed

    Frey, Joana M; Janson, Martin; Svanfeldt, Monika; Svenarud, Peter K; van der Linden, Jan A

    2012-11-01

    The open surgical wound is exposed to cold and dry ambient air resulting in heat loss through radiation, evaporation, and convection. Also, general and neuraxial anesthesia decrease the patient's core temperature. Despite routine preventive measures mild intraoperative hypothermia is still common and contributes to postoperative morbidity and mortality. We hypothesized that local insufflation of warm fully humidified CO(2) would increase both the open surgical wound and core temperature. Eighty-three patients undergoing open colon surgery were equally and parallelly randomized to either standard warming measures including forced-air warming, warm fluids, and insulation of limbs and head, or to additional local wound insufflation of warm (37°C) humidified (100% relative humidity) CO(2) at a laminar flow (10 L/min) via a gas diffuser. Wound surface and core temperatures were followed with a heat-sensitive infrared camera and a tympanic thermometer. The mean wound area temperature during surgery was 31.3°C in the warm humidified CO(2) group compared with 29.6°C in the control group (P < 0.001, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2°C to 2.3°C). Also, the mean wound edge temperature during surgery was 30.1°C compared with 28.5°C in the control group (P < 0.001, 95% CI, 0.2°C to 0.7°C). Mean core temperature before start of surgery was similar with 36.7°C ± 0.5°C in the warm humidified CO(2) group versus 36.6°C ± 0.5°C in the control group (95% CI, 0.4 to -0.1°C). At end of surgery, the 2 groups differed significantly with 36.9 ± 0.5°C in the warm humidified CO(2) group versus 36.3 ± 0.5°C in the control group (P < 0.001, 95% CI, 0.38°C to 0.82°C). Moreover, only 8 patients of 40 in the warm humidified CO(2) group had a core temperature <36.5°C (20%, 95% CI, 7 to 33%), whereas in the control group this was the case in 24 of 39 (62%, 95% CI, 46% to 78%, P = 0.001) patients (difference of the percentages between the groups 42%, 95% CI, 22% to 61%, P < 0

  19. Biochar amendment reduces paddy soil nitrogen leaching but increases net global warming potential in Ningxia irrigation, China.

    PubMed

    Wang, Yongsheng; Liu, Yansui; Liu, Ruliang; Zhang, Aiping; Yang, Shiqi; Liu, Hongyuan; Zhou, Yang; Yang, Zhengli

    2017-05-09

    The efficacy of biochar as an environmentally friendly agent for non-point source and climate change mitigation remains uncertain. Our goal was to test the impact of biochar amendment on paddy rice nitrogen (N) uptake, soil N leaching, and soil CH 4 and N 2 O fluxes in northwest China. Biochar was applied at four rates (0, 4.5, 9 and13.5 t ha -1 yr -1 ). Biochar amendment significantly increased rice N uptake, soil total N concentration and the abundance of soil ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), but it significantly reduced the soil NO 3 - -N concentration and soil bulk density. Biochar significantly reduced NO 3 - -N and NH 4 + -N leaching. The C2 and C3 treatments significantly increased the soil CH 4 flux and reduced the soil N 2 O flux, leading to significantly increased net global warming potential (GWP). Soil NO 3 - -N rather than NH 4 + -N was the key integrator of the soil CH 4 and N 2 O fluxes. Our results indicate that a shift in abundance of the AOA community and increased rice N uptake are closely linked to the reduced soil NO 3 - -N concentration under biochar amendment. Furthermore, soil NO 3 - -N availability plays an important role in regulating soil inorganic N leaching and net GWP in rice paddies in northwest China.

  20. Effects of simulated warming on soil respiration to XiaoPo lake

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhao, Shuangkai; Chen, Kelong; Wu, Chengyong; Mao, Yahui

    2018-02-01

    The main flux of carbon cycling in terrestrial and atmospheric ecosystems is soil respiration, and soil respiration is one of the main ways of soil carbon output. This is of great significance to explore the dynamic changes of soil respiration rate and its effect on temperature rise, and the correlation between environmental factors and soil respiration. In this study, we used the open soil carbon flux measurement system (LI-8100, LI-COR, NE) in the experimental area of the XiaoPo Lake wetland in the Qinghai Lake Basin, and the Kobresia (Rs) were measured, and the soil respiration was simulated by simulated temperature (OTC) and natural state. The results showed that the temperature of 5 cm soil was 1.37 °C higher than that of the control during the experiment, and the effect of warming was obvious. The respiration rate of soil under warming and natural conditions showed obvious diurnal variation and monthly variation. The effect of warming on soil respiration rate was promoted and the effect of precipitation on soil respiration rate was inhibited. Further studies have shown that the relationship between soil respiration and 5 cm soil temperature under the control and warming treatments can be described by the exponential equation, and the correlation analysis between the two plots shows a very significant exponential relationship (p < 0.001). The warming treatment not only increased the Q10 value of soil respiration rate, but also increased the sensitivity of soil respiration rate. The relationship between soil respiration and soil moisture can be explained by the quadratic linear equation (p < 0.05). It can be concluded that under the condition of sufficient rainfall, the soil temperature is the main influencing factor of soil respiration in this region.

  1. [Warm needling combined with element calcium for postmenopausal osteoporosis].

    PubMed

    Cai, Guowei; Li, Jing; Xue, Yuazhi; Li, Gang; Wu, Man; Li, Pengfei

    2015-09-01

    To observe the clinical effectiveness of warm needling combined with element calcium on postmenopausal osteoporosis, and to explore its action mechanism. Eighty-five postmenopausal patients were randomly divided into an observation group (43 cases) and a control group (42 cases). Both the two groups were treated with oral administration of caltrate-D tablet, 600 mg per day, once a day before sleep for one year. Patients in the observation group were treated with warm needling at Dazhu (BL 11), Shenshu (BL 23), Xuan-zhong (GB 39), once a day; 30 days of treatment were taken as a course, and totally 4 courses were given with an interval of 60 days between courses. The bone mineral density (BMD) of the lumbar vertebra and hip joint, and the level of serum bone gla protein (S-BGP) and hydroxyproline/creatinine (Hyp/Cr) were observed before and after treatment in the two groups. (1)After treatment, the BMD in the observation group was significantly increased [lumbar vertebra (0. 811±0. 024) g/cm2 vs (0. 892±0.019) g/cm2, femoral neck (0. 512±0.014) g/cm2 vs (0. 554±0. 015) g/cm2, femoral trochanter (0. 716±0. 028) g/cm2 vs (0.769±0.026) g/cm2, Ward's trigonum (0. 590±0. 013) g/cm2 vs (0. 660±0. 017) g/cm2, all P<0. 05)]; the improvement in the observation group was more significant than that in the control group (all P<0. 05). (2)After treatment, the index of bone metabolism in the control group was increased, and the serum S-BGP, the Hyp/Cr in the control group were higher than those in the observation group (both P<0. 05). The treatment of warm needling combined with element calcium on postmenopausal osteoporosis is significant, which is likely to be achieved by reducing the bone metabolism of postmenopausal patients.

  2. Little effects on soil organic matter chemistry of density fractions after seven years of forest soil warming.

    PubMed

    Schnecker, Jörg; Borken, Werner; Schindlbacher, Andreas; Wanek, Wolfgang

    2016-12-01

    Rising temperatures enhance microbial decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM) and thereby increase the soil CO 2 efflux. Elevated decomposition rates might differently affect distinct SOM pools, depending on their stability and accessibility. Soil fractions derived from density fractionation have been suggested to represent SOM pools with different turnover times and stability against microbial decomposition. To investigate the effect of soil warming on functionally different soil organic matter pools, we here investigated the chemical and isotopic composition of bulk soil and three density fractions (free particulate organic matter, fPOM; occluded particulate organic matter, oPOM; and mineral associated organic matter, MaOM) of a C-rich soil from a long-term warming experiment in a spruce forest in the Austrian Alps. At the time of sampling, the soil in this experiment had been warmed during the snow-free period for seven consecutive years. During that time no thermal adaptation of the microbial community could be identified and CO 2 release from the soil continued to be elevated by the warming treatment. Our results, which included organic carbon content, total nitrogen content, δ 13 C, Δ 14 C, δ 15 N and the chemical composition, identified by pyrolysis-GC/MS, showed no significant differences in bulk soil between warming treatment and control. Surprisingly, the differences in the three density fractions were mostly small and the direction of warming induced change was variable with fraction and soil depth. Warming led to reduced N content in topsoil oPOM and subsoil fPOM and to reduced relative abundance of N-bearing compounds in subsoil MaOM. Further, warming increased the δ 13 C of MaOM at both sampling depths, reduced the relative abundance of carbohydrates while it increased the relative abundance of lignins in subsoil oPOM. As the size of the functionally different SOM pools did not significantly change, we assume that the few and small

  3. Water- and Plant-Mediated Responses of Ecosystem Carbon Fluxes to Warming and Nitrogen Addition on the Songnen Grassland in Northeast China

    PubMed Central

    Jiang, Li; Guo, Rui; Zhu, Tingcheng; Niu, Xuedun; Guo, Jixun; Sun, Wei

    2012-01-01

    Background Understanding how grasslands are affected by a long-term increase in temperature is crucial to predict the future impact of global climate change on terrestrial ecosystems. Additionally, it is not clear how the effects of global warming on grassland productivity are going to be altered by increased N deposition and N addition. Methodology/Principal Findings In-situ canopy CO2 exchange rates were measured in a meadow steppe subjected to 4-year warming and nitrogen addition treatments. Warming treatment reduced net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) and increased ecosystem respiration (ER); but had no significant impacts on gross ecosystem productivity (GEP). N addition increased NEE, ER and GEP. However, there were no significant interactions between N addition and warming. The variation of NEE during the four experimental years was correlated with soil water content, particularly during early spring, suggesting that water availability is a primary driver of carbon fluxes in the studied semi-arid grassland. Conclusion/Significance Ecosystem carbon fluxes in grassland ecosystems are sensitive to warming and N addition. In the studied water-limited grassland, both warming and N addition influence ecosystem carbon fluxes by affecting water availability, which is the primary driver in many arid and semiarid ecosystems. It remains unknown to what extent the long-term N addition would affect the turn-over of soil organic matter and the C sink size of this grassland. PMID:23028848

  4. Seasonal responses of soil respiration to warming and nitrogen addition in a semi-arid alfalfa-pasture of the Loess Plateau, China.

    PubMed

    Fang, Chao; Ye, Jian-Sheng; Gong, Yanhong; Pei, Jiuying; Yuan, Ziqiang; Xie, Chan; Zhu, Yusi; Yu, Yueyuan

    2017-07-15

    Responses of soil respiration (R s ) to increasing nitrogen (N) deposition and warming will have far-reaching influences on global carbon (C) cycling. However, the seasonal (growing and non-growing seasons) difference of R s responses to warming and N deposition has rarely been investigated. We conducted a field manipulative experiment in a semi-arid alfalfa-pasture of northwest China to evaluate the response of R s to nitrogen addition and warming from March 2014 to March 2016. Open-top chambers were used to elevate temperature and N was enriched at a rate of 4.42g m -2 yr -1 with NH 4 NO 3 . Results showed that (1) N addition increased R s by 14% over the two-year period; and (2) warming stimulated R s by 15% in the non-growing season, while inhibited it by 5% in the growing season, which can be explained by decreased plant coverage and soil water. The main effect of N addition did not change with time, but that of warming changed with time, with the stronger inhibition observed in the dry year. When N addition and warming were combined, an antagonistic effect was observed in the growing season, whereas a synergism was observed in the non-growing season. Overall, warming and N addition did not affect the Q10 values over the two-year period, but these treatments significantly increased the Q10 values in the growing season compared with the control treatment. In comparison, combined warming and nitrogen addition significantly reduced the Q10 values compared with the single factor treatment. These results suggest that the negative indirect effect of warming-induced water stress overrides the positive direct effect of warming on R s . Our results also imply the necessity of considering the different R s responses in the growing and non-growing seasons to climate change to accurately evaluate the carbon cycle in the arid and semi-arid regions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Scaling Potential Evapotranspiration with Greenhouse Warming (Invited)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Scheff, J.; Frierson, D. M.

    2013-12-01

    Potential evapotranspiration (PET) is a supply-independent measure of the evaporative demand of a terrestrial climate, of basic importance in climatology, hydrology, and agriculture. Future increases in PET from greenhouse warming are often cited as key drivers of global trends toward drought and aridity. The present work computes recent and business-as-usual-future Penman-Monteith (i.e. physically-based) PET fields at 3-hourly resolution in 14 modern global climate models. The %-change in local annual-mean PET over the upcoming century is almost always positive, modally low double-digit in magnitude, usually increasing with latitude, yet quite divergent between models. These patterns are understood as follows. In every model, the global field of PET %-change is found to be dominated by the direct, positive effects of constant-relative-humidity warming (via increasing vapor pressure deficit and increasing Clausius-Clapeyron slope.) This direct-warming term very accurately scales as the PET-weighted (warm-season daytime) local warming, times 5-6% per degree (related to the Clausius-Clapeyron equation), times an analytic factor ranging from about 0.25 in warm climates to 0.75 in cold climates, plus a small correction. With warming of several degrees, this product is of low double-digit magnitude, and the strong temperature dependence gives the latitude dependence. Similarly, the inter-model spread in the amount of warming gives most of the spread in this term. Additional spread in the total change comes from strong disagreement on radiation, relative-humidity, and windspeed changes, which make smaller yet substantial contributions to the full PET %-change fields.

  6. Clinical Trial Research on Mongolian Medical Warm Acupuncture in Treating Insomnia.

    PubMed

    Bo, Agula; Si, Lengge; Wang, Yuehong; Xiu, Lan; Wu, Rihan; Li, Yutang; Mu, Rigenjiya; Ga, Latai; Miao, Mei; Shuang, Fu; Wu, Yunhua; Jin, Qiu; Tong, Suocai; Wuyun, Gerile; Guan, Wurihan; Mo, Rigen; Hu, Sileng; Zhang, Lixia; Peng, Rui; Bao, Lidao

    2016-01-01

    Objective. Insomnia is one of the most common sleep disorders. Hypnotics have poor long-term efficacy. Mongolian medical warm acupuncture has significant efficacy in treating insomnia. The paper evaluates the role of Mongolian medical warm acupuncture in treating insomnia by investigating the Mongolian medicine syndromes and conditions, Pittsburgh sleep quality index, and polysomnography indexes. Method. The patients were diagnosed in accordance with International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD-2). The insomnia patients were divided into the acupuncture group (40 cases) and the estazolam group (40 cases). The patients underwent intervention of Mongolian medical warm acupuncture and estazolam. The indicators of the Mongolian medicine syndromes and conditions, Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), and polysomnography indexes (PSG) have been detected. Result. Based on the comparison of the Mongolian medicine syndrome scores between the warm acupuncture group and the drug treatment group, the result indicated P < 0.01. The clinical efficacy result showed that the effective rate (85%) in the warm acupuncture group was higher than that (70%) in the drug group. The total scores of PSQI of both groups were approximated. The sleep quality indexes of both groups decreased significantly ( P < 0.05). The sleep quality index in the Mongolian medical warm acupuncture group decreased significantly ( P < 0.01) and was better than that in the estazolam group. The sleep efficiency and daytime functions of the patients in the Mongolian medical warm acupuncture group improved significantly ( P < 0.01). The sleep time was significantly extended ( P < 0.01) in the Mongolian medical warm acupuncture group following PSG intervention. The sleep time during NREM in the Mongolian warm acupuncture group increased significantly ( P < 0.01). The sleep time exhibited a decreasing trend during REM and it decreased significantly in the Mongolian warm acupuncture group ( P < 0.01). The

  7. Annual Removal of Aboveground Plant Biomass Alters Soil Microbial Responses to Warming

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Xue, Kai; Yuan, Mengting M.; Xie, Jianping

    Clipping (i.e., harvesting aboveground plant biomass) is common in agriculture and for bioenergy production. However, microbial responses to clipping in the context of climate warming are poorly understood. We investigated the interactive effects of grassland warming and clipping on soil properties and plant and microbial communities, in particular, on microbial functional genes. Clipping alone did not change the plant biomass production, but warming and clipping combined increased the C4 peak biomass by 47% and belowground net primary production by 110%. Clipping alone and in combination with warming decreased the soil carbon input from litter by 81% and 75%, respectively. Withmore » less carbon input, the abundances of genes involved in degrading relatively recalcitrant carbon increased by 38% to 137% in response to either clipping or the combined treatment, which could weaken long-term soil carbon stability and trigger positive feedback with respect to warming. Clipping alone also increased the abundance of genes for nitrogen fixation, mineralization, and denitrification by 32% to 39%. Such potentially stimulated nitrogen fixation could help compensate for the 20% decline in soil ammonium levels caused by clipping alone and could contribute to unchanged plant biomass levels. Moreover, clipping tended to interact antagonistically with warming, especially with respect to effects on nitrogen cycling genes, demonstrating that single-factor studies cannot predict multifactorial changes. These results revealed that clipping alone or in combination with warming altered soil and plant properties as well as the abundance and structure of soil microbial functional genes. Aboveground biomass removal for biofuel production needs to be reconsidered, as the long-term soil carbon stability may be weakened. IMPORTANCE Global change involves simultaneous alterations, including those caused by climate warming and land management practices (e.g., clipping). Data on the

  8. Annual Removal of Aboveground Plant Biomass Alters Soil Microbial Responses to Warming

    DOE PAGES

    Xue, Kai; Yuan, Mengting M.; Xie, Jianping; ...

    2016-09-27

    Clipping (i.e., harvesting aboveground plant biomass) is common in agriculture and for bioenergy production. However, microbial responses to clipping in the context of climate warming are poorly understood. We investigated the interactive effects of grassland warming and clipping on soil properties and plant and microbial communities, in particular, on microbial functional genes. Clipping alone did not change the plant biomass production, but warming and clipping combined increased the C4 peak biomass by 47% and belowground net primary production by 110%. Clipping alone and in combination with warming decreased the soil carbon input from litter by 81% and 75%, respectively. Withmore » less carbon input, the abundances of genes involved in degrading relatively recalcitrant carbon increased by 38% to 137% in response to either clipping or the combined treatment, which could weaken long-term soil carbon stability and trigger positive feedback with respect to warming. Clipping alone also increased the abundance of genes for nitrogen fixation, mineralization, and denitrification by 32% to 39%. Such potentially stimulated nitrogen fixation could help compensate for the 20% decline in soil ammonium levels caused by clipping alone and could contribute to unchanged plant biomass levels. Moreover, clipping tended to interact antagonistically with warming, especially with respect to effects on nitrogen cycling genes, demonstrating that single-factor studies cannot predict multifactorial changes. These results revealed that clipping alone or in combination with warming altered soil and plant properties as well as the abundance and structure of soil microbial functional genes. Aboveground biomass removal for biofuel production needs to be reconsidered, as the long-term soil carbon stability may be weakened. IMPORTANCE Global change involves simultaneous alterations, including those caused by climate warming and land management practices (e.g., clipping). Data on the

  9. Plants regulate the effects of experimental warming on the soil microbial community in an alpine scrub ecosystem.

    PubMed

    Ma, Zhiliang; Zhao, Wenqiang; Zhao, Chunzhang; Wang, Dong; Liu, Mei; Li, Dandan; Liu, Qing

    2018-01-01

    Information on how soil microbial communities respond to warming is still scarce for alpine scrub ecosystems. We conducted a field experiment with two plant treatments (plant removal or undisturbed) subjected to warmed or unwarmed conditions to examine the effects of warming and plant removal on soil microbial community structures during the growing season in a Sibiraea angustata scrubland of the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The results indicate that experimental warming significantly influenced soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN), but the warming effects were dependent on the plant treatments and sampling seasons. In the plant-removal plots, warming did not affect most of the microbial variables, while in the undisturbed plots, warming significantly increased the abundances of actinomycete and Gram-positive bacterial groups during the mid-growing season (July), but it did not affect the fungi groups. Plant removal significantly reduced fungal abundance throughout the growing season and significantly altered the soil microbial community structure in July. The interaction between warming and plant removal significantly influenced the soil MBC and MBN and the abundances of total microbes, bacteria and actinomycete throughout the growing season. Experimental warming significantly reduced the abundance of rare taxa, while the interaction between warming and plant removal tended to have strong effects on the abundant taxa. These findings suggest that the responses of soil microbial communities to warming are regulated by plant communities. These results provide new insights into how soil microbial community structure responds to climatic warming in alpine scrub ecosystems.

  10. Plants regulate the effects of experimental warming on the soil microbial community in an alpine scrub ecosystem

    PubMed Central

    Ma, Zhiliang; Zhao, Wenqiang; Zhao, Chunzhang; Wang, Dong; Liu, Mei; Li, Dandan

    2018-01-01

    Information on how soil microbial communities respond to warming is still scarce for alpine scrub ecosystems. We conducted a field experiment with two plant treatments (plant removal or undisturbed) subjected to warmed or unwarmed conditions to examine the effects of warming and plant removal on soil microbial community structures during the growing season in a Sibiraea angustata scrubland of the eastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. The results indicate that experimental warming significantly influenced soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN), but the warming effects were dependent on the plant treatments and sampling seasons. In the plant-removal plots, warming did not affect most of the microbial variables, while in the undisturbed plots, warming significantly increased the abundances of actinomycete and Gram-positive bacterial groups during the mid-growing season (July), but it did not affect the fungi groups. Plant removal significantly reduced fungal abundance throughout the growing season and significantly altered the soil microbial community structure in July. The interaction between warming and plant removal significantly influenced the soil MBC and MBN and the abundances of total microbes, bacteria and actinomycete throughout the growing season. Experimental warming significantly reduced the abundance of rare taxa, while the interaction between warming and plant removal tended to have strong effects on the abundant taxa. These findings suggest that the responses of soil microbial communities to warming are regulated by plant communities. These results provide new insights into how soil microbial community structure responds to climatic warming in alpine scrub ecosystems. PMID:29668711

  11. Effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations, clipping regimen and differential day/night atmospheric warming on tissue nitrogen concentrations of a perennial pasture grass

    PubMed Central

    Volder, Astrid; Gifford, Roger M.; Evans, John R.

    2015-01-01

    Forecasting the effects of climate change on nitrogen (N) cycling in pastures requires an understanding of changes in tissue N. We examined the effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration, atmospheric warming and simulated grazing (clipping frequency) on aboveground and belowground tissue N concentrations and C : N ratios of a C3 pasture grass. Phalaris aquatica L. cv. ‘Holdfast’ was grown in the field in six transparent temperature gradient tunnels (18 × 1.5 × 1.5 m each), three at ambient atmospheric CO2 and three at 759 p.p.m. CO2. Within each tunnel, there were three air temperature treatments: ambient control, +2.2/+4.0 °C above ambient day/night warming and +3.0 °C continuous warming. A frequent and an infrequent clipping treatment were applied to each warming × CO2 combination. Green leaf N concentrations were decreased by elevated CO2 and increased by more frequent clipping. Both warming treatments increased leaf N concentrations under ambient CO2 concentrations, but did not significantly alter leaf N concentrations under elevated CO2 concentrations. Nitrogen resorption from leaves was decreased under elevated CO2 conditions as well as by more frequent clipping. Fine root N concentrations decreased strongly with increasing soil depth and were further decreased at the 10–60 cm soil depths by elevated CO2 concentrations. The interaction between the CO2 and warming treatments showed that leaf N concentration was affected in a non-additive manner. Changes in leaf C : N ratios were driven by changes in N concentration. Overall, the effects of CO2, warming and clipping treatments on aboveground tissue N concentrations were much greater than on belowground tissue. PMID:26272874

  12. The use of warmed water treatment to induce protective immunity against the bacterial cold-water disease pathogen Flavobacterium psychrophilum in ayu (Plecoglossus altivelis).

    PubMed

    Sugahara, K; Eguchi, M

    2012-03-01

    We investigated the induction of protective immunity against bacterial cold-water disease (BCWD) caused by Flavobacterium psychrophilum by warmed water treatment in ayu (Plecoglossus altivelis). Fish were immersed in a live bacterial suspension (10⁷ CFU mL⁻¹) for 30 min and placed in 700 L concrete tanks. The 28 °C warmed water treatment lasted 3 days and began 1, 6, and 24 h after immersion in the live bacterial suspension. A naïve control fish group was immersed in a sterilized modified Cytophaga (MCY) broth instead of the bacterial suspension. Fourteen days after the immersion, agglutination antibody titers against F. psychrophilum were measured by using micro-titer methods. Fish were then exposed to a bacterial bath to infect them with live F. psychrophilum, and cumulative mortality was monitored. Fish treated with warmed water at 1, 6, and 24 h after immersion in the live bacterial suspension had cumulative mortalities of 36%, 30%, and 18%, respectively, all of which were significantly lower than the cumulative mortality of the naïve control fish (90%). Treated fish also showed high antibody titers against F. psychrophilum in agglutination tests. These results demonstrate that warmed water treatment could not only cure BCWD but also immunize the fish against the causative agent F. psychrophilum. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Controls of Methane Dynamics and Emissions in an Arctic Warming Experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nielsen, C. S.; Elberling, B.; Michelsen, A.; Strobel, B. W.; Wulff, K.; Banyasz, I.

    2015-12-01

    Climatic changes have resulted in increasing air temperatures across the Arctic. This may increase anaerobic decomposition of soil organic matter to methane (CH4) in wetlands and increase plant growth and thereby production of substrate. Little is known about how seasonal variations in dissolved CH4 in soil water, substrate availability, and the effect of warming affect arctic wetland dynamics of CH4 production and emission. In 2013 we established two experiments in a fen at Disko Island, W Greenland; one with year round warming by open-top chambers and removal of shrubs, and one with removal of the aerenchymatous sedge Carex aquatilis ssp. stans. Throughout the growing season 2014 we measured how the treatments affected CH4 emissions, dissolved CH4 in the soil water, and substrate availability. Ecosystem CH4 emissions peaked at August 5th 2014 (7.5 μmol m-2 h-1) without coinciding with time of highest concentrations of dissolved CH4 or acetate indicating a decoupling between production and emission of CH4. The peak in dissolved CH4 concentration, at ten cm depth (1368 ppm, September 18th 2014), followed the peak in concentration of acetate in the same depth (0.30 ppm, August 30th 2014) highlighting the importance of this substance as a substrate for methanogenesis. C. aquatilis ssp. stans accounted for 60% and 77% of the ecosystem CH4 emissions in areas of the fen with water table above and below soil surface showing the importance of the presence of this species to serve as a pipe for CH4 emission which is bypassing the upper soil zone and potential methane oxidation. Throughout the season, warming increased the air temperature at soil surface by on average 0.89°C and occasionally warming and shrub removal increased soil temperature in 2 and 5 cm depth, but there was no effect of the treatments on the CH4 emissions indicating that this wetland is quite resilient towards future climate change.

  14. Climate change and the eco-hydrology of fire: Will area burned increase in a warming western USA?

    Treesearch

    Donald McKenzie; Jeremy S. Littell

    2017-01-01

    Wildfire area is predicted to increase with global warming. Empirical statistical models and process-based simulations agree almost universally. The key relationship for this unanimity, observed at multiple spatial and temporal scales, is between drought and fire. Predictive models often focus on ecosystems in which this relationship appears to be particularly strong,...

  15. Responses of greenhouse gas fluxes to experimental warming in wheat season under conventional tillage and no-tillage fields.

    PubMed

    Tu, Chun; Li, Fadong

    2017-04-01

    Understanding the effects of warming on greenhouse gas (GHG, such as N 2 O, CH 4 and CO 2 ) feedbacks to climate change represents the major environmental issue. However, little information is available on how warming effects on GHG fluxes in farmland of North China Plain (NCP). An infrared warming simulation experiment was used to assess the responses of N 2 O, CH 4 and CO 2 to warming in wheat season of 2012-2014 from conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT) systems. The results showed that warming increased cumulative N 2 O emission by 7.7% in CT but decreased it by 9.7% in NT fields (p<0.05). Cumulative CH 4 uptake and CO 2 emission were increased by 28.7%-51.7% and 6.3%-15.9% in both two tillage systems, respectively (p<0.05). The stepwise regressions relationship between GHG fluxes and soil temperature and soil moisture indicated that the supply soil moisture due to irrigation and precipitation would enhance the positive warming effects on GHG fluxes in two wheat seasons. However, in 2013, the long-term drought stress due to infrared warming and less precipitation decreased N 2 O and CO 2 emission in warmed treatments. In contrast, warming during this time increased CH 4 emission from deep soil depth. Across two years wheat seasons, warming significantly decreased by 30.3% and 63.9% sustained-flux global warming potential (SGWP) of N 2 O and CH 4 expressed as CO 2 equivalent in CT and NT fields, respectively. However, increase in soil CO 2 emission indicated that future warming projection might provide positive feedback between soil C release and global warming in NCP. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  16. Climate warming increases biodiversity of small rodents by favoring rare or less abundant species in a grassland ecosystem.

    PubMed

    Jiang, Guangshun; Liu, Jun; Xu, Lei; Yu, Guirui; He, Honglin; Zhang, Zhibin

    2013-06-01

    Our Earth is facing the challenge of accelerating climate change, which imposes a great threat to biodiversity. Many published studies suggest that climate warming may cause a dramatic decline in biodiversity, especially in colder and drier regions. In this study, we investigated the effects of temperature, precipitation and a normalized difference vegetation index on biodiversity indices of rodent communities in the current or previous year for both detrended and nondetrended data in semi-arid grassland of Inner Mongolia during 1982-2006. Our results demonstrate that temperature showed predominantly positive effects on the biodiversity of small rodents; precipitation showed both positive and negative effects; a normalized difference vegetation index showed positive effects; and cross-correlation function values between rodent abundance and temperature were negatively correlated with rodent abundance. Our results suggest that recent climate warming increased the biodiversity of small rodents by providing more benefits to population growth of rare or less abundant species than that of more abundant species in Inner Mongolia grassland, which does not support the popular view that global warming would decrease biodiversity in colder and drier regions. We hypothesized that higher temperatures might benefit rare or less abundant species (with smaller populations and more folivorous diets) by reducing the probability of local extinction and/or by increasing herbaceous food resources. © 2012 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd, ISZS and IOZ/CAS.

  17. Robust Hadley Circulation changes and increasing global dryness due to CO2 warming from CMIP5 model projections.

    PubMed

    Lau, William K M; Kim, Kyu-Myong

    2015-03-24

    In this paper, we investigate changes in the Hadley Circulation (HC) and their connections to increased global dryness (suppressed rainfall and reduced tropospheric relative humidity) under CO2 warming from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) model projections. We find a strengthening of the HC manifested in a "deep-tropics squeeze" (DTS), i.e., a deepening and narrowing of the convective zone, enhanced ascent, increased high clouds, suppressed low clouds, and a rise of the level of maximum meridional mass outflow in the upper troposphere (200-100 hPa) of the deep tropics. The DTS induces atmospheric moisture divergence and reduces tropospheric relative humidity in the tropics and subtropics, in conjunction with a widening of the subsiding branches of the HC, resulting in increased frequency of dry events in preferred geographic locations worldwide. Among various water-cycle parameters examined, global dryness is found to have the highest signal-to-noise ratio. Our results provide a physical basis for inferring that greenhouse warming is likely to contribute to the observed prolonged droughts worldwide in recent decades.

  18. Warming delays autumn declines in photosynthetic capacity in a boreal conifer, Norway spruce (Picea abies).

    PubMed

    Stinziano, Joseph R; Hüner, Norman P A; Way, Danielle A

    2015-12-01

    Climate change, via warmer springs and autumns, may lengthen the carbon uptake period of boreal tree species, increasing the potential for carbon sequestration in boreal forests, which could help slow climate change. However, if other seasonal cues such as photoperiod dictate when photosynthetic capacity declines, warmer autumn temperatures may have little effect on when carbon uptake capacity decreases in these species. We investigated whether autumn warming would delay photosynthetic decline in Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) by growing seedlings under declining weekly photoperiods and weekly temperatures either at ambient temperature or a warming treatment 4 °C above ambient. Photosynthetic capacity was relatively constant in both treatments when weekly temperatures were >8 °C, but declined rapidly at lower temperatures, leading to a delay in the autumn decline in photosynthetic capacity in the warming treatment. The decline in photosynthetic capacity was not related to changes in leaf nitrogen or chlorophyll concentrations, but was correlated with a decrease in the apparent fraction of leaf nitrogen invested in Rubisco, implicating a shift in nitrogen allocation away from the Calvin cycle at low autumn growing temperatures. Our data suggest that as the climate warms, the period of net carbon uptake will be extended in the autumn for boreal forests dominated by Norway spruce, which could increase total carbon uptake in these forests. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  19. Elevated CO2 and warming effects on grassland plant mortality are determined by the timing of rainfall

    PubMed Central

    Newton, Paul C. D.; Porter, Meagan

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Background and aims Global warming is expected to increase the mortality rate of established plants in water-limited systems because of its effect on evapotranspiration. The rising CO2 concentration ([CO2]), however, should have the opposite effect because it reduces plant transpiration, delaying the onset of drought. This potential for elevated [CO2] (eCO2) to modify the warming effect on mortality should be related to prevailing moisture conditions. This study aimed to determine the impacts of warming by 2 °C and eCO2 (550 μmol mol−1) on plant mortality in an Australian temperate grassland over a 6-year period and to test how interannual variation in rainfall influenced treatment effects. Methods Analyses were based on results from a field experiment, TasFACE, in which grassland plots were exposed to a combination of eCO2 by free air CO2 enrichment (FACE) and warming by infrared heaters. Using an annual census of established plants and detailed estimates of recruitment, annual mortality of all established plants was calculated. The influence of rainfall amount and timing on the relative impact of treatments on mortality in each year was analysed using multiple regression techniques. Key Results Warming and eCO2 effects had an interactive influence on mortality which varied strongly from year to year and this variation was determined by temporal rainfall patterns. Warming tended to increase density-adjusted mortality and eCO2 moderated that effect, but to a greater extent in years with fewer dry periods. Conclusions These results show that eCO2 reduced the negative effect of warming but this influence varied strongly with rainfall timing. Importantly, indices involving the amount of rainfall were not required to explain interannual variation in mortality or treatment effects on mortality. Therefore, predictions of global warming effects on plant mortality will be reliant not only on other climate change factors, but also on the temporal

  20. Observations of net soil exchange of CO2 in a dryland show experimental warming increases carbon losses in biocrust soils

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Darrouzet-Nardi, Anthony N.; Reed, Sasha C.; Grote, Ed; Belnap, Jayne

    2015-01-01

    Many arid and semiarid ecosystems have soils covered with well-developed biological soil crust communities (biocrusts) made up of mosses, lichens, cyanobacteria, and heterotrophs living at the soil surface. These communities are a fundamental component of dryland ecosystems, and are critical to dryland carbon (C) cycling. To examine the effects of warming temperatures on soil C balance in a dryland ecosystem, we used infrared heaters to warm biocrust-dominated soils to 2 °C above control conditions at a field site on the Colorado Plateau, USA. We monitored net soil exchange (NSE) of CO2 every hour for 21 months using automated flux chambers (5 control and 5 warmed chambers), which included the CO2 fluxes of the biocrusts and the soil beneath them. We observed measurable photosynthesis in biocrust soils on 12 % of measurement days, which correlated well with precipitation events and soil wet-up. These days included several snow events, providing what we believe to be the first evidence of substantial photosynthesis underneath snow by biocrust organisms in drylands. Overall, biocrust soils in both control and warmed plots were net CO2 sources to the atmosphere, with control plots losing 62 ± 8 g C m−2 (mean ± SE) over the first year of measurement and warmed plots losing 74 ± 9 g C m−2. Between control and warmed plots, the difference in soil C loss was uncertain over the course of the entire year due to large and variable rates in spring, but on days during which soils were wet and crusts were actively photosynthesizing, biocrusts that were warmed by 2 °C had a substantially more negative C balance (i.e., biocrust soils took up less C and/or lost more C in warmed plots). Taken together, our data suggest a substantial risk of increased C loss from biocrust soils with higher future temperatures, and highlight a robust capacity to predict CO2 exchange in biocrust soils using easily measured environmental parameters.

  1. Effects of experimental warming and mowing on greenhouse gas fluxes in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Jinsong; Quan, Quan; Sun, Jian; Niu, Shuli

    2017-04-01

    Rapid climate change and intensified human activities on the Tibetan Plateau may alter the magnitude and direction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, affecting the climate change impact on these fragile ecosystems. We conducted a controlled experiment to investigate the effects of warming and mowing (simulation of grazing) on soil CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes in an alpine meadow in eastern Tibetan Plateau between August 2015 and July 2016. Three levels of temperature (C, ambient temperature; W1, < 2 °C warming at 5 cm soil depth by infrared heaters; and W2, > 2 °C warming) were combined with two levels of mowing treatment (UM, un-mowing; and M, mowing). GHG fluxes were measured once an hour using static chamber. Both CO2 emission and CH4 uptake rates showed a seasonal fluctuation, with the maximum value occurred in late summer and the minimum in winter. However, N2O flux did not show a strong seasonal pattern. High level of warming (W2) regardless of mowing significantly increased CO2 emission and CH4 uptake by 15.4 % and 38.2 % averaged over the year, compared with no-warming (C). Moderate warming (W1) did not have significant effects on either CO2 or CH4 fluxes. N2O flux was reduced by 54.1% by W2 and 15.7% by W1 warming. Mowing alone increased CH4 uptake and N2O emission by 18.0 % and 12.7%, respectively, but had no significant effect on CO2 flux. The interactions between warming and mowing were detected in CO2 and CH4 fluxes. Among all treatments, W2UM in general had the highest rates of CO2 emission and CH4 uptake but the lowest rate of N2O flux, while CUM and CM showed the opposite. In addition, warming induced increase in CH4 uptake and decline in N2O release had very limited ability to offset the enhanced CO2 emission, resulting in a net positive feedback of the three GHGs to climate warming. Furthermore, daily CO2 flux increased exponentially with soil temperature at 5 cm. CH4 flux correlated negatively with soil temperature but positively with soil moisture.

  2. The Effect of Postoperative Skin-Surface Warming on Oxygen Consumption and the Shivering Threshold

    PubMed Central

    Alfonsi, P.; Nourredine, K.; Adam, F.; Chauvin, M.; Sessler, D. I.

    2005-01-01

    Summary Cutaneous warming is reportedly an effective treatment for shivering during epidural and after general anaesthesia. We quantified the efficacy of cutaneous warming as a treatment for shivering. Unwarmed surgical patients (final intraoperative core temperatures ≈35°C) were randomly assigned to be covered with a blanket (n=9) or full-body forced-air cover (n=9). Shivering was evaluated clinically and by oxygen consumption. Forced-air heating increased mean-skin temperature (35.7±0.4 °C vs. 33.2±0.8°C, P< 0.0001) and lowered core temperature at the shivering threshold (35.7±0.2 °C vs. 36.4±0.2°C, P< 0.0001). Active warming improved thermal comfort and significantly reduced oxygen consumption from 9.7±4.4 to 5.6±1.9 mL·min−1·kg−1(P=0.038). However, duration of shivering was similar in the two groups (37±11 min [warming] and 36±10 min [control]). Core temperature thus contributed about four times as much as skin temperature to control of shivering. Cutaneous warming improved thermal comfort and reduced metabolic stress in postoperative patients, but did not quickly obliterate shivering. PMID:14705689

  3. Climate change affects low trophic level marine consumers: warming decreases copepod size and abundance.

    PubMed

    Garzke, Jessica; Ismar, Stefanie M H; Sommer, Ulrich

    2015-03-01

    Concern about climate change has re-ignited interest in universal ecological responses to temperature variations: (1) biogeographical shifts, (2) phenology changes, and (3) size shifts. In this study we used copepods as model organisms to study size responses to temperature because of their central role in the pelagic food web and because of the ontogenetic length constancy between molts, which facilitates the definition of size of distinct developmental stages. In order to test the expected temperature-induced shifts towards smaller body size and lower abundances under warming conditions, a mesocosm experiment using plankton from the Baltic Sea at three temperature levels (ambient, ambient +4 °C, ambient -4 °C) was performed in summer 2010. Overall copepod and copepodit abundances, copepod size at all life stages, and adult copepod size in particular, showed significant temperature effects. As expected, zooplankton peak abundance was lower in warm than in ambient treatments. Copepod size-at-immature stage significantly increased in cold treatments, while adult size significantly decreased in warm treatments.

  4. Enhanced greenhouse gas emissions from the Arctic with experimental warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Voigt, Carolina; Lamprecht, Richard E.; Marushchak, Maija E.; Lind, Saara E.; Novakovskiy, Alexander; Aurela, Mika; Martikainen, Pertti J.; Biasi, Christina

    2017-04-01

    the known arctic N2O hot spots (bare peat soils; maximum seasonal release with warming: 87 mg N2O m-2), but also from the vegetated peat surfaces, not emitting N2O under present climate. These surfaces showed signs of a hampered plant growth, leading to reduced soil N uptake with warming, indicating that plants are regulating arctic N2O emissions. The warming treatment was limited to temperature of air and upper soil surface, and did not alter thaw depth. Nonetheless, we observed a clear increase of all three GHGs deep in the soil profile, and attribute this to downward leaching of labile organic substances from the surface soil and/or plants, fueling microbial activity at depth. Our study thus highlights the tight interlinkage between the surface soil, vegetation, and deeper soil layers, which could lead to losses of all three GHGs, including N2O, with subtle temperature increase. We therefore emphasize that indirect effects caused by warming, such as leaching processes, as well as arctic N2O emissions, need to be taken into account when attempting to project feedbacks between the arctic and the global climate system.

  5. Effects of experimental warming and elevated CO2 on surface methane and CO­2 fluxes from a boreal black spruce peatland

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gill, A. L.; Finzi, A.; Giasson, M. A.

    2015-12-01

    High latitude peatlands represent a major terrestrial carbon store sensitive to climate change, as well as a globally significant methane source. While elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and warming temperatures may increase peat respiration and C losses to the atmosphere, reductions in peatland water tables associated with increased growing season evapotranspiration may alter the nature of trace gas emission and increase peat C losses as CO2 relative to methane (CH4). As CH4 is a greenhouse gas with twenty times the warming potential of CO2, it is critical to understand how surface fluxes of CO2 and CH4 will be influenced by factors associated with global climate change. We used automated soil respiration chambers to assess the influence of elevated atmospheric CO2 and whole ecosystem warming on peatland CH4 and CO2 fluxes at the SPRUCE (Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Climatic and Environmental Change) Experiment in northern Minnesota. Belowground warming treatments were initiated in July 2014 and whole ecosystem warming and elevated CO2 treatments began in August 2015. Here we report soil iCO2 and iCH4 flux responses to the first year of belowground warming and the first two months of whole ecosystem manipulation. We also leverage the spatial and temporal density of measurements across the twenty autochambers to assess how physical (i.e., plant species composition, microtopography) and environmental (i.e., peat temperature, water table position, oxygen availability) factors influence observed rates of CH4 and CO2 loss. We find that methane fluxes increased significantly across warming treatments following the first year of belowground warming, while belowground warming alone had little influence on soil CO2 fluxes. Peat microtopography strongly influenced trace gas emission rates, with higher CH4 fluxes in hollow locations and higher CO2 fluxes in hummock locations. While there was no difference in the isotopic composition of the methane

  6. [Response of phytolith in Leymus chinensis to the simulation of global warming and nitrogen deposition on Songnen grassland, China].

    PubMed

    Jie, Dong-meir; Ge, Yong; Guo, Ji-xun; Liu, Hong-mei

    2010-08-01

    Using infrared radiator and applying nitrogen on Leymus chinensis community on Songnen grassland to simulate global warming and nitrogen deposition, phytolith was extracted from L. chinensis, the morphology and content of phytolith were analyzed. Phytolith in L. chinensis were classified into 4 main classes and 12 subclasses, as well as some small phytolith fragments. Of all the phytolith types, the hat-shaped take as much as 70%. The hat-shaped with spire and hat-shaped with flat peak may have different growth mechanisms from the echinate hat-shaped, and the point-shaped phytolith is more sensitive to N deposition. Compared with control check (CK), the warming treatment seemed to promote the growth of phytolith (increased the length and width 0.1-2.6 microm), while the N deposition treatment had an effect of inhibition on the growth of phytolith (decreased the length and width 0.1-1.4 microm), and when warming and N deposition mixed, in this treatment the effect of inhibition caused by N deposition declined. Hollow elongate (46% of elongate) was observed only in N deposition treatment, and the content of other types (elongate, point-shaped, hat-shaped excluded) increased to 10%, it was supposed, as L. chinensis is the dominant species in Songnen grassland, the effect of N deposition might be more significant than warming on such grassland, and warming could mitigate the affection of N deposition. Phytolith was sensitive to the change of environmental factors, this study provided an experimental evidence for phytolith as a reliable proxy indicator for paleo-environment.

  7. Microclimatic performance of a free-air warming and CO₂ enrichment experiment in windy Wyoming, USA

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    LeCain, Daniel; Smith, David; Morgan, Jack

    In order to plan for global changing climate experiments are being conducted in many countries, but few have monitored the effects of the climate change treatments (warming, elevated CO₂) on the experimental plot microclimate. During three years of an eight year study with year-round feedback-controlled infra-red heater warming (1.5/3.0°C day/night) and growing season free-air CO₂ enrichment (600 ppm) in the mixed-grass prairie of Wyoming, USA, we monitored soil, leaf, canopy-air, above-canopy-air temperatures and relative humidity of control and treated experimental plots and evaluated ecologically important temperature differentials. Leaves were warmed somewhat less than the target settings (1.1 & 1.5°C day/night)more » but soil was warmed more creating an average that matched the target settings extremely well both during the day and night plus the summer and winter. The site typically has about 50% bare or litter covered soil, therefore soil heat transfer is more critical than in dense canopy ecosystems. The Wyoming site commonly has strong winds (5 ms⁻¹ average) and significant daily and seasonal temperature fluctuations (as much as 30°C daily) but the warming system was nearly always able to maintain the set temperatures regardless of abiotic variation. The within canopy-air was only slightly warmed and above canopy-air was not warmed by the system, therefore convective warming was minor. Elevated CO₂ had no direct effect nor interaction with the warming treatment on microclimate. Relative humidity within the plant canopy was only slightly reduced by warming. Soil water content was reduced by warming but increased by elevated CO₂. This study demonstrates the importance of monitoring the microclimate in manipulative field global change experiments so that critical physiological and ecological conclusions can be determined. Highly variable energy demand fluctuations showed that passive IR heater warming systems will not maintain desired warming

  8. Microclimatic performance of a free-air warming and CO₂ enrichment experiment in windy Wyoming, USA

    DOE PAGES

    LeCain, Daniel; Smith, David; Morgan, Jack; ...

    2015-02-06

    In order to plan for global changing climate experiments are being conducted in many countries, but few have monitored the effects of the climate change treatments (warming, elevated CO₂) on the experimental plot microclimate. During three years of an eight year study with year-round feedback-controlled infra-red heater warming (1.5/3.0°C day/night) and growing season free-air CO₂ enrichment (600 ppm) in the mixed-grass prairie of Wyoming, USA, we monitored soil, leaf, canopy-air, above-canopy-air temperatures and relative humidity of control and treated experimental plots and evaluated ecologically important temperature differentials. Leaves were warmed somewhat less than the target settings (1.1 & 1.5°C day/night)more » but soil was warmed more creating an average that matched the target settings extremely well both during the day and night plus the summer and winter. The site typically has about 50% bare or litter covered soil, therefore soil heat transfer is more critical than in dense canopy ecosystems. The Wyoming site commonly has strong winds (5 ms⁻¹ average) and significant daily and seasonal temperature fluctuations (as much as 30°C daily) but the warming system was nearly always able to maintain the set temperatures regardless of abiotic variation. The within canopy-air was only slightly warmed and above canopy-air was not warmed by the system, therefore convective warming was minor. Elevated CO₂ had no direct effect nor interaction with the warming treatment on microclimate. Relative humidity within the plant canopy was only slightly reduced by warming. Soil water content was reduced by warming but increased by elevated CO₂. This study demonstrates the importance of monitoring the microclimate in manipulative field global change experiments so that critical physiological and ecological conclusions can be determined. Highly variable energy demand fluctuations showed that passive IR heater warming systems will not maintain desired warming

  9. The increase in fat content in the warm-acclimated striped hamsters is associated with the down-regulated metabolic thermogenesis.

    PubMed

    Tan, Song; Wen, Jing; Shi, Lu-Lu; Wang, Chun-Ming; Wang, Gui-Ying; Zhao, Zhi-Jun

    2016-11-01

    It has been well known that metabolic thermogenesis plays an important role in the thermoregulation of small mammals under different temperatures, while its role in fat accumulation is far from clear. In the present study, several physiological, hormonal, and biochemical measures indicative of metabolic thermogenesis were measured in the weaning striped hamsters after acclimated to a warm condition (30°C) for 1, 3 and 4months. The warm-acclimated groups significantly decreased energy intake, and simultaneously decreased nonshivering thermogenesis compared to those housed at 21°C. Body fat content increased by 29.9%, 22.1% and 19.6% in the hamsters acclimated to 1, 3 or 4months, respectively relative to their counterparts maintain at 21°C (P<0.05). The cytochrome c oxidase (COX) activity of brain, liver, heart and skeletal muscle, and the ratio of serum tri-iodothyronine to thyroxine significantly decreased in warm-acclimated groups compared with 21°C group. COX activity and uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) mRNA expression of brown adipose tissue (BAT) were significantly down-regulated under the warm conditions. COX activity of BAT, liver, heart and muscle were significantly negatively correlated with body fat content, and the correlation between UCP1 expression and body fat content tended to be negative. These findings suggest that the decrease in the energy spent on metabolic thermogenesis plays an important role in the fat accumulation. The attenuation of COX and UCP1-based BAT activity may be involved in body fat accumulation in animals under warm conditions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Response of soil C fluxes to warming and irrigation in a lysimeter experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Beck, Kerstin; Schindlbacher, Andreas; Borken, Werner

    2017-04-01

    Current climate change alters the temperature and precipitation regime of alpine forests, but its impact on soil carbon (C) dynamics is not well known. Recent studies suggest substantial soil C losses through persistently enhanced mineralization of soil organic matter in the Northern European Calcareous Alps. These C losses could result from increasing soil respiration as the most important pathway of soil C processes followed by leaching of dissolved inorganic and organic C (DIC, DOC). Here, we studied the response of these three C fluxes to (I) soil warming (+4°C), (II) irrigation (+40% water), and (III) a combination of soil warming and irrigation relative to a (IV) control in a field lysimeter experiment. The lysimeters (n=5 per treatment) were filled with mineral soil from a humus-rich A-horizon of a Rendzic Leptosol and detrital dolomite (C-horizon). Soil warming revealed an increase in soil respiration by 52%, but no or little change in soil CO2 concentration, DIC and DOC leaching during the growing season. Irrigation increased DIC and DOC leaching by >70% but had no effect on soil respiration. The combination of soil warming and irrigation increased soil CO2 efflux by only 28%, while the DIC and DOC fluxes increased by about 70% as in the irrigation treatment. The positive correlation between seepage fluxes and DIC fluxes (R2=0.97) suggests that precipitation is a strong driver of DIC losses. Despite the strong linear relationship between DIC and soil CO2 concentrations (R2=0.82), latter was poorly correlated with DIC losses (R2=0.44). A first estimate using the concentrations of dissolved Mg and Ca cations in seepage suggests that abiogenic DIC from dolomite weathering contributed about 30% to the total DIC flux. The biogenic DIC flux contributed 1-3% and the DOC flux <1% to the total soil C loss during the growing season. Taking average seepage fluxes of about 1000 mm into account, as typical for the Northern European Alps, the DIC flux could account for

  11. Experimental winter warming modifies thermal performance and primes acorn ants for warm weather.

    PubMed

    MacLean, Heidi J; Penick, Clint A; Dunn, Robert R; Diamond, Sarah E

    2017-07-01

    The frequency of warm winter days is increasing under global climate change, but how organisms respond to warmer winters is not well understood. Most studies focus on growing season responses to warming. Locomotor performance is often highly sensitive to temperature, and can determine fitness outcomes through a variety of mechanisms including resource acquisition and predator escape. As a consequence, locomotor performance, and its impacts on fitness, may be strongly affected by winter warming in winter-active species. Here we use the acorn ant, Temnothorax curvispinosus, to explore how thermal performance (temperature-driven plasticity) in running speed is influenced by experimental winter warming of 3-5°C above ambient in a field setting. We used running speed as a measure of performance as it is a common locomotor trait that influences acquisition of nest sites and food in acorn ants. Experimental winter warming significantly altered thermal performance for running speed at high (26 and 36°C) but not low test temperatures (6 and 16°C). Although we saw little differentiation in thermal performance at cooler test temperatures, we saw a marked increase in running speed at the hotter test temperatures for ants that experienced warmer winters compared with those that experienced cooler winters. Our results provide evidence that overwintering temperatures can substantially influence organismal performance, and suggest that we cannot ignore overwintering effects when forecasting organismal responses to environmental changes in temperature. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Effects of Substrate Addition on Soil Respiratory Carbon Release Under Long-Term Warming and Clipping in a Tallgrass Prairie

    PubMed Central

    Jia, Xiaohong; Zhou, Xuhui; Luo, Yiqi; Xue, Kai; Xue, Xian; Xu, Xia; Yang, Yuanhe; Wu, Liyou; Zhou, Jizhong

    2014-01-01

    Regulatory mechanisms of soil respiratory carbon (C) release induced by substrates (i.e., plant derived substrates) are critical for predicting ecosystem responses to climate change, but the mechanisms are not well understood. In this study, we sampled soils from a long-term field manipulative experiment and conducted a laboratory incubation to explore the role of substrate supply in regulating the differences in soil C release among the experimental treatments, including control, warming, clipping, and warming plus clipping. Three types of substrates (glucose, C3 and C4 plant materials) were added with an amount equal to 1% of soil dry weight under the four treatments. We found that the addition of all three substrates significantly stimulated soil respiratory C release in all four warming and clipping treatments. In soils without substrate addition, warming significantly stimulated soil C release but clipping decreased it. However, additions of glucose and C3 plant materials (C3 addition) offset the warming effects, whereas C4 addition still showed the warming-induced stimulation of soil C release. Our results suggest that long-term warming may inhibit microbial capacity for decomposition of C3 litter but may enhance it for decomposition of C4 litter. Such warming-induced adaptation of microbial communities may weaken the positive C-cycle feedback to warming due to increased proportion of C4 species in plant community and decreased litter quality. In contrast, clipping may weaken microbial capacity for warming-induced decomposition of C4 litter but may enhance it for C3 litter. Warming- and clipping-induced shifts in microbial metabolic capacity may be strongly associated with changes in plant species composition and could substantially influence soil C dynamics in response to global change. PMID:25490701

  13. Effects of substrate addition on soil respiratory carbon release under long-term warming and clipping in a tallgrass prairie.

    PubMed

    Jia, Xiaohong; Zhou, Xuhui; Luo, Yiqi; Xue, Kai; Xue, Xian; Xu, Xia; Yang, Yuanhe; Wu, Liyou; Zhou, Jizhong

    2014-01-01

    Regulatory mechanisms of soil respiratory carbon (C) release induced by substrates (i.e., plant derived substrates) are critical for predicting ecosystem responses to climate change, but the mechanisms are not well understood. In this study, we sampled soils from a long-term field manipulative experiment and conducted a laboratory incubation to explore the role of substrate supply in regulating the differences in soil C release among the experimental treatments, including control, warming, clipping, and warming plus clipping. Three types of substrates (glucose, C3 and C4 plant materials) were added with an amount equal to 1% of soil dry weight under the four treatments. We found that the addition of all three substrates significantly stimulated soil respiratory C release in all four warming and clipping treatments. In soils without substrate addition, warming significantly stimulated soil C release but clipping decreased it. However, additions of glucose and C3 plant materials (C3 addition) offset the warming effects, whereas C4 addition still showed the warming-induced stimulation of soil C release. Our results suggest that long-term warming may inhibit microbial capacity for decomposition of C3 litter but may enhance it for decomposition of C4 litter. Such warming-induced adaptation of microbial communities may weaken the positive C-cycle feedback to warming due to increased proportion of C4 species in plant community and decreased litter quality. In contrast, clipping may weaken microbial capacity for warming-induced decomposition of C4 litter but may enhance it for C3 litter. Warming- and clipping-induced shifts in microbial metabolic capacity may be strongly associated with changes in plant species composition and could substantially influence soil C dynamics in response to global change.

  14. The whole-soil carbon flux in response to warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hicks Pries, Caitlin E.; Castanha, C.; Porras, R. C.; Torn, M. S.

    2017-03-01

    Soil organic carbon harbors three times as much carbon as Earth’s atmosphere, and its decomposition is a potentially large climate change feedback and major source of uncertainty in climate projections. The response of whole-soil profiles to warming has not been tested in situ. In a deep warming experiment in mineral soil, we found that CO2 production from all soil depths increased with 4°C warming; annual soil respiration increased by 34 to 37%. All depths responded to warming with similar temperature sensitivities, driven by decomposition of decadal-aged carbon. Whole-soil warming reveals a larger soil respiration response than many in situ experiments (most of which only warm the surface soil) and models.

  15. Herbivory and nutrient limitation protect warming tundra from lowland species' invasion and diversity loss.

    PubMed

    Eskelinen, Anu; Kaarlejärvi, Elina; Olofsson, Johan

    2017-01-01

    Herbivory and nutrient limitation can increase the resistance of temperature-limited systems to invasions under climate warming. We imported seeds of lowland species to tundra under factorial treatments of warming, fertilization, herbivore exclusion and biomass removal. We show that warming alone had little impact on lowland species, while exclusion of native herbivores and relaxation of nutrient limitation greatly benefitted them. In contrast, warming alone benefitted resident tundra species and increased species richness; however, these were canceled by negative effects of herbivore exclusion and fertilization. Dominance of lowland species was associated with low cover of tundra species and resulted in decreased species richness. Our results highlight the critical role of biotic and abiotic filters unrelated to temperature in protecting tundra under warmer climate. While scarcity of soil nutrients and native herbivores act as important agents of resistance to invasions by lowland species, they concurrently promote overall species coexistence. However, when these biotic and abiotic resistances are relaxed, invasion of lowland species can lead to decreased abundance of resident tundra species and diminished diversity. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  16. Transpiration Dominates Ecosystem Water-Use Efficiency in Response to Warming in an Alpine Meadow

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Quan, Quan; Zhang, Fangyue; Tian, Dashuan; Zhou, Qingping; Wang, Lixin; Niu, Shuli

    2018-02-01

    As a key linkage of C and water cycles, water-use efficiency (WUE) quantifies how much water an ecosystem uses for carbon gain. Although ecosystem C and water fluxes have been intensively studied, yet it remains unclear how ecosystem WUE responds to climate warming and which processes dominate the response of WUE. To answer these questions, we examined canopy WUE (WUEc), ecosystem WUE (WUEe) and their components including gross ecosystem productivity, ecosystem evapotranspiration (ET), soil evaporation (E), and plant canopy transpiration (T), in response to warming in an alpine meadow by using a manipulative warming experiment in 2015 and 2016. As expected, low- and high-level warming treatments increased soil temperature (Tsoil) at 10 cm on average by 1.65 and 2.77°C, but decreased soil moisture (Msoil) by 2.52 and 7.6 vol %, respectively, across the two years. Low- and high-level warming increased WUEe by 7.7 and 9.3% over the two years, but rarely changed WUEc in either year. T/ET ratio determined the differential responses of WUEc and WUEe. Larger T/ET led to less difference between WUEc and WUEe. By partitioning WUEc and WUEe into different carbon and water fluxes, we found that T rather than gross ecosystem productivity or E dominated the responses of WUEc and WUEe to warming. This study provides empirical insights into how ecosystem WUE responds to warming and illustrates the importance of plant transpiration in regulating ecosystem WUE under future climate change.

  17. The Tropical Western Hemisphere Warm Pool

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, C.; Enfield, D. B.

    2002-12-01

    The paper describes and examines variability of the tropical Western Hemisphere warm pool (WHWP) of water warmer than 28.5oC. The WHWP is the second-largest tropical warm pool on Earth. Unlike the Eastern Hemisphere warm pool in the western Pacific, which straddles the equator, the WHWP is entirely north of the equator. At various stages of development the WHWP extends over parts of the eastern North Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the western tropical North Atlantic. It has a large seasonal cycle and its interannual fluctuations of area and intensity are significant. Surface heat fluxes warm the WHWP through the boreal spring to an annual maximum of SST and WHWP area in the late summer/early fall, associated with eastern North Pacific and Atlantic hurricane activities and rainfall from northern South America to the southern tier of the United States. Observations suggest that a positive ocean-atmosphere feedback operating through longwave radiation and associated cloudiness seems to operate in the WHWP. During winter preceding large warm pool, there is an alteration of the Walker and Hadley circulation cells that serves as a "tropospheric bridge" for transferring Pacific ENSO effects to the Atlantic sector and inducing initial warming of warm pool. Associated with the warm SST anomalies is a decrease in sea level pressure anomalies and an anomalous increase in atmospheric convection and cloudiness. The increase in convective activity and cloudiness results in less net longwave radiation loss from the sea surface, which then reinforces SST anomalies.

  18. Chondromalacia patellae treated by warming needle and rehabilitation training.

    PubMed

    Qiu, Ling; Zhang, Min; Zhang, Ji; Gao, Le-Nv; Chen, Da-wei; Liu, Jun; She, Jia-yi; Wang, Ling; Yu, Jin-yan; Huang, Le-ping; Bai, Yang

    2009-06-01

    To observe the effect of warming needle combined with rehabilitation training on chondromalacia patellae in a randomized controlled trial. The 92 cases were randomly divided into a treatment group treated by warming needle plus rehabilitation training (47 cases) and a control group treated by medication plus rehabilitation training (45 cases), and the therapeutic effect was compared after 20 sessions. The pain was relieved more obviously in the treatment group than in the control group (P < 0.05), and the total effective rate was 91.8% and 71.1% respectively (P < 0.01). Warming needle plus rehabilitation training was superior in the therapeutic effect and duration of producing relief of pain to medication plus rehabilitation training in treating chondromalacia patellae.

  19. Increased risk of a shutdown of ocean convection posed by warm North Atlantic summers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oltmanns, Marilena; Karstensen, Johannes; Fischer, Jürgen

    2018-04-01

    A shutdown of ocean convection in the subpolar North Atlantic, triggered by enhanced melting over Greenland, is regarded as a potential transition point into a fundamentally different climate regime1-3. Noting that a key uncertainty for future convection resides in the relative importance of melting in summer and atmospheric forcing in winter, we investigate the extent to which summer conditions constrain convection with a comprehensive dataset, including hydrographic records that are over a decade in length from the convection regions. We find that warm and fresh summers, characterized by increased sea surface temperatures, freshwater concentrations and melting, are accompanied by reduced heat and buoyancy losses in winter, which entail a longer persistence of the freshwater near the surface and contribute to delaying convection. By shortening the time span for the convective freshwater export, the identified seasonal dynamics introduce a potentially critical threshold that is crossed when substantial amounts of freshwater from one summer are carried over into the next and accumulate. Warm and fresh summers in the Irminger Sea are followed by particularly short convection periods. We estimate that in the winter 2010-2011, after the warmest and freshest Irminger Sea summer on our record, 40% of the surface freshwater was retained.

  20. Soil warming, carbon–nitrogen interactions, and forest carbon budgets

    PubMed Central

    Melillo, Jerry M.; Butler, Sarah; Johnson, Jennifer; Mohan, Jacqueline; Steudler, Paul; Lux, Heidi; Burrows, Elizabeth; Bowles, Francis; Smith, Rose; Scott, Lindsay; Vario, Chelsea; Hill, Troy; Burton, Andrew; Zhou, Yu-Mei; Tang, Jim

    2011-01-01

    Soil warming has the potential to alter both soil and plant processes that affect carbon storage in forest ecosystems. We have quantified these effects in a large, long-term (7-y) soil-warming study in a deciduous forest in New England. Soil warming has resulted in carbon losses from the soil and stimulated carbon gains in the woody tissue of trees. The warming-enhanced decay of soil organic matter also released enough additional inorganic nitrogen into the soil solution to support the observed increases in plant carbon storage. Although soil warming has resulted in a cumulative net loss of carbon from a New England forest relative to a control area over the 7-y study, the annual net losses generally decreased over time as plant carbon storage increased. In the seventh year, warming-induced soil carbon losses were almost totally compensated for by plant carbon gains in response to warming. We attribute the plant gains primarily to warming-induced increases in nitrogen availability. This study underscores the importance of incorporating carbon–nitrogen interactions in atmosphere–ocean–land earth system models to accurately simulate land feedbacks to the climate system. PMID:21606374

  1. [Clinical efficacy of warm needling therapy on cervical spondylosis of neck type based on the theory of "treatment both for the neck and lumbus"].

    PubMed

    Yang, Yu; Pan, Luping; Lin, Xianming

    2016-11-12

    To compare the difference in the short-term and long-term efficacy on cervical spondylosis of neck type between warm needling therapy in the regions of both neck and lumbus and that only in the region of neck. Eighty-one patients of cervical spondylosis of neck type were randomized into group A (41 cases) and group B (40 cases), in which 2 cases dropped out. Finally, 40 cases in the group A and 39 cases in the group B accomplished the trial. In the group A, the warm needling therapy was applied to the acupoints in the region of neck and the lumbus. Fengchi (GB 20), Tianzhu (BL 10), Neck-Bailao (EX-HN 15), Wangu (GB 12), Tianyou (TE 16) and ashi (including the tender points and code-like masses on palpation) were selected in the region of neck. Dachangshu (BL 25), Qihaishu (BL 24) and Jiaji (EX-B 2) of L5 were selected in the region of lumbus. The warm needling was applied to Fengchi (GB 20), Tianzhu (BL 10), Dachangshu (BL 25). In the group B, the warm needling therapy was applied only to the acupoints in the neck, which were same as the group A. The treatment was given once every two days, three times a week in the two groups. Separately, before treatment, 1 week after treatment, at the end of 2-week treatment and at the end of 1 month follow-up, the score of neck pain questionnaire (NPQ), the score of range of motion (ROM) in the cervical region and the score of the cervical symptoms were recorded. The efficacy at the end of treatment and in the follow-up was evaluated. Compared with those before treatment, the scores at all the observation time points were significantly improved in the two groups after treatment (all P <0.05). In the follow-up, NPQ score, ROM score and the score of cervicalsymptoms were different significantly between the two groups (all P <0.05). The results in the group A were better than those in the group B. At the end of 2-week treatment, the total effective rate was 92.5% (37/40) in the group A and was 87.2% (34/39) in the group B ( P >0

  2. Does the diurnal increase in central temperature interact with pre-cooling or passive warm-up of the leg?

    PubMed

    Racinais, Sébastien; Blonc, Stephen; Oksa, Juha; Hue, Olivier

    2009-01-01

    Seven male subjects volunteered to participate in an investigation of whether the diurnal increase in core temperature influences the effects of pre-cooling or passive warm-up on muscular power. Morning (07:00-09:00h) and afternoon (17:00-19:00h) evaluation of maximal power output during a cycling sprint was performed on different days in a control condition (room at 21.8 degrees C, 69% rh), after 30min of pre-cooling in a cold bath (16 degrees C), or after 30min of passive warm-up in a hot bath (38 degrees C). Despite an equivalent increase from morning to afternoon in core temperature in all conditions (+0.4 degrees C, P<0.05), power output displayed a diurnal increase in control condition only. A local cooling or heating of the leg in a neutral environment blunted the diurnal variation in muscular power. Because pre-cooling decreases muscle power, force and velocity irrespective of time-of-day, athletes should strictly avoid any cooling before a sprint exercise. In summary, diurnal variation in muscle power output seems to be more influenced by muscle rather than core temperature.

  3. Impact of ocean warming and ocean acidification on larval development and calcification in the sea urchin Tripneustes gratilla.

    PubMed

    Sheppard Brennand, Hannah; Soars, Natalie; Dworjanyn, Symon A; Davis, Andrew R; Byrne, Maria

    2010-06-29

    As the oceans simultaneously warm, acidify and increase in P(CO2), prospects for marine biota are of concern. Calcifying species may find it difficult to produce their skeleton because ocean acidification decreases calcium carbonate saturation and accompanying hypercapnia suppresses metabolism. However, this may be buffered by enhanced growth and metabolism due to warming. We examined the interactive effects of near-future ocean warming and increased acidification/P(CO2) on larval development in the tropical sea urchin Tripneustes gratilla. Larvae were reared in multifactorial experiments in flow-through conditions in all combinations of three temperature and three pH/P(CO2) treatments. Experiments were placed in the setting of projected near future conditions for SE Australia, a global change hot spot. Increased acidity/P(CO2) and decreased carbonate mineral saturation significantly reduced larval growth resulting in decreased skeletal length. Increased temperature (+3 degrees C) stimulated growth, producing significantly bigger larvae across all pH/P(CO2) treatments up to a thermal threshold (+6 degrees C). Increased acidity (-0.3-0.5 pH units) and hypercapnia significantly reduced larval calcification. A +3 degrees C warming diminished the negative effects of acidification and hypercapnia on larval growth. This study of the effects of ocean warming and CO(2) driven acidification on development and calcification of marine invertebrate larvae reared in experimental conditions from the outset of development (fertilization) shows the positive and negative effects of these stressors. In simultaneous exposure to stressors the dwarfing effects of acidification were dominant. Reduction in size of sea urchin larvae in a high P(CO2) ocean would likely impair their performance with negative consequent effects for benthic adult populations.

  4. Eutrophication and Warming Boost Cyanobacterial Biomass and Microcystins.

    PubMed

    Lürling, Miquel; van Oosterhout, Frank; Faassen, Elisabeth

    2017-02-11

    Eutrophication and warming are key drivers of cyanobacterial blooms, but their combined effects on microcystin (MC) concentrations are less studied. We tested the hypothesis that warming promotes cyanobacterial abundance in a natural plankton community and that eutrophication enhances cyanobacterial biomass and MC concentrations. We incubated natural seston from a eutrophic pond under normal, high, and extreme temperatures (i.e., 20, 25, and 30 °C) with and without additional nutrients added (eutrophication) mimicking a pulse as could be expected from projected summer storms under climate change. Eutrophication increased algal- and cyanobacterial biomass by 26 and 8 times, respectively, and led to 24 times higher MC concentrations. This effect was augmented with higher temperatures leading to 45 times higher MC concentrations at 25 °C, with 11 times more cyanobacterial chlorophyll- a and 25 times more eukaryote algal chlorophyll- a . At 30 °C, MC concentrations were 42 times higher, with cyanobacterial chlorophyll- a being 17 times and eukaryote algal chlorophyll- a being 24 times higher. In contrast, warming alone did not yield more cyanobacteria or MCs, because the in situ community had already depleted the available nutrient pool. MC per potential MC producing cell declined at higher temperatures under nutrient enrichments, which was confirmed by a controlled experiment with two laboratory strains of Microcystis aeruginosa. Nevertheless, MC concentrations were much higher at the increased temperature and nutrient treatment than under warming alone due to strongly promoted biomass, lifting N-imitation and promotion of potential MC producers like Microcystis . This study exemplifies the vulnerability of eutrophic urban waters to predicted future summer climate change effects that might aggravate cyanobacterial nuisance.

  5. Warming and Ocean Acidification Effects on Phytoplankton--From Species Shifts to Size Shifts within Species in a Mesocosm Experiment.

    PubMed

    Sommer, Ulrich; Paul, Carolin; Moustaka-Gouni, Maria

    2015-01-01

    While the isolated responses of marine phytoplankton to climate warming and to ocean acidification have been studied intensively, studies on the combined effect of both aspects of Global Change are still scarce. Therefore, we performed a mesocosm experiment with a factorial combination of temperature (9 and 15 °C) and pCO2 (means: 439 ppm and 1040 ppm) with a natural autumn plankton community from the western Baltic Sea. Temporal trajectories of total biomass and of the biomass of the most important higher taxa followed similar patterns in all treatments. When averaging over the entire time course, phytoplankton biomass decreased with warming and increased with CO2 under warm conditions. The contribution of the two dominant higher phytoplankton taxa (diatoms and cryptophytes) and of the 4 most important species (3 diatoms, 1 cryptophyte) did not respond to the experimental treatments. Taxonomic composition of phytoplankton showed only responses at the level of subdominant and rare species. Phytoplankton cell sizes increased with CO2 addition and decreased with warming. Both effects were stronger for larger species. Warming effects were stronger than CO2 effects and tended to counteract each other. Phytoplankton communities without calcifying species and exposed to short-term variation of CO2 seem to be rather resistant to ocean acidification.

  6. Physiological responses to ocean acidification and warming synergistically reduce condition of the common cockle Cerastoderma edule.

    PubMed

    Ong, E Z; Briffa, M; Moens, T; Van Colen, C

    2017-09-01

    The combined effect of ocean acidification and warming on the common cockle Cerastoderma edule was investigated in a fully crossed laboratory experiment. Survival of the examined adult organisms remained high and was not affected by elevated temperature (+3 °C) or lowered pH (-0.3 units). However, the morphometric condition index of the cockles incubated under high pCO 2 conditions (i.e. combined warming and acidification) was significantly reduced after six weeks of incubation. Respiration rates increased significantly under low pH, with highest rates measured under combined warm and low pH conditions. Calcification decreased significantly under low pH while clearance rates increased significantly under warm conditions and were generally lower in low pH treatments. The observed physiological responses suggest that the reduced food intake under hypercapnia is insufficient to support the higher energy requirements to compensate for the higher costs for basal maintenance and growth in future high pCO 2 waters. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Studies of waves and instabilities using increased beta, warm ion plasmas in LAPD

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Carter, Troy; Dorfman, Seth; Gekelman, Walter; Vincena, Steve; van Compernolle, Bart; Tripathi, Shreekrishna; Pribyl, Pat; Morales, George

    2015-11-01

    A new plasma source based on a Lanthanum Hexaboride (LAB6) emissive cathode has been developed and installed on the LArge Plasma Device (LAPD) at UCLA. The new source provides a much higher discharge current density (compared to the standard LAPD Barium Oxide source) resulting in a factor of ~ 50 increase in plasma density and a factor of ~ 2 - 3 increase in electron temperature. Due to the increased density the ion-electron energy exchange time is shorter in the new plasma, resulting in warm ions (measured spectroscopically to be ~ 5 - 6 eV, up from <~ 1 eV in the standard source plasma). This increased pressure combined with lowered magnetic field provides access to magnetized plasmas with β up to order unity. Topics under investigation include the physics of Alfvén waves in increased β plasmas (dispersion and kinetic damping on ions), electromagnetic effects and magnetic transport in drift-Alfvén wave turbulence, and the excitation of ion-temperature-anisotropy driven modes such as the mirror and firehose instabilities. The capabilities of the new source will be discussed along with initial experimental resuls on electromagnetic drift-Alfvén wave turbulence and Alfvén wave propagation with increased plasma β. Supported by NSF and DOE.

  8. [Warm acupuncture for chronic atrophic gastritis with spleen-stomach deficiency cold].

    PubMed

    Wang, Lijun; Li, Guangqi

    2017-02-12

    To observe the clinical effect of warm acupuncture at Zhongwan(CV 12) for chronic atrophic gastritis(CAG) with spleen-stomach deficiency cold by the comparison with conventional acupuncture. Sixty-two patients were randomly assigned into a warm acupuncture group and a conventional acupuncture group,31 cases in each one. The acupoints in the two groups were Zhongwan(CV 12),Zusanli(ST 36),Neiguan(PC 6),Gongsun(SP 4),Qihai(CV 6),Pishu(BL 20) and Weishu(BL 21). Warm acupuncture was intervened at Zhongwan(CV 12) in the warm acupuncture group. Twirling reinforcing was applied at Zhongwan(CV 12) in the conventional acupuncture group. All the treatment was given for 3 courses continuously,5 days as one course,once a day. TCM syndrome score and symptom rating scale were observed before and after treatment in the two groups,and the effects were compared. The total effective rate was 93.5%(29/31) in the warm acupuncture group,which was better than 87.0%(27/31) in the conventional acupuncture group( P <0.05). The TCM syndrome score and symptom rating score were improved in the two groups after treatment( P <0.01, P <0.05),with more apparent improvement in the warm acupuncture group( P <0.01, P <0.05). Warm acupuncture at Zhongwan(CV 12) can improve gastrointestinal discomfort,which is better than twirling reinforcing at Zhongwan(CV 12) for CAG with spleen-stomach deficiency cold.

  9. Positive feedback of greenhouse gas balances to warming is determined by non-growing season emissions in an alpine meadow

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Niu, S.; Wang, J.; Quan, Q.; Chen, W.; Wen, X.; Yu, G.

    2017-12-01

    Large uncertainties exist in the sources and sinks of greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O) in response to climate warming and human activity. So far, numerous previous studies have evaluated the CO2 budget, but little attention has paid to CH4 and N2O budgets and the concurrent balance of these three gases in combination, especially in the non-growing season. Here, we synthesized eddy covariance measurement with the automatic chamber measurements of CO2, CH4, and N2O exposed to three levels of temperature treatments (ambient, +1.5 °C, +2.5 °C) and two disturbance treatments (ummowing, mowing) in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau. We have found that warming caused increase in CH4 uptake and decrease in N2O emission offset little of the enhancement in CO2 emission, triggering a positive feedback to climate warming. Warming switches the ecosystem from a net sink (-17 ± 14 g CO2-eq m-2 yr-1) in the control to a net source of greenhouse gases of 94 ± 36 gCO2-eq m-2 yr-1 in the plots with +1.5 °C warming treatment, and 177 ± 6 gCO2-eq m-2 yr-1 in the plots with +2.5 °C warming treatment. The changes in the non-growing season balance, rather than those in the growing season, dominate the warming responses of annual greehouse gas balance. And this is not changed by mowing. The dominant role of responses of winter greenhouse gas balance in the positive feedback of ecosystem to climate warming highlights that greenhouse gas balance in cold season has to be considered when assessing climate-carbon cycle feedback.

  10. Microclimatic Performance of a Free-Air Warming and CO2 Enrichment Experiment in Windy Wyoming, USA

    PubMed Central

    LeCain, Daniel; Smith, David; Morgan, Jack; Kimball, Bruce A.; Pendall, Elise; Miglietta, Franco

    2015-01-01

    In order to plan for global changing climate experiments are being conducted in many countries, but few have monitored the effects of the climate change treatments (warming, elevated CO2) on the experimental plot microclimate. During three years of an eight year study with year-round feedback-controlled infra-red heater warming (1.5/3.0°C day/night) and growing season free-air CO2 enrichment (600 ppm) in the mixed-grass prairie of Wyoming, USA, we monitored soil, leaf, canopy-air, above-canopy-air temperatures and relative humidity of control and treated experimental plots and evaluated ecologically important temperature differentials. Leaves were warmed somewhat less than the target settings (1.1 & 1.5°C day/night) but soil was warmed more creating an average that matched the target settings extremely well both during the day and night plus the summer and winter. The site typically has about 50% bare or litter covered soil, therefore soil heat transfer is more critical than in dense canopy ecosystems. The Wyoming site commonly has strong winds (5 ms-1 average) and significant daily and seasonal temperature fluctuations (as much as 30°C daily) but the warming system was nearly always able to maintain the set temperatures regardless of abiotic variation. The within canopy-air was only slightly warmed and above canopy-air was not warmed by the system, therefore convective warming was minor. Elevated CO2 had no direct effect nor interaction with the warming treatment on microclimate. Relative humidity within the plant canopy was only slightly reduced by warming. Soil water content was reduced by warming but increased by elevated CO2. This study demonstrates the importance of monitoring the microclimate in manipulative field global change experiments so that critical physiological and ecological conclusions can be determined. Highly variable energy demand fluctuations showed that passive IR heater warming systems will not maintain desired warming for much of the

  11. Why tropical forest lizards are vulnerable to climate warming.

    PubMed

    Huey, Raymond B; Deutsch, Curtis A; Tewksbury, Joshua J; Vitt, Laurie J; Hertz, Paul E; Alvarez Pérez, Héctor J; Garland, Theodore

    2009-06-07

    Biological impacts of climate warming are predicted to increase with latitude, paralleling increases in warming. However, the magnitude of impacts depends not only on the degree of warming but also on the number of species at risk, their physiological sensitivity to warming and their options for behavioural and physiological compensation. Lizards are useful for evaluating risks of warming because their thermal biology is well studied. We conducted macrophysiological analyses of diurnal lizards from diverse latitudes plus focal species analyses of Puerto Rican Anolis and Sphaerodactyus. Although tropical lowland lizards live in environments that are warm all year, macrophysiological analyses indicate that some tropical lineages (thermoconformers that live in forests) are active at low body temperature and are intolerant of warm temperatures. Focal species analyses show that some tropical forest lizards were already experiencing stressful body temperatures in summer when studied several decades ago. Simulations suggest that warming will not only further depress their physiological performance in summer, but will also enable warm-adapted, open-habitat competitors and predators to invade forests. Forest lizards are key components of tropical ecosystems, but appear vulnerable to the cascading physiological and ecological effects of climate warming, even though rates of tropical warming may be relatively low.

  12. Why tropical forest lizards are vulnerable to climate warming

    PubMed Central

    Huey, Raymond B.; Deutsch, Curtis A.; Tewksbury, Joshua J.; Vitt, Laurie J.; Hertz, Paul E.; Álvarez Pérez, Héctor J.; Garland, Theodore

    2009-01-01

    Biological impacts of climate warming are predicted to increase with latitude, paralleling increases in warming. However, the magnitude of impacts depends not only on the degree of warming but also on the number of species at risk, their physiological sensitivity to warming and their options for behavioural and physiological compensation. Lizards are useful for evaluating risks of warming because their thermal biology is well studied. We conducted macrophysiological analyses of diurnal lizards from diverse latitudes plus focal species analyses of Puerto Rican Anolis and Sphaerodactyus. Although tropical lowland lizards live in environments that are warm all year, macrophysiological analyses indicate that some tropical lineages (thermoconformers that live in forests) are active at low body temperature and are intolerant of warm temperatures. Focal species analyses show that some tropical forest lizards were already experiencing stressful body temperatures in summer when studied several decades ago. Simulations suggest that warming will not only further depress their physiological performance in summer, but will also enable warm-adapted, open-habitat competitors and predators to invade forests. Forest lizards are key components of tropical ecosystems, but appear vulnerable to the cascading physiological and ecological effects of climate warming, even though rates of tropical warming may be relatively low. PMID:19324762

  13. Urban warming reduces aboveground carbon storage.

    PubMed

    Meineke, Emily; Youngsteadt, Elsa; Dunn, Robert R; Frank, Steven D

    2016-10-12

    A substantial amount of global carbon is stored in mature trees. However, no experiments to date test how warming affects mature tree carbon storage. Using a unique, citywide, factorial experiment, we investigated how warming and insect herbivory affected physiological function and carbon sequestration (carbon stored per year) of mature trees. Urban warming increased herbivorous arthropod abundance on trees, but these herbivores had negligible effects on tree carbon sequestration. Instead, urban warming was associated with an estimated 12% loss of carbon sequestration, in part because photosynthesis was reduced at hotter sites. Ecosystem service assessments that do not consider urban conditions may overestimate urban tree carbon storage. Because urban and global warming are becoming more intense, our results suggest that urban trees will sequester even less carbon in the future. © 2016 The Author(s).

  14. Irrigation enhances local warming with greater nocturnal warming effects than daytime cooling effects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Xing; Jeong, Su-Jong

    2018-02-01

    To meet the growing demand for food, land is being managed to be more productive using agricultural intensification practices, such as the use of irrigation. Understanding the specific environmental impacts of irrigation is a critical part of using it as a sustainable way to provide food security. However, our knowledge of irrigation effects on climate is still limited to daytime effects. This is a critical issue to define the effects of irrigation on warming related to greenhouse gases (GHGs). This study shows that irrigation led to an increasing temperature (0.002 °C year-1) by enhancing nighttime warming (0.009 °C year-1) more than daytime cooling (-0.007 °C year-1) during the dry season from 1961-2004 over the North China Plain (NCP), which is one of largest irrigated areas in the world. By implementing irrigation processes in regional climate model simulations, the consistent warming effect of irrigation on nighttime temperatures over the NCP was shown to match observations. The intensive nocturnal warming is attributed to energy storage in the wetter soil during the daytime, which contributed to the nighttime surface warming. Our results suggest that irrigation could locally amplify the warming related to GHGs, and this effect should be taken into account in future climate change projections.

  15. Species-specific photosynthetic responses of four coniferous seedlings to open-field experimental warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Han, S.; Yoon, S. J.; Yoon, T. K.; Han, S. H.; Lee, J.; Lee, D.; Kim, S.; Hwang, J.; Cho, M.; Son, Y.

    2014-12-01

    Temperature increase under climate change is expected to affect photosynthesis of tree species. Biochemical models generally suggest that the elevated temperature increases the photosynthetic carbon fixation, however, many opposing results were reported as well. We aimed to examine the photosynthetic responses of four coniferous seedlings to projected future temperature increase, by conducting an open-field warming experiment. Experimental warming set-up using infra-red heater was built in 2011 and the temperature in warming plots has been regulated to be consistently 3oC higher than that of control plots. The seeds of Abies holophylla (AH), A. koreana (AK), Pinus densiflora (PD), and P. koraiensis (PK) were planted in each 1 m × 1 m plot (n=3) in April, 2012. Monthly net photosynthetic rates (Pn; μmol CO2 m-2 s-1) of 1-year-old seedlings (n=9) from June to November, 2013 were measured using CIRAS-2 (PP-Systems, UK) and photosynthetic parameters (the apparent quantum yield; ф; µmol CO2 mol-1, the dark respiration rate; Rd; µmol CO2 mol-1, and the light compensation point; LCP; µmol mol-1 s-1) were also calculated from the light-response curve of photosynthesis in August, 2013. Chlorophyll contents were measured using DMSO extraction method. Monthly Pn was generally higher for PD and decreased for AK in warmed plots than in control plots (Fig. 1). Pn of AK and PK did not show any significant difference, however, Pn of PK in October and November increased by experimental warming. Pn of PD also showed the highest increase in November and this distinct increase of Pn in autumn might be caused by delayed cessation of photosynthesis by temperature elevation. ф and Rd in warmed plots were higher for PD and lower for AK, while LCP did not significantly differ by treatments for all species. Because ф is considered to be related to the efficiency of harvesting and using light, the change in ф might have caused the response of Pn to warming in this study. Decreases

  16. Elevated CO2 and warming effects on grassland plant mortality are determined by the timing of rainfall.

    PubMed

    Hovenden, Mark J; Newton, Paul C D; Porter, Meagan

    2017-05-01

    Global warming is expected to increase the mortality rate of established plants in water-limited systems because of its effect on evapotranspiration. The rising CO 2 concentration ([CO 2 ]), however, should have the opposite effect because it reduces plant transpiration, delaying the onset of drought. This potential for elevated [CO 2 ] (eCO 2 ) to modify the warming effect on mortality should be related to prevailing moisture conditions. This study aimed to determine the impacts of warming by 2 °C and eCO 2 (550 μmol mol -1 ) on plant mortality in an Australian temperate grassland over a 6-year period and to test how interannual variation in rainfall influenced treatment effects. Analyses were based on results from a field experiment, TasFACE, in which grassland plots were exposed to a combination of eCO 2 by free air CO 2 enrichment (FACE) and warming by infrared heaters. Using an annual census of established plants and detailed estimates of recruitment, annual mortality of all established plants was calculated. The influence of rainfall amount and timing on the relative impact of treatments on mortality in each year was analysed using multiple regression techniques. Warming and eCO 2 effects had an interactive influence on mortality which varied strongly from year to year and this variation was determined by temporal rainfall patterns. Warming tended to increase density-adjusted mortality and eCO 2 moderated that effect, but to a greater extent in years with fewer dry periods. These results show that eCO 2 reduced the negative effect of warming but this influence varied strongly with rainfall timing. Importantly, indices involving the amount of rainfall were not required to explain interannual variation in mortality or treatment effects on mortality. Therefore, predictions of global warming effects on plant mortality will be reliant not only on other climate change factors, but also on the temporal distribution of rainfall. © The Author 2017. Published by

  17. El Niño-like teleconnection increases California precipitation in response to warming

    PubMed Central

    Allen, Robert J.; Luptowitz, Rainer

    2017-01-01

    Future California (CA) precipitation projections, including those from the most recent Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), remain uncertain. This uncertainty is related to several factors, including relatively large internal climate variability, model shortcomings, and because CA lies within a transition zone, where mid-latitude regions are expected to become wetter and subtropical regions drier. Here, we use a multitude of models to show CA may receive more precipitation in the future under a business-as-usual scenario. The boreal winter season-when most of the CA precipitation increase occurs-is associated with robust changes in the mean circulation reminiscent of an El Niño teleconnection. Using idealized simulations with two different models, we further show that warming of tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures accounts for these changes. Models that better simulate the observed El Niño-CA precipitation teleconnection yield larger, and more consistent increases in CA precipitation through the twenty-first century. PMID:28681837

  18. El Niño-like teleconnection increases California precipitation in response to warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Allen, Robert J.; Luptowitz, Rainer

    2017-07-01

    Future California (CA) precipitation projections, including those from the most recent Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), remain uncertain. This uncertainty is related to several factors, including relatively large internal climate variability, model shortcomings, and because CA lies within a transition zone, where mid-latitude regions are expected to become wetter and subtropical regions drier. Here, we use a multitude of models to show CA may receive more precipitation in the future under a business-as-usual scenario. The boreal winter season-when most of the CA precipitation increase occurs-is associated with robust changes in the mean circulation reminiscent of an El Niño teleconnection. Using idealized simulations with two different models, we further show that warming of tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures accounts for these changes. Models that better simulate the observed El Niño-CA precipitation teleconnection yield larger, and more consistent increases in CA precipitation through the twenty-first century.

  19. Recent Carbon Cycle Dynamics in an Ombrotrophic Peatland: Implications From Warming and eCO2 Treatments and the Role of Vegetation Layers in the Flux of CO2 and CH4

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hanson, P. J.; Phillips, J. R.; Nettles, W. R., IV; Heiderman, R.

    2017-12-01

    Following 2 years of sustained whole-ecosystem warming treatments spanning a range from 0 to +9 °C (SPRUCE experiment), the net fluxes of CO2 and CH4 from a raised-bog peatland in northern Minnesota show increased emissions of both gases from the community of woody ericaceous shrubs, forbs and Sphagnum moss. Increased emissions for CO2 and CH4 are primarily driven by sustaining temperature conditions for metabolic activity throughout the growing season. Seasonal temperature relationships for each gas suggest that warming affected growth and metabolic processes in a consistent manner across a wide range of temperature treatments. Elevated CO2 treatments (eCO2) have not yet shown anticipated increases in the input and processing of recent carbon. Quantitative annual estimates of the amount of net C and greenhouse gas flux increases will be calculated and presented for all treatments. A mid-season deconstruction of the contribution of vegetation layers to net ecosystem exchange of C and community respiration processes was also completed for replicate ambient shrub communities. The deconstruction data demonstrate the fractional contribution of wood shrubs, forbs/sedges and moss to the community to the flux of C and provide further evidence that the current C cycle of the bog is driven primarily by surface phenomenon fed be recently fixed C. These results should be considered early results from the SPRUCE experiment anticipated to operate through 2025. Affiliated studies will add mechanisms to these observations and long-term cumulative effects may differ.

  20. Evaluation of the warming sensation, acceptability, and local tolerability of an acetylcysteine oral solution containing the flavoring agent IFF flavor 316282 in the treatment of productive cough
.

    PubMed

    Donath, Frank; Grinienko, Anna; Mallefet, Pascal; Ozun, Michel Jean-Pierre; Shneyer, Lucy

    2018-04-01

    This open-label study sought to evaluate the warming sensation produced by IFF flavor 316282 in an acetylcysteine oral solution in subjects with productive cough. 2% ace-tylcysteine oral solution (200 mg per 10 mL) containing IFF flavor 316282. Subjects (N = 57; mean age 38.7 years; 58% female) with a productive cough lasting < 7 days and rated as mild to moderate in severity received 10 mL of study product. Warming sensation intensity was assessed using a 100-mm visual analog scale, its onset and duration using stopwatches, its acceptability using a 9-point scale (from "dislike extremely" to "like extremely") and the taste, texture, and overall acceptability of the solution using 5-point scales (from "unacceptable" to "excellent"). 53 (93.0%) subjects perceived a warming sensation within 10 minutes of swallowing the solution; median onset was ~ 14 seconds, and median duration was ~ 2.8 minutes. Warming sensation intensity increased from baseline by a mean of 29.2 mm when evaluated 60 seconds after ingestion. 30 subjects (52.6%) thought the warming sensation was "just about right"; 25 (43.9%) considered it "too weak" or "much too weak." Most subjects had positive overall ratings ("fair," "good," or "excellent") of the taste (79.0%), texture (96.5%), and solution (91.2%). No treatment-emergent adverse events were reported, and no evidence of oral mucosal irritation was found. The addition of IFF flavor 316282 to a 2% acetylcysteine oral solution produced a warming sensation with rapid onset and relatively short duration, which the majority of subjects found acceptable.
.

  1. INTERACTIONS BETWEEN OCEAN ACIDIFICATION AND WARMING ON THE MORTALITY AND DISSOLUTION OF CORALLINE ALGAE(1).

    PubMed

    Diaz-Pulido, Guillermo; Anthony, Kenneth R N; Kline, David I; Dove, Sophie; Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove

    2012-02-01

    Coralline algae are among the most sensitive calcifying organisms to ocean acidification as a result of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (pCO2 ). Little is known, however, about the combined impacts of increased pCO2 , ocean acidification, and sea surface temperature on tissue mortality and skeletal dissolution of coralline algae. To address this issue, we conducted factorial manipulative experiments of elevated CO2 and temperature and examined the consequences on tissue survival and skeletal dissolution of the crustose coralline alga (CCA) Porolithon (=Hydrolithon) onkodes (Heydr.) Foslie (Corallinaceae, Rhodophyta) on the southern Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia. We observed that warming amplified the negative effects of high pCO2 on the health of the algae: rates of advanced partial mortality of CCA increased from <1% to 9% under high CO2 (from 400 to 1,100 ppm) and exacerbated to 15% under warming conditions (from 26°C to 29°C). Furthermore, the effect of pCO2 on skeletal dissolution strongly depended on temperature. Dissolution of P. onkodes only occurred in the high-pCO2 treatment and was greater in the warm treatment. Enhanced skeletal dissolution was also associated with a significant increase in the abundance of endolithic algae. Our results demonstrate that P. onkodes is particularly sensitive to ocean acidification under warm conditions, suggesting that previous experiments focused on ocean acidification alone have underestimated the impact of future conditions on coralline algae. Given the central role that coralline algae play within coral reefs, these conclusions have serious ramifications for the integrity of coral-reef ecosystems. © 2011 Phycological Society of America.

  2. Long-Term Warming Alters Carbohydrate Degradation Potential in Temperate Forest Soils.

    PubMed

    Pold, Grace; Billings, Andrew F; Blanchard, Jeff L; Burkhardt, Daniel B; Frey, Serita D; Melillo, Jerry M; Schnabel, Julia; van Diepen, Linda T A; DeAngelis, Kristen M

    2016-11-15

    As Earth's climate warms, soil carbon pools and the microbial communities that process them may change, altering the way in which carbon is recycled in soil. In this study, we used a combination of metagenomics and bacterial cultivation to evaluate the hypothesis that experimentally raising soil temperatures by 5°C for 5, 8, or 20 years increased the potential for temperate forest soil microbial communities to degrade carbohydrates. Warming decreased the proportion of carbohydrate-degrading genes in the organic horizon derived from eukaryotes and increased the fraction of genes in the mineral soil associated with Actinobacteria in all studies. Genes associated with carbohydrate degradation increased in the organic horizon after 5 years of warming but had decreased in the organic horizon after warming the soil continuously for 20 years. However, a greater proportion of the 295 bacteria from 6 phyla (10 classes, 14 orders, and 34 families) isolated from heated plots in the 20-year experiment were able to depolymerize cellulose and xylan than bacterial isolates from control soils. Together, these findings indicate that the enrichment of bacteria capable of degrading carbohydrates could be important for accelerated carbon cycling in a warmer world. The massive carbon stocks currently held in soils have been built up over millennia, and while numerous lines of evidence indicate that climate change will accelerate the processing of this carbon, it is unclear whether the genetic repertoire of the microbes responsible for this elevated activity will also change. In this study, we showed that bacteria isolated from plots subject to 20 years of 5°C of warming were more likely to depolymerize the plant polymers xylan and cellulose, but that carbohydrate degradation capacity is not uniformly enriched by warming treatment in the metagenomes of soil microbial communities. This study illustrates the utility of combining culture-dependent and culture-independent surveys of

  3. Long-Term Warming Alters Carbohydrate Degradation Potential in Temperate Forest Soils

    PubMed Central

    Billings, Andrew F.; Blanchard, Jeff L.; Burkhardt, Daniel B.; Frey, Serita D.; Melillo, Jerry M.; Schnabel, Julia; van Diepen, Linda T. A.

    2016-01-01

    ABSTRACT As Earth's climate warms, soil carbon pools and the microbial communities that process them may change, altering the way in which carbon is recycled in soil. In this study, we used a combination of metagenomics and bacterial cultivation to evaluate the hypothesis that experimentally raising soil temperatures by 5°C for 5, 8, or 20 years increased the potential for temperate forest soil microbial communities to degrade carbohydrates. Warming decreased the proportion of carbohydrate-degrading genes in the organic horizon derived from eukaryotes and increased the fraction of genes in the mineral soil associated with Actinobacteria in all studies. Genes associated with carbohydrate degradation increased in the organic horizon after 5 years of warming but had decreased in the organic horizon after warming the soil continuously for 20 years. However, a greater proportion of the 295 bacteria from 6 phyla (10 classes, 14 orders, and 34 families) isolated from heated plots in the 20-year experiment were able to depolymerize cellulose and xylan than bacterial isolates from control soils. Together, these findings indicate that the enrichment of bacteria capable of degrading carbohydrates could be important for accelerated carbon cycling in a warmer world. IMPORTANCE The massive carbon stocks currently held in soils have been built up over millennia, and while numerous lines of evidence indicate that climate change will accelerate the processing of this carbon, it is unclear whether the genetic repertoire of the microbes responsible for this elevated activity will also change. In this study, we showed that bacteria isolated from plots subject to 20 years of 5°C of warming were more likely to depolymerize the plant polymers xylan and cellulose, but that carbohydrate degradation capacity is not uniformly enriched by warming treatment in the metagenomes of soil microbial communities. This study illustrates the utility of combining culture-dependent and culture

  4. Global Warming And Meltwater

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bratu, S.

    2012-04-01

    In order to find new approaches and new ideas for my students to appreciate the importance of science in their daily life, I proposed a theme for them to debate. They had to search for global warming information and illustrations in the media, and discuss the articles they found in the classroom. This task inspired them to search for new information about this important and timely theme in science. I informed my students that all the best information about global warming and meltwater they found would be used in a poster that would help us to update the knowledge base of the Physics laboratory. I guided them to choose the most eloquent images and significant information. Searching and working to create this poster, the students arrived to better appreciate the importance of science in their daily life and to critically evaluate scientific information transmitted via the media. In the poster we created, one can find images, photos and diagrams and some interesting information: Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected evolution. In the last 100 years, the Earth's average surface temperature increased by about 0.8 °C with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades. Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and scientists are more than 90% certain most of it is caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases produced by human activities such as deforestation and burning fossil fuel. They indicate that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 1.1 to 2.9 °C for the lowest emissions scenario and 2.4 to 6.4 °C for the highest predictions. An increase in global temperature will cause sea levels to rise and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation, and potentially result in expansion of subtropical deserts. Warming is expected to be strongest in the Arctic and would be associated with continuing decrease of

  5. Three Smoking Guns Prove Falsity of Green house Warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fong, P.

    2001-12-01

    Three observed facts: 1, the cloud coverage increased 4.1% in 50 years; 2. the precipitation increased 7.8% in 100 years; 3. the two rates are the same. {Interpretation}. 1, By the increased albedo of the clouds heat dissipation is increased 3.98 W/m2 by 2XCO2 time, canceling out greenhouse warming of 4 W/m{2}. Thus no global warming. 2, The precipitation increase show the increased release of latent heat of vaporization, which turns out to be equal to that absorbed by ocean due to increased evaporation by the greenhouse forcing. This all greenhouse heat is used up in evaporation and the warming of the earth is zero. 3, The identity of the two rates double-checked the two independent proofs. Therefore experimentally no greenhouse warming is triply proved. A new branch of science Pleistocene Climatology is developed to study the theoretical origin of no greenhouse warming. Climatology, like mechanics of a large number of particles, is of course complex and unwieldy. If totally order-less then there is no hope. However, if some regularity appears, then a systematic treatment can be done to simplify the complexity. The rigid bodies are subjected to a special simplifying condition (the distances between all particles are constant) and only 6 degrees of freedom are significant, all others are sidetracked. To study the spinning top there is no need to study the dynamics of every particle of the top by Newton's laws through super-computer. It only needs to solve the Euler equations without computer. In climate study the use of super-computer to study all degrees of freedom of the climate is as untenable as the study of the spinning top by super-computer. Yet in spite of the complexity there is strict regularity as seen in the ice ages, which works as the simplifying conditions to establish a new science Pleistocene climatology. See my book Greenhouse Warming and Nuclear Hazards just published (www.PeterFongBook.com). This time the special condition is the presence of a

  6. Recent Warming of Lake Kivu

    PubMed Central

    Katsev, Sergei; Aaberg, Arthur A.; Crowe, Sean A.; Hecky, Robert E.

    2014-01-01

    Lake Kivu in East Africa has gained notoriety for its prodigious amounts of dissolved methane and dangers of limnic eruption. Being meromictic, it is also expected to accumulate heat due to rising regional air temperatures. To investigate the warming trend and distinguish between atmospheric and geothermal heating sources, we compiled historical temperature data, performed measurements with logging instruments, and simulated heat propagation. We also performed isotopic analyses of water from the lake's main basin and isolated Kabuno Bay. The results reveal that the lake surface is warming at the rate of 0.12°C per decade, which matches the warming rates in other East African lakes. Temperatures increase throughout the entire water column. Though warming is strongest near the surface, warming rates in the deep waters cannot be accounted for solely by propagation of atmospheric heat at presently assumed rates of vertical mixing. Unless the transport rates are significantly higher than presently believed, this indicates significant contributions from subterranean heat sources. Temperature time series in the deep monimolimnion suggest evidence of convection. The progressive deepening of the depth of temperature minimum in the water column is expected to accelerate the warming in deeper waters. The warming trend, however, is unlikely to strongly affect the physical stability of the lake, which depends primarily on salinity gradient. PMID:25295730

  7. Recent warming of lake Kivu.

    PubMed

    Katsev, Sergei; Aaberg, Arthur A; Crowe, Sean A; Hecky, Robert E

    2014-01-01

    Lake Kivu in East Africa has gained notoriety for its prodigious amounts of dissolved methane and dangers of limnic eruption. Being meromictic, it is also expected to accumulate heat due to rising regional air temperatures. To investigate the warming trend and distinguish between atmospheric and geothermal heating sources, we compiled historical temperature data, performed measurements with logging instruments, and simulated heat propagation. We also performed isotopic analyses of water from the lake's main basin and isolated Kabuno Bay. The results reveal that the lake surface is warming at the rate of 0.12°C per decade, which matches the warming rates in other East African lakes. Temperatures increase throughout the entire water column. Though warming is strongest near the surface, warming rates in the deep waters cannot be accounted for solely by propagation of atmospheric heat at presently assumed rates of vertical mixing. Unless the transport rates are significantly higher than presently believed, this indicates significant contributions from subterranean heat sources. Temperature time series in the deep monimolimnion suggest evidence of convection. The progressive deepening of the depth of temperature minimum in the water column is expected to accelerate the warming in deeper waters. The warming trend, however, is unlikely to strongly affect the physical stability of the lake, which depends primarily on salinity gradient.

  8. The impact of global warming on Mount Everest.

    PubMed

    Moore, G W K; Semple, John L

    2009-01-01

    Global warming impacts a wide range of human activities and ecosystems. One unanticipated consequence of the warming is an increase in barometric pressure throughout the troposphere. Mount Everest's extreme height and resulting low barometric pressure places humans near its summit in an extreme state of hypoxia. Here we quantify the degree with which this warming is increasing the barometric pressure near Everest's summit and argue that it is of such a magnitude as to make the mountain, over time, easier to climb.

  9. Impact of Ocean Warming and Ocean Acidification on Larval Development and Calcification in the Sea Urchin Tripneustes gratilla

    PubMed Central

    Sheppard Brennand, Hannah; Soars, Natalie; Dworjanyn, Symon A.; Davis, Andrew R.; Byrne, Maria

    2010-01-01

    Background As the oceans simultaneously warm, acidify and increase in P CO2, prospects for marine biota are of concern. Calcifying species may find it difficult to produce their skeleton because ocean acidification decreases calcium carbonate saturation and accompanying hypercapnia suppresses metabolism. However, this may be buffered by enhanced growth and metabolism due to warming. Methodology/Principal Findings We examined the interactive effects of near-future ocean warming and increased acidification/P CO2 on larval development in the tropical sea urchin Tripneustes gratilla. Larvae were reared in multifactorial experiments in flow-through conditions in all combinations of three temperature and three pH/P CO2 treatments. Experiments were placed in the setting of projected near future conditions for SE Australia, a global change hot spot. Increased acidity/P CO2 and decreased carbonate mineral saturation significantly reduced larval growth resulting in decreased skeletal length. Increased temperature (+3°C) stimulated growth, producing significantly bigger larvae across all pH/P CO2 treatments up to a thermal threshold (+6°C). Increased acidity (-0.3-0.5 pH units) and hypercapnia significantly reduced larval calcification. A +3°C warming diminished the negative effects of acidification and hypercapnia on larval growth. Conclusions and Significance This study of the effects of ocean warming and CO2 driven acidification on development and calcification of marine invertebrate larvae reared in experimental conditions from the outset of development (fertilization) shows the positive and negative effects of these stressors. In simultaneous exposure to stressors the dwarfing effects of acidification were dominant. Reduction in size of sea urchin larvae in a high P CO2 ocean would likely impair their performance with negative consequent effects for benthic adult populations. PMID:20613879

  10. What happens during vocal warm-up?

    PubMed

    Elliot, N; Sundberg, J; Gramming, P

    1995-03-01

    Most singers prefer to warm up their voices before performing. Although the subjective effect is often considerable, the underlying physiological effects are largely unknown. Because warm-up tends to increase blood flow in muscles, it seems likely that vocal warm-up might induce decreased viscosity in the vocal folds. According to the theory of vocal-fold vibration, such a decrease should lead to a lower phonation threshold pressure. In this investigation the effect of vocal warm-up on the phonation threshold pressure was examined in a group of male and female singers. The effect varied considerably between subjects, presumably because the vocal-fold viscosity was not a dominating factor for the phonation-threshold pressure.

  11. Microclimate moderates plant responses to macroclimate warming.

    PubMed

    De Frenne, Pieter; Rodríguez-Sánchez, Francisco; Coomes, David Anthony; Baeten, Lander; Verstraeten, Gorik; Vellend, Mark; Bernhardt-Römermann, Markus; Brown, Carissa D; Brunet, Jörg; Cornelis, Johnny; Decocq, Guillaume M; Dierschke, Hartmut; Eriksson, Ove; Gilliam, Frank S; Hédl, Radim; Heinken, Thilo; Hermy, Martin; Hommel, Patrick; Jenkins, Michael A; Kelly, Daniel L; Kirby, Keith J; Mitchell, Fraser J G; Naaf, Tobias; Newman, Miles; Peterken, George; Petrík, Petr; Schultz, Jan; Sonnier, Grégory; Van Calster, Hans; Waller, Donald M; Walther, Gian-Reto; White, Peter S; Woods, Kerry D; Wulf, Monika; Graae, Bente Jessen; Verheyen, Kris

    2013-11-12

    Recent global warming is acting across marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems to favor species adapted to warmer conditions and/or reduce the abundance of cold-adapted organisms (i.e., "thermophilization" of communities). Lack of community responses to increased temperature, however, has also been reported for several taxa and regions, suggesting that "climatic lags" may be frequent. Here we show that microclimatic effects brought about by forest canopy closure can buffer biotic responses to macroclimate warming, thus explaining an apparent climatic lag. Using data from 1,409 vegetation plots in European and North American temperate forests, each surveyed at least twice over an interval of 12-67 y, we document significant thermophilization of ground-layer plant communities. These changes reflect concurrent declines in species adapted to cooler conditions and increases in species adapted to warmer conditions. However, thermophilization, particularly the increase of warm-adapted species, is attenuated in forests whose canopies have become denser, probably reflecting cooler growing-season ground temperatures via increased shading. As standing stocks of trees have increased in many temperate forests in recent decades, local microclimatic effects may commonly be moderating the impacts of macroclimate warming on forest understories. Conversely, increases in harvesting woody biomass--e.g., for bioenergy--may open forest canopies and accelerate thermophilization of temperate forest biodiversity.

  12. Warm-Up Strategies for Sport and Exercise: Mechanisms and Applications.

    PubMed

    McGowan, Courtney J; Pyne, David B; Thompson, Kevin G; Rattray, Ben

    2015-11-01

    It is widely accepted that warming-up prior to exercise is vital for the attainment of optimum performance. Both passive and active warm-up can evoke temperature, metabolic, neural and psychology-related effects, including increased anaerobic metabolism, elevated oxygen uptake kinetics and post-activation potentiation. Passive warm-up can increase body temperature without depleting energy substrate stores, as occurs during the physical activity associated with active warm-up. While the use of passive warm-up alone is not commonplace, the idea of utilizing passive warming techniques to maintain elevated core and muscle temperature throughout the transition phase (the period between completion of the warm-up and the start of the event) is gaining in popularity. Active warm-up induces greater metabolic changes, leading to increased preparedness for a subsequent exercise task. Until recently, only modest scientific evidence was available supporting the effectiveness of pre-competition warm-ups, with early studies often containing relatively few participants and focusing mostly on physiological rather than performance-related changes. External issues faced by athletes pre-competition, including access to equipment and the length of the transition/marshalling phase, have also frequently been overlooked. Consequently, warm-up strategies have continued to develop largely on a trial-and-error basis, utilizing coach and athlete experiences rather than scientific evidence. However, over the past decade or so, new research has emerged, providing greater insight into how and why warm-up influences subsequent performance. This review identifies potential physiological mechanisms underpinning warm-ups and how they can affect subsequent exercise performance, and provides recommendations for warm-up strategy design for specific individual and team sports.

  13. The responses of microbial temperature relationships to seasonal change and winter warming in a temperate grassland.

    PubMed

    Birgander, Johanna; Olsson, Pål Axel; Rousk, Johannes

    2018-01-18

    Microorganisms dominate the decomposition of organic matter and their activities are strongly influenced by temperature. As the carbon (C) flux from soil to the atmosphere due to microbial activity is substantial, understanding temperature relationships of microbial processes is critical. It has been shown that microbial temperature relationships in soil correlate with the climate, and microorganisms in field experiments become more warm-tolerant in response to chronic warming. It is also known that microbial temperature relationships reflect the seasons in aquatic ecosystems, but to date this has not been investigated in soil. Although climate change predictions suggest that temperatures will be mostly affected during winter in temperate ecosystems, no assessments exist of the responses of microbial temperature relationships to winter warming. We investigated the responses of the temperature relationships of bacterial growth, fungal growth, and respiration in a temperate grassland to seasonal change, and to 2 years' winter warming. The warming treatments increased winter soil temperatures by 5-6°C, corresponding to 3°C warming of the mean annual temperature. Microbial temperature relationships and temperature sensitivities (Q 10 ) could be accurately established, but did not respond to winter warming or to seasonal temperature change, despite significant shifts in the microbial community structure. The lack of response to winter warming that we demonstrate, and the strong response to chronic warming treatments previously shown, together suggest that it is the peak annual soil temperature that influences the microbial temperature relationships, and that temperatures during colder seasons will have little impact. Thus, mean annual temperatures are poor predictors for microbial temperature relationships. Instead, the intensity of summer heat-spells in temperate systems is likely to shape the microbial temperature relationships that govern the soil-atmosphere C

  14. Effects of climate warming on net primary productivity in China during 1961-2010.

    PubMed

    Gu, Fengxue; Zhang, Yuandong; Huang, Mei; Tao, Bo; Guo, Rui; Yan, Changrong

    2017-09-01

    The response of ecosystems to different magnitudes of climate warming and corresponding precipitation changes during the last few decades may provide an important reference for predicting the magnitude and trajectory of net primary productivity (NPP) in the future. In this study, a process-based ecosystem model, Carbon Exchange between Vegetation, Soil and Atmosphere (CEVSA), was used to investigate the response of NPP to warming at both national and subregional scales during 1961-2010. The results suggest that a 1.3°C increase in temperature stimulated the positive changing trend in NPP at national scale during the past 50 years. Regardless of the magnitude of temperature increase, warming enhanced the increase in NPP; however, the positive trend of NPP decreased when warming exceeded 2°C. The largest increase in NPP was found in regions where temperature increased by 1-2°C, and this rate of increase also contributed the most to the total increase in NPP in China's terrestrial ecosystems. Decreasing precipitation depressed the positive trend in NPP that was stimulated by warming. In northern China, warming depressed the increasing trend of NPP and warming that was accompanied by decreasing precipitation led to negative changing trends in NPP in large parts of northern China, especially when warming exceeded 2°C. However, warming stimulated the increase in NPP until warming was greater than 2°C, and decreased precipitation helped to increase the NPP in southern China.

  15. Growth and phenology of three dwarf shrub species in a six-year soil warming experiment at the alpine treeline.

    PubMed

    Anadon-Rosell, Alba; Rixen, Christian; Cherubini, Paolo; Wipf, Sonja; Hagedorn, Frank; Dawes, Melissa A

    2014-01-01

    Global warming can have substantial impacts on the phenological and growth patterns of alpine and Arctic species, resulting in shifts in plant community composition and ecosystem dynamics. We evaluated the effects of a six-year experimental soil warming treatment (+4°C, 2007-2012) on the phenology and growth of three co-dominant dwarf shrub species growing in the understory of Larix decidua and Pinus uncinata at treeline in the Swiss Alps. We monitored vegetative and reproductive phenology of Vaccinium myrtillus, Vaccinium gaultherioides and Empetrum hermaphroditum throughout the early growing season of 2012 and, following a major harvest at peak season, we measured the biomass of above-ground ramet fractions. For all six years of soil warming we measured annual shoot growth of the three species and analyzed ramet age and xylem ring width of V. myrtillus. Our results show that phenology of the three species was more influenced by snowmelt timing, and also by plot tree species (Larix or Pinus) in the case of V. myrtillus, than by soil warming. However, the warming treatment led to increased V. myrtillus total above-ground ramet biomass (+36% in 2012), especially new shoot biomass (+63% in 2012), as well as increased new shoot increment length and xylem ring width (+22% and +41%, respectively; average for 2007-2012). These results indicate enhanced overall growth of V. myrtillus under soil warming that was sustained over six years and was not caused by an extended growing period in early summer. In contrast, E. hermaphroditum only showed a positive shoot growth response to warming in 2011 (+21%), and V. gaultherioides showed no significant growth response. Our results indicate that V. myrtillus might have a competitive advantage over the less responsive co-occurring dwarf shrub species under future global warming.

  16. Growth and Phenology of Three Dwarf Shrub Species in a Six-Year Soil Warming Experiment at the Alpine Treeline

    PubMed Central

    Anadon-Rosell, Alba; Rixen, Christian; Cherubini, Paolo; Wipf, Sonja; Hagedorn, Frank; Dawes, Melissa A.

    2014-01-01

    Global warming can have substantial impacts on the phenological and growth patterns of alpine and Arctic species, resulting in shifts in plant community composition and ecosystem dynamics. We evaluated the effects of a six-year experimental soil warming treatment (+4°C, 2007–2012) on the phenology and growth of three co-dominant dwarf shrub species growing in the understory of Larix decidua and Pinus uncinata at treeline in the Swiss Alps. We monitored vegetative and reproductive phenology of Vaccinium myrtillus, Vaccinium gaultherioides and Empetrum hermaphroditum throughout the early growing season of 2012 and, following a major harvest at peak season, we measured the biomass of above-ground ramet fractions. For all six years of soil warming we measured annual shoot growth of the three species and analyzed ramet age and xylem ring width of V. myrtillus. Our results show that phenology of the three species was more influenced by snowmelt timing, and also by plot tree species (Larix or Pinus) in the case of V. myrtillus, than by soil warming. However, the warming treatment led to increased V. myrtillus total above-ground ramet biomass (+36% in 2012), especially new shoot biomass (+63% in 2012), as well as increased new shoot increment length and xylem ring width (+22% and +41%, respectively; average for 2007–2012). These results indicate enhanced overall growth of V. myrtillus under soil warming that was sustained over six years and was not caused by an extended growing period in early summer. In contrast, E. hermaphroditum only showed a positive shoot growth response to warming in 2011 (+21%), and V. gaultherioides showed no significant growth response. Our results indicate that V. myrtillus might have a competitive advantage over the less responsive co-occurring dwarf shrub species under future global warming. PMID:24956273

  17. Effects of plyometrics performed during warm-up on 20 and 40 m sprint performance.

    PubMed

    Creekmur, Ceith C; Haworth, Joshua L; Cox, Ronald H; Walsh, Mark S

    2017-05-01

    Postactivation potentiation in the form of a plyometric during warm-ups have been shown to improve performance in some speed/power events. This study aimed to determine if a plyometric during warm up can increase sprint performance in a 20 and 40 m sprint. In this study we measured sprint times of 10 male track and field athletes over distances of 20 and 40 m after warm-ups with and without a plyometric exercise. The subjects performed the sprints at the same time on 2 different days, once with the experimental treatment, a plyometric exercise in the form of a plate jump, and once without. Plate jumps were chosen as the plyometric treatment because they do not require special equipment or facilities. The plate used for the plate jumps had a mass of 11.2 kilograms, which was between 12.8-16.6% of each athlete's body mass. Statistical analysis showed a decrease in sprint time when a plyometric was performed during the warm-up for both 20 (t-test P<0.05) and 40 m sprints (t-test P<0.01). The effect sizes of the improvement for both the 20 and 40 m sprints were d=0.459 and d=0.405, respectively, which is considered a small to medium effect. These results indicate that including a plyometric exercise during warm-ups can improve sprint performance in collegiate aged male sprinters during short sprints.

  18. Light accelerates plant responses to warming.

    PubMed

    De Frenne, Pieter; Rodríguez-Sánchez, Francisco; De Schrijver, An; Coomes, David A; Hermy, Martin; Vangansbeke, Pieter; Verheyen, Kris

    2015-08-17

    Competition for light has profound effects on plant performance in virtually all terrestrial ecosystems. Nowhere is this more evident than in forests, where trees create environmental heterogeneity that shapes the dynamics of forest-floor communities(1-3). Observational evidence suggests that biotic responses to both anthropogenic global warming and nitrogen pollution may be attenuated by the shading effects of trees and shrubs(4-9). Here we show experimentally that tree shade is slowing down changes in below-canopy communities due to warming. We manipulated levels of photosynthetically active radiation, temperature and nitrogen, alone and in combination, in a temperate forest understorey over a 3-year period, and monitored the composition of the understorey community. Light addition, but not nitrogen enrichment, accelerated directional plant community responses to warming, increasing the dominance of warmth-preferring taxa over cold-tolerant plants (a process described as thermophilization(6,10-12)). Tall, competitive plants took greatest advantage of the combination of elevated temperature and light. Warming of the forest floor did not result in strong community thermophilization unless light was also increased. Our findings suggest that the maintenance of locally closed canopy conditions could reduce, at least temporarily, warming-induced changes in forest floor plant communities.

  19. Attributing Contributions of Climate Feedbacks to the Seasonal Cycle of Surface Warming due to CO2 Increase

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sejas, S.; Cai, M.

    2012-12-01

    Surfing warming due to CO2 doubling is a robust feature of coupled general circulation models (GCM), as noted in the IPCC AR4 assessment report. In this study, the contributions of different climate feedbacks to the magnitude, spatial distribution, and seasonality of the surface warming is examined using data from NCAR's CCSM4. In particular, a focus is placed on polar regions to see which feedbacks play a role in polar amplification and its seasonal pattern. A new climate feedback analysis method is used to isolate the surface warming or cooling contributions of both radiative and non-radiative (dynamical) climate feedbacks to the total (actual) surface temperature change given by the CCSM4. These contributions (or partial surface temperature changes) are additive and their total is approximately equal to the actual surface temperature change. What is found is that the effects of CO2 doubling alone warms the surface throughout with a maximum in polar regions, which indicates the CO2 forcing alone has a degree of polar warming amplification. Water vapor feedback is a positive feedback throughout but is most responsible for the surface warming found in the tropics. Polar warming amplification is found to be strongest away from summer (especially in NH), which is primarily caused by a positive feedback due to cloud feedbacks but with the surface temperature change due to the CO2 forcing alone and the ocean dynamics and storage feedback also playing an important role. Contrary to popular belief, surface albedo feedback (SAF) does not account for much of the polar amplification. SAF tries to amplify polar warming, but in summer. No major polar amplification is seen in summer for the actual surface temperature, so SAF is not the feedback responsible for polar amplification. This is actually a consequence of the ocean dynamics and storage feedback, which negates the effects of SAF to a large degree.

  20. [Warming acupuncture combined with conventional acupuncture for diabetic peripheral neuropathy with syndrome of yang deficiency and cold coagulation, obstruction of collaterals and blood stasis].

    PubMed

    Ma, Guoqing; Ye, Ting; Sun, Zhongren

    2018-03-12

    To compare the clinical efficacy differences between warming acupuncture and conventional acupuncture for diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) with syndrome of yang deficiency and cold coagulation, obstruction of collaterals and blood stasis. A total of 64 patients were randomly divided into a warming acupuncture group and a conventional acupuncture group, 32 cases in each one. Based on basic treatment of blood glucose regulation, warming acupuncture was applied at Pishu (BL 20), Shenshu (BL 23), Guanyuanshu (BL 26), Zusanli (ST 36), Chongyang (ST 42), Quchi (LI 11) and Hegu (LI 4) in the warming acupuncture group, while acupuncture was applied at the identical acupoints in the conventional acupuncture group. Both the treatments were given once a day with an interval of one day every six days; totally the treatment was given for 4 weeks. The TCM symptom score, Toronto clinical scoring system (TCSS) and nerve conduction velocity (NCV) before and after treatment were compared in the two groups. After treatment, the TCM symptom scores in the two groups were significantly reduced (both P <0.01); the improvement of TCM symptom in the warming acupuncture group was superior to that in the conventional acupuncture group ( P <0.05). After treatment, the TCSS scores in the two groups were significantly reduced (both P <0.01); the TCSS score in the warming acupuncture group was significantly lower than that in the conventional acupuncture group ( P <0.05). After treatment, the NCV of motor nerve of tibial nerve and nervus peroneus communis, as well as sensory nerve of tibial nerve and sural nerve was improved in the warming acupuncture group (all P <0.05), while only the NCV of motor nerve and sensory nerve of tibial nerve was improved in the conventional acupuncture group (both P <0.05); there were no significant difference between the two groups (all P >0.05). Warming acupuncture and conventional acupuncture could both increase TCM symptom score, improve NCV in patients of

  1. Recurrent sublethal warming reduces embryonic survival, inhibits juvenile growth, and alters species distribution projections under climate change.

    PubMed

    Carlo, Michael A; Riddell, Eric A; Levy, Ofir; Sears, Michael W

    2018-01-01

    The capacity to tolerate climate change often varies across ontogeny in organisms with complex life cycles. Recently developed species distribution models incorporate traits across life stages; however, these life-cycle models primarily evaluate effects of lethal change. Here, we examine impacts of recurrent sublethal warming on development and survival in ecological projections of climate change. We reared lizard embryos in the laboratory under temperature cycles that simulated contemporary conditions and warming scenarios. We also artificially warmed natural nests to mimic laboratory treatments. In both cases, recurrent sublethal warming decreased embryonic survival and hatchling sizes. Incorporating survivorship results into a mechanistic species distribution model reduced annual survival by up to 24% compared to models that did not incorporate sublethal warming. Contrary to models without sublethal effects, our model suggests that modest increases in developmental temperatures influence species ranges due to effects on survivorship. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

  2. Prolonged exposure does not increase soil microbial community compositional response to warming along geothermal gradients.

    PubMed

    Radujkovic, Dajana; Verbruggen, Erik; Sigurdsson, Bjarni D; Leblans, Niki I W; Janssens, Ivan A; Vicca, Sara; Weedon, James T

    2018-02-01

    Global change is expected to affect soil microbial communities through their responsiveness to temperature. It has been proposed that prolonged exposure to elevated temperatures may lead to progressively larger effects on soil microbial community composition. However, due to the relatively short-term nature of most warming experiments, this idea has been challenging to evaluate. The present study took the advantage of natural geothermal gradients (from +1°C to +19°C above ambient) in two subarctic grasslands to test the hypothesis that long-term exposure (>50 years) intensifies the effect of warming on microbial community composition compared to short-term exposure (5-7 years). Community profiles from amplicon sequencing of bacterial and fungal rRNA genes did not support this hypothesis: significant changes relative to ambient were observed only starting from the warming intensity of +9°C in the long term and +7°C/+3°C in the short term, for bacteria and fungi, respectively. Our results suggest that microbial communities in high-latitude grasslands will not undergo lasting shifts in community composition under the warming predicted for the coming 100 years (+2.2°C to +8.3°C). © FEMS 2017. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  3. Do Southern Ocean Cloud Feedbacks Matter for 21st Century Warming?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Frey, W. R.; Maroon, E. A.; Pendergrass, A. G.; Kay, J. E.

    2017-12-01

    Cloud phase improvements in a state-of-the-art climate model produce a large 1.5 K increase in equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS, the surface warming in response to instantaneously doubled CO2) via extratropical shortwave cloud feedbacks. Here we show that the same model improvements produce only a small surface warming increase in a realistic 21st century emissions scenario. The small 21st century warming increase is attributed to extratropical ocean heat uptake. Southern Ocean mean-state circulation takes up heat while a slowdown in North Atlantic circulation acts as a feedback to slow surface warming. Persistent heat uptake by extratropical oceans implies that extratropical cloud biases may not be as important to 21st century warming as biases in other regions. Observational constraints on cloud phase and shortwave radiation that produce a large ECS increase do not imply large changes in 21st century warming.

  4. Recently amplified arctic warming has contributed to a continual global warming trend

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Jianbin; Zhang, Xiangdong; Zhang, Qiyi; Lin, Yanluan; Hao, Mingju; Luo, Yong; Zhao, Zongci; Yao, Yao; Chen, Xin; Wang, Lei; Nie, Suping; Yin, Yizhou; Xu, Ying; Zhang, Jiansong

    2017-12-01

    The existence and magnitude of the recently suggested global warming hiatus, or slowdown, have been strongly debated1-3. Although various physical processes4-8 have been examined to elucidate this phenomenon, the accuracy and completeness of observational data that comprise global average surface air temperature (SAT) datasets is a concern9,10. In particular, these datasets lack either complete geographic coverage or in situ observations over the Arctic, owing to the sparse observational network in this area9. As a consequence, the contribution of Arctic warming to global SAT changes may have been underestimated, leading to an uncertainty in the hiatus debate. Here, we constructed a new Arctic SAT dataset using the most recently updated global SATs2 and a drifting buoys based Arctic SAT dataset11 through employing the `data interpolating empirical orthogonal functions' method12. Our estimate of global SAT rate of increase is around 0.112 °C per decade, instead of 0.05 °C per decade from IPCC AR51, for 1998-2012. Analysis of this dataset shows that the amplified Arctic warming over the past decade has significantly contributed to a continual global warming trend, rather than a hiatus or slowdown.

  5. Forced-Air Warming During Pediatric Surgery: A Randomized Comparison of a Compressible with a Noncompressible Warming System.

    PubMed

    Triffterer, Lydia; Marhofer, Peter; Sulyok, Irene; Keplinger, Maya; Mair, Stefan; Steinberger, Markus; Klug, Wolfgang; Kimberger, Oliver

    2016-01-01

    Perioperative hypothermia is a common problem, challenging the anesthesiologist and influencing patient outcome. Efficient and safe perioperative active warming is therefore paramount; yet, it can be particularly challenging in pediatric patients. Forced-air warming technology is the most widespread patient-warming option, with most forced-air warming systems consisting of a forced-air blower connected to a compressible, double layer plastic and/or a paper blanket with air holes on the patient side. We compared an alternative, forced-air, noncompressible, under-body patient-warming mattress (Baby/Kleinkinddecke of MoeckWarmingSystems, Moeck und Moeck GmbH; group MM) with a standard, compressible warming mattress system (Pediatric Underbody, Bair Hugger, 3M; group BH). The study included 80 patients aged <2 years, scheduled for elective surgery. After a preoperative core temperature measurement, the patients were placed on the randomized mattress in the operation theater and 4 temperature probes were applied rectally and to the patients' skin. The warming devices were turned on as soon as possible to the level for pediatric patients as recommended by the manufacturer (MM = 40°C, BH = 43°C). There was a distinct difference of temperature slope between the 2 groups: core temperatures of patients in the group MM remained stable and mean of the core temperature of patients in the group BH increased significantly (difference: +1.48°C/h; 95% confidence interval, 0.82-2.15°C/h; P = 0.0001). The need for temperature downregulation occurred more often in the BH group, with 22 vs 7 incidences (RR, 3.14; 95% confidence interval, 1.52-6.52; P = 0.0006). Skin temperatures were all lower in the MM group. Perioperatively, no side effects related to a warming device were observed in any group. Both devices are feasible choices for active pediatric patient warming, with the compressible mattress system being better suited to increase core temperature. The use of lower pediatric

  6. Experimentally simulated global warming and nitrogen enrichment effects on microbial litter decomposers in a marsh.

    PubMed

    Flury, Sabine; Gessner, Mark O

    2011-02-01

    Atmospheric warming and increased nitrogen deposition can lead to changes of microbial communities with possible consequences for biogeochemical processes. We used an enclosure facility in a freshwater marsh to assess the effects on microbes associated with decomposing plant litter under conditions of simulated climate warming and pulsed nitrogen supply. Standard batches of litter were placed in coarse-mesh and fine-mesh bags and submerged in a series of heated, nitrogen-enriched, and control enclosures. They were retrieved later and analyzed for a range of microbial parameters. Fingerprinting profiles obtained by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) indicated that simulated global warming induced a shift in bacterial community structure. In addition, warming reduced fungal biomass, whereas bacterial biomass was unaffected. The mesh size of the litter bags and sampling date also had an influence on bacterial community structure, with the apparent number of dominant genotypes increasing from spring to summer. Microbial respiration was unaffected by any treatment, and nitrogen enrichment had no clear effect on any of the microbial parameters considered. Overall, these results suggest that microbes associated with decomposing plant litter in nutrient-rich freshwater marshes are resistant to extra nitrogen supplies but are likely to respond to temperature increases projected for this century.

  7. Increased Ocean Heat Convergence Into the High Latitudes With CO 2 Doubling Enhances Polar-Amplified Warming: OCEAN HEAT AND POLAR WARMING

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Singh, H. A.; Rasch, P. J.; Rose, B. E. J.

    We isolate the role of the ocean in polar climate change by directly evaluating how changes in ocean dynamics with quasi-equilibrium CO2-doubling impact high-latitude climate. With CO2-doubling, the ocean heat flux convergence (OHFC) shifts poleward in winter in both hemispheres. Imposing this pattern of perturbed OHFC in a global climate model results in a poleward shift in ocean-to-atmosphere turbulent heat fluxes (both sensible and latent) and sea ice retreat; the high-latitudes warm while the midlatitudes cool, thereby amplifying polar warming. Furthermore, midlatitude cooling is propagated to the polar mid-troposphere on isentropic surfaces, augmenting the (positive) lapse rate feedback at highmore » latitudes. These results highlight the key role played by the partitioning of meridional energy transport changes between the atmosphere and ocean in high-latitude climate change.« less

  8. Warm-up and performance in competitive swimming.

    PubMed

    Neiva, Henrique P; Marques, Mário C; Barbosa, Tiago M; Izquierdo, Mikel; Marinho, Daniel A

    2014-03-01

    Warm-up before physical activity is commonly accepted to be fundamental, and any priming practices are usually thought to optimize performance. However, specifically in swimming, studies on the effects of warm-up are scarce, which may be due to the swimming pool environment, which has a high temperature and humidity, and to the complexity of warm-up procedures. The purpose of this study is to review and summarize the different studies on how warming up affects swimming performance, and to develop recommendations for improving the efficiency of warm-up before competition. Most of the main proposed effects of warm-up, such as elevated core and muscular temperatures, increased blood flow and oxygen delivery to muscle cells and higher efficiency of muscle contractions, support the hypothesis that warm-up enhances performance. However, while many researchers have reported improvements in performance after warm-up, others have found no benefits to warm-up. This lack of consensus emphasizes the need to evaluate the real effects of warm-up and optimize its design. Little is known about the effectiveness of warm-up in competitive swimming, and the variety of warm-up methods and swimming events studied makes it difficult to compare the published conclusions about the role of warm-up in swimming. Recent findings have shown that warm-up has a positive effect on the swimmer's performance, especially for distances greater than 200 m. We recommend that swimmers warm-up for a relatively moderate distance (between 1,000 and 1,500 m) with a proper intensity (a brief approach to race pace velocity) and recovery time sufficient to prevent the early onset of fatigue and to allow the restoration of energy reserves (8-20 min).

  9. Long-term experimental warming alters community composition of ascomycetes in Alaskan moist and dry arctic tundra.

    PubMed

    Semenova, Tatiana A; Morgado, Luis N; Welker, Jeffrey M; Walker, Marilyn D; Smets, Erik; Geml, József

    2015-01-01

    Arctic tundra regions have been responding to global warming with visible changes in plant community composition, including expansion of shrubs and declines in lichens and bryophytes. Even though it is well known that the majority of arctic plants are associated with their symbiotic fungi, how fungal community composition will be different with climate warming remains largely unknown. In this study, we addressed the effects of long-term (18 years) experimental warming on the community composition and taxonomic richness of soil ascomycetes in dry and moist tundra types. Using deep Ion Torrent sequencing, we quantified how OTU assemblage and richness of different orders of Ascomycota changed in response to summer warming. Experimental warming significantly altered ascomycete communities with stronger responses observed in the moist tundra compared with dry tundra. The proportion of several lichenized and moss-associated fungi decreased with warming, while the proportion of several plant and insect pathogens and saprotrophic species was higher in the warming treatment. The observed alterations in both taxonomic and ecological groups of ascomycetes are discussed in relation to previously reported warming-induced shifts in arctic plant communities, including decline in lichens and bryophytes and increase in coverage and biomass of shrubs. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  10. The effect of active warming in prehospital trauma care during road and air ambulance transportation - a clinical randomized trial.

    PubMed

    Lundgren, Peter; Henriksson, Otto; Naredi, Peter; Björnstig, Ulf

    2011-10-21

    Prevention and treatment of hypothermia by active warming in prehospital trauma care is recommended but scientific evidence of its effectiveness in a clinical setting is scarce. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of additional active warming during road or air ambulance transportation of trauma patients. Patients were assigned to either passive warming with blankets or passive warming with blankets with the addition of an active warming intervention using a large chemical heat pad applied to the upper torso. Ear canal temperature, subjective sensation of cold discomfort and vital signs were monitored. Mean core temperatures increased from 35.1°C (95% CI; 34.7-35.5°C) to 36.0°C (95% CI; 35.7-36.3°C) (p < 0.05) in patients assigned to passive warming only (n = 22) and from 35.6°C (95% CI; 35.2-36.0°C) to 36.4°C (95% CI; 36.1-36.7°C) (p < 0.05) in patients assigned to additional active warming (n = 26) with no significant differences between the groups. Cold discomfort decreased in 2/3 of patients assigned to passive warming only and in all patients assigned to additional active warming, the difference in cold discomfort change being statistically significant (p < 0.05). Patients assigned to additional active warming also presented a statistically significant decrease in heart rate and respiratory frequency (p < 0.05). In mildly hypothermic trauma patients, with preserved shivering capacity, adequate passive warming is an effective treatment to establish a slow rewarming rate and to reduce cold discomfort during prehospital transportation. However, the addition of active warming using a chemical heat pad applied to the torso will significantly improve thermal comfort even further and might also reduce the cold induced stress response. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01400152.

  11. Forced-air patient warming blankets disrupt unidirectional airflow.

    PubMed

    Legg, A J; Hamer, A J

    2013-03-01

    We have recently shown that waste heat from forced-air warming blankets can increase the temperature and concentration of airborne particles over the surgical site. The mechanism for the increased concentration of particles and their site of origin remained unclear. We therefore attempted to visualise the airflow in theatre over a simulated total knee replacement using neutral-buoyancy helium bubbles. Particles were created using a Rocket PS23 smoke machine positioned below the operating table, a potential area of contamination. The same theatre set-up, warming devices and controls were used as in our previous study. This demonstrated that waste heat from the poorly insulated forced-air warming blanket increased the air temperature on the surgical side of the drape by > 5°C. This created convection currents that rose against the downward unidirectional airflow, causing turbulence over the patient. The convection currents increased the particle concentration 1000-fold (2 174 000 particles/m(3) for forced-air warming vs 1000 particles/m(3) for radiant warming and 2000 particles/m(3) for the control) by drawing potentially contaminated particles from below the operating table into the surgical site. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2013;95-B:407-10.

  12. A historical perspective of Global Warming Potential from Municipal Solid Waste Management.

    PubMed

    Habib, Komal; Schmidt, Jannick H; Christensen, Per

    2013-09-01

    The Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) sector has developed considerably during the past century, paving the way for maximum resource (materials and energy) recovery and minimising environmental impacts such as global warming associated with it. The current study is assessing the historical development of MSWM in the municipality of Aalborg, Denmark throughout the period of 1970 to 2010, and its implications regarding Global Warming Potential (GWP(100)), using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. Historical data regarding MSW composition, and different treatment technologies such as incineration, recycling and composting has been used in order to perform the analysis. The LCA results show a continuous improvement in environmental performance of MSWM from 1970 to 2010 mainly due to the changes in treatment options, improved efficiency of various treatment technologies and increasing focus on recycling, resulting in a shift from net emission of 618 kg CO(2)-eq.tonne(-1) to net saving of 670 kg CO(2)-eq.tonne(-1) of MSWM. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. The effect of warming and enhanced ultraviolet radiation on gender-specific emissions of volatile organic compounds from European aspen.

    PubMed

    Maja, Mengistu M; Kasurinen, Anne; Holopainen, Toini; Julkunen-Tiitto, Riitta; Holopainen, Jarmo K

    2016-03-15

    Different environmental stress factors often occur together but their combined effects on plant secondary metabolism are seldom considered. We studied the effect of enhanced ultraviolet (UV-B) (31% increase) radiation and temperature (ambient +2 °C) singly and in combination on gender-specific emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from 2-year-old clones of European aspen (Populus tremula L.). Plants grew in 36 experimental plots (6 replicates for Control, UV-A, UV-B, T, UV-A+T and UV-B+T treatments), in an experimental field. VOCs emitted from shoots were sampled from two (1 male and 1 female) randomly selected saplings (total of 72 saplings), per plot on two sampling occasions (June and July) in 2014. There was a significant UV-B×temperature interaction effect on emission rates of different VOCs. Isoprene emission rate was increased due to warming, but warming also modified VOC responses to both UV-A and UV-B radiation. Thus, UV-A increased isoprene emissions without warming, whereas UV-B increased emissions only in combination with warming. Warming-modified UV-A and UV-B responses were also seen in monoterpenes (MTs), sesquiterpenes (SQTs) and green leaf volatiles (GLVs). MTs showed also a UV × gender interaction effect as females had higher emission rates under UV-A and UV-B than males. UV × gender and T × gender interactions caused significant differences in VOC blend as there was more variation (more GLVs and trans-β-caryophyllene) in VOCs from female saplings compared to male saplings. VOCs from the rhizosphere were also collected from each plot in two exposure seasons, but no significant treatment effects were observed. Our results suggest that simultaneous warming and elevated-UV-radiation increase the emission of VOCs from aspen. Thus the contribution of combined environmental factors on VOC emissions may have a greater impact to the photochemical reactions in the atmosphere compared to the impact of individual factors acting alone

  14. Southern Hemisphere and deep-sea warming led deglacial atmospheric CO2 rise and tropical warming.

    PubMed

    Stott, Lowell; Timmermann, Axel; Thunell, Robert

    2007-10-19

    Establishing what caused Earth's largest climatic changes in the past requires a precise knowledge of both the forcing and the regional responses. We determined the chronology of high- and low-latitude climate change at the last glacial termination by radiocarbon dating benthic and planktonic foraminiferal stable isotope and magnesium/calcium records from a marine core collected in the western tropical Pacific. Deep-sea temperatures warmed by approximately 2 degrees C between 19 and 17 thousand years before the present (ky B.P.), leading the rise in atmospheric CO2 and tropical-surface-ocean warming by approximately 1000 years. The cause of this deglacial deep-water warming does not lie within the tropics, nor can its early onset between 19 and 17 ky B.P. be attributed to CO2 forcing. Increasing austral-spring insolation combined with sea-ice albedo feedbacks appear to be the key factors responsible for this warming.

  15. Microclimate moderates plant responses to macroclimate warming

    PubMed Central

    De Frenne, Pieter; Rodríguez-Sánchez, Francisco; Coomes, David Anthony; Baeten, Lander; Verstraeten, Gorik; Vellend, Mark; Bernhardt-Römermann, Markus; Brown, Carissa D.; Brunet, Jörg; Cornelis, Johnny; Decocq, Guillaume M.; Dierschke, Hartmut; Eriksson, Ove; Gilliam, Frank S.; Hédl, Radim; Heinken, Thilo; Hermy, Martin; Hommel, Patrick; Jenkins, Michael A.; Kelly, Daniel L.; Kirby, Keith J.; Mitchell, Fraser J. G.; Naaf, Tobias; Newman, Miles; Peterken, George; Petřík, Petr; Schultz, Jan; Sonnier, Grégory; Van Calster, Hans; Waller, Donald M.; Walther, Gian-Reto; White, Peter S.; Woods, Kerry D.; Wulf, Monika; Graae, Bente Jessen; Verheyen, Kris

    2013-01-01

    Recent global warming is acting across marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems to favor species adapted to warmer conditions and/or reduce the abundance of cold-adapted organisms (i.e., “thermophilization” of communities). Lack of community responses to increased temperature, however, has also been reported for several taxa and regions, suggesting that “climatic lags” may be frequent. Here we show that microclimatic effects brought about by forest canopy closure can buffer biotic responses to macroclimate warming, thus explaining an apparent climatic lag. Using data from 1,409 vegetation plots in European and North American temperate forests, each surveyed at least twice over an interval of 12–67 y, we document significant thermophilization of ground-layer plant communities. These changes reflect concurrent declines in species adapted to cooler conditions and increases in species adapted to warmer conditions. However, thermophilization, particularly the increase of warm-adapted species, is attenuated in forests whose canopies have become denser, probably reflecting cooler growing-season ground temperatures via increased shading. As standing stocks of trees have increased in many temperate forests in recent decades, local microclimatic effects may commonly be moderating the impacts of macroclimate warming on forest understories. Conversely, increases in harvesting woody biomass—e.g., for bioenergy—may open forest canopies and accelerate thermophilization of temperate forest biodiversity. PMID:24167287

  16. Global warming and the possible globalization of vector-borne diseases: a call for increased awareness and action.

    PubMed

    Balogun, Emmanuel O; Nok, Andrew J; Kita, Kiyoshi

    2016-01-01

    Human activities such as burning of fossil fuels play a role in upsetting a previously more balanced and harmonious ecosystem. Climate change-a significant variation in the usual pattern of Earth's average weather conditions is a product of this ecosystem imbalance, and the rise in the Earth's average temperature (global warming) is a prominent evidence. There is a correlation between global warming and the ease of transmission of infectious diseases. Therefore, with global health in focus, we herein opine a stepping-up of research activities regarding global warming and infectious diseases globally.

  17. Global warming and neurodegenerative disorders: speculations on their linkage.

    PubMed

    Habibi, Laleh; Perry, George; Mahmoudi, Morteza

    2014-01-01

    Climate change is having considerable impact on biological systems. Eras of ice ages and warming shaped the contemporary earth and origin of creatures including humans. Warming forces stress conditions on cells. Therefore, cells evolved elaborate defense mechanisms, such as creation of heat shock proteins, to combat heat stress. Global warming is becoming a crisis and this process would yield an undefined increasing rate of neurodegenerative disorders in future decades. Since heat stress is known to have a degenerative effects on neurons and, conversely, cold conditions have protective effect on these cells, we hypothesize that persistent heat stress forced by global warming might play a crucial role in increasing neurodegenerative disorders.

  18. Warm water and cool nests are best. How global warming might influence hatchling green turtle swimming performance.

    PubMed

    Booth, David T; Evans, Andrew

    2011-01-01

    For sea turtles nesting on beaches surrounded by coral reefs, the most important element of hatchling recruitment is escaping predation by fish as they swim across the fringing reef, and as a consequence hatchlings that minimize their exposure to fish predation by minimizing the time spent crossing the fringing reef have a greater chance of surviving the reef crossing. One way to decrease the time required to cross the fringing reef is to maximize swimming speed. We found that both water temperature and nest temperature influence swimming performance of hatchling green turtles, but in opposite directions. Warm water increases swimming ability, with hatchling turtles swimming in warm water having a faster stroke rate, while an increase in nest temperature decreases swimming ability with hatchlings from warm nests producing less thrust per stroke.

  19. Global Warming.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hileman, Bette

    1989-01-01

    States the foundations of the theory of global warming. Describes methodologies used to measure the changes in the atmosphere. Discusses steps currently being taken in the United States and the world to slow the warming trend. Recognizes many sources for the warming and the possible effects on the earth. (MVL)

  20. Temperature Control of Hypertensive Rats during Moderate Exercise in Warm Environment.

    PubMed

    Campos, Helton O; Leite, Laura H R; Drummond, Lucas R; Cunha, Daise N Q; Coimbra, Cândido C; Natali, Antônio J; Prímola-Gomes, Thales N

    2014-09-01

    The control of body temperature in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat (SHR) subjected to exercise in warm environment was investigated. Male SHR and Wistar rats were submitted to moderate exercise in temperate (25°C) and warm (32°C) environments while body and tail skin temperatures, as well as oxygen consumption, were registered. Total time of exercise, workload performed, mechanical efficiency and heat storage were determined. SHR had increased heat production and body temperature at the end of exercise, reduced mechanical efficiency and increased heat storage (p < 0.05). Furthermore, these rats also showed a more intense and faster increase in body temperature during moderate exercise in the warm environment (p < 0.05). The lower mechanical efficiency seen in SHR was closely correlated with their higher body temperature at the point of fatigue in warm environment (p < 0.05). Our results indicate that SHR exhibit significant differences in body temperature control during moderate exercise in warm environment characterized by increased heat production and heat storage during moderate exercise in warm environment. The combination of these responses result in aggravated hyperthermia linked with lower mechanical efficiency. Key PointsThe practice of physical exercise in warm environment has gained importance in recent decades mainly because of the progressive increases in environmental temperature;To the best of our knowledge, these is the first study to analyze body temperature control of SHR during moderate exercise in warm environment;SHR showed increased heat production and heat storage that resulted in higher body temperature at the end of exercise;SHR showed reduced mechanical efficiency;These results demonstrate that when exercising in a warm environment the hypertensive rat exhibit differences in temperature control.

  1. Acclimation and soil moisture constrain sugar maple root respiration in experimentally warmed soil.

    PubMed

    Jarvi, Mickey P; Burton, Andrew J

    2013-09-01

    The response of root respiration to warmer soil can affect ecosystem carbon (C) allocation and the strength of positive feedbacks between climatic warming and soil CO2 efflux. This study sought to determine whether fine-root (<1 mm) respiration in a sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.)-dominated northern hardwood forest would adjust to experimentally warmed soil, reducing C return to the atmosphere at the ecosystem scale to levels lower than that would be expected using an exponential temperature response function. Infrared heating lamps were used to warm the soil (+4 to +5 °C) in a mature sugar maple forest in a fully factorial design, including water additions used to offset the effects of warming-induced dry soil. Fine-root-specific respiration rates, root biomass, root nitrogen (N) concentration, soil temperature and soil moisture were measured from 2009 to 2011, with experimental treatments conducted from late 2010 to 2011. Partial acclimation of fine-root respiration to soil warming occurred, with soil moisture deficit further constraining specific respiration rates in heated plots. Fine-root biomass and N concentration remained unchanged. Over the 2011 growing season, ecosystem root respiration was not significantly greater in warmed soil. This result would not be predicted by models that allow respiration to increase exponentially with temperature and do not directly reduce root respiration in drier soil.

  2. Impact of climate warming-induced increase in drought stress on successional dynamic of a coniferous forest within a dry inner Alpine environment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schuster, R.; Zeisler, B.; Oberhuber, W.

    2012-04-01

    Climate sensitivity of tree growth will effect the development of forest ecosystems under a warmer and drier climate by changing species composition and inducing shifts in forest distribution. We applied dendroclimatological techniques to determine impact of climate warming on radial stem growth of three native and widespread coniferous tree species of the central Austrian Alps (Norway spruce, Picea abies; European larch, Larix decidua; Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris), which grow intermixed at dry-mesic sites within a dry inner Alpine environment (750 m a.s.l., Tyrol, Austria). Time series of annual increments were developed from > 250 saplings and mature trees. Radial growth response to recent climate warming was explored by means of moving response functions (MRF) and evaluation of trends in basal area increment (BAI) for the period 1911 - 2009. Climate-growth relationships revealed significant differences among species in response to water availability. While precipitation in May - June favoured radial growth of spruce and larch, Scots pine growth mainly depended on April - May precipitation. Spruce growth was most sensitive to May - June temperature (inverse relationship). Although MRF coefficients indicated increasing drought sensitivity of all species, which is most likely related to intensified belowground competition for scarce water with increasing stand density and higher evapotranspiration rates due to climate warming, recent BAI trends strikingly differed among species. While BAI of larch was distinctly declining, spruce showed steadily increasing BAI and quite constant BAI was maintained in drought adapted Scots pine, although at lowest level of all species. Furthermore, more favourable growing conditions of spruce in recent decades are indicated by scattered natural regeneration and higher growth rates of younger trees during first decades of their lifespan. Because human interference and wildlife stock is negligible within the study area, results

  3. Future sea-level rise from Greenland's main outlet glaciers in a warming climate.

    PubMed

    Nick, Faezeh M; Vieli, Andreas; Andersen, Morten Langer; Joughin, Ian; Payne, Antony; Edwards, Tamsin L; Pattyn, Frank; van de Wal, Roderik S W

    2013-05-09

    Over the past decade, ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet increased as a result of both increased surface melting and ice discharge to the ocean. The latter is controlled by the acceleration of ice flow and subsequent thinning of fast-flowing marine-terminating outlet glaciers. Quantifying the future dynamic contribution of such glaciers to sea-level rise (SLR) remains a major challenge because outlet glacier dynamics are poorly understood. Here we present a glacier flow model that includes a fully dynamic treatment of marine termini. We use this model to simulate behaviour of four major marine-terminating outlet glaciers, which collectively drain about 22 per cent of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Using atmospheric and oceanic forcing from a mid-range future warming scenario that predicts warming by 2.8 degrees Celsius by 2100, we project a contribution of 19 to 30 millimetres to SLR from these glaciers by 2200. This contribution is largely (80 per cent) dynamic in origin and is caused by several episodic retreats past overdeepenings in outlet glacier troughs. After initial increases, however, dynamic losses from these four outlets remain relatively constant and contribute to SLR individually at rates of about 0.01 to 0.06 millimetres per year. These rates correspond to ice fluxes that are less than twice those of the late 1990s, well below previous upper bounds. For a more extreme future warming scenario (warming by 4.5 degrees Celsius by 2100), the projected losses increase by more than 50 per cent, producing a cumulative SLR of 29 to 49 millimetres by 2200.

  4. Precipitation overrides warming in mediating soil nitrogen pools in an alpine grassland ecosystem on the Tibetan Plateau.

    PubMed

    Lin, Li; Zhu, Biao; Chen, Chengrong; Zhang, Zhenhua; Wang, Qi-Bing; He, Jin-Sheng

    2016-08-16

    Soils in the alpine grassland store a large amount of nitrogen (N) due to slow decomposition. However, the decomposition could be affected by climate change, which has profound impacts on soil N cycling. We investigated the changes of soil total N and five labile N stocks in the topsoil, the subsoil and the entire soil profile in response to three years of experimental warming and altered precipitation in a Tibetan alpine grassland. We found that warming significantly increased soil nitrate N stock and decreased microbial biomass N (MBN) stock. Increased precipitation reduced nitrate N, dissolved organic N and amino acid N stocks, but increased MBN stock in the topsoil. No change in soil total N was detected under warming and altered precipitation regimes. Redundancy analysis further revealed that soil moisture (26.3%) overrode soil temperature (10.4%) in explaining the variations of soil N stocks across the treatments. Our results suggest that precipitation exerted stronger influence than warming on soil N pools in this mesic and high-elevation grassland ecosystem. This indicates that the projected rise in future precipitation may lead to a significant loss of dissolved soil N pools by stimulating the biogeochemical processes in this alpine grassland.

  5. Effects of in situ climate warming on monarch caterpillar (Danaus plexippus) development.

    PubMed

    Lemoine, Nathan P; Capdevielle, Jillian N; Parker, John D

    2015-01-01

    Climate warming will fundamentally alter basic life history strategies of many ectothermic insects. In the lab, rising temperatures increase growth rates of lepidopteran larvae but also reduce final pupal mass and increase mortality. Using in situ field warming experiments on their natural host plants, we assessed the impact of climate warming on development of monarch (Danaus plexippus) larvae. Monarchs were reared on Asclepias tuberosa grown under 'Ambient' and 'Warmed' conditions. We quantified time to pupation, final pupal mass, and survivorship. Warming significantly decreased time to pupation, such that an increase of 1 °C corresponded to a 0.5 day decrease in pupation time. In contrast, survivorship and pupal mass were not affected by warming. Our results indicate that climate warming will speed the developmental rate of monarchs, influencing their ecological and evolutionary dynamics. However, the effects of climate warming on larval development in other monarch populations and at different times of year should be investigated.

  6. The effect of nitrogen deposition rather than warming on CH4 flux in alpine meadows depends on precipitation variations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, X.; Genxu, W.

    2017-12-01

    Uncertainties remain regarding the effects of climate warming and increasing nitrogen (N) deposition on GHG flux in alpine grasslands due to a lack of knowledge about how hydrological characteristics control GHGs fluxes. Therefore, a simulated warming and N fertilization experiment was conducted in a non-wetland (alpine meadow, AM) and a wetland (alpine swamp meadow, SM) of a permafrost region. We measured and analysed the CH4 and N2O fluxes of each treatment during two contrasting hydrological growing seasons. The results showed that: (i) warming increased the CH4 uptake in the AM but had no effect in the SM, and warming increased the N2O emissions from the AM and resulted in a change of the SM from a N2O sink into a source; (ii) N fertilization increased the CH4 uptake of the AM during the dry growing season, and had no effect on the CH4 and N2O fluxes of the SM; and (iii) the interaction between warming and N fertilization increased the CH4 uptake of the AM over the two growing seasons while increasing the CH4 uptake and N2O emissions of the SM during the dry growing season. Our results suggest that (i) the GHG flux of wetland ecosystems is more sensitive to precipitation variations than that of non-wetlands and (ii) precipitation controls the CH4 flux response to increasing N deposition of these alpine meadows.

  7. Response of microbial communities to experimental warming and precipitation decrease in Rzecin peatland (Poland)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Basińska, Anna M.; Gąbka, Maciej; Reczuga, Monika; Łuców, Dominika; Stróżecki, Marcin; Samson, Mateusz; Józefczyk, Damian; Chojnicki, Bogdan; Urbaniak, Marek; Leśny, Jacek; Olejnik, Janusz; Gilbert, Daniel; Silvennoinen, Hanna; Juszczak, Radosław; Lamentowicz, Mariusz

    2017-04-01

    In the last decade researchers are intensively testing the consequences of different climate change scenarios. Due to high biodiversity, huge amount of stored carbon and their sensitivity to environmental changes, peatlands became important for the temperature increase and drought experiments. Analyses showed that mosses, vascular plants and microbial communities were affected by warming or drought, but still not all effects are clear. Studying the response of microbial groups and indicators (e.g. mixotrophic species of testate amoeba) to warming in combination with decrease of precipitation will allow to better understand the future environmental changes. To recognize the inflow of organic matter and the carbon fixing processes in disturbed environment, we need to analyse the structure and biomass of main groups living in peatlands and the response of those groups to disturbances. The Polish - Norway "WETMAN" project was designed to recognize biotic and abiotic components of ecosystem response to active warming and decrease of precipitation. In this study we present the response of microbial communities and chosen testate amoeba species (TA) to different treatments: warming, warming and decreased precipitation and only decreased precipitation, in relation to control plots. The microbial biomass of upper and lower Sphagnum segments were analysed separately. Particular microbial groups were positively correlated with manipulations e. g. microalgae and rotifers, and other were negatively affected by combination of drought and warming e.g. cyanobacteria and testate amoeba. The structure of community was modified by manipulations, and differed in the case of upper and lower segment of Sphagnum. RDA analyses showed that different factors were crucial for the biomass of microbial groups in upper (conductivity, temperature and phosphorus) and lower (nitrates and sodium) segment. Considering higher taxonomic resolution we found that at the beginning of the experiment TA

  8. Sponge biomass and bioerosion rates increase under ocean warming and acidification.

    PubMed

    Fang, James K H; Mello-Athayde, Matheus A; Schönberg, Christine H L; Kline, David I; Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove; Dove, Sophie

    2013-12-01

    The combination of ocean warming and acidification as a result of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2 ) is considered to be a significant threat to calcifying organisms and their activities on coral reefs. How these global changes impact the important roles of decalcifying organisms (bioeroders) in the regulation of carbonate budgets, however, is less understood. To address this important question, the effects of a range of past, present and future CO2 emission scenarios (temperature + acidification) on the excavating sponge Cliona orientalis Thiele, 1900 were explored over 12 weeks in early summer on the southern Great Barrier Reef. C. orientalis is a widely distributed bioeroder on many reefs, and hosts symbiotic dinoflagellates of the genus Symbiodinium. Our results showed that biomass production and bioerosion rates of C. orientalis were similar under a pre-industrial scenario and a present day (control) scenario. Symbiodinium population density in the sponge tissue was the highest under the pre-industrial scenario, and decreased towards the two future scenarios with sponge replicates under the 'business-as-usual' CO2 emission scenario exhibiting strong bleaching. Despite these changes, biomass production and the ability of the sponge to erode coral carbonate materials both increased under the future scenarios. Our study suggests that C. orientalis will likely grow faster and have higher bioerosion rates in a high CO2 future than at present, even with significant bleaching. Assuming that our findings hold for excavating sponges in general, increased sponge biomass coupled with accelerated bioerosion may push coral reefs towards net erosion and negative carbonate budgets in the future. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  9. Female pheromones modulate flight muscle activation patterns during preflight warm-up.

    PubMed

    Crespo, José G; Vickers, Neil J; Goller, Franz

    2013-08-01

    At low ambient temperature Helicoverpa zea male moths engage in warm-up behavior prior to taking flight in response to an attractive female pheromone blend. Male H. zea warm up at a faster rate when sensing the attractive pheromone blend compared with unattractive blends or blank controls (Crespo et al. 2012), but the mechanisms involved in this olfactory modulation of the heating rate during preflight warm-up are unknown. Here, we test three possible mechanisms for increasing heat production: 1) increased rate of muscle contraction; 2) reduction in mechanical movement by increased overlap in activation of the antagonistic flight muscles; and 3) increased activation of motor units. To test which mechanisms play a role, we simultaneously recorded electrical activation patterns of the main flight muscles (dorsolongitudinal and dorsoventral muscles), wing movement, and thoracic temperature in moths exposed to both the attractive pheromone blend and a blank control. Results indicate that the main mechanism responsible for the observed increase in thoracic heating rate with pheromone stimulation is the differential activation of motor units during each muscle contraction cycle in both antagonistic flight muscles. This additional activation lengthens the contracted state within each cycle and thus accounts for the greater heat production. Interestingly, the rate of activation (frequency of contraction cycles) of motor units, which is temperature dependent, did not vary between treatments. This result suggests that the activation rate is determined by a temperature-dependent oscillator, which is not affected by the olfactory stimulus, but activation of motor units is modulated during each cycle.

  10. Female pheromones modulate flight muscle activation patterns during preflight warm-up

    PubMed Central

    Vickers, Neil J.; Goller, Franz

    2013-01-01

    At low ambient temperature Helicoverpa zea male moths engage in warm-up behavior prior to taking flight in response to an attractive female pheromone blend. Male H. zea warm up at a faster rate when sensing the attractive pheromone blend compared with unattractive blends or blank controls (Crespo et al. 2012), but the mechanisms involved in this olfactory modulation of the heating rate during preflight warm-up are unknown. Here, we test three possible mechanisms for increasing heat production: 1) increased rate of muscle contraction; 2) reduction in mechanical movement by increased overlap in activation of the antagonistic flight muscles; and 3) increased activation of motor units. To test which mechanisms play a role, we simultaneously recorded electrical activation patterns of the main flight muscles (dorsolongitudinal and dorsoventral muscles), wing movement, and thoracic temperature in moths exposed to both the attractive pheromone blend and a blank control. Results indicate that the main mechanism responsible for the observed increase in thoracic heating rate with pheromone stimulation is the differential activation of motor units during each muscle contraction cycle in both antagonistic flight muscles. This additional activation lengthens the contracted state within each cycle and thus accounts for the greater heat production. Interestingly, the rate of activation (frequency of contraction cycles) of motor units, which is temperature dependent, did not vary between treatments. This result suggests that the activation rate is determined by a temperature-dependent oscillator, which is not affected by the olfactory stimulus, but activation of motor units is modulated during each cycle. PMID:23699056

  11. Efficient Warm-ups: Creating a Warm-up That Works.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lauffenburger, Sandra Kay

    1992-01-01

    Proper warm-up is important for any activity, but designing an effective warm-up can be time consuming. An alternative approach is to take a cue from Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) and consider movement design from the perspective of space and planes of motion. Efficient warm-up exercises using LMA are described. (SM)

  12. Precooling and Warm-Up Effects on Time Trial Cycling During Heat Stress.

    PubMed

    Al-Horani, Ramzi A; Wingo, Jonathan E; Ng, Jason; Bishop, Phillip; Richardson, Mark

    2018-02-01

    Heat stress limits endurance exercise performance. Combining precooling and warm-up prior to endurance exercise in the heat may exploit the benefits of both strategies while avoiding the potential negative consequences of each. This study tested the hypothesis that precooling combined with warm-up improves time trial cycling performance in the heat relative to either treatment alone. Nine healthy men completed three 16.1-km time trials in 33°C after: 1) precooling (ice slurry and ice vest) alone (PREC); 2) warm-up alone (WU); or 3) PREC plus WU (COMBO). Tre was lower after PREC compared to WU throughout exercise and lower than COMBO for the first 12 km; COMBO was lower than WU for the first 4 km. Tsk during PREC was lower than COMBO and WU for the first 8 km, and lower in COMBO than WU for the first 4 km. PREC lowered pre-exercise heart rate relative to COMBO and WU (68 ± 10, 106 ± 12, 101 ± 13 bpm, respectively), but it increased similarly during exercise. Local sweat rate (SR) was lower in PREC (0.1 ± 0.1 mg · cm-2 · min-1) than COMBO (0.5 ± 0.2 mg · cm-2 · min-1) and WU (0.6 ± 0.2 mg · cm-2 · min-1) for the first 4 km. Treatments did not differentially affect performance (PREC = 31.9 ± 1.9 min, COMBO = 32.6 ± 2.7 min, WU = 33.1 ± 2.9 min). We conclude precooling alone or with warm-up mitigated thermal strain during exercise, but did not significantly improve 16.1-km cycling time trial performance.Al-horani RA, Wingo JE, Ng J, Bishop P, Richardson M. Precooling and warm-up effects on time trial cycling during heat stress. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2018; 89(2):87-93.

  13. Press-pulse interactions: effects of warming, N deposition, altered winter precipitation, and fire on desert grassland community structure and dynamics.

    PubMed

    Collins, Scott L; Ladwig, Laura M; Petrie, Matthew D; Jones, Sydney K; Mulhouse, John M; Thibault, James R; Pockman, William T

    2017-03-01

    Global environmental change is altering temperature, precipitation patterns, resource availability, and disturbance regimes. Theory predicts that ecological presses will interact with pulse events to alter ecosystem structure and function. In 2006, we established a long-term, multifactor global change experiment to determine the interactive effects of nighttime warming, increased atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition, and increased winter precipitation on plant community structure and aboveground net primary production (ANPP) in a northern Chihuahuan Desert grassland. In 2009, a lightning-caused wildfire burned through the experiment. Here, we report on the interactive effects of these global change drivers on pre- and postfire grassland community structure and ANPP. Our nighttime warming treatment increased winter nighttime air temperatures by an average of 1.1 °C and summer nighttime air temperature by 1.5 °C. Soil N availability was 2.5 times higher in fertilized compared with control plots. Average soil volumetric water content (VWC) in winter was slightly but significantly higher (13.0% vs. 11.0%) in plots receiving added winter rain relative to controls, and VWC was slightly higher in warmed (14.5%) compared with control (13.5%) plots during the growing season even though surface soil temperatures were significantly higher in warmed plots. Despite these significant treatment effects, ANPP and plant community structure were highly resistant to these global change drivers prior to the fire. Burning reduced the cover of the dominant grasses by more than 75%. Following the fire, forb species richness and biomass increased significantly, particularly in warmed, fertilized plots that received additional winter precipitation. Thus, although unburned grassland showed little initial response to multiple ecological presses, our results demonstrate how a single pulse disturbance can interact with chronic alterations in resource availability to increase ecosystem

  14. Effects of Short or Long Warm-up on Intermediate Running Performance.

    PubMed

    van den Tillaar, Roland; Vatten, Tormod; von Heimburg, Erna

    2017-01-01

    van den Tillaar, R, Vatten, T, and von Heimburg, E. Effects of short or long warm-up on intermediate running performance. J Strength Cond Res 31(1): 37-44, 2017-The aim of the study was to compare the effects of a long warm-up (general + specific) and a short warm-up (specific) on intermediate running performance (3-minute run). Thirteen experienced endurance-trained athletes (age 23.2 ± 2.3 years, body mass 79.8 ± 8.2 kg, body height 1.82 ± 0.05 m) conducted 2 types of warm-ups in a crossover design with 1 week in between: a long warm-up (10 minutes, 80% maximal heart rate, and 8 × 60 m sprint with increasing intensity and 1 minute rest in between) and a short warm-up (8 × 60 m sprint with increasing intensity and 1 minute rest in between). Each warm-up was followed by a 3-minute running test on a nonmotorized treadmill. Total running distance, running velocity at each 30 seconds, heart rate, blood lactate concentration, oxygen uptake, and rate of perceived exertion were measured. No significant differences in running performance variables and physiological parameters were found between the 2 warm-up protocols, except for the rate of perceived exertion and heart rate, which were higher after the long warm-up and after the 3-minute running test compared with the short warm-up. It was concluded that a short warm-up is as effective as a long warm-up for intermediate performance. Therefore, athletes can choose for themselves if they want to include a general part in their warm-up routines, even though it would not enhance their running performance more compared with only using a short, specific warm-up. However, to increase efficiency of time for training or competition, these short, specific warm-ups should be performed instead of long warm-ups.

  15. Global Warming: Understanding and Teaching the Forecast.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Andrews, Bill

    1995-01-01

    A resource for teaching about the consequences of global warming. Discusses feedback from the temperature increase, changes in the global precipitation pattern, effects on agriculture, weather extremes, effects on forests, effects on biodiversity, effects on sea levels, and actions which will help the global community cope with global warming. (LZ)

  16. Nematode community shifts in response to experimental warming and canopy conditions are associated with plant community changes in the temperate-boreal forest ecotone.

    PubMed

    Thakur, Madhav Prakash; Reich, Peter B; Fisichelli, Nicholas A; Stefanski, Artur; Cesarz, Simone; Dobies, Tomasz; Rich, Roy L; Hobbie, Sarah E; Eisenhauer, Nico

    2014-06-01

    Global climate warming is one of the key forces driving plant community shifts, such as range shifts of temperate species into boreal forests. As plant community shifts are slow to observe, ecotones, boundaries between two ecosystems, are target areas for providing early evidence of ecological responses to warming. The role of soil fauna is poorly explored in ecotones, although their positive and negative effects on plant species can influence plant community structure. We studied nematode communities in response to experimental warming (ambient, +1.7, +3.4 °C) in soils of closed and open canopy forest in the temperate-boreal ecotone of Minnesota, USA and calculated various established nematode indices. We estimated species-specific coverage of understory herbaceous and shrub plant species from the same experimental plots and tested if changes in the nematode community are associated with plant cover and composition. Individual nematode trophic groups did not differ among warming treatments, but the ratio between microbial-feeding and plant-feeding nematodes increased significantly and consistently with warming in both closed and open canopy areas and at both experimental field sites. The increase in this ratio was positively correlated with total cover of understory plant species, perhaps due to increased predation pressure on soil microorganisms causing higher nutrient availability for plants. Multivariate analyses revealed that temperature treatment, canopy conditions and nematode density consistently shaped understory plant communities across experimental sites. Our findings suggest that warming-induced changes in nematode community structure are associated with shifts in plant community composition and productivity in the temperate-boreal forest ecotones.

  17. Temperature response of soil respiration largely unaltered with experimental warming.

    PubMed

    Carey, Joanna C; Tang, Jianwu; Templer, Pamela H; Kroeger, Kevin D; Crowther, Thomas W; Burton, Andrew J; Dukes, Jeffrey S; Emmett, Bridget; Frey, Serita D; Heskel, Mary A; Jiang, Lifen; Machmuller, Megan B; Mohan, Jacqueline; Panetta, Anne Marie; Reich, Peter B; Reinsch, Sabine; Wang, Xin; Allison, Steven D; Bamminger, Chris; Bridgham, Scott; Collins, Scott L; de Dato, Giovanbattista; Eddy, William C; Enquist, Brian J; Estiarte, Marc; Harte, John; Henderson, Amanda; Johnson, Bart R; Larsen, Klaus Steenberg; Luo, Yiqi; Marhan, Sven; Melillo, Jerry M; Peñuelas, Josep; Pfeifer-Meister, Laurel; Poll, Christian; Rastetter, Edward; Reinmann, Andrew B; Reynolds, Lorien L; Schmidt, Inger K; Shaver, Gaius R; Strong, Aaron L; Suseela, Vidya; Tietema, Albert

    2016-11-29

    The respiratory release of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from soil is a major yet poorly understood flux in the global carbon cycle. Climatic warming is hypothesized to increase rates of soil respiration, potentially fueling further increases in global temperatures. However, despite considerable scientific attention in recent decades, the overall response of soil respiration to anticipated climatic warming remains unclear. We synthesize the largest global dataset to date of soil respiration, moisture, and temperature measurements, totaling >3,800 observations representing 27 temperature manipulation studies, spanning nine biomes and over 2 decades of warming. Our analysis reveals no significant differences in the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration between control and warmed plots in all biomes, with the exception of deserts and boreal forests. Thus, our data provide limited evidence of acclimation of soil respiration to experimental warming in several major biome types, contrary to the results from multiple single-site studies. Moreover, across all nondesert biomes, respiration rates with and without experimental warming follow a Gaussian response, increasing with soil temperature up to a threshold of ∼25 °C, above which respiration rates decrease with further increases in temperature. This consistent decrease in temperature sensitivity at higher temperatures demonstrates that rising global temperatures may result in regionally variable responses in soil respiration, with colder climates being considerably more responsive to increased ambient temperatures compared with warmer regions. Our analysis adds a unique cross-biome perspective on the temperature response of soil respiration, information critical to improving our mechanistic understanding of how soil carbon dynamics change with climatic warming.

  18. Temperature response of soil respiration largely unaltered with experimental warming

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Carey, Joanna C.; Tang, Jianwu; Templer, Pamela H.; Kroeger, Kevin D.; Crowther, Thomas W.; Burton, Andrew J.; Dukes, Jeffrey S.; Emmett, Bridget; Frey, Serita D.; Heskel, Mary A.; Jiang, Lifen; Machmuller, Megan B.; Mohan, Jacqueline; Panetta, Anne Marie; Reich, Peter B.; Reinsch, Sabine; Wang, Xin; Allison, Steven D.; Bamminger, Chris; Bridgham, Scott; Collins, Scott L.; de Dato, Giovanbattista; Eddy, William C.; Enquist, Brian J.; Estiarte, Marc; Harte, John; Henderson, Amanda; Johnson, Bart R.; Steenberg Larsen, Klaus; Luo, Yiqi; Marhan, Sven; Melillo, Jerry M.; Penuelas, Josep; Pfeifer-Meister, Laurel; Poll, Christian; Rastetter, Edward B.; Reinmann, Andrew B.; Reynolds, Lorien L.; Schmidt, Inger K.; Shaver, Gaius R.; Strong, Aaron L.; Suseela, Vidya; Tietema, Albert

    2016-01-01

    The respiratory release of carbon dioxide (CO2) from soil is a major yet poorly understood flux in the global carbon cycle. Climatic warming is hypothesized to increase rates of soil respiration, potentially fueling further increases in global temperatures. However, despite considerable scientific attention in recent decades, the overall response of soil respiration to anticipated climatic warming remains unclear. We synthesize the largest global dataset to date of soil respiration, moisture, and temperature measurements, totaling >3,800 observations representing 27 temperature manipulation studies, spanning nine biomes and over 2 decades of warming. Our analysis reveals no significant differences in the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration between control and warmed plots in all biomes, with the exception of deserts and boreal forests. Thus, our data provide limited evidence of acclimation of soil respiration to experimental warming in several major biome types, contrary to the results from multiple single-site studies. Moreover, across all nondesert biomes, respiration rates with and without experimental warming follow a Gaussian response, increasing with soil temperature up to a threshold of ∼25 °C, above which respiration rates decrease with further increases in temperature. This consistent decrease in temperature sensitivity at higher temperatures demonstrates that rising global temperatures may result in regionally variable responses in soil respiration, with colder climates being considerably more responsive to increased ambient temperatures compared with warmer regions. Our analysis adds a unique cross-biome perspective on the temperature response of soil respiration, information critical to improving our mechanistic understanding of how soil carbon dynamics change with climatic warming.

  19. Temperature response of soil respiration largely unaltered with experimental warming

    PubMed Central

    Carey, Joanna C.; Tang, Jianwu; Templer, Pamela H.; Kroeger, Kevin D.; Crowther, Thomas W.; Burton, Andrew J.; Dukes, Jeffrey S.; Emmett, Bridget; Frey, Serita D.; Heskel, Mary A.; Jiang, Lifen; Machmuller, Megan B.; Mohan, Jacqueline; Panetta, Anne Marie; Reich, Peter B.; Reinsch, Sabine; Wang, Xin; Allison, Steven D.; Bamminger, Chris; Bridgham, Scott; de Dato, Giovanbattista; Eddy, William C.; Enquist, Brian J.; Estiarte, Marc; Harte, John; Henderson, Amanda; Johnson, Bart R.; Luo, Yiqi; Marhan, Sven; Melillo, Jerry M.; Peñuelas, Josep; Pfeifer-Meister, Laurel; Poll, Christian; Rastetter, Edward; Reinmann, Andrew B.; Reynolds, Lorien L.; Schmidt, Inger K.; Shaver, Gaius R.; Strong, Aaron L.; Suseela, Vidya; Tietema, Albert

    2016-01-01

    The respiratory release of carbon dioxide (CO2) from soil is a major yet poorly understood flux in the global carbon cycle. Climatic warming is hypothesized to increase rates of soil respiration, potentially fueling further increases in global temperatures. However, despite considerable scientific attention in recent decades, the overall response of soil respiration to anticipated climatic warming remains unclear. We synthesize the largest global dataset to date of soil respiration, moisture, and temperature measurements, totaling >3,800 observations representing 27 temperature manipulation studies, spanning nine biomes and over 2 decades of warming. Our analysis reveals no significant differences in the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration between control and warmed plots in all biomes, with the exception of deserts and boreal forests. Thus, our data provide limited evidence of acclimation of soil respiration to experimental warming in several major biome types, contrary to the results from multiple single-site studies. Moreover, across all nondesert biomes, respiration rates with and without experimental warming follow a Gaussian response, increasing with soil temperature up to a threshold of ∼25 °C, above which respiration rates decrease with further increases in temperature. This consistent decrease in temperature sensitivity at higher temperatures demonstrates that rising global temperatures may result in regionally variable responses in soil respiration, with colder climates being considerably more responsive to increased ambient temperatures compared with warmer regions. Our analysis adds a unique cross-biome perspective on the temperature response of soil respiration, information critical to improving our mechanistic understanding of how soil carbon dynamics change with climatic warming. PMID:27849609

  20. Global Warming, Africa and National Security

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-01-15

    African populations. This includes awareness from a global perspective in line with The Army Strategy for the Environment, the UN’s Intergovernmental...2 attention. At the time, computer models did not indicate a significant issue with global warming suggesting only a modest increase of 2°C9...projected climate changes. Current Science The science surrounding climate change and global warming was, until recently, a point of

  1. Warm Absorber Diagnostics of AGN Dynamics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kallman, Timothy

    key for validating and testing models. New in this work is treatment of magnetically driven models, self-consistent calculation of the physical properties of the accretion flow and winds and their spectra. This will allow us to test the range of plausible physical origins for warm absorbers.

  2. Experimental whole-stream warming alters community size structure.

    PubMed

    Nelson, Daniel; Benstead, Jonathan P; Huryn, Alexander D; Cross, Wyatt F; Hood, James M; Johnson, Philip W; Junker, James R; Gíslason, Gísli M; Ólafsson, Jón S

    2017-07-01

    How ecological communities respond to predicted increases in temperature will determine the extent to which Earth's biodiversity and ecosystem functioning can be maintained into a warmer future. Warming is predicted to alter the structure of natural communities, but robust tests of such predictions require appropriate large-scale manipulations of intact, natural habitat that is open to dispersal processes via exchange with regional species pools. Here, we report results of a two-year whole-stream warming experiment that shifted invertebrate assemblage structure via unanticipated mechanisms, while still conforming to community-level metabolic theory. While warming by 3.8 °C decreased invertebrate abundance in the experimental stream by 60% relative to a reference stream, total invertebrate biomass was unchanged. Associated shifts in invertebrate assemblage structure were driven by the arrival of new taxa and a higher proportion of large, warm-adapted species (i.e., snails and predatory dipterans) relative to small-bodied, cold-adapted taxa (e.g., chironomids and oligochaetes). Experimental warming consequently shifted assemblage size spectra in ways that were unexpected, but consistent with thermal optima of taxa in the regional species pool. Higher temperatures increased community-level energy demand, which was presumably satisfied by higher primary production after warming. Our experiment demonstrates how warming reassembles communities within the constraints of energy supply via regional exchange of species that differ in thermal physiological traits. Similar responses will likely mediate impacts of anthropogenic warming on biodiversity and ecosystem function across all ecological communities. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  3. Experimental soil warming at the treeline shifts fungal communities species

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Solly, Emily; Lindahl, Björn; Dawes, Melissa; Peter, Martina; Rixen, Christian; Hagedorn, Frank

    2016-04-01

    In terrestrial ecosystems, fungi play a major role in decomposition processes, plant nutrient uptake and nutrient cycling. In high elevation ecosystems in Alpine and Arctic regions, the fungal community may be particularly sensitive to climate warming due to the removal of temperature limitation in the plant and soil system, faster nutrient cycling and changes in plant carbon allocation to maintain roots systems and sustain the rhizosphere. In our study, we estimated the effects of 9 years CO2 enrichment and three years of experimental soil warming on the community structure of fungal microorganisms in an alpine treeline ecosystem. In the Swiss Alps, we worked on a total of 40 plots, with c. 40-year-old Larix decidua and Pinus mugo ssp. uncinata trees (20 plots for each tree species). Half of the plots with each tree species were randomly assigned to an elevated CO2 treatment (ambient concentration +200 ppm), whereas the remaining plots received no supplementary CO2. Five individual plots for each combination of CO2 concentration and tree species were heated by an average of 4°C during the growing season with heating cables at the soil surface. At the treeline, the fungal diversity analyzed by high-throughput 454-sequencing of genetic markers, was generally low as compared to low altitude systems and mycorrhizal species made a particularly small contribution to the total fungal DNA. Soil warming led to a shift in the structure and composition of the fungal microbial community, with an increase of litter degraders and ectomycorrhizal fungi. We further observed changes in the productivity of specific fungal fruiting bodies (i.e. more Lactarius rufus sporocarps and less Hygrophorus lucorum sporocarps) during the course of the experiment, that were consistent with the 454-sequencing data. The warming effect was more pronounced in the Larix plots. These shifts were accompanied by an increased soil CO2 efflux (+40%), evidence of increased N availability and a

  4. Warm-Up Exercises May Not Be So Important for Enhancing Submaximal Running Performance.

    PubMed

    Takizawa, Kazuki; Yamaguchi, Taichi; Shibata, Keisuke

    2018-05-01

    Takizawa, K, Yamaguchi, T, and Shibata, K. Warm-up exercises may not be so important for enhancing submaximal running performance. J Strength Cond Res 32(5): 1383-1390, 2018-The purpose of this study was to determine an appropriate warm-up intensity for enhancing performance in submaximal running at 90% vV[Combining Dot Above]O2max (it assumes 3,000-5,000 m in track events). Seven trained male university athletes took part in this study (age: 21.3 ± 2.1 years, height: 169.3 ± 4.7 cm, body mass: 58.4 ± 5.6 kg, V[Combining Dot Above]O2max: 73.33 ± 5.46 ml·kg·min). Each subject ran on a treadmill at 90% vV[Combining Dot Above]O2max until exhaustion after 1 of 4 warm-up treatments. The 4 warm-up treatments were no warm-up, 15 minutes running at 60% vV[Combining Dot Above]O2max, at 70% vV[Combining Dot Above]O2max, and at 80% vV[Combining Dot Above]O2max. The running performance was evaluated by time to exhaustion (TTE). V[Combining Dot Above]O2, and vastus lateralis muscle temperature were also measured. There were no significant differences in TTE among the warm-up exercises (p > 0.05). V[Combining Dot Above]O2 in no warm-up showed slower reaction than the other warm-up exercises. Regarding, the vastus lateralis muscle temperature immediately after warm-up, no warm-up was significantly (p < 0.01) lower compared with the other warm-up exercises. Our results suggested that submaximal running performance was not affected by the presence or absence of a warm-up or by warm-up intensity, although physiological changes occurred.

  5. What to eat in a warming world: do increased temperatures necessitate hazardous duty pay?

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Hall, L. Embere; Chalfoun, Anna D.

    2018-01-01

    Contemporary climate change affects nearly all biomes, causing shifts in animal distributions and resource availability. Changes in resource selection may allow individuals to offset climatic stress, thereby providing a mechanism for persistence amidst warming conditions. Whereas the role of predation risk in food choice has been studied broadly, the extent to which individuals respond to thermoregulatory risk by changing resource preferences is unclear. We addressed whether individuals compensated for temperature-related reductions in foraging time by altering forage preferences, using the American pika (Ochotona princeps) as a model species. We tested two hypotheses: (1) food-quality hypothesis—individuals exposed to temperature extremes should select higher-quality vegetation in return for accepting a physiologically riskier feeding situation; and (2) food-availability hypothesis—individuals exposed to temperature extremes should prioritize foraging quickly, thereby decreasing selection for higher-quality food. We quantified the composition and quality (% moisture, % nitrogen, and fiber content) of available and harvested vegetation, and deployed a network of temperature sensors to measure in situ conditions for 30 individuals, during July–Sept., 2015. Individuals exposed to more extreme daytime temperatures showed increased selection for high-nitrogen and for low-fiber vegetation, demonstrating strong support for the food-quality hypothesis. By contrast, pikas that experienced warmer conditions did not reduce selection for any of the three vegetation-quality metrics, as predicted by the food-availability hypothesis. By shifting resource-selection patterns, temperature-limited animals may be able to proximately buffer some of the negative effects associated with rapidly warming environments, provided that sufficient resources remain on the landscape.

  6. [Effects of warming and precipitation exclusion on soil N2O fluxes in subtropical forests.

    PubMed

    Tang, Cai di; Zhang, Zheng; Cai, Xiao Zhen; Guo, Jian Fen; Yang, Yu Sheng

    2017-10-01

    In order to explore how soil warming and precipitation exclusion influence soil N2O fluxes, we used related functional genes as markers, and four treatments were set up, i.e. , control (CT), soil warming (W, 5 ℃ above the ambient temperature of the control), 50% precipitation reduction (P), soil warming plus 50% precipitation reduction (WP). The results showed that precipitation exclusion reduced soil ammonium nitrogen concentration significantly. Soil warming decreased soil N2O flux and soil denitrification potential significantly. Soil microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) in warming treatment (W) and precipitation exclusion treatment (P) was significantly lower than that in the control. The amoA gene abundance of AOA was negatively correlated with MBN and ammonium nitrogen contents, but neither soil nitrification potential nor soil N2O flux was correlated with the amoA gene abundance of AOA. Path analysis showed that the denitrification potential affected soil N2O flux directly, while microbial biomass phosphorus (MBP) and warming affected soil N2O flux indirectly through their direct effects on denitrification potential. Temperature might be the main driver of N2O flux in subtropical forest soils. Global warming would reduce N2O emissions from subtropical forest soils.

  7. How does climate warming affect plant-pollinator interactions?

    PubMed

    Hegland, Stein Joar; Nielsen, Anders; Lázaro, Amparo; Bjerknes, Anne-Line; Totland, Ørjan

    2009-02-01

    Climate warming affects the phenology, local abundance and large-scale distribution of plants and pollinators. Despite this, there is still limited knowledge of how elevated temperatures affect plant-pollinator mutualisms and how changed availability of mutualistic partners influences the persistence of interacting species. Here we review the evidence of climate warming effects on plants and pollinators and discuss how their interactions may be affected by increased temperatures. The onset of flowering in plants and first appearance dates of pollinators in several cases appear to advance linearly in response to recent temperature increases. Phenological responses to climate warming may therefore occur at parallel magnitudes in plants and pollinators, although considerable variation in responses across species should be expected. Despite the overall similarities in responses, a few studies have shown that climate warming may generate temporal mismatches among the mutualistic partners. Mismatches in pollination interactions are still rarely explored and their demographic consequences are largely unknown. Studies on multi-species plant-pollinator assemblages indicate that the overall structure of pollination networks probably are robust against perturbations caused by climate warming. We suggest potential ways of studying warming-caused mismatches and their consequences for plant-pollinator interactions, and highlight the strengths and limitations of such approaches.

  8. The effect of global warming on infectious diseases.

    PubMed

    Kurane, Ichiro

    2010-12-01

    Global warming has various effects on human health. The main indirect effects are on infectious diseases. Although the effects on infectious diseases will be detected worldwide, the degree and types of the effect are different, depending on the location of the respective countries and socioeconomical situations. Among infectious diseases, water- and foodborne infectious diseases and vector-borne infectious diseases are two main categories that are forecasted to be most affected. The effect on vector-borne infectious diseases such as malaria and dengue fever is mainly because of the expansion of the infested areas of vector mosquitoes and increase in the number and feeding activity of infected mosquitoes. There will be increase in the number of cases with water- and foodborne diarrhoeal diseases. Even with the strongest mitigation procedures, global warming cannot be avoided for decades. Therefore, implementation of adaptation measures to the effect of global warming is the most practical action we can take. It is generally accepted that the impacts of global warming on infectious diseases have not been apparent at this point yet in East Asia. However, these impacts will appear in one form or another if global warming continues to progress in future. Further research on the impacts of global warming on infectious diseases and on future prospects should be conducted.

  9. Soil warming opens the nitrogen cycle at the alpine treeline.

    PubMed

    Dawes, Melissa A; Schleppi, Patrick; Hättenschwiler, Stephan; Rixen, Christian; Hagedorn, Frank

    2017-01-01

    Climate warming may alter ecosystem nitrogen (N) cycling by accelerating N transformations in the soil, and changes may be especially pronounced in cold regions characterized by N-poor ecosystems. We investigated N dynamics across the plant-soil continuum during 6 years of experimental soil warming (2007-2012; +4 °C) at a Swiss high-elevation treeline site (Stillberg, Davos; 2180 m a.s.l.) featuring Larix decidua and Pinus uncinata. In the soil, we observed considerable increases in the NH4+ pool size in the first years of warming (by >50%), but this effect declined over time. In contrast, dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) concentrations in soil solutions from the organic layer increased under warming, especially in later years (maximum of +45% in 2012), suggesting enhanced DON leaching from the main rooting zone. Throughout the experimental period, foliar N concentrations showed species-specific but small warming effects, whereas δ 15 N values showed a sustained increase in warmed plots that was consistent for all species analysed. The estimated total plant N pool size at the end of the study was greater (+17%) in warmed plots with Pinus but not in those containing Larix, with responses driven by trees. Irrespective of plot tree species identity, warming led to an enhanced N pool size of Vaccinium dwarf shrubs, no change in that of Empetrum hermaphroditum (dwarf shrub) and forbs, and a reduction in that of grasses, nonvascular plants, and fine roots. In combination, higher foliar δ 15 N values and the transient response in soil inorganic N indicate a persistent increase in plant-available N and greater cumulative plant N uptake in warmer soils. Overall, greater N availability and increased DON concentrations suggest an opening of the N cycle with global warming, which might contribute to growth stimulation of some plant species while simultaneously leading to greater N losses from treeline ecosystems and possibly other cold biomes. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons

  10. Native temperature regime influences soil response to simulated warming

    Treesearch

    Timothy G. Whitby; Michael D. Madritch

    2013-01-01

    Anthropogenic climate change is expected to increase global temperatures and potentially increase soil carbon (C) mineralization, which could lead to a positive feedback between global warming and soil respiration. However the magnitude and spatial variability of belowground responses to warming are not yet fully understood. Some of the variability may depend...

  11. A new mechanism for warm-season precipitation response to global warming based on convection-permitting simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dai, Aiguo; Rasmussen, Roy M.; Liu, Changhai; Ikeda, Kyoko; Prein, Andreas F.

    2017-08-01

    Climate models project increasing precipitation intensity but decreasing frequency as greenhouse gases increase. However, the exact mechanism for the frequency decrease remains unclear. Here we investigate this by analyzing hourly data from regional climate change simulations with 4 km grid spacing covering most of North America using the Weather Research and Forecasting model. The model was forced with present and future boundary conditions, with the latter being derived by adding the CMIP5 19-model ensemble mean changes to the ERA-interim reanalysis. The model reproduces well the observed seasonal and spatial variations in precipitation frequency and histograms, and the dry interval between rain events over the contiguous US. Results show that overall precipitation frequency indeed decreases during the warm season mainly due to fewer light-moderate precipitation (0.1 < P ≤ 2.0 mm/h) events, while heavy (2 < P ≤ 10 mm/h) to very heavy precipitation (P > 10 mm/h) events increase. Dry spells become longer and more frequent, together with a reduction in time-mean relative humidity (RH) in the lower troposphere during the warm season. The increased dry hours and decreased RH lead to a reduction in overall precipitation frequency and also for light-moderate precipitation events, while water vapor-induced increases in precipitation intensity and the positive latent heating feedback in intense storms may be responsible for the large increase in intense precipitation. The size of intense storms increases while their number decreases in the future climate, which helps explain the increase in local frequency of heavy precipitation. The results generally support a new hypothesis for future warm-season precipitation: each rainstorm removes ≥7% more moisture from the air per 1 K local warming, and surface evaporation and moisture advection take slightly longer than currently to replenish the depleted moisture before the next storm forms, leading to longer dry spells and

  12. Warm-up before laparoscopic surgery is not essential.

    PubMed

    Weston, Maree K; Stephens, Jacqueline H; Schafer, Amy; Hewett, Peter J

    2014-03-01

    Several recent studies have suggested that warming up prior to surgery may improve surgical performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether warming up prior to laparoscopic surgery improves surgical performance or reduces surgery duration. Between August 2011 and January 2012, a randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare two warm-up modalities to no warm-up. The study was conducted at a single site, with nine surgeons performing 72 laparoscopic cholecystectomies and 37 laparoscopic appendicectomies. Prior to surgery, surgeons were randomized to either laparoscopic trainer box warm-up, PlayStation 2 warm-up or no warm-up. The activity was performed within 30 min of surgery commencing. Patients provided informed consent for the surgery to be digitally recorded. Digital videodiscs (DVDs) were reviewed by an independent and blinded assessor. Data were collected on duration of surgery, level of training and perceived surgical difficulty. Surgical performance was graded using a validated scoring system. From the 109 operations performed, there were 75 usable DVDs. Overall, there were no statistical differences in the demographics of patients and surgeons in the three treatment groups, nor in the subset that had useable DVDs. There were no statistical differences in the duration of surgery or surgeon's perceived surgical difficulty. There was no statistical difference in surgical performance. This study suggests that warm-up prior to laparoscopic cholecystectomy or appendicectomy is not essential, acknowledging that there are several study limitations that preclude definitive conclusion. © 2012 The Authors. ANZ Journal of Surgery © 2012 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

  13. Global warming preceded by increasing carbon dioxide concentrations during the last deglaciation.

    PubMed

    Shakun, Jeremy D; Clark, Peter U; He, Feng; Marcott, Shaun A; Mix, Alan C; Liu, Zhengyu; Otto-Bliesner, Bette; Schmittner, Andreas; Bard, Edouard

    2012-04-04

    The covariation of carbon dioxide (CO(2)) concentration and temperature in Antarctic ice-core records suggests a close link between CO(2) and climate during the Pleistocene ice ages. The role and relative importance of CO(2) in producing these climate changes remains unclear, however, in part because the ice-core deuterium record reflects local rather than global temperature. Here we construct a record of global surface temperature from 80 proxy records and show that temperature is correlated with and generally lags CO(2) during the last (that is, the most recent) deglaciation. Differences between the respective temperature changes of the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere parallel variations in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation recorded in marine sediments. These observations, together with transient global climate model simulations, support the conclusion that an antiphased hemispheric temperature response to ocean circulation changes superimposed on globally in-phase warming driven by increasing CO(2) concentrations is an explanation for much of the temperature change at the end of the most recent ice age.

  14. Effects of short-term warming and nitrogen addition on the quantity and quality of dissolved organic matter in a subtropical Cunninghamia lanceolata plantation.

    PubMed

    Yuan, Xiaochun; Si, Youtao; Lin, Weisheng; Yang, Jingqing; Wang, Zheng; Zhang, Qiufang; Qian, Wei; Chen, Yuehmin; Yang, Yusheng

    2018-01-01

    Increasing temperature and nitrogen (N) deposition are two large-scale changes projected to occur over the coming decades. The effects of these changes on dissolved organic matter (DOM) are largely unknown. This study aimed to assess the effects of warming and N addition on the quantity and quality of DOM from a subtropical Cunninghamia lanceolata plantation. Between 2014 and 2016, soil solutions were collected from 0-15, 15-30, and 30-60 cm depths by using a negative pressure sampling method. The quantity and quality of DOM were measured under six different treatments. The spectra showed that the DOM of the forest soil solution mainly consisted of aromatic protein-like components, microbial degradation products, and negligible amounts of humic-like substances. Warming, N addition, and warming + N addition significantly inhibited the concentration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the surface (0-15 cm) soil solution. Our results suggested that warming reduced the amount of DOM originating from microbes. The decrease in protein and carboxylic acid contents was mostly attributed to the reduction of DOC following N addition. The warming + N addition treatment showed an interactive effect rather than an additive effect. Thus, short-term warming and warming + N addition decreased the quantity of DOM and facilitated the migration of nutrients to deeper soils. Further, N addition increased the complexity of the DOM structure. Hence, the loss of soil nutrients and the rational application of N need to be considered in order to prevent the accumulation of N compounds in soil.

  15. Effects of short-term warming and nitrogen addition on the quantity and quality of dissolved organic matter in a subtropical Cunninghamia lanceolata plantation

    PubMed Central

    Yuan, Xiaochun; Si, Youtao; Lin, Weisheng; Yang, Jingqing; Wang, Zheng; Zhang, Qiufang; Qian, Wei; Yang, Yusheng

    2018-01-01

    Increasing temperature and nitrogen (N) deposition are two large-scale changes projected to occur over the coming decades. The effects of these changes on dissolved organic matter (DOM) are largely unknown. This study aimed to assess the effects of warming and N addition on the quantity and quality of DOM from a subtropical Cunninghamia lanceolata plantation. Between 2014 and 2016, soil solutions were collected from 0–15, 15–30, and 30–60 cm depths by using a negative pressure sampling method. The quantity and quality of DOM were measured under six different treatments. The spectra showed that the DOM of the forest soil solution mainly consisted of aromatic protein-like components, microbial degradation products, and negligible amounts of humic-like substances. Warming, N addition, and warming + N addition significantly inhibited the concentration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the surface (0–15 cm) soil solution. Our results suggested that warming reduced the amount of DOM originating from microbes. The decrease in protein and carboxylic acid contents was mostly attributed to the reduction of DOC following N addition. The warming + N addition treatment showed an interactive effect rather than an additive effect. Thus, short-term warming and warming + N addition decreased the quantity of DOM and facilitated the migration of nutrients to deeper soils. Further, N addition increased the complexity of the DOM structure. Hence, the loss of soil nutrients and the rational application of N need to be considered in order to prevent the accumulation of N compounds in soil. PMID:29360853

  16. Effects of bedtime periocular and posterior cervical cutaneous warming on sleep status in adult male subjects: a preliminary study.

    PubMed

    Igaki, Michihito; Suzuki, Masahiro; Sakamoto, Ichiro; Ichiba, Tomohisa; Kuriyama, Kenichi; Uchiyama, Makoto

    2018-01-01

    Appropriate warming of the periocular or posterior cervical skin has been reported to induce autonomic or mental relaxation in humans. To clarify the effects of cutaneous warming on human sleep, eight male subjects with mild sleep difficulties were asked to try three experimental conditions at home, each lasting for 5 days, in a cross-over manner: warming of the periocular skin with a warming device for 10 min before habitual bedtime, warming of the posterior cervical skin with a warming device for 30 min before habitual bedtime, and no treatment as a control. The warming device had a heat- and steam-generating sheet that allowed warming of the skin to 40 °C through a chemical reaction with iron. Electroencephalograms (EEGs) were recorded during nocturnal sleep using an ambulatory EEG device and subjected to spectral analysis. All the participants reported their sleep status using a visual analog scale. We found that warming of the periocular or posterior cervical skin significantly improved subjective sleep status relative to the control. The EEG delta power density in the first 90 min of the sleep episode was significantly increased under both warming of the periocular or posterior cervical skin relative to the control. These results suggest that warming of appropriate skin regions may have favorable effects on subjective and objective sleep quality.

  17. Dynamical amplification of Arctic and global warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alekseev, Genrikh; Ivanov, Nikolai; Kharlanenkova, Natalia; Kuzmina, Svetlana; Bobylev, Leonid; Gnatiuk, Natalia; Urazgildeeva, Aleksandra

    2015-04-01

    The Arctic is coupled with global climate system by the atmosphere and ocean circulation that provides a major contribution to the Arctic energy budget. Therefore increase of meridional heat transport under global warming can impact on its Arctic amplification. Contribution of heat transport to the recent warming in the Arctic, Northern Hemisphere and the globe are estimated on base of reanalysis data, global climate model data and proposed special index. It is shown that significant part of linear trend during last four decades in average surface air temperature in these areas can be attributed to dynamical amplification. This attribution keeps until 400 mb height with progressive decreasing. The Arctic warming is amplified also due to an increase of humidity and cloudiness in the Arctic atmosphere that follow meridional transport gain. From October to January the Arctic warming trends are amplified as a result of ice edge retreat from the Siberian and Alaska coast and the heating of expanded volume of sea water. This investigation is supported with RFBR project 15-05-03512.

  18. Continuously amplified warming in the Alaskan Arctic: Implications for estimating global warming hiatus

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wang, Kang; Zhang, Tingjun; Zhang, Xiangdong; Clow, Gary D.; Jafarov, Elchin E.; Overeem, Irina; Romanovsky, Vladimir; Peng, Xiaoqing; Cao, Bin

    2017-01-01

    Historically, in situ measurements have been notoriously sparse over the Arctic. As a consequence, the existing gridded data of surface air temperature (SAT) may have large biases in estimating the warming trend in this region. Using data from an expanded monitoring network with 31 stations in the Alaskan Arctic, we demonstrate that the SAT has increased by 2.19°C in this region, or at a rate of 0.23°C/decade during 1921–2015. Meanwhile, we found that the SAT warmed at 0.71°C/decade over 1998–2015, which is 2 to 3 times faster than the rate established from the gridded data sets. Focusing on the “hiatus” period 1998–2012 as identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, the SAT has increased at 0.45°C/decade, which captures more than 90% of the regional trend for 1951–2012. We suggest that sparse in situ measurements are responsible for underestimation of the SAT change in the gridded data sets. It is likely that enhanced climate warming may also have happened in the other regions of the Arctic since the late 1990s but left undetected because of incomplete observational coverage.

  19. Warm Arctic-cold Siberia: comparing the recent and the early 20th-century Arctic warmings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wegmann, Martin; Orsolini, Yvan; Zolina, Olga

    2018-02-01

    The Warm Arctic-cold Siberia surface temperature pattern during recent boreal winter is suggested to be triggered by the ongoing decrease of Arctic autumn sea ice concentration and has been observed together with an increase in mid-latitude extreme events and a meridionalization of tropospheric circulation. However, the exact mechanism behind this dipole temperature pattern is still under debate, since model experiments with reduced sea ice show conflicting results. We use the early twentieth-century Arctic warming (ETCAW) as a case study to investigate the link between September sea ice in the Barents-Kara Sea (BKS) and the Siberian temperature evolution. Analyzing a variety of long-term climate reanalyses, we find that the overall winter temperature and heat flux trend occurs with the reduction of September BKS sea ice. Tropospheric conditions show a strengthened atmospheric blocking over the BKS, strengthening the advection of cold air from the Arctic to central Siberia on its eastern flank, together with a reduction of warm air advection by the westerlies. This setup is valid for both the ETCAW and the current Arctic warming period.

  20. Recent warming trend in the coastal region of Qatar

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, Way Lee; Saleem, Ayman; Sadr, Reza

    2017-04-01

    The objective of this study was to analyze long-term temperature-related phenomena in the eastern portion of the Middle East, focusing on the coastal region of Qatar. Extreme temperature indices were examined, which were defined by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices, for Doha, Qatar; these indices were then compared with those from neighboring countries. The trends were calculated for a 30-year period (1983-2012), using hourly data obtained from the National Climatic Data Center. The results showed spatially consistent warming trends throughout the region. For Doha, 11 of the 12 indices studied showed significant warming trends. In particular, the warming trends were represented by an increase in the number of warm days and nights and a decrease in the number of cool nights and days. The high-temperature extremes during the night have risen at more than twice the rate of their corresponding daytime extremes. The intensity and frequency of hot days have increased, and the minimum temperature indices exhibited a higher rate of warming. The climatic changes in Doha are consistent with the region-wide heat-up in recent decades across the Middle East. However, the rapid economic expansion, increase of population since the 1990s, and urban effects in the region are thought to have intensified the rapidly warming climate pattern observed in Doha since the turn of the century.

  1. Climatic warming strengthens a positive feedback between alpine shrubs and fire.

    PubMed

    Camac, James S; Williams, Richard J; Wahren, Carl-Henrik; Hoffmann, Ary A; Vesk, Peter A

    2017-08-01

    Climate change is expected to increase fire activity and woody plant encroachment in arctic and alpine landscapes. However, the extent to which these increases interact to affect the structure, function and composition of alpine ecosystems is largely unknown. Here we use field surveys and experimental manipulations to examine how warming and fire affect recruitment, seedling growth and seedling survival in four dominant Australian alpine shrubs. We found that fire increased establishment of shrub seedlings by as much as 33-fold. Experimental warming also doubled growth rates of tall shrub seedlings and could potentially increase their survival. By contrast, warming had no effect on shrub recruitment, postfire tussock regeneration, or how tussock grass affected shrub seedling growth and survival. These findings indicate that warming, coupled with more frequent or severe fires, will likely result in an increase in the cover and abundance of evergreen shrubs. Given that shrubs are one of the most flammable components in alpine and tundra environments, warming is likely to strengthen an existing feedback between woody species abundance and fire in these ecosystems. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  2. Comparing the Immediate Effects of a Total Motion Release Warm-up and a Dynamic Warm-up Protocol on the Dominant Shoulder in Baseball Athletes.

    PubMed

    Gamma, Stephen C; Baker, Russell; May, James; Seegmiller, Jeff G; Nasypany, Alan; Iorio, Steven M

    2018-04-10

    Gamma, SC, Baker, R, May, J, Seegmiller, JG, Nasypany, A, and Iorio, SM. Comparing the immediate effects of a total motion release warm-up and a dynamic warm-up protocol on the dominant shoulder in baseball athletes. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2017-A decrease in total range of motion (ROM) of the dominant shoulder may predispose baseball athletes to increased shoulder injury risk; the most effective technique for improving ROM is unknown. The purpose of this study was to compare the immediate effects of Total Motion Release (TMR) to a generic dynamic warm-up program in baseball athletes. Baseball athletes (n = 20) were randomly assigned to an intervention group: TMR group (TMRG; n = 10) or traditional warm-up group (TWG; n = 10). Shoulder ROM measurements were recorded for internal rotation (IR) and external rotation (ER), the intervention was applied, and postmeasurements were recorded. Each group then received the other intervention and postmeasurements were again recorded. The time main effect (p ≤ 0.001) and the time × group interaction effect were significant (p ≤ 0.001) for IR and ER. Post hoc analysis revealed that TMR produced significant increases in mean IR (p ≤ 0.005, d = 1.52) and ER (p ≤ 0.018, d = 1.22) of the dominant shoulder initially. When groups crossed-over, the TMRG experienced a decrease in mean IR and ER after the dynamic warm-up, whereas the TWG experienced a significant increase in mean IR (p ≤ 0.001, d = 3.08) and ER (p ≤ 0.001, d = 2.56) after TMR intervention. Total Motion Release increased IR and ER of the dominant shoulder more than a dynamic warm-up. Dynamic warm-up after TMR also resulted in decreased IR and ER; however, TMR after dynamic warm-up significantly improved IR and ER. Based on these results, TMR is more effective than a generic dynamic warm-up for improving dominant shoulder ROM in baseball players.

  3. Warm Rain Processes Over the Tropical Oceans and Implications on Climate Change

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lau, William K. M.; Wu, H. T.

    2004-01-01

    In this talk, we will first show results from TRMM regarding the characteristics of warm rains over the tropical oceans, and the dependence of rate of warm rain production on sea surface temperature. Results lead to the hypothesis that warm rain production efficiency, i.e., autoconversion, may be increased in a warm climate. We use the GEOS-II GCM to test this hypothesis. Our modeling results show that in a climate with increased rate of autoconversion, the total rain amount is increased, with warm rain contributing to a larger portion of the increase. The abundant rainout of warm precipitation at middle to low levels causes a reduction of high cloud cover due to the depletion of water available for ice-phase rain production. As a result, more isolated, but more intense penetrative convection develops. Results also show that increased autoconversion reduces the convective adjustment time scale tends, implying a faster recycling of atmospheric water. Most interestingly, the increased low level heating associated with warm rain leads to more energetic Madden and Julian oscillations in the tropics, with well-defined eastward propagation. While reducing the autoconversion leads to an abundant mix of westward and eastward tropical disturbance on daily to weekly time scales. The causes of the sensitivity of the dynamical regimes to the microphysics parameterization in the GCM will be discussed.

  4. Precipitation overrides warming in mediating soil nitrogen pools in an alpine grassland ecosystem on the Tibetan Plateau

    PubMed Central

    Lin, Li; Zhu, Biao; Chen, Chengrong; Zhang, Zhenhua; Wang, Qi-Bing; He, Jin-Sheng

    2016-01-01

    Soils in the alpine grassland store a large amount of nitrogen (N) due to slow decomposition. However, the decomposition could be affected by climate change, which has profound impacts on soil N cycling. We investigated the changes of soil total N and five labile N stocks in the topsoil, the subsoil and the entire soil profile in response to three years of experimental warming and altered precipitation in a Tibetan alpine grassland. We found that warming significantly increased soil nitrate N stock and decreased microbial biomass N (MBN) stock. Increased precipitation reduced nitrate N, dissolved organic N and amino acid N stocks, but increased MBN stock in the topsoil. No change in soil total N was detected under warming and altered precipitation regimes. Redundancy analysis further revealed that soil moisture (26.3%) overrode soil temperature (10.4%) in explaining the variations of soil N stocks across the treatments. Our results suggest that precipitation exerted stronger influence than warming on soil N pools in this mesic and high-elevation grassland ecosystem. This indicates that the projected rise in future precipitation may lead to a significant loss of dissolved soil N pools by stimulating the biogeochemical processes in this alpine grassland. PMID:27527683

  5. Vertical structure of recent Arctic warming.

    PubMed

    Graversen, Rune G; Mauritsen, Thorsten; Tjernström, Michael; Källén, Erland; Svensson, Gunilla

    2008-01-03

    Near-surface warming in the Arctic has been almost twice as large as the global average over recent decades-a phenomenon that is known as the 'Arctic amplification'. The underlying causes of this temperature amplification remain uncertain. The reduction in snow and ice cover that has occurred over recent decades may have played a role. Climate model experiments indicate that when global temperature rises, Arctic snow and ice cover retreats, causing excessive polar warming. Reduction of the snow and ice cover causes albedo changes, and increased refreezing of sea ice during the cold season and decreases in sea-ice thickness both increase heat flux from the ocean to the atmosphere. Changes in oceanic and atmospheric circulation, as well as cloud cover, have also been proposed to cause Arctic temperature amplification. Here we examine the vertical structure of temperature change in the Arctic during the late twentieth century using reanalysis data. We find evidence for temperature amplification well above the surface. Snow and ice feedbacks cannot be the main cause of the warming aloft during the greater part of the year, because these feedbacks are expected to primarily affect temperatures in the lowermost part of the atmosphere, resulting in a pattern of warming that we only observe in spring. A significant proportion of the observed temperature amplification must therefore be explained by mechanisms that induce warming above the lowermost part of the atmosphere. We regress the Arctic temperature field on the atmospheric energy transport into the Arctic and find that, in the summer half-year, a significant proportion of the vertical structure of warming can be explained by changes in this variable. We conclude that changes in atmospheric heat transport may be an important cause of the recent Arctic temperature amplification.

  6. Leaf anatomy, BVOC emission and CO2 exchange of arctic plants following snow addition and summer warming

    PubMed Central

    Schollert, Michelle; Kivimäenpää, Minna; Michelsen, Anders; Blok, Daan; Rinnan, Riikka

    2017-01-01

    Background and Aims Climate change in the Arctic is projected to increase temperature, precipitation and snowfall. This may alter leaf anatomy and gas exchange either directly or indirectly. Our aim was to assess whether increased snow depth and warming modify leaf anatomy and affect biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions and CO2 exchange of the widespread arctic shrubs Betula nana and Empetrum nigrum ssp. hermaphroditum. Methods Measurements were conducted in a full-factorial field experiment in Central West Greenland, with passive summer warming by open-top chambers and snow addition using snow fences. Leaf anatomy was assessed using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. BVOC emissions were measured using a dynamic enclosure system and collection of BVOCs into adsorbent cartridges analysed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Carbon dioxide exchange was measured using an infrared gas analyser. Key Results Despite a later snowmelt and reduced photosynthesis for B. nana especially, no apparent delays in the BVOC emissions were observed in response to snow addition. Only a few effects of the treatments were seen for the BVOC emissions, with sesquiterpenes being the most responsive compound group. Snow addition affected leaf anatomy by increasing the glandular trichome density in B. nana and modifying the mesophyll of E. hermaphroditum. The open-top chambers thickened the epidermis of B. nana, while increasing the glandular trichome density and reducing the palisade:spongy mesophyll ratio in E. hermaphroditum. Conclusions Leaf anatomy was modified by both treatments already after the first winter and we suggest links between leaf anatomy, CO2 exchange and BVOC emissions. While warming is likely to reduce soil moisture, melt water from a deeper snow pack alleviates water stress in the early growing season. The study emphasizes the ecological importance of changes in winter precipitation in the Arctic, which can interact with climate-warming

  7. Warming reinforces nonconsumptive predator effects on prey growth, physiology, and body stoichiometry.

    PubMed

    Janssens, Lizanne; Van Dievel, Marie; Stoks, Robby

    2015-12-01

    While nonconsumptive effects of predators may strongly affect prey populations, little is known how future warming will modulate these effects. Such information would be especially relevant with regard to prey physiology and resulting changes in prey stoichiometry. We investigated in Enallagma cyathigerum damselfly larvae the effects of a 4°C warming (20°C vs. 24°C) and predation risk on growth rate, physiology and body stoichiometry, for the first time including all key mechanisms suggested by the general stress paradigm (GSP) on how stressors shape changes in body stoichiometry. Growth rate and energy storage were higher at 24°C. Based on thermodynamic principles and the growth rate hypothesis, we could demonstrate predictable reductions in body C:P under warming and link these to the increase in P-rich RNA; the associated warming-induced decrease in C:N may be explained by the increased synthesis of N-rich proteins. Yet, under predation risk, growth rate instead decreased with warming and the warming-induced decreases in C:N and C:P disappeared. As predicted by the GSP, larvae increased body C:N and C:P at 24°C under predation risk. Notably, we did not detect the assumed GSP-mechanisms driving these changes: despite an increased metabolic rate there was neither an increase of C-rich biomolecules (instead fat and sugar contents decreased under predation risk), nor a decrease of N-rich proteins. We hypothesize that the higher C:N and N:P under predation risk are caused by a higher investment in morphological defense. This may also explain the stronger predator-induced increase in C:N under warming. The expected higher C:P under predation risk was only present under warming and matched the observed growth reduction and associated reduction in P-rich RNA. Our integrated mechanistic approach unraveled novel pathways of how warming and predation risk shape body stoichiometry. Key findings that (1) warming effects on elemental stoichiometry were predictable and

  8. Global metabolic impacts of recent climate warming.

    PubMed

    Dillon, Michael E; Wang, George; Huey, Raymond B

    2010-10-07

    Documented shifts in geographical ranges, seasonal phenology, community interactions, genetics and extinctions have been attributed to recent global warming. Many such biotic shifts have been detected at mid- to high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere-a latitudinal pattern that is expected because warming is fastest in these regions. In contrast, shifts in tropical regions are expected to be less marked because warming is less pronounced there. However, biotic impacts of warming are mediated through physiology, and metabolic rate, which is a fundamental measure of physiological activity and ecological impact, increases exponentially rather than linearly with temperature in ectotherms. Therefore, tropical ectotherms (with warm baseline temperatures) should experience larger absolute shifts in metabolic rate than the magnitude of tropical temperature change itself would suggest, but the impact of climate warming on metabolic rate has never been quantified on a global scale. Here we show that estimated changes in terrestrial metabolic rates in the tropics are large, are equivalent in magnitude to those in the north temperate-zone regions, and are in fact far greater than those in the Arctic, even though tropical temperature change has been relatively small. Because of temperature's nonlinear effects on metabolism, tropical organisms, which constitute much of Earth's biodiversity, should be profoundly affected by recent and projected climate warming.

  9. Response of ocean ecosystems to climate warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sarmiento, J. L.; Slater, R.; Barber, R.; Bopp, L.; Doney, S. C.; Hirst, A. C.; Kleypas, J.; Matear, R.; Mikolajewicz, U.; Monfray, P.; Soldatov, V.; Spall, S. A.; Stouffer, R.

    2004-09-01

    We examine six different coupled climate model simulations to determine the ocean biological response to climate warming between the beginning of the industrial revolution and 2050. We use vertical velocity, maximum winter mixed layer depth, and sea ice cover to define six biomes. Climate warming leads to a contraction of the highly productive marginal sea ice biome by 42% in the Northern Hemisphere and 17% in the Southern Hemisphere, and leads to an expansion of the low productivity permanently stratified subtropical gyre biome by 4.0% in the Northern Hemisphere and 9.4% in the Southern Hemisphere. In between these, the subpolar gyre biome expands by 16% in the Northern Hemisphere and 7% in the Southern Hemisphere, and the seasonally stratified subtropical gyre contracts by 11% in both hemispheres. The low-latitude (mostly coastal) upwelling biome area changes only modestly. Vertical stratification increases, which would be expected to decrease nutrient supply everywhere, but increase the growing season length in high latitudes. We use satellite ocean color and climatological observations to develop an empirical model for predicting chlorophyll from the physical properties of the global warming simulations. Four features stand out in the response to global warming: (1) a drop in chlorophyll in the North Pacific due primarily to retreat of the marginal sea ice biome, (2) a tendency toward an increase in chlorophyll in the North Atlantic due to a complex combination of factors, (3) an increase in chlorophyll in the Southern Ocean due primarily to the retreat of and changes at the northern boundary of the marginal sea ice zone, and (4) a tendency toward a decrease in chlorophyll adjacent to the Antarctic continent due primarily to freshening within the marginal sea ice zone. We use three different primary production algorithms to estimate the response of primary production to climate warming based on our estimated chlorophyll concentrations. The three algorithms give

  10. Stronger warming effects on microbial abundances in colder regions

    PubMed Central

    Chen, Ji; Luo, Yiqi; Xia, Jianyang; Jiang, Lifen; Zhou, Xuhui; Lu, Meng; Liang, Junyi; Shi, Zheng; Shelton, Shelby; Cao, Junji

    2015-01-01

    Soil microbes play critical roles in regulating terrestrial carbon (C) cycle and its feedback to climate change. However, it is still unclear how the soil microbial community and abundance respond to future climate change scenarios. In this meta-analysis, we synthesized the responses of microbial community and abundance to experimental warming from 64 published field studies. Our results showed that warming significantly increased soil microbial abundance by 7.6% on average. When grouped by vegetation or soil types, tundras and histosols had the strongest microbial responses to warming with increased microbial, fungal, and bacterial abundances by 15.0%, 9.5% and 37.0% in tundra, and 16.5%, 13.2% and 13.3% in histosols, respectively. We found significant negative relationships of the response ratios of microbial, fungal and bacterial abundances with the mean annual temperature, indicating that warming had stronger effects in colder than warmer regions. Moreover, the response ratios of microbial abundance to warming were positively correlated with those of soil respiration. Our findings therefore indicate that the large quantities of C stored in colder regions are likely to be more vulnerable to climate warming than the soil C stored in other warmer regions. PMID:26658882

  11. Evaluating the Dominant Components of Warming in Pliocene Climate Simulations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hill, D. J.; Haywood, A. M.; Lunt, D. J.; Hunter, S. J.; Bragg, F. J.; Contoux, C.; Stepanek, C.; Sohl, L.; Rosenbloom, N. A.; Chan, W.-L.; hide

    2014-01-01

    The Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP) is the first coordinated climate model comparison for a warmer palaeoclimate with atmospheric CO2 significantly higher than pre-industrial concentrations. The simulations of the mid-Pliocene warm period show global warming of between 1.8 and 3.6 C above pre-industrial surface air temperatures, with significant polar amplification. Here we perform energy balance calculations on all eight of the coupled ocean-atmosphere simulations within PlioMIP Experiment 2 to evaluate the causes of the increased temperatures and differences between the models. In the tropics simulated warming is dominated by greenhouse gas increases, with the cloud component of planetary albedo enhancing the warming in most of the models, but by widely varying amounts. The responses to mid-Pliocene climate forcing in the Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes are substantially different between the climate models, with the only consistent response being a warming due to increased greenhouse gases. In the high latitudes all the energy balance components become important, but the dominant warming influence comes from the clear sky albedo, only partially offset by the increases in the cooling impact of cloud albedo. This demonstrates the importance of specified ice sheet and high latitude vegetation boundary conditions and simulated sea ice and snow albedo feedbacks. The largest components in the overall uncertainty are associated with clouds in the tropics and polar clear sky albedo, particularly in sea ice regions. These simulations show that albedo feedbacks, particularly those of sea ice and ice sheets, provide the most significant enhancements to high latitude warming in the Pliocene.

  12. Biotic responses buffer warming-induced soil organic carbon loss in Arctic tundra.

    PubMed

    Liang, Junyi; Xia, Jiangyang; Shi, Zheng; Jiang, Lifen; Ma, Shuang; Lu, Xingjie; Mauritz, Marguerite; Natali, Susan M; Pegoraro, Elaine; Penton, C Ryan; Plaza, César; Salmon, Verity G; Celis, Gerardo; Cole, James R; Konstantinidis, Konstantinos T; Tiedje, James M; Zhou, Jizhong; Schuur, Edward A G; Luo, Yiqi

    2018-05-26

    Climate warming can result in both abiotic (e.g., permafrost thaw) and biotic (e.g., microbial functional genes) changes in Arctic tundra. Recent research has incorporated dynamic permafrost thaw in Earth system models (ESMs) and indicates that Arctic tundra could be a significant future carbon (C) source due to the enhanced decomposition of thawed deep soil C. However, warming-induced biotic changes may influence biologically related parameters and the consequent projections in ESMs. How model parameters associated with biotic responses will change under warming and to what extent these changes affect projected C budgets have not been carefully examined. In this study, we synthesized six data sets over five years from a soil warming experiment at the Eight Mile Lake, Alaska, into the Terrestrial ECOsystem (TECO) model with a probabilistic inversion approach. The TECO model used multiple soil layers to track dynamics of thawed soil under different treatments. Our results show that warming increased light use efficiency of vegetation photosynthesis but decreased baseline (i.e., environment-corrected) turnover rates of SOC in both the fast and slow pools in comparison with those under control. Moreover, the parameter changes generally amplified over time, suggesting processes of gradual physiological acclimation and functional gene shifts of both plants and microbes. The TECO model predicted that field warming from 2009 to 2013 resulted in cumulative C losses of 224 or 87 g m -2 , respectively, without or with changes in those parameters. Thus, warming-induced parameter changes reduced predicted soil C loss by 61%. Our study suggests that it is critical to incorporate biotic changes in ESMs to improve the model performance in predicting C dynamics in permafrost regions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

  13. Microbial Community Activity is Insensitive to Passive Warming in a Semiarid Ecosystem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Espinosa, N. J.; Gallery, R. E.; Fehmi, J. S.

    2016-12-01

    Soil microorganisms drive ecosystem nutrient cycling through the production of extracellular enzymes, which facilitate organic matter decomposition, and the flux of large amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Although aird and semiarid ecosystems occupy over 40% of land cover and are projected to expand due to climate change, much of our current understanding of these processes comes from mesic temperate ecosystems. Semiarid ecosystems have added complexity due to the widespread biological adaptations to infrequent and discreet precipitation pulses, which enable biological activity to persist throughout dry periods and thrive following seasonal precipitation events. Additionally, the intricacies of plant-microbe interactions and the response of these interactions to a warmer climate and increased precipitation variability in semiarid ecosystems present a continued challenge for climate change research. In this study, we used a passive warming experiment with added plant debris as either woodchip or biochar, to simulate different long-term carbon additions to two common semiarid soils. The response of soil respiration, plant biomass, and microbial activity was monitored bi-annually. We hypothesized that microbial activity would increase with temperature manipulations when soil moisture limitation was alleviated by summer precipitation. The passive warming treatment was most pronounced during periods of daily and seasonal temperature maxima. For all seven hydrolytic enzymes examined, there was no significant response to experimental warming, regardless of seasonal climatic and soil moisture variation. Surprisingly, soil respiration responded positively to warming for certain carbon additions and seasons, which did not correspond with a similar response in plant biomass. The enzyme results observed here are consistent with the few other experimental results for warming in semiarid ecosystems and indicate that the soil microbial community activity of semiarid

  14. Does the climate warming hiatus exist over the Tibetan Plateau?

    PubMed Central

    Duan, Anmin; Xiao, Zhixiang

    2015-01-01

    The surface air temperature change over the Tibetan Plateau is determined based on historical observations from 1980 to 2013. In contrast to the cooling trend in the rest of China, and the global warming hiatus post-1990s, an accelerated warming trend has appeared over the Tibetan Plateau during 1998–2013 (0.25 °C decade−1), compared with that during 1980–1997 (0.21 °C decade−1). Further results indicate that, to some degree, such an accelerated warming trend might be attributable to cloud–radiation feedback. The increased nocturnal cloud over the northern Tibetan Plateau would warm the nighttime temperature via enhanced atmospheric back-radiation, while the decreased daytime cloud over the southern Tibetan Plateau would induce the daytime sunshine duration to increase, resulting in surface air temperature warming. Meanwhile, the in situ surface wind speed has recovered gradually since 1998, and thus the energy concentration cannot explain the accelerated warming trend over the Tibetan Plateau after the 1990s. It is suggested that cloud–radiation feedback may play an important role in modulating the recent accelerated warming trend over the Tibetan Plateau. PMID:26329678

  15. Does the climate warming hiatus exist over the Tibetan Plateau?

    PubMed

    Duan, Anmin; Xiao, Zhixiang

    2015-09-02

    The surface air temperature change over the Tibetan Plateau is determined based on historical observations from 1980 to 2013. In contrast to the cooling trend in the rest of China, and the global warming hiatus post-1990s, an accelerated warming trend has appeared over the Tibetan Plateau during 1998-2013 (0.25 °C decade(-1)), compared with that during 1980-1997 (0.21 °C decade(-1)). Further results indicate that, to some degree, such an accelerated warming trend might be attributable to cloud-radiation feedback. The increased nocturnal cloud over the northern Tibetan Plateau would warm the nighttime temperature via enhanced atmospheric back-radiation, while the decreased daytime cloud over the southern Tibetan Plateau would induce the daytime sunshine duration to increase, resulting in surface air temperature warming. Meanwhile, the in situ surface wind speed has recovered gradually since 1998, and thus the energy concentration cannot explain the accelerated warming trend over the Tibetan Plateau after the 1990s. It is suggested that cloud-radiation feedback may play an important role in modulating the recent accelerated warming trend over the Tibetan Plateau.

  16. Prognostic factors for patients undergoing vitrified-warmed human embryo transfer cycles: a retrospective cohort study.

    PubMed

    Takahashi, Toshifumi; Hasegawa, Ayumi; Igarashi, Hideki; Amita, Mitsuyoshi; Matsukawa, Jun; Takehara, Isao; Suzuki, Satoko; Nagase, Satoru

    2017-06-01

    We examined the prognostic factors for pregnancy in 210 vitrified-warmed embryo transfer (ET) cycles in 121 patients. The univariate analysis showed that age, gravida, the number of cycles associated with infertility caused by endometriosis, the number of previous assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment cycles, and the number of ICSI procedures were significantly lower in pregnant cycles compared with non-pregnant cycles. The percentages of ET using at least one intact embryo and of ET using at least one embryo that had developed further after warming were significantly higher in pregnant cycles compared with non-pregnant cycles. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that previous ART treatment cycles, ET with at least one intact embryo, and ET using at least one embryo that had developed further were independent prognostic factors for pregnancy in vitrified-warmed ET cycles. We conclude that fewer previous ART treatment cycles, ET using at least one intact embryo, and ET with embryos that have developed further after warming might be favourable prognostic factors for pregnancy in vitrified-warmed ET cycles.

  17. The response of vegetation structure to active warming and precipitation reduction of the Sphagnum peatland

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Łuców, Dominika; Basińska, Anna; Chojnicki, Bogdan; Gąbka, Maciej; Józefczyk, Damian; Juszczak, Radosław; Leśny, Jacek; Olejnik, Janusz; Reczuga, Monika; Samson, Mateusz; Silvennoinen, Hanna; Stróżecki, Marcin; Urbaniak, Marek; Zielińska, Małgorzata; Lamentowicz, Mariusz

    2017-04-01

    The recent climate change (e.g. increased temperature and decreased precipitation) is expected to affect biodiversity and vegetation structure of the European peatlands, as well as carbon fluxes. Our experimental study carried out in Western Poland, tests the hypothesis that the increased temperature, in particular in combination with rainfall reduction affects vegetation structure of the Sphagnum peatland, through changes in moss and vascular plants abundance. The innovative climate manipulation system was installed on the Rzecin peatland in 2014. The field site consists of four blocks: "drought" "warming and drought" "warming" and "control". The air and peat temperatures were increased in 2015 and 2016 by about 0.2 oC and 1.0 oC, respectively, using infrared radiators. Precipitation was reduced by automatic curtain operated only during the nights by about 37 % in both years. Data resulting from the analyses of digital pictures as well as Point Intercept method were used to identify changes in vegetation structure as a response to warming and drought. We observed increase in abundance of vascular plant and decrease in abundance of mosses during the very dry 2015 vegetation season. It appeared that Carex spp. (C. limosa and C. rostrata) abundance responded positively to warming, while Sphagnum spp. (S. angustifolium and S. teres) responded negatively. The "warming" block was characterized by an increase in abundance of Carex spp. by 8.3 % to 16.7 % and decreased abundance of Sphagnum spp. from 25 % to 19.4 %, whereas in the block of "warming and drought" 11.4 % to by 18.3 and 38 % to 26.9 %, respectively in the August 2015. However, we observed decrease in Sphagnum spp. abundance in the treatment with rainfall reduction in wetter 2016, and their increase in the control. Our results show how considerable changes in vegetation structure can be expected under the stress of warming and modified rainfall conditions, even after a short-term manipulation. However, it is

  18. Abrupt warming of the Red Sea

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Raitsos, D. E.; Hoteit, I.; Prihartato, P. K.; Chronis, T.; Triantafyllou, G.; Abualnaja, Y.

    2011-07-01

    Coral reef ecosystems, often referred to as “marine rainforests,” concentrate the most diverse life in the oceans. Red Sea reef dwellers are adapted in a very warm environment, fact that makes them vulnerable to further and rapid warming. The detection and understanding of abrupt temperature changes is an important task, as ecosystems have more chances to adapt in a slowly rather than in a rapid changing environment. Using satellite derived sea surface and ground based air temperatures, it is shown that the Red Sea is going through an intense warming initiated in the mid-90s, with evidence for an abrupt increase after 1994 (0.7°C difference pre and post the shift). The air temperature is found to be a key parameter that influences the Red Sea marine temperature. The comparisons with Northern Hemisphere temperatures revealed that the observed warming is part of global climate change trends. The hitherto results also raise additional questions regarding other broader climatic impacts over the area.

  19. Long-term sensitivity of soil carbon turnover to warming.

    PubMed

    Knorr, W; Prentice, I C; House, J I; Holland, E A

    2005-01-20

    The sensitivity of soil carbon to warming is a major uncertainty in projections of carbon dioxide concentration and climate. Experimental studies overwhelmingly indicate increased soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition at higher temperatures, resulting in increased carbon dioxide emissions from soils. However, recent findings have been cited as evidence against increased soil carbon emissions in a warmer world. In soil warming experiments, the initially increased carbon dioxide efflux returns to pre-warming rates within one to three years, and apparent carbon pool turnover times are insensitive to temperature. It has already been suggested that the apparent lack of temperature dependence could be an artefact due to neglecting the extreme heterogeneity of soil carbon, but no explicit model has yet been presented that can reconcile all the above findings. Here we present a simple three-pool model that partitions SOC into components with different intrinsic turnover rates. Using this model, we show that the results of all the soil-warming experiments are compatible with long-term temperature sensitivity of SOC turnover: they can be explained by rapid depletion of labile SOC combined with the negligible response of non-labile SOC on experimental timescales. Furthermore, we present evidence that non-labile SOC is more sensitive to temperature than labile SOC, implying that the long-term positive feedback of soil decomposition in a warming world may be even stronger than predicted by global models.

  20. Plant size and leaf area influence phenological and reproductive responses to warming in semiarid Mediterranean species.

    PubMed

    Valencia, Enrique; Méndez, Marcos; Saavedra, Noelia; Maestre, Fernando T

    2016-08-01

    Changes in vegetative and reproductive phenology rank among the most obvious plant responses to climate change. These responses vary broadly among species, but it is largely unknown whether they are mediated by functional attributes, such as size or foliar traits. Using a manipulative experiment conducted over two growing seasons, we evaluated the responses in reproductive phenology and output of 14 Mediterranean semiarid species belonging to three functional groups (grasses, nitrogen-fixing legumes and forbs) to a ~3°C increase in temperature, and assessed how leaf and size traits influenced them. Overall, warming advanced flowering and fruiting phenology, extended the duration of flowering and reduced the production of flowers and fruits. The observed reduction in flower and fruit production with warming was likely related to the decrease in soil moisture promoted by this treatment. Phenological responses to warming did not vary among functional groups, albeit forbs had an earlier reproductive phenology than legumes and grasses. Larger species with high leaf area, as well as those with small specific leaf area, had an earlier flowering and a longer flowering duration. The effects of warming on plant size and leaf traits were related to those on reproductive phenology and reproductive output. Species that decreased their leaf area under warming advanced more the onset of flowering, while those that increased their vegetative height produced more flowers. Our results advance our understanding of the phenological responses to warming of Mediterranean semiarid species, and highlight the key role of traits such as plant size and leaf area as determinants of such responses.

  1. [Controlled observation of the efficacy between floating acupuncture at Tianying point and warm-needling therapy for supraspinous ligament injury].

    PubMed

    Li, Xin-Wei; Shao, Xiao-Mei; Tan, Ke-Ping; Fang, Jian-Qiao

    2013-04-01

    To compare the efficacy difference in the treatment of supraspinous ligament injury between floating acupuncture at Tianying point and the conventional warm needling therapy. Ninety patients were randomized into a floating acupuncture group and a warm needling group, 45 cases in each one. In the floating acupuncture group, the floating needling technique was adopted at Tianying point. In the warm needling group, the conventional warm needling therapy was applied at Tianying point as the chief point in the prescription. The treatment was given 3 times a week and 6 treatments made one session. The visual analogue scale (VAS) was adopted for pain comparison before and after treatment of the patients in two groups and the efficacy in two groups were assessed. The curative and remarkably effective rate was 81.8% (36/44) in the floating acupuncture group and the total effective rate was 95.5% (42/44), which were superior to 44.2% (19/43) and 79.1% (34/43) in the warm needling group separately (P < 0.01, P < 0.05). VAS score was lower as compared with that before treatment of the patients in two groups (both P < 0.01) and the score in the floating acupuncture group was lower than that in the warm needling group after treatment (P < 0.01). Thirty-six cases were cured and remarkably effective in the floating acupuncture group after treatment, in which 28 cases were cured and remarkably effective in 3 treatments, accounting for 77.8 (28/36), which was apparently higher than 26.3 (5/19) in the warm-needling group (P < 0.01). The floating acupuncture at Tianying point achieves the quick and definite efficacy on supraspinous ligament injury and presents the apparent analgesic effect. The efficacy is superior to the conventional warm-needling therapy.

  2. Change of ENSO characteristics in response to global warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sun, X.; Xia, Y.; Yan, Y.; Feng, W.; Huang, F.; Yang, X. Q.

    2017-12-01

    By using datasets of HadISST monthly SST from 1895 to 2014 and 600-year simulations of two CESM model experiments with/without doubling of CO2 concentration, ENSO characteristics are compared pre- and post- global warming. The main results are as follows. Due to global warming, the maximum climatological SST warming occurs in the tropical western Pacific (La Niña-like background warming) and the tropical eastern Pacific (El Niño-like background warming) for observations and model, respectively, resulting in opposite zonal SST gradient anomalies in the tropical Pacific. The La Niña-like background warming induces intense surface divergence in the tropical central Pacific, which enhances the easterly trade winds in the tropical central-western Pacific and shifts the strongest ocean-atmosphere coupling westward, correspondingly. On the contrary, the El Niño-like background warming causes westerly winds in the whole tropical Pacific and moves the strongest ocean-atmosphere coupling eastward. Under the La Niña-like background warming, ENSO tends to develop and mature in the tropical central Pacific, because the background easterly wind anomaly weakens the ENSO-induced westerly wind anomaly in the tropical western Pacific, leading to the so-called "Central Pacific ENSO (CP ENSO)". However, the so-called "Eastern Pacific ENSO (EP ENSO)" is likely formed due to increased westerly wind anomaly by the El Niño-like background warming. ENSO lifetime is significantly extended under both the El Niño-like and the La Niña-like background warmings, and especially, it can be prolonged by up to 3 months in the situation of El Niño-like background warming. The prolonged El Nino lifetime mainly applies to extreme El Niño events, which is caused by earlier outbreak of the westerly wind bursts, shallower climatological thermocline depth and weaker "discharge" rate of the ENSO warm signal in response to global warming. Results from both observations and the model also show that

  3. Simulation of future global warming scenarios in rice paddies with an open-field warming facility

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    To simulate expected future global warming, hexagonal arrays of infrared heaters have previously been used to warm open-field canopies of upland crops such as wheat. Through the use of concrete-anchored posts, improved software, overhead wires, extensive grounding, and monitoring with a thermal camera, the technology was safely and reliably extended to paddy rice fields. The system maintained canopy temperature increases within 0.5°C of daytime and nighttime set-point differences of 1.3 and 2.7°C 67% of the time. PMID:22145582

  4. Net carbon uptake has increased through warming-induced changes in temperate forest phenology

    Treesearch

    Trevor F. Keenan; Josh Gray; Mark A. Friedl; Michael Toomey; Gil Bohrer; David Y. Hollinger; J. William Munger; John O’Keefe; Hans Peter Schmid; Ian Sue Wing; Bai Yang; Andrew D. Richardson

    2014-01-01

    The timing of phenological events exerts a strong control over ecosystem function and leads to multiple feedbacks to the climate system1. Phenology is inherently sensitive to temperature (although the exact sensitivity is disputed2) and recent warming is reported to have led to earlier spring, later autumn3,4...

  5. Global Warming Threatens National Interests in the Arctic

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-03-26

    Global warming has impacted the Arctic Ocean by significantly reducing the extent of the summer ice cover allowing greater access to the region...increased operations in the Arctic region, and DoD must continue to research and develop new and alternate energy sources for its forces. Global warming is

  6. Effects of a Circulating-water Garment and Forced-air Warming on Body Heat Content and Core Temperature

    PubMed Central

    Taguchi, Akiko; Ratnaraj, Jebadurai; Kabon, Barbara; Sharma, Neeru; Lenhardt, Rainer; Sessler, Daniel I.

    2005-01-01

    Background: Forced-air warming is sometimes unable to maintain perioperative normothermia. We therefore compared heat transfer, regional heat distribution, and core rewarming of forced-air warming with a novel circulating-water garment. Methods: Nine volunteers were each evaluated on two randomly ordered study days. They were anesthetized and cooled to a core temperature near 34°C. The volunteers were subsequently warmed for 2.5 hours with either a circulating-water garment or forced-air cover. Overall, heat balance was determined from the difference between cutaneous heat loss (thermal flux transducers) and metabolic heat production (oxygen consumption). Average arm and leg (peripheral) tissue temperatures were determined from 18 intramuscular needle thermocouples, 15 skin thermal flux transducers, and “deep” arm and foot thermometers. Results: Heat production (≈ 60 kcal/h) and loss (≈45 kcal/h) were similar with each treatment before warming. The increase in heat transfer across anterior portions of the skin surface was similar with each warming system (≈65 kcal/h). Forced-air warming had no effect on posterior heat transfer whereas circulating-water transferred 21 ± 9 kcal/h through the posterior skin surface after a half hour of warming. Over 2.5 h, circulating-water thus increased body heat content 56% more than forced air. Core temperatures thus increased faster than with circulating water than forced air, especially during the first hour, with the result that core temperature was 1.1 ± 0.7°C greater after 2.5 h (P < 0.001). Peripheral tissue heat content increased twice as much as core heat content with each device, but the core-to-peripheral tissue temperature gradient remained positive throughout the study. Conclusions: The circulating-water system transferred more heat than forced air, with the difference resulting largely from posterior heating. Circulating water rewarmed patients 0.4°C/h faster than forced air. A substantial peripheral

  7. The Question of Future Droughts in a CO2-Warmed World

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rind, David

    1999-01-01

    Increased droughts are to be expected in a warmer world, and so are increased floods. A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, and evaporate more water from the surface. Thus, when it is not raining, available soil water should be reduced. When it is raining, it could very well rain harder. Most researchers agree then that a warmer world will have greater hydrologic extremes. In addition, there is a basic imbalance that develops as climate warms, between the loss of moisture from the soil by evaporation and replenishment via precipitation. The land has a smaller heat capacity than the ocean, so it should warm faster. Evaporation from the land proceeds at the rate of its warming, while precipitation derives primarily from evaporation at the ocean surface. As the latter is increasing more slowly, in a warmer world, precipitation will not increase as rapidly as evaporation due to the fact that the oceans warm more slowly than the land surface (evaporation over the ocean is slower than over the land). Hence, more droughts are anticipated in a warmer world, but the specific location of such droughts is somewhat uncertain. To address the question of where droughts are likely to occur, one first needs to have a reasonable sense of what the future magnitude of warming will be, and what the latitudinal distribution of warming will be. For example, the greater the warming at high latitudes relative to low latitudes, the more likely there will be increased drought over the U.S. in summer. In contrast, substantial tropical warming could give us El Nino-like precipitation, with intensified flooding along the southern tier of the U.S. All of these conditions are likely to intensify as the global temperature rises.

  8. Effects of a warm compress containing menthol on the tear film in healthy subjects and dry eye patients

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arita, Reiko; Morishige, Naoyuki; Sakamoto, Ichiro; Imai, Natsuko; Shimada, Yuko; Igaki, Michihito; Suzuki, Atsushi; Itoh, Kouzo; Tsubota, Kazuo

    2017-04-01

    Menthol is thought to stimulate lacrimation via activation of cold-sensitive primary afferent neurons in the cornea. We evaluated a warm compress containing menthol as a potential treatment for dry eye by examining its effects on the tear film in healthy subjects (n = 20) and dry eye patients (n = 35). Disposable eyelid-warming steamers that either did (MH) or did not (HO) contain menthol were applied to one eye of each subject either once only for 10 min or repeatedly over 2 weeks. Single application of MH significantly increased tear meniscus volume (P = 8.6 × 10-5, P = 1.3 × 10-5) and tear film breakup time (P = 0.006, P = 0.002) as well as improved meibum condition in healthy subjects and dry eye patients, respectively. Repeated application of MH significantly increased tear meniscus volume (P = 0.004, P = 1.7 × 10-4) and tear film breakup time (P = 0.037, P = 0.010) in healthy subjects and dry eye patients, respectively. Repeated application of MH thus induced persistent increases in tear fluid volume and tear film stability in dry eye patients, suggesting that repeated use of a warm compress containing menthol is a potential novel treatment for dry eye disease.

  9. Detecting Climate Signals in Precipitation Extremes from TRMM (1998-2013) - Increasing Contrast Between Wet and Dry Extremes During the "Global Warming Hiatus"

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wu, Huey-Tzu Jenny; Lau, William K.-M.

    2016-01-01

    We investigate changes in daily precipitation extremes using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) data (1998-2013), which coincides with the "global warming hiatus." Results show a change in probability distribution functions of local precipitation events (LPEs) during this period consistent with previous global warming studies, indicating increasing contrast between wet and dry extremes, with more intense LPE, less moderate LPE, and more dry (no rain) days globally. Analyses for land and ocean separately reveal more complex and nuanced changes over land, characterized by a strong positive trend (+12.0% per decade, 99% confidence level (c.l.)) in frequency of extreme LPEs over the Northern Hemisphere extratropics during the wet season but a negative global trend (-6.6% per decade, 95% c.l.) during the dry season. A significant global drying trend (3.2% per decade, 99% c.l.) over land is also found during the dry season. Regions of pronounced increased dry events include western and central U.S., northeastern Asia, and Southern Europe/Mediterranean.

  10. Stronger warming effects on microbial abundances in colder regions

    DOE PAGES

    Chen, Ji; Luo, Yiqi; Xia, Jianyang; ...

    2015-12-10

    Soil microbes play critical roles in regulating terrestrial carbon (C) cycle and its feedback to climate change. However, it is still unclear how the soil microbial community and abundance respond to future climate change scenarios. In this meta-analysis, we synthesized the responses of microbial community and abundance to experimental warming from 64 published field studies. Our results showed that warming significantly increased soil microbial abundance by 7.6% on average. When grouped by vegetation or soil types, tundras and histosols had the strongest microbial responses to warming with increased microbial, fungal, and bacterial abundances by 15.0%, 9.5% and 37.0% in tundra,more » and 16.5%, 13.2% and 13.3% in histosols, respectively. We found significant negative relationships of the response ratios of microbial, fungal and bacterial abundances with the mean annual temperature, indicating that warming had stronger effects in colder than warmer regions. Moreover, the response ratios of microbial abundance to warming were positively correlated with those of soil respiration. Our results therefore indicate that the large quantities of C stored in colder regions are likely to be more vulnerable to climate warming than the soil C stored in other warmer regions.« less

  11. Short-term herbivory has long-term consequences in warmed and ambient high Arctic tundra

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Little, Chelsea J.; Cutting, Helen; Alatalo, Juha; Cooper, Elisabeth

    2017-02-01

    Climate change is occurring across the world, with effects varying by ecosystem and region but already occurring quickly in high-latitude and high-altitude regions. Biotic interactions are important in determining ecosystem response to such changes, but few studies have been long-term in nature, especially in the High Arctic. Mesic tundra plots on Svalbard, Norway, were subjected to grazing at two different intensities by captive Barnacle geese from 2003-2005, in a factorial design with warming by Open Top Chambers. Warming manipulations were continued through 2014, when we measured vegetation structure and composition as well as growth and reproduction of three dominant species in the mesic meadow. Significantly more dead vascular plant material was found in warmed compared to ambient plots, regardless of grazing history, but in contrast to many short-term experiments no difference in the amount of living material was found. This has strong implications for nutrient and carbon cycling and could feed back into community productivity. Dominant species showed increased flowering in warmed plots, especially in those plots where grazing had been applied. However, this added sexual reproduction did not translate to substantial shifts in vegetative cover. Forbs and rushes increased slightly in warmed plots regardless of grazing, while the dominant shrub, Salix polaris, generally declined with effects dependent on grazing, and the evergreen shrub Dryas octopetala declined with previous intensive grazing. There were no treatment effects on community diversity or evenness. Thus despite no changes in total live abundance, a typical short-term response to environmental conditions, we found pronounced changes in dead biomass indicating that tundra ecosystem processes respond to medium- to long-term changes in conditions caused by 12 seasons of summer warming. We suggest that while high arctic tundra plant communities are fairly resistant to current levels of climate warming

  12. Impact of Ocean Warming on Tropical Cyclone Size and Its Destructiveness.

    PubMed

    Sun, Yuan; Zhong, Zhong; Li, Tim; Yi, Lan; Hu, Yijia; Wan, Hongchao; Chen, Haishan; Liao, Qianfeng; Ma, Chen; Li, Qihua

    2017-08-15

    The response of tropical cyclone (TC) destructive potential to global warming is an open issue. A number of previous studies have ignored the effect of TC size change in the context of global warming, which resulted in a significant underestimation of the TC destructive potential. The lack of reliable and consistent historical data on TC size limits the confident estimation of the linkage between the observed trend in TC size and that in sea surface temperature (SST) under the background of global climate warming. A regional atmospheric model is used in the present study to investigate the response of TC size and TC destructive potential to increases in SST. The results show that a large-scale ocean warming can lead to not only TC intensification but also TC expansion. The TC size increase in response to the ocean warming is possibly attributed to the increase in atmospheric convective instability in the TC outer region below the middle troposphere, which facilitates the local development of grid-scale ascending motion, low-level convergence and the acceleration of tangential winds. The numerical results indicate that TCs will become stronger, larger, and unexpectedly more destructive under global warming.

  13. Climate warming enhances snow avalanche risk in the Western Himalayas

    PubMed Central

    Ballesteros-Cánovas, J. A.; Trappmann, D.; Madrigal-González, J.; Eckert, N.; Stoffel, M.

    2018-01-01

    Ongoing climate warming has been demonstrated to impact the cryosphere in the Indian Himalayas, with substantial consequences for the risk of disasters, human well-being, and terrestrial ecosystems. Here, we present evidence that the warming observed in recent decades has been accompanied by increased snow avalanche frequency in the Western Indian Himalayas. Using dendrogeomorphic techniques, we reconstruct the longest time series (150 y) of the occurrence and runout distances of snow avalanches that is currently available for the Himalayas. We apply a generalized linear autoregressive moving average model to demonstrate linkages between climate warming and the observed increase in the incidence of snow avalanches. Warming air temperatures in winter and early spring have indeed favored the wetting of snow and the formation of wet snow avalanches, which are now able to reach down to subalpine slopes, where they have high potential to cause damage. These findings contradict the intuitive notion that warming results in less snow, and thus lower avalanche activity, and have major implications for the Western Himalayan region, an area where human pressure is constantly increasing. Specifically, increasing traffic on a steadily expanding road network is calling for an immediate design of risk mitigation strategies and disaster risk policies to enhance climate change adaption in the wider study region. PMID:29535224

  14. Improvement of hepatic microhemodynamics by N-acetylcysteine after warm ischemia.

    PubMed

    Koeppel, T A; Thies, J C; Lehmann, T; Gebhard, M M; Herfarth, C; Otto, G; Post, S

    1996-01-01

    In this study we investigated the influence of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on the hepatic microcirculation after warm ischemia by intravital fluorescence microscopy. Clamping of the left liver lobe was performed in 20 male Wistar rats for 70 min. The treatment group (n = 10) received 400 mg NAC/kg body weight 20 min prior to clamping. After reperfusion, acinar and sinusoidal perfusions were observed as well as the leukocyte-endothelium interaction. Phagocytic activity was assessed after application of latex beads. NAC reduced the number of nonperfused sinusoids in all acinar zones. A reduction in zone 1 (portal) was achieved from 15.5 to 7.1% (p < 0.0001), in zone 2 (midzonal) from 14.6 to 6.1% (p < 0.0001) and in zone 3 (central) from 11.9 to 2.9% (p < 0.0001). There were no significant differences in leukocyte adherence as well as in phagocytic activity detectable. We conclude that NAC improves hepatic microcirculation after warm ischemia by increasing sinusoidal blood flow.

  15. Effects of warming and clipping on ecosystem carbon fluxes across two hydrologically contrasting years in an alpine meadow of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

    PubMed

    Peng, Fei; You, Quangang; Xu, Manhou; Guo, Jian; Wang, Tao; Xue, Xian

    2014-01-01

    Responses of ecosystem carbon (C) fluxes to human disturbance and climatic warming will affect terrestrial ecosystem C storage and feedback to climate change. We conducted a manipulative experiment to investigate the effects of warming and clipping on soil respiration (Rs), ecosystem respiration (ER), net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and gross ecosystem production (GEP) in an alpine meadow in a permafrost region during two hydrologically contrasting years (2012, with 29.9% higher precipitation than the long-term mean, and 2013, with 18.9% lower precipitation than the long-tem mean). Our results showed that GEP was higher than ER, leading to a net C sink (measured by NEE) over the two growing seasons. Warming significantly stimulated ecosystem C fluxes in 2012 but did not significantly affect these fluxes in 2013. On average, the warming-induced increase in GEP (1.49 µ mol m(-2) s(-1)) was higher than in ER (0.80 µ mol m(-2) s(-1)), resulting in an increase in NEE (0.70 µ mol m(-2) s(-1)). Clipping and its interaction with warming had no significant effects on C fluxes, whereas clipping significantly reduced aboveground biomass (AGB) by 51.5 g m(-2) in 2013. These results suggest the response of C fluxes to warming and clipping depends on hydrological variations. In the wet year, the warming treatment caused a reduction in water, but increases in soil temperature and AGB contributed to the positive response of ecosystem C fluxes to warming. In the dry year, the reduction in soil moisture, caused by warming, and the reduction in AGB, caused by clipping, were compensated by higher soil temperatures in warmed plots. Our findings highlight the importance of changes in soil moisture in mediating the responses of ecosystem C fluxes to climate warming in an alpine meadow ecosystem.

  16. Effects of Warming and Clipping on Ecosystem Carbon Fluxes across Two Hydrologically Contrasting Years in an Alpine Meadow of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

    PubMed Central

    Peng, Fei; You, Quangang; Xu, Manhou; Guo, Jian; Wang, Tao; Xue, Xian

    2014-01-01

    Responses of ecosystem carbon (C) fluxes to human disturbance and climatic warming will affect terrestrial ecosystem C storage and feedback to climate change. We conducted a manipulative experiment to investigate the effects of warming and clipping on soil respiration (Rs), ecosystem respiration (ER), net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and gross ecosystem production (GEP) in an alpine meadow in a permafrost region during two hydrologically contrasting years (2012, with 29.9% higher precipitation than the long-term mean, and 2013, with 18.9% lower precipitation than the long-tem mean). Our results showed that GEP was higher than ER, leading to a net C sink (measured by NEE) over the two growing seasons. Warming significantly stimulated ecosystem C fluxes in 2012 but did not significantly affect these fluxes in 2013. On average, the warming-induced increase in GEP (1.49 µ mol m−2s−1) was higher than in ER (0.80 µ mol m−2s−1), resulting in an increase in NEE (0.70 µ mol m−2s−1). Clipping and its interaction with warming had no significant effects on C fluxes, whereas clipping significantly reduced aboveground biomass (AGB) by 51.5 g m−2 in 2013. These results suggest the response of C fluxes to warming and clipping depends on hydrological variations. In the wet year, the warming treatment caused a reduction in water, but increases in soil temperature and AGB contributed to the positive response of ecosystem C fluxes to warming. In the dry year, the reduction in soil moisture, caused by warming, and the reduction in AGB, caused by clipping, were compensated by higher soil temperatures in warmed plots. Our findings highlight the importance of changes in soil moisture in mediating the responses of ecosystem C fluxes to climate warming in an alpine meadow ecosystem. PMID:25291187

  17. Simulated Warming Differentially Affects the Growth and Competitive Ability of Centaurea maculosa Populations from Home and Introduced Ranges

    PubMed Central

    He, Wei-Ming; Li, Jing-Ji; Peng, Pei-Hao

    2012-01-01

    Climate warming may drive invasions by exotic plants, thereby raising concerns over the risks of invasive plants. However, little is known about how climate warming influences the growth and competitive ability of exotic plants from their home and introduced ranges. We conducted a common garden experiment with an invasive plant Centaurea maculosa and a native plant Poa pratensis, in which a mixture of sand and vermiculite was used as a neutral medium, and contrasted the total biomass, competitive effects, and competitive responses of C. maculosa populations from Europe (home range) and North America (introduced range) under two different temperatures. The warming-induced inhibitory effects on the growth of C. maculosa alone were stronger in Europe than in North America. The competitive ability of C. maculosa plants from North America was greater than that of plants from Europe under the ambient condition whereas this competitive ability followed the opposite direction under the warming condition, suggesting that warming may enable European C. maculosa to be more invasive. Across two continents, warming treatment increased the competitive advantage instead of the growth advantage of C. maculosa, suggesting that climate warming may facilitate C. maculosa invasions through altering competitive outcomes between C. maculosa and its neighbors. Additionally, the growth response of C. maculosa to warming could predict its ability to avoid being suppressed by its neighbors. PMID:22303485

  18. Simulated warming differentially affects the growth and competitive ability of Centaurea maculosa populations from home and introduced ranges.

    PubMed

    He, Wei-Ming; Li, Jing-Ji; Peng, Pei-Hao

    2012-01-01

    Climate warming may drive invasions by exotic plants, thereby raising concerns over the risks of invasive plants. However, little is known about how climate warming influences the growth and competitive ability of exotic plants from their home and introduced ranges. We conducted a common garden experiment with an invasive plant Centaurea maculosa and a native plant Poa pratensis, in which a mixture of sand and vermiculite was used as a neutral medium, and contrasted the total biomass, competitive effects, and competitive responses of C. maculosa populations from Europe (home range) and North America (introduced range) under two different temperatures. The warming-induced inhibitory effects on the growth of C. maculosa alone were stronger in Europe than in North America. The competitive ability of C. maculosa plants from North America was greater than that of plants from Europe under the ambient condition whereas this competitive ability followed the opposite direction under the warming condition, suggesting that warming may enable European C. maculosa to be more invasive. Across two continents, warming treatment increased the competitive advantage instead of the growth advantage of C. maculosa, suggesting that climate warming may facilitate C. maculosa invasions through altering competitive outcomes between C. maculosa and its neighbors. Additionally, the growth response of C. maculosa to warming could predict its ability to avoid being suppressed by its neighbors.

  19. A note on antenna models in a warm isotropic plasma

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Singh, N.

    1980-01-01

    The electron-transparent and electron-reflecting models of antennas in a warm isotropic plasma are reexamined. It is shown that a purely electrical treatment of both the models without an explicit use of the boundary condition on electron velocity yields the same results as those previously obtained through an electromechanical treatment. The essential difference between the two models is that for the electron-reflecting model, fields are nonzero only in the exterior region, while for the electron-transparent model, they are nonzero both in the exterior and interior regions of the antenna. This distinction helps in clarifying some misconceptions about these models of antennas in warm isotropic plasma.

  20. Intermittent spring flooding of agricultural fields will increase net global-warming potential of greenhouse gas fluxes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Paul, R. F.; Smyth, E. M.; Smith, C. M.; Kantola, I. B.; Krichels, A.; Yang, W. H.; DeLucia, E. H.

    2014-12-01

    The U.S. Corn Belt is currently a net source of carbon dioxide and nitrous dioxide to the atmosphere but is also a weak sink for methane. Climate change is projected to increase the frequency and duration of spring precipitation in the North American Midwest, resulting in intermittent flooding and ponding in agricultural fields. Inundation changes the greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes of the soil, especially by promoting methanogenesis under anoxic conditions. DNA and 16S cDNA sequencing results of earlier, similar experiments confirmed the presence of methanogens in soil samples, albeit in low abundance (representing <0.01% of reads per sample). We installed collars into bare ground of a central Illinois research field to experiment with flooding conditions and observe changes in gas fluxes, microbial community, and soil chemistry. We established three treatments of five replicates—control, continuously flooded, and intermittently flooded—each with separate collars for gas flux measurements, soil sample collection, and soil probe measurements. A drip irrigation system flooded the headspaces of the collars to produce flooding events. The continuously flooded collars were maintained in a flooded condition for the duration of the experiment, and the intermittently flooded collars were flooded for 72 hours per flooding event and then kept dry for at least 5 days before the next flooding event. We measured net concentrations of N2O, CH4, and CO2 in situ using a static chamber connected to a cavity ringdown spectrometer. We found that the periodicity of wetting and drying events induces hysteresis effects that push GHG shifts to occur rapidly (< 1 hr). Integrating fluxes across the period of the experiment, the intermittently flooded collars showed 88.7% higher global-warming potential of GHG fluxes at the 100-year horizon versus control, with most of change driven by increased net CO2 flux (87.1% higher) and net methane flux (29 times higher). These data indicate that

  1. Local warming: daily temperature change influences belief in global warming.

    PubMed

    Li, Ye; Johnson, Eric J; Zaval, Lisa

    2011-04-01

    Although people are quite aware of global warming, their beliefs about it may be malleable; specifically, their beliefs may be constructed in response to questions about global warming. Beliefs may reflect irrelevant but salient information, such as the current day's temperature. This replacement of a more complex, less easily accessed judgment with a simple, more accessible one is known as attribute substitution. In three studies, we asked residents of the United States and Australia to report their opinions about global warming and whether the temperature on the day of the study was warmer or cooler than usual. Respondents who thought that day was warmer than usual believed more in and had greater concern about global warming than did respondents who thought that day was colder than usual. They also donated more money to a global-warming charity if they thought that day seemed warmer than usual. We used instrumental variable regression to rule out some alternative explanations.

  2. Effects of Global Warming on Vibrio Ecology.

    PubMed

    Vezzulli, Luigi; Pezzati, Elisabetta; Brettar, Ingrid; Höfle, Manfred; Pruzzo, Carla

    2015-06-01

    Vibrio-related infections are increasing worldwide both in humans and aquatic animals. Rise in global sea surface temperature (SST), which is approximately 1 °C higher now than 140 years ago and is one of the primary physical impacts of global warming, has been linked to such increases. In this chapter, major known effects of increasing SST on the biology and ecology of vibrios are described. They include the effects on bacterial growth rate, both in the field and in laboratory, culturability, expression of pathogenicity traits, and interactions with aquatic organisms and abiotic surfaces. Special emphasis is given to the effect of ocean warming on Vibrio interactions with zooplankters, which represent one of the most important aquatic reservoirs for these bacteria. The reported findings highlight the biocomplexity of the interactions between vibrios and their natural environment in a climate change scenario, posing the need for interdisciplinary studies to properly understand the connection between ocean warming and persistence and spread of vibrios in sea waters and the epidemiology of the diseases they cause.

  3. Climate change and the eco-hydrology of fire: Will area burned increase in a warming western USA?

    PubMed

    McKenzie, Donald; Littell, Jeremy S

    2017-01-01

    Wildfire area is predicted to increase with global warming. Empirical statistical models and process-based simulations agree almost universally. The key relationship for this unanimity, observed at multiple spatial and temporal scales, is between drought and fire. Predictive models often focus on ecosystems in which this relationship appears to be particularly strong, such as mesic and arid forests and shrublands with substantial biomass such as chaparral. We examine the drought-fire relationship, specifically the correlations between water-balance deficit and annual area burned, across the full gradient of deficit in the western USA, from temperate rainforest to desert. In the middle of this gradient, conditional on vegetation (fuels), correlations are strong, but outside this range the equivalence hotter and drier equals more fire either breaks down or is contingent on other factors such as previous-year climate. This suggests that the regional drought-fire dynamic will not be stationary in future climate, nor will other more complex contingencies associated with the variation in fire extent. Predictions of future wildfire area therefore need to consider not only vegetation changes, as some dynamic vegetation models now do, but also potential changes in the drought-fire dynamic that will ensue in a warming climate. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

  4. Climate change and the eco-hydrology of fire: Will area burned increase in a warming western USA?

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    McKenzie, Donald; Littell, Jeremy

    2017-01-01

    Wildfire area is predicted to increase with global warming. Empirical statistical models and process-based simulations agree almost universally. The key relationship for this unanimity, observed at multiple spatial and temporal scales, is between drought and fire. Predictive models often focus on ecosystems in which this relationship appears to be particularly strong, such as mesic and arid forests and shrublands with substantial biomass such as chaparral. We examine the drought–fire relationship, specifically the correlations between water-balance deficit and annual area burned, across the full gradient of deficit in the western USA, from temperate rainforest to desert. In the middle of this gradient, conditional on vegetation (fuels), correlations are strong, but outside this range the equivalence hotter and drier equals more fire either breaks down or is contingent on other factors such as previous-year climate. This suggests that the regional drought–fire dynamic will not be stationary in future climate, nor will other more complex contingencies associated with the variation in fire extent. Predictions of future wildfire area therefore need to consider not only vegetation changes, as some dynamic vegetation models now do, but also potential changes in the drought–fire dynamic that will ensue in a warming climate.

  5. Increased air temperature during simulated autumn conditions does not increase photosynthetic carbon gain but affects the dissipation of excess energy in seedlings of the evergreen conifer Jack pine.

    PubMed

    Busch, Florian; Hüner, Norman P A; Ensminger, Ingo

    2007-03-01

    Temperature and daylength act as environmental signals that determine the length of the growing season in boreal evergreen conifers. Climate change might affect the seasonal development of these trees, as they will experience naturally decreasing daylength during autumn, while at the same time warmer air temperature will maintain photosynthesis and respiration. We characterized the down-regulation of photosynthetic gas exchange and the mechanisms involved in the dissipation of energy in Jack pine (Pinus banksiana) in controlled environments during a simulated summer-autumn transition under natural conditions and conditions with altered air temperature and photoperiod. Using a factorial design, we dissected the effects of daylength and temperature. Control plants were grown at either warm summer conditions with 16-h photoperiod and 22 degrees C or conditions representing a cool autumn with 8 h/7 degrees C. To assess the impact of photoperiod and temperature on photosynthesis and energy dissipation, plants were also grown under either cold summer (16-h photoperiod/7 degrees C) or warm autumn conditions (8-h photoperiod/22 degrees C). Photosynthetic gas exchange was affected by both daylength and temperature. Assimilation and respiration rates under warm autumn conditions were only about one-half of the summer values but were similar to values obtained for cold summer and natural autumn treatments. In contrast, photosynthetic efficiency was largely determined by temperature but not by daylength. Plants of different treatments followed different strategies for dissipating excess energy. Whereas in the warm summer treatment safe dissipation of excess energy was facilitated via zeaxanthin, in all other treatments dissipation of excess energy was facilitated predominantly via increased aggregation of the light-harvesting complex of photosystem II. These differences were accompanied by a lower deepoxidation state and larger amounts of beta-carotene in the warm autumn

  6. Longitudinal Changes in Tear Evaporation Rates After Eyelid Warming Therapies in Meibomian Gland Dysfunction.

    PubMed

    Yeo, Sharon; Tan, Jen Hong; Acharya, U Rajendra; Sudarshan, Vidya K; Tong, Louis

    2016-04-01

    Lid warming is the major treatment for meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). The purpose of the study was to determine the longitudinal changes of tear evaporation after lid warming in patients with MGD. Ninety patients with MGD were enrolled from a dry eye clinic at Singapore National Eye Center in an interventional trial. Participants were treated with hot towel (n = 22), EyeGiene (n = 22), or Blephasteam (n = 22) twice daily or a single 12-minute session of Lipiflow (n = 24). Ocular surface infrared thermography was performed at baseline and 4 and 12 weeks after the treatment, and image features were extracted from the captured images. The baseline of conjunctival tear evaporation (TE) rate (n = 90) was 66.1 ± 21.1 W/min. The rates were not significantly different between sexes, ages, symptom severities, tear breakup times, Schirmer test, corneal fluorescein staining, or treatment groups. Using a general linear model (repeat measures), the conjunctival TE rate was reduced with time after treatment. A higher baseline evaporation rate (≥ 66 W/min) was associated with greater reduction of evaporation rate after treatment. Seven of 10 thermography features at baseline were predictive of reduction in irritative symptoms after treatment. Conjunctival TE rates can be effectively reduced by lid warming treatment in some MGD patients. Individual baseline thermography image features can be predictive of the response to lid warming therapy. For patients that do not have excessive TE, additional therapy, for example, anti-inflammatory therapy, may be required.

  7. Heating Pad Performance and Efficacy of 2 Durations of Warming after Isoflurane Anesthesia of Sprague-Dawley Rats (Rattus norvegicus).

    PubMed

    Zhang, Emily Q; Knight, Cameron G; Pang, Daniel Sj

    2017-11-01

    Anesthetic agents depress thermoregulatory mechanisms, causing hypothermia within minutes of induction of general anesthesia. The consequences of hypothermia include delayed recovery and increased experimental variability. Even when normothermia is maintained during anesthesia, hypothermia may occur during recovery. The primary aim of this study was to identify an effective warming period for maintaining normothermia during recovery. Adult male (n = 8) and female (n = 9) Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized to 30 min (post30) or 60 min (post60) of warming after recovery from anesthesia. During a 40-min anesthetic period, normothermia (target, 37.5 ± 1.1 °C) was maintained by manual adjustment of an electric heating pad in response to measured rectal temperatures (corrected to estimate core body temperature). Warming was continued in a recovery cage according to treatment group. Rectal temperature was measured for a total of 120 min after anesthesia. Heating pad performance was assessed by measuring temperatures at various sites over its surface. One female rat in the post30 group was excluded from analysis. Normothermia was effectively maintained during and after anesthesia without significant differences between groups. In the post60 group, core temperature was slightly but significantly increased at 90 and 100 min compared with baseline. One rat in each treatment group became hyperthermic (>38.6 °C) during recovery. During recovery, the cage floor temperature required approximately 30 min to stabilize. The heating pad produced heat unevenly over its surface, and measured temperatures frequently exceeded the programmed temperature. Providing 30 min of warming immediately after anesthesia effectively prevented hypothermia in rats. Shorter warming periods may be useful when recovery cages are preheated.

  8. Complex carbon cycle responses to multi-level warming and supplemental summer rain in the high Arctic.

    PubMed

    Sharp, Elizabeth D; Sullivan, Patrick F; Steltzer, Heidi; Csank, Adam Z; Welker, Jeffrey M

    2013-06-01

    The Arctic has experienced rapid warming and, although there are uncertainties, increases in precipitation are projected to accompany future warming. Climate changes are expected to affect magnitudes of gross ecosystem photosynthesis (GEP), ecosystem respiration (ER) and the net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE). Furthermore, ecosystem responses to climate change are likely to be characterized by nonlinearities, thresholds and interactions among system components and the driving variables. These complex interactions increase the difficulty of predicting responses to climate change and necessitate the use of manipulative experiments. In 2003, we established a long-term, multi-level and multi-factor climate change experiment in a polar semidesert in northwest Greenland. Two levels of heating (30 and 60 W m(-2) ) were applied and the higher level was combined with supplemental summer rain. We made plot-level measurements of CO2 exchange, plant community composition, foliar nitrogen concentrations, leaf δ(13) C and NDVI to examine responses to our treatments at ecosystem- and leaf-levels. We confronted simple models of GEP and ER with our data to test hypotheses regarding key drivers of CO2 exchange and to estimate growing season CO2 -C budgets. Low-level warming increased the magnitude of the ecosystem C sink. Meanwhile, high-level warming made the ecosystem a source of C to the atmosphere. When high-level warming was combined with increased summer rain, the ecosystem became a C sink of magnitude similar to that observed under low-level warming. Competition among our ER models revealed the importance of soil moisture as a driving variable, likely through its effects on microbial activity and nutrient cycling. Measurements of community composition and proxies for leaf-level physiology suggest GEP responses largely reflect changes in leaf area of Salix arctica, rather than changes in leaf-level physiology. Our findings indicate that the sign and magnitude of the future

  9. Anthropogenic Warming Impacts on Today's Sierra Nevada Snowpack and Flood Severity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, X.; Hall, A. D.; Berg, N.

    2017-12-01

    Focusing on this recent extreme wet year over California, this study investigates the warming impacts on the snowpack and the flood severity over the Sierra Nevada (SN), where the majority of the precipitation occurs during the winter season and early spring. One of our goals is to quantify anthropogenic warming impacts on the snow water equivalent (SWE) including recent historical warming and prescribed future projected warming scenarios; This work also explores to what extent flooding risk has increased under those warming cases. With a good representation of the historical precipitation and snowpack over the Sierra Nevada from the historical reference run at 9km (using WRF), the results from the offline Noah-MP simulations with perturbed near-surface temperatures reveal magnificent impacts of warming to the loss of the average snowpack. The reduction of the SWE under warming mainly results from the decreased rain-to-snow conversion with a weaker effect from increased snowmelt. Compared to the natural case, the past industrial warming decreased the maximum SWE by about one-fifth averaged over the study area. Future continuing warming can result in around one-third reduction of current maximum SWE under RCP4.5 emissions scenario, and the loss can reach to two-thirds under RCP8.5 as a "business-as-usual" condition. The impact of past warming is particularly outstanding over the North SN region where precipitation dominates and over the middle elevation regions where the snow mainly distributes. In the future, the warming impact on SWE progresses to higher regions, and so to the south and east. Under the business-as-usual scenario, the projected mid-elevation snowpack almost disappears by April 1st with even high-elevation snow reduced by about half. Along with the loss of the snowpack, as the temperature warms, floods can also intensify with increased early season runoff especially under heavy-rainy days caused by the weakened rain-to-snow processes and

  10. Warming shifts top-down and bottom-up control of pond food web structure and function

    PubMed Central

    Shurin, Jonathan B.; Clasen, Jessica L.; Greig, Hamish S.; Kratina, Pavel; Thompson, Patrick L.

    2012-01-01

    The effects of global and local environmental changes are transmitted through networks of interacting organisms to shape the structure of communities and the dynamics of ecosystems. We tested the impact of elevated temperature on the top-down and bottom-up forces structuring experimental freshwater pond food webs in western Canada over 16 months. Experimental warming was crossed with treatments manipulating the presence of planktivorous fish and eutrophication through enhanced nutrient supply. We found that higher temperatures produced top-heavy food webs with lower biomass of benthic and pelagic producers, equivalent biomass of zooplankton, zoobenthos and pelagic bacteria, and more pelagic viruses. Eutrophication increased the biomass of all organisms studied, while fish had cascading positive effects on periphyton, phytoplankton and bacteria, and reduced biomass of invertebrates. Surprisingly, virus biomass was reduced in the presence of fish, suggesting the possibility for complex mechanisms of top-down control of the lytic cycle. Warming reduced the effects of eutrophication on periphyton, and magnified the already strong effects of fish on phytoplankton and bacteria. Warming, fish and nutrients all increased whole-system rates of net production despite their distinct impacts on the distribution of biomass between producers and consumers, plankton and benthos, and microbes and macrobes. Our results indicate that warming exerts a host of indirect effects on aquatic food webs mediated through shifts in the magnitudes of top-down and bottom-up forcing. PMID:23007089

  11. Clinical outcome of fresh and vitrified-warmed blastocyst and cleavage-stage embryo transfers in ethnic Chinese ART patients

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Objectives This study sought to evaluate the outcome of fresh and vitrified-warmed cleavage-stage and blastocyst-stage embryo transfers in patients undergoing ART treatment within an ethnic Chinese population. Study design We compared the clinical results of embryo transfer on the 3rd (cleavage stage) or 5th (blastocyst stage) day after oocyte retrieval, including clinical pregnancy rates, implantation rates and multiple pregnancy rates. Results Our data showed that blastocyst transfer on day 5 did not significantly increase clinical pregnancy rate (41.07% vs 47.08%, p>0.05) and implantation rate (31.8% vs 31.2%, p>0.05) in patients under 35 years of age, in comparison with day 3 cleavage stage embryo transfer. In patients older than 35 years of age, the clinical pregnancy rate after blastocyst transfer was slightly decreased compared with cleavage stage embryo transfer (33.33% vs 42.31%, p>0.05). Unexpectedly, It was found that vitrified-warmed blastocyst transfer resulted in significantly higher clinical pregnancy rate (56.8%) and implantation rate (47%) compared with fresh blastocyst transfer in controlled stimulation cycles (41.07% and 31.8%, respectively). For patients under 35 years of age, the cumulative clinical pregnancy rate combining fresh and vitrified-warmed blastocyst transfer cycles were significantly higher compared to just cleavage-stage embryo transfer (70.1% versus 51.8%, p<0.05). However, the cumulative multiple pregnancy rates showed no significant difference between the two groups. Conclusions In an ethnic Chinese patient population, fresh blastocyst transfer does not significantly increase clinical pregnancy rate. However, subsequent vitrified-warmed blastocyst transfer in a non-controlled ovarian hyperstimulation cycle dramatically improves clinical outcomes. Therefore, blastocyst culture in tandem with vitrified-warmed blastocyst transfer is recommended as a favourable and promising protocol in human ART treatment, particularly for ethnic

  12. Clinical outcome of fresh and vitrified-warmed blastocyst and cleavage-stage embryo transfers in ethnic Chinese ART patients.

    PubMed

    Tong, Guo Qing; Cao, Shan Ren; Wu, Xun; Zhang, Jun Qiang; Cui, Ji; Heng, Boon Chin; Ling, Xiu Feng

    2012-10-05

    This study sought to evaluate the outcome of fresh and vitrified-warmed cleavage-stage and blastocyst-stage embryo transfers in patients undergoing ART treatment within an ethnic Chinese population. We compared the clinical results of embryo transfer on the 3rd (cleavage stage) or 5th (blastocyst stage) day after oocyte retrieval, including clinical pregnancy rates, implantation rates and multiple pregnancy rates. Our data showed that blastocyst transfer on day 5 did not significantly increase clinical pregnancy rate (41.07% vs 47.08%, p>0.05) and implantation rate (31.8% vs 31.2%, p>0.05) in patients under 35 years of age, in comparison with day 3 cleavage stage embryo transfer. In patients older than 35 years of age, the clinical pregnancy rate after blastocyst transfer was slightly decreased compared with cleavage stage embryo transfer (33.33% vs 42.31%, p>0.05). Unexpectedly, It was found that vitrified-warmed blastocyst transfer resulted in significantly higher clinical pregnancy rate (56.8%) and implantation rate (47%) compared with fresh blastocyst transfer in controlled stimulation cycles (41.07% and 31.8%, respectively). For patients under 35 years of age, the cumulative clinical pregnancy rate combining fresh and vitrified-warmed blastocyst transfer cycles were significantly higher compared to just cleavage-stage embryo transfer (70.1% versus 51.8%, p<0.05). However, the cumulative multiple pregnancy rates showed no significant difference between the two groups. In an ethnic Chinese patient population, fresh blastocyst transfer does not significantly increase clinical pregnancy rate. However, subsequent vitrified-warmed blastocyst transfer in a non-controlled ovarian hyperstimulation cycle dramatically improves clinical outcomes. Therefore, blastocyst culture in tandem with vitrified-warmed blastocyst transfer is recommended as a favourable and promising protocol in human ART treatment, particularly for ethnic Chinese patients.

  13. Forced-air warming and ultra-clean ventilation do not mix: an investigation of theatre ventilation, patient warming and joint replacement infection in orthopaedics.

    PubMed

    McGovern, P D; Albrecht, M; Belani, K G; Nachtsheim, C; Partington, P F; Carluke, I; Reed, M R

    2011-11-01

    We investigated the capacity of patient warming devices to disrupt the ultra-clean airflow system. We compared the effects of two patient warming technologies, forced-air and conductive fabric, on operating theatre ventilation during simulated hip replacement and lumbar spinal procedures using a mannequin as a patient. Infection data were reviewed to determine whether joint infection rates were associated with the type of patient warming device that was used. Neutral-buoyancy detergent bubbles were released adjacent to the mannequin's head and at floor level to assess the movement of non-sterile air into the clean airflow over the surgical site. During simulated hip replacement, bubble counts over the surgical site were greater for forced-air than for conductive fabric warming when the anaesthesia/surgery drape was laid down (p = 0.010) and at half-height (p < 0.001). For lumbar surgery, forced-air warming generated convection currents that mobilised floor air into the surgical site area. Conductive fabric warming had no such effect. A significant increase in deep joint infection, as demonstrated by an elevated infection odds ratio (3.8, p = 0.024), was identified during a period when forced-air warming was used compared to a period when conductive fabric warming was used. Air-free warming is, therefore, recommended over forced-air warming for orthopaedic procedures.

  14. Increased methane emissions from deep osmotic and buoyant convection beneath submarine seeps as climate warms

    PubMed Central

    Cardoso, Silvana S. S.; Cartwright, Julyan H. E.

    2016-01-01

    High speeds have been measured at seep and mud-volcano sites expelling methane-rich fluids from the seabed. Thermal or solute-driven convection alone cannot explain such high velocities in low-permeability sediments. Here we demonstrate that in addition to buoyancy, osmotic effects generated by the adsorption of methane onto the sediments can create large overpressures, capable of recirculating seawater from the seafloor to depth in the sediment layer, then expelling it upwards at rates of up to a few hundreds of metres per year. In the presence of global warming, such deep recirculation of seawater can accelerate the melting of methane hydrates at depth from timescales of millennia to just decades, and can drastically increase the rate of release of methane into the hydrosphere and perhaps the atmosphere. PMID:27807343

  15. Differential impacts of ocean acidification and warming on winter and summer progeny of a coastal squid (Loligo vulgaris).

    PubMed

    Rosa, Rui; Trübenbach, Katja; Pimentel, Marta S; Boavida-Portugal, Joana; Faleiro, Filipa; Baptista, Miguel; Dionísio, Gisela; Calado, Ricardo; Pörtner, Hans O; Repolho, Tiago

    2014-02-15

    Little is known about the capacity of early life stages to undergo hypercapnic and thermal acclimation under the future scenarios of ocean acidification and warming. Here, we investigated a comprehensive set of biological responses to these climate change-related variables (2°C above winter and summer average spawning temperatures and ΔpH=0.5 units) during the early ontogeny of the squid Loligo vulgaris. Embryo survival rates ranged from 92% to 96% under present-day temperature (13-17°C) and pH (8.0) scenarios. Yet, ocean acidification (pH 7.5) and summer warming (19°C) led to a significant drop in the survival rates of summer embryos (47%, P<0.05). The embryonic period was shortened by increasing temperature in both pH treatments (P<0.05). Embryo growth rates increased significantly with temperature under present-day scenarios, but there was a significant trend reversal under future summer warming conditions (P<0.05). Besides pronounced premature hatching, a higher percentage of abnormalities was found in summer embryos exposed to future warming and lower pH (P<0.05). Under the hypercapnic scenario, oxygen consumption rates decreased significantly in late embryos and newly hatched paralarvae, especially in the summer period (P<0.05). Concomitantly, there was a significant enhancement of the heat shock response (HSP70/HSC70) with warming in both pH treatments and developmental stages. Upper thermal tolerance limits were positively influenced by acclimation temperature, and such thresholds were significantly higher in late embryos than in hatchlings under present-day conditions (P<0.05). In contrast, the upper thermal tolerance limits under hypercapnia were higher in hatchlings than in embryos. Thus, we show that the stressful abiotic conditions inside the embryo's capsules will be exacerbated under near-future ocean acidification and summer warming scenarios. The occurrence of prolonged embryogenesis along with lowered thermal tolerance limits under such

  16. How does whole ecosystem warming of a peatland affect methane production and consumption?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hopple, A.; Brunik, K.; Keller, J.; Pfeifer-Meister, L.; Woerndle, G.; Zalman, C.; Hanson, P.; Bridgham, S. D.

    2017-12-01

    Peatlands are among Earth's most important terrestrial ecosystems due to their massive soil carbon (C) stores and significant release of methane (CH4) into the atmosphere. Methane has a sustained-flux global warming potential 45-times greater than carbon dioxide (CO2), and the accuracy of Earth system model projections relies on our mechanistic understanding of peatland CH4 cycling in the context of environmental change. The objective of this study was to determine, under in situ conditions, how heating of the peat profile affects ecosystem-level anaerobic C cycling. We assessed the response of CO2 and CH4 production, as well as the anaerobic oxidation of CH4 (AOM), in a boreal peatland following 13 months of deep peat heating (DPH) and 16 months of subsequent whole-ecosystem warming (surface and deep heating; WEW) as part of the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) project in northern Minnesota, USA. The study uses a regression-based experimental design including 5 temperature treatments that warmed the entire 2 m peat profile from 0 to +9 °C above ambient temperature. Soil cores were collected at multiple depths (25-200 cm) from each experimental chamber at the SPRUCE site and anaerobically incubated at in situ temperatures for 1-2 weeks. Methane and CO2 production in surface peat were positively correlated with elevated temperature, but no consistent temperature response was found at depth (75-200 cm) following DPH. However, during WEW, we observed significant increases in both surface and deep peat methanogenesis with increasing temperature. Surface peat had greater CH4 production rates than deeper peat, implying that the increased CH4 emissions observed in the field were largely driven by surface peat warming. The CO2:CH4 ratio was inversely correlated with temperature across all depths following 16 months of WEW, indicating that the entire peat profile is becoming more methanogenic with warming. We also observed AOM throughout

  17. Global warming induced hybrid rainy seasons in the Sahel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Salack, Seyni; Klein, Cornelia; Giannini, Alessandra; Sarr, Benoit; Worou, Omonlola N.; Belko, Nouhoun; Bliefernicht, Jan; Kunstman, Harald

    2016-10-01

    The small rainfall recovery observed over the Sahel, concomitant with a regional climate warming, conceals some drought features that exacerbate food security. The new rainfall features include false start and early cessation of rainy seasons, increased frequency of intense daily rainfall, increasing number of hot nights and warm days and a decreasing trend in diurnal temperature range. Here, we explain these mixed dry/wet seasonal rainfall features which are called hybrid rainy seasons by delving into observed data consensus on the reduction in rainfall amount, its spatial coverage, timing and erratic distribution of events, and other atmospheric variables crucial in agro-climatic monitoring and seasonal forecasting. Further composite investigations of seasonal droughts, oceans warming and the regional atmospheric circulation nexus reveal that the low-to-mid-level atmospheric winds pattern, often stationary relative to either strong or neutral El-Niño-Southern-Oscillations drought patterns, associates to basin warmings in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea to trigger hybrid rainy seasons in the Sahel. More challenging to rain-fed farming systems, our results suggest that these new rainfall conditions will most likely be sustained by global warming, reshaping thereby our understanding of food insecurity in this region.

  18. Impacts of half a degree additional warming on the Asian summer monsoon rainfall characteristics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Donghyun; Min, Seung-Ki; Fischer, Erich; Shiogama, Hideo; Bethke, Ingo; Lierhammer, Ludwig; Scinocca, John F.

    2018-04-01

    This study investigates the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C above pre-industrial conditions (Paris Agreement target temperatures) on the South Asian and East Asian monsoon rainfall using five atmospheric global climate models participating in the ‘Half a degree Additional warming, Prognosis and Projected Impacts’ (HAPPI) project. Mean and extreme precipitation is projected to increase under warming over the two monsoon regions, more strongly in the 2.0 °C warmer world. Moisture budget analysis shows that increases in evaporation and atmospheric moisture lead to the additional increases in mean precipitation with good inter-model agreement. Analysis of daily precipitation characteristics reveals that more-extreme precipitation will have larger increase in intensity and frequency responding to the half a degree additional warming, which is more clearly seen over the South Asian monsoon region, indicating non-linear scaling of precipitation extremes with temperature. Strong inter-model relationship between temperature and precipitation intensity further demonstrates that the increased moisture with warming (Clausius-Clapeyron relation) plays a critical role in the stronger intensification of more-extreme rainfall with warming. Results from CMIP5 coupled global climate models under a transient warming scenario confirm that half a degree additional warming would bring more frequent and stronger heavy precipitation events, exerting devastating impacts on the human and natural system over the Asian monsoon region.

  19. Rapid Response of Hydrological Loss of DOC to Water Table Drawdown and Warming in Zoige Peatland: Results from a Mesocosm Experiment

    PubMed Central

    Lou, Xue-Dong; Zhai, Sheng-Qiang; Kang, Bing; Hu, Ya-Lin; Hu, Li-Le

    2014-01-01

    A large portion of the global carbon pool is stored in peatlands, which are sensitive to a changing environment conditions. The hydrological loss of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is believed to play a key role in determining the carbon balance in peatlands. Zoige peatland, the largest peat store in China, is experiencing climatic warming and drying as well as experiencing severe artificial drainage. Using a fully crossed factorial design, we experimentally manipulated temperature and controlled the water tables in large mesocosms containing intact peat monoliths. Specifically, we determined the impact of warming and water table position on the hydrological loss of DOC, the exported amounts, concentrations and qualities of DOC, and the discharge volume in Zoige peatland. Our results revealed that of the water table position had a greater impact on DOC export than the warming treatment, which showed no interactive effects with the water table treatment. Both DOC concentration and discharge volume were significantly increased when water table drawdown, while only the DOC concentration was significantly promoted by warming treatment. Annual DOC export was increased by 69% and 102% when the water table, controlled at 0 cm, was experimentally lowered by −10 cm and −20 cm. Increases in colored and aromatic constituents of DOC (measured by Abs254 nm, SUVA254 nm, Abs400 nm, and SUVA400 nm) were observed under the lower water tables and at the higher peat temperature. Our results provide an indication of the potential impacts of climatic change and anthropogenic drainage on the carbon cycle and/or water storage in a peatland and simultaneously imply the likelihood of potential damage to downstream ecosystems. Furthermore, our results highlight the need for local protection and sustainable development, as well as suggest that more research is required to better understand the impacts of climatic change and artificial disturbances on peatland degradation. PMID:25369065

  20. Rapid response of hydrological loss of DOC to water table drawdown and warming in Zoige peatland: results from a mesocosm experiment.

    PubMed

    Lou, Xue-Dong; Zhai, Sheng-Qiang; Kang, Bing; Hu, Ya-Lin; Hu, Li-Le

    2014-01-01

    A large portion of the global carbon pool is stored in peatlands, which are sensitive to a changing environment conditions. The hydrological loss of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is believed to play a key role in determining the carbon balance in peatlands. Zoige peatland, the largest peat store in China, is experiencing climatic warming and drying as well as experiencing severe artificial drainage. Using a fully crossed factorial design, we experimentally manipulated temperature and controlled the water tables in large mesocosms containing intact peat monoliths. Specifically, we determined the impact of warming and water table position on the hydrological loss of DOC, the exported amounts, concentrations and qualities of DOC, and the discharge volume in Zoige peatland. Our results revealed that of the water table position had a greater impact on DOC export than the warming treatment, which showed no interactive effects with the water table treatment. Both DOC concentration and discharge volume were significantly increased when water table drawdown, while only the DOC concentration was significantly promoted by warming treatment. Annual DOC export was increased by 69% and 102% when the water table, controlled at 0 cm, was experimentally lowered by -10 cm and -20 cm. Increases in colored and aromatic constituents of DOC (measured by Abs(254 nm), SUVA(254 nm), Abs(400 nm), and SUVA(400 nm)) were observed under the lower water tables and at the higher peat temperature. Our results provide an indication of the potential impacts of climatic change and anthropogenic drainage on the carbon cycle and/or water storage in a peatland and simultaneously imply the likelihood of potential damage to downstream ecosystems. Furthermore, our results highlight the need for local protection and sustainable development, as well as suggest that more research is required to better understand the impacts of climatic change and artificial disturbances on peatland degradation.

  1. A Contribution by Ice Nuclei to Global Warming

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zeng, Xiping; Tao, Wei-Kuo; Zhang, Minghua; Hou, Arthur Y.; Xie, Shaocheng; Lang, Stephen; Li, Xiaowen; Starr, David O.; Li, Xiaofan

    2009-01-01

    Ice nuclei (IN) significantly affect clouds via supercooled droplets, that in turn modulate atmospheric radiation and thus climate change. Since the IN effect is relatively strong in stratiform clouds but weak in convective ones, the overall effect depends on the ratio of stratiform to convective cloud amount. In this paper, 10 years of TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) satellite data are analyzed to confirm that stratiform precipitation fraction increases with increasing latitude, which implies that the IN effect is stronger at higher latitudes. To quantitatively evaluate the IN effect versus latitude, large-scale forcing data from ten field campaigns are used to drive a CRM (cloud-resolving model) to generate longterm cloud simulations. As revealed in the simulations, the increase in the net downward radiative flux at the TOA (top of the atmosphere) from doubling the current IN concentrations is larger at higher latitude, which is attributed to the meridional tendency in the stratiform precipitation fraction. Surface warming from doubling the IN concentrations, based on the radiative balance of the globe, is compared with that from anthropogenic COZ . It is found that the former effect is stronger than the latter in middle and high latitudes but not in the Tropics. With regard to the impact of IN on global warming, there are two factors to consider: the radiative effect from increasing the IN concentration and the increase in IN concentration itself. The former relies on cloud ensembles and thus varies mainly with latitude. In contrast, the latter relies on IN sources (e.g., the land surface distribution) and thus varies not only with latitude but also longitude. Global desertification and industrialization provide clues on the geographic variation of the increase in IN concentration since pre-industrial times. Thus, their effect on global warming can be inferred and then be compared with observations. A general match in geographic and seasonal

  2. Humid Heat Waves at different warming levels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Russo, S.; Sillmann, J.; Sterl, A.

    2017-12-01

    The co-occurrence of consecutive hot and humid days during a heat wave can strongly affect human health. Here, we quantify humid heat wave hazard in the recent past and at different levels of global warming.We find that the magnitude and apparent temperature peak of heat waves, such as the ones observed in Chicago in 1995 and China in 2003, have been strongly amplified by humidity. Climate model projections suggest that the percentage of area where heat wave magnitude and peak are amplified by humidity increases with increasing warming levels. Considering the effect of humidity at 1.5o and 2o global warming, highly populated regions, such as the Eastern US and China, could experience heat waves with magnitude greater than the one in Russia in 2010 (the most severe of the present era).The apparent temperature peak during such humid-heat waves can be greater than 55o. According to the US Weather Service, at this temperature humans are very likely to suffer from heat strokes. Humid-heat waves with these conditions were never exceeded in the present climate, but are expected to occur every other year at 4o global warming. This calls for respective adaptation measures in some key regions of the world along with international climate change mitigation efforts.

  3. Multidecadal warming of Antarctic waters.

    PubMed

    Schmidtko, Sunke; Heywood, Karen J; Thompson, Andrew F; Aoki, Shigeru

    2014-12-05

    Decadal trends in the properties of seawater adjacent to Antarctica are poorly known, and the mechanisms responsible for such changes are uncertain. Antarctic ice sheet mass loss is largely driven by ice shelf basal melt, which is influenced by ocean-ice interactions and has been correlated with Antarctic Continental Shelf Bottom Water (ASBW) temperature. We document the spatial distribution of long-term large-scale trends in temperature, salinity, and core depth over the Antarctic continental shelf and slope. Warming at the seabed in the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas is linked to increased heat content and to a shoaling of the mid-depth temperature maximum over the continental slope, allowing warmer, saltier water greater access to the shelf in recent years. Regions of ASBW warming are those exhibiting increased ice shelf melt. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  4. Impaired photosynthesis and increased leaf construction costs may induce floral stress during episodes of global warming over macroevolutionary timescales.

    PubMed

    Haworth, Matthew; Belcher, Claire M; Killi, Dilek; Dewhirst, Rebecca A; Materassi, Alessandro; Raschi, Antonio; Centritto, Mauro

    2018-04-18

    Global warming events have coincided with turnover of plant species at intervals in Earth history. As mean global temperatures rise, the number, frequency and duration of heat-waves will increase. Ginkgo biloba was grown under controlled climatic conditions at two different day/night temperature regimes (25/20 °C and 35/30 °C) to investigate the impact of heat stress. Photosynthetic CO 2 -uptake and electron transport were reduced at the higher temperature, while rates of respiration were greater; suggesting that the carbon balance of the leaves was adversely affected. Stomatal conductance and the potential for evaporative cooling of the leaves was reduced at the higher temperature. Furthermore, the capacity of the leaves to dissipate excess energy was also reduced at 35/30 °C, indicating that photo-protective mechanisms were no longer functioning effectively. Leaf economics were adversely affected by heat stress, exhibiting an increase in leaf mass per area and leaf construction costs. This may be consistent with the selective pressures experienced by fossil Ginkgoales during intervals of global warming such as the Triassic - Jurassic boundary or Early Eocene Climatic Optimum. The physiological and morphological responses of the G. biloba leaves were closely interrelated; these relationships may be used to infer the leaf economics and photosynthetic/stress physiology of fossil plants.

  5. Warm-up Practices in Elite Boxing Athletes: Impact on Power Output.

    PubMed

    Cunniffe, Brian; Ellison, Mark; Loosemore, Mike; Cardinale, Marco

    2017-01-01

    Cunniffe, B, Ellison, M, Loosemore, M, and Cardinale, M. Warm-up practices in elite boxing athletes: Iimpact on power output. J Strength Cond Res 31(1): 95-105, 2017-This study evaluated the performance impact of routine warm-up strategies in elite Olympic amateur boxing athletes and physiological implications of the time gap (GAP) between warm-up and boxing activity. Six male boxers were assessed while performing standardized prefight warm-up routines. Core and skin temperature measurements (Tcore and Tskin), heart rate, and upper- and lower-body power output (PO) were assessed before and after warm-up, during a 25-minutes GAP and after 3 × 2 minutes rounds of sparring. Reflected temperature (Tc) was also determined using high-resolution thermal images at fixed time-points to explore avenues for heat loss. Despite individual differences in warm-up duration (range 7.4-18.5 minutes), increases in Tcore and Tskin occurred (p ≤ 0.05). Corresponding increases (4.8%; p ≤ 0.05) in countermovement jump (CMJ) height and upward-rightward shifts in upper-body force-velocity and power-velocity curves were observed. Athletes remained inactive during the 25-minutes GAP with a gradual and significant increase in Tc occurring by the end of GAP suggesting the likelihood of heat loss. Decreases in CMJ height and upper-body PO were observed after 15 minutes and 25 minutes GAP (p ≤ 0.05). By the end of GAP period, all performance variables had returned to pre-warm-up values. Results suggest routine warm-ups undertaken by elite boxers have acute effects on power-generating capacity. Gradual decreases in performance variables are evident with inactivity and seem related to alterations in body temperature. Considering the constraints of major competitions and time spent in air conditioned holding areas before fights, practitioners should be aware of the potential of nullifying the warm-up effects.

  6. Warm-Ups: The Key to the Beginning of a Great Lesson

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    James, Alisa R.; Collier, Douglas H.

    2011-01-01

    Historically, traditional pre-lesson warm-ups in physical education have consisted of callisthenic exercises such as jumping jacks, pushups, sit-ups, and running laps, as well as static stretching activities. These warm-ups are used to increase core body temperature and to assist blood flow to the working muscles. Although the traditional warm-up…

  7. Enhanced decomposition of stable soil organic carbon and microbial catabolic potentials by long-term field warming

    DOE PAGES

    Feng, Wenting; Liang, Junyi; Hale, Lauren E.; ...

    2017-06-09

    Quantifying soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition under warming is critical to predict carbon–climate feedbacks. According to the substrate regulating principle, SOC decomposition would decrease as labile SOC declines under field warming, but observations of SOC decomposition under warming do not always support this prediction. This discrepancy could result from varying changes in SOC components and soil microbial communities under warming. This study aimed to determine the decomposition of SOC components with different turnover times after subjected to long-term field warming and/or root exclusion to limit C input, and to test whether SOC decomposition is driven by substrate lability under warming.more » Taking advantage of a 12-year field warming experiment in a prairie, we assessed the decomposition of SOC components by incubating soils from control and warmed plots, with and without root exclusion for 3 years. We assayed SOC decomposition from these incubations by combining inverse modeling and microbial functional genes during decomposition with a metagenomic technique (GeoChip). The decomposition of SOC components with turnover times of years and decades, which contributed to 95% of total cumulative CO 2 respiration, was greater in soils from warmed plots. But the decomposition of labile SOC was similar in warmed plots compared to the control. The diversity of C-degradation microbial genes generally declined with time during the incubation in all treatments, suggesting shifts of microbial functional groups as substrate composition was changing. Compared to the control, soils from warmed plots showed significant increase in the signal intensities of microbial genes involved in degrading complex organic compounds, implying enhanced potential abilities of microbial catabolism. These are likely responsible for accelerated decomposition of SOC components with slow turnover rates. Overall, the shifted microbial community induced by long-term warming

  8. Enhanced decomposition of stable soil organic carbon and microbial catabolic potentials by long-term field warming

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Feng, Wenting; Liang, Junyi; Hale, Lauren E.

    Quantifying soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition under warming is critical to predict carbon–climate feedbacks. According to the substrate regulating principle, SOC decomposition would decrease as labile SOC declines under field warming, but observations of SOC decomposition under warming do not always support this prediction. This discrepancy could result from varying changes in SOC components and soil microbial communities under warming. This study aimed to determine the decomposition of SOC components with different turnover times after subjected to long-term field warming and/or root exclusion to limit C input, and to test whether SOC decomposition is driven by substrate lability under warming.more » Taking advantage of a 12-year field warming experiment in a prairie, we assessed the decomposition of SOC components by incubating soils from control and warmed plots, with and without root exclusion for 3 years. We assayed SOC decomposition from these incubations by combining inverse modeling and microbial functional genes during decomposition with a metagenomic technique (GeoChip). The decomposition of SOC components with turnover times of years and decades, which contributed to 95% of total cumulative CO 2 respiration, was greater in soils from warmed plots. But the decomposition of labile SOC was similar in warmed plots compared to the control. The diversity of C-degradation microbial genes generally declined with time during the incubation in all treatments, suggesting shifts of microbial functional groups as substrate composition was changing. Compared to the control, soils from warmed plots showed significant increase in the signal intensities of microbial genes involved in degrading complex organic compounds, implying enhanced potential abilities of microbial catabolism. These are likely responsible for accelerated decomposition of SOC components with slow turnover rates. Overall, the shifted microbial community induced by long-term warming

  9. Enhanced decomposition of stable soil organic carbon and microbial catabolic potentials by long-term field warming.

    PubMed

    Feng, Wenting; Liang, Junyi; Hale, Lauren E; Jung, Chang Gyo; Chen, Ji; Zhou, Jizhong; Xu, Minggang; Yuan, Mengting; Wu, Liyou; Bracho, Rosvel; Pegoraro, Elaine; Schuur, Edward A G; Luo, Yiqi

    2017-11-01

    Quantifying soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition under warming is critical to predict carbon-climate feedbacks. According to the substrate regulating principle, SOC decomposition would decrease as labile SOC declines under field warming, but observations of SOC decomposition under warming do not always support this prediction. This discrepancy could result from varying changes in SOC components and soil microbial communities under warming. This study aimed to determine the decomposition of SOC components with different turnover times after subjected to long-term field warming and/or root exclusion to limit C input, and to test whether SOC decomposition is driven by substrate lability under warming. Taking advantage of a 12-year field warming experiment in a prairie, we assessed the decomposition of SOC components by incubating soils from control and warmed plots, with and without root exclusion for 3 years. We assayed SOC decomposition from these incubations by combining inverse modeling and microbial functional genes during decomposition with a metagenomic technique (GeoChip). The decomposition of SOC components with turnover times of years and decades, which contributed to 95% of total cumulative CO 2 respiration, was greater in soils from warmed plots. But the decomposition of labile SOC was similar in warmed plots compared to the control. The diversity of C-degradation microbial genes generally declined with time during the incubation in all treatments, suggesting shifts of microbial functional groups as substrate composition was changing. Compared to the control, soils from warmed plots showed significant increase in the signal intensities of microbial genes involved in degrading complex organic compounds, implying enhanced potential abilities of microbial catabolism. These are likely responsible for accelerated decomposition of SOC components with slow turnover rates. Overall, the shifted microbial community induced by long-term warming accelerates the

  10. Warm Water Compress as an Alternative for Decreasing the Degree of Phlebitis.

    PubMed

    Annisa, Fitri; Nurhaeni, Nani; Wanda, Dessie

    Intravenous fluid therapy is an invasive procedure which may increase the risk of patient complications. One of the most common of these is phlebitis, which may cause discomfort and tissue damage. Therefore, a nursing intervention is needed to effectively treat phlebitis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of applying a warm compression intervention to reduce the degree of phlebitis. A quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test design was used, with a non-equivalent control group. The total sample size was 32 patients with degrees of phlebitis ranging from 1 to 4. The total sample was divided into 2 interventional groups: those patients that were given 0.9% NaCl compresses and those given warm water compresses. The results showed that both compresses were effective in reducing the degree of phlebitis, with similar p values (p = .000). However, there was no difference in the average reduction score between the two groups (p = .18). Therefore, a warm water compress is valuable in the treatment of phlebitis, and could decrease the degree of phlebitis both effectively and inexpensively.

  11. Warming effects on permafrost ecosystem carbon fluxes associated with plant nutrients.

    PubMed

    Li, Fei; Peng, Yunfeng; Natali, Susan M; Chen, Kelong; Han, Tianfeng; Yang, Guibiao; Ding, Jinzhi; Zhang, Dianye; Wang, Guanqin; Wang, Jun; Yu, Jianchun; Liu, Futing; Yang, Yuanhe

    2017-11-01

    Large uncertainties exist in carbon (C)-climate feedback in permafrost regions, partly due to an insufficient understanding of warming effects on nutrient availabilities and their subsequent impacts on vegetation C sequestration. Although a warming climate may promote a substantial release of soil C to the atmosphere, a warming-induced increase in soil nutrient availability may enhance plant productivity, thus offsetting C loss from microbial respiration. Here, we present evidence that the positive temperature effect on carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) fluxes may be weakened by reduced plant nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) concentrations in a Tibetan permafrost ecosystem. Although experimental warming initially enhanced ecosystem CO 2 uptake, the increased rate disappeared after the period of peak plant growth during the early growing season, even though soil moisture was not a limiting factor in this swamp meadow ecosystem. We observed that warming did not significantly affect soil extractable N or P during the period of peak growth, but decreased both N and P concentrations in the leaves of dominant plant species, likely caused by accelerated plant senescence in the warmed plots. The attenuated warming effect on CO 2 assimilation during the late growing season was associated with lowered leaf N and P concentrations. These findings suggest that warming-mediated nutrient changes may not always benefit ecosystem C uptake in permafrost regions, making our ability to predict the C balance in these warming-sensitive ecosystems more challenging than previously thought. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.

  12. Warming Effects on Enzyme Activities are Predominant in Sub-surface Soils of an Arctic Tundra Ecosystem over 6-Year Field Manipulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kang, H.; Seo, J.; Kim, M.; Jung, J. Y.; Lee, Y. K.

    2017-12-01

    Arctic tundra ecosystems are of great importance because they store a large amount of carbon as un-decomposed organic matter. Global climate change is expected to affect enzyme activities and heterotrophic respiration in Arctic soils, which may accelerate greenhouse gas (GHG) emission through positive biological feedbacks. Unlike laboratory-based incubation experiments, field measurements often show different warming effects on decomposition of organic carbon and releases of GHGs. In the present study, we conducted a field-based warming experiment in Cambridge Bay, Canada (69°07'48″N, 105°03'36″W) by employing passive chambers during growing seasons over 6 years. A suite of enzyme activities (ß-glucosidase, cellobiohydrolase, N-acetylglucosaminidase, leucine aminopeptidase and phenol oxidase), microbial community structure (NGS), microbial abundances (gene copy numbers of bacteria and fungi), and soil chemical properties have been monitored in two depths (0-5 cm and 5-10 cm) of tundra soils, which were exposed to four different treatments (`control', `warming-only', `water-addition only', and both `warming and water-addition'). Phenol oxidase activity increased substantially, and bacterial community structure and abundance changed in the early stage (after 1 year's warming manipulation), but these changes disappeared afterwards. Most hydrolases were enhanced in surface soils by `water-addition only' over the period. However, the long-term effects of warming appeared in sub-surface soils where both `warming only' and `warming and water addition' increased hydrolase activities. Overall results of this study indicate that the warming effects on enzyme activities in surface soils are only short-term (phenol oxidase) or masked by water-limitation (hydrolases). However, hydrolases activities in sub-surface soils are more strongly enhanced than surface soils by warming, probably due to the lack of water limitation. Meanwhile, negative correlations between hydrolase

  13. Reduced diurnal temperature range does not change warming impacts on ecosystem carbon balance of Mediterranean grassland mesocosms

    DOE PAGES

    Phillips, Claire L.; Gregg, Jillian W.; Wilson, John K.

    2011-11-01

    Daily minimum temperature (T min) has increased faster than daily maximum temperature (T max) in many parts of the world, leading to decreases in diurnal temperature range (DTR). Projections suggest these trends are likely to continue in many regions, particularly northern latitudes and in arid regions. Despite wide speculation that asymmetric warming has different impacts on plant and ecosystem production than equal-night-and-day warming, there has been little direct comparison of these scenarios. Reduced DTR has also been widely misinterpreted as a result of night-only warming, when in fact T min occurs near dawn, indicating higher morning as well as nightmore » temperatures. We report on the first experiment to examine ecosystem-scale impacts of faster increases in T min than T max, using precise temperature controls to create realistic diurnal temperature profiles with gradual day-night temperature transitions and elevated early morning as well as night temperatures. Studying a constructed grassland ecosystem containing species native to Oregon, USA, we found the ecosystem lost more carbon at elevated than ambient temperatures, but was unaffected by the 3ºC difference in DTR between symmetric warming (constantly ambient +3.5ºC) and asymmetric warming (dawn T min=ambient +5ºC, afternoon T max= ambient +2ºC). Reducing DTR had no apparent effect on photosynthesis, likely because temperatures were most different in the morning and late afternoon when light was low. Respiration was also similar in both warming treatments, because respiration temperature sensitivity was not sufficient to respond to the limited temperature differences between asymmetric and symmetric warming. We concluded that changes in daily mean temperatures, rather than changes in T min/T max, were sufficient for predicting ecosystem carbon fluxes in this reconstructed Mediterranean grassland system.« less

  14. Precompetition warm-up in elite and subelite rhythmic gymnastics.

    PubMed

    Guidetti, Laura; Di Cagno, Alessandra; Gallotta, Maria Chiara; Battaglia, Claudia; Piazza, Marina; Baldari, Carlo

    2009-09-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate which precompetition warm-up methodologies resulted in the best overall performance in rhythmic gymnastics. The coaches of national and international clubs (60 elite and 90 subelite) were interviewed. The relationship between sport performance and precompetition warm-up routines was examined. A total of 49% of the coaches interviewed spent more than 1 hour to prepare their athletes for the competition, including 45 minutes dedicated to warm-up exercises. In spite of previous studies' suggestions, the time between the end of warm-up and the beginning of competition was more than 5 minutes for 68% of those interviewed. A slow run was the activity of choice used to begin the warm-up (96%). Significant differences between elite and subelite gymnasts were found concerning the total duration of warm-up, duration of slow running, utilization of rhythmic steps and leaps during the warm-up, the use of dynamic flexibility exercises, competition performances repetition (p < 0.01), and utilization of imagery (p < 0.05). A precompetition warm-up in rhythmic gymnastics would include static stretching exercises at least 60 minutes prior to the competition starting time and the active stretching exercises alternated with analytic muscle strengthening aimed at increasing muscle temperature. Rhythmic gymnastics coaches at all levels can use this data as a review of precompetition warm-up practices and a possible source of new ideas.

  15. Global lake response to the recent warming hiatus

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Winslow, Luke A.; Leach, Taylor H.; Rose, Kevin C.

    2018-05-01

    Understanding temporal variability in lake warming rates over decadal scales is important for understanding observed change in aquatic systems. We analyzed a global dataset of lake surface water temperature observations (1985‑2009) to examine how lake temperatures responded to a recent global air temperature warming hiatus (1998‑2012). Prior to the hiatus (1985‑1998), surface water temperatures significantly increased at an average rate of 0.532 °C decade‑1 (±0.214). In contrast, water temperatures did not change significantly during the hiatus (average rate ‑0.087 °C decade‑1 ±0.223). Overall, 83% of lakes in our dataset (129 of 155) had faster warming rates during the pre-hiatus period than during the hiatus period. These results demonstrate that lakes have exhibited decadal-scale variability in warming rates coherent with global air temperatures and represent an independent line of evidence for the recent warming hiatus. Our analyses provide evidence that lakes are sentinels of broader climatological processes and indicate that warming rates based on datasets where a large proportion of observations were collected during the hiatus period may underestimate longer-term trends.

  16. Regional seasonal warming anomalies and land-surface feedbacks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Coffel, E.; Horton, R. M.

    2017-12-01

    Significant seasonal variations in warming are projected in some regions, especially central Europe, the southeastern U.S., and central South America. Europe in particular may experience up to 2°C more warming during June, July, and August than in the annual mean, enhancing the risk of extreme summertime heat. Previous research has shown that heat waves in Europe and other regions are tied to seasonal soil moisture variations, and that in general land-surface feedbacks have a strong effect on seasonal temperature anomalies. In this study, we show that the seasonal anomalies in warming are also due in part to land-surface feedbacks. We find that in regions with amplified warming during the hot season, surface soil moisture levels generally decline and Bowen ratios increase as a result of a preferential partitioning of incoming energy into sensible vs. latent. The CMIP5 model suite shows significant variability in the strength of land-atmosphere coupling and in projections of future precipitation and soil moisture. Due to the dependence of seasonal warming on land-surface processes, these inter-model variations influence the projected summertime warming amplification and contribute to the uncertainty in projections of future extreme heat.

  17. Global Changes in Drought Conditions Under Different Levels of Warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Naumann, G.; Alfieri, L.; Wyser, K.; Mentaschi, L.; Betts, R. A.; Carrao, H.; Spinoni, J.; Vogt, J.; Feyen, L.

    2018-04-01

    Higher evaporative demands and more frequent and persistent dry spells associated with rising temperatures suggest that drought conditions could worsen in many regions of the world. In this study, we assess how drought conditions may develop across the globe for 1.5, 2, and 3°C warming compared to preindustrial temperatures. Results show that two thirds of global population will experience a progressive increase in drought conditions with warming. For drying areas, drought durations are projected to rise at rapidly increasing rates with warming, averaged globally from 2.0 month/°C below 1.5°C to 4.2 month/°C when approaching 3°C. Drought magnitudes could double for 30% of global landmass under stringent mitigation. If contemporary warming rates continue, water supply-demand deficits could become fivefold in size for most of Africa, Australia, southern Europe, southern and central states of the United States, Central America, the Caribbean, north-west China, and parts of Southern America. In approximately 20% of the global land surface, drought magnitude will halve with warming of 1.5°C and higher levels, mainly most land areas north of latitude 55°N, but also parts of South America and Eastern and South-eastern Asia. A progressive and significant increase in frequency of droughts is projected with warming in the Mediterranean basin, most of Africa, West and Southern Asia, Central America, and Oceania, where droughts are projected to happen 5 to 10 times more frequent even under ambitious mitigation targets and current 100-year events could occur every two to five years under 3°C of warming.

  18. Increased Air Temperature during Simulated Autumn Conditions Does Not Increase Photosynthetic Carbon Gain But Affects the Dissipation of Excess Energy in Seedlings of the Evergreen Conifer Jack Pine1[OA

    PubMed Central

    Busch, Florian; Hüner, Norman P.A.; Ensminger, Ingo

    2007-01-01

    Temperature and daylength act as environmental signals that determine the length of the growing season in boreal evergreen conifers. Climate change might affect the seasonal development of these trees, as they will experience naturally decreasing daylength during autumn, while at the same time warmer air temperature will maintain photosynthesis and respiration. We characterized the down-regulation of photosynthetic gas exchange and the mechanisms involved in the dissipation of energy in Jack pine (Pinus banksiana) in controlled environments during a simulated summer-autumn transition under natural conditions and conditions with altered air temperature and photoperiod. Using a factorial design, we dissected the effects of daylength and temperature. Control plants were grown at either warm summer conditions with 16-h photoperiod and 22°C or conditions representing a cool autumn with 8 h/7°C. To assess the impact of photoperiod and temperature on photosynthesis and energy dissipation, plants were also grown under either cold summer (16-h photoperiod/7°C) or warm autumn conditions (8-h photoperiod/22°C). Photosynthetic gas exchange was affected by both daylength and temperature. Assimilation and respiration rates under warm autumn conditions were only about one-half of the summer values but were similar to values obtained for cold summer and natural autumn treatments. In contrast, photosynthetic efficiency was largely determined by temperature but not by daylength. Plants of different treatments followed different strategies for dissipating excess energy. Whereas in the warm summer treatment safe dissipation of excess energy was facilitated via zeaxanthin, in all other treatments dissipation of excess energy was facilitated predominantly via increased aggregation of the light-harvesting complex of photosystem II. These differences were accompanied by a lower deepoxidation state and larger amounts of β-carotene in the warm autumn treatment as well as by changes in

  19. Warm-ups for military fitness testing: rapid evidence assessment of the literature.

    PubMed

    Zeno, Stacey A; Purvis, Dianna; Crawford, Cindy; Lee, Courtney; Lisman, Peter; Deuster, Patricia A

    2013-07-01

    Warm-up exercises are commonly used before exercise as a method to physiologically prepare for strenuous physical activity. Various warm-up exercises are often implemented but without scientific merit and, at times, may be detrimental to performance. To date, no systematic reviews have examined the effectiveness of warm-up exercises for military physical fitness test (PFT) or combat fitness test (CFT). The purpose of this rapid evidence assessment of the literature was to examine the quantity, quality, and effectiveness of warm-up exercises for PFT and identify those that might increase PFT and/or CFT scores, as reported in the literature. Literature searches of randomized controlled trials were performed across various databases from database inception to May 2011. Methodological quality of included studies was assessed using the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) 50 criteria for randomized controlled trial designs, and studies were individually described. Subject matter experts summarized the results applicable or generalizable to military testing. The search yielded a total of 1177 citations, with 37 fitting our inclusion criteria. Cardiovascular warm-ups increased sprint/running time, but dynamic stretching and dynamic warm-ups had the most positive outcome for the various exercise tests examined. Systematically, static stretching had no beneficial or detrimental effect on exercise performance but did improve range of movement exercises. Selected warm-up exercise may increase PFT and possibly CFT scores. Further research is needed to investigate the efficacy of dynamic stretching and dynamic warm-ups.

  20. Leaf anatomy, BVOC emission and CO2 exchange of arctic plants following snow addition and summer warming.

    PubMed

    Schollert, Michelle; Kivimäenpää, Minna; Michelsen, Anders; Blok, Daan; Rinnan, Riikka

    2017-02-01

    Climate change in the Arctic is projected to increase temperature, precipitation and snowfall. This may alter leaf anatomy and gas exchange either directly or indirectly. Our aim was to assess whether increased snow depth and warming modify leaf anatomy and affect biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions and CO 2 exchange of the widespread arctic shrubs Betula nana and Empetrum nigrum ssp. hermaphroditum METHODS: Measurements were conducted in a full-factorial field experiment in Central West Greenland, with passive summer warming by open-top chambers and snow addition using snow fences. Leaf anatomy was assessed using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. BVOC emissions were measured using a dynamic enclosure system and collection of BVOCs into adsorbent cartridges analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Carbon dioxide exchange was measured using an infrared gas analyser. Despite a later snowmelt and reduced photosynthesis for B. nana especially, no apparent delays in the BVOC emissions were observed in response to snow addition. Only a few effects of the treatments were seen for the BVOC emissions, with sesquiterpenes being the most responsive compound group. Snow addition affected leaf anatomy by increasing the glandular trichome density in B. nana and modifying the mesophyll of E. hermaphroditum The open-top chambers thickened the epidermis of B. nana, while increasing the glandular trichome density and reducing the palisade:spongy mesophyll ratio in E. hermaphroditum CONCLUSIONS: Leaf anatomy was modified by both treatments already after the first winter and we suggest links between leaf anatomy, CO 2 exchange and BVOC emissions. While warming is likely to reduce soil moisture, melt water from a deeper snow pack alleviates water stress in the early growing season. The study emphasizes the ecological importance of changes in winter precipitation in the Arctic, which can interact with climate-warming effects. © The Author 2017

  1. Signature of ocean warming in global fisheries catch.

    PubMed

    Cheung, William W L; Watson, Reg; Pauly, Daniel

    2013-05-16

    Marine fishes and invertebrates respond to ocean warming through distribution shifts, generally to higher latitudes and deeper waters. Consequently, fisheries should be affected by 'tropicalization' of catch (increasing dominance of warm-water species). However, a signature of such climate-change effects on global fisheries catch has so far not been detected. Here we report such an index, the mean temperature of the catch (MTC), that is calculated from the average inferred temperature preference of exploited species weighted by their annual catch. Our results show that, after accounting for the effects of fishing and large-scale oceanographic variability, global MTC increased at a rate of 0.19 degrees Celsius per decade between 1970 and 2006, and non-tropical MTC increased at a rate of 0.23 degrees Celsius per decade. In tropical areas, MTC increased initially because of the reduction in the proportion of subtropical species catches, but subsequently stabilized as scope for further tropicalization of communities became limited. Changes in MTC in 52 large marine ecosystems, covering the majority of the world's coastal and shelf areas, are significantly and positively related to regional changes in sea surface temperature. This study shows that ocean warming has already affected global fisheries in the past four decades, highlighting the immediate need to develop adaptation plans to minimize the effect of such warming on the economy and food security of coastal communities, particularly in tropical regions.

  2. Linking Stoichiometric Homeostasis of Microorganisms with Soil Phosphorus Dynamics in Wetlands Subjected to Microcosm Warming

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Hang; Li, HongYi; Zhang, ZhiJian; Muehlbauer, Jeffrey D.; He, Qiang; Xu, XinHua; Yue, ChunLei; Jiang, DaQian

    2014-01-01

    Soil biogeochemical processes and the ecological stability of wetland ecosystems under global warming scenarios have gained increasing attention worldwide. Changes in the capacity of microorganisms to maintain stoichiometric homeostasis, or relatively stable internal concentrations of elements, may serve as an indicator of alterations to soil biogeochemical processes and their associated ecological feedbacks. In this study, an outdoor computerized microcosm was set up to simulate a warmed (+5°C) climate scenario, using novel, minute-scale temperature manipulation technology. The principle of stoichiometric homeostasis was adopted to illustrate phosphorus (P) biogeochemical cycling coupled with carbon (C) dynamics within the soil-microorganism complex. We hypothesized that enhancing the flux of P from soil to water under warming scenarios is tightly coupled with a decrease in homeostatic regulation ability in wetland ecosystems. Results indicate that experimental warming impaired the ability of stoichiometric homeostasis (H) to regulate biogeochemical processes, enhancing the ecological role of wetland soil as an ecological source for both P and C. The potential P flux from soil to water ranged from 0.11 to 34.51 mg m−2 d−1 in the control and 0.07 to 61.26 mg m−2 d−1 in the warmed treatment. The synergistic function of C-P acquisition is an important mechanism underlying C∶P stoichiometric balance for soil microorganisms under warming. For both treatment groups, strongly significant (p<0.001) relationships fitting a negative allometric power model with a fractional exponent were found between n-HC∶P (the specialized homeostatic regulation ability as a ratio of soil highly labile organic carbon to dissolved reactive phosphorus in porewater) and potential P flux. Although many factors may affect soil P dynamics, the n-HC∶P term fundamentally reflects the stoichiometric balance or interactions between the energy landscape (i.e., C) and flow of resources

  3. Soil Warming and Fertilization Effects on Growth Ring Widths of Arctic Shrubs - Application of a Novel Dendroecological Approach.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Iturrate Garcia, M.; Heijmans, M.; Schweingruber, F. H.; Niklaus, P. A.; Schaepman-Strub, G.

    2015-12-01

    Climate warming is suggested as the main driver of shrub expansion in arctic tundra regions. Shrub expansion may have consequences on biodiversity and climate, especially through its feedbacks with the energy budget. A better understanding of shrub expansion mechanisms, including growth rate patterns and stem anatomy changes, and their sensitivity to climate is needed in order to quantify related feedbacks. We present a novel dendroecological approach to determine the response of three arctic shrub species to increased soil temperature and nutrients. A full factorial block-design experiment was run for four years with a total of thirty plots. Six individuals of each species were sampled from each plot to test for treatment effects on growth rate and stem anatomy. We compared the ring width of the four years of experiment with the one of the four previous years. The preliminary results for Betula nana and Salix pulchra suggest a significant effect of the treatments on the growth ring width. The response is stronger in Salix pulchra than in Betula nana individuals. And, while Salix pulchra is more sensitive to the combined soil warming and fertilization treatment, Betula nana is to the fertilization treatment. We could not observe an effect of treatment on the stem anatomy, likely because bark thickness co-varies with age. We found significant positive correlations of cork, cortex and phloem thickness with xylem thickness (used as a proxy of age), and a significant difference in stem anatomy between species. The results suggest species-specific growth sensitivity to soil warming and nutrient enhancement. The use of experimental dendroecology by manipulating environmental conditions according to future climate scenarios and testing effects on shrub anatomy and annual growth will increase our understanding on shrub expansion mechanisms. Ongoing plant trait analysis and consecutive application in a 3D radiative transfer model will allow to quantify the feedback of

  4. Impacts of day versus night warming on soil microclimate: results from a semiarid temperate steppe.

    PubMed

    Xia, Jianyang; Chen, Shiping; Wan, Shiqiang

    2010-06-15

    One feature of climate warming is that increases in daily minimum temperature are greater than those in daily maximum temperature. Changes in soil microclimate in response to the asymmetrically diurnal warming scenarios can help to explain responses of ecosystem processes. In the present study, we examined the impacts of day, night, and continuous warming on soil microclimate in a temperate steppe in northern China. Our results showed that day, night, and continuous warming (approximately 13Wm(-2) with constant power mode) significantly increased daily mean soil temperature at 10cm depth by 0.71, 0.78, and 1.71 degrees C, respectively. Night warming caused greater increases in nighttime mean and daily minimum soil temperatures (0.74 and 0.99 degrees C) than day warming did (0.60 and 0.66 degrees C). However, there were no differences in the increases in daytime mean and daily maximum soil temperature between day (0.81 and 1.13 degrees C) and night (0.81 and 1.10 degrees C) warming. The differential effects of day and night warming on soil temperature varied with environmental factors, including photosynthetic active radiation, vapor-pressure deficit, and wind speed. When compared with the effect of continuous warming on soil temperature, the summed effects of day and night warming were lower during daytime, but greater at night, thus leading to equality at daily scale. Mean volumetric soil moisture at the depth of 0-40cm significantly decreased under continuous warming in both 2006 (1.44 V/V%) and 2007 (0.76 V/V%). Day warming significantly reduced volumetric soil moisture only in 2006, whereas night warming had no effect on volumetric soil moisture in both 2006 and 2007. Given the different diurnal warming patterns and variability of environmental factors among ecosystems, these results highlight the importance of incorporating the differential impacts of day and night warming on soil microclimate into the predictions of terrestrial ecosystem responses to climate

  5. Synergy between nutrients and warming enhances methane ebullition from experimental lakes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Davidson, Thomas A.; Audet, Joachim; Jeppesen, Erik; Landkildehus, Frank; Lauridsen, Torben L.; Søndergaard, Martin; Syväranta, Jari

    2018-01-01

    Lakes and ponds are important natural sources of the potent greenhouse gas methane (CH4), with small shallow waters identified as particular hotspots1,2. Ebullition (bubbles) of CH4 makes up a large proportion of total CH4 flux3,4. However, difficulty measuring such episodic events5 makes prediction of how ebullition responds to nutrient enrichment and rising temperatures challenging. Here, the world's longest running, mesocosm-based, shallow lake climate change experiment was used to investigate how the combination of warming and eutrophication (that is, nutrient enrichment) affects CH4 ebullition. Eutrophication without heating increased the relative contribution of ebullition from 51% to 75%. More strikingly the combination of nutrient enrichment and experimental warming treatments of +2-3 °C and +4-5 °C had a synergistic effect, increasing mean annual ebullition by at least 1900 mg CH4-C m-2 yr-1. In contrast, diffusive flux showed no response to eutrophication and only a small increase at higher temperatures (average 63 mg CH4-C m-2 yr-1). As shallow lakes are the most common lake type globally, abundant in highly climate sensitive regions6 and most vulnerable to eutrophication, these results suggest their current and future contributions to atmospheric CH4 concentrations may be significantly underestimated.

  6. Effects of global warming on ancient mammalian communities and their environments.

    PubMed

    DeSantis, Larisa R G; Feranec, Robert S; MacFadden, Bruce J

    2009-06-03

    Current global warming affects the composition and dynamics of mammalian communities and can increase extinction risk; however, long-term effects of warming on mammals are less understood. Dietary reconstructions inferred from stable isotopes of fossil herbivorous mammalian tooth enamel document environmental and climatic changes in ancient ecosystems, including C(3)/C(4) transitions and relative seasonality. Here, we use stable carbon and oxygen isotopes preserved in fossil teeth to document the magnitude of mammalian dietary shifts and ancient floral change during geologically documented glacial and interglacial periods during the Pliocene (approximately 1.9 million years ago) and Pleistocene (approximately 1.3 million years ago) in Florida. Stable isotope data demonstrate increased aridity, increased C(4) grass consumption, inter-faunal dietary partitioning, increased isotopic niche breadth of mixed feeders, niche partitioning of phylogenetically similar taxa, and differences in relative seasonality with warming. Our data show that global warming resulted in dramatic vegetation and dietary changes even at lower latitudes (approximately 28 degrees N). Our results also question the use of models that predict the long term decline and extinction of species based on the assumption that niches are conserved over time. These findings have immediate relevance to clarifying possible biotic responses to current global warming in modern ecosystems.

  7. Warming effects on greenhouse gas fluxes in peatlands are modulated by vegetation composition.

    PubMed

    Ward, Susan E; Ostle, Nicholas J; Oakley, Simon; Quirk, Helen; Henrys, Peter A; Bardgett, Richard D

    2013-10-01

    Understanding the effects of warming on greenhouse gas feedbacks to climate change represents a major global challenge. Most research has focused on direct effects of warming, without considering how concurrent changes in plant communities may alter such effects. Here, we combined vegetation manipulations with warming to investigate their interactive effects on greenhouse gas emissions from peatland. We found that although warming consistently increased respiration, the effect on net ecosystem CO2 exchange depended on vegetation composition. The greatest increase in CO2 sink strength after warming was when shrubs were present, and the greatest decrease when graminoids were present. CH4 was more strongly controlled by vegetation composition than by warming, with largest emissions from graminoid communities. Our results show that plant community composition is a significant modulator of greenhouse gas emissions and their response to warming, and suggest that vegetation change could alter peatland carbon sink strength under future climate change. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

  8. Increased evapotranspiration demand in a Mediterranean climate might cause a decline in fungal yields under global warming.

    PubMed

    Ágreda, Teresa; Águeda, Beatriz; Olano, José M; Vicente-Serrano, Sergio M; Fernández-Toirán, Marina

    2015-09-01

    Wild fungi play a critical role in forest ecosystems, and its recollection is a relevant economic activity. Understanding fungal response to climate is necessary in order to predict future fungal production in Mediterranean forests under climate change scenarios. We used a 15-year data set to model the relationship between climate and epigeous fungal abundance and productivity, for mycorrhizal and saprotrophic guilds in a Mediterranean pine forest. The obtained models were used to predict fungal productivity for the 2021-2080 period by means of regional climate change models. Simple models based on early spring temperature and summer-autumn rainfall could provide accurate estimates for fungal abundance and productivity. Models including rainfall and climatic water balance showed similar results and explanatory power for the analyzed 15-year period. However, their predictions for the 2021-2080 period diverged. Rainfall-based models predicted a maintenance of fungal yield, whereas water balance-based models predicted a steady decrease of fungal productivity under a global warming scenario. Under Mediterranean conditions fungi responded to weather conditions in two distinct periods: early spring and late summer-autumn, suggesting a bimodal pattern of growth. Saprotrophic and mycorrhizal fungi showed differences in the climatic control. Increased atmospheric evaporative demand due to global warming might lead to a drop in fungal yields during the 21st century. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  9. Changes in fungal community composition in response to experimental soil warming at the alpine treeline

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Solly, Emily; Lindahl, Bjorn; Dawes, Melissa; Peter, Martina; Souza, Romulo; Rixen, Christian; Hagedorn, Frank

    2017-04-01

    data and the colonization of ectomycorrhizal root tips. Several fungal taxa known to be involved in needle degradation responded positively to the warming treatment by increasing in their relative abundance. These findings provide novel insights into the spatial distribution of functional groups of fungi both vertically in the soil and between different rhizospheres of trees. Moreover, they indicate that traits related to nitrogen utilization are important in determining responses of ectomycorrhizal fungi to warming in cold regions, such as high-elevation ecosystems, with low N availability. Shifts in the overall fungal community composition in response to higher temperatures may alter fungal-driven processes with potential feedbacks on ecosystem nitrogen cycling and carbon storage at the alpine treeline.

  10. Ecosystem responses to warming and watering in typical and desert steppes.

    PubMed

    Xu, Zhenzhu; Hou, Yanhui; Zhang, Lihua; Liu, Tao; Zhou, Guangsheng

    2016-10-10

    Global warming is projected to continue, leading to intense fluctuations in precipitation and heat waves and thereby affecting the productivity and the relevant biological processes of grassland ecosystems. Here, we determined the functional responses to warming and altered precipitation in both typical and desert steppes. The results showed that watering markedly increased the aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) in a typical steppe during a drier year and in a desert steppe over two years, whereas warming manipulation had no significant effect. The soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and the soil respiration (SR) were increased by watering in both steppes, but the SR was significantly decreased by warming in the desert steppe only. The inorganic nitrogen components varied irregularly, with generally lower levels in the desert steppe. The belowground traits of soil total organic carbon (TOC) and the MBC were more closely associated with the ANPP in the desert than in the typical steppes. The results showed that the desert steppe with lower productivity may respond strongly to precipitation changes, particularly with warming, highlighting the positive effect of adding water with warming. Our study implies that the habitat- and year-specific responses to warming and watering should be considered when predicting an ecosystem's functional responses under climate change scenarios.

  11. Ecosystem responses to warming and watering in typical and desert steppes

    PubMed Central

    Xu, Zhenzhu; Hou, Yanhui; Zhang, Lihua; Liu, Tao; Zhou, Guangsheng

    2016-01-01

    Global warming is projected to continue, leading to intense fluctuations in precipitation and heat waves and thereby affecting the productivity and the relevant biological processes of grassland ecosystems. Here, we determined the functional responses to warming and altered precipitation in both typical and desert steppes. The results showed that watering markedly increased the aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) in a typical steppe during a drier year and in a desert steppe over two years, whereas warming manipulation had no significant effect. The soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and the soil respiration (SR) were increased by watering in both steppes, but the SR was significantly decreased by warming in the desert steppe only. The inorganic nitrogen components varied irregularly, with generally lower levels in the desert steppe. The belowground traits of soil total organic carbon (TOC) and the MBC were more closely associated with the ANPP in the desert than in the typical steppes. The results showed that the desert steppe with lower productivity may respond strongly to precipitation changes, particularly with warming, highlighting the positive effect of adding water with warming. Our study implies that the habitat- and year-specific responses to warming and watering should be considered when predicting an ecosystem’s functional responses under climate change scenarios. PMID:27721480

  12. Ecosystem responses to warming and watering in typical and desert steppes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Zhenzhu; Hou, Yanhui; Zhang, Lihua; Liu, Tao; Zhou, Guangsheng

    2016-10-01

    Global warming is projected to continue, leading to intense fluctuations in precipitation and heat waves and thereby affecting the productivity and the relevant biological processes of grassland ecosystems. Here, we determined the functional responses to warming and altered precipitation in both typical and desert steppes. The results showed that watering markedly increased the aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) in a typical steppe during a drier year and in a desert steppe over two years, whereas warming manipulation had no significant effect. The soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and the soil respiration (SR) were increased by watering in both steppes, but the SR was significantly decreased by warming in the desert steppe only. The inorganic nitrogen components varied irregularly, with generally lower levels in the desert steppe. The belowground traits of soil total organic carbon (TOC) and the MBC were more closely associated with the ANPP in the desert than in the typical steppes. The results showed that the desert steppe with lower productivity may respond strongly to precipitation changes, particularly with warming, highlighting the positive effect of adding water with warming. Our study implies that the habitat- and year-specific responses to warming and watering should be considered when predicting an ecosystem’s functional responses under climate change scenarios.

  13. Paternal identity influences response of Acanthaster planci embryos to ocean acidification and warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sparks, Kate M.; Foo, Shawna A.; Uthicke, Sven; Byrne, Maria; Lamare, Miles

    2017-03-01

    The crown-of-thorns sea star Acanthaster planci is a key predator of corals and has had a major influence on the decrease in coral cover across the Indo-Pacific. To understand how this species may adapt to ocean warming and acidification, this study used a quantitative genetic approach to examine the response in offspring of 24 half-sib A. planci families raised in fully crossed treatment combinations of temperature (27, 29 and 31 °C) and pCO2 (450 and 900 ppm) to the gastrulation stage (26 h post-fertilisation). Interactions between genotype and environment were tested using a permutational multivariate ANOVA and restricted error maximum likelihood calculations of variance. High temperature (31 °C) significantly reduced normal (symmetrical, intact) development by 15% at the 16-cell stage. Increased temperature (from 29 to 31 °C) reduced normal gastrulation from 65 to 30%. The extent to which each genotype was affected depended on sire identity, which explained 15% of variation. pCO2 did not significantly influence development at gastrulation. To explore the importance of individual mating pairs, response ratios were calculated for offspring of each family across all treatments. Response ratios demonstrated that the majority of genotypes experienced the highest percentage of normal development to gastrulation in the control treatment, and that family (sire × dam) is important in determining the response to ocean warming and acidification. A positive genetic correlation (overall r* G = 0.76) from sire × environment interactions, however, indicated that individuals which develop `better' at both high temperature and high pCO2 may cope better with near-future predicted warm and acidified conditions for eastern Australia.

  14. Temperature and size variabilities of the Western Pacific Warm Pool

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Yan, Xiao-Hai; Ho, Chung-Ru; Zheng, Quanan; Klemas, Vic

    1992-01-01

    Variabilities in sea-surface temperature and size of the Western Pacific Warm Pool were tracked with 10 years of satellite multichannel sea-surface temperature observations from 1982 to 1991. The results show that both annual mean sea-surface temperature and the size of the warm pool increased from 1983 to 1987 and fluctuated after 1987. Possible causes of these variations include solar irradiance variabilities, El Nino-Southern Oscillaton events, volcanic activities, and global warming.

  15. Desert Amplification in a Warming Climate

    PubMed Central

    Zhou, Liming

    2016-01-01

    Here I analyze the observed and projected surface temperature anomalies over land between 50°S-50°N for the period 1950–2099 by large-scale ecoregion and find strongest warming consistently and persistently seen over driest ecoregions such as the Sahara desert and the Arabian Peninsula during various 30-year periods, pointing to desert amplification in a warming climate. This amplification enhances linearly with the global mean greenhouse gases(GHGs) radiative forcing and is attributable primarily to a stronger GHGs-enhanced downward longwave radiation forcing reaching the surface over drier ecoregions as a consequence of a warmer and thus moister atmosphere in response to increasing GHGs. These results indicate that desert amplification may represent a fundamental pattern of global warming associated with water vapor feedbacks over land in low- and mid- latitudes where surface warming rates depend inversely on ecosystem dryness. It is likely that desert amplification might involve two types of water vapor feedbacks that maximize respectively in the tropical upper troposphere and near the surface over deserts, with both being very dry and thus extremely sensitive to changes of water vapor. PMID:27538725

  16. Chlorpyrifos-induced oxidative damage is reduced under warming and predation risk: Explaining antagonistic interactions with a pesticide.

    PubMed

    Janssens, Lizanne; Stoks, Robby

    2017-07-01

    Interactions with pollutants and environmental factors are poorly studied for physiological traits. Yet physiological traits are important for explaining and predicting interactions at higher levels of organization. We investigated the single and combined impact of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, predation risk and warming on endpoints related to oxidative stress in the damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum. We thereby integrated information on reactive oxygen species (ROS), antioxidant enzymes and oxidative damage. All three treatments impacted the oxidative stress levels and for most traits the pesticide interacted antagonistically with warming or predation risk. Chlorpyrifos exposure resulted in increased ROS levels, decreased antioxidant defence and increased oxidative damage compared to the control situation. Under warming, the pesticide-induced increase in oxidative stress was less strong and the investment in antioxidant defence higher. Although both the pesticide and predation risk increased oxidative damage, the effects of the pesticide on oxidative damage were less strong in the presence of predator cues (at 20 °C). Despite the weaker pesticide-induced effects under predation risk, the combination of the pesticide and predator cues consistently caused the highest ROS levels, the lowest antioxidant defence and the highest oxidative damage, indicating the importance of cumulative stressor effects for impairing fitness. Our results provide the first evidence for antagonistic interactions of warming and predation risk with a pollutant for physiological traits. We identified two general mechanisms that may generate antagonistic interactions for oxidative stress: cross-tolerance and the maximum cumulative levels of damage. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Warming and elevated CO 2 alter the suberin chemistry in roots of photosynthetically divergent grass species

    DOE PAGES

    Suseela, Vidya; Tharayil, Nishanth; Pendall, Elise; ...

    2017-09-01

    A majority of soil carbon (C) is either directly or indirectly derived from fine roots, yet roots remain the least understood component of the terrestrial carbon cycle. The decomposability of fine roots and their potential to contribute to soil C is partly regulated by their tissue chemical composition. Roots rely heavily on heteropolymers such as suberins, lignins and tannins to adapt to various environmental pressures and to maximize their resource uptake functions. Since the chemical construction of roots is partly shaped by their immediate biotic/abiotic soil environments, global changes that perturb soil resource availability and plant growth could potentially altermore » root chemistry, and hence the decomposability of roots. However, the effect of global change on the quantity and composition of root heteropolymers are seldom investigated. We examined the effects of elevated CO 2 and warming on the quantity and composition of suberin in roots of Bouteloua gracilis (C4) and Hesperostipa comata (C3) grass species at the Prairie Heating and CO 2 Enrichment (PHACE) experiment at Wyoming, USA. Roots of B. gracilis exposed to elevated CO 2 and warming had higher abundances of suberin and lignin than those exposed to ambient climate treatments. In addition to changes in their abundance, roots exposed to warming and elevated CO 2 had higher ω-hydroxy acids compared to plants grown under ambient conditions. The suberin content and composition in roots of H. comata was less responsive to climate treatments. In H. comata, α,ω-dioic acids increased with the main effect of elevated CO 2, whereas the total quantity of suberin exhibited an increasing trend with the main effect of warming and elevated CO 2. The increase in suberin content and altered composition could lower root decomposition rates with implications for root-derived soil carbon under global change. Our study also suggests that the climate change induced alterations in species composition will further

  18. Warming and elevated CO 2 alter the suberin chemistry in roots of photosynthetically divergent grass species

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Suseela, Vidya; Tharayil, Nishanth; Pendall, Elise

    A majority of soil carbon (C) is either directly or indirectly derived from fine roots, yet roots remain the least understood component of the terrestrial carbon cycle. The decomposability of fine roots and their potential to contribute to soil C is partly regulated by their tissue chemical composition. Roots rely heavily on heteropolymers such as suberins, lignins and tannins to adapt to various environmental pressures and to maximize their resource uptake functions. Since the chemical construction of roots is partly shaped by their immediate biotic/abiotic soil environments, global changes that perturb soil resource availability and plant growth could potentially altermore » root chemistry, and hence the decomposability of roots. However, the effect of global change on the quantity and composition of root heteropolymers are seldom investigated. We examined the effects of elevated CO 2 and warming on the quantity and composition of suberin in roots of Bouteloua gracilis (C4) and Hesperostipa comata (C3) grass species at the Prairie Heating and CO 2 Enrichment (PHACE) experiment at Wyoming, USA. Roots of B. gracilis exposed to elevated CO 2 and warming had higher abundances of suberin and lignin than those exposed to ambient climate treatments. In addition to changes in their abundance, roots exposed to warming and elevated CO 2 had higher ω-hydroxy acids compared to plants grown under ambient conditions. The suberin content and composition in roots of H. comata was less responsive to climate treatments. In H. comata, α,ω-dioic acids increased with the main effect of elevated CO 2, whereas the total quantity of suberin exhibited an increasing trend with the main effect of warming and elevated CO 2. The increase in suberin content and altered composition could lower root decomposition rates with implications for root-derived soil carbon under global change. Our study also suggests that the climate change induced alterations in species composition will further

  19. Bud break responds more strongly to daytime than night-time temperature under asymmetric experimental warming.

    PubMed

    Rossi, Sergio; Isabel, Nathalie

    2017-01-01

    Global warming is diurnally asymmetric, leading to a less cold, rather than warmer, climate. We investigated the effects of asymmetric experimental warming on plant phenology by testing the hypothesis that daytime warming is more effective in advancing bud break than night-time warming. Bud break was monitored daily in Picea mariana seedlings belonging to 20 provenances from Eastern Canada and subjected to daytime and night-time warming in growth chambers at temperatures varying between 8 and 16 °C. The higher advancements of bud break and shorter times required to complete the phenological phases occurred with daytime warming. Seedlings responded to night-time warming, but still with less advancement of bud break than under daytime warming. No advancement was observed when night-time warming was associated with a daytime cooling. The effect of the treatments was uniform across provenances. Our observations realized under controlled conditions allowed to experimentally demonstrate that bud break can advance under night-time warming, but to a lesser extent than under daytime warming. Prediction models using daily timescales could neglect the diverging influence of asymmetric warming and should be recalibrated for higher temporal resolutions. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  20. Species selection under long-term experimental warming and drought explained by climatic distributions.

    PubMed

    Liu, Daijun; Peñuelas, Josep; Ogaya, Romà; Estiarte, Marc; Tielbörger, Katja; Slowik, Fabian; Yang, Xiaohong; Bilton, Mark C

    2018-03-01

    Global warming and reduced precipitation may trigger large-scale species losses and vegetation shifts in ecosystems around the world. However, currently lacking are practical ways to quantify the sensitivity of species and community composition to these often-confounded climatic forces. Here we conducted long-term (16 yr) nocturnal-warming (+0.6°C) and reduced precipitation (-20% soil moisture) experiments in a Mediterranean shrubland. Climatic niche groups (CNGs) - species ranked or classified by similar temperature or precipitation distributions - informatively described community responses under experimental manipulations. Under warming, CNGs revealed that only those species distributed in cooler regions decreased. Correspondingly, under reduced precipitation, a U-shaped treatment effect observed in the total community was the result of an abrupt decrease in wet-distributed species, followed by a delayed increase in dry-distributed species. Notably, while partially correlated, CNG explanations of community response were stronger for their respective climate parameter, suggesting some species possess specific adaptations to either warming or drought that may lead to independent selection to the two climatic variables. Our findings indicate that when climatic distributions are combined with experiments, the resulting incorporation of local plant evolutionary strategies and their changing dynamics over time leads to predictable and informative shifts in community structure under independent climate change scenarios. © 2017 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2017 New Phytologist Trust.

  1. Changes in ENSO amplitude under climate warming and cooling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Yingying; Luo, Yiyong; Lu, Jian; Liu, Fukai

    2018-05-01

    The response of ENSO amplitude to climate warming and cooling is investigated using the Community Earth System Model (CESM), in which the warming and cooling scenarios are designed by adding heat fluxes of equal amplitude but opposite sign onto the ocean surface, respectively. Results show that the warming induces an increase of the ENSO amplitude but the cooling gives rise to a decrease of the ENSO amplitude, and these changes are robust in statistics. A mixed layer heat budget analysis finds that the increasing (decreasing) SST tendency under climate warming (cooling) is mainly due to an enhancement (weakening) of dynamical feedback processes over the equatorial Pacific, including zonal advective (ZA) feedback, meridional advective (MA) feedback, thermocline (TH) feedback, and Ekman (EK) feedback. As the climate warms, a wind anomaly of the same magnitude across the equatorial Pacific can induce a stronger zonal current change in the east (i.e., a stronger ZA feedback), which in turn produces a greater weakening of upwelling (i.e., a stronger EK feedback) and thus a larger thermocline change (i.e., a stronger TH feedback). In response to the climate warming, in addition, the MA feedback is also strengthened due to an enhancement of the meridional SST gradient around the equator resulting from a weakening of the subtropical cells (STCs). It should be noted that the weakened STCs itself has a negative contribution to the change of the MA feedback which, however, appears to be secondary. And vice versa for the cooling case. Bjerknes linear stability (BJ) index is also evaluated for the linear stability of ENSO, with remarkably larger (smaller) BJ index found for the warming (cooling) case.

  2. Onset of deglacial warming in West Antarctica driven by local orbital forcing.

    PubMed

    2013-08-22

    The cause of warming in the Southern Hemisphere during the most recent deglaciation remains a matter of debate. Hypotheses for a Northern Hemisphere trigger, through oceanic redistributions of heat, are based in part on the abrupt onset of warming seen in East Antarctic ice cores and dated to 18,000 years ago, which is several thousand years after high-latitude Northern Hemisphere summer insolation intensity began increasing from its minimum, approximately 24,000 years ago. An alternative explanation is that local solar insolation changes cause the Southern Hemisphere to warm independently. Here we present results from a new, annually resolved ice-core record from West Antarctica that reconciles these two views. The records show that 18,000 years ago snow accumulation in West Antarctica began increasing, coincident with increasing carbon dioxide concentrations, warming in East Antarctica and cooling in the Northern Hemisphere associated with an abrupt decrease in Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. However, significant warming in West Antarctica began at least 2,000 years earlier. Circum-Antarctic sea-ice decline, driven by increasing local insolation, is the likely cause of this warming. The marine-influenced West Antarctic records suggest a more active role for the Southern Ocean in the onset of deglaciation than is inferred from ice cores in the East Antarctic interior, which are largely isolated from sea-ice changes.

  3. Onset of deglacial warming in West Antarctica driven by local orbital forcing

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    WAIS Divide Project Members,; Fudge, T. J.; Steig, Eric J.; Markle, Bradley R.; Schoenemann, Spruce W.; Ding, Qinghua; Taylor, Kendrick C.; McConnell, Joseph R.; Brook, Edward J.; Sowers, Todd; White, James W. C.; Alley, Richard B.; Cheng, Hai; Clow, Gary D.; Cole-Dai, Jihong; Conway, Howard; Cuffey, Kurt M.; Edwards, Jon S.; Edwards, R. Lawrence; Edwards, Ross; Fegyveresi, John M.; Ferris, David; Fitzpatrick, Joan J.; Johnson, Jay; Hargreaves, Geoffrey; Lee, James E.; Maselli, Olivia J.; Mason, William; McGwire, Kenneth C.; Mitchell, Logan E.; Mortensen, Nicolai B.; Neff, Peter; Orsi, Anais J.; Popp, Trevor J.; Schauer, Andrew J.; Severinghaus, Jeffrey P.; Sigl, Michael; Spencer, Matthew K.; Vaughn, Bruce H.; Voigt, Donald E.; Waddington, Edwin D.; Wang, Xianfeng; Wong, Gifford J.

    2013-01-01

    The cause of warming in the Southern Hemisphere during the most recent deglaciation remains a matter of debate. Hypotheses for a Northern Hemisphere trigger, through oceanic redistributions of heat, are based in part on the abrupt onset of warming seen in East Antarctic ice cores and dated to 18,000 years ago, which is several thousand years after high-latitude Northern Hemisphere summer insolation intensity began increasing from its minimum, approximately 24,000 years ago. An alternative explanation is that local solar insolation changes cause the Southern Hemisphere to warm independently. Here we present results from a new, annually resolved ice-core record from West Antarctica that reconciles these two views. The records show that 18,000 years ago snow accumulation in West Antarctica began increasing, coincident with increasing carbon dioxide concentrations, warming in East Antarctica and cooling in the Northern Hemisphere associated with an abrupt decrease in Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. However, significant warming in West Antarctica began at least 2,000 years earlier. Circum-Antarctic sea-ice decline, driven by increasing local insolation, is the likely cause of this warming. The marine-influenced West Antarctic records suggest a more active role for the Southern Ocean in the onset of deglaciation than is inferred from ice cores in the East Antarctic interior, which are largely isolated from sea-ice changes.

  4. Boreal and temperate trees show strong acclimation of respiration to warming.

    PubMed

    Reich, Peter B; Sendall, Kerrie M; Stefanski, Artur; Wei, Xiaorong; Rich, Roy L; Montgomery, Rebecca A

    2016-03-31

    Plant respiration results in an annual flux of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere that is six times as large as that due to the emissions from fossil fuel burning, so changes in either will impact future climate. As plant respiration responds positively to temperature, a warming world may result in additional respiratory CO2 release, and hence further atmospheric warming. Plant respiration can acclimate to altered temperatures, however, weakening the positive feedback of plant respiration to rising global air temperature, but a lack of evidence on long-term (weeks to years) acclimation to climate warming in field settings currently hinders realistic predictions of respiratory release of CO2 under future climatic conditions. Here we demonstrate strong acclimation of leaf respiration to both experimental warming and seasonal temperature variation for juveniles of ten North American tree species growing for several years in forest conditions. Plants grown and measured at 3.4 °C above ambient temperature increased leaf respiration by an average of 5% compared to plants grown and measured at ambient temperature; without acclimation, these increases would have been 23%. Thus, acclimation eliminated 80% of the expected increase in leaf respiration of non-acclimated plants. Acclimation of leaf respiration per degree temperature change was similar for experimental warming and seasonal temperature variation. Moreover, the observed increase in leaf respiration per degree increase in temperature was less than half as large as the average reported for previous studies, which were conducted largely over shorter time scales in laboratory settings. If such dampening effects of leaf thermal acclimation occur generally, the increase in respiration rates of terrestrial plants in response to climate warming may be less than predicted, and thus may not raise atmospheric CO2 concentrations as much as anticipated.

  5. Effects of different warm-up modalities on power output during the high pull.

    PubMed

    Barnes, Matthew John; Petterson, Ashley; Cochrane, Darryl J

    2017-05-01

    This study compared the effects of six warm-up modalities on peak power output (PPO) during the high-pull exercise. Nine resistance-trained males completed six trials using different warm-ups: high-pull specific (HPS), cycle, whole body vibration (WBV), cycle+HPS, WBV+HPS and a control. Intramuscular temperature (T m ) was increased by 2°C using WBV or cycling. PPO, T m and electromyography (EMG) were recorded during each trial. Two high-pulls were performed prior to and 3 min after participants completed the warm-up. The greatest increase in PPO occurred with HPS (232.8 ± 89.7 W, P < 0.001); however, this was not different to combined warm-ups (cycle+HPS 158.6 ± 121.1 W; WBV+HPS 177.3 ± 93.3 W, P = 1.00). These modalities increased PPO to a greater extent than those that did not involve HPS (all P < 0.05). HPS took the shortest time to complete, compared to the other conditions (P < 0.05). EMG did not differ from pre to post warm-up or between modalities in any of the muscles investigated. No change in T m occurred in warm-ups that did not include cycling or WBV. These results suggest that a movement-specific warm-up improves performance more than temperature-related warm-ups. Therefore, mechanisms other than increased muscle temperature and activation may be important for improving short-term PPO.

  6. Predicted effects of climate warming on the distribution of 50 stream fishes in Wisconsin, USA.

    PubMed

    Lyons, J; Stewart, J S; Mitro, M

    2010-11-01

    Summer air and stream water temperatures are expected to rise in the state of Wisconsin, U.S.A., over the next 50 years. To assess potential climate warming effects on stream fishes, predictive models were developed for 50 common fish species using classification-tree analysis of 69 environmental variables in a geographic information system. Model accuracy was 56·0-93·5% in validation tests. Models were applied to all 86 898 km of stream in the state under four different climate scenarios: current conditions, limited climate warming (summer air temperatures increase 1° C and water 0·8° C), moderate warming (air 3° C and water 2·4° C) and major warming (air 5° C and water 4° C). With climate warming, 23 fishes were predicted to decline in distribution (three to extirpation under the major warming scenario), 23 to increase and four to have no change. Overall, declining species lost substantially more stream length than increasing species gained. All three cold-water and 16 cool-water fishes and four of 31 warm-water fishes were predicted to decline, four warm-water fishes to remain the same and 23 warm-water fishes to increase in distribution. Species changes were predicted to be most dramatic in small streams in northern Wisconsin that currently have cold to cool summer water temperatures and are dominated by cold-water and cool-water fishes, and least in larger and warmer streams and rivers in southern Wisconsin that are currently dominated by warm-water fishes. Results of this study suggest that even small increases in summer air and water temperatures owing to climate warming will have major effects on the distribution of stream fishes in Wisconsin. © 2010 The Authors. Journal of Fish Biology © 2010 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.

  7. Does physiological acclimation to climate warming stabilize the ratio of canopy respiration to photosynthesis?

    PubMed

    Drake, John E; Tjoelker, Mark G; Aspinwall, Michael J; Reich, Peter B; Barton, Craig V M; Medlyn, Belinda E; Duursma, Remko A

    2016-08-01

    Given the contrasting short-term temperature dependences of gross primary production (GPP) and autotrophic respiration, the fraction of GPP respired by trees is predicted to increase with warming, providing a positive feedback to climate change. However, physiological acclimation may dampen or eliminate this response. We measured the fluxes of aboveground respiration (Ra ), GPP and their ratio (Ra /GPP) in large, field-grown Eucalyptus tereticornis trees exposed to ambient or warmed air temperatures (+3°C). We report continuous measurements of whole-canopy CO2 exchange, direct temperature response curves of leaf and canopy respiration, leaf and branch wood respiration, and diurnal photosynthetic measurements. Warming reduced photosynthesis, whereas physiological acclimation prevented a coincident increase in Ra . Ambient and warmed trees had a common nonlinear relationship between the fraction of GPP that was respired above ground (Ra /GPP) and the mean daily temperature. Thus, warming significantly increased Ra /GPP by moving plants to higher positions on the shared Ra /GPP vs daily temperature relationship, but this effect was modest and only notable during hot conditions. Despite the physiological acclimation of autotrophic respiration to warming, increases in temperature and the frequency of heat waves may modestly increase tree Ra /GPP, contributing to a positive feedback between climate warming and atmospheric CO2 accumulation. © 2016 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2016 New Phytologist Trust.

  8. Allocation trade-off under climate warming in experimental amphibian populations

    PubMed Central

    Gao, Xu; Jin, Changnan; Camargo, Arley

    2015-01-01

    Climate change could either directly or indirectly cause population declines via altered temperature, rainfall regimes, food availability or phenological responses. However few studies have focused on allocation trade-offs between growth and reproduction under marginal resources, such as food scarce that may be caused by climate warming. Such critical changes may have an unpredicted impact on amphibian life-history parameters and even population dynamics. Here, we report an allocation strategy of adult anuran individuals involving a reproductive stage under experimental warming. Using outdoor mesocosm experiments we simulated a warming scenario likely to occur at the end of this century. We examined the effects of temperature (ambient vs. pre-/post-hibernation warming) and food availability (normal vs. low) on reproduction and growth parameters of pond frogs (Pelophylax nigromaculatus). We found that temperature was the major factor influencing reproductive time of female pond frogs, which showed a significant advancing under post-hibernation warming treatment. While feeding rate was the major factor influencing reproductive status of females, clutch size, and variation of body size for females, showed significant positive correlations between feeding rate and reproductive status, clutch size, or variation of body size. Our results suggested that reproduction and body size of amphibians might be modulated by climate warming or food availability variation. We believe this study provides some new evidence on allocation strategies suggesting that amphibians could adjust their reproductive output to cope with climate warming. PMID:26500832

  9. Human-caused Indo-Pacific warm pool expansion.

    PubMed

    Weller, Evan; Min, Seung-Ki; Cai, Wenju; Zwiers, Francis W; Kim, Yeon-Hee; Lee, Donghyun

    2016-07-01

    The Indo-Pacific warm pool (IPWP) has warmed and grown substantially during the past century. The IPWP is Earth's largest region of warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs), has the highest rainfall, and is fundamental to global atmospheric circulation and hydrological cycle. The region has also experienced the world's highest rates of sea-level rise in recent decades, indicating large increases in ocean heat content and leading to substantial impacts on small island states in the region. Previous studies have considered mechanisms for the basin-scale ocean warming, but not the causes of the observed IPWP expansion, where expansion in the Indian Ocean has far exceeded that in the Pacific Ocean. We identify human and natural contributions to the observed IPWP changes since the 1950s by comparing observations with climate model simulations using an optimal fingerprinting technique. Greenhouse gas forcing is found to be the dominant cause of the observed increases in IPWP intensity and size, whereas natural fluctuations associated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation have played a smaller yet significant role. Further, we show that the shape and impact of human-induced IPWP growth could be asymmetric between the Indian and Pacific basins, the causes of which remain uncertain. Human-induced changes in the IPWP have important implications for understanding and projecting related changes in monsoonal rainfall, and frequency or intensity of tropical storms, which have profound socioeconomic consequences.

  10. Warm dark matter

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Horiuchi, Shunsaku, E-mail: horiuchi@vt.edu

    2016-06-21

    The cold dark matter paradigm has been extremely successful in explaining the large-scale structure of the Universe. However, it continues to face issues when confronted by observations on sub-Galactic scales. A major caveat, now being addressed, has been the incomplete treatment of baryon physics. We first summarize the small-scale issues surrounding cold dark matter and discuss the solutions explored by modern state-of-the-art numerical simulations including treatment of baryonic physics. We identify the too big to fail in field galaxies as among the best targets to study modifications to dark matter, and discuss the particular connection with sterile neutrino warm darkmore » matter. We also discuss how the recently detected anomalous 3.55 keV X-ray lines, when interpreted as sterile neutrino dark matter decay, provide a very good description of small-scale observations of the Local Group.« less

  11. Contrasting above- and belowground organic matter decomposition and carbon and nitrogen dynamics in response to warming in High Arctic tundra.

    PubMed

    Blok, Daan; Faucherre, Samuel; Banyasz, Imre; Rinnan, Riikka; Michelsen, Anders; Elberling, Bo

    2018-06-01

    Tundra regions are projected to warm rapidly during the coming decades. The tundra biome holds the largest terrestrial carbon pool, largely contained in frozen permafrost soils. With warming, these permafrost soils may thaw and become available for microbial decomposition, potentially providing a positive feedback to global warming. Warming may directly stimulate microbial metabolism but may also indirectly stimulate organic matter turnover through increased plant productivity by soil priming from root exudates and accelerated litter turnover rates. Here, we assess the impacts of experimental warming on turnover rates of leaf litter, active layer soil and thawed permafrost sediment in two high-arctic tundra heath sites in NE-Greenland, either dominated by evergreen or deciduous shrubs. We incubated shrub leaf litter on the surface of control and warmed plots for 1 and 2 years. Active layer soil was collected from the plots to assess the effects of 8 years of field warming on soil carbon stocks. Finally, we incubated open cores filled with newly thawed permafrost soil for 2 years in the active layer of the same plots. After field incubation, we measured basal respiration rates of recovered thawed permafrost cores in the lab. Warming significantly reduced litter mass loss by 26% after 1 year incubation, but differences in litter mass loss among treatments disappeared after 2 years incubation. Warming also reduced litter nitrogen mineralization and decreased the litter carbon to nitrogen ratio. Active layer soil carbon stocks were reduced 15% by warming, while soil dissolved nitrogen was reduced by half in warmed plots. Warming had a positive legacy effect on carbon turnover rates in thawed permafrost cores, with 10% higher respiration rates measured in cores from warmed plots. These results demonstrate that warming may have contrasting effects on above- and belowground tundra carbon turnover, possibly governed by microbial resource availability. © 2017 John

  12. Anthropogenic warming exacerbates European soil moisture droughts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Samaniego, L.; Thober, S.; Kumar, R.; Wanders, N.; Rakovec, O.; Pan, M.; Zink, M.; Sheffield, J.; Wood, E. F.; Marx, A.

    2018-05-01

    Anthropogenic warming is anticipated to increase soil moisture drought in the future. However, projections are accompanied by large uncertainty due to varying estimates of future warming. Here, using an ensemble of hydrological and land-surface models, forced with bias-corrected downscaled general circulation model output, we estimate the impacts of 1-3 K global mean temperature increases on soil moisture droughts in Europe. Compared to the 1.5 K Paris target, an increase of 3 K—which represents current projected temperature change—is found to increase drought area by 40% (±24%), affecting up to 42% (±22%) more of the population. Furthermore, an event similar to the 2003 drought is shown to become twice as frequent; thus, due to their increased occurrence, events of this magnitude will no longer be classified as extreme. In the absence of effective mitigation, Europe will therefore face unprecedented increases in soil moisture drought, presenting new challenges for adaptation across the continent.

  13. Shifting grassland plant community structure drives positive interactive effects of warming and diversity on aboveground net primary productivity.

    PubMed

    Cowles, Jane M; Wragg, Peter D; Wright, Alexandra J; Powers, Jennifer S; Tilman, David

    2016-02-01

    Ecosystems worldwide are increasingly impacted by multiple drivers of environmental change, including climate warming and loss of biodiversity. We show, using a long-term factorial experiment, that plant diversity loss alters the effects of warming on productivity. Aboveground primary productivity was increased by both high plant diversity and warming, and, in concert, warming (≈1.5 °C average above and belowground warming over the growing season) and diversity caused a greater than additive increase in aboveground productivity. The aboveground warming effects increased over time, particularly at higher levels of diversity, perhaps because of warming-induced increases in legume and C4 bunch grass abundances, and facilitative feedbacks of these species on productivity. Moreover, higher plant diversity was associated with the amelioration of warming-induced environmental conditions. This led to cooler temperatures, decreased vapor pressure deficit, and increased surface soil moisture in higher diversity communities. Root biomass (0-30 cm) was likewise consistently greater at higher plant diversity and was greater with warming in monocultures and at intermediate diversity, but at high diversity warming had no detectable effect. This may be because warming increased the abundance of legumes, which have lower root : shoot ratios than the other types of plants. In addition, legumes increase soil nitrogen (N) supply, which could make N less limiting to other species and potentially decrease their investment in roots. The negative warming × diversity interaction on root mass led to an overall negative interactive effect of these two global change factors on the sum of above and belowground biomass, and thus likely on total plant carbon stores. In total, plant diversity increased the effect of warming on aboveground net productivity and moderated the effect on root mass. These divergent effects suggest that warming and changes in plant diversity are likely to have both

  14. Metagenomics-Enabled Understanding of Soil Microbial Feedbacks to Climate Warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, J.; Wu, L.; Zhili, H.; Kostas, K.; Luo, Y.; Schuur, E. A. G.; Cole, J. R.; Tiedje, J. M.

    2014-12-01

    Understanding the response of biological communities to climate warming is a central issue in ecology and global change biology, but it is poorly understood microbial communities. To advance system-level predictive understanding of the feedbacks of belowground microbial communities to multiple climate change factors and their impacts on soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling processes, we have used integrated metagenomic technologies (e.g., target gene and shotgun metagenome sequencing, GeoChip, and isotope) to analyze soil microbial communities from experimental warming sites in Alaska (AK) and Oklahoma (OK), and long-term laboratory incubation. Rapid feedbacks of microbial communities to warming were observed in the AK site. Consistent with the changes in soil temperature, moisture and ecosystem respiration, microbial functional community structure was shifted after only 1.5-year warming, indicating rapid responses and high sensitivity of this permafrost ecosystem to climate warming. Also, warming stimulated not only functional genes involved in aerobic respiration of both labile and recalcitrant C, contributing to an observed 24% increase in 2010 growing season and 56% increase of decomposition of a standard substrate, but also functional genes for anaerobic processes (e.g., denitrification, sulfate reduction, methanogenesis). Further comparisons by shotgun sequencing showed significant differences of microbial community structure between AK and OK sites. The OK site was enriched in genes annotated for cellulose degradation, CO2 production, denitrification, sporulation, heat shock response, and cellular surface structures (e.g., trans-membrane transporters for glucosides), while the AK warmed plots were enriched in metabolic pathways related to labile C decomposition. Together, our results demonstrate the vulnerability of permafrost ecosystem C to climate warming and the importance of microbial feedbacks in mediating such vulnerability.

  15. Effect of inspiratory muscle warm-up on submaximal rowing performance.

    PubMed

    Arend, Mati; Mäestu, Jarek; Kivastik, Jana; Rämson, Raul; Jürimäe, Jaak

    2015-01-01

    Performing inspiratory muscle warm-up might increase exercise performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of inspiratory muscle warm-up to submaximal rowing performance and to find if there is an effect on lactic acid accumulation and breathing parameters. Ten competitive male rowers aged between 19 and 27 years (age, 23.1 ± 3.8 years; height, 188.1 ± 6.3 cm; body mass, 85.6 ± 6.6 kg) were tested 3 times. During the first visit, maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP) assessment and the incremental rowing test were performed to measure maximal oxygen consumption and maximal aerobic power (Pamax). A submaximal intensity (90% Pamax) rowing test was performed twice with the standard rowing warm-up as test 1 and with the standard rowing warm-up and specific inspiratory muscle warm-up as test 2. During the 2 experimental tests, distance, duration, heart rate, breathing frequency, ventilation, peak oxygen consumption, and blood lactate concentration were measured. The only value that showed a significant difference between the test 1 and test 2 was breathing frequency (52.2 ± 6.8 vs. 53.1 ± 6.8, respectively). Heart rate and ventilation showed a tendency to decrease and increase, respectively, after the inspiratory muscle warm-up (p < 0.1). Despite some changes in respiratory parameters, the use of 40% MIP intensity warm-up is not suggested if the mean intensity of the competition is at submaximal level (at approximately 90% maximal oxygen consumption). In conclusion, the warm-up protocol of the respiratory muscles used in this study does not have a significant influence on submaximal endurance performance in highly trained male rowers.

  16. Climate Warming Threatens Semi-arid Forests in Inner Asia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    WU, X.; Liu, H.; Qi, Z.; Li, X.

    2014-12-01

    A line of evidences reveal an increasing tree growth decline and tree mortality mainly attributable to climate warming and the warming-mediated changes in drought and other processes (such as fire and insect dynamics) in many parts of world tropical, temperate and boreal forests. However, the growth responses to climate change of the widely distributed semi-arid forests are unclear. Here, we synthetically investigate the tree growth patterns during past decades and its interannual response to climate variations in Inner Asia combining the ground truth field survey and samplings, remote sensing observations and climate data. We identified a pervasive tree growth decline since mid-1990s in semi-arid forests in Inner Asia. The widely observed tree growth decline is dominantly attributable to warming-induced water stress during pre- and early growing season. Tree growth of semi-arid forests in Inner Asia is particularly susceptible to spring warming and has been suffering a prolonged growth limitation in recent decades due to spring warming-mediated water conditions. Additionally, we identified a much slower growth rate in younger trees and a lack of tree regeneration in these semi-arid forests. The widely observed forest growth reduction and lack of tree regeneration over semi-arid forests in Inner Asia could predictably exert great effects on forest structure, regionally/globally biophysical and biochemical processes and the feedbacks between biosphere and atmosphere. Notably, further increases in forest stress and tree mortality could be reasonably expected, especially in context of the increase frequency and severity of high temperature and heat waves and changes in forest disturbances, potentially driving the eventual regional loss of current semi-arid forests. Given the potential risks of climate induced forest dieback, increased management attention to adaptation options for enhancing forest resistance and resilience to projected climate stress can be expected

  17. Global warming and allergy in Asia Minor.

    PubMed

    Bajin, Munir Demir; Cingi, Cemal; Oghan, Fatih; Gurbuz, Melek Kezban

    2013-01-01

    The earth is warming, and it is warming quickly. Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that global warming is correlated with the frequency of pollen-induced respiratory allergy and allergic diseases. There is a body of evidence suggesting that the prevalence of allergic diseases induced by pollens is increasing in developed countries, a trend that is also evident in the Mediterranean area. Because of its mild winters and sunny days with dry summers, the Mediterranean area is different from the areas of central and northern Europe. Classical examples of allergenic pollen-producing plants of the Mediterranean climate include Parietaria, Olea and Cupressaceae. Asia Minor is a Mediterranean region that connects Asia and Europe, and it includes considerable coastal areas. Gramineae pollens are the major cause of seasonal allergic rhinitis in Asia Minor, affecting 1.3-6.4 % of the population, in accordance with other European regions. This article emphasizes the importance of global climate change and anticipated increases in the prevalence and severity of allergic disease in Asia Minor, mediated through worsening air pollution and altered local and regional pollen production, from an otolaryngologic perspective.

  18. Warming by immersion or exercise affects initial cooling rate during subsequent cold water immersion.

    PubMed

    Scott, Chris G; Ducharme, Michel B; Haman, François; Kenny, Glen P

    2004-11-01

    We examined the effect of prior heating, by exercise and warm-water immersion, on core cooling rates in individuals rendered mildly hypothermic by immersion in cold water. There were seven male subjects who were randomly assigned to one of three groups: 1) seated rest for 15 min (control); 2) cycling ergometry for 15 min at 70% Vo2 peak (active warming); or 3) immersion in a circulated bath at 40 degrees C to an esophageal temperature (Tes) similar to that at the end of exercise (passive warming). Subjects were then immersed in 7 degrees C water to a Tes of 34.5 degrees C. Initial Tes cooling rates (initial approximately 6 min cooling) differed significantly among the treatment conditions (0.074 +/- 0.045, 0.129 +/- 0.076, and 0.348 +/- 0.117 degrees C x min(-1) for control, active, and passive warming conditions, respectively); however, secondary cooling rates (rates following initial approximately 6 min cooling to the end of immersion) were not different between treatments (average of 0.102 +/- 0.085 degrees C x min(-1)). Overall Tes cooling rates during the full immersion period differed significantly and were 0.067 +/- 0.047, 0.085 +/- 0.045, and 0.209 +/- 0.131 degrees C x min(-1) for control, active, and passive warming, respectively. These results suggest that prior warming by both active and, to a greater extent, passive warming, may predispose a person to greater heat loss and to experience a larger decline in core temperature when subsequently exposed to cold water. Thus, functional time and possibly survival time could be reduced when cold water immersion is preceded by whole-body passive warming, and to a lesser degree by active warming.

  19. Fish energy budget under ocean warming and flame retardant exposure.

    PubMed

    Anacleto, Patrícia; Figueiredo, Cátia; Baptista, Miguel; Maulvault, Ana Luísa; Camacho, Carolina; Pousão-Ferreira, Pedro; Valente, Luísa M P; Marques, António; Rosa, Rui

    2018-07-01

    Climate change and chemical contamination are global environmental threats of growing concern for the scientific community and regulatory authorities. Yet, the impacts and interactions of both stressors (particularly ocean warming and emerging chemical contaminants) on physiological responses of marine organisms remain unclear and still require further understanding. Within this context, the main goal of this study was to assess, for the first time, the effects of warming (+ 5 °C) and accumulation of a polybrominated diphenyl ether congener (BDE-209, brominated flame retardant) through dietary exposure on energy budget of the juvenile white seabream (Diplodus sargus). Specifically, growth (G), routine metabolism (R), excretion (faecal, F and nitrogenous losses, U) and food consumption (C) were calculated to obtain the energy budget. The results demonstrated that the energy proportion spent for G dominated the mode of the energy allocation of juvenile white seabream (56.0-67.8%), especially under the combined effect of warming plus BDE-209 exposure. Under all treatments, the energy channelled for R varied around 26% and a much smaller percentage was channelled for excretion (F: 4.3-16.0% and U: 2.3-3.3%). An opposite trend to G was observed to F, where the highest percentage (16.0 ± 0.9%) was found under control temperature and BDE-209 exposure via diet. In general, the parameters were significantly affected by increased temperature and flame retardant exposure, where higher levels occurred for: i) wet weight, relative growth rate, protein and ash contents under warming conditions, ii) only for O:N ratio under BDE-209 exposure via diet, and iii) for feed efficiency, ammonia excretion rate, routine metabolic rate and assimilation efficiency under the combination of both stressors. On the other hand, decreased viscerosomatic index was observed under warming and lower fat content was observed under the combined effect of both stressors. Overall, under future

  20. Detecting urban warming signals in climate records

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    He, Yuting; Jia, Gensuo; Hu, Yonghong; Zhou, Zijiang

    2013-07-01

    Determining whether air temperatures recorded at meteorological stations have been contaminated by the urbanization process is still a controversial issue at the global scale. With support of historical remote sensing data, this study examined the impacts of urban expansion on the trends of air temperature at 69 meteorological stations in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei Province over the last three decades. There were significant positive relations between the two factors at all stations. Stronger warming was detected at the meteorological stations that experienced greater urbanization, i.e., those with a higher urbanization rate. While the total urban area affects the absolute temperature values, the change of the urban area (urbanization rate) likely affects the temperature trend. Increases of approximately 10% in urban area around the meteorological stations likely contributed to the 0.13°C rise in air temperature records in addition to regional climate warming. This study also provides a new approach to selecting reference stations based on remotely sensed urban fractions. Generally, the urbanization-induced warming contributed to approximately 44.1% of the overall warming trends in the plain region of study area during the past 30 years, and the regional climate warming was 0.30°C (10 yr)-1 in the last three decades.

  1. How does warming affect carbon allocation, respiration and residence time in trees? An isotope tracer approach in a eucalypt

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pendall, E.; Drake, J. E.; Furze, M.; Barton, C. V.; Carillo, Y.; Richter, A.; Tjoelker, M. G.

    2017-12-01

    Climate warming has the potential to alter the balance between photosynthetic carbon assimilation and respiratory losses in forest trees, leading to uncertainty in predicting their future physiological functioning. In a previous experiment, warming decreased canopy CO2 assimilation (A) rates of Eucalyptus tereticornis trees, but respiration (R) rates were usually not significantly affected, due to physiological acclimation to temperature. This led to a slight increase in (R/A) and thus decrease in plant carbon use efficiency with climate warming. In contrast to carbon fluxes, the effect of warming on carbon allocation and residence time in trees has received less attention. We conducted a study to test the hypothesis that warming would decrease the allocation of C belowground owing to reduced cost of nutrient uptake. E. parramattensis trees were grown in the field in unique whole-tree chambers operated at ambient and ambient +3 °C temperature treatments (n=3 per treatment). We applied a 13CO2 pulse and followed the label in CO2 respired from leaves, roots, canopy and soil, in plant sugars, and in rhizosphere microbes over a 3-week period in conjunction with measurements of tree growth. The 9-m tall, 57 m3 whole-tree chambers were monitored for CO2 concentrations in independent canopy and below ground (root and soil) compartments; periodic monitoring of δ13C values in air in the compartments allowed us to quantify the amount of 13CO2 assimilated and respired by each tree. Warmed trees grew faster and assimilated more of the label than control trees, but the 13C allocation to canopy, root and soil respiration was not altered. However, warming appeared to reduce the residence time of carbon respired from leaves, and especially from roots and soil, indicating that autotrophic respiration has the potential to feedback to climate change. This experiment provides insights into how warming may affect the fate of assimilated carbon from the leaf to the ecosystem scale.

  2. Accelerated increase in plant species richness on mountain summits is linked to warming.

    PubMed

    Steinbauer, Manuel J; Grytnes, John-Arvid; Jurasinski, Gerald; Kulonen, Aino; Lenoir, Jonathan; Pauli, Harald; Rixen, Christian; Winkler, Manuela; Bardy-Durchhalter, Manfred; Barni, Elena; Bjorkman, Anne D; Breiner, Frank T; Burg, Sarah; Czortek, Patryk; Dawes, Melissa A; Delimat, Anna; Dullinger, Stefan; Erschbamer, Brigitta; Felde, Vivian A; Fernández-Arberas, Olatz; Fossheim, Kjetil F; Gómez-García, Daniel; Georges, Damien; Grindrud, Erlend T; Haider, Sylvia; Haugum, Siri V; Henriksen, Hanne; Herreros, María J; Jaroszewicz, Bogdan; Jaroszynska, Francesca; Kanka, Robert; Kapfer, Jutta; Klanderud, Kari; Kühn, Ingolf; Lamprecht, Andrea; Matteodo, Magali; di Cella, Umberto Morra; Normand, Signe; Odland, Arvid; Olsen, Siri L; Palacio, Sara; Petey, Martina; Piscová, Veronika; Sedlakova, Blazena; Steinbauer, Klaus; Stöckli, Veronika; Svenning, Jens-Christian; Teppa, Guido; Theurillat, Jean-Paul; Vittoz, Pascal; Woodin, Sarah J; Zimmermann, Niklaus E; Wipf, Sonja

    2018-04-01

    Globally accelerating trends in societal development and human environmental impacts since the mid-twentieth century 1-7 are known as the Great Acceleration and have been discussed as a key indicator of the onset of the Anthropocene epoch 6 . While reports on ecological responses (for example, changes in species range or local extinctions) to the Great Acceleration are multiplying 8, 9 , it is unknown whether such biotic responses are undergoing a similar acceleration over time. This knowledge gap stems from the limited availability of time series data on biodiversity changes across large temporal and geographical extents. Here we use a dataset of repeated plant surveys from 302 mountain summits across Europe, spanning 145 years of observation, to assess the temporal trajectory of mountain biodiversity changes as a globally coherent imprint of the Anthropocene. We find a continent-wide acceleration in the rate of increase in plant species richness, with five times as much species enrichment between 2007 and 2016 as fifty years ago, between 1957 and 1966. This acceleration is strikingly synchronized with accelerated global warming and is not linked to alternative global change drivers. The accelerating increases in species richness on mountain summits across this broad spatial extent demonstrate that acceleration in climate-induced biotic change is occurring even in remote places on Earth, with potentially far-ranging consequences not only for biodiversity, but also for ecosystem functioning and services.

  3. Ocean Heat Uptake Slows 21st Century Surface Warming Driven by Extratropical Cloud Feedbacks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Frey, W.; Maroon, E.; Pendergrass, A. G.; Kay, J. E.

    2017-12-01

    Equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS), the warming in response to instantaneously doubled CO2, has long been used to compare climate models. In many models, ECS is well correlated with warming produced by transient forcing experiments. Modifications to cloud phase at high latitudes in a state-of-the-art climate model, the Community Earth System Model (CESM), produce a large increase in ECS (1.5 K) via extratropical cloud feedbacks. However, only a small surface warming increase occurs in a realistic 21st century simulation including a full-depth dynamic ocean and the "business as usual" RCP8.5 emissions scenario. In fact, the increase in surface warming is only barely above the internal variability-generated range in the CESM Large Ensemble. The small change in 21st century warming is attributed to subpolar ocean heat uptake in both hemispheres. In the Southern Ocean, the mean-state circulation takes up heat while in the North Atlantic a slowdown in circulation acts as a feedback to slow surface warming. These results show the importance of subpolar ocean heat uptake in controlling the pace of warming and demonstrate that ECS cannot be used to reliably infer transient warming when it is driven by extratropical feedbacks.

  4. How does the dengue vector mosquito Aedes albopictus respond to global warming?

    PubMed

    Jia, Pengfei; Chen, Xiang; Chen, Jin; Lu, Liang; Liu, Qiyong; Tan, Xiaoyue

    2017-03-11

    Global warming has a marked influence on the life cycle of epidemic vectors as well as their interactions with human beings. The Aedes albopictus mosquito as the vector of dengue fever surged exponentially in the last decade, raising ecological and epistemological concerns of how climate change altered its growth rate and population dynamics. As the global warming pattern is considerably uneven across four seasons, with a confirmed stronger effect in winter, an emerging need arises as to exploring how the seasonal warming effects influence the annual development of Ae. albopictus. The model consolidates a 35-year climate dataset and designs fifteen warming patterns that increase the temperature of selected seasons. Based on a recently developed mechanistic population model of Ae. albopictus, the model simulates the thermal reaction of blood-fed adults by systematically increasing the temperature from 0.5 to 5 °C at an interval of 0.5 °C in each warming pattern. The results show the warming effects are different across seasons. The warming effects in spring and winter facilitate the development of the species by shortening the diapause period. The warming effect in summer is primarily negative by inhibiting mosquito development. The warming effect in autumn is considerably mixed. However, these warming effects cannot carry over to the following year, possibly due to the fact that under the extreme weather in winter the mosquito fully ceases from development and survives in terms of diapause eggs. As the historical pattern of global warming manifests seasonal fluctuations, this study provides corroborating and previously ignored evidence of how such seasonality affects the mosquito development. Understanding this short-term temperature-driven mechanism as one chain of the transmission events is critical to refining the thermal reaction norms of the epidemic vector under global warming as well as developing effective mosquito prevention and control strategies.

  5. Impact of warm winters on microbial growth

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Birgander, Johanna; Rousk, Johannes; Axel Olsson, Pål

    2014-05-01

    Growth of soil bacteria has an asymmetrical response to higher temperature with a gradual increase with increasing temperatures until an optimum after which a steep decline occurs. In laboratory studies it has been shown that by exposing a soil bacterial community to a temperature above the community's optimum temperature for two months, the bacterial community grows warm-adapted, and the optimum temperature of bacterial growth shifts towards higher temperatures. This result suggests a change in the intrinsic temperature dependence of bacterial growth, as temperature influenced the bacterial growth even though all other factors were kept constant. An intrinsic temperature dependence could be explained by either a change in the bacterial community composition, exchanging less tolerant bacteria towards more tolerant ones, or it could be due to adaptation within the bacteria present. No matter what the shift in temperature tolerance is due to, the shift could have ecosystem scale implications, as winters in northern Europe are getting warmer. To address the question of how microbes and plants are affected by warmer winters, a winter-warming experiment was established in a South Swedish grassland. Results suggest a positive response in microbial growth rate in plots where winter soil temperatures were around 6 °C above ambient. Both bacterial and fungal growth (leucine incorporation, and acetate into ergosterol incorporation, respectively) appeared stimulated, and there are two candidate explanations for these results. Either (i) warming directly influence microbial communities by modulating their temperature adaptation, or (ii) warming indirectly affected the microbial communities via temperature induced changes in bacterial growth conditions. The first explanation is in accordance with what has been shown in laboratory conditions (explained above), where the differences in the intrinsic temperature relationships were examined. To test this explanation the

  6. Enhancing Primary School Students' Knowledge about Global Warming and Environmental Attitude Using Climate Change Activities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Karpudewan, Mageswary; Roth, Wolff-Michael; Abdullah, Mohd Nor Syahrir Bin

    2015-01-01

    Climate change generally and global warming specifically have become a common feature of the daily news. Due to widespread recognition of the adverse consequences of climate change on human lives, concerted societal effort has been taken to address it (e.g. by means of the science curriculum). This study was designed to test the effect that child-centred, 5E learning cycle-based climate change activities would have over more traditional teacher-centred activities on Malaysian Year 5 primary students (11 years). A quasi-experimental design involving a treatment (n = 55) and a group representing typical teaching method (n = 60) was used to measure the effectiveness of these activities on (a) increasing children's knowledge about global warming; (b) changing their attitudes to be more favourable towards the environment and (c) identify the relationship between knowledge and attitude that exist in this study. Statistically significant differences in favour of the treatment group were detected for both knowledge and environmental attitudes. Non-significant relationship was identified between knowledge and attitude in this study. Interviews with randomly selected students from treatment and comparison groups further underscore these findings. Implications are discussed.

  7. Continental warming preceding the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum.

    PubMed

    Secord, Ross; Gingerich, Philip D; Lohmann, Kyger C; Macleod, Kenneth G

    2010-10-21

    Marine and continental records show an abrupt negative shift in carbon isotope values at ∼55.8 Myr ago. This carbon isotope excursion (CIE) is consistent with the release of a massive amount of isotopically light carbon into the atmosphere and was associated with a dramatic rise in global temperatures termed the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM). Greenhouse gases released during the CIE, probably including methane, have often been considered the main cause of PETM warming. However, some evidence from the marine record suggests that warming directly preceded the CIE, raising the possibility that the CIE and PETM may have been linked to earlier warming with different origins. Yet pre-CIE warming is still uncertain. Disentangling the sequence of events before and during the CIE and PETM is important for understanding the causes of, and Earth system responses to, abrupt climate change. Here we show that continental warming of about 5 °C preceded the CIE in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. Our evidence, based on oxygen isotopes in mammal teeth (which reflect temperature-sensitive fractionation processes) and other proxies, reveals a marked temperature increase directly below the CIE, and again in the CIE. Pre-CIE warming is also supported by a negative amplification of δ(13)C values in soil carbonates below the CIE. Our results suggest that at least two sources of warming-the earlier of which is unlikely to have been methane-contributed to the PETM.

  8. Global warming 2007. An update to global warming: the balance of evidence and its policy implications.

    PubMed

    Keller, Charles F

    2007-03-09

    century or so. However, this conclusion is being challenged by differing interpretations of satellite observations of Total Solar Insolation (TSI). Different satellites give different estimates of TSI during the 1996-7 solar activity minimum. A recent study using the larger TSI satellite interpretation indicates a stronger role for the sun, and until there is agreement on TSI at solar minimum, we caution completely disregarding the sun as a significant factor in recent warming. Computer models continue to improve and, while they still do not do a satisfactory job of predicting regional changes, their simulations of global aspects of climate change and of individual forcings are increasingly reliable. In addition to these four areas, the past five years have seen advances in our understanding of many other aspects of climate change--from albedo changes due to land use to the dynamics of glacier movement. However, these more are of second order importance and will only be treated very briefly. The big news since CFK03 is the first of these, the collapse of the climate critics' last real bastion, namely that satellites and radiosondes show no significant warming in the past quarter century. Figuratively speaking, this was the center pole that held up the critics' entire "tent." Their argument was that, if there had been little warming in the past 25 years or so, then what warming was observed would have been within the range of natural variations with solar forcing as the major player. Further, the models would have been shown to be unreliable since they were predicting warming that was not happening. But now both satellite and in-situ radiosonde observations have been shown to corroborate both the surface observations of warming and the model predictions. Thus, while uncertainties still remain, we are now seeing a coherent picture in which past climate variations, solar and other forcings, model predictions and other indicators such as glacier recession all point to a human

  9. Controlled soil warming powered by alternative energy for remote field sites.

    PubMed

    Johnstone, Jill F; Henkelman, Jonathan; Allen, Kirsten; Helgason, Warren; Bedard-Haughn, Angela

    2013-01-01

    Experiments using controlled manipulation of climate variables in the field are critical for developing and testing mechanistic models of ecosystem responses to climate change. Despite rapid changes in climate observed in many high latitude and high altitude environments, controlled manipulations in these remote regions have largely been limited to passive experimental methods with variable effects on environmental factors. In this study, we tested a method of controlled soil warming suitable for remote field locations that can be powered using alternative energy sources. The design was tested in high latitude, alpine tundra of southern Yukon Territory, Canada, in 2010 and 2011. Electrical warming probes were inserted vertically in the near-surface soil and powered with photovoltaics attached to a monitoring and control system. The warming manipulation achieved a stable target warming of 1.3 to 2 °C in 1 m(2) plots while minimizing disturbance to soil and vegetation. Active control of power output in the warming plots allowed the treatment to closely match spatial and temporal variations in soil temperature while optimizing system performance during periods of low power supply. Active soil heating with vertical electric probes powered by alternative energy is a viable option for remote sites and presents a low-disturbance option for soil warming experiments. This active heating design provides a valuable tool for examining the impacts of soil warming on ecosystem processes.

  10. The recent warming trend in North Greenland

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Orsi, Anais J.; Kawamura, Kenji; Masson-Delmotte, Valerie; Fettweis, Xavier; Box, Jason E.; Dahl-Jensen, Dorthe; Clow, Gary D.; Landais, Amaelle; Severinghaus, Jeffrey P.

    2017-01-01

    The Arctic is among the fastest warming regions on Earth, but it is also one with limited spatial coverage of multidecadal instrumental surface air temperature measurements. Consequently, atmospheric reanalyses are relatively unconstrained in this region, resulting in a large spread of estimated 30 year recent warming trends, which limits their use to investigate the mechanisms responsible for this trend. Here we present a surface temperature reconstruction over 1982–2011 at NEEM (North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling Project, 51°W, 77°N), in North Greenland, based on the inversion of borehole temperature and inert gas isotope data. We find that NEEM has warmed by 2.7 ± 0.33°C over the past 30 years, from the long-term 1900–1970 average of −28.55 ± 0.29°C. The warming trend is principally caused by an increase in downward longwave heat flux. Atmospheric reanalyses underestimate this trend by 17%, underlining the need for more in situ observations to validate reanalyses.

  11. Are Sierran Lakes Warming as a Result of Climate Change? The Effects of Climate Warming and Variation in Precipitation on Water Temperature in a Snowmelt-Dominated Lake

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sadro, S.; Melack, J. M.; Sickman, J. O.; Skeen, K.

    2016-12-01

    Water temperature regulates a broad range of fundamental ecosystem processes in lakes. While climate can be an important factor regulating lake temperatures, heterogeneity in the warming response of lakes is large, and variation in precipitation is rarely considered. We analyzed three decades of climate and water temperature data from a high-elevation catchment in the southern Sierra Nevada of California to illustrate the magnitude of warming taking place during different seasons and the role of precipitation in regulating lake temperatures. Significant climate warming trends were evident during all seasons except spring. Nighttime rates of climate warming were approximately 25% higher than daytime rates. Spatial patterns in warming were elevation dependent, with rates of temperature increase higher at sites above 2800 m.a.s.l. than below. Although interannual variation in snow deposition was high, the frequency and severity of recent droughts has contributed to a significant 3.4 mm year -1 decline in snow water equivalent over the last century. Snow accumulation, more than any other climate factor, regulated lake temperature; 94% of variation in summer lake temperature was regulated by precipitation as snow. For every 100 mm decrease in snow water equivalent there was a 0.62 ° increase in lake temperature. Drought years amplify warming in lakes by reducing the role of cold spring meltwaters in lake energy budgets and prolonging the ice-free period during which lakes warm. The combination of declining winter snowpack and warming air temperatures has the capacity to amplify the effect of climate warming on lake temperatures during drought years. Interactions among climatic factors need to be considered when evaluating ecosystem level effects, especially in mountain regions. For mountain lakes already affected by drought, continued climate warming during spring and autumn has the greatest potential to impact mean lake temperatures.

  12. Laboratory evaluation of a warm asphalt technology for use in Virginia.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2008-01-01

    Rising energy costs and increased environmental awareness have brought attention to the potential benefits of warm asphalt in the United States. Warm-mix asphalt (WMA) is produced by incorporating additives into asphalt mixtures to allow production a...

  13. Active Movement Warm-Up Routines

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Walter, Teri; Quint, Ashleigh; Fischer, Kim; Kiger, Joy

    2011-01-01

    This article presents warm-ups that are designed to physiologically and psychologically prepare students for vigorous physical activity. An active movement warm-up routine is made up of three parts: (1) active warm-up movement exercises, (2) general preparation, and (3) the energy system. These warm-up routines can be used with all grade levels…

  14. Artificial asymmetric warming reduces nectar yield in a Tibetan alpine species of Asteraceae

    PubMed Central

    Mu, Junpeng; Peng, Youhong; Xi, Xinqiang; Wu, Xinwei; Li, Guoyong; Niklas, Karl J.; Sun, Shucun

    2015-01-01

    Background and Aims Asymmetric warming is one of the distinguishing features of global climate change, in which winter and night-time temperatures are predicted to increase more than summer and diurnal temperatures. Winter warming weakens vernalization and hence decreases the potential to flower for some perennial herbs, and night warming can reduce carbohydrate concentrations in storage organs. This study therefore hypothesized that asymmetric warming should act to reduce flower number and nectar production per flower in a perennial herb, Saussurea nigrescens, a key nectar plant for pollinators in Tibetan alpine meadows. Methods A long-term (6 years) warming experiment was conducted using open-top chambers placed in a natural meadow and manipulated to achieve asymmetric increases in temperature, as follows: a mean annual increase of 0·7 and 2·7 °C during the growing and non-growing seasons, respectively, combined with an increase of 1·6 and 2·8 °C in the daytime and night-time, respectively, from June to August. Measurements were taken of nectar volume and concentration (sucrose content), and also of leaf non-structural carbohydrate content and plant morphology. Key Results Six years of experimental warming resulted in reductions in nectar volume per floret (64·7 % of control), floret number per capitulum (8·7 %) and capitulum number per plant (32·5 %), whereas nectar concentration remained unchanged. Depletion of leaf non-structural carbohydrates was significantly higher in the warmed than in the ambient condition. Overall plant density was also reduced by warming, which, when combined with reductions in flower development and nectar volumes, led to a reduction of ∼90 % in nectar production per unit area. Conclusions The negative effect of asymmetric warming on nectar yields in S. nigrescens may be explained by a concomitant depletion of leaf non-structural carbohydrates. The results thus highlight a novel aspect of how climate change might

  15. Gross primary production of a semiarid grassland is enhanced by six years of exposure to elevated atmospheric CO2, warming, and irrigation.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ryan, E.; Ogle, K.; Peltier, D.; Williams, D. G.; Pendall, E.

    2014-12-01

    The goal of this study was to quantify interannual variation of gross primary production (GPP) and evaluate potential drivers of GPP with global change using the Prairie Heating and CO2 Enrichment (PHACE) experiment in semiarid grassland in southeastern Wyoming. PHACE consists of the treatments: control, warming only, elevated CO2 (eCO2) only, eCO2 and warming, and irrigation only. We expected that GPP would be most strongly influenced by interannual variability in precipitation under all PHACE treatments, soil water availability under eCO2, and nitrogen availability. GPP data were obtained from paired measurements of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and ecosystem respiration (Reco; GPP = Reco - NEE) made on 2-4 week intervals over six growing seasons (2007-2012). Soil temperature (T), soil water content (SWC), vapor pressure deficit (VPD), and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) were continuously recorded at the plot (T, SWC) and site (VPD, PAR) scales. Annual, plot-level aboveground plant nitrogen content (N) was measured during peak biomass. We fit a non-linear light-response model to the GPP data within a Bayesian framework, and modeled the maximum GPP rate (Gmax) and canopy light-use efficiency (Q) as functions of N and current and antecedent SWC, T, and VPD. The model fit the GPP data well (R2 = 0.64), and regardless of the PHACE treatment the most important drivers of GPP were N (for Gmax), VPD (Gmax and Q), antecedent T (Gmax), and antecedent VPD (Q). Model simulations predicted that annual GPP increased on average by about 16% with eCO2, 14% with warming, 12% with eCO2 and warming, and 23% with irrigation. For four of the six years, annual GPP was significantly affected by either eCO2 alone or when combined with warming. The increase in annual GPP under irrigation was similar to the increase under eCO2 during a dry year (2012), but irrigation stimulated GPP to a greater degree than eCO2 during wet years (2008, 2009). Hence, increases in GPP under eCO2

  16. Do thawing and warming affect the integrity of human milk?

    PubMed

    Handa, D; Ahrabi, A F; Codipilly, C N; Shah, S; Ruff, S; Potak, D; Williams, J E; McGuire, M A; Schanler, R J

    2014-11-01

    To evaluate the integrity of the human milk (pH, bacterial counts, host defense factors and nutrients) subjected to thawing, warming, refrigeration and maintenance at room temperature. Mothers in the neonatal intensive care unit donated freshly expressed milk. A baseline sample was stored at -80 °C and the remainder of the milk was divided and stored for 7 days at -20 °C. The milk was then subjected to two methods of thawing and warming: tepid water and waterless warmer. Thawed milk also was refrigerated for 24 h prior to warming. Lastly, warmed milk was maintained at room temperature for 4 h to simulate a feeding session. Samples were analyzed for pH, bacterial colony counts, total fat and free fatty acids, and the content of protein, secretory IgA and lactoferrin. Data were analyzed by repeated-measures analysis of variance and paired t test. There were no differences between processing methods and no changes in fat, protein, lactoferrin and secretory immunoglobulin A with processing steps. Milk pH and bacterial colony counts declined while free fatty acids rose with processing. Refrigeration of thawed milk resulted in greater declines in pH and bacteria and increases in free fatty acids. Bacterial colony counts and free fatty acids increased with maintenance at room temperature. The integrity of the milk was affected similarly by the two thawing and warming methods. Thawing and warming change the integrity of previously frozen human milk, but not adversely. Concerns about maintaining warmed milk at room temperature need to be explored.

  17. Temperature adaptation of bacterial communities in experimentally warmed forest soils.

    PubMed

    Rousk, Johannes; Frey, Serita D; Bååth, Erland

    2012-10-01

    A detailed understanding of the influence of temperature on soil microbial activity is critical to predict future atmospheric CO 2 concentrations and feedbacks to anthropogenic warming. We investigated soils exposed to 3-4 years of continuous 5 °C-warming in a field experiment in a temperate forest. We found that an index for the temperature adaptation of the microbial community, T min for bacterial growth, increased by 0.19 °C per 1 °C rise in temperature, showing a community shift towards one adapted to higher temperature with a higher temperature sensitivity (Q 10(5-15 °C) increased by 0.08 units per 1 °C). Using continuously measured temperature data from the field experiment we modelled in situ bacterial growth. Assuming that warming did not affect resource availability, bacterial growth was modelled to become 60% higher in warmed compared to the control plots, with the effect of temperature adaptation of the community only having a small effect on overall bacterial growth (<5%). However, 3 years of warming decreased bacterial growth, most likely due to substrate depletion because of the initially higher growth in warmed plots. When this was factored in, the result was similar rates of modelled in situ bacterial growth in warmed and control plots after 3 years, despite the temperature difference. We conclude that although temperature adaptation for bacterial growth to higher temperatures was detectable, its influence on annual bacterial growth was minor, and overshadowed by the direct temperature effect on growth rates. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  18. Warming and Nitrogen Addition Alter Photosynthetic Pigments, Sugars and Nutrients in a Temperate Meadow Ecosystem.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Tao; Yang, Shaobo; Guo, Rui; Guo, Jixun

    2016-01-01

    Global warming and nitrogen (N) deposition have an important influence on terrestrial ecosystems; however, the influence of warming and N deposition on plant photosynthetic products and nutrient cycling in plants is not well understood. We examined the effects of 3 years of warming and N addition on the plant photosynthetic products, foliar chemistry and stoichiometric ratios of two dominant species, i.e., Leymus chinensis and Phragmites communis, in a temperate meadow in northeastern China. Warming significantly increased the chlorophyll content and soluble sugars in L. chinensis but had no impact on the carotenoid and fructose contents. N addition caused a significant increase in the carotenoid and fructose contents. Warming and N addition had little impact on the photosynthetic products of P. communis. Warming caused significant decreases in the N and phosphorus (P) concentrations and significantly increased the carbon (C):P and N:P ratios of L. chinensis, but not the C concentration or the C:N ratio. N addition significantly increased the N concentration, C:P and N:P ratios, but significantly reduced the C:N ratio of L. chinensis. Warming significantly increased P. communis C and P concentrations, and the C:N and C:P ratios, whereas N addition increased the C, N and P concentrations but had no impact on the stoichiometric variables. This study suggests that both warming and N addition have direct impacts on plant photosynthates and elemental stoichiometry, which may play a vital role in plant-mediated biogeochemical cycling in temperate meadow ecosystems.

  19. Warming and Nitrogen Addition Alter Photosynthetic Pigments, Sugars and Nutrients in a Temperate Meadow Ecosystem

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Tao; Yang, Shaobo; Guo, Rui; Guo, Jixun

    2016-01-01

    Global warming and nitrogen (N) deposition have an important influence on terrestrial ecosystems; however, the influence of warming and N deposition on plant photosynthetic products and nutrient cycling in plants is not well understood. We examined the effects of 3 years of warming and N addition on the plant photosynthetic products, foliar chemistry and stoichiometric ratios of two dominant species, i.e., Leymus chinensis and Phragmites communis, in a temperate meadow in northeastern China. Warming significantly increased the chlorophyll content and soluble sugars in L. chinensis but had no impact on the carotenoid and fructose contents. N addition caused a significant increase in the carotenoid and fructose contents. Warming and N addition had little impact on the photosynthetic products of P. communis. Warming caused significant decreases in the N and phosphorus (P) concentrations and significantly increased the carbon (C):P and N:P ratios of L. chinensis, but not the C concentration or the C:N ratio. N addition significantly increased the N concentration, C:P and N:P ratios, but significantly reduced the C:N ratio of L. chinensis. Warming significantly increased P. communis C and P concentrations, and the C:N and C:P ratios, whereas N addition increased the C, N and P concentrations but had no impact on the stoichiometric variables. This study suggests that both warming and N addition have direct impacts on plant photosynthates and elemental stoichiometry, which may play a vital role in plant-mediated biogeochemical cycling in temperate meadow ecosystems. PMID:27171176

  20. Twenty-Two Years of Warming, Fertilisation and Shading of Subarctic Heath Shrubs Promote Secondary Growth and Plasticity but Not Primary Growth

    PubMed Central

    Campioli, Matteo; Leblans, Niki; Michelsen, Anders

    2012-01-01

    Most manipulation experiments simulating global change in tundra were short-term or did not measure plant growth directly. Here, we assessed the growth of three shrubs (Cassiope tetragona, Empetrum hermaphroditum and Betula nana) at a subarctic heath in Abisko (Northern Sweden) after 22 years of warming (passive greenhouses), fertilisation (nutrients addition) and shading (hessian fabric), and compare this to observations from the first decade of treatment. We assessed the growth rate of current-year leaves and apical stem (primary growth) and cambial growth (secondary growth), and integrated growth rates with morphological measurements and species coverage. Primary- and total growth of Cassiope and Empetrum were unaffected by manipulations, whereas growth was substantially reduced under fertilisation and shading (but not warming) for Betula. Overall, shrub height and length tended to increase under fertilisation and warming, whereas branching increased mostly in shaded Cassiope. Morphological changes were coupled to increased secondary growth under fertilisation. The species coverage showed a remarkable increase in graminoids in fertilised plots. Shrub response to fertilisation was positive in the short-term but changed over time, likely because of an increased competition with graminoids. More erected postures and large, canopies (requiring enhanced secondary growth for stem reinforcement) likely compensated for the increased light competition in Empetrum and Cassiope but did not avoid growth reduction in the shade intolerant Betula. The impact of warming and shading on shrub growth was more conservative. The lack of growth enhancement under warming suggests the absence of long-term acclimation for processes limiting biomass production. The lack of negative effects of shading on Cassiope was linked to morphological changes increasing the photosynthetic surface. Overall, tundra shrubs showed developmental plasticity over the longer term. However, such plasticity