Beyond exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity: A response based ecological framework to assess species climate change vulnerability

Science.gov (United States)

Fortini, Lucas B.; Schubert, Olivia

2017-01-01

As the impacts of global climate change on species are increasingly evident, there is a clear need to adapt conservation efforts worldwide. Species vulnerability assessments (VAs) are increasingly used to summarize all relevant information to determine a species’ potential vulnerability to climate change and are frequently the first step in informing climate adaptation efforts. VAs commonly integrate multiple sources of information by utilizing a framework that distinguishes factors relevant to species exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. However, this framework was originally developed for human systems, and its use to evaluate species vulnerability has serious practical and theoretical limitations. By instead defining vulnerability as the degree to which a species is unable to exhibit any of the responses necessary for persistence under climate change (i.e., toleration of projected changes, migration to new climate-compatible areas, enduring in microrefugia, and evolutionary adaptation), we can bring VAs into the realm of ecological science without applying borrowed abstract concepts that have consistently challenged species-centric research and management. This response-based framework to assess species vulnerability to climate change allows better integration of relevant ecological data and past research, yielding results with much clearer implications for conservation and research prioritization.

Adaptation to Climate Change in Developing Countries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mertz, Ole; Halsnæs, Kirsten; Olesen, Jørgen E.

2009-01-01

Adaptation to climate change is given increasing international attention as the confidence in climate change projections is getting higher. Developing countries have specific needs for adaptation due to high vulnerabilities, and they will in this way carry a great part of the global costs...... of climate change although the rising atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are mainly the responsibility of industrialized countries. This article provides a status of climate change adaptation in developing countries. An overview of observed and projected climate change is given, and recent literature...... on impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation are reviewed, including the emerging focus on mainstreaming of climate change and adaptation in development plans and programs. The article also serves as an introduction to the seven research articles of this special issue on climate change adaptation in developing...

Adaptive Governance, Uncertainty, and Risk: Policy Framing and Responses to Climate Change, Drought, and Flood.

Science.gov (United States)

Hurlbert, Margot; Gupta, Joyeeta

2016-02-01

As climate change impacts result in more extreme events (such as droughts and floods), the need to understand which policies facilitate effective climate change adaptation becomes crucial. Hence, this article answers the question: How do governments and policymakers frame policy in relation to climate change, droughts, and floods and what governance structures facilitate adaptation? This research interrogates and analyzes through content analysis, supplemented by semi-structured qualitative interviews, the policy response to climate change, drought, and flood in relation to agricultural producers in four case studies in river basins in Chile, Argentina, and Canada. First, an epistemological explanation of risk and uncertainty underscores a brief literature review of adaptive governance, followed by policy framing in relation to risk and uncertainty, and an analytical model is developed. Pertinent findings of the four cases are recounted, followed by a comparative analysis. In conclusion, recommendations are made to improve policies and expand adaptive governance to better account for uncertainty and risk. This article is innovative in that it proposes an expanded model of adaptive governance in relation to "risk" that can help bridge the barrier of uncertainty in science and policy. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

Public Health and Climate Change Adaptation at the Federal Level: One Agency’s Response to Executive Order 13514

Science.gov (United States)

Schramm, Paul J.; Luber, George

2014-01-01

Climate change will likely have adverse human health effects that require federal agency involvement in adaptation activities. In 2009, President Obama issued Executive Order 13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance. The order required federal agencies to develop and implement climate change adaptation plans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part of a larger Department of Health and Human Services response to climate change, is developing such plans. We provide background on Executive Orders, outline tenets of climate change adaptation, discuss public health adaptation planning at both the Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC, and outline possible future CDC efforts. We also consider how these activities may be better integrated with other adaptation activities that manage emerging health threats posed by climate change. PMID:24432931

Adaptation response surfaces from an ensemble of wheat projections under climate change in Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Ruiz-Ramos, Margarita; Ferrise, Roberto

2016-04-01

The uncertainty about climate change (CC) complicates impact adaptation and risk management evaluation at the regional level. Approaches for managing this uncertainty and for simulating and communicating climate change impacts and adaptation opportunities are required. Here we apply an ensemble of crop models for adapting rainfed winter wheat at Lleida (NE Spain), constructing adaptation response surfaces (ARS). Our methodology has been adapted from Pirttioja et al. (2015). Impact response surfaces (IRS) are plotted surfaces showing the response of an impact variable (here crop yield Y) to changes in two explanatory variables (here precipitation P and temperature T). By analyzing adaptation variables such as changes in crop yield (ΔY) when an adaptation option is simulated, these can be interpreted as the adaptation response to potential changes of P and T, i.e. ARS. To build these ARS, we explore the sensitivity of an ensemble of wheat models to changes in T and P. Baseline (1981-2010) T and P were modified using a delta change approach with changes in the seasonal patterns. Three levels of CO2 (representing future conditions until 2050) and two actual soil profiles are considered. Crop models were calibrated with field data from Abeledo et al. (2008) and Cartelle et al. (2006). Most promising adaptation options to be analyzed by the ARS approach are identified in a pilot stage with the models DSSAT4.5 and SiriusQuality v.2, subsequently simulating the selected adaptation combinations by the whole ensemble of 11 crop models. The adaptation options identified from pilot stage were: a cultivar with no vernalisation requirements, shortening or extending a 10 % the crop cycle of the standard cultivar, sowing 15 days earlier and 30 days later than the standard date, supplementary irrigation with 40 mm at flowering and full irrigation. These options and those of the standard cultivar and management resulted in 54 combinations and 450.000 runs per crop model. Our

Adaptation or Resistance: a classification of responses to sea-level rise

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, J. A.

2016-02-01

Societal responses to sea level rise and associated coastal change are apparently diverse in nature and motivation. Most are commonly referred to as 'adaptation'. Based on a review of current practice, however, it is argued that many of these responses do not involve adaptation, but are rather resisting change. There are several instances where formerly adaptive initiatives involving human adaptability are being replaced by initiatives that resist change. A classification is presented that recognises a continuum of responses ranging from adaptation to resistance, depending upon the willingness to change human activities to accommodate environmental change. In many cases climate change adaptation resources are being used for projects that are purely resistant and which foreclose future adaptation options. It is argued that a more concise definition of adaptation is needed if coastal management is to move beyond the current position of holding the shoreline, other tah n in a few showcase examples.

Adapting agriculture to climate change.

Science.gov (United States)

Howden, S Mark; Soussana, Jean-François; Tubiello, Francesco N; Chhetri, Netra; Dunlop, Michael; Meinke, Holger

2007-12-11

The strong trends in climate change already evident, the likelihood of further changes occurring, and the increasing scale of potential climate impacts give urgency to addressing agricultural adaptation more coherently. There are many potential adaptation options available for marginal change of existing agricultural systems, often variations of existing climate risk management. We show that implementation of these options is likely to have substantial benefits under moderate climate change for some cropping systems. However, there are limits to their effectiveness under more severe climate changes. Hence, more systemic changes in resource allocation need to be considered, such as targeted diversification of production systems and livelihoods. We argue that achieving increased adaptation action will necessitate integration of climate change-related issues with other risk factors, such as climate variability and market risk, and with other policy domains, such as sustainable development. Dealing with the many barriers to effective adaptation will require a comprehensive and dynamic policy approach covering a range of scales and issues, for example, from the understanding by farmers of change in risk profiles to the establishment of efficient markets that facilitate response strategies. Science, too, has to adapt. Multidisciplinary problems require multidisciplinary solutions, i.e., a focus on integrated rather than disciplinary science and a strengthening of the interface with decision makers. A crucial component of this approach is the implementation of adaptation assessment frameworks that are relevant, robust, and easily operated by all stakeholders, practitioners, policymakers, and scientists.

From nestling calls to fledgling silence: adaptive timing of change in response to aerial alarm calls.

Science.gov (United States)

Magrath, Robert D; Platzen, Dirk; Kondo, Junko

2006-09-22

Young birds and mammals are extremely vulnerable to predators and so should benefit from responding to parental alarm calls warning of danger. However, young often respond differently from adults. This difference may reflect: (i) an imperfect stage in the gradual development of adult behaviour or (ii) an adaptation to different vulnerability. Altricial birds provide an excellent model to test for adaptive changes with age in response to alarm calls, because fledglings are vulnerable to a different range of predators than nestlings. For example, a flying hawk is irrelevant to a nestling in a enclosed nest, but is dangerous to that individual once it has left the nest, so we predict that young develop a response to aerial alarm calls to coincide with fledging. Supporting our prediction, recently fledged white-browed scrubwrens, Sericornis frontalis, fell silent immediately after playback of their parents' aerial alarm call, whereas nestlings continued to calling despite hearing the playback. Young scrubwrens are therefore exquisitely adapted to the changing risks faced during development.

The Stimuli-Actions-Effects-Responses (SAER)-framework for exploring perceived relationships between private and public climate change adaptation in agriculture.

Science.gov (United States)

Mitter, Hermine; Schönhart, Martin; Larcher, Manuela; Schmid, Erwin

2018-03-01

Empirical findings on actors' roles and responsibilities in the climate change adaptation process are rare even though cooperation between private and public actors is perceived important to foster adaptation in agriculture. We therefore developed the framework SAER (Stimuli-Actions-Effects-Responses) to investigate perceived relationships between private and public climate change adaptation in agriculture at regional scale. In particular, we explore agricultural experts' perceptions on (i) climatic and non-climatic factors stimulating private adaptation, (ii) farm adaption actions, (iii) potential on-farm and off-farm effects from adaptation, and (iv) the relationships between private and public adaptation. The SAER-framework is built on a comprehensive literature review and empirical findings from semi-structured interviews with agricultural experts from two case study regions in Austria. We find that private adaptation is perceived as incremental, systemic or transformational. It is typically stimulated by a mix of bio-physical and socio-economic on-farm and off-farm factors. Stimulating factors related to climate change are perceived of highest relevance for systemic and transformational adaptation whereas already implemented adaptation is mostly perceived to be incremental. Perceived effects of private adaptation are related to the environment, weather and climate, quality and quantity of agricultural products as well as human, social and economic resources. Our results also show that public adaptation can influence factors stimulating private adaptation as well as adaptation effects through the design and development of the legal, policy and organizational environment as well as the provision of educational, informational, financial, and technical infrastructure. Hence, facilitating existing and new collaborations between private and public actors may enable farmers to adapt effectively to climate change. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Haemodynamic responses and changes of haemostatic risk factors in cold-adapted humans.

Science.gov (United States)

De Lorenzo, F; Kadziola, Z; Mukherjee, M; Saba, N; Kakkar, V V

1999-09-01

Epidemiological studies have shown an increase in acute myocardial infarctions or deaths due to myocardial infarction in colder weather; the mechanisms most likely involve increased blood levels of haemostatic risk factors, and increases in arterial blood pressure and heart rate. We studied the relationship between cold adaptation, haemostatic risk factors and haemodynamic variables. Cold adaptation was obtained by a programme of immersion of the whole body up to the neck in a water-filled bath, the temperature of which was gradually decreased from 22 degrees C to 14 degrees C, time of exposure being increased from 5 to 20 min over a period of 90 days. We studied 428 patients (44% men) and measured blood levels of fibrinogen, plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1), tissue plasminogen activator antigen (t-PA), plasma viscosity, von Willebrand factor, D-dimer and platelet count, both at baseline and after 90 days of daily immersion. There were significant reductions in von Willebrand factor (-3%; p cold adaptation (-310; p = 0.004). Cold adaptation, compared with exposure to cold weather, induces different haemodynamic responses and changes of blood levels of haemostatic risk factors.

When not every response to climate change is a good one: identifying principles for sustainable adaptation

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Eriksen, S

2011-01-01

Full Text Available to the need for sustainable adaptation strategies and measures that contribute to social justice and environmental integrity. This paper presents four normative principles to guide responses to climate change and illustrates the significance...

Human adaptation responses to a rapidly changing Arctic: A research context for building system resilience

Science.gov (United States)

Chapin, T.; Brinkman, T. J.

2016-12-01

Although human behavior accounts for more uncertainty in future trajectories in climate change than do biophysical processes, most climate-change research fails to include human actions in research design and implementation. This is well-illustrated in the Arctic. At the global scale, arctic processes strongly influence the strength of biophysical feedbacks between global human emissions and the rate of climate warming. However, most human actions in the arctic have little effect on these feedbacks, so research can contribute most effectively to reduction in arctic warming through improved understanding of the strength of arctic-global biophysical feedbacks, as in NASA's ABoVE program, and its effective communication to policy makers and the public. In contrast, at the local to regional scale within the arctic, human actions may influence the ecological and societal consequences of arctic warming, so research benefits from active stakeholder engagement in research design and implementation. Human communities and other stakeholders (government and NGOs) respond heterogeneously to socioeconomic and environmental change, so research that documents the range of historical and current adaptive responses to change provides insights on the resilience (flexibility of future options) of social-ecological processes in the arctic. Alaskan communities have attempted a range of adaptive responses to coastal erosion (e.g., seasonal migration, protection in place, relocation), wildfire (fire suppression to use of fire to manage wildlife habitat or landscape heterogeneity), declining sea ice (e.g., new hunting technology, sea ice observations and predictions), and changes in wildlife and fish availability (e.g., switch to harvest of alternative species, harvest times, or harvest locations). Research that draws on both traditional and western knowledge facilitates adaptation and predictions of the likely societal consequences of climate change in the Arctic. Effective inclusion of

Modelling exploratio of the future of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) under climate change - Range, abundance, genetic diversity and adaptive response

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kramer, K.; Degen, B.; Buschbom, J.; Hickler, T.; Thuiller, W.; Sykes, M.T.; Winter, de W.P.

2010-01-01

We explored impacts of climate change on the geographic distribution of European beech by applying state of the art statistical and process-based models, and assessed possible climate change impacts on both adaptive capacity in the centre of its distribution and adaptive responses of functional

Migration and adaptation to climate change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tacoli, Cecilia

2007-11-15

Climate change is having an undeniable impact on many human systems and behaviours, including population mobility. This is hardly surprising: migration is an adaptive response to changes in people's circumstances. Yet environmental factors are not the whole story. Socio-economic, political and cultural factors are also closely linked to population movement, and heavily influence vulnerability to both direct and indirect impacts of climate change. Shifts in migration patterns are a strategy of adaptation to complex transformations, and recognising and accommodating this is key in policies for sustainable development and poverty reduction in the context of growing environmental stress.

Adaptive response after low level irradiation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pelevina, I I; Afanasjev, G G; JaGotlib, V; Tereschenko, D G; Tronov, V A; Serebrjany, A M [Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Russian Federation). Institute of Chemical Physics

1996-02-01

The experiments conducted on cultured HeLa (tissue culture) cells revealed that there is a limit of dose above which adaptive response was not observed and a limit of dose below which this response was not induced. The exposure of cells in the territories with elevated radiation background leads to genome instability which results in enhanced radiosensitivity. Investigations on the blood lymphocytes of people living in contaminated regions revealed that adaptive response was more significant in children whereas in adults there was slight increase. Acute irradiation serves as a tool revealing the changes that took place in DNA during chronic low level irradiations after Chernobyl disaster. (author).

Climate change: believing and seeing implies adapting.

Science.gov (United States)

Blennow, Kristina; Persson, Johannes; Tomé, Margarida; Hanewinkel, Marc

2012-01-01

Knowledge of factors that trigger human response to climate change is crucial for effective climate change policy communication. Climate change has been claimed to have low salience as a risk issue because it cannot be directly experienced. Still, personal factors such as strength of belief in local effects of climate change have been shown to correlate strongly with responses to climate change and there is a growing literature on the hypothesis that personal experience of climate change (and/or its effects) explains responses to climate change. Here we provide, using survey data from 845 private forest owners operating in a wide range of bio-climatic as well as economic-social-political structures in a latitudinal gradient across Europe, the first evidence that the personal strength of belief and perception of local effects of climate change, highly significantly explain human responses to climate change. A logistic regression model was fitted to the two variables, estimating expected probabilities ranging from 0.07 (SD ± 0.01) to 0.81 (SD ± 0.03) for self-reported adaptive measures taken. Adding socio-demographic variables improved the fit, estimating expected probabilities ranging from 0.022 (SD ± 0.008) to 0.91 (SD ± 0.02). We conclude that to explain and predict adaptation to climate change, the combination of personal experience and belief must be considered.

Climate change: believing and seeing implies adapting.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kristina Blennow

Full Text Available Knowledge of factors that trigger human response to climate change is crucial for effective climate change policy communication. Climate change has been claimed to have low salience as a risk issue because it cannot be directly experienced. Still, personal factors such as strength of belief in local effects of climate change have been shown to correlate strongly with responses to climate change and there is a growing literature on the hypothesis that personal experience of climate change (and/or its effects explains responses to climate change. Here we provide, using survey data from 845 private forest owners operating in a wide range of bio-climatic as well as economic-social-political structures in a latitudinal gradient across Europe, the first evidence that the personal strength of belief and perception of local effects of climate change, highly significantly explain human responses to climate change. A logistic regression model was fitted to the two variables, estimating expected probabilities ranging from 0.07 (SD ± 0.01 to 0.81 (SD ± 0.03 for self-reported adaptive measures taken. Adding socio-demographic variables improved the fit, estimating expected probabilities ranging from 0.022 (SD ± 0.008 to 0.91 (SD ± 0.02. We conclude that to explain and predict adaptation to climate change, the combination of personal experience and belief must be considered.

Chemotactic response and adaptation dynamics in Escherichia coli.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diana Clausznitzer

2010-05-01

Full Text Available Adaptation of the chemotaxis sensory pathway of the bacterium Escherichia coli is integral for detecting chemicals over a wide range of background concentrations, ultimately allowing cells to swim towards sources of attractant and away from repellents. Its biochemical mechanism based on methylation and demethylation of chemoreceptors has long been known. Despite the importance of adaptation for cell memory and behavior, the dynamics of adaptation are difficult to reconcile with current models of precise adaptation. Here, we follow time courses of signaling in response to concentration step changes of attractant using in vivo fluorescence resonance energy transfer measurements. Specifically, we use a condensed representation of adaptation time courses for efficient evaluation of different adaptation models. To quantitatively explain the data, we finally develop a dynamic model for signaling and adaptation based on the attractant flow in the experiment, signaling by cooperative receptor complexes, and multiple layers of feedback regulation for adaptation. We experimentally confirm the predicted effects of changing the enzyme-expression level and bypassing the negative feedback for demethylation. Our data analysis suggests significant imprecision in adaptation for large additions. Furthermore, our model predicts highly regulated, ultrafast adaptation in response to removal of attractant, which may be useful for fast reorientation of the cell and noise reduction in adaptation.

U.S. Global Climate Change Impacts Report, Adaptation

Science.gov (United States)

Pulwarty, R.

2009-12-01

Adaptation measures improve our ability to cope with or avoid harmful climate impacts and take advantage of beneficial ones, now and as climate varies and changes. Adaptation and mitigation are necessary elements of an effective response to climate change. Adaptation options also have the potential to moderate harmful impacts of current and future climate variability and change. The Global Climate Change Impacts Report identifies examples of adaptation-related actions currently being pursued in various sectors and regions to address climate change, as well as other environmental problems that could be exacerbated by climate change such as urban air pollution and heat waves. Some adaptation options that are currently being pursued in various regions and sectors to deal with climate change and/or other environmental issues are identified in this report. A range of adaptation responses can be employed to reduce risks through redesign or relocation of infrastructure, sustainability of ecosystem services, increased redundancy of critical social services, and operational improvements. Adapting to climate change is an evolutionary process and requires both analytic and deliberative decision support. Many of the climate change impacts described in the report have economic consequences. A significant part of these consequences flow through public and private insurance markets, which essentially aggregate and distribute society's risk. However, in most cases, there is currently insufficient robust information to evaluate the practicality, efficiency, effectiveness, costs, or benefits of adaptation measures, highlighting a need for research. Adaptation planning efforts such as that being conducted in New York City and the Colorado River will be described. Climate will be continually changing, moving at a relatively rapid rate, outside the range to which society has adapted in the past. The precise amounts and timing of these changes will not be known with certainty. The

Guiding climate change adaptation within vulnerable natural resource management systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Bardsley, Douglas K; Sweeney, Susan M

2010-05-01

Climate change has the potential to compromise the sustainability of natural resources in Mediterranean climatic systems, such that short-term reactive responses will increasingly be insufficient to ensure effective management. There is a simultaneous need for both the clear articulation of the vulnerabilities of specific management systems to climate risk, and the development of appropriate short- and long-term strategic planning responses that anticipate environmental change or allow for sustainable adaptive management in response to trends in resource condition. Governments are developing climate change adaptation policy frameworks, but without the recognition of the importance of responding strategically, regional stakeholders will struggle to manage future climate risk. In a partnership between the South Australian Government, the Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges Natural Resource Management Board and the regional community, a range of available research approaches to support regional climate change adaptation decision-making, were applied and critically examined, including: scenario modelling; applied and participatory Geographical Information Systems modelling; environmental risk analysis; and participatory action learning. As managers apply ideas for adaptation within their own biophysical and socio-cultural contexts, there would be both successes and failures, but a learning orientation to societal change will enable improvements over time. A base-line target for regional responses to climate change is the ownership of the issue by stakeholders, which leads to an acceptance that effective actions to adapt are now both possible and vitally important. Beyond such baseline knowledge, the research suggests that there is a range of tools from the social and physical sciences available to guide adaptation decision-making.

Guiding Climate Change Adaptation Within Vulnerable Natural Resource Management Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Bardsley, Douglas K.; Sweeney, Susan M.

2010-05-01

Climate change has the potential to compromise the sustainability of natural resources in Mediterranean climatic systems, such that short-term reactive responses will increasingly be insufficient to ensure effective management. There is a simultaneous need for both the clear articulation of the vulnerabilities of specific management systems to climate risk, and the development of appropriate short- and long-term strategic planning responses that anticipate environmental change or allow for sustainable adaptive management in response to trends in resource condition. Governments are developing climate change adaptation policy frameworks, but without the recognition of the importance of responding strategically, regional stakeholders will struggle to manage future climate risk. In a partnership between the South Australian Government, the Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges Natural Resource Management Board and the regional community, a range of available research approaches to support regional climate change adaptation decision-making, were applied and critically examined, including: scenario modelling; applied and participatory Geographical Information Systems modelling; environmental risk analysis; and participatory action learning. As managers apply ideas for adaptation within their own biophysical and socio-cultural contexts, there would be both successes and failures, but a learning orientation to societal change will enable improvements over time. A base-line target for regional responses to climate change is the ownership of the issue by stakeholders, which leads to an acceptance that effective actions to adapt are now both possible and vitally important. Beyond such baseline knowledge, the research suggests that there is a range of tools from the social and physical sciences available to guide adaptation decision-making.

Adaptive response of Peruvian Hake to overfishing

OpenAIRE

Mendo, C.W.; Carrasco, R.G.

2000-01-01

Compensatory mechanisms of the Peruvian hake population (Merluccius gayi peruanus) in response to heavy exploitation and changes in species interaction are discussed. Changes in the rate of cannibalism, diet composition, maximization of fecundity and behavioral adaptation are noted.

Adaptive capacity and human cognition: the process of individual adaptation to climate change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Grothmann, T. [Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam (Germany). Department of Global Change and Social Systems; Patt, A. [Boston University (United States). Department of Geography

2005-10-01

Adaptation has emerged as an important area of research and assessment among climate change scientists. Most scholarly work has identified resource constraints as being the most significant determinants of adaptation. However, empirical research on adaptation has so far mostly not addressed the importance of measurable and alterable psychological factors in determining adaptation. Drawing from the literature in psychology and behavioural economics, we develop a socio-cognitive Model of Private Proactive Adaptation to Climate Change (MPPACC). MPPACC separates out the psychological steps to taking action in response to perception, and allows one to see where the most important bottlenecks occur - including risk perception and perceived adaptive capacity, a factor largely neglected in previous climate change research. We then examine two case studies - one from urban Germany and one from rural Zimbabwe - to explore the validity of MPPACC to explaining adaptation. In the German study, we find that MPPACC provides better statistical power than traditional socio-economic models. In the Zimbabwean case study, we find a qualitative match between MPPACC and adaptive behaviour. Finally, we discuss the important implications of our findings both on vulnerability and adaptation assessments, and on efforts to promote adaptation through outside intervention. (author)

Climate change and nesting behaviour in vertebrates: a review of the ecological threats and potential for adaptive responses.

Science.gov (United States)

Mainwaring, Mark C; Barber, Iain; Deeming, Denis C; Pike, David A; Roznik, Elizabeth A; Hartley, Ian R

2017-11-01

Nest building is a taxonomically widespread and diverse trait that allows animals to alter local environments to create optimal conditions for offspring development. However, there is growing evidence that climate change is adversely affecting nest-building in animals directly, for example via sea-level rises that flood nests, reduced availability of building materials, and suboptimal sex allocation in species exhibiting temperature-dependent sex determination. Climate change is also affecting nesting species indirectly, via range shifts into suboptimal nesting areas, reduced quality of nest-building environments, and changes in interactions with nest predators and parasites. The ability of animals to adapt to sustained and rapid environmental change is crucial for the long-term persistence of many species. Many animals are known to be capable of adjusting nesting behaviour adaptively across environmental gradients and in line with seasonal changes, and this existing plasticity potentially facilitates adaptation to anthropogenic climate change. However, whilst alterations in nesting phenology, site selection and design may facilitate short-term adaptations, the ability of nest-building animals to adapt over longer timescales is likely to be influenced by the heritable basis of such behaviour. We urgently need to understand how the behaviour and ecology of nest-building in animals is affected by climate change, and particularly how altered patterns of nesting behaviour affect individual fitness and population persistence. We begin our review by summarising how predictable variation in environmental conditions influences nest-building animals, before highlighting the ecological threats facing nest-building animals experiencing anthropogenic climate change and examining the potential for changes in nest location and/or design to provide adaptive short- and long-term responses to changing environmental conditions. We end by identifying areas that we believe warrant the

Molecular mechanisms involved in adaptive responses to radiation, UV light, and heat

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takahashi, Akihisa; Ohnishi, Takeo

2009-01-01

Viable organisms recognize and respond to environmental changes or stresses. When these environmental changes and their responses by organisms are extreme, they can limit viability. However, organisms can adapt to these different stresses by utilizing different possible responses via signal transduction pathways when the stress is not lethal. In particular, prior mild stresses can provide some aid to prepare organisms for subsequent more severe stresses. These adjustments or adaptations for future stresses have been called adaptive responses. These responses are present in bacteria, plants and animals. The following review covers recent research which can help describe or postulate possible mechanisms which may be active in producing adaptive responses to radiation, ultraviolet light, and heat. (author)

Reconceptualising adaptation to climate change as part of pathways of change and response

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Wise, RM

2014-01-01

Full Text Available on contexts with clearly identified decision-makers and unambiguous goals; as a result, they generally assume prevailing governance regimes are conducive for adaptation and hence constrain responses to proximate causes of vulnerability. In this paper, we...

Impacts of climate change on tourism in the Mediterranean. Adaptive responses

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Perry, A. [University of Wales Swansea, Swansea, Wales (United Kingdom)

2000-05-01

Key sensitivities to Mediterranean tourism include drought and heat waves, both of which are likely to increase with projected greenhouse warming. Adaptive responses must include lengthening of the present season and particularly taking care to cater for the increasing number of older people in the population of Northern European countries who will demand high environmental and accommodation standards and look for more bespoke holidays than the mass market tourist. Climate change in Northern Europe may affect the push-pull factors which currently favour a summer peak of tourists in many Mediterranean destinations. Infra structure and beaches may well be at risk from sea level rise and there are likely to be increased problems from forest fires, water supplies and hygiene.

Impacts of climate change on tourism in the Mediterranean. Adaptive responses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perry, A.

2000-05-01

Key sensitivities to Mediterranean tourism include drought and heat waves, both of which are likely to increase with projected greenhouse warming. Adaptive responses must include lengthening of the present season and particularly taking care to cater for the increasing number of older people in the population of Northern European countries who will demand high environmental and accommodation standards and look for more bespoke holidays than the mass market tourist. Climate change in Northern Europe may affect the push-pull factors which currently favour a summer peak of tourists in many Mediterranean destinations. Infra structure and beaches may well be at risk from sea level rise and there are likely to be increased problems from forest fires, water supplies and hygiene

Modeling Two Types of Adaptation to Climate Change

Science.gov (United States)

Mitigation and adaptation are the two key responses available to policymakers to reduce the risks of climate change. We model these two policies together in a new DICE-based integrated assessment model that characterizes adaptation as either short-lived flow spending or long-live...

Global Megacities Differing Adaptation Responses to Climate Change: an Analysis of Annual Spend of Ten Major cities on the adaptation economy

Science.gov (United States)

Maslin, M. A.; Georgeson, L.

2015-12-01

Urban areas are increasingly at risk from climate change with negative impacts predicted for human health, the economy and ecosystems. These risks require responses from cities, to improve the resilience of their infrastructure, economy and environment to climate change. Policymakers need to understand what is already being spent on adaptation so that they can make more effective and comprehensive adaptation plans. Through the measurement of spend in the newly defined 'Adaptation Economy' we analysis the current efforts of 10 global megacities in adapting to climate change. These cities were chosen based on their size, geographical location and their developmental status. The cities are London, Paris, New York, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Beijing, Mumbai, Jakarta, Lagos and Addis Ababa. It is important to study a range of cities in different regions of the world, with different climates and at different states of socio-economic development. While in economic terms, disaster losses from weather, climate and geophysical events are greater in developed countries, fatalities and economic losses as a proportion of GDP are higher in developing countries. In all cities examined the Adaptation Economy is still a small part of the overall economy accounting for a maximum of 0.3% of the Cities total GDP (GDPc). The differences in total spend are significant between cities in developed and rapidly emerging countries, compared to those in developing countries with a spend ranging from £16 million to £1,500 million. Comparing key sub sectors, we demonstrate that there are distinctive adaptation profiles with developing cities having a higher relative spend on health, while developed cities have a higher spend on disaster preparedness, ICT and professional services. Comparing spend per capita and as a percentage of GDPc demonstrates even more clearly disparities between the cities in the study; developing country cities spend half as much as a proportion of GPCc in some cases, and

Adaptive responses to environmental changes in Lake Victoria cichlids

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rijssel, Jacobus Cornelis van (Jacco)

2014-01-01

Lake Victoria cichlids show the fastest vertebrate adaptive radiation known which is why they function as a model organism to study evolution. In the past 40 years, Lake Victoria experienced severe environmental changes including the boom of the introduced, predatory Nile perch and eutrophication.

Learning to Adapt. Organisational Adaptation to Climate Change Impacts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berkhout, F.; Hertin, J.; Gann, D.M.

2006-01-01

Analysis of human adaptation to climate change should be based on realistic models of adaptive behaviour at the level of organisations and individuals. The paper sets out a framework for analysing adaptation to the direct and indirect impacts of climate change in business organisations with new evidence presented from empirical research into adaptation in nine case-study companies. It argues that adaptation to climate change has many similarities with processes of organisational learning. The paper suggests that business organisations face a number of obstacles in learning how to adapt to climate change impacts, especially in relation to the weakness and ambiguity of signals about climate change and the uncertainty about benefits flowing from adaptation measures. Organisations rarely adapt 'autonomously', since their adaptive behaviour is influenced by policy and market conditions, and draws on resources external to the organisation. The paper identifies four adaptation strategies that pattern organisational adaptive behaviour

Separating the role of biotic interactions and climate in determining adaptive response of plants to climate change.

Science.gov (United States)

Tomiolo, Sara; Van der Putten, Wim H; Tielbörger, Katja

2015-05-01

Altered rainfall regimes will greatly affect the response of plant species to climate change. However, little is known about how direct effects of changing precipitation on plant performance may depend on other abiotic factors and biotic interactions. We used reciprocal transplants between climatically very different sites with simultaneous manipulation of soil, plant population origin, and neighbor conditions to evaluate local adaptation and possible adaptive response of four Eastern Mediterranean annual plant species to climate change. The effect of site on plant performance was negligible, but soil origin had a strong effect on fecundity, most likely due to differential water retaining ability. Competition by neighbors strongly reduced fitness. We separated the effects of the abiotic and biotic soil properties on plant performance by repeating the field experiment in a greenhouse under homogenous environmental conditions and including a soil biota manipulation treatment. As in the field, plant performance differed among soil origins and neighbor treatments. Moreover, we found plant species-specific responses to soil biota that may be best explained by the differential sensitivity to negative and positive soil biota effects. Overall, under the conditions of our experiment with two contrasting sites, biotic interactions had a strong effect on plant fitness that interacted with and eventually overrode climate. Because climate and biotic interactions covary, reciprocal transplants and climate gradient studies should consider soil biotic interactions and abiotic conditions when evaluating climate change effects on plant performance.

Radio-adaptive response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ikushima, Takaji

1991-01-01

An adaptive response to radiation stress was found in cultured Chinese hamster V79 cells, as a suppressed induction of micronuclei (MNs) and sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) in the cells conditioned by very low doses. The important characteristics of the novel chromosomal response, called radio-adaptive response (RAR), that have newly emerged in this study are: 1) Low doses of beta-rays from tritiated water (HTO) as well as tritiated thymidine can cause the RAR. 2) Thermal neutrons, a high LET radiation, can not act as tritium beta-rays or gamma-rays. 3) The RAR expression is suppressed by an inhibition of protein synthesis. 4) Several proteins are newly synthesized concurrently with the RAR expression after adapting doses, viewed by two-dimensional electrophoresis of cellular proteins. These results suggest that the RAR is an adaptive chromosomal DNA repair induced by very low doses of low LET radiations under restricted conditions, accompanying the inducible specific gene expression. (author)

Evaluating Successful Livelihood Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change in Southern Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Henny Osbahr

2010-06-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the success of small-scale farming livelihoods in adapting to climate variability and change. We represent adaptation actions as choices within a response space that includes coping but also longer-term adaptation actions, and define success as those actions which promote system resilience, promote legitimate institutional change, and hence generate and sustain collective action. We explore data on social responses from four regions across South Africa and Mozambique facing a variety of climate risks. The analysis suggests that some collective adaptation actions enhance livelihood resilience to climate change and variability but others have negative spillover effects to other scales. Any assessment of successful adaptation is, however, constrained by the scale of analysis in terms of the temporal and spatial boundaries on the system being investigated. In addition, the diversity of mechanisms by which rural communities in southern Africa adapt to risks suggests that external interventions to assist adaptation will need to be sensitive to the location-specific nature of adaptation.

Adapting to climate change : the public policy response - public infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

2009-06-01

This paper assesses the threats and needs that multidimensional climate change imposes for : public infrastructure, reviews the existing adaptive capacity that could be applied to respond : to these threats and needs, and presents options for enhanci...

Adaptations to climate change: Colville and Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forests

Science.gov (United States)

William L. Gaines; David W. Peterson; Cameron A. Thomas; Richy J. Harrod

2012-01-01

Forest managers are seeking practical guidance on how to adapt their current practices and, if necessary, their management goals, in response to climate change. Science-management collaboration was initiated on national forests in eastern Washington where resource managers showed a keen interest in science-based options for adapting to climate change at a 2-day...

Adapting agriculture to climate change: a review

Science.gov (United States)

Anwar, Muhuddin Rajin; Liu, De Li; Macadam, Ian; Kelly, Georgina

2013-07-01

The agricultural sector is highly vulnerable to future climate changes and climate variability, including increases in the incidence of extreme climate events. Changes in temperature and precipitation will result in changes in land and water regimes that will subsequently affect agricultural productivity. Given the gradual change of climate in the past, historically, farmers have adapted in an autonomous manner. However, with large and discrete climate change anticipated by the end of this century, planned and transformational changes will be needed. In light of these, the focus of this review is on farm-level and farmers responses to the challenges of climate change both spatially and over time. In this review of adapting agriculture to climate change, the nature, extent, and causes of climate change are analyzed and assessed. These provide the context for adapting agriculture to climate change. The review identifies the binding constraints to adaptation at the farm level. Four major priority areas are identified to relax these constraints, where new initiatives would be required, i.e., information generation and dissemination to enhance farm-level awareness, research and development (R&D) in agricultural technology, policy formulation that facilitates appropriate adaptation at the farm level, and strengthening partnerships among the relevant stakeholders. Forging partnerships among R&D providers, policy makers, extension agencies, and farmers would be at the heart of transformational adaptation to climate change at the farm level. In effecting this transformational change, sustained efforts would be needed for the attendant requirements of climate and weather forecasting and innovation, farmer's training, and further research to improve the quality of information, invention, and application in agriculture. The investment required for these would be highly significant. The review suggests a sequenced approach through grouping research initiatives into short

What facilitates adaptation? An analysis of community-based adaptation to environmental change in the Andes

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Felipe Murtinho

2016-02-01

Full Text Available This study analyses the environmental, socio-economic andinstitutional factors that influence community-based adaptation strategies in 16municipalities in the rural Andes of Colombia. The study focuses specifically onthe factors that influence whether communities decide to take measures to managetheir water and micro-watersheds in response to water scarcity caused by climatevariability and land-use changes. The research uses quantitative and qualitativemethods incorporating data from surveys to 104 water user associations,precipitation and land-use data, municipal socio-economic information, and semistructured interviews with key informants. The results reveal 1 the links betweenenvironmental change and the type of adaptation that communities implement,and 2 how, in face of water scarcity changes, external funding facilitatesadaptation. The findings of this study contributes to the common-pool resourceand adaptation literatures by highlighting the important role that external actorsmay have in shaping collective action to adapt to environmental change.

Adaptation to climatic variability and change. Report of the task force on climate adaptation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smit, B.

1994-01-01

A critique and interpretation is presented of what is known and available about adaptation to climate changes, not based on any particular climate scenario. It is assumed that variability is a fact of climate and that changes in climatic conditions are possible and are constantly occurring. Emphasis is on adaptation with regard to economic and social activities in Canada. A series of linked objectives are addressed, relating to demonstration of the significance of adaptation, consideration of case studies of adaptation (past and potential future) in Canada, clarification of the meaning of adaptation and the forms it takes, assessment of policy implications, and identification of research priorities. The basic facts on global climate change are reviewed, including long-term temperature variations, and adaptation is discussed as a public policy response. Examples of adaptation in Canada are given in the areas of Great Lakes property, power generation, and transportation; Atlantic Canada communities and fisheries; forestry; the construction industry; the energy industry; recreation and tourism; agriculture; urban areas; and national defense. Recommendations regarding adapation are made to governments, the private sector, and researchers. An inventory of adaptation strategies for agriculture, the Arctic, coastal areas, ecosystems and land use, energy supply, fisheries, forestry, urban infrastructure, and water resources is appended

Adapting to climate change in Africa

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Downing, T.E. Ringius, L. Hulme, M. Waughray, D.

1997-01-01

The intersection of present vulnerability and the prospect of climate change in Africa warrants proactive action now to reduce the risk of large-scale, adverse impacts. The process of planning adaptive strategies requires a systematic evaluation of priorities and constraints, and the involvement of stakeholders. An overview of climate change in Africa and case studies of impacts for agriculture and water underlie discussion of a typology of adaptive responses that may be most effective for different stakeholders. The most effective strategies are likely to be to reduce present vulnerability and to enhance a broad spectrum of capacity in responding to environmental, resource and economic perturbations. In some cases, such as design of water systems, an added risk factor should be considered. 2 figs., 7 tabs., 48 refs

Cooperative adaptive responses in gene regulatory networks with many degrees of freedom.

Science.gov (United States)

Inoue, Masayo; Kaneko, Kunihiko

2013-04-01

Cells generally adapt to environmental changes by first exhibiting an immediate response and then gradually returning to their original state to achieve homeostasis. Although simple network motifs consisting of a few genes have been shown to exhibit such adaptive dynamics, they do not reflect the complexity of real cells, where the expression of a large number of genes activates or represses other genes, permitting adaptive behaviors. Here, we investigated the responses of gene regulatory networks containing many genes that have undergone numerical evolution to achieve high fitness due to the adaptive response of only a single target gene; this single target gene responds to changes in external inputs and later returns to basal levels. Despite setting a single target, most genes showed adaptive responses after evolution. Such adaptive dynamics were not due to common motifs within a few genes; even without such motifs, almost all genes showed adaptation, albeit sometimes partial adaptation, in the sense that expression levels did not always return to original levels. The genes split into two groups: genes in the first group exhibited an initial increase in expression and then returned to basal levels, while genes in the second group exhibited the opposite changes in expression. From this model, genes in the first group received positive input from other genes within the first group, but negative input from genes in the second group, and vice versa. Thus, the adaptation dynamics of genes from both groups were consolidated. This cooperative adaptive behavior was commonly observed if the number of genes involved was larger than the order of ten. These results have implications in the collective responses of gene expression networks in microarray measurements of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the significance to the biological homeostasis of systems with many components.

Growing assisted migration: Synthesis of a climate change adaptation strategy

Science.gov (United States)

Mary I. Williams; R. Kasten Dumroese

2013-01-01

Assisted migration may be necessary as a climate change adaptation strategy for native plant species that are less adaptive or mobile. Moving plants has been practiced a long time in human history, but movement of species in response to climate change is a new context. First proposed in 1985, assisted migration has gained attention since 2007 as a strategy to prevent...

The Role of Markets and Governments in Helping Society Adapt to a Changing Climate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mendelsohn, R.

2006-01-01

This paper provides an economic perspective of adaptation to climate change. The paper specifically examines the role of markets and government in efficient adaptation responses. For adaptations to be efficient, the benefits from following adaptations must exceed the costs. For private market goods, market actors will follow this principle in their own interest. For public goods, governments must take on this responsibility. Governments must also be careful to design institutions that encourage efficiency or they could inadvertently increase the damages from climate change. Finally, although in a few cases actors must anticipate climate changes far into the future, generally it is best to learn and then act with respect to adaptation

Adaptive Responses to Thermal Stress in Mammals

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Yasser Lenis Sanin

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The environment animals have to cope with is a combination of natural factors such as temperature. Extreme changes in these factors can alter homeostasis, which can lead to thermal stress. This stress can be due to either high temperatures or low temperatures. Energy transference for thermoregulation in homoeothermic animals occurs through several mechanisms: conduction, convection, radiation and evaporation. When animals are subjected to thermal stress, physiological mechanisms are activated which may include endocrine, neuroendocrine and behavioral responses. Activation of the neuroendocrine system affects the secretion of hormones and neurotransmitters which act collectively as response mechanisms that allow them to adapt to stress. Mechanisms which have developed through evolution to allow animals to adapt to high environmental temperatures and to achieve thermo tolerance include physiological and physical changes in order to reduce food intake and metabolic heat production, to increase surface area of skin to dissipate heat, to increase blood flow to take heat from the body core to the skin and extremities to dissipate the heat, to increase numbers and activity of sweat glands, panting, water intake and color adaptation of integument system to reflect heat. Chronic exposure to thermal stress can cause disease, reduce growth, decrease productive and reproductive performance and, in extreme cases, lead to death. This paper aims to briefly explain the physical and physiological responses of mammals to thermal stress, like a tool for biological environment adaptation, emphasizing knowledge gaps and offering some recommendations to stress control for the animal production system.

Livelihoods, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in Morogoro, Tanzania

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paavola, Jouni

2008-01-01

This article examines farmers' livelihood responses and vulnerability to climate variability and other stressors in Morogoro, Tanzania, to understand their implications for adaptation to climate change by agricultural households in developing world more generally. In Morogoro, agricultural households have extended cultivation, intensified agriculture, diversified livelihoods and migrated to gain access to land, markets and employment as a response to climatic and other stressors. Some of these responses have depleted and degraded natural resources such as forest, soil and water resources, which will complicate their living with climate change in the future. This will be particularly problematic to vulnerable groups such as women, children and pastoralists who have limited access to employment, markets and public services. In this light, fair adaptation to climate change by agricultural households in Morogoro and elsewhere in developing countries requires several complementary responses. Adaptation efforts should involve effective governance of natural resources because they function as safety nets to vulnerable groups. In addition, strengthening of national markets by infrastructure investments and institutional reforms is needed to give incentives to intensification and diversification in agriculture. Market participation also demands enhancement of human capital by public programs on health, education and wellbeing

Openness to experience and adapting to change: Cardiovascular stress habituation to change in acute stress exposure.

Science.gov (United States)

Ó Súilleabháin, Páraic S; Howard, Siobhán; Hughes, Brian M

2018-05-01

Underlying psychophysiological mechanisms of effect linking openness to experience to health outcomes, and particularly cardiovascular well-being, are unknown. This study examined the role of openness in the context of cardiovascular responsivity to acute psychological stress. Continuous cardiovascular response data were collected for 74 healthy young female adults across an experimental protocol, including differing counterbalanced acute stressors. Openness was measured via self-report questionnaire. Analysis of covariance revealed openness was associated with systolic blood pressure (SBP; p = .016), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP; p = .036) responsivity across the protocol. Openness was also associated with heart rate (HR) responding to the initial stress exposure (p = .044). Examination of cardiovascular adaptation revealed that higher openness was associated with significant SBP (p = .001), DBP (p = .009), and HR (p = .002) habituation in response to the second differing acute stress exposure. Taken together, the findings suggest persons higher in openness are characterized by an adaptive cardiovascular stress response profile within the context of changing acute stress exposures. This study is also the first to demonstrate individual differences in cardiovascular adaptation across a protocol consisting of differing stress exposures. More broadly, this research also suggests that future research may benefit from conceptualizing an adaptive fitness of openness within the context of change. In summary, the present study provides evidence that higher openness stimulates short-term stress responsivity, while ensuring cardiovascular habituation to change in stress across time. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Radio-adaptive response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ikushima, T.

1992-01-01

An adaptive response to radiation stress was found as a suppressed induction of chromosomal damage including micronuclei and sister chromatid exchanges in cultured Chinese hamster V79 cells pre-exposed to very low doses of ionizing radiations. The mechanism underlying this novel chromosomal response, called 'radio-adaptive response (RAR)' has been studied progressively. The following results were obtained in recent experiments. 1. Low doses of β-rays from tritiated water (HTO) as well as tritium-thymidine can cause RAR. 2. Thermal neutrons, a high LET radiation, can not act as tritium β-rays or γ-rays. 3. The RAR expression is suppressed not only by the treatment with an inhibitor of protein synthesis but also by RNA synthesis inhibition. 4. Several proteins are newly synthesized concurrently with the RAR expression after the adapting doses, viewed by two-dimensional electrophoresis of cellular proteins. These results suggests that the RAR might be a cellular stress response to a signal produced preferentially by very low doses of low LET radiation under restricted conditions, accompany the inducible specific gene expression. (author)

Behavioural responses to human-induced environmental change.

Science.gov (United States)

Tuomainen, Ulla; Candolin, Ulrika

2011-08-01

The initial response of individuals to human-induced environmental change is often behavioural. This can improve the performance of individuals under sudden, large-scale perturbations and maintain viable populations. The response can also give additional time for genetic changes to arise and, hence, facilitate adaptation to new conditions. On the other hand, maladaptive responses, which reduce individual fitness, may occur when individuals encounter conditions that the population has not experienced during its evolutionary history, which can decrease population viability. A growing number of studies find human disturbances to induce behavioural responses, both directly and by altering factors that influence fitness. Common causes of behavioural responses are changes in the transmission of information, the concentration of endocrine disrupters, the availability of resources, the possibility of dispersal, and the abundance of interacting species. Frequent responses are alterations in habitat choice, movements, foraging, social behaviour and reproductive behaviour. Behavioural responses depend on the genetically determined reaction norm of the individuals, which evolves over generations. Populations first respond with individual behavioural plasticity, whereafter changes may arise through innovations and the social transmission of behavioural patterns within and across generations, and, finally, by evolution of the behavioural response over generations. Only a restricted number of species show behavioural adaptations that make them thrive in severely disturbed environments. Hence, rapid human-induced disturbances often decrease the diversity of native species, while facilitating the spread of invasive species with highly plastic behaviours. Consequently, behavioural responses to human-induced environmental change can have profound effects on the distribution, adaptation, speciation and extinction of populations and, hence, on biodiversity. A better understanding of

Gene expression and adaptive noncoding changes during human evolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Babbitt, Courtney C; Haygood, Ralph; Nielsen, William J; Wray, Gregory A

2017-06-05

Despite evidence for adaptive changes in both gene expression and non-protein-coding, putatively regulatory regions of the genome during human evolution, the relationship between gene expression and adaptive changes in cis-regulatory regions remains unclear. Here we present new measurements of gene expression in five tissues of humans and chimpanzees, and use them to assess this relationship. We then compare our results with previous studies of adaptive noncoding changes, analyzing correlations at the level of gene ontology groups, in order to gain statistical power to detect correlations. Consistent with previous studies, we find little correlation between gene expression and adaptive noncoding changes at the level of individual genes; however, we do find significant correlations at the level of biological function ontology groups. The types of function include processes regulated by specific transcription factors, responses to genetic or chemical perturbations, and differentiation of cell types within the immune system. Among functional categories co-enriched with both differential expression and noncoding adaptation, prominent themes include cancer, particularly epithelial cancers, and neural development and function.

Farmers’ Perceptions about Adaptation Practices to Climate Change and Barriers to Adaptation: A Micro-Level Study in Ghana

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francis Ndamani

2015-08-01

Full Text Available This study analyzed the farmer-perceived importance of adaptation practices to climate change and examined the barriers that impede adaptation. Perceptions about causes and effects of long-term changes in climatic variables were also investigated. A total of 100 farmer-households were randomly selected from four communities in the Lawra district of Ghana. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires and focus group discussions (FGDs. The results showed that 87% of respondents perceived a decrease in rainfall amount, while 82% perceived an increase in temperature over the past 10 years. The study revealed that adaptation was largely in response to dry spells and droughts (93.2% rather than floods. About 67% of respondents have adjusted their farming activities in response to climate change. Empirical results of the weighted average index analysis showed that farmers ranked improved crop varieties and irrigation as the most important adaptation measures. It also revealed that farmers lacked the capacity to implement the highly ranked adaptation practices. The problem confrontation index analysis showed that unpredictable weather, high cost of farm inputs, limited access to weather information, and lack of water resources were the most critical barriers to adaptation. This analysis of adaptation practices and constraints at farmer level will help facilitate government policy formulation and implementation.

Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change in OECD Countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Austin, Stephanie E; Biesbroek, Robbert; Berrang-Ford, Lea; Ford, James D; Parker, Stephen; Fleury, Manon D

2016-09-07

Climate change is a major challenge facing public health. National governments play a key role in public health adaptation to climate change, but there are competing views on what responsibilities and obligations this will-or should-include in different nations. This study aims to: (1) examine how national-level public health adaptation is occurring in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries; (2) examine the roles national governments are taking in public health adaptation; and (3) critically appraise three key governance dimensions of national-level health adaptation-cross-sectoral collaboration, vertical coordination and national health adaptation planning-and identify practical examples suited to different contexts. We systematically reviewed publicly available public health adaptation to climate change documents and webpages by national governments in ten OECD countries using systematic web searches, assessment of self-reporting, and content analysis. Our findings suggest national governments are primarily addressing infectious disease and heat-related risks posed by climate change, typically emphasizing capacity building or information-based groundwork initiatives. We find national governments are taking a variety of approaches to public health adaptation to climate change that do not follow expected convergence and divergence by governance structure. We discuss practical options for incorporating cross-sectoral collaboration, vertical coordination and national health adaptation planning into a variety of contexts and identify leaders national governments can look to to inform their public health adaptation planning. Following the adoption of the Paris Agreement and subsequent increased momentum for adaptation, research tracking adaptation is needed to define what health adaptation looks like in practice, reveal insights that can be taken up across states and sectors, and ensure policy orientated learning.

Climate change response framework overview: Chapter 1

Science.gov (United States)

Chris Swanston; Maria Janowiak; Patricia Butler

2012-01-01

Managers currently face the immense challenge of anticipating the effects of climate change on forest ecosystems and then developing and applying management responses for adapting forests to future conditions. The Climate Change Response Framework (CCRF) is a highly collaborative approach to helping land managers understand the potential effects of climate change on...

Possible stimuli for strength and power adaptation : acute metabolic responses.

Science.gov (United States)

Crewther, Blair; Cronin, John; Keogh, Justin

2006-01-01

The metabolic response to resistance exercise, in particular lactic acid or lactate, has a marked influence upon the muscular environment, which may enhance the training stimulus (e.g. motor unit activation, hormones or muscle damage) and thereby contribute to strength and power adaptation. Hypertrophy schemes have resulted in greater lactate responses (%) than neuronal and dynamic power schemes, suggesting possible metabolic-mediated changes in muscle growth. Factors such as age, sex, training experience and nutrition may also influence the lactate responses to resistance exercise and thereafter, muscular adaptation. Although the importance of the mechanical and hormonal stimulus to strength and power adaptation is well recognised, the contribution of the metabolic stimulus is largely unknown. Relatively few studies for example, have examined metabolic change across neuronal and dynamic power schemes, and not withstanding the fact that those mechanisms underpinning muscular adaptation, in relation to the metabolic stimulus, remain highly speculative. Inconsistent findings and methodological limitations within research (e.g. programme design, sampling period, number of samples) make interpretation further difficult. We contend that strength and power research needs to investigate those metabolic mechanisms likely to contribute to weight-training adaptation. Further research is also needed to examine the metabolic responses to different loading schemes, as well as interactions across age, sex and training status, so our understanding of how to optimise strength and power development is improved.

Planning and costing agriculture's adaptation to climate change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chambwera, Muyeye; Downing, Tom; Venton, Courtenay Cabot; Dyszynski, Jillian; Crawford, Victoria; Butterfield, Ruth; Kaur, Nanki; Birch, Tom; Loga, Denise

2011-11-15

Changing climate will have adverse effects on food production, food distribution, infrastructure, land availability for agriculture, and livelihood assets and opportunities in rural and urban areas. Adapting food systems to both enhance food security for the poor and to prevent the future negative impacts of climate change will require attention to more than just agricultural production. Food security can only be ensured and enhanced through a range of interventions across different agricultural systems and along the associated value chains, from production to distribution and allocation. The current efforts to get agriculture into the global climate policy framework after the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol emphasises mitigation. Adaptation is an equally important objective in a world that cannot avoid climate change any more because of already accumulated greenhouse gases. In developing countries, adaptation is the primary concern due to their vulnerability to climate change and high dependence on weather-dependent agricultural systems. A complete response to climate change that integrates agriculture should therefore pursue both agricultural mitigation and adaptation. In order to plan for adaptation effectively, policy makers need reliable information from developing countries on the nature of adaptation, its costs and how these are related to ongoing efforts to develop the agriculture sector and food systems of developing countries. This study set out to inform climate policy development by analysing agricultural adaptation in developing countries using a combination of desk studies and country case studies to provide a framework, areas to focus on when planning agricultural adaptation and the likely costs. It followed key steps for bringing together global and local perspectives for the benefit of both global stakeholders and developing countries.

Cross-Border organisations as an adaptive water management response to clmate change: the case of the Guadiana river basin

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cots, F.; Tabara, J.D.; McEvoy, D.; Werners, S.E.; Roca, E.

2009-01-01

In this paper we analyse the role played by cross-border organisations in the Guadiana river basin in Iberia, and the extent to which new emerging institutional arrangements carry on adaptive management practice as a response to mounting climate change risks in the river basin. Particular attention

Age-related changes in gait adaptability in response to unpredictable obstacles and stepping targets.

Science.gov (United States)

Caetano, Maria Joana D; Lord, Stephen R; Schoene, Daniel; Pelicioni, Paulo H S; Sturnieks, Daina L; Menant, Jasmine C

2016-05-01

A large proportion of falls in older people occur when walking. Limitations in gait adaptability might contribute to tripping; a frequently reported cause of falls in this group. To evaluate age-related changes in gait adaptability in response to obstacles or stepping targets presented at short notice, i.e.: approximately two steps ahead. Fifty older adults (aged 74±7 years; 34 females) and 21 young adults (aged 26±4 years; 12 females) completed 3 usual gait speed (baseline) trials. They then completed the following randomly presented gait adaptability trials: obstacle avoidance, short stepping target, long stepping target and no target/obstacle (3 trials of each). Compared with the young, the older adults slowed significantly in no target/obstacle trials compared with the baseline trials. They took more steps and spent more time in double support while approaching the obstacle and stepping targets, demonstrated poorer stepping accuracy and made more stepping errors (failed to hit the stepping targets/avoid the obstacle). The older adults also reduced velocity of the two preceding steps and shortened the previous step in the long stepping target condition and in the obstacle avoidance condition. Compared with their younger counterparts, the older adults exhibited a more conservative adaptation strategy characterised by slow, short and multiple steps with longer time in double support. Even so, they demonstrated poorer stepping accuracy and made more stepping errors. This reduced gait adaptability may place older adults at increased risk of falling when negotiating unexpected hazards. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Relation between radio-adaptive response and cell to cell communication

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keiichiro Ishii

1996-01-01

Ionizing radiation has been considered to cause severe damages to DNA and do harm to cells in proportion to the dose, however low it might be. In 1984, Wolff et al. showed that human peripheral lymphocytes adapted to the low-dose radiation from 3 H-TdR added in culture medium and became resistant to the subsequent irradiation with high-doses of X-rays. This response, which is called radio-adaptive response, is also induced by X-rays and gamma-rays in human lymphocytes and Chinese hamster V79 cells. However, the mechanisms of and conditions for adaptive responses to radiation have not been clarified. With an objective of clarifying the conditions for adaptive responses of cells to radiation, we examined how the cell to cell communication is involved in the adaptive responses. We irradiated normal human embryo-derived (HE) cells and cancer cells (HeLa) in culture at high density with low-dose X-ray and examined their radio-adaptive responses by measuring the changes in sensitivity to subsequent high-dose X-ray irradiation using the Trypan Blue dye-exclusion test method. We also conducted experiments to examine the effects of Ca 2+ ions and Phorbol 12-Myristate 13-Acetate (TPA) which are supposed to be involved in cell to cell communication. (author)

Country, climate change adaptation and colonisation: insights from an Indigenous adaptation planning process, Australia.

Science.gov (United States)

Nursey-Bray, Melissa; Palmer, Robert

2018-03-01

Indigenous peoples are going to be disproportionately affected by climate change. Developing tailored, place based, and culturally appropriate solutions will be necessary. Yet finding cultural and institutional 'fit' within and between competing values-based climate and environmental management governance regimes remains an ongoing challenge. This paper reports on a collaborative research project with the Arabana people of central Australia, that resulted in the production of the first Indigenous community-based climate change adaptation strategy in Australia. We aimed to try and understand what conditions are needed to support Indigenous driven adaptation initiatives, if there are any cultural differences that need accounting for and how, once developed they be integrated into existing governance arrangements. Our analysis found that climate change adaptation is based on the centrality of the connection to 'country' (traditional land), it needs to be aligned with cultural values, and focus on the building of adaptive capacity. We find that the development of climate change adaptation initiatives cannot be divorced from the historical context of how the Arabana experienced and collectively remember colonisation. We argue that in developing culturally responsive climate governance for and with Indigenous peoples, that that the history of colonisation and the ongoing dominance of entrenched Western governance regimes needs acknowledging and redressing into contemporary environmental/climate management.

Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change in OECD Countries

Science.gov (United States)

Austin, Stephanie E.; Biesbroek, Robbert; Berrang-Ford, Lea; Ford, James D.; Parker, Stephen; Fleury, Manon D.

2016-01-01

Climate change is a major challenge facing public health. National governments play a key role in public health adaptation to climate change, but there are competing views on what responsibilities and obligations this will—or should—include in different nations. This study aims to: (1) examine how national-level public health adaptation is occurring in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries; (2) examine the roles national governments are taking in public health adaptation; and (3) critically appraise three key governance dimensions of national-level health adaptation—cross-sectoral collaboration, vertical coordination and national health adaptation planning—and identify practical examples suited to different contexts. We systematically reviewed publicly available public health adaptation to climate change documents and webpages by national governments in ten OECD countries using systematic web searches, assessment of self-reporting, and content analysis. Our findings suggest national governments are primarily addressing infectious disease and heat-related risks posed by climate change, typically emphasizing capacity building or information-based groundwork initiatives. We find national governments are taking a variety of approaches to public health adaptation to climate change that do not follow expected convergence and divergence by governance structure. We discuss practical options for incorporating cross-sectoral collaboration, vertical coordination and national health adaptation planning into a variety of contexts and identify leaders national governments can look to to inform their public health adaptation planning. Following the adoption of the Paris Agreement and subsequent increased momentum for adaptation, research tracking adaptation is needed to define what health adaptation looks like in practice, reveal insights that can be taken up across states and sectors, and ensure policy orientated learning. PMID:27618074

Delivering organisational adaptation through legislative mechanisms: Evidence from the Adaptation Reporting Power (Climate Change Act 2008).

Science.gov (United States)

Jude, S R; Drew, G H; Pollard, S J T; Rocks, S A; Jenkinson, K; Lamb, R

2017-01-01

There is increasing recognition that organisations, particularly in key infrastructure sectors, are potentially vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events, and require organisational responses to ensure they are resilient and adaptive. However, detailed evidence of how adaptation is facilitated, implemented and reported, particularly through legislative mechanisms is lacking. The United Kingdom Climate Change Act (2008), introduced the Adaptation Reporting Power, enabling the Government to direct so-called reporting authorities to report their climate change risks and adaptation plans. We describe the authors' unique role and experience supporting the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) during the Adaptation Reporting Power's first round. An evaluation framework, used to review the adaptation reports, is presented alongside evidence on how the process provides new insights into adaptation activities and triggered organisational change in 78% of reporting authorities, including the embedding of climate risk and adaptation issues. The role of legislative mechanisms and risk-based approaches in driving and delivering adaptation is discussed alongside future research needs, including the development of organisational maturity models to determine resilient and well adapting organisations. The Adaptation Reporting Power process provides a basis for similar initiatives in other countries, although a clear engagement strategy to ensure buy-in to the process and research on its long-term legacy, including the potential merits of voluntary approaches, is required. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Technologies for climate change adaptation. The water sector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lopez, T De [ed.; UNEP Risoe Centre, Roskilde (Denmark); Elliott, M; Armstrong, A; Lobuglio, J; Bartram, J [The Water Institute at the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)

2011-04-15

This guidebook aims to provide expert information on the technologies most relevant for climate change adaptation in the water sector in developing countries. It is meant to be a practical tool for use by a broad range of stakeholders, including those in governmental agencies, water utilities, community water boards, non-governmental organizations, and private sector companies. Adaptation is an essential element of human response to climate change. The adverse impacts of climate change on the water sector will be experienced worldwide and are often projected to be most severe in resource-poor countries. Therefore, it is necessary to have access to a diverse array of adaptation technologies and practices that are appropriate and affordable in various contexts. The scale of these adaptation technologies/practices should range from the individual household level (e.g. household water treatment), to the community scale (e.g. rainwater collection in small reservoirs), to large facilities that can benefit a city or region (e.g. a desalination plant). The guidebook first reviews the projected impacts of climate change on the water sector. It then addresses the role of adaptation in the water sector and six typologies under which available strategies are categorized. Eleven technologies and practices are given detailed treatment in this guidebook and four others are covered briefly. While these do not constitute all of the adaptation technologies available in the water sector, they do represent many of the most important adaptation technologies for developing countries. For each of the 11 adaptation technologies and practices, the following are addressed: basic description, contribution to climate change and development, institutional and capacity building requirements, costs, barriers and opportunities for implementation, and extensive reference to external resources and case studies. The practical steps and appropriate contexts for implementation are covered in the

Strategy for Climate Change Adaptation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Torben Valdbjørn

2013-01-01

. This absence of an agreement calls for adaptation to climate change. Emphasis should be put on buildings, as they play a vital economic and social role in society and are vulnerable to climate change. Therefore, the building stock deserves its own policy and implementation plans as well as tools that enable...... adequate and cost-efficient adaptation to climate change. This paper explains the need for climate change adaptation of the building stock and suggests a pattern for a strategic approach to how to reach the climate change adaptation needed. The suggested and presented need of a strategic approach is based...... on three main initiatives consisting of the need to examine the potential impacts of climate change on the building stock, the need to assess and develop a roadmap of current and future adaptation measures that can withstand the effects of climate change, and the need to engage relevant stakeholders...

Strategy for Climate Change Adaptation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Torben Valdbjørn

2014-01-01

. This absence of an agreement calls for adaptation to climate change. Emphasis should be put on buildings, as they play a vital economic and social role in society and are vulnerable to climate change. Therefore, the building stock deserves its own policy and implementation plans as well as tools that enable...... adequate and cost-efficient adaptation to climate change. This paper explains the need for climate change adaptation of the building stock and suggests a pattern for a strategic approach to how to reach the climate change adaptation needed. The suggested and presented need of a strategic approach is based...... on three main initiatives consisting of the need to examine the potential impacts of climate change on the building stock, the need to assess and develop a roadmap of current and future adaptation measures that can withstand the effects of climate change, and the need to engage relevant stakeholders...

Better predictions, better allocations: scientific advances and adaptation to climate change.

Science.gov (United States)

Freeman, Mark C; Groom, Ben; Zeckhauser, Richard J

2015-11-28

Climate science initially aspired to improve understanding of what the future would bring, and thereby produce appropriate public policies and effective international climate agreements. If that hope is dashed, as now seems probable, effective policies for adapting to climate change become critical. Climate science assumes new responsibilities by helping to foster more appropriate adaptation measures, which might include shifting modes or locales of production. This theoretical article focuses on two broader tools: consumption smoothing in response to the risk of future losses, and physical adaptation measures to reduce potential damages. It shows that informative signals on the effects of climate change facilitate better decisions on the use of each tool, thereby increasing social welfare. © 2015 The Author(s).

Adapting to climate change in forest based land use systems: A guide to strategy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Secrett, C M

1997-12-31

The prospect of climate change and sea level rise as a result of greenhouse gas emissions presents a serious challenge to decision-makers concerned with ensuring sustainable development. This report provides a guide to means of reducing the potential impact of the global warming problem on the forest sector whilst ensuring that more immediate development priorities are met. The most effective response strategy will be one that simultaneously brings both immediate development and longer-term adaptive benefits. This report outlines ways of constructing an adaptive response strategy that can help achieve these ends. The approach is referred to as sustainable adaptation. A prototype methodological framework of the sustainable adaptation approach has been provided with the summary. The first priority of sustainable adaption is to base climate change responses on actions that meet basic ecological and social needs now and in the future. Solutions should necessarily include relieving current development pressures in the tropical forest sector. The key is to couple adaptive responses to climate change with sustainable development solutions to present-day forest use problems. Implementing adaptive land-use policies and management practices which are likely to minimise the adverse impacts of anticipated climate change should meet current sustainable management goals. Implementing sustainable land-use and forestry management practices should meet adaptation goals. This report presents a discussion of the fundamental issues underlying the development of a sustainable adaptation strategy and a prototype methodological framework. The findings are based on case studies conducted in Central America (Costa Rica and Nicaragua); SADCC countries in Africa (Zimbabwe, Botswana, Tanzania); and Asia (Vietnam). 450 refs

Adapting to climate change in forest based land use systems: A guide to strategy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Secrett, C.M.

1996-12-31

The prospect of climate change and sea level rise as a result of greenhouse gas emissions presents a serious challenge to decision-makers concerned with ensuring sustainable development. This report provides a guide to means of reducing the potential impact of the global warming problem on the forest sector whilst ensuring that more immediate development priorities are met. The most effective response strategy will be one that simultaneously brings both immediate development and longer-term adaptive benefits. This report outlines ways of constructing an adaptive response strategy that can help achieve these ends. The approach is referred to as sustainable adaptation. A prototype methodological framework of the sustainable adaptation approach has been provided with the summary. The first priority of sustainable adaption is to base climate change responses on actions that meet basic ecological and social needs now and in the future. Solutions should necessarily include relieving current development pressures in the tropical forest sector. The key is to couple adaptive responses to climate change with sustainable development solutions to present-day forest use problems. Implementing adaptive land-use policies and management practices which are likely to minimise the adverse impacts of anticipated climate change should meet current sustainable management goals. Implementing sustainable land-use and forestry management practices should meet adaptation goals. This report presents a discussion of the fundamental issues underlying the development of a sustainable adaptation strategy and a prototype methodological framework. The findings are based on case studies conducted in Central America (Costa Rica and Nicaragua); SADCC countries in Africa (Zimbabwe, Botswana, Tanzania); and Asia (Vietnam). 450 refs

Learning to adapt: Organisational adaptation to climate change impacts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berkhout, F.G.H.; Hertin, J.; Gann, D.M.

2006-01-01

Analysis of human adaptation to climate change should be based on realistic models of adaptive behaviour at the level of organisations and individuals. The paper sets out a framework for analysing adaptation to the direct and indirect impacts of climate change in business organisations with new

Climate change adaptation strategies by local farmers in Kilombero ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This article examines current adaptation strategies developed by local farmers against climate change effects in Kilombero District. Research questions guided the study include; what are the past and current climatic stresses? What are local farmers' perception on climate change and response to the adverse climatic ...

Public health adaptation to climate change in OECD countries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Austin, Stephanie E.; Biesbroek, Robbert; Berrang-Ford, Lea; Ford, James D.; Parker, Stephen; Fleury, Manon D.

2016-01-01

Climate change is a major challenge facing public health. National governments play a key role in public health adaptation to climate change, but there are competing views on what responsibilities and obligations this will—or should—include in different nations. This study aims to: (1) examine

Economy of climatic change. From mitigation to adaptation policies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rousset, N.

2012-01-01

Climate change adaptation policies are the subject of this thesis. It has been showed that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992) and the response strategies construction are characteristic of a pollutionist approach. This approach led to envision the question of climate change as a classic pollution and environment issue. As a result, this approach has generated a double bias to the disadvantage of adaptation compared to mitigation policies: adaptation has been confined in a secondary and marginal role in climate policies structuring, and with an inoperative conceptual and methodological framework for its implementation. The thesis proposes a deconstruction of this climate change conceptualization. Moreover, the major limits that characterize mitigation policies call into question the predominance given to them in climate policies construction. The 'pollutionist' approach deconstruction allows at first to show that adaptation policies definition and operationalization need to go beyond (i) the standard analytic framework of climate policies and, (ii) the climate change conceptualization as a classic pollution and environment management issue. The thesis then argues that adaptation has to be integrated in development promoting policies, which means that adaptation needs to be conceptualized no longer as an ad hoc management of pollution effects issue, but as a development issue. Whether in the proper context of adaptation policies, or more largely of climate policies, the thesis leaves open the questions of the viability, but also of the organization and financing modalities, of a climate regime which fits within development promoting. (author)

Climate modelling, uncertainty and responses to predictions of change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Henderson-Sellers, A.

1996-01-01

Article 4.1(F) of the Framework Convention on Climate Change commits all parties to take climate change considerations into account, to the extent feasible, in relevant social, economic and environmental policies and actions and to employ methods such as impact assessments to minimize adverse effects of climate change. This could be achieved by, inter alia, incorporating climate change risk assessment into development planning processes, i.e. relating climatic change to issues of habitability and sustainability. Adaptation is an ubiquitous and beneficial natural and human strategy. Future adaptation (adjustment) to climate is inevitable at the least to decrease the vulnerability to current climatic impacts. An urgent issue is the mismatch between the predictions of global climatic change and the need for information on local to regional change in order to develop adaptation strategies. Mitigation efforts are essential since the more successful mitigation activities are, the less need there will be for adaptation responses. And, mitigation responses can be global (e.g. a uniform percentage reduction in greenhouse gas emissions) while adaptation responses will be local to regional in character and therefore depend upon confident predictions of regional climatic change. The dilemma facing policymakers is that scientists have considerable confidence in likely global climatic changes but virtually zero confidence in regional changes. Mitigation and adaptation strategies relevant to climatic change can most usefully be developed in the context of sound understanding of climate, especially the near-surface continental climate, permitting discussion of societally relevant issues. But, climate models can't yet deliver this type of regionally and locationally specific prediction and some aspects of current research even seem to indicate increased uncertainty. These topics are explored in this paper using the specific example of the prediction of land-surface climate changes

Guest-responsive structural adaptation of a rationally-designed ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

adaptability of the TB core to undergo subtle structural changes in response to the guest that is included. The structural ... we report the design, synthesis and inclusion behaviour of a novel ..... Based on a rational design, we have shown from ...

Urban drainage design and climate change adaptation decision making

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhou, Qianqian

response impacts in the context of hydrological extremes are considered while the added intangible values (e.g. recreational amenities due to a nice blue-green neighbourhood) of adaptation options are often ignored or underestimated. In order to facilitate the development and implementation of water...... the benefits of provision of positive environmental values and the preservation of water resources. It is found that neglecting intangible values in climate adaptation assessment can easily bias the decision making; the reframed approach hence provide an important tool for assessment of additional benefits...... and costs of such innovative solutions. The thesis points towards an integrated framework for urban drainage adaptation design considering climate change effects and adaptation benefits and costs. The case studies show how the proposed framework can be utilized to manage the anticipated climate change risks...

Understanding climate change adaptation and adaptive capacity: synthesis report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Patino, L. [Policy Research Initiative, Government of Canada, Ottawa, ON (Canada)

2010-09-15

In 2007, the Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Division (CCIAD) offered its support to research projects that were involved in understanding and improving adaptation and adaptive capacity and contributed to climate change decision-making and policy development in Canada. 20 research projects were commissioned by the CCIAD. With the collaboration of NRCan, the principal findings raised by the commissioned projects were synthesized by the Policy Research Initiative (PRI). Common themes and main messages are introduced in this synthesis report, and policy and program aspects that promote adaptive capacity to climate change in Canada are identified. Common themes and important messages emerging from the research projects, as well as the processes and barriers to adaptation and adaptive capacity identified in the commissioned projects, were discussed during a workshop held in Ottawa in 2009. Five main themes and four common barriers to adaptation were found. 25 refs.

Institutional perceptions, adaptive capacity and climate change response in a post-conflict country: a case study from Central African Republic

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brown, H.C.P.; Smit, B.; Somorin, O.A.; Sonwa, D.J.; Ngana, F.

2013-01-01

The Central African Republic (CAR) faces increased vulnerability to climate change because it is a low-income country with low adaptive capacity; a situation that is exacerbated by recent civil conflict. This research analysed the perceptions of decision-makers within, and the response of diverse

A report from the second US/Japan workshop on global change research: Environmental response technologies (mitigation and adaptation). United States-Japan Science and Technology Agreement

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Edgerton, S. [comp.] [National Science Foundation, Washington, DC (United States). Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences; Mizuno, Tateki [comp.] [National Inst. for Resources and Environment, MITI (Japan)

1993-12-31

The Second US - Japan Workshop on Global Change: Environmental Response Technologies for Global Change was hosted by the Program on Resources at the East-West Center, in Honolulu, Hawaii on February 1--3, 1993, on behalf of the United States Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences (CEES) of the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology (FCCSET). This workshop brought together over fifty leading scientists from the two countries to review existing technologies and to identify needed research on the development of new technologies for mitigation and adaptation of global change. The Workshop was organized around three areas of research: (1) capture, fixation/utilization, and disposal of CO{sub 2} (e.g. CO{sub 2}, separation and capture technologies, ocean and land disposal of CO{sub 2}; (2) energy production and conservation technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. combustion efficiency, non-carbon based energy technologies, energy conservation technologies); and (3) adaptation technologies and practices related to global climate change (e.g., adaptation responses of crops to climate change, adapting urban infrastructure for climate change). Priorities for joint research in each of these areas were discussed. Selected papers have been processed separately for inclusion in the Energy Science and Technology Database.

Adapting to and coping with the threat and impacts of climate change.

Science.gov (United States)

Reser, Joseph P; Swim, Janet K

2011-01-01

This article addresses the nature and challenge of adaptation in the context of global climate change. The complexity of "climate change" as threat, environmental stressor, risk domain, and impacting process with dramatic environmental and human consequences requires a synthesis of perspectives and models from diverse areas of psychology to adequately communicate and explain how a more psychological framing of the human dimensions of global environmental change can greatly inform and enhance effective and collaborative climate change adaptation and mitigation policies and research. An integrative framework is provided that identifies and considers important mediating and moderating parameters and processes relating to climate change adaptation, with particular emphasis given to environmental stress and stress and coping perspectives. This psychological perspective on climate change adaptation highlights crucial aspects of adaptation that have been neglected in the arena of climate change science. Of particular importance are intra-individual and social "psychological adaptation" processes that powerfully mediate public risk perceptions and understandings, effective coping responses and resilience, overt behavioral adjustment and change, and psychological and social impacts. This psychological window on climate change adaptation is arguably indispensable to genuinely multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research and policy initiatives addressing the impacts of climate change.

Australian climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hennessy, K.; Fitzharris, B.

2007-01-01

Full text: Full text: The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability made the following conclusions about Australia (Hennessy et al., 2007): Regional climate change has occurred. Since 1950, there has been 0.7 0 C warming, with more heat waves, fewer frosts, more rain in north-west Australia, less rain in southern and eastern Australia, an increase in the intensity of Australian droughts and a rise in sea level of about 70 mm. Australia is already experiencing impacts from recent climate change. These are now evident in increasing stresses on water supply and agriculture, changed natural ecosystems, and reduced seasonal snow cover. Some adaptation has already occurred in response to observed climate change. Examples come from sectors such as water, natural ecosystems, agriculture, horticulture and coasts. However, ongoing vulnerability to extreme events is demonstrated by substantial economic losses caused by droughts, floods, fire, tropical cyclones and hail. The climate of the 21st century is virtually certain to be warmer, with changes in extreme events. Heat waves and fires are virtually certain to increase in intensity and frequency. Floods, landslides, droughts and storm surges are very likely to become more frequent and intense, and snow and frost are very likely to become less frequent. Large areas of mainland Australia are likely to have less soil moisture. Potential impacts of climate change are likely to be substantial without further adaptation; As a result of reduced precipitation and increased evaporation, water security problems are projected to intensify by 2030 in southern and eastern Australia; Ongoing coastal development and population growth, in areas such as Cairns and south-east Queensland, are projected to exacerbate risks from sea level rise and increases in the severity and frequency of storms and coastal flooding by 2050. Significant loss of biodiversity is projected to occur by 2020 in some ecologically rich

Fisheries: climate change impacts and adaptation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-01-01

The report entitled Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation : A Canadian Perspective, presents a summary of research regarding the impacts of climate change on key sectors over the past five years as it relates to Canada. This chapter on fisheries focuses on the impact of climate change on Canada's marine and freshwater fisheries, and the role of adaptation in reducing the vulnerability of the sector. Canadian fisheries encompass the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans as well as freshwater systems. Fish health, productivity and distribution is strongly influenced by climatic factors such as air and water temperature, precipitation and wind. Most fish species have a distinct set of environmental conditions for optimal growth and survival. If the conditions change in response to changing climate, the fish may be affected. Some of the impacts include reduced growth, increased competition, a shift in species distribution, greater susceptibility to disease, and altered ecosystem function. Studies show that in some areas, fisheries may already be experiencing the effect of climate change. Recommendations were suggested on how to deal with the impacts associated with climate change in sensitive environments. It was noted that actions taken in the fisheries sector will have implications for the water resources, transportation, tourism and human health sectors. 103 refs., 2 tabs., 6 figs

Financing climate change adaptation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bouwer, L.M.; Aerts, J.C.J.H.

2006-01-01

This paper examines the topic of financing adaptation in future climate change policies. A major question is whether adaptation in developing countries should be financed under the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), or whether funding should come from other sources.

Environmental impacts of climate change adaptation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Enríquez-de-Salamanca, Álvaro, E-mail: aenriquez@draba.org [Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)/Draba Ingeniería y Consultoría Medioambiental, Cañada Nueva, 13, 28200 San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Spain); Díaz-Sierra, Rubén, E-mail: sierra@dfmf.uned.es [Departamento de Física Matemática y de Fluidos, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Paseo Senda del Rey, 9, 28040 Madrid (Spain); Martín-Aranda, Rosa M., E-mail: rmartin@ccia.uned.es [Departamento de Química Inorgánica y Química Técnica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Paseo Senda del Rey, 9, 28040 Madrid (Spain); Santos, Maria J., E-mail: M.J.FerreiraDosSantos@uu.nl [Department of Innovation, Environmental and Energy Sciences, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, 3572 TC Utrecht (Netherlands)

2017-05-15

Climate change adaptation reduces adverse effects of climate change but may also have undesirable environmental impacts. However, these impacts are yet poorly defined and analysed in the existing literature. To complement this knowledge-gap, we reviewed the literature to unveil the relationship between climate change adaptation and environmental impact assessment, and the degree to which environmental impacts are included in climate change adaptation theory and practice. Our literature review showed that technical, social and economic perspectives on climate change adaptation receive much more attention than the environmental perspective. The scarce interest on the environmental impacts of adaptation may be attributed to (1) an excessive sectoral approach, with dominance of non-environmental perspectives, (2) greater interest in mitigation and direct climate change impacts rather than in adaptation impacts, (3) a tendency to consider adaptation as inherently good, and (4) subjective/preconceived notions on which measures are good or bad, without a comprehensive assessment. Environmental Assessment (EA) has a long established history as an effective tool to include environment into decision-making, although it does not yet guarantee a proper assessment of adaptation, because it is still possible to postpone or even circumvent the processes of assessing the impacts of climate adaptation. Our results suggest that there is a need to address adaptation proactively by including it in EA, to update current policy frameworks, and to demand robust and reliable evaluation of alternatives. Only through the full EA of adaptation measures can we improve our understanding of the primary and secondary impacts of adaptation to global environmental change. - Highlights: • Climate change adaptation may have undesirable environmental impacts. • The impacts of adaptation are yet poorly analysed in the literature. • There is an excessive sectoral approach to adaptation, mainly

Environmental impacts of climate change adaptation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Enríquez-de-Salamanca, Álvaro; Díaz-Sierra, Rubén; Martín-Aranda, Rosa M.; Santos, Maria J.

2017-01-01

Climate change adaptation reduces adverse effects of climate change but may also have undesirable environmental impacts. However, these impacts are yet poorly defined and analysed in the existing literature. To complement this knowledge-gap, we reviewed the literature to unveil the relationship between climate change adaptation and environmental impact assessment, and the degree to which environmental impacts are included in climate change adaptation theory and practice. Our literature review showed that technical, social and economic perspectives on climate change adaptation receive much more attention than the environmental perspective. The scarce interest on the environmental impacts of adaptation may be attributed to (1) an excessive sectoral approach, with dominance of non-environmental perspectives, (2) greater interest in mitigation and direct climate change impacts rather than in adaptation impacts, (3) a tendency to consider adaptation as inherently good, and (4) subjective/preconceived notions on which measures are good or bad, without a comprehensive assessment. Environmental Assessment (EA) has a long established history as an effective tool to include environment into decision-making, although it does not yet guarantee a proper assessment of adaptation, because it is still possible to postpone or even circumvent the processes of assessing the impacts of climate adaptation. Our results suggest that there is a need to address adaptation proactively by including it in EA, to update current policy frameworks, and to demand robust and reliable evaluation of alternatives. Only through the full EA of adaptation measures can we improve our understanding of the primary and secondary impacts of adaptation to global environmental change. - Highlights: • Climate change adaptation may have undesirable environmental impacts. • The impacts of adaptation are yet poorly analysed in the literature. • There is an excessive sectoral approach to adaptation, mainly

The state of climate change adaptation in the Arctic

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ford, James D; McDowell, Graham; Jones, Julie

2014-01-01

The Arctic climate is rapidly changing, with wide ranging impacts on natural and social systems. A variety of adaptation policies, programs and practices have been adopted to this end, yet our understanding of if, how, and where adaptation is occurring is limited. In response, this paper develops a systematic approach to characterize the current state of adaptation in the Arctic. Using reported adaptations in the English language peer reviewed literature as our data source, we document 157 discrete adaptation initiatives between 2003 and 2013. Results indicate large variations in adaptation by region and sector, dominated by reporting from North America, particularly with regards to subsistence harvesting by Inuit communities. Few adaptations were documented in the European and Russian Arctic, or have a focus on the business and economy, or infrastructure sectors. Adaptations are being motivated primarily by the combination of climatic and non-climatic factors, have a strong emphasis on reducing current vulnerability involving incremental changes to existing risk management processes, and are primarily initiated and led at the individual/community level. There is limited evidence of trans-boundary adaptations or initiatives considering potential cross-scale/sector impacts. (letter)

Global mortality consequences of climate change accounting for adaptation costs and benefits

Science.gov (United States)

Rising, J. A.; Jina, A.; Carleton, T.; Hsiang, S. M.; Greenstone, M.

2017-12-01

Empirically-based and plausibly causal estimates of the damages of climate change are greatly needed to inform rapidly developing global and local climate policies. To accurately reflect the costs of climate change, it is essential to estimate how much populations will adapt to a changing climate, yet adaptation remains one of the least understood aspects of social responses to climate. In this paper, we develop and implement a novel methodology to estimate climate impacts on mortality rates. We assemble comprehensive sub-national panel data in 41 countries that account for 56% of the world's population, and combine them with high resolution daily climate data to flexibly estimate the causal effect of temperature on mortality. We find the impacts of temperature on mortality have a U-shaped response; both hot days and cold days cause excess mortality. However, this average response obscures substantial heterogeneity, as populations are differentially adapted to extreme temperatures. Our empirical model allows us to extrapolate response functions across the entire globe, as well as across time, using a range of economic, population, and climate change scenarios. We also develop a methodology to capture not only the benefits of adaptation, but also its costs. We combine these innovations to produce the first causal, micro-founded, global, empirically-derived climate damage function for human health. We project that by 2100, business-as-usual climate change is likely to incur mortality-only costs that amount to approximately 5% of global GDP for 5°C degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels. On average across model runs, we estimate that the upper bound on adaptation costs amounts to 55% of the total damages.

Climate change and pastoralism: impacts, consequences and adaptation.

Science.gov (United States)

Herrero, M; Addison, J; Bedelian, C; Carabine, E; Havlík, P; Henderson, B; Van De Steeg, J; Thornton, P K

2016-11-01

The authors discuss the main climate change impacts on pastoralist societies, including those on rangelands, livestock and other natural resources, and their extended repercussions on food security, incomes and vulnerability. The impacts of climate change on the rangelands of the globe and on the vulnerability of the people who inhabit them will be severe and diverse, and will require multiple, simultaneous responses. In higher latitudes, the removal of temperature constraints might increase pasture production and livestock productivity, but in tropical arid lands, the impacts are highly location specific, but mostly negative. The authors outline several adaptation options, ranging from implementing new technical practices and diversifying income sources to finding institutional support and introducing new market mechanisms, all of which are pivotal for enhancing the capacity of pastoralists to adapt to climate variability and change. Due to the dynamism of all the changes affecting pastoral societies, strategies that lock pastoral societies into specified development pathways could be maladaptive. Flexible and evolving combinations of practices and policies are the key to successful pastoral adaptation.

Adaptive filtering and change detection

CERN Document Server

Gustafsson, Fredrik

2003-01-01

Adaptive filtering is a classical branch of digital signal processing (DSP). Industrial interest in adaptive filtering grows continuously with the increase in computer performance that allows ever more conplex algorithms to be run in real-time. Change detection is a type of adaptive filtering for non-stationary signals and is also the basic tool in fault detection and diagnosis. Often considered as separate subjects Adaptive Filtering and Change Detection bridges a gap in the literature with a unified treatment of these areas, emphasizing that change detection is a natural extensi

Adaptation to climate change

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Carmin, J.; Tierney, K.; Chu, E.; Hunter, L.M.; Roberts, J.T.; Shi, L.; Dunlap, R.E.; Brulle, R.J.

2015-01-01

Climate change adaptation involves major global and societal challenges such as finding adequate and equitable adaptation funding and integrating adaptation and development programs. Current funding is insufficient. Debates between the Global North and South center on how best to allocate the

Incorporating adaptive responses into future projections of coral bleaching.

Science.gov (United States)

Logan, Cheryl A; Dunne, John P; Eakin, C Mark; Donner, Simon D

2014-01-01

Climate warming threatens to increase mass coral bleaching events, and several studies have projected the demise of tropical coral reefs this century. However, recent evidence indicates corals may be able to respond to thermal stress though adaptive processes (e.g., genetic adaptation, acclimatization, and symbiont shuffling). How these mechanisms might influence warming-induced bleaching remains largely unknown. This study compared how different adaptive processes could affect coral bleaching projections. We used the latest bias-corrected global sea surface temperature (SST) output from the NOAA/GFDL Earth System Model 2 (ESM2M) for the preindustrial period through 2100 to project coral bleaching trajectories. Initial results showed that, in the absence of adaptive processes, application of a preindustrial climatology to the NOAA Coral Reef Watch bleaching prediction method overpredicts the present-day bleaching frequency. This suggests that corals may have already responded adaptively to some warming over the industrial period. We then modified the prediction method so that the bleaching threshold either permanently increased in response to thermal history (e.g., simulating directional genetic selection) or temporarily increased for 2-10 years in response to a bleaching event (e.g., simulating symbiont shuffling). A bleaching threshold that changes relative to the preceding 60 years of thermal history reduced the frequency of mass bleaching events by 20-80% compared with the 'no adaptive response' prediction model by 2100, depending on the emissions scenario. When both types of adaptive responses were applied, up to 14% more reef cells avoided high-frequency bleaching by 2100. However, temporary increases in bleaching thresholds alone only delayed the occurrence of high-frequency bleaching by ca. 10 years in all but the lowest emissions scenario. Future research should test the rate and limit of different adaptive responses for coral species across latitudes and

Dangerous climate change and the importance of adaptation for the Arctic's Inuit population

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ford, James D

2009-01-01

The Arctic's climate is changing rapidly, to the extent that 'dangerous' climate change as defined by the United Nations Framework on Climate Change might already be occurring. These changes are having implications for the Arctic's Inuit population and are being exacerbated by the dependence of Inuit on biophysical resources for livelihoods and the low socio-economic-health status of many northern communities. Given the nature of current climate change and projections of a rapidly warming Arctic, climate policy assumes a particular importance for Inuit regions. This paper argues that efforts to stabilize and reduce greenhouse gas emissions are urgent if we are to avoid runaway climate change in the Arctic, but unlikely to prevent changes which will be dangerous for Inuit. In this context, a new policy discourse on climate change is required for Arctic regions-one that focuses on adaptation. The paper demonstrates that states with Inuit populations and the international community in general has obligations to assist Inuit to adapt to climate change through international human rights and climate change treaties. However, the adaptation deficit, in terms of what we know and what we need to know to facilitate successful adaptation, is particularly large in an Arctic context and limiting the ability to develop response options. Moreover, adaptation as an option of response to climate change is still marginal in policy negotiations and Inuit political actors have been slow to argue the need for adaptation assistance. A new focus on adaptation in both policy negotiations and scientific research is needed to enhance Inuit resilience and reduce vulnerability in a rapidly changing climate.

Adaptation responses to increasing drought frequency

Science.gov (United States)

Loch, A. J.; Adamson, D. C.; Schwabe, K.

2016-12-01

Using state contingent analysis we discuss how and why irrigators adapt to alternative water supply signals. This analysis approach helps to illustrate how and why producers currently use state-general and state-allocable inputs to adapt and respond to known and possible future climatic alternative natures. Focusing on the timing of water allocations, we explore inherent differences in the demand for water by two key irrigation sectors: annual and perennial producers which in Australia have allowed a significant degree of risk-minimisation during droughts. In the absence of land constraints, producers also had a capacity to respond to positive state outcomes and achieve super-normal profits. In the future, however, the probability of positive state outcomes is uncertain; production systems may need to adapt to minimise losses and/or achieve positive returns under altered water supply conditions that may arise as a consequence of more frequent drought states. As such, producers must assess whether altering current input/output choice sets in response to possible future climate states will enhance their long-run competitive advantage for both expected new normal and extreme water supply outcomes. Further, policy supporting agricultural sector climate change resilience must avoid poorly-designed strategies that increase producer vulnerability in the face of drought. Our analysis explores the reliability of alternative water property right bundles and how reduced allocations across time influence alternative responses by producers. We then extend our analysis to explore how management strategies could adapt to two possible future drier state types: i) where an average reduction in water supply is experienced; and ii) where the frequency of droughts increase. The combination of these findings are subsequently used to discuss the role water reform policy has to deal with current and future climate scenarios. We argue current policy strategies could drive producers to

Revisiting the concept of adaptation to climate change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Juvanon Du Vachat, R.

2013-01-01

We clarify what is the adaptation to climate change, as compared to the mitigation (limitation of green-house gases). Adaptation will be necessary in any case in the future climate, even if we stop the emission of these gazes, because of the inertial response of the climatic machinery. We consider some socio-economic sectors like agriculture, viticulture, forestry, where the professionals are largely aware of the concepts of climate change. In these cases they have already defined their adaptation strategy. For other sectors, a classical method proposed by researchers is to study the results of impacts studies, using regional climate models. The limitation of these models is discussed. Then another method is proposed: to create a room for dialogue between researchers in charge of numerical simulations and some stake-holders or representative of the sector. This has been the method used successfully by the Canadian consortium OURANOS. Finally the role of extreme climate events is highlighted, because some reflection and financial evaluation is usually done after their occurrence, even if the link with climate change is not clearly demonstrated. The role of geographers and meteorologists is vigorously encouraged since they have some expertise for defining adaptation strategy. (author)

Successful adaptation to climate change across scales

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adger, W.N.; Arnell, N.W.; University of Southampton; Tompkins, E.L.; University of East Anglia, Norwich; University of Southampton

2005-01-01

Climate change impacts and responses are presently observed in physical and ecological systems. Adaptation to these impacts is increasingly being observed in both physical and ecological systems as well as in human adjustments to resource availability and risk at different spatial and societal scales. We review the nature of adaptation and the implications of different spatial scales for these processes. We outline a set of normative evaluative criteria for judging the success of adaptations at different scales. We argue that elements of effectiveness, efficiency, equity and legitimacy are important in judging success in terms of the sustainability of development pathways into an uncertain future. We further argue that each of these elements of decision-making is implicit within presently formulated scenarios of socio-economic futures of both emission trajectories and adaptation, though with different weighting. The process by which adaptations are to be judged at different scales will involve new and challenging institutional processes. (author)

Adaptation to climate change in agriculture: evaluation of options

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dolan, A.H.; Smit, B.; Skinner, M.W.; Bradshaw, B.; Bryant, C.R.

2001-01-01

Adaptation was defined as the responses by stakeholders to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects to reduce vulnerability to adverse impacts or damage potential, or to realize opportunities associated with climate change. Planned policy initiatives representing change in the agricultural system were discussed in this report. An evaluation of adaptation options needed to be carried out before one could determine which adaptations should be promoted or implemented. The overall merit, suitability, utility or appropriateness of potential adaptation strategies or measures were examined. One interesting methodology was the Multiple Criteria Evaluation (MCE), which is designed to assess alternatives using more than one criterion. The criteria selected for this evaluation were: effectiveness, economic efficiency, flexibility, institutional compatibility, farmer implementation, and independent benefits. A selection of three adaptation options was made to better illustrate the utility of the evaluation framework., as follows: crop diversification, adoption of irrigation, and increase use of crop insurance. 122 refs., 6 tabs., 6 figs

Engaging a moving target: Adapting to rates of climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Shayegh, S.; Caldeira, K.; Moreno-Cruz, J.

2015-12-01

Climate change is affecting the planet and its human and natural systems at an increasing rate. As temperatures continue to rise, the international community has increasingly been considering adaptation measures to prepare for future climate change. However, most discussion around adaptation strategies has focused on preparedness for some expected amount of climate change impacts, e.g. 2 meters sea level rise. In this study, we discuss adaptation to rates of change as an alternative conceptual framework for thinking about adaptation. Adaptation is not only about adapting to amounts of change, but the rate at which these changes occur is also critically important. We ground our discussion with an example of optimal coastal investment in the face of ongoing sea level rise. Sea level rise threatens coastal assets. Finite resources could be devoted to building infrastructure further inland or to building coastal defense systems. A possible policy response could be to create a "no-build" coastal buffer zone that anticipates a future higher sea level. We present a quantitative model that illustrates the interplay among various important factors (rate of sea level rise, discount rate, capital depreciation rate, attractiveness of coastal land, etc). For some cases, strategies that combine periodic defensive investments (e.g. dikes) with planned retreat can maximize welfare when adapting to rates of climate change. In other cases, planned retreat may be optimal. It is important to prepare for ongoing increasing amounts of climate change. Preparing for a fixed amount of climate change can lead to a suboptimal solution. Climate is likely to continue changing throughout this century and beyond. To reduce adverse climate impacts, ecosystems and human systems will need to continuously adapt to a moving target.

Defining response capacity to enhance climate change policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tompkins, Emma L.; Neil Adger, W.

2005-01-01

Climate change adaptation and mitigation decisions made by governments are usually taken in different policy domains. At the individual level however, adaptation and mitigation activities are undertaken together as part of the management of risk and resources. We propose that a useful starting point to develop a national climate policy is to understand what societal response might mean in practice. First we frame the set of responses at the national policy level as a trade off between investment in the development and diffusion of new technology, and investment in encouraging and enabling society to change its behaviour and or adopt the new technology. We argue that these are the pertinent trade-offs, rather than those usually posited between climate change mitigation and adaptation. The preference for a policy response that focuses more on technological innovation rather than one that focuses on changing social behaviour will be influenced by the capacity of different societies to change their greenhouse gas emissions; by perceived vulnerability to climate impacts; and by capacity to modify social behaviour and physical environment. Starting with this complete vision of response options should enable policy makers to re-evaluate the risk environment and the set of response options available to them. From here, policy makers should consider who is responsible for making climate response decisions and when actions should be taken. Institutional arrangements dictate social and political acceptability of different policies, they structure worldviews, and they determine the provision of resources for investment in technological innovation and social change. The importance of focussing on the timing of the response is emphasised to maximise the potential for adjustments through social learning and institutional change at different policy scales. We argue that the ability to respond to climate change is both enabled and constrained by social and technological conditions

Managing for climate change on protected areas: An adaptive management decision making framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Tanner-McAllister, Sherri L; Rhodes, Jonathan; Hockings, Marc

2017-12-15

Current protected area management is becoming more challenging with advancing climate change and current park management techniques may not be adequate to adapt for effective management into the future. The framework presented here provides an adaptive management decision making process to assist protected area managers with adapting on-park management to climate change. The framework sets out a 4 step process. One, a good understanding of the park's context within climate change. Secondly, a thorough understanding of the park management systems including governance, planning and management systems. Thirdly, a series of management options set out as an accept/prevent change style structure, including a systematic assessment of those options. The adaptive approaches are defined as acceptance of anthropogenic climate change impact and attempt to adapt to a new climatic environment or prevention of change and attempt to maintain current systems under new climatic variations. Last, implementation and monitoring of long term trends in response to ecological responses to management interventions and assessing management effectiveness. The framework addresses many issues currently with park management in dealing with climate change including the considerable amount of research focussing on 'off-reserve' strategies, and threats and stress focused in situ park management. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Investigating organizational culture adaptability of broadcasting firm in response to environmental changes

OpenAIRE

Seyed Mohammad Reza Salehi; Naser Mirsepasi; Ali Akbar Farhangi

2015-01-01

The primary objective of this paper is to study the present status of organizational adaptability in Iranian broadcasting system against environmental changes and present possible suggestions to empower the organization to cope with future changes. The study uses the method developed by Denison (1990) [Denison, D. R. (1990). Corporate culture and organizational effectiveness. John Wiley & Sons.] to study the organizational changes. Using a sample of 354 randomly selected employees who worked ...

Target Response Adaptation for Correlation Filter Tracking

KAUST Repository

Bibi, Adel Aamer

2016-09-16

Most correlation filter (CF) based trackers utilize the circulant structure of the training data to learn a linear filter that best regresses this data to a hand-crafted target response. These circularly shifted patches are only approximations to actual translations in the image, which become unreliable in many realistic tracking scenarios including fast motion, occlusion, etc. In these cases, the traditional use of a single centered Gaussian as the target response impedes tracker performance and can lead to unrecoverable drift. To circumvent this major drawback, we propose a generic framework that can adaptively change the target response from frame to frame, so that the tracker is less sensitive to the cases where circular shifts do not reliably approximate translations. To do that, we reformulate the underlying optimization to solve for both the filter and target response jointly, where the latter is regularized by measurements made using actual translations. This joint problem has a closed form solution and thus allows for multiple templates, kernels, and multi-dimensional features. Extensive experiments on the popular OTB100 benchmark show that our target adaptive framework can be combined with many CF trackers to realize significant overall performance improvement (ranging from 3 %-13.5% in precision and 3.2 %-13% in accuracy), especially in categories where this adaptation is necessary (e.g. fast motion, motion blur, etc.). © Springer International Publishing AG 2016.

Conservation and adaptation to climate change.

Science.gov (United States)

Brooke, Cassandra

2008-12-01

The need to adapt to climate change has become increasingly apparent, and many believe the practice of biodiversity conservation will need to alter to face this challenge. Conservation organizations are eager to determine how they should adapt their practices to climate change. This involves asking the fundamental question of what adaptation to climate change means. Most studies on climate change and conservation, if they consider adaptation at all, assume it is equivalent to the ability of species to adapt naturally to climate change as stated in Article 2 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Adaptation, however, can refer to an array of activities that range from natural adaptation, at one end of the spectrum, to sustainability science in coupled human and natural systems at the other. Most conservation organizations deal with complex systems in which adaptation to climate change involves making decisions on priorities for biodiversity conservation in the face of dynamic risks and involving the public in these decisions. Discursive methods such as analytic deliberation are useful for integrating scientific knowledge with public perceptions and values, particularly when large uncertainties and risks are involved. The use of scenarios in conservation planning is a useful way to build shared understanding at the science-policy interface. Similarly, boundary organizations-organizations or institutions that bridge different scales or mediate the relationship between science and policy-could prove useful for managing the transdisciplinary nature of adaptation to climate change, providing communication and brokerage services and helping to build adaptive capacity. The fact that some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are active across the areas of science, policy, and practice makes them well placed to fulfill this role in integrated assessments of biodiversity conservation and adaptation to climate change.

The Pupillary Orienting Response Predicts Adaptive Behavioral Adjustment after Errors.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter R Murphy

Full Text Available Reaction time (RT is commonly observed to slow down after an error. This post-error slowing (PES has been thought to arise from the strategic adoption of a more cautious response mode following deployment of cognitive control. Recently, an alternative account has suggested that PES results from interference due to an error-evoked orienting response. We investigated whether error-related orienting may in fact be a pre-cursor to adaptive post-error behavioral adjustment when the orienting response resolves before subsequent trial onset. We measured pupil dilation, a prototypical measure of autonomic orienting, during performance of a choice RT task with long inter-stimulus intervals, and found that the trial-by-trial magnitude of the error-evoked pupil response positively predicted both PES magnitude and the likelihood that the following response would be correct. These combined findings suggest that the magnitude of the error-related orienting response predicts an adaptive change of response strategy following errors, and thereby promote a reconciliation of the orienting and adaptive control accounts of PES.

Social and Policy Aspects of Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Forests of Belgrade

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivana Živojinović

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Background and Purpose: Climate change has an impact on economic and natural systems as well as human health. These impacts are particularly visible in urbanised areas. Urban forests, which are one of the main natural features of the cities, are threatened by climate change. Generally, the role of forests in combating climate change is widely recognised and its significance is recognised also in urban areas. However, appropriate responses to climate change are usually lacking in their management. Climate change adaptation in relation to urban forests has been studied less often in comparison to climate change mitigation. Adaptive capacity of forests to climate change consists of adaptive capacity of forests as an ecological system and adaptive capacity of related socio-economic factors. The latter determines the capacity of a system and its actors to implement planned actions. This paper studies social and policy aspects of adaptation processes in urban forests of Belgrade. Materials and Methods: For the purpose of this study content analysis of urban forest policy and management documents was applied. Furthermore, in-depth interviews with urban forest managers and Q-methodology surveys with urban forestry stakeholders were conducted. Triangulation of these data is used to assure validity of results. Results: The results show weak integration of climate change issues in urban forest policy and management documents, as well as weak responses by managers. A comprehensive and systematic approach to this challenge does not exist. Three perspectives towards climate change are distinguished: (I ‘sceptics’ - do not perceive climate change as a challenge, (II ‘general-awareness perspective’ - aware of climate change issues but without concrete concerns toward urban forests, (III ‘management-oriented perspective’ - highlights specific challenges related to urban forest management. Awareness of urban forest managers and stakeholders towards

Electricity for groundwater use: constraints and opportunities for adaptive response to climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, Christopher A.

2013-09-01

Globally, groundwater use is intensifying to meet demands for irrigation, urban supply, industrialization, and, in some instances, electrical power generation. In response to hydroclimatic variability, surface water is being substituted with groundwater, which must be viewed as a strategic resource for climate adaptation. In this sense, the supply of electricity for pumping is an adaptation policy tool. Additionally, planning for climate-change mitigation must consider CO2 emissions resulting from pumping. This paper examines the influence of electricity supply and pricing on groundwater irrigation and resulting emissions, with specific reference to Mexico—a climate-water-energy ‘perfect storm’. Night-time power supply at tariffs below the already-subsidized rates for agricultural groundwater use has caused Mexican farmers to increase pumping, reversing important water and electricity conservation gains achieved. Indiscriminate groundwater pumping, including for virtual water exports of agricultural produce, threatens the long-term sustainability of aquifers, non-agricultural water uses, and stream-aquifer interactions that sustain riparian ecosystems. Emissions resulting from agricultural groundwater pumping in Mexico are estimated to be 3.6% of total national emissions and are equivalent to emissions from transporting the same agricultural produce to market. The paper concludes with an assessment of energy, water, and climate trends coupled with policy futures to address these challenges.

Electricity for groundwater use: constraints and opportunities for adaptive response to climate change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scott, Christopher A

2013-01-01

Globally, groundwater use is intensifying to meet demands for irrigation, urban supply, industrialization, and, in some instances, electrical power generation. In response to hydroclimatic variability, surface water is being substituted with groundwater, which must be viewed as a strategic resource for climate adaptation. In this sense, the supply of electricity for pumping is an adaptation policy tool. Additionally, planning for climate-change mitigation must consider CO 2 emissions resulting from pumping. This paper examines the influence of electricity supply and pricing on groundwater irrigation and resulting emissions, with specific reference to Mexico—a climate–water–energy ‘perfect storm’. Night-time power supply at tariffs below the already-subsidized rates for agricultural groundwater use has caused Mexican farmers to increase pumping, reversing important water and electricity conservation gains achieved. Indiscriminate groundwater pumping, including for virtual water exports of agricultural produce, threatens the long-term sustainability of aquifers, non-agricultural water uses, and stream–aquifer interactions that sustain riparian ecosystems. Emissions resulting from agricultural groundwater pumping in Mexico are estimated to be 3.6% of total national emissions and are equivalent to emissions from transporting the same agricultural produce to market. The paper concludes with an assessment of energy, water, and climate trends coupled with policy futures to address these challenges. (letter)

Forest Adaptation Resources: climate change tools and approaches for land managers, 2nd edition

Science.gov (United States)

Christopher W. Swanston; Maria K. Janowiak; Leslie A. Brandt; Patricia R. Butler; Stephen D. Handler; P. Danielle Shannon; Abigail Derby Lewis; Kimberly Hall; Robert T. Fahey; Lydia Scott; Angela Kerber; Jason W. Miesbauer; Lindsay. Darling

2016-01-01

Forests across the United States are expected to undergo numerous changes in response to the changing climate. This second edition of the Forest Adaptation Resources provides a collection of resources designed to help forest managers incorporate climate change considerations into management and devise adaptation tactics. It was developed as part of the Climate Change...

An Integrated Systems Approach to Designing Climate Change Adaptation Policy in Water Resources

Science.gov (United States)

Ryu, D.; Malano, H. M.; Davidson, B.; George, B.

2014-12-01

Climate change projections are characterised by large uncertainties with rainfall variability being the key challenge in designing adaptation policies. Climate change adaptation in water resources shows all the typical characteristics of 'wicked' problems typified by cognitive uncertainty as new scientific knowledge becomes available, problem instability, knowledge imperfection and strategic uncertainty due to institutional changes that inevitably occur over time. Planning that is characterised by uncertainties and instability requires an approach that can accommodate flexibility and adaptive capacity for decision-making. An ability to take corrective measures in the event that scenarios and responses envisaged initially derive into forms at some future stage. We present an integrated-multidisciplinary and comprehensive framework designed to interface and inform science and decision making in the formulation of water resource management strategies to deal with climate change in the Musi Catchment of Andhra Pradesh, India. At the core of this framework is a dialogue between stakeholders, decision makers and scientists to define a set of plausible responses to an ensemble of climate change scenarios derived from global climate modelling. The modelling framework used to evaluate the resulting combination of climate scenarios and adaptation responses includes the surface and groundwater assessment models (SWAT & MODFLOW) and the water allocation modelling (REALM) to determine the water security of each adaptation strategy. Three climate scenarios extracted from downscaled climate models were selected for evaluation together with four agreed responses—changing cropping patterns, increasing watershed development, changing the volume of groundwater extraction and improving irrigation efficiency. Water security in this context is represented by the combination of level of water availability and its associated security of supply for three economic activities (agriculture

Advances in risk assessment for climate change adaptation policy

Science.gov (United States)

Adger, W. Neil; Brown, Iain; Surminski, Swenja

2018-01-01

Climate change risk assessment involves formal analysis of the consequences, likelihoods and responses to the impacts of climate change and the options for addressing these under societal constraints. Conventional approaches to risk assessment are challenged by the significant temporal and spatial dynamics of climate change; by the amplification of risks through societal preferences and values; and through the interaction of multiple risk factors. This paper introduces the theme issue by reviewing the current practice and frontiers of climate change risk assessment, with specific emphasis on the development of adaptation policy that aims to manage those risks. These frontiers include integrated assessments, dealing with climate risks across borders and scales, addressing systemic risks, and innovative co-production methods to prioritize solutions to climate challenges with decision-makers. By reviewing recent developments in the use of large-scale risk assessment for adaptation policy-making, we suggest a forward-looking research agenda to meet ongoing strategic policy requirements in local, national and international contexts. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Advances in risk assessment for climate change adaptation policy’. PMID:29712800

Advances in risk assessment for climate change adaptation policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Adger, W Neil; Brown, Iain; Surminski, Swenja

2018-06-13

Climate change risk assessment involves formal analysis of the consequences, likelihoods and responses to the impacts of climate change and the options for addressing these under societal constraints. Conventional approaches to risk assessment are challenged by the significant temporal and spatial dynamics of climate change; by the amplification of risks through societal preferences and values; and through the interaction of multiple risk factors. This paper introduces the theme issue by reviewing the current practice and frontiers of climate change risk assessment, with specific emphasis on the development of adaptation policy that aims to manage those risks. These frontiers include integrated assessments, dealing with climate risks across borders and scales, addressing systemic risks, and innovative co-production methods to prioritize solutions to climate challenges with decision-makers. By reviewing recent developments in the use of large-scale risk assessment for adaptation policy-making, we suggest a forward-looking research agenda to meet ongoing strategic policy requirements in local, national and international contexts.This article is part of the theme issue 'Advances in risk assessment for climate change adaptation policy'. © 2018 The Author(s).

Advances in risk assessment for climate change adaptation policy

Science.gov (United States)

Adger, W. Neil; Brown, Iain; Surminski, Swenja

2018-06-01

Climate change risk assessment involves formal analysis of the consequences, likelihoods and responses to the impacts of climate change and the options for addressing these under societal constraints. Conventional approaches to risk assessment are challenged by the significant temporal and spatial dynamics of climate change; by the amplification of risks through societal preferences and values; and through the interaction of multiple risk factors. This paper introduces the theme issue by reviewing the current practice and frontiers of climate change risk assessment, with specific emphasis on the development of adaptation policy that aims to manage those risks. These frontiers include integrated assessments, dealing with climate risks across borders and scales, addressing systemic risks, and innovative co-production methods to prioritize solutions to climate challenges with decision-makers. By reviewing recent developments in the use of large-scale risk assessment for adaptation policy-making, we suggest a forward-looking research agenda to meet ongoing strategic policy requirements in local, national and international contexts. This article is part of the theme issue `Advances in risk assessment for climate change adaptation policy'.

The adaptive response of lichens to mercury exposure involves changes in the photosynthetic machinery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nicolardi, Valentina; Cai, Giampiero; Parrotta, Luigi; Puglia, Michele; Bianchi, Laura; Bini, Luca; Gaggi, Carlo

2012-01-01

Lichens are an excellent model to study the bioaccumulation of heavy metals but limited information is available on the molecular mechanisms occurring during bioaccumulation. We investigated the changes of the lichen proteome during exposure to constant concentrations of mercury. We found that most of changes involves proteins of the photosynthetic pathway, such as the chloroplastic photosystem I reaction center subunit II, the oxygen-evolving protein and the chloroplastic ATP synthase β-subunit. This suggests that photosynthesis is a target of the toxic effects of mercury. These findings are also supported by changes in the content of photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a and b, and β-carotene). Alterations to the photosynthetic machinery also reflect on the structure of thylakoid membranes of algal cells. Response of lichens to mercury also involves stress-related proteins (such as Hsp70) but not cytoskeletal proteins. Results suggest that lichens adapt to mercury exposure by changing the metabolic production of energy. - Highlights: ► Lichens exposed to Hg° vapors accumulate this metal irreversibly. ► Hg° interferes with physiological processes of the epiphytic lichen Evernia prunastri. ► Hg° promotes changes in the concentration of photosynthetic pigments. ► Hg° treatment causes changes in the ultrastructure of the photobiont plastids. ► Hg° induces changes in the protein machinery involved in the photosynthesis pathway. - Mercury affects the photosynthetic protein machinery of lichens.

Adaptation to climate change and climate variability in European agriculture: The importance of farm level responses

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Reidsma, P.; Ewert, F.; Oude Lansink, A.G.J.M.; Leemans, R.

2010-01-01

Climatic conditions and hence climate change influence agriculture. Most studies that addressed the vulnerability of agriculture to climate change have focused on potential impacts without considering adaptation. When adaptation strategies are considered, socio-economic conditions and farm

Adapting agriculture to climate change in Kenya: household strategies and determinants.

Science.gov (United States)

Bryan, Elizabeth; Ringler, Claudia; Okoba, Barrack; Roncoli, Carla; Silvestri, Silvia; Herrero, Mario

2013-01-15

Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are particularly vulnerable to climate change, given dependence on agricultural production and limited adaptive capacity. Based on farm household and Participatory Rural Appraisal data collected from districts in various agroecological zones in Kenya, this paper examines farmers' perceptions of climate change, ongoing adaptation measures, and factors influencing farmers' decisions to adapt. The results show that households face considerable challenges in adapting to climate change. While many households have made small adjustments to their farming practices in response to climate change (in particular, changing planting decisions), few households are able to make more costly investments, for example in agroforestry or irrigation, although there is a desire to invest in such measures. This emphasizes the need for greater investments in rural and agricultural development to support the ability of households to make strategic, long-term decisions that affect their future well-being. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Climate Change Adaptation. Challenges and Opportunities for a Smart Urban Growth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adriana Galderisi

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Climate change is one of the main environmental issues challenging cities in the 21th century. At present, more than half of the world population lives in cities and the latter are responsible for 60% to 80% of global energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG emissions, which are the main causes of the change in climate conditions. In the meantime, they are seriously threatened by the heterogeneous climate-related phenomena, very often exacerbated by the features of the cities themselves. In the last decade, international and European efforts have been mainly focused on mitigation rather than on adaptation strategies. Europe is one of the world leaders in global mitigation policies, while the issue of adaptation has gained growing importance in the last years. As underlined by the EU Strategy on adaptation to climate change, even though climate change mitigation still remains a priority for the global community, large room has to be devoted to adaptation measures, in order to effectively face the unavoidable impacts and related economic, environmental and social costs of climate change (EC, 2013. Thus, measures for adaptation to climate change are receiving an increasing financial support and a growing number of European countries are implementing national and urban adaptation strategies to deal with the actual and potential climate change impacts. According to the above considerations, this paper explores strengths and weaknesses of current adaptation strategies in European cities. First the main suggestions of the European Community to improve urban adaptation to climate change are examined; then, some recent Adaptation Plans are analyzed, in order to highlight challenges and opportunities arising from the adaptation processes at urban level and to explore the potential of Adaptation Plans to promote a smart growth in the European cities.

Assessment of the Adaptation Strategiesin Rainfed Chickpea in Response to Future Climate Change in Zanjan Province

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amir Hajarpoor

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Introduction Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L. is cultivated on alarge scale in arid and semiarid environments. Terminal drought and heat stress, among other abiotic and biotic stresses, are the major constraints of yield in most regions of chickpea production. The study of the effects of climate change could help to develop adaptation strategies to promote and stabilize crop yield. This research was aimed to assess adoption strategies in rainfed chickpea in response to Zanjan province’s climate change using a crop simulation model along with providing simulated yield maps using geographical information system (GIS. Materials and methods To study the effects of climate change and simulation the adaptation strategies, the model of Soltani and Sinclair (Soltani & Sinclair, 2011 was used. This model simulates phenological development, leaf development and senescence, mass partitioning, plant nitrogen balance, yield formation and soil water balance. For each location, a baseline period of daily weather data was available (Table 1. Investigated scenarios were historical climate (control and future climate scenarios that included both direct effects of doubling CO2 (350 to 700 ppm and its indirect effects (10% reduced rainfall, 4ºC increase in temperature. The crop model was performed for the different years of baseline period for current and future climate under typical management and cultivar and also under three adaptation strategies in the future climate including Management adaptation (M, Genetic adaptation (G and a combination of both Management and Genetic adaptation (M & G as described below (Table 2: Management – In various studies changing the planting dates as the simplest and least-cost adaptation strategy has been emphasized (Luo et al., 2009; hence a shift in planting dates i.e. sowing 15 days in advance was explored in this study to reduce the risk of the late season drought. Genetics – Changes in genotype have been suggested to be

Water Security and Climate Change: The Need for Adaptive Governance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tuula Honkonen

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Climate change will bring about unprecedented economic, social and environmental effects, which require both the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to its adverse effects. Water is the main element through which the impacts of climate change will be felt. Climate change results in increased uncertainties, complexities, stress and potential for conflicts within water management, both among and within states. New forms of governance are needed if the world is to respond to the need to adapt to changes in freshwater supply and to manage water security risks. This paper suggests that adaptive governance should to be main-streamed into all water regulation to ensure the availability of and access to safe water resources and to prevent water-related conflicts. The paper discusses the concept of water security in the context of climate change, the threats that climate change poses to water security, and the concept and implications of adaptive governance as a possible solution. The application of adaptive governance requires a certain degree of institutional and normative flexibility, instruments and institutions that can respond and adapt to changes and manage the level of uncertainty associated with the impacts of climate change. The governance institutions, methods and instruments should be responsive to new information and different kinds of uncertainties, while reflecting the vulnerabilities, capacities, needs and priorities of both societies and ecosystems in the face of climate change. Water security risks could be reduced by increased hydrosolidarity among states, which would present the challenges posed by climate change on water governance and security as primarily an opportunity for new forms of cooperation.

Climate change perceptions and local adaptation strategies of hazard-prone rural households in Bangladesh

OpenAIRE

G.M. Monirul Alam; Khorshed Alam; Shahbaz Mushtaq

2017-01-01

Adaptation is a key strategy that can alleviate the severity of climate change impacts on agriculture and food production. Adaptation strategies are unlikely to be effective without an understanding of the farmers’ perceptions of climate change. This paper explores the local knowledge of adaptation in response to the perceived impacts of climate change and climatic hazards using a survey of 380 resource-poor riverbank erosion-prone households in Bangladesh. The results indicate that the respo...

Climate change, adaptation and the environment in central Vietnam

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bruun, Ole; Casse, Thorkil

2013-01-01

There is an urgent need for integrated approaches, such as the building of environmental management into climate change responses, addressing the total impact of livelihood stresses in social vulnerability perspectives, and ensuring that overall adaptation policies adequately address social justice...

Detection of plant adaptation responses to saline environment in rhizosphere using microwave sensing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimomachi, T.; Kobashikawa, C.; Tanigawa, H.; Omoda, E.

2008-01-01

The physiological adaptation responses in plants to environmental stress, such as water stress and salt stress induce changes in physicochemical conditions of the plant, since formation of osmotic-regulatory substances can be formed during the environmental adaptation responses. Strong electrolytes, amino acids, proteins and saccharides are well-known as osmoregulatory substances. Since these substances are ionic conductors and their molecules are electrically dipolar, it can be considered that these substances cause changes in the dielectric properties of the plant, which can be detected by microwave sensing. The dielectric properties (0.3 to 3GHz), water content and water potential of plant leaves which reflect the physiological condition of the plant under salt stress were measured and analyzed. Experimental results showed the potential of the microwave sensing as a method for monitoring adaptation responses in plants under saline environment and that suggested the saline environment in rhizosphere can be detected noninvasively and quantitatively by the microwave sensing which detects the changes in complex dielectric properties of the plant

Knowledge and passive adaptation to climate change: An example from Indian farmers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amarnath Tripathi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This study is an attempt to use group information collected on climate change from farmers in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India to address a key question related to climate change policy: How to encourage farmers to adapt to climate change? First, we investigate farmers’ perception of and adaptation to climate change using content analysis and group information. The findings are then compared with climatic and agriculture information collected through secondary sources. Results suggest that though farmers are aware of long-term changes in climatic factors (temperature and rainfall, for example, they are unable to identify these changes as climate change. Farmers are also aware of risks generated by climate variability and extreme climatic events. However, farmers are not taking concrete steps in dealing with perceived climatic changes, although we find out that farmers are changing their agricultural and farming practices. These included changing sowing and harvesting timing, cultivation of crops of short duration varieties, inter-cropping, changing cropping pattern, investment in irrigation, and agroforestry. Note that these changes may be considered as passive response or adaptation strategies to climate change. Perhaps farmers are implicitly taking initiatives to adapt climate change. Finally, the paper suggests some policy interventions to scale up adaptation to climate change in Indian agriculture.

Adapt to more wildfire in western North American forests as climate changes.

Science.gov (United States)

Schoennagel, Tania; Balch, Jennifer K; Brenkert-Smith, Hannah; Dennison, Philip E; Harvey, Brian J; Krawchuk, Meg A; Mietkiewicz, Nathan; Morgan, Penelope; Moritz, Max A; Rasker, Ray; Turner, Monica G; Whitlock, Cathy

2017-05-02

Wildfires across western North America have increased in number and size over the past three decades, and this trend will continue in response to further warming. As a consequence, the wildland-urban interface is projected to experience substantially higher risk of climate-driven fires in the coming decades. Although many plants, animals, and ecosystem services benefit from fire, it is unknown how ecosystems will respond to increased burning and warming. Policy and management have focused primarily on specified resilience approaches aimed at resistance to wildfire and restoration of areas burned by wildfire through fire suppression and fuels management. These strategies are inadequate to address a new era of western wildfires. In contrast, policies that promote adaptive resilience to wildfire, by which people and ecosystems adjust and reorganize in response to changing fire regimes to reduce future vulnerability, are needed. Key aspects of an adaptive resilience approach are ( i ) recognizing that fuels reduction cannot alter regional wildfire trends; ( ii ) targeting fuels reduction to increase adaptation by some ecosystems and residential communities to more frequent fire; ( iii ) actively managing more wild and prescribed fires with a range of severities; and ( iv ) incentivizing and planning residential development to withstand inevitable wildfire. These strategies represent a shift in policy and management from restoring ecosystems based on historical baselines to adapting to changing fire regimes and from unsustainable defense of the wildland-urban interface to developing fire-adapted communities. We propose an approach that accepts wildfire as an inevitable catalyst of change and that promotes adaptive responses by ecosystems and residential communities to more warming and wildfire.

The adaptation to climate change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Gameren, Valentine; Weikmans, Romain; Zaccai, Edwin

2014-01-01

The authors address the issue of adaptation to climate change. They first address the physical aspects related to this issue: scenarios of temperature evolution, main possible impacts. Then, they address the social impacts related to climate risks, and the adaptation strategies which aim at reducing the exposure and vulnerability of human societies, or at increasing their resilience. Some examples of losses of human lives and of economic damages due to recent catastrophes related to climate change are evoked. The authors address the international framework, the emergence of an international regime on climate, the quite recent emergence of adaptation within international negotiations in 2001, the emergence of the idea of a support to developing countries. National and local policies are presented in the next chapter (in the European Union, the Netherlands which are faced with the issue of sea level rise, programs in developing countries) and their limitations are also outlined. The next chapter addresses the adaptation actions performed by private actors (enterprises, households, associations, civil society, and so on) with example of vulnerability, and adaptation opportunities and possibilities in some specific sectors. The last chapter presents a typology of actions of adaptation, indicators of adaptation to climate change, and examples of mistaken adaptation

Local governments in the driving seat? A comparative analysis of public and private responsibilities for adaptation to climate change in European and North-American cities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mees, Heleen

The division of responsibilities between public and private actors has become a key governance issue for adaptation to climate change in urban areas. This paper offers a systematic, comparative analysis of three empirical studies which analysed how and why responsibilities were divided between

Forest adaptation resources: Climate change tools and approaches for land managers

Science.gov (United States)

Chris Swanston; Maria, eds. Janowiak

2012-01-01

The forests of northern Wisconsin, a defining feature of the region's landscape, are expected to undergo numerous changes in response to the changing climate. This document provides a collection of resources designed to help forest managers incorporate climate change considerations into management and devise adaptation tactics. It was developed in northern...

Planning and costing agriculture's adaptation to climate change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chambwera, Muyeye; Downing, Tom; Venton, Courtenay Cabot; Dyszynski, Jillian; Crawford, Victoria; Butterfield, Ruth; Kaur, Nanki; Birch, Tom; Loga, Denise

2011-11-15

Changing climate will have adverse effects on food production, food distribution, infrastructure, land availability for agriculture, and livelihood assets and opportunities in rural and urban areas. Adapting food systems to both enhance food security for the poor and to prevent the future negative impacts of climate change will require attention to more than just agricultural production. Food security can only be ensured and enhanced through a range of interventions across different agricultural systems and along the associated value chains, from production to distribution and allocation. The current efforts to get agriculture into the global climate policy framework after the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol emphasises mitigation. Adaptation is an equally important objective in a world that cannot avoid climate change any more because of already accumulated greenhouse gases. In developing countries, adaptation is the primary concern due to their vulnerability to climate change and high dependence on weather-dependent agricultural systems. A complete response to climate change that integrates agriculture should therefore pursue both agricultural mitigation and adaptation. In order to plan for adaptation effectively, policy makers need reliable information from developing countries on the nature of adaptation, its costs and how these are related to ongoing efforts to develop the agriculture sector and food systems of developing countries. This study set out to inform climate policy development by analysing agricultural adaptation in developing countries using a combination of desk studies and country case studies to provide a framework, areas to focus on when planning agricultural adaptation and the likely costs. It followed key steps for bringing together global and local perspectives for the benefit of both global stakeholders and developing countries.

Water System Adaptation To Hydrological Changes: Module 5, Water Quality and Infrastructure Response to Rapid Urbanization: Adaptation Case Study in China

Science.gov (United States)

This course will introduce students to the fundamental principles of water system adaptation to hydrological changes, with emphasis on data analysis and interpretation, technical planning, and computational modeling. Starting with real-world scenarios and adaptation needs, the co...

Climate change adapatation response at local government level

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mambo, Julia

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The climate change response policy gives the mandate to all municipalities and other levels of government to develop and implement climate chnage adaptation response. The availability of appropriate information is essential for this process...

Climate change adaptation in regulated water utilities

Science.gov (United States)

Vicuna, S.; Melo, O.; Harou, J. J.; Characklis, G. W.; Ricalde, I.

2017-12-01

Concern about climate change impacts on water supply systems has grown in recent years. However, there are still few examples of pro-active interventions (e.g. infrastructure investment or policy changes) meant to address plausible future changes. Deep uncertainty associated with climate impacts, future demands, and regulatory constraints might explain why utility planning in a range of contexts doesn't explicitly consider climate change scenarios and potential adaptive responses. Given the importance of water supplies for economic development and the cost and longevity of many water infrastructure investments, large urban water supply systems could suffer from lack of pro-active climate change adaptation. Water utilities need to balance the potential for high regret stranded assets on the one side, with insufficient supplies leading to potentially severe socio-economic, political and environmental failures on the other, and need to deal with a range of interests and constraints. This work presents initial findings from a project looking at how cities in Chile, the US and the UK are developing regulatory frameworks that incorporate utility planning under uncertainty. Considering for example the city of Santiago, Chile, recent studies have shown that although high scarcity cost scenarios are plausible, pre-emptive investment to guard from possible water supply failures is still remote and not accommodated by current planning practice. A first goal of the project is to compare and contrast regulatory approaches to utility risks considering climate change adaptation measures. Subsequently we plan to develop and propose a custom approach for the city of Santiago based on lessons learned from other contexts. The methodological approach combines institutional assessment of water supply regulatory frameworks with simulation-based decision-making under uncertainty approaches. Here we present initial work comparing the regulatory frameworks in Chile, UK and USA evaluating

Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Planning in African Cities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Gertrud; Herslund, Lise Byskov; Lund, Dorthe Hedensted

2014-01-01

Resilience of urban structures towards impacts of a changing climate is one of the emerging tasks that cities all over the world are facing at present. Effects of climate change take many forms, depending on local climate, spatial patterns, and socioeconomic structures. Cities are only just...... beginning to be aware of the task, and some time will pass before it is integrated into mainstream urban governance. This chapter is based on work in progress. It covers urban governance and planning aspects of climate change adaptation as studied in the CLUVA project (CLimate change and Urban Vulnerability...... in Africa), as well as some experiences from Denmark. Focus is on the responses and capacities of urban authorities, strengths and weaknesses of the efforts, data needs and possible ways forward. The chapter concludes that many adaptation activities are taking place in the CLUVA case cities...

Climate change adaptation: where does global health fit in the agenda?

Science.gov (United States)

Bowen, Kathryn J; Friel, Sharon

2012-05-27

Human-induced climate change will affect the lives of most populations in the next decade and beyond. It will have greatest, and generally earliest, impact on the poorest and most disadvantaged populations on the planet. Changes in climatic conditions and increases in weather variability affect human wellbeing, safety, health and survival in many ways. Some impacts are direct-acting and immediate, such as impaired food yields and storm surges. Other health effects are less immediate and typically occur via more complex causal pathways that involve a range of underlying social conditions and sectors such as water and sanitation, agriculture and urban planning. Climate change adaptation is receiving much attention given the inevitability of climate change and its effects, particularly in developing contexts, where the effects of climate change will be experienced most strongly and the response mechanisms are weakest. Financial support towards adaptation activities from various actors including the World Bank, the European Union and the United Nations is increasing substantially. With this new global impetus and funding for adaptation action come challenges such as the importance of developing adaptation activities on a sound understanding of baseline community needs and vulnerabilities, and how these may alter with changes in climate. The global health community is paying heed to the strengthening focus on adaptation, albeit in a slow and unstructured manner. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of adaptation and its relevance to global health, and highlight the opportunities to improve health and reduce health inequities via the new and additional funding that is available for climate change adaptation activities.

Companies and adaptation to climate change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bourrier, Herve; Duchene, Patrice-Henry; Metcalf, Gerry; Deandreis, Celine; Hardelin, Julien; Vautard, Robert; Bailly, Boris; Gemenne, Francois; Peyrat, Olivier; Greppo, Fabien; Reysset, Bertrand; Beriot, Nicolas; Leonard, Damien; Colas, Julien; Tutenuit, Claire

2014-04-01

Whereas climate change will have significant consequences on various economic sectors (infrastructures, energy and water supply, agriculture, cities and buildings, and so on), population behaviours and uses will have to be deeply changed, and this is more particularly the case for enterprises and companies. This guide aims at presenting solutions to face the challenge of climate change for enterprises. In its first part, it outlines how our climate is already changing, gives an overview of main future climate trends in the World, indicates what will be the future climate in France, discusses the noticeable and brutal consequences for activities, resources and territories, outlines that adaptation to tomorrow's climate begins now, and discusses to which climate we'll have to adapt at the local level. In the second part, this publication explains why enterprises must adapt themselves to climate change: enterprises are in a changing environment, and must take a legal and standard framework into account, but this adaptation will have a cost. Adaptation also means uncertainty management, and enterprises are facing obstacles and brakes to adaptation. The last part describes how to implement a strategy of adaptation in an enterprise: resources for adaptation, integration of enterprise management, understanding needs to convince within the enterprise itself, assessment of vulnerability to climate change, how to define priorities for action, which options to choose to adapt the enterprise, how to implement the strategy and how to follow it up and assess it. Some sector-related sheets are provided in appendix. They indicate identified risks, potential impacts of national policies for enterprises, measures which can be freely implemented by enterprises, and identified opportunities for various sectors (health, agriculture, forest, coastal areas, fishery and aquaculture, energy and industry, transport infrastructure, town planning and built environment, tourism

Adaptive response to high LET radiations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dam, Annamaria; Bogdandi, E. Noemi; Polonyi, Istvan; Sardy, M. Marta; Balashazy, Imre; Palfalvy, Jozsef

2001-01-01

The biological consequences of exposure to ionizing radiation include gene mutation, chromosome aberrations, cellular transformation and cell death. These effects are attributed to the DNA damaging effects of the irradiation resulting in irreversible changes during DNA replication or during the processing of the DNA damage by enzymatic repair processes. These repair processes could initiate some adaptive mechanisms in the cell, which could lead to radioadaptive response (RAR). Adaptive responses have typically been detected by exposing cells to a low radiation dose (1-50 mGy) and then challenging the cells with a higher dose of radiation (2-4 Gy) and comparing the outcome to that seen with the challenge dose only. For adaptive response to be seen the challenge dose must be delivered within 24 hour of the inducing dose. Radio-adaptation is extensively studied for low LET radiation. Nevertheless, few data are available for high LET radiation at very low doses and dose rate. Our study was aimed to investigate the radioadaptive response to low-dose neutron irradiation by detection of the genotoxic damage i.e.: hprt-mutant colonies induced. Altered protein synthesis was also studied to identify stress proteins may responsible for radio-adaptation. New alpha particle irradiator system was also built up to study the biological effects of low dose alpha irradiation. The experiments were carried out on monolayers of human melanoma and CHO (Chines Hamster Ovary) cells irradiated by neutrons produced in the biological irradiation channel of the Research Reactor of Budapest Neutron Center. Cells were exposed to 0.5-50 mGy neutron doses with dose rates of 1.59-10 mGy/min. The challenge doses of 2-4 Gy gamma rays were administrated within 1-48 hours after priming treatment. The induced mutants at hprt locus were selected by adding 6-thioguanine and allow to grow for 10 days for expression of the phenotype. The protein synthesis was studied by PAGE, the molecular mass of specific

Climate change and adaptation policy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, Jamie [Policy Research Initiative, Ottawa, ON (Canada); Lavender, B. [Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, ON (Canada); Smit, B. [Guelph Univ., ON (Canada). Dept. of Geography; Burton, I.

2001-12-31

In this document the authors indicate that some level of adaptation will be required as climate change affects our lives. They narrowed their examination to three sectors of Canadian society: human health, agriculture, and northern communities and infrastructure. Within each sector they discussed the policy research needs and the adaptation problems to be expected. Uncertainties remain concerning the magnitude of climate change, its timing and consequences, and further research is required to reduce the uncertainties. Canada presents certain vulnerabilities, and to enhance and improve the resilience of the population toward climate change, some adaptation measures must be put in place to reduce the vulnerabilities. Confidence will come as a by-product of the leadership required to bring about the required adaptation measures, and cooperation is a must between all levels of government, the private sector and society to reach agreement.

Overcoming the barriers. Mainstreaming climate change adaptation in developing countries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mitchell, T.; Tanner, T.; Wilkinson, E.; Roach, R.; Boyd, S.

2006-10-01

Climate change is a huge threat to all aspects of human development and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals for poverty reduction. Until recently, donor agencies, national and local layers of government, and non-governmental organisations have paid little attention to the risks and uncertainties associated with climate change. Now, however, players at all levels are increasingly engaging with the question of how to tackle the impacts of climate change on development in poorer nations. There are growing efforts to reduce negative impacts and seize opportunities by integrating climate change adaptation into development planning, programmes and budgeting, a process known as mainstreaming. Such a co-ordinated, integrated approach to adaptation is imperative in order to deal with the scale and urgency of dealing with climate change impacts. In developed countries progress on mainstreaming climate adaptation has been limited. Many countries have carried out climate change projections and impact assessments, but few have started consultation processes to look at adaptation options and identify policy responses. In developing countries, the mainstreaming process is also in its early stages. Small island developing states have made good progress, with Caribbean countries among the first to start work on adaptation. The Pacific islands have received considerable support and through the World Bank a number of initiatives have begun. Crucially, there has been little progress in mainstreaming adaptation within existing poverty alleviation policy frameworks. There is a lack of research on the extent to which climate change, and environmental issues more broadly, have been integrated within PRSPs. This is critical. Examples of efforts from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan, Mexico and Kenya are presented, highlighting a number of key issues relating to current experiences of integrating climate change into poverty reduction efforts. Experiences so far

Dangerous climate change and the importance of adaptation for the Arctic's Inuit population

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ford, James D [Department of Geography, McGill University, 805 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, QC, H3A 2K6 (Canada)], E-mail: james.ford@mcgill.ca

2009-04-15

The Arctic's climate is changing rapidly, to the extent that 'dangerous' climate change as defined by the United Nations Framework on Climate Change might already be occurring. These changes are having implications for the Arctic's Inuit population and are being exacerbated by the dependence of Inuit on biophysical resources for livelihoods and the low socio-economic-health status of many northern communities. Given the nature of current climate change and projections of a rapidly warming Arctic, climate policy assumes a particular importance for Inuit regions. This paper argues that efforts to stabilize and reduce greenhouse gas emissions are urgent if we are to avoid runaway climate change in the Arctic, but unlikely to prevent changes which will be dangerous for Inuit. In this context, a new policy discourse on climate change is required for Arctic regions-one that focuses on adaptation. The paper demonstrates that states with Inuit populations and the international community in general has obligations to assist Inuit to adapt to climate change through international human rights and climate change treaties. However, the adaptation deficit, in terms of what we know and what we need to know to facilitate successful adaptation, is particularly large in an Arctic context and limiting the ability to develop response options. Moreover, adaptation as an option of response to climate change is still marginal in policy negotiations and Inuit political actors have been slow to argue the need for adaptation assistance. A new focus on adaptation in both policy negotiations and scientific research is needed to enhance Inuit resilience and reduce vulnerability in a rapidly changing climate.

An Integrated Approach to Evaluate Urban Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qiangsheng Hu

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Climate change and accelerated urbanization have posed severe challenges to urban development, resulting in a growing series of climate and environmental problems that have a significant impact on industrial production and urban life. In a developing country such as China, more than 57% of the population lives in urban areas. It is vital for these cities to adapt to climate-induced risks. A better understanding of how to improve adaptive capacity could enhance the ability to achieve a desirable state when the city experiences stress. This paper used an integrated approach for evaluating the urban adaptive capacity to climate change. It developed the evaluation index system of urban adaptive capacity (UAC based on the driver–pressure–state–impact–response model (DPSIR, and adopted grey relational analysis (GRA and the entropy method to analyze the level of UAC in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province, from 2006 to 2015. The results revealed that the UAC of Changsha showed a significant increase from 2006 to 2015. Among the five first-grade indicators, the response dimension had the greatest influence on the improvement of UAC. The study may provide suggestions for adaptive capacity building and sustainable development in other urban areas.

Dynamic Adaptive Approach to Transportation-Infrastructure Planning for Climate Change: San Francisco Bay Area Case Study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wall, T.A.; Walker, W.E.; Marchau, V.A.W.J.; Bertolini, L.

2015-01-01

Adaptation of existing infrastructure is a response to climate change that can ensure a viable, safe, and robust transportation network. However, deep uncertainties associated with climate change pose significant challenges to adaptation planning. Specifically, current transportation planning

Global climate change adaptation: examples from Russian boreal forests

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krankina, O.N.; Dixon, R.K.; Kirilenko, A.P.; Kobak, K.I.

1997-01-01

The Russian Federation contains approximately 20% of the world's timber resources and more than half of all boreal forests. These forests play a prominent role in environmental protection and economic development at global, national, and local levels, as well as, provide commodities for indigenous people and habitat for a variety of plant and animal species. The response and feedbacks of Russian boreal forests to projected global climate change are expected to be profound. Current understanding of the vulnerability of Russian forest resources to projected climate change is discussed and examples of possible adaptation measures for Russian forests are presented including: (1) artificial forestation techniques that can be applied with the advent of failed natural regeneration and to facilitate forest migration northward; (2) silvicultural measures that can influence the species mix to maintain productivity under future climates; (3) identifying forests at risk and developing special management adaption measures for them: (4) alternative processing and uses of wood and non-wood products from future forests; and (5) potential future infrastructure and transport systems that can be employed as boreal forests shift northward into melting permafrost zones. Current infrastructure and technology can be employed to help Russian boreal forests adapt to projected global environmental change, however many current forest management practices may have to be modified. Application of this technical knowledge can help policymakers identify priorities for climate change adaptation

Climate change adaptation in South Korea. Environmental politics in the agricultural sector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schaefer, Susann [Jena Univ. (Germany). Dept. of Economic Geography

2015-07-01

Climate change will impact ecosystems and production processes. Thus, adaptation to climate change has become a prevalent concept in environmental politics worldwide. In South Korea, climate change is expected to be above the global average. As response, the South Korean government has initiated climate change adaptation in diverse sectors. In this book, the entire process, from formulation and development, implementation and reaction of involved people is examined in a particular sector, agriculture. Theoretically framed as an Actor-Network, this study highlights current developments of South Korean politics, the tensions of urban-periphery development, and the status of agriculture.

Climate change adaptation in South Korea. Environmental politics in the agricultural sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schaefer, Susann

2015-01-01

Climate change will impact ecosystems and production processes. Thus, adaptation to climate change has become a prevalent concept in environmental politics worldwide. In South Korea, climate change is expected to be above the global average. As response, the South Korean government has initiated climate change adaptation in diverse sectors. In this book, the entire process, from formulation and development, implementation and reaction of involved people is examined in a particular sector, agriculture. Theoretically framed as an Actor-Network, this study highlights current developments of South Korean politics, the tensions of urban-periphery development, and the status of agriculture.

Micro-evolutionary responses and adaptive costs of Caenorhabditis elegans populations exposed to environmental stress

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dutilleul, M.

2013-01-01

The contemporary evolution of organisms is largely dependent on anthropogenic disturbances. In particular, pollution amplifies the intensity or the quantity of selection pressures on populations. However, these changes may have negative effects on the life, growth and reproduction of individuals, the demographics of the population, and its phenotypic and genetic characteristics over generations. Thus, micro-evolutionary changes are likely to occur in response to selection pressures. These phenomenon lead to collateral damages: adaptive costs. For example, a reduction of genetic diversity in a population entails a decrease in its potential to adapt to other stressors. Populations can be more susceptible to many environmental changes, especially with the increase of human activities. Hence in an ecological risk assessment, studying the mechanisms of action and immediate adverse effects of pollutants on organisms is no longer sufficient. It is also necessary to expand our knowledge on the evolution of populations in polluted environment. In this context, our study aims to determine the micro-evolutionary response of Caenorhabditis elegans populations exposed to environmental stressors, and to measure their costs of adaptation. Populations were experimentally exposed for 22 generations to a high concentration of uranium, sodium chloride or an alternation of both these pollutants. The analysis of phenotypic and genetic changes, observed through measures of life history traits, was accomplished using several quantitative genetics techniques. In particular, we confirmed the genetic differentiation between populations with an increase of resistance in populations exposed to different pollutions. The speed of evolutionary responses depended on the conditions of exposure and their effects on the expression of the genetic structure of traits (e.g. G matrix). Micro-evolutionary changes were linked to costs of adaptation, such as reduced fertility in stressful novel

Invoking adaptation to decipher the genetic legacy of past climate change.

Science.gov (United States)

de Lafontaine, Guillaume; Napier, Joseph D; Petit, Rémy J; Hu, Feng Sheng

2018-05-05

Persistence of natural populations during periods of climate change is likely to depend on migration (range shifts) or adaptation. These responses were traditionally considered discrete processes and conceptually divided into the realms of ecology and evolution. In a milestone paper, Davis and Shaw (2001) argued that the interplay of adaptation and migration was central to biotic responses to Quaternary climate, but since then there has been no synthesis of efforts made to set up this research program. Here we review some of the salient findings from molecular genetic studies assessing ecological and evolutionary responses to Quaternary climate change. These studies have revolutionized our understanding of population processes associated with past species migration. However, knowledge remains limited about the role of natural selection for local adaptation of populations to Quaternary environmental fluctuations and associated range shifts, and for the footprints this might have left on extant populations. Next-generation sequencing technologies, high-resolution paleoclimate analyses, and advances in population genetic theory offer an unprecedented opportunity to test hypotheses about adaptation through time. Recent population genomics studies have greatly improved our understanding of the role of contemporary adaptation to local environments in shaping spatial patterns of genetic diversity across modern-day landscapes. Advances in this burgeoning field provide important conceptual and methodological bases to decipher the historical role of natural selection and assess adaptation to past environmental variation. We suggest that a process called "temporal conditional neutrality" has taken place: some alleles favored in glacial environments become selectively neutral in modern-day conditions, whereas some alleles that had been neutral during glacial periods become under selection in modern environments. Building on this view, we present a new integrative framework for

Climate change adaptation: Where does global health fit in the agenda?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bowen Kathryn J

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Human-induced climate change will affect the lives of most populations in the next decade and beyond. It will have greatest, and generally earliest, impact on the poorest and most disadvantaged populations on the planet. Changes in climatic conditions and increases in weather variability affect human wellbeing, safety, health and survival in many ways. Some impacts are direct-acting and immediate, such as impaired food yields and storm surges. Other health effects are less immediate and typically occur via more complex causal pathways that involve a range of underlying social conditions and sectors such as water and sanitation, agriculture and urban planning. Climate change adaptation is receiving much attention given the inevitability of climate change and its effects, particularly in developing contexts, where the effects of climate change will be experienced most strongly and the response mechanisms are weakest. Financial support towards adaptation activities from various actors including the World Bank, the European Union and the United Nations is increasing substantially. With this new global impetus and funding for adaptation action come challenges such as the importance of developing adaptation activities on a sound understanding of baseline community needs and vulnerabilities, and how these may alter with changes in climate. The global health community is paying heed to the strengthening focus on adaptation, albeit in a slow and unstructured manner. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of adaptation and its relevance to global health, and highlight the opportunities to improve health and reduce health inequities via the new and additional funding that is available for climate change adaptation activities.

Phenomenon of adaptive response of cells in radiobiology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fillipovich, I.V.

1991-01-01

Consideration is given to various adaptive reactions to low-level radiation, their association with an absorbed dose, dose rate, radiation quality and time-interval between exposures, as well as with a cell cycle phase. Possible mechanisms of the adaptive response and the character and role of DNA damages, that can induce gene expression of the adaptive response, are discussed. The data on the influence of a preliminary long-term exposure to low-level radiation on the radiosensitivity of biological objects are analyzed with due regard for the adaptive cell response. It is concluded that the adaptive response of cells to ionizing radiation is a particular case of the phenomenon of cell adaptation of the effect of genotoxic factors of the environment

Ready or Not: Microbial Adaptive Responses in Dynamic Symbiosis Environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Mengyi; Goodrich-Blair, Heidi

2017-08-01

In mutually beneficial and pathogenic symbiotic associations, microbes must adapt to the host environment for optimal fitness. Both within an individual host and during transmission between hosts, microbes are exposed to temporal and spatial variation in environmental conditions. The phenomenon of phenotypic variation, in which different subpopulations of cells express distinctive and potentially adaptive characteristics, can contribute to microbial adaptation to a lifestyle that includes rapidly changing environments. The environments experienced by a symbiotic microbe during its life history can be erratic or predictable, and each can impact the evolution of adaptive responses. In particular, the predictability of a rhythmic or cyclical series of environments may promote the evolution of signal transduction cascades that allow preadaptive responses to environments that are likely to be encountered in the future, a phenomenon known as adaptive prediction. In this review, we summarize environmental variations known to occur in some well-studied models of symbiosis and how these may contribute to the evolution of microbial population heterogeneity and anticipatory behavior. We provide details about the symbiosis between Xenorhabdus bacteria and Steinernema nematodes as a model to investigate the concept of environmental adaptation and adaptive prediction in a microbial symbiosis. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Microbiology.

Adaptive Response- A Universal Phenomenon for Radiological Protection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Streffer, C.

2004-01-01

Predominantly with cells in vitro but also with whole animals in vivo it bas been shown that small radiation doses like other stress factors can render cells or organisms to a stage of higher radioresistance. This has been demonstrated with chromosomal aberrations gene mutation, cell transformation and survival. However, it is necessary to keep the appropriate conditions in a very stringent way. This implies radiation dose ranges, time factors and others. The adaptive response is transient and keeps for about three cell cycles or two to three days for mammalian cells. Most studies have been performed with low LET radiation. From the few data with high LET radiation it can be concluded that the adaptive response is much less or does not occur at all. Cellular and molecular studies indicate that the DNA repair is most important for the induction of adaptive response although the understanding of the mechanisms is certainly incomplete. In vivo other biological phenomena like the immune system also play a significant role. A high individual variability exists with respect to the extent of the adaptive response. No adaptive response apparently occurs with cells from individuals with repair-and immune-deficiencies. Several experiments during the prenatal development indicate that there is no or only little adaptive response during wide developmental stages in utero. Therefore it must be concluded that the adaptive response has limitations and is not a universal principle. Due to these restrictions of the validity and strength of adaptive response it is doubtful whether adaptive response can generally be applied in the practice of radiological protection. (Author) 42 refs

Mitigation and adaptation within a climate change policy portfolio: A research program

Science.gov (United States)

It is now recognized that optimal global climate policy is a portfolio of the two key responses for reducing the risks of climate change: mitigation and adaptation. Significant differences between the two responses have inhibited understanding of how to appropriately view these...

Responses of agricultural bioenergy sectors in Brandenburg (Germany) to climate, economic and legal changes: An application of Holling's adaptive cycle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grundmann, Philipp; Ehlers, Melf-Hinrich; Uckert, Götz

2012-01-01

Agricultural bioenergy production is subject to dynamics such as yield fluctuations, volatile prices, resource competition, new regulation and policy, innovation and climate change. This raises questions, to what extent bioenergy production is able to adapt to changes and overcome critical events. These dynamics have important implications for effective policy development. Using a case study method, which draws on various data sources, we investigate in detail how agricultural bioenergy sectors in the German State of Brandenburg adapted to diverse past events. The case analysis rests on the adaptive-cycle concept and the system properties potential, connectedness and resilience as defined by . Our case study concludes that Brandenburg's biogas sector has a low potential and connectedness within the system, and a low resilience against crop failures. The biofuels sector displays similar properties in the short term. In the medium term the potential could increase in both sectors. The properties imply risks and opportunities for biogas production and the possibility to develop towards a stage with a higher potential and a higher connectedness. But adaptive capacity is limited and there are certain barriers for the agricultural bioenergy sectors to overcome potentially critical states. Policy needs to be tailored accordingly. - Highlights: ► Bioenergy sectors respond to climatic, economic and legal changes in different ways. ► Responses to changes expose critical features and bottlenecks of bioenergy sectors. ► Resilience, potential and connectedness are critical features for bioenergy sectors. ► Stages of development of the biogas and biofuel production sectors are identified. ► Effective policy design needs to match the sectors' features and development stages.

Farmers' adaptation to climate change. The case of Morogoro, Tanzania

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Below, Till Benjamin

2012-07-01

Sub-Saharan smallholder farmers are expected to be severely affected by climate change. A better understanding of processes that shape smallholder farmers' vulnerabilities and adaptation in the face of climate change is critical to develop well-targeted adaptation policies. The implications of climate change for smallholder farmers are currently assessed with two main approaches, top-down impact assessments and bottom-up adaptation studies. Top-down approaches use process-based models that are often associated with high uncertainty and may in turn lead to misinformed adaptation action. Bottom-up assessments draw on farmers' existing implicit and explicit knowledge about the response to climatic stimuli and the conceptual thinking on socio-ecological vulnerability. Bottom-up assessments could significantly reduce the uncertainty resulting from coarse climate projections but they are constrained by lack of empirical evidence. The existing conceptual literature on socio-ecological vulnerability is mostly argumentative and not sufficiently substantiated by models or empirical findings. In particular, there exists a lack of conclusive scientific evidence on the determinants driving smallholder farmers' adaptation to climate change based on methodological approaches and sample sizes that allow for rigorous statistical analyses. Against this background, the objectives of this study are (1) to develop and evaluate a site-specific, bottom-up and forward-looking method for exploring smallholder farmers' adaptation to climate change with a mixed-method approach and a large sample size; and (2) to empirically assess smallholder farmers' adaptation and its determinants in a case study. While processes of farmers' adaptation to climatic stimuli are clearly bound to spatial and temporal conditions, this study assumes that there exist underlying generic drivers of individual adaptation behavior and that farmers' historic adaptation to climate

Successfully Adapting to Change.

Science.gov (United States)

Baird, James R.

1989-01-01

Describes methods used to successfully adapt to reductions in budget allocations in the University of Utah's Instructional Media Services Department. Three main areas of concern are addressed: morale and staff development; adapting to change in the areas of funding, control, media priorities, and technology; and planning for the future. (LRW)

Economics of adaptation to climate change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perthuis, Ch.; Hallegatte, St.; Lecocq, F.

2010-02-01

This report proposes a general economic framework for the issue of adaptation to climate change in order to help public and private actors to build up efficient adaptation strategies. It proposes a general definition of adaptation, identifies the major stakes for these strategies, and discusses the assessment of global costs of adaptation to climate change. It discusses the role and modalities of public action and gives some examples of possible adaptation measures in some important sectors (building and town planning, energy and transport infrastructures, water and agriculture, ecosystems, insurance). It examines the regional and national dimensions of adaptation and their relationship, and defines steps for implementing an adaptation strategy. It describes and discusses the use of economic tools in the elaboration of an adaptation strategy, i.e. how to take uncertainties into account, which scenarios to choose, how to use economic calculations to assess adaptation policies

Adapting crop rotations to climate change in regional impact modelling assessments.

Science.gov (United States)

Teixeira, Edmar I; de Ruiter, John; Ausseil, Anne-Gaelle; Daigneault, Adam; Johnstone, Paul; Holmes, Allister; Tait, Andrew; Ewert, Frank

2018-03-01

The environmental and economic sustainability of future cropping systems depends on adaptation to climate change. Adaptation studies commonly rely on agricultural systems models to integrate multiple components of production systems such as crops, weather, soil and farmers' management decisions. Previous adaptation studies have mostly focused on isolated monocultures. However, in many agricultural regions worldwide, multi-crop rotations better represent local production systems. It is unclear how adaptation interventions influence crops grown in sequences. We develop a catchment-scale assessment to investigate the effects of tactical adaptations (choice of genotype and sowing date) on yield and underlying crop-soil factors of rotations. Based on locally surveyed data, a silage-maize followed by catch-crop-wheat rotation was simulated with the APSIM model for the RCP 8.5 emission scenario, two time periods (1985-2004 and 2080-2100) and six climate models across the Kaituna catchment in New Zealand. Results showed that direction and magnitude of climate change impacts, and the response to adaptation, varied spatially and were affected by rotation carryover effects due to agronomical (e.g. timing of sowing and harvesting) and soil (e.g. residual nitrogen, N) aspects. For example, by adapting maize to early-sowing dates under a warmer climate, there was an advance in catch crop establishment which enhanced residual soil N uptake. This dynamics, however, differed with local environment and choice of short- or long-cycle maize genotypes. Adaptation was insufficient to neutralize rotation yield losses in lowlands but consistently enhanced yield gains in highlands, where other constraints limited arable cropping. The positive responses to adaptation were mainly due to increases in solar radiation interception across the entire growth season. These results provide deeper insights on the dynamics of climate change impacts for crop rotation systems. Such knowledge can be used

A roadmap to effective urban climate change adaptation

Science.gov (United States)

Setiadi, R.

2018-03-01

This paper outlines a roadmap to effective urban climate change adaptation built from our practical understanding of the evidence and effects of climate change and the preparation of climate change adaptation strategies and plans. This roadmap aims to drive research in achieving fruitful knowledge and solution-based achievable recommendations in adapting to climate change in urban areas with effective and systematic manner. This paper underscores the importance of the interplay between local government initiatives and a national government for effective adaptation to climate change and takes into account the policy process and politics. This paper argues that effective urban climate change adaptation has a contribution to build urban resilience and helps the achievement of national government goals and targets in climate change adaptation.

Rapid feedback responses correlate with reach adaptation and properties of novel upper limb loads.

Science.gov (United States)

Cluff, Tyler; Scott, Stephen H

2013-10-02

A hallmark of voluntary motor control is the ability to adjust motor patterns for novel mechanical or visuomotor contexts. Recent work has also highlighted the importance of feedback for voluntary control, leading to the hypothesis that feedback responses should adapt when we learn new motor skills. We tested this prediction with a novel paradigm requiring that human subjects adapt to a viscous elbow load while reaching to three targets. Target 1 required combined shoulder and elbow motion, target 2 required only elbow motion, and target 3 (probe target) required shoulder but no elbow motion. This simple approach controlled muscle activity at the probe target before, during, and after the application of novel elbow loads. Our paradigm allowed us to perturb the elbow during reaching movements to the probe target and identify several key properties of adapted stretch responses. Adapted long-latency responses expressed (de-) adaptation similar to reaching errors observed when we introduced (removed) the elbow load. Moreover, reaching errors during learning correlated with changes in the long-latency response, showing subjects who adapted more to the elbow load displayed greater modulation of their stretch responses. These adapted responses were sensitive to the size and direction of the viscous training load. Our results highlight an important link between the adaptation of feedforward and feedback control and suggest a key part of motor adaptation is to adjust feedback responses to the requirements of novel motor skills.

Research Advances of Impacts of Climate Changes on Crop Climatic Adaptability

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2011-01-01

Agriculture received most direct influences from climate changes. Because of climate changes, agricultural climate resources changed and thus influenced climate adaptability of agricultural products. The growth and output of crops were finally affected. The calculation method and application of agricultural products in recent years were summarized. Several questions about the response of agricultural crops to climate elements were proposed for attention.

Real-Time Molecular Monitoring of Chemical Environment in ObligateAnaerobes during Oxygen Adaptive Response

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holman, Hoi-Ying N.; Wozei, Eleanor; Lin, Zhang; Comolli, Luis R.; Ball, David. A.; Borglin, Sharon; Fields, Matthew W.; Hazen, Terry C.; Downing, Kenneth H.

2009-02-25

Determining the transient chemical properties of the intracellular environment canelucidate the paths through which a biological system adapts to changes in its environment, for example, the mechanisms which enable some obligate anaerobic bacteria to survive a sudden exposure to oxygen. Here we used high-resolution Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectromicroscopy to continuously follow cellular chemistry within living obligate anaerobes by monitoring hydrogen bonding in their cellular water. We observed a sequence of wellorchestrated molecular events that correspond to changes in cellular processes in those cells that survive, but only accumulation of radicals in those that do not. We thereby can interpret the adaptive response in terms of transient intracellular chemistry and link it to oxygen stress and survival. This ability to monitor chemical changes at the molecular level can yield important insights into a wide range of adaptive responses.

Adapting to the Changing Climate: An Assessment of Local Health Department Preparations for Climate Change-Related Health Threats, 2008-2012.

Science.gov (United States)

Roser-Renouf, Connie; Maibach, Edward W; Li, Jennifer

2016-01-01

Climate change poses a major public health threat. A survey of U.S. local health department directors in 2008 found widespread recognition of the threat, but limited adaptive capacity, due to perceived lack of expertise and other resources. We assessed changes between 2008 and 2012 in local public health departments' preparedness for the public health threats of climate change, in light of increasing national polarization on the issue, and widespread funding cutbacks for public health. A geographically representative online survey of directors of local public health departments was conducted in 2011-2012 (N = 174; response rate = 50%), and compared to the 2008 telephone survey results (N = 133; response rate = 61%). Significant polarization had occurred: more respondents in 2012 were certain that the threat of local climate change impacts does/does not exist, and fewer were unsure. Roughly 10% said it is not a threat, compared to 1% in 2008. Adaptation capacity decreased in several areas: perceived departmental expertise in climate change risk assessment; departmental prioritization of adaptation; and the number of adaptation-related programs and services departments provided. In 2008, directors' perceptions of local impacts predicted the number of adaptation-related programs and services their departments offered, but in 2012, funding predicted programming and directors' impact perceptions did not. This suggests that budgets were constraining directors' ability to respond to local climate change-related health threats. Results also suggest that departmental expertise may mitigate funding constraints. Strategies for overcoming these obstacles to local public health departments' preparations for climate change are discussed.

Sink or Swim: Adapting to the Hydrologic Impacts of Climate Change

Science.gov (United States)

Gleick, P. H.

2014-12-01

Climate changes lead to a wide range of societal and environmental impacts; indeed, strong evidence has accrued that such impacts are already occurring, as summarized by the newest National Climate Assessment and other analyses. Among the most important will be alterations in the hydrologic cycle, changes in water supply and demand, and impacts on existing water-related infrastructure. Because of the complexity of our water systems, adaptation responses will be equally complex. This problem has made it difficult for water managers and planners to develop and implement adaptation strategies. This talk will address three ways to think about water-related adaptation approaches to climate change: (1) strategies that are already being implemented to address population and economic changes without climate change; (2) whether these first-line strategies are appropriate for additional impacts that might result from climatic changes; and (3) new approaches that might be necessary for new, non-linear, or threshold impacts. An effort will also be made to differentiate between adaptation strategies that influence the hydrologic cycle directly (e.g., cloud seeding), those that influence supply management (e.g., construction of additional reservoirs or water-distribution systems), and those that affect water demand (e.g., removal of outdoor landscaping, installation of efficient irrigation systems).

Communicating for Climate Change Adaptation: Lessons from a Case Study with Nature-Based Tour Operators

Science.gov (United States)

Timm, K.; Sparrow, E. B.; Pettit, E. C.; Trainor, S. F.; Taylor, K.

2014-12-01

Increasing temperatures are projected to have a positive effect on the length of Alaska's tourism season, but the natural attractions that tourism relies on, such as glaciers, wildlife, fish, or other natural resources, may change. In order to continue to derive benefits from these resources, nature-based tour operators may have to adapt to these changes, and communication is an essential, but poorly understood, component of the climate change adaptation process. The goal of this study was to determine how to provide useful climate change information to nature-based tour operators by answering the following questions: 1. What environmental changes do nature-based tour operators perceive? 2. How are nature-based tour operators responding to climate and environmental change? 3. What climate change information do nature-based tour operators need? To answer these questions, twenty-four nature-based tour operators representing 20 different small and medium sized businesses in Juneau, Alaska were interviewed. The results show that many of Juneau's nature-based tour operators are observing, responding to, and in some cases, actively planning for further changes in the environment. The types of responses tended to vary depending on the participants' certainty in climate change and the perceived risks to their organization. Using these two factors, this study proposes a framework to classify climate change responses for the purpose of generating meaningful information and communication processes that promote adaptation and build adaptive capacity. During the course of the study, several other valuable lessons were learned about communicating about adaptation. The results of this study demonstrate that science communication research has an important place in the practice of promoting and fostering climate change adaptation. While the focus of this study was tour operators, the lessons learned may be valuable to other organizations striving to engage unique groups in climate

Higher Plants in Space: Microgravity Perception, Response, and Adaptation

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Hui Qiong; Han, Fei; Le, Jie

2015-11-01

Microgravity is a major abiotic stress in space. Its effects on plants may depend on the duration of exposure. We focused on two different phases of microgravity responses in space. When higher plants are exposed to short-term (seconds to hours) microgravity, such as on board parabolic flights and sounding rockets, their cells usually exhibit abiotic stress responses. For example, Ca 2+-, lipid-, and pH-signaling are rapidly enhanced, then the production of reactive oxygen species and other radicals increase dramatically along with changes in metabolism and auxin signaling. Under long-term (days to months) microgravity exposure, plants acclimatize to the stress by changing their metabolism and oxidative response and by enhancing other tropic responses. We conclude by suggesting that a systematic analysis of regulatory networks at the molecular level of higher plants is needed to understand the molecular signals in the distinct phases of the microgravity response and adaptation.

"My worries are rational, climate change is not": habitual ecological worrying is an adaptive response.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bas Verplanken

Full Text Available Qualifications such as "global warming hysteria" and "energy policy schizophrenia" put forward by some climate change skeptics, usually outside the academic arena, may suggest that people who seriously worry about the environment suffer from psychological imbalance. The present study aimed to refute this thesis. While habitual worrying in general is strongly associated with psychopathological symptoms, in a survey a near-zero correlation was found between habitual ecological worrying and pathological worry. Instead, habitual ecological worrying was associated with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors, and with a personality structure characterized by imagination and an appreciation for new ideas. The study had sufficient statistical power and measures were valid and reliable. The results confirm that those who habitually worry about the ecology are not only lacking in any psychopathology, but demonstrate a constructive and adaptive response to a serious problem. In the public domain, these findings may contribute to a more rational and less emotional debate on climate change and to the prevention of stigmatization of people who are genuinely concerned about our habitat and are prepared to do something about it ("habitual worriers are not crazy". In the academic arena this study may contribute to environmental psychology ("habitual worrying is part of a green identity", as well as to the literature on worry and anxiety ("habitual worrying can be a constructive response".

"My worries are rational, climate change is not": habitual ecological worrying is an adaptive response.

Science.gov (United States)

Verplanken, Bas; Roy, Deborah

2013-01-01

Qualifications such as "global warming hysteria" and "energy policy schizophrenia" put forward by some climate change skeptics, usually outside the academic arena, may suggest that people who seriously worry about the environment suffer from psychological imbalance. The present study aimed to refute this thesis. While habitual worrying in general is strongly associated with psychopathological symptoms, in a survey a near-zero correlation was found between habitual ecological worrying and pathological worry. Instead, habitual ecological worrying was associated with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors, and with a personality structure characterized by imagination and an appreciation for new ideas. The study had sufficient statistical power and measures were valid and reliable. The results confirm that those who habitually worry about the ecology are not only lacking in any psychopathology, but demonstrate a constructive and adaptive response to a serious problem. In the public domain, these findings may contribute to a more rational and less emotional debate on climate change and to the prevention of stigmatization of people who are genuinely concerned about our habitat and are prepared to do something about it ("habitual worriers are not crazy"). In the academic arena this study may contribute to environmental psychology ("habitual worrying is part of a green identity"), as well as to the literature on worry and anxiety ("habitual worrying can be a constructive response").

The role of culture in adaptive responses to climate and environmental change in a Fijian village

OpenAIRE

Shelton , Clare

2017-01-01

Adapting to the new challenges climate change will bring is vital. Pacific Islands are often cited as being at the forefront of climate change, and despite a growing body of regional research there has been limited climate change adaptation research in regional deltas. The capacity of households and communities to respond to climate change in the face of multiple stressors is influenced by a variety of factors and elements shaped by the underlying social and cultural context. Recent work has ...

A Framework for Benefit-Cost Analysis of Adaptation to Climate Change and Climate Variability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leary, N.A.

1999-01-01

The potential damages of climate change and climate variability are dependent upon the responses or adaptations that people make to their changing environment. By adapting the management of resources, the mix and methods of producing goods and services, choices of leisure activities, and other behavior, people can lessen the damages that would otherwise result. A framework for assessing the benefits and costs of adaptation to both climate change and climate variability is described in the paper. The framework is also suitable for evaluating the economic welfare effects of climate change, allowing for autonomous adaptation by private agents. The paper also briefly addresses complications introduced by uncertainty regarding the benefits of adaptation and irreversibility of investments in adaptation. When investment costs are irreversible and there is uncertainty about benefits, the usual net present value criterion for evaluating the investment gives the wrong decision. If delaying an adaptation project is possible, and if delay will permit learning about future benefits of adaptation, it may be preferable to delay the project even if the expected net present value is positive. Implications of this result for adaptation policy are discussed in the paper. 11 refs

Climate change perceptions and local adaptation strategies of hazard-prone rural households in Bangladesh

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G.M. Monirul Alam

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Adaptation is a key strategy that can alleviate the severity of climate change impacts on agriculture and food production. Adaptation strategies are unlikely to be effective without an understanding of the farmers’ perceptions of climate change. This paper explores the local knowledge of adaptation in response to the perceived impacts of climate change and climatic hazards using a survey of 380 resource-poor riverbank erosion-prone households in Bangladesh. The results indicate that the respondents’ perceptions of changes in the climate and of extreme climatic events are similar to the observed climate data. Households have recognized the impacts on their livelihood and resources, resulting in an increased sense of vulnerability. To build resilience, households have undertaken a range of farming and non-farming adaptation strategies, which vary significantly among the farming groups. The important adaptation strategies include adopting new crop varieties, changing planting time, homestead gardening, planting trees and migration. Improved access to finance and to information about appropriate strategies appears to be crucial to support adaptation processes locally and thus to enhance the resilience of vulnerable households.

Adaptability Responding Effectively to Change

CERN Document Server

(CCL), Center for Creative Leadership; Calarco, Allan

2011-01-01

In today's business world, the complexity and pace of change can be daunting. Adaptability has become recognized as a necessary skill for leaders to develop to be effective in this environment. Even so, leaders rarely know what they can do to become more adaptable and foster adaptability in others. This guidebook contributes to a greater understanding of adaptability and the cognitive, emotional, and dispositional flexibility it requires. Leaders will learn how to develop their adaptability and to become more effective for themselves, the people they lead, and their organizations.

Plant Cell Adaptive Responses to Microgravity

Science.gov (United States)

Kordyum, Elizabeth; Kozeko, Liudmyla; Talalaev, Alexandr

simulated microgravity and temperature elevation have different effects on the small HSP genes belonging to subfamilies with different subcellular localization: cytosol/nucleus - PsHSP17.1-CII and PsHSP18.1-CI, cloroplasts - PsHSP26.2-Cl, endoplasmatic reticulum - PsHSP22.7-ER and mitochondria - PsHSP22.9-M: unlike high temperature, clinorotation does not cause denaturation of cell proteins, that confirms the sHSP chaperone function. Dynamics of investigated gene expression in pea seedlings growing 5 days after seed germination under clinorotation was similar to that in the stationary control. Similar patterns in dynamics of sHSP gene expression in the stationary control and under clinorotation may be one of mechanisms providing plant adaptation to simulated microgravity. It is pointed that plant cell responses in microgravity and under clinorotation vary according to growth phase, physiological state, and taxonomic position of the object. At the same time, the responses have, to some degree, a similar character reflecting the changes in cell organelle functional load. Thus, next certain changes in the structure and function of plant cells may be considered as adaptive: 1) an increase in the unsaturated fatty acid content in the plasmalemma, 2) rearrangements of organelle ultrastructure and an increase in their functional load, 3) an increase in cortical F-actin under destabilization of tubulin microtubules, 4) the level of gene expression and synthesis of heat shock proteins, 5) alterations of the enzyme and antioxidant system activity. The dynamics of these patterns demonstrated that the adaptation occurs on the principle of self-regulating systems in the limits of physiological norm reaction. The very importance of changed expression of genes involved in different cellular processes, especially HSP genes, in cell adaptation to altered gravity is discussed.

Adaptation to climate change in France

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-03-01

This report first comments some data and facts illustrating climate change. It discusses its various impacts (extreme meteorological events, dramatic impacts on ecosystems with the possible disappearance of some vegetal and animal species, crisis regarding food resources, health risks, population migrations notably because of sea level rise), and briefly evokes these impacts in France. It outlines the need for adaptation and describes the different adaptation principles: reduction of vulnerability, and anticipation of changes and of their impacts. It comments how adaptation and mitigation are two complementary approaches. It presents the French State strategy with its national adaptation strategy, its national adaptation plan, the mandatory elaboration of regional schemes for climate, air and energy, and the action of local communities

Contextual and interdependent causes of climate change adaptation barriers for water management: responses from regional and local institutions in Himachal Pradesh, India

Science.gov (United States)

Azhoni, Adani; Holman, Ian; Jude, Simon

2016-04-01

Research on adaptation barriers is gaining increasing prominence as the need for climate change adaptation becomes evident. This research seeks to identify and understand the reasons for key barriers preventing water institutions in the mountainous Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India from adapting to climate change. Semi-structured interviews were carried out in January & February 2015 with representatives from twenty-seven key governmental, academic, NGO and commercial institutions in the State, with responsibilities spanning from municipal water supply to irrigation and hydropower generation in addition to environmental conservation. Empirical analysis of the transcripts found that inadequate knowledge capacity, poor implementation of policies, inadequate resources, normative work culture, weak governance, unavailability and inaccessibility of data & information and limited inter-institutional networks are key barriers for adaptation. Although these generic barriers are similar to those reported elsewhere in literature, they are identified as having locally-contextual root causes. For example, the inadequate resources are identified to be occurring as a consequence of the fragmentation of resources allocation among others. This is due to competing developmental priorities and the desire of the political leadership to please the maximum number of electors rather than the more-usual inadequate budgetary allocation and climate scepticism. The identified individual barriers are found to be highly inter-dependent and closely intertwined which enables the identification of leverage points of interventions that can maximise removal of barriers. For example, breaking down key barriers for data and information accessibility will have to involve normative attitudinal change, through sensitisation of the larger picture of the role of accurate and accessible data; changes in working style involving moving from paper-based data management to digital; and

New directions in climate change vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation assessment: summary of a workshop

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

National Research Council (U.S.). Subcommittee for a Workshop on New Directions in Vulnerability, Impacts, and Adaptation Assessment; National Academies Press (U.S.); National Research Council (U.S.). Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change; Brewer, Jennifer F

...; adaptation is inevitable. The remaining question is to what extent humans will anticipate and reduce undesired consequences of climate change, or postpone response until after climate change impacts have altered ecological...

Science of adaptation to climate change and science for adaptation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rob eSwart

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Adaptation to climate change has gained a prominent place next to mitigation on global, national and local policy agendas. However, while an abundance of adaptation strategies, plans and programmes have been developed, progress in turning these into action has been slow. The development of a sound knowledge basis to support adaptation globally is suggested to accelerate progress, but has lagged behind. The emphasis in both current and newly proposed programmes is very much on practice-oriented research with strong stakeholder participation. This paper supports such practice-oriented research, but argues that this is insufficient to support adaptation policy and practice in a productive manner. We argue that there is not only a need for science for adaptation, but also a science of adaptation. The paper argues that participatory, practice-oriented research is indeed essential, but has to be complemented by and connected to more fundamental inquiry and concept development, which takes into account knowledge that has been developed in disciplinary sciences and on issues other than climate change adaptation. At the same time, the level and method of participation in science for adaptation should be determined on the basis of the specific project context and goals. More emphasis on science of adaptation can lead to improved understanding of the conditions for successful science for adaptation.

Adaptation to Climate change Impacts on the Mediterranean islands' Agriculture (ADAPT2CLIMA)

Science.gov (United States)

Giannakopoulos, Christos; Karali, Anna; Lemesios, Giannis; Loizidou, Maria; Papadaskalopoulou, Christina; Moustakas, Konstantinos; Papadopoulou, Maria; Moriondo, Marco; Markou, Marinos; Hatziyanni, Eleni; Pasotti, Luigi

2016-04-01

Agriculture is one of the economic sectors that will likely be hit hardest by climate change, since it directly depends on climatic factors such as temperature, sunlight, and precipitation. The EU LIFE ADAPT2CLIMA (http://adapt2clima.eu/en/) project aims to facilitate the development of adaptation strategies for agriculture by deploying and demonstrating an innovative decision support tool. The ADAPT2CLIMA tool will make it possible to simulate the impacts of climate change on crop production and the effectiveness of selected adaptation options in decreasing vulnerability to climate change in three Mediterranean islands, namely Crete (Greece), Sicily (Italy), and Cyprus. The islands were selected for two reasons: firstly, they figure among the most important cultivation areas at national level. Secondly, they exhibit similarities in terms of location (climate), size, climate change threats faced (coastal agriculture, own water resources), agricultural practices, and policy relevance. In particular, the tool will provide: i) climate change projections; ii) hydrological conditions related to agriculture: iii) a vulnerability assessment of selected crops; iv) an evaluation of the adaptation options identified. The project is expected to contribute significantly to increasing climate resilience of agriculture areas in Sicily, Cyprus and Crete as well as at EU and international level by: • Developing, implementing and demonstrating an innovative and interactive decision support tool (ADAPT2CLIMA tool) for adaptation planning in agriculture that estimates future climate change impacts on local water resources, as well as the climate change vulnerability of the agricultural crop production in the project areas; • Evaluating the technical and economic viability of the implementation of the ADAPT2CLIMA tool; • Developing climate change adaptation strategies for agriculture (including a monitoring plan) for the three project areas and presenting them to the competent

Urban drainage design and climate change adaptation decision making

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Qianqian Zhou

2012-10-15

engineering solutions, meaning that only response impacts in the context of hydrological extremes are considered while the added intangible values (e.g. recreational amenities due to a nice blue-green neighbourhood) of adaptation options are often ignored or underestimated. In order to facilitate the development and implementation of water sensitive urban design concepts climate change adaptation tools must take into account the additional benefits of using these concepts. This thesis develops a reframed design framework to account for such intangible goods/values of adaptation options. This serves as a valuable basis for evaluating the benefits of provision of positive environmental values and the preservation of water resources. It is found that neglecting intangible values in climate adaptation assessment can easily bias the decision making; the reframed approach hence provide an important tool for assessment of additional benefits and costs of such innovative solutions. The thesis points towards an integrated framework for urban drainage adaptation design considering climate change effects and adaptation benefits and costs. The case studies show how the proposed framework can be utilized to manage the anticipated climate change risks in a cost-effective way under different circumstances. The introduced framework provides an important supplement or replacement of current design practices under influence of climate change. (Author)

Institutional Barriers to Climate Change Adaptation in U.S. National Parks and Forests

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lesley C. Jantarasami

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Climate change will increasingly challenge ecosystem managers' ability to protect species diversity and maintain ecosystem function. In response, the National Park Service and the United States Forest Service have promoted climate change adaptation as a management strategy to increase ecosystem resilience to changing climatic conditions. However, very few examples of completed adaptation plans or projects exist. Here, we examine managers' perceptions of internal and external institutional barriers to implementing adaptation strategies. We conducted semi-structured interviews (n=32 with regional managers and agency staff in six park and forest units in Washington State. We found that internal barriers, including unclear mandates from superiors and bureaucratic rules and procedures, are perceived as greater constraints than external barriers related to existing federal environmental laws. Respondents perceived process-oriented environmental laws, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, as enablers of adaptation strategies, and prescriptive laws, such as the Endangered Species Act, as barriers. Our results suggest that climate change adaptation is more often discussed than pursued, and that institutional barriers within agencies limit what can be accomplished.

Adaptation to Climate Change in France and Quebec: Convergent Institutional Constructions, Divergent Diffusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marquet, Vincent; Salles, Denis

2014-01-01

In the space of a few decades, climate change has established itself as a central object of research for the scientific community and a high profile social and political question. Closely associated with the work of the IPCC, two dominant modes of action have supplied the institutional response: these are, respectively, attenuation and adaptation. The latter has established itself as a potential path for policy by appealing to the imperative of human survival and adopting the form of a vast normative program. By drawing upon a comparative approach, I propose to examine climate change adaptation policies as an emerging framework structuring global, transversal and multi-level public action. To this end, I examine the convergent process by which climate change adaptation policies have been institutionalized in France and Quebec. I then consider the issues involved in the spread of climate change adaptation via territorial risk management policies and water resource governance. Ultimately, the result is that the new requirements imposed by adaptation are in contradiction with the interests and shorter temporalities still prevailing within local management activities

Farm Level Adaptation to Climate Change: The Case of Farmer's in the Ethiopian Highlands

Science.gov (United States)

Gebrehiwot, Tagel; van der Veen, Anne

2013-07-01

In Ethiopia, climate change and associated risks are expected to have serious consequences for agriculture and food security. This in turn will seriously impact on the welfare of the people, particularly the rural farmers whose main livelihood depends on rain-fed agriculture. The level of impacts will mainly depend on the awareness and the level of adaptation in response to the changing climate. It is thus important to understand the role of the different factors that influence farmers' adaptation to ensure the development of appropriate policy measures and the design of successful development projects. This study examines farmers' perception of change in climatic attributes and the factors that influence farmers' choice of adaptation measures to climate change and variability. The estimated results from the climate change adaptation models indicate that level of education, age and wealth of the head of the household; access to credit and agricultural services; information on climate, and temperature all influence farmers' choices of adaptation. Moreover, lack of information on adaptation measures and lack of finance are seen as the main factors inhibiting adaptation to climate change. These conclusions were obtained with a Multinomial logit model, employing the results from a survey of 400 smallholder farmers in three districts in Tigray, northern Ethiopian.

Farmers' perceptions of and adaptation strategies to climate change and their determinants; the case of Punjab province, Pakistan

Science.gov (United States)

Abid, M.; Scheffran, J.; Schneider, U. A.; Ashfaq, M.

2014-10-01

Climate change is a global environmental threat to all economic sectors, particularly the agricultural sector. Pakistan is one of the negatively affected countries from climate change due to its high exposure to extreme events and low adaptive capacity. In Pakistan, farmers are the primary stakeholders in agriculture and are more at risk due to climate vulnerability. Based on farm household data of 450 households collected from three districts in three agro-ecological zones in Punjab province of Pakistan, this study examined how farmers perceive climate change and how they adapt their farming in response to perceived changes in climate. The results demonstrate that awareness to climate change persists in the area, and farm households make adjustments to adapt their agriculture in response to climatic change. Overall 58% of the farm households adapted their farming to climate change. Changing crop varieties, changing planting dates, plantation of trees and changing fertilizer were the main adaptation methods implemented by farm households in the study area. Results from the binary logistic model revealed that education, farm experience, household size, land area, tenancy status, ownership of tube-well, access to market information, information on weather forecasting and extension all influence the farmers' choice of adaptation measures. Results also indicate that adaptation to climate change is constrained by several factors such as lack of information; lack of money; resource constraint and shortage of irrigation water in the study area. Findings of the study suggest the need of greater investment in farmer education and improved institutional setup for climate change adaptation to improve farmers' wellbeing.

Immune and stress responses in oysters with insights on adaptation.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Ximing; He, Yan; Zhang, Linlin; Lelong, Christophe; Jouaux, Aude

2015-09-01

Oysters are representative bivalve molluscs that are widely distributed in world oceans. As successful colonizers of estuaries and intertidal zones, oysters are remarkably resilient against harsh environmental conditions including wide fluctuations in temperature and salinity as well as prolonged air exposure. Oysters have no adaptive immunity but can thrive in microbe-rich estuaries as filter-feeders. These unique adaptations make oysters interesting models to study the evolution of host-defense systems. Recent advances in genomic studies including sequencing of the oyster genome have provided insights into oyster's immune and stress responses underlying their amazing resilience. Studies show that the oyster genomes are highly polymorphic and complex, which may be key to their resilience. The oyster genome has a large gene repertoire that is enriched for immune and stress response genes. Thousands of genes are involved in oyster's immune and stress responses, through complex interactions, with many gene families expanded showing high sequence, structural and functional diversity. The high diversity of immune receptors and effectors may provide oysters with enhanced specificity in immune recognition and response to cope with diverse pathogens in the absence of adaptive immunity. Some members of expanded immune gene families have diverged to function at different temperatures and salinities or assumed new roles in abiotic stress response. Most canonical innate immunity pathways are conserved in oysters and supported by a large number of diverse and often novel genes. The great diversity in immune and stress response genes exhibited by expanded gene families as well as high sequence and structural polymorphisms may be central to oyster's adaptation to highly stressful and widely changing environments. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adaptive governance, uncertainty, and risk: policy framing and responses to climate change, drought, and flood

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hurlbert, M.; Gupta, J.

2016-01-01

As climate change impacts result in more extreme events (such as droughts and floods), the need to understand which policies facilitate effective climate change adaptation becomes crucial. Hence, this article answers the question: How do governments and policymakers frame policy in relation to

Cultural responses to climate change during the late Holocene.

Science.gov (United States)

deMenocal, P B

2001-04-27

Modern complex societies exhibit marked resilience to interannual-to- decadal droughts, but cultural responses to multidecadal-to-multicentury droughts can only be addressed by integrating detailed archaeological and paleoclimatic records. Four case studies drawn from New and Old World civilizations document societal responses to prolonged drought, including population dislocations, urban abandonment, and state collapse. Further study of past cultural adaptations to persistent climate change may provide valuable perspective on possible responses of modern societies to future climate change.

Framework for economic pluvial flood risk assessment considering climate change effects and adaptation benefits

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhou, Qianqian; Mikkelsen, Peter Steen; Halsnæs, Kirsten

2012-01-01

Climate change is likely to affect the water cycle by influencing the precipitation patterns. It is important to integrate the anticipated changes into the design of urban drainage in response to the increased risk level in cities. This paper presents a pluvial flood risk assessment framework...... to identify and assess adaptation options in the urban context. An integrated approach is adopted by incorporating climate change impact assessment, flood inundation modeling, economic tool, and risk assessment, hereby developing a step-by-step process for cost-benefit assessment of climate change adaptation...

Adaptive responses to salinity stress across multiple life stages in anuran amphibians.

Science.gov (United States)

Albecker, Molly A; McCoy, Michael W

2017-01-01

In many regions, freshwater wetlands are increasing in salinity at rates exceeding historic levels. Some freshwater organisms, like amphibians, may be able to adapt and persist in salt-contaminated wetlands by developing salt tolerance. Yet adaptive responses may be more challenging for organisms with complex life histories, because the same environmental stressor can require responses across different ontogenetic stages. Here we investigated responses to salinity in anuran amphibians: a common, freshwater taxon with a complex life cycle. We conducted a meta-analysis to define how the lethality of saltwater exposure changes across multiple life stages, surveyed wetlands in a coastal region experiencing progressive salinization for the presence of anurans, and used common garden experiments to investigate whether chronic salt exposure alters responses in three sequential life stages (reproductive, egg, and tadpole life stages) in Hyla cinerea , a species repeatedly observed in saline wetlands. Meta-analysis revealed differential vulnerability to salt stress across life stages with the egg stage as the most salt-sensitive. Field surveys revealed that 25% of the species known to occur in the focal region were detected in salt-intruded habitats. Remarkably, Hyla cinerea was found in large abundances in multiple wetlands with salinity concentrations 450% higher than the tadpole-stage LC 50 . Common garden experiments showed that coastal (chronically salt exposed) populations of H. cinerea lay more eggs, have higher hatching success, and greater tadpole survival in higher salinities compared to inland (salt naïve) populations. Collectively, our data suggest that some species of anuran amphibians have divergent and adaptive responses to salt exposure across populations and across different life stages. We propose that anuran amphibians may be a novel and amenable natural model system for empirical explorations of adaptive responses to environmental change.

Behavioural mechanisms and adaptation to climate change

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nigussie, Yalemzewd

2017-01-01

The literature on climate change adaptation in developing countries focused on the socioeconomic and demographic determinants of adaptation decisions to climate change. Decision behavioural among others is thought to influence the path of innovation uptake related to climate change. We need to

City of Iqaluit's climate change impacts, infrastructure risks and adaptive capacity project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nielsen, D.; Kronenberger, J.

2007-03-01

The City of Iqaluit is an Arctic community that is very susceptible to the stresses of climate change. The city is challenged by increased flooding, coastal erosion and ground instability caused by melting of the permafrost layer. In response, the City of Iqaluit has created policies to reduce greenhouse gases and act on climate change. A project has also been launched to develop adaptation strategies, with particular focus on infrastructure vulnerability given the environmental and climate change in the Canadian Arctic. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the biophysical exposure and hazards on Arctic coasts subject to effects of climate change, identify past and current management strategies used to manage risks in coastal communities which have already experienced environmental change, and to evaluate the adaptive capacity of communities for dealing with coastal hazards throughout the Arctic. This document identified the risks to Iqaluit's infrastructure, including buildings, roads, water supply, wastewater treatment and waste disposal systems. Adaptation options were also developed. These ranged from educational programs and retrofits to policy changes and building standard amendments. refs., tabs., figs

Adaptation response surfaces for managing wheat under perturbed climate and CO2 in a Mediterranean environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ruiz-Ramos, M.; Ferrise, Roberto; Rodríguez, A

2018-01-01

type were analysed by constructing response surfaces, which we termed, in accordance with their specific purpose, adaptation response surfaces (ARSs). These were created to assess the effect of adaptations through a range of plausible P, T and [CO2] perturbations. The results indicated that impacts....... However, a single sI was sufficient to develop a high adaptation potential, including options mainly based on spring wheat, current cycle duration and early sowing date. Depending on local environment (e.g. soil type), many of these adaptations can maintain current yield levels under moderate changes in T...

Disturbances catalyze the adaptation of forest ecosystems to changing climate conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Thom, Dominik; Rammer, Werner; Seidl, Rupert

2017-01-01

The rates of anthropogenic climate change substantially exceed those at which forest ecosystems - dominated by immobile, long-lived organisms - are able to adapt. The resulting maladaptation of forests has potentially detrimental effects on ecosystem functioning. Furthermore, as many forest-dwelling species are highly dependent on the prevailing tree species, a delayed response of the latter to a changing climate can contribute to an extinction debt and mask climate-induced biodiversity loss. However, climate change will likely also intensify forest disturbances. Here, we tested the hypothesis that disturbances foster the reorganization of ecosystems and catalyze the adaptation of forest composition to climate change. Our specific objectives were (i) to quantify the rate of autonomous forest adaptation to climate change, (ii) examine the role of disturbance in the adaptation process, and (iii) investigate spatial differences in climate-induced species turnover in an unmanaged mountain forest landscape (Kalkalpen National Park, Austria). Simulations with a process-based forest landscape model were performed for 36 unique combinations of climate and disturbance scenarios over 1000 years. We found that climate change strongly favored European beech and oak species (currently prevailing in mid- to low-elevation areas), with novel species associations emerging on the landscape. Yet, it took between 357 and 706 years before the landscape attained a dynamic equilibrium with the climate system. Disturbances generally catalyzed adaptation and decreased the time needed to attain equilibrium by up to 211 years. However, while increasing disturbance frequency and severity accelerated adaptation, increasing disturbance size had the opposite effect. Spatial analyses suggest that particularly the lowest and highest elevation areas will be hotspots of future species change. We conclude that the growing maladaptation of forests to climate and the long lead times of autonomous

Using a social justice and health framework to assess European climate change adaptation strategies.

Science.gov (United States)

Boeckmann, Melanie; Zeeb, Hajo

2014-11-28

Climate change puts pressure on existing health vulnerabilities through higher frequency of extreme weather events, changes in disease vector distribution or exacerbated air pollution. Climate change adaptation policies may hold potential to reduce societal inequities. We assessed the role of public health and social justice in European climate change adaptation using a three-fold approach: a document analysis, a critical discourse analysis of a subgroup of strategies, and a ranking of strategies against our social justice framework. The ranking approach favored planning that includes various adaptation types, social issues and infrastructure changes. Themes on values identified in the five subgroup documents showed that risks are perceived as contradictory, technology is viewed as savior, responsibilities need to be negotiated, and social justice is advocated by only a few countries. Of 21 strategy documents assessed overall, those from Austria, England and Sweden received the highest scores in the ranking. Our qualitative assessment showed that in European adaptation planning, progress could still be made through community involvement into adaptation decisions, consistent consideration of social and demographic determinants, and a stronger link between infrastructural adaptation and the health sector. Overall, a social justice framework can serve as an evaluation guideline for adaptation policy documents.

Corporate responses to climate change: the role of partnerships

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kolk, A.; Pinkse, J.; Hull van Houten, L.; Martens, P.; Chang, C.T.

2010-01-01

This chapter relates to the NWO-funded research project "‘Getting down to business’: Economic responses to climate change," which studied the (potential) contribution of business to climate change mitigation and adaptation. After an introductory overview of the overall project and its main findings,

Assessment of Coastal Governance for Climate Change Adaptation in Kenya

Science.gov (United States)

Ojwang, Lenice; Rosendo, Sergio; Celliers, Louis; Obura, David; Muiti, Anastasia; Kamula, James; Mwangi, Maina

2017-11-01

The coastline of Kenya already experiences effects of climate change, adding to existing pressures such as urbanization. Integrated coastal management (ICM) is increasingly recognized as a key policy response to deal with the multiple challenges facing coastal zones, including climate change. It can create an enabling governance environment for effective local action on climate change by facilitating a structured approach to dealing with coastal issues. It encompasses the actions of a wide range of actors, including local governments close to people and their activities affected by climate change. Functioning ICM also offers opportunities for reducing risks and building resilience. This article applied a modified capitals approach framework (CAF), consisting of five "capitals," to assess the status of county government capacity to respond to climate change within the context of coastal governance in three county governments in Kenya. The baseline was defined in terms of governance relating to the implementation of the interrelated policy systems of ICM and coastal climate change adaptation (CCA). The CAF framework provided a systematic approach to building a governance baseline against which to assess the progress of county governments in responding to climate change. It identified gaps in human capacity, financial resource allocation to adaptation and access to climate change information. Furthermore, it showed that having well-developed institutions, including regulatory frameworks at the national level can facilitate but does not automatically enable adaptation at the county level.

Hand in hand: public endorsement of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrian Brügger

Full Text Available This research investigated how an individual's endorsements of mitigation and adaptation relate to each other, and how well each of these can be accounted for by relevant social psychological factors. Based on survey data from two European convenience samples (N = 616 / 309 we found that public endorsements of mitigation and adaptation are strongly associated: Someone who is willing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation is also willing to prepare for climate change impacts (adaptation. Moreover, people endorsed the two response strategies for similar reasons: People who believe that climate change is real and dangerous, who have positive attitudes about protecting the environment and the climate, and who perceive climate change as a risk, are willing to respond to climate change. Furthermore, distinguishing between (spatially proximal and distant risk perceptions suggested that the idea of portraying climate change as a proximal (i.e., local threat might indeed be effective in promoting personal actions. However, to gain endorsement of broader societal initiatives such as policy support, it seems advisable to turn to the distant risks of climate change. The notion that "localising" climate change might not be the panacea for engaging people in this domain is discussed in regard to previous theory and research.

Hand in hand: public endorsement of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Science.gov (United States)

Brügger, Adrian; Morton, Thomas A; Dessai, Suraje

2015-01-01

This research investigated how an individual's endorsements of mitigation and adaptation relate to each other, and how well each of these can be accounted for by relevant social psychological factors. Based on survey data from two European convenience samples (N = 616 / 309) we found that public endorsements of mitigation and adaptation are strongly associated: Someone who is willing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation) is also willing to prepare for climate change impacts (adaptation). Moreover, people endorsed the two response strategies for similar reasons: People who believe that climate change is real and dangerous, who have positive attitudes about protecting the environment and the climate, and who perceive climate change as a risk, are willing to respond to climate change. Furthermore, distinguishing between (spatially) proximal and distant risk perceptions suggested that the idea of portraying climate change as a proximal (i.e., local) threat might indeed be effective in promoting personal actions. However, to gain endorsement of broader societal initiatives such as policy support, it seems advisable to turn to the distant risks of climate change. The notion that "localising" climate change might not be the panacea for engaging people in this domain is discussed in regard to previous theory and research.

Farmers' perceptions of and adaptation strategies to climate change and their determinants: the case of Punjab province, Pakistan

Science.gov (United States)

Abid, M.; Scheffran, J.; Schneider, U. A.; Ashfaq, M.

2015-05-01

Climate change is a global environmental threat to all economic sectors, particularly the agricultural sector. Pakistan is one of the countries negatively affected by climate change due to its high exposure to extreme events and low adaptive capacity. In Pakistan, farmers are the primary stakeholders in agriculture and are more at risk due to climate vulnerability. Based on farm household data from 450 households collected from three districts in three agroecological zones in the Punjab province of Pakistan, this study examines how farmers perceive climate change and how they adapt their farming in response to perceived changes in climate. The results demonstrate that awareness of climate change is widespread throughout the area, and farm households make adjustments to adapt their agriculture in response to climatic change. Overall 58% of the farm households adapted their farming to climate change. Changing crop varieties, changing planting dates, planting of shade trees and changing fertilizers were the main adaptation methods implemented by farm households in the study area. The results from the binary logistic model reveal that education, farm experience, household size, land area, tenancy status, ownership of a tube well, access to market information, information on weather forecasting and agricultural extension services all influence farmers' choices of adaptation measures. The results also indicate that adaptation to climate change is constrained by several factors such as lack of information, lack of money, resource constraints and shortage of irrigation water in the study area. Findings of the study suggest the need for greater investment in farmer education and improved institutional setup for climate change adaptation to improve farmers' wellbeing.

Adaptive response to chronic mild ethanol stress involves ROS, sirtuins and changes in chromosome dosage in wine yeasts.

Science.gov (United States)

Adamczyk, Jagoda; Deregowska, Anna; Skoneczny, Marek; Skoneczna, Adrianna; Kwiatkowska, Aleksandra; Potocki, Leszek; Rawska, Ewa; Pabian, Sylwia; Kaplan, Jakub; Lewinska, Anna; Wnuk, Maciej

2016-05-24

Industrial yeast strains of economic importance used in winemaking and beer production are genomically diverse and subjected to harsh environmental conditions during fermentation. In the present study, we investigated wine yeast adaptation to chronic mild alcohol stress when cells were cultured for 100 generations in the presence of non-cytotoxic ethanol concentration. Ethanol-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) and superoxide signals promoted growth rate during passages that was accompanied by increased expression of sirtuin proteins, Sir1, Sir2 and Sir3, and DNA-binding transcription regulator Rap1. Genome-wide array-CGH analysis revealed that yeast genome was shaped during passages. The gains of chromosomes I, III and VI and significant changes in the gene copy number in nine functional gene categories involved in metabolic processes and stress responses were observed. Ethanol-mediated gains of YRF1 and CUP1 genes were the most accented. Ethanol also induced nucleolus fragmentation that confirms that nucleolus is a stress sensor in yeasts. Taken together, we postulate that wine yeasts of different origin may adapt to mild alcohol stress by shifts in intracellular redox state promoting growth capacity, upregulation of key regulators of longevity, namely sirtuins and changes in the dosage of genes involved in the telomere maintenance and ion detoxification.

Adaptation of trees, forests and forestry to climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Daniel J. Chmura; Glenn T. Howe; Paul D. Anderson; Bradley J. St Clair

2010-01-01

Ongoing climate change will likely expose trees and forests to new stresses and disturbances during this century. Trees naturally adapt to changes in climate, but their natural adaptive ability may be compromised by the rapid changes projected for this century. In the broad sense, adaptation to climate change also includes the purposeful adaptation of human systems,...

How to Track Adaptation to Climate Change: A Typology of Approaches for National-Level Application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James D. Ford

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The need to track climate change adaptation progress is being increasingly recognized but our ability to do the tracking is constrained by the complex nature of adaptation and the absence of measurable outcomes or indicators by which to judge if and how adaptation is occurring. We developed a typology of approaches by which climate change adaptation can be tracked globally at a national level. On the one hand, outcome-based approaches directly measure adaptation progress and effectiveness with reference to avoided climate change impacts. However, given that full exposure to climate change impacts will not happen for decades, alternative approaches focus on developing indicators or proxies by which adaptation can be monitored. These include systematic measures of adaptation readiness, processes undertaken to advance adaptation, policies and programs implemented to adapt, and measures of the impacts of these policies and programs on changing vulnerability. While these approaches employ various methods and data sources, and identify different components of adaptation progress to track at the national level, they all seek to characterize the current status of adaptation by which progress over time can be monitored. However, there are significant challenges to operationalizing these approaches, including an absence of systematically collected data on adaptation actions and outcomes, underlying difficulties of defining what constitutes "adaptation", and a disconnect between the timescale over which adaptation plays out and the practical need for evaluation to inform policy. Given the development of new adaptation funding streams, it is imperative that tools for monitoring progress are developed and validated for identifying trends and gaps in adaptation response.

Stochastic adaptation and fold-change detection: from single-cell to population behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leier André

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In cell signaling terminology, adaptation refers to a system's capability of returning to its equilibrium upon a transient response. To achieve this, a network has to be both sensitive and precise. Namely, the system must display a significant output response upon stimulation, and later on return to pre-stimulation levels. If the system settles at the exact same equilibrium, adaptation is said to be 'perfect'. Examples of adaptation mechanisms include temperature regulation, calcium regulation and bacterial chemotaxis. Results We present models of the simplest adaptation architecture, a two-state protein system, in a stochastic setting. Furthermore, we consider differences between individual and collective adaptive behavior, and show how our system displays fold-change detection properties. Our analysis and simulations highlight why adaptation needs to be understood in terms of probability, and not in strict numbers of molecules. Most importantly, selection of appropriate parameters in this simple linear setting may yield populations of cells displaying adaptation, while single cells do not. Conclusions Single cell behavior cannot be inferred from population measurements and, sometimes, collective behavior cannot be determined from the individuals. By consequence, adaptation can many times be considered a purely emergent property of the collective system. This is a clear example where biological ergodicity cannot be assumed, just as is also the case when cell replication rates are not homogeneous, or depend on the cell state. Our analysis shows, for the first time, how ergodicity cannot be taken for granted in simple linear examples either. The latter holds even when cells are considered isolated and devoid of replication capabilities (cell-cycle arrested. We also show how a simple linear adaptation scheme displays fold-change detection properties, and how rupture of ergodicity prevails in scenarios where transitions between

Molecular characterization of an adaptive response to alkylating agents in the opportunistic pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Hanlon, Karen A; Margison, Geoffrey P; Hatch, Amy; Fitzpatrick, David A; Owens, Rebecca A; Doyle, Sean; Jones, Gary W

2012-09-01

An adaptive response to alkylating agents based upon the conformational change of a methylphosphotriester (MPT) DNA repair protein to a transcriptional activator has been demonstrated in a number of bacterial species, but this mechanism appears largely absent from eukaryotes. Here, we demonstrate that the human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus elicits an adaptive response to sub-lethal doses of the mono-functional alkylating agent N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG). We have identified genes that encode MPT and O(6)-alkylguanine DNA alkyltransferase (AGT) DNA repair proteins; deletions of either of these genes abolish the adaptive response and sensitize the organism to MNNG. In vitro DNA repair assays confirm the ability of MPT and AGT to repair methylphosphotriester and O(6)-methylguanine lesions respectively. In eukaryotes, the MPT protein is confined to a select group of fungal species, some of which are major mammalian and plant pathogens. The evolutionary origin of the adaptive response is bacterial and rooted within the Firmicutes phylum. Inter-kingdom horizontal gene transfer between Firmicutes and Ascomycete ancestors introduced the adaptive response into the Fungal kingdom. Our data constitute the first detailed characterization of the molecular mechanism of the adaptive response in a lower eukaryote and has applications for development of novel fungal therapeutics targeting this DNA repair system.

Molecular characterization of an adaptive response to alkylating agents in the opportunistic pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus

Science.gov (United States)

O’Hanlon, Karen A.; Margison, Geoffrey P.; Hatch, Amy; Fitzpatrick, David A.; Owens, Rebecca A.; Doyle, Sean; Jones, Gary W.

2012-01-01

An adaptive response to alkylating agents based upon the conformational change of a methylphosphotriester (MPT) DNA repair protein to a transcriptional activator has been demonstrated in a number of bacterial species, but this mechanism appears largely absent from eukaryotes. Here, we demonstrate that the human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus elicits an adaptive response to sub-lethal doses of the mono-functional alkylating agent N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG). We have identified genes that encode MPT and O6-alkylguanine DNA alkyltransferase (AGT) DNA repair proteins; deletions of either of these genes abolish the adaptive response and sensitize the organism to MNNG. In vitro DNA repair assays confirm the ability of MPT and AGT to repair methylphosphotriester and O6-methylguanine lesions respectively. In eukaryotes, the MPT protein is confined to a select group of fungal species, some of which are major mammalian and plant pathogens. The evolutionary origin of the adaptive response is bacterial and rooted within the Firmicutes phylum. Inter-kingdom horizontal gene transfer between Firmicutes and Ascomycete ancestors introduced the adaptive response into the Fungal kingdom. Our data constitute the first detailed characterization of the molecular mechanism of the adaptive response in a lower eukaryote and has applications for development of novel fungal therapeutics targeting this DNA repair system. PMID:22669901

Climate change adaptation and social sciences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Charles, L.

2013-01-01

Climate change subjects societies to a large range of uncertainties concerning the future and their development orientation. It came up as a scientific global problem, extended to political concerns first at a global and then national scales. Though it has long been the object of economic approaches which have notably contributed to its recognition, particularly the Stern Report, social sciences have hardly been mobilized as part of policies to counteract it. Social sciences strongly question the notion of climate change being built as a global scale transcendent phenomenon, analyzed by several authors. With the rise of adaptation policies, the question becomes even more important. Adaptation first comes up as a spontaneous behaviour, independent of policy, in close relationship to social dimensions as a basic way through which climate change is grasped collectively. Thus adaptation policies' social aspects need to be carefully worked in relation with more general goals for adaptation policies to be implemented efficiently, on the basis of wide interactions between local and global scales. (author)

The economics of optimal adaptation to climate change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Callaway, J.M.; Ringius, L.

2002-07-01

This paper has set out to provide a consistent theoretical framework for understanding how consumers, producers and factor agents respond to the impacts of climate change, with a primary focus on the production and consumption of, and investment in, market goods and services under competitive conditions. However, we have also pointed out that this theory can be extended to economies where individuals and groups pursue other well-defined objectives, and we have provided some examples that show the consistency in adaptation behaviour between economic terms and those who maximise the objective of household nutrition. We have defined adaptation as the changes that economic agents make in the allocation of resources to consumption, production and investment to offset the effects of weather variability or climate change on their welfare. This definition is broad enough to encompass almost every conceivable kind of adaptation behaviour. Further, we have followed the distinction between adaptation that is autonomous and adaptation actions that are undertaken by governments in the form of adaptation strategies. Autonomous adaptation is adaptation that economic agents will undertake to change, without the assistance of government, to improve their welfare due to incentives that are built into the political economy of a country. Adaptation strategies involve conscious decisions by governments to undertake actions and implement projects to avoid (or benefit from) weather variability and climate change. We show how the extent to which economic activities are adapted to existing climate variability will affect how much autonomous adaptation will need to occur once the pure effect of climate change is taken into account. In this paper we argue that the ability of economic activities to adapt once the pure effect of climate change can be accounted for by the following factors: Presence of well-developed markets for inputs and outputs; Ability and competitiveness to produce

Adaptation research meets adaptation decision-making. Second Nordic international conference on climate change adaption. Programme and abstracts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2012-07-01

Nearly two years have passed since a small team of researchers began a new chapter in Nordic co-operation on climate change by organising a conference in Stockholm, Sweden. The conference, entitled Climate Adaptation in the Nordic Countries - Science, Practice, Policy, co-ordinated by the Stockholm Environment Institute and hosted by Stockholm University in November 2010, was the first of its kind in the Nordic region. Since the European Commission adopted its White Paper on adaptation to climate change in 2009, many of that document's 33 actions have been implemented, a climate change adaptation platform, Climate-ADAPT, was launched at the European Environment Agency in March this year, and just a week before this conference the Commission concluded a public consultation of stakeholders and experts in member states designed to feed into the preparation of a European Union adaptation strategy. The 2012 conference therefore presents an ideal opportunity to take stock of ongoing efforts and to consider how adaptation research efforts are keeping pace with policy demands as well as the needs of public and private decision-makers operating at a range of scales. It brings together researchers, public and private decision- makers, as well as those who plan and realize adaptation plans. Session themes include, among others: national and local adaptation plans, climate portals and climate services, adaptation in developing countries, legal aspects of adaptation, economic appraisal of adaptation, analysing and handling risk and uncertainty, urban planning and scenarios. The contributors have very diverse backgrounds, ranging from biosciences to social sciences, economics to geo-sciences, and engineering to architecture. Interest in climate change adaptation in the Nordic region is clearly high, with over 70% of our participants drawn from the five Nordic countries, but the conference has also managed to attract participation from further afield, with registrations

Climate change adaptation strategies for federal forests of the Pacific Northwest, USA: ecological, policy, and socio-economic perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas A. Spies; Thomas W. Giesen; Frederick J. Swanson; Jerry F. Franklin; Denise Lach; K. Norman. Johnson

2010-01-01

Conserving biological diversity in a changing climate poses major challenges for land managers and society. Effective adaptive strategies for dealing with climate change require a socioecological systems perspective. We highlight some of the projected ecological responses to climate change in the Pacific Northwest, U.S.A and identify possible adaptive actions that...

Adapting to health impacts of climate change: a study of UNFCCC Annex I parties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lesnikowski, A C; Ford, J D; Berrang-Ford, L; Paterson, J A; Barrera, M; Heymann, S J

2011-01-01

Adapting to the health effects of climate change is one of the key challenges facing public health this century. Our knowledge of progress on adaptation, however, remains in its infancy. Using the Fifth National Communications of Annex I parties to the UNFCCC, 1912 initiatives are systematically identified and analyzed. 80% of the actions identified consist of groundwork (i.e. preparatory) action, with only 20% constituting tangible adaptations. No health vulnerability was recognized by all 38 Annex I countries. Furthermore, while all initiatives affect at least one health vulnerability, only 15% had an explicit human health component. Consideration for the special needs of vulnerable groups is uneven and underdeveloped. Climate change is directly motivating 71% of groundwork actions, and 61% of adaptation initiatives are being mainstreamed into existing institutions or programs. We conclude that the adaptation responses to the health risks of climate change remain piecemeal. Policymakers in the health sector must engage with stakeholders to implement adaptation that considers how climate change will impact the health of each segment of the population, particularly within those groups already considered most vulnerable to poor health outcomes.

Adaptation Strategies and Resilience to Climate Change of Historic Dwellings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Rubio-Bellido

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Historic city centres have a large amount of dwellings in Europe, which were built to provide a comfortable shelter with the absence of mechanical means. The knowledge of climate responsive design strategies can play a significant role in reducing the energy demand of extant buildings, paving the way for its sustainable development in the face of the rising threat to its occupants of climate change. The residential architecture, developed, in most cases, in dense urban centres, was built using both available materials and traditional and academic construction technologies. This paper thoroughly investigates the extant urban conglomerate in Cádiz and analyses, in a qualitative and quantitative manner, which bioclimatic design strategies were applied and the city’s adaptation for future climate scenarios. The results indicate that historic housing in Cádiz is creatively adapted to the local natural conditions by means of a combination of climate responsive strategies, and there is significant scope for improvement in the ongoing response to global warming.

Adaptability and climate change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sprague, M.W.

1991-01-01

The potential social, economic and environmental impacts of climate change are reviewed, with emphasis on agricultural implications. Impact analyses must be done on the scale of watersheds or river basins. For agriculture, climate change effects on water resources are likely to be more important than temperature changes, and climatic variability is also equally important. Another set of critical climatic variables are the frequencies, magnitudes and timing of extreme events such as floods, droughts, etc. A carbon dioxide enriched atmosphere will increase water use efficiency and confer increased tolerance to drought, salinity and air pollution. Better understanding and accounting is required for the effects of increased carbon dioxide on all plant life, including crops. Adaptability of agriculture to change must be taken into account in predicting impacts of climate change, with technological innovation and infrastructure giving agriculture a dynamic nature. Limitations and adaptations must be considered when formulating public policy, to ensure that marginal costs do not exceed marginal benefits. Monoculture plantation forests may be the most efficient sinks of atmospheric carbon dioxide, yet widespread reliance on them may harm biological diversity. Actions the U.S. is currently taking under a no-regrets policy are summarized

Thermotolerant yeasts selected by adaptive evolution express heat stress response at 30ºC

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Caspeta, Luis; Chen, Yun; Nielsen, Jens

2016-01-01

to grow at increased temperature, activated a constitutive heat stress response when grown at the optimal ancestral temperature, and that this is associated with a reduced growth rate. This preventive response was perfected by additional transcriptional changes activated when the cultivation temperature...... is increased. Remarkably, the sum of global transcriptional changes activated in the thermotolerant strains when transferred from the optimal to the high temperature, corresponded, in magnitude and direction, to the global changes observed in the ancestral strain exposed to the same transition....... This demonstrates robustness of the yeast transcriptional program when exposed to heat, and that the thermotolerant strains streamlined their path to rapidly and optimally reach post-stress transcriptional and metabolic levels. Thus, long-term adaptation to heat improved yeasts ability to rapidly adapt to increased...

A preliminary examination of adaption to climate change in Finland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carter, T.R.; Kankaanpaeae, S.

2003-01-01

The global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.6 ± 0.2 deg C during the 20th century and by about 0.7 deg C in Finland over the same period. Most of the observed warming over the last 50 years is thought to be attributable to increases in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. There is also widespread evidence (including some from Finland) that this warming has already had discernible impacts on many physical and biological systems. Projected future climate changes are expected to have significant adverse effects on natural ecosystems, biodiversity, human health, and flood risk in Finland, while beneficial effects include increased crop yields and timber production and reduced winter energy demand. Worldwide, adverse impacts are expected to fall disproportionately on poorer countries and populations. Regardless of any foreseeable reductions in emissions, some future climate change appears to be unavoidable, so society must be prepared to adapt to the inevitable consequences of climate change. Adaptation is thus a necessary complement to mitigation as a policy response to climate change, and has the potential to reduce many of the adverse impacts of climate change and to enhance beneficial impacts. However, understanding of adaptive capacity is relatively poor across all sectors in Finland, and lags behind comparable work in some other countries. In this report a number of research recommendations are suggested to redress this imbalance. (orig.)

Adaptive Capacity and Social-Environmental Change: Theoretical and Operational Modeling of Smallholder Coffee Systems Response in Mesoamerican Pacific Rim

Science.gov (United States)

Eakin, Hallie; Bojórquez-Tapia, Luis A.; Diaz, Rafael Monterde; Castellanos, Edwin; Haggar, Jeremy

2011-03-01

Communities who rely directly on the natural environment for their survival typically have developed risk management strategies to enable them to avoid dangerous thresholds of change to their livelihoods. Development policy appropriate for natural resource-based communities requires an understanding of the primary drivers of social-ecological change, the ways in which affected households autonomously respond to such drivers, and the appropriate avenues for intervention to reduce vulnerability. Coffee has been, and still remains, one of the most important commodities of the Mesoamerican region, and hundreds of thousands of smallholder households in the region are dependent in some way on the coffee industry for their livelihood stability. We used the Analytical Network Process to synthesize expert knowledge on the primary drivers of livelihood change in the region as well as the most common household strategies and associated capacities necessary for effective response. The assessment identified both gradual systemic processes as well as specific environmental and market shocks as significant drivers of livelihood change across the region. Agronomic adjustments and new forms of social organization were among the more significant responses of farmers to these changes. The assessment indicates that public interventions in support of adaptation should focus on enhancing farmers' access to market and technical information and finance, as well as on increasing the viability of farmers' organizations and cooperatives.

Adaptive capacity and social-environmental change: theoretical and operational modeling of smallholder coffee systems response in Mesoamerican Pacific Rim.

Science.gov (United States)

Eakin, Hallie; Bojórquez-Tapia, Luis A; Monterde Diaz, Rafael; Castellanos, Edwin; Haggar, Jeremy

2011-03-01

Communities who rely directly on the natural environment for their survival typically have developed risk management strategies to enable them to avoid dangerous thresholds of change to their livelihoods. Development policy appropriate for natural resource-based communities requires an understanding of the primary drivers of social-ecological change, the ways in which affected households autonomously respond to such drivers, and the appropriate avenues for intervention to reduce vulnerability. Coffee has been, and still remains, one of the most important commodities of the Mesoamerican region, and hundreds of thousands of smallholder households in the region are dependent in some way on the coffee industry for their livelihood stability. We used the Analytical Network Process to synthesize expert knowledge on the primary drivers of livelihood change in the region as well as the most common household strategies and associated capacities necessary for effective response. The assessment identified both gradual systemic processes as well as specific environmental and market shocks as significant drivers of livelihood change across the region. Agronomic adjustments and new forms of social organization were among the more significant responses of farmers to these changes. The assessment indicates that public interventions in support of adaptation should focus on enhancing farmers' access to market and technical information and finance, as well as on increasing the viability of farmers' organizations and cooperatives.

Studies on adaptive responses in Chinese hamster cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Michelin, S.C.; Perez, M.R. Del; Dubner, D.; Gisone, P.A.

1997-01-01

For many years the possibility has been considered of low doses of radiation inducing adaptive responses in cells and organisms against the mutagenic effects of radiation. Currently, a number of experimental data appraise the existence of an adaptive response that is characterized by a decrease of radiation induced genetic damages. The understanding of the molecular mechanism involved in this phenomenon permits to estimate the effects and risks of low dose exposure. In this work, preliminary results of studies on the induction of adaptive response in cells subjected to different doses of ionizing radiation are presented

Adaptation responses of crops to climate change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Seino, Hiroshi [National Inst. of Agro-Environmental Sciences, Tsukuba, Ibaraki (Japan)

1993-12-31

Appreciable global climatic responses to increasing levels of atmospheric CO{sub 2} and other trace gases are expected to take place over the next 50 to 80 years. Increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are producing or will produce changes in the climate of the Earth. In particular, numerous efforts of climate modeling project very substantial increase of surface air temperature. In addition to a general warming of the atmosphere, the possibility of increased summer dryness in the continental mid-latitudes has been suggested on the basis of both historical analogues and some General Circulation Model (GCM) studies. There are three types of effect of climatic change on agriculture: (1) the physiological (direct) effect of elevated levels of atmospheric CO{sub 2} on crop plants and weeds, (2) the effect of changes in parameters of climate (e.g., temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation) on plants and animals, and (3) the effects of climate-related rises in sea-level on land use. The direct effects of elevated CO{sub 2} are on photosynthesis and respiration and thereby on growth, and there are additional effects of increased CO{sub 2} on development, yield quality and stomatal aperture and water use. A doubling of CO{sub 2} increases the instantaneous photosynthetic rate by 30% to 100%, depending on the other environmental conditions, and reduce water requirements of plants by reducing transpiration (per unit leaf area) through reductions in stomatal aperture. A doubling of CO{sub 2} causes partial stomatal closure on both C{sub 3} and C{sub 4} plants (approximately a 40% decrease in aperture). In many experiments this results in reductions of transpiration of about 23% to 46%. However. there is considerable uncertainty over the magnitude of this in natural conditions.

Proteomic analysis of the intestinal adaptation response reveals altered expression of fatty acid binding proteins following massive small bowel resection.

Science.gov (United States)

Stephens, Andrew N; Pereira-Fantini, Prue M; Wilson, Guineva; Taylor, Russell G; Rainczuk, Adam; Meehan, Katie L; Sourial, Magdy; Fuller, Peter J; Stanton, Peter G; Robertson, David M; Bines, Julie E

2010-03-05

Intestinal adaptation in response to the loss of the small intestine is essential to restore enteral autonomy in patients who have undergone massive small bowel resection (MSBR). In a proportion of patients, intestinal function is not restored, resulting in chronic intestinal failure (IF). Early referral of such patients for transplant provides the best prognosis; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying intestinal adaptation remain elusive and there is currently no convenient marker to predict whether patients will develop IF. We have investigated the adaptation response in a well-characterized porcine model of intestinal adaptation. 2D DIGE analysis of ileal epithelium from piglets recovering from massive small bowel resection (MSBR) identified over 60 proteins that changed specifically in MSBR animals relative to nonoperational or sham-operated controls. Three fatty acid binding proteins (L-FABP, FABP-6, and I-FABP) showed changes in MSBR animals. The expression changes and localization of each FABP were validated by immunoblotting and immunohistochemical analysis. FABP expression changes in MSBR animals occurred concurrently with altered triglyceride and bile acid metabolism as well as weight gain. The observed FABP expression changes in the ileal epithelium occur as part of the intestinal adaptation response and could provide a clinically useful marker to evaluate adaptation following MSBR.

Adaptation, Spatial Heterogeneity, and the Vulnerability of Agricultural Systems to Climate Change and CO2 Fertilization: An Integrated Assessment Approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Antle, J.M.; Capalbo, S.M.; Elliott, E.T.; Paustian, K.H.

2004-01-01

In this paper we develop economic measures of vulnerability to climate change with and without adaptation in agricultural production systems. We implement these measures using coupled, site-specific ecosystem and economic simulation models. This modeling approach has two key features needed to study the response of agricultural production systems to climate change: it represents adaptation as an endogenous, non-marginal economic response to climate change; and it provides the capability to represent the spatial variability in bio-physical and economic conditions that interact with adaptive responses. We apply this approach to the dryland grain production systems of the Northern Plains region of the United States. The results support the hypothesis that the most adverse impacts on net returns distributions tend to occur in the areas with the poorest resource endowments and when mitigating effects of CO2 fertilization and adaptation are absent. We find that relative and absolute measures of vulnerability depend on complex interactions between climate change, CO2 level, adaptation, and economic conditions such as relative output prices. The relationship between relative vulnerability and resource endowments varies with assumptions about climate change, adaptation, and economic conditions. Vulnerability measured with respect to an absolute threshold is inversely related to resource endowments in all cases investigated

The Impacts and Economic Costs of Climate Change in Agriculture and the Costs and Benefits of Adaptation

Science.gov (United States)

Iglesias, A.; Quiroga, S.; Garrote, L.; Cunningham, R.

2012-04-01

This paper provides monetary estimates of the effects of agricultural adaptation to climate change in Europe. The model computes spatial crop productivity changes as a response to climate change linking biophysical and socioeconomic components. It combines available data sets of crop productivity changes under climate change (Iglesias et al 2011, Ciscar et al 2011), statistical functions of productivity response to water and nitrogen inputs, catchment level water availability, and environmental policy scenarios. Future global change scenarios are derived from several socio-economic futures of representative concentration pathways and regional climate models. The economic valuation is conducted by using GTAP general equilibrium model. The marginal productivity changes has been used as an input for the economic general equilibrium model in order to analyse the economic impact of the agricultural changes induced by climate change in the world. The study also includes the analysis of an adaptive capacity index computed by using the socio-economic results of GTAP. The results are combined to prioritize agricultural adaptation policy needs in Europe.

Increased innate and adaptive immune responses in induced sputum of young smokers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agnese Kislina

2015-01-01

Conclusions: This study demonstrates that young smokers have early inflammatory changes in their airways that not only initiate nonspecific mechanisms recruiting neutrophils, but also involve specific immune mechanisms with recruitment of T regulatory lymphocytes. The lymphocyte response is probably adaptive.

Health impacts of climate change in Vanuatu: an assessment and adaptation action plan.

Science.gov (United States)

Spickett, Jeffery T; Katscherian, Dianne; McIver, Lachlan

2013-01-30

Climate change is one of the greatest global challenges and Pacific island countries are particularly vulnerable due to, among other factors, their geography, demography and level of economic development. A Health Impact Assessment (HIA) framework was used as a basis for the consideration of the potential health impacts of changes in the climate on the population of Vanuatu, to assess the risks and propose a range of potential adaptive responses appropriate for Vanuatu. The HIA process involved the participation of a broad range of stakeholders including expert sector representatives in the areas of bio-physical, socio-economic, infrastructure, environmental diseases and food, who provided informed comment and input into the understanding of the potential health impacts and development of adaptation strategies. The risk associated with each of these impacts was assessed with the application of a qualitative process that considered both the consequences and the likelihood of each of the potential health impacts occurring. Potential adaptation strategies and actions were developed which could be used to mitigate the identified health impacts and provide responses which could be used by the various sectors in Vanuatu to contribute to future decision making processes associated with the health impacts of climate change.

Tolerance and potential for adaptation of a Baltic Sea rockweed under predicted climate change conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Rugiu, Luca; Manninen, Iita; Rothäusler, Eva; Jormalainen, Veijo

2018-03-01

Climate change is threating species' persistence worldwide. To predict species responses to climate change we need information not just on their environmental tolerance but also on its adaptive potential. We tested how the foundation species of rocky littoral habitats, Fucus vesiculosus, responds to combined hyposalinity and warming projected to the Baltic Sea by 2070-2099. We quantified responses of replicated populations originating from the entrance, central, and marginal Baltic regions. Using replicated individuals, we tested for the presence of within-population tolerance variation. Future conditions hampered growth and survival of the central and marginal populations whereas the entrance populations fared well. Further, both the among- and within-population variation in responses to climate change indicated existence of genetic variation in tolerance. Such standing genetic variation provides the raw material necessary for adaptation to a changing environment, which may eventually ensure the persistence of the species in the inner Baltic Sea. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The national adaptation plan to climate change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Galliot, M.

2013-01-01

Adaptation to climate change is a necessity, as well as reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. Since 2001, the National Observatory on the effects of global warming gathers and disseminates news on the effects of climate change and drive implementation of adaptation in France. A national strategy was adopted in 2006, followed by an analysis of the impacts of climate change and associated costs that could amount to several billion euros per year at the end of the century. Preceded by extensive consultation that involved stakeholders Grenelle Environment the National Adaptation Plan was published in mid-2011. It covers all sectors and many areas. He has more than 80 concrete actions that will commit France to adapt to the new climate. (author)

Comparative Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Novel Insights into the Adaptive Response of Skeletonema costatum to Changing Ambient Phosphorus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shu-Feng Zhang

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Phosphorus (P is a limiting macronutrient for diatom growth and productivity in the ocean. Much effort has been devoted to the physiological response of marine diatoms to ambient P change, however, the whole-genome molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, we utilized RNA-Seq to compare the global gene expression patterns of a marine diatom Skeletonema costatum grown in inorganic P-replete, P-deficient, and inorganic- and organic-P resupplied conditions. In total 34,942 unique genes were assembled and 20.8% of them altered significantly in abundance under different P conditions. Genes encoding key enzymes/proteins involved in P utilization, nucleotide metabolism, photosynthesis, glycolysis and cell cycle regulation were significantly up-regulated in P-deficient cells. Genes participating in circadian rhythm regulation, such as circadian clock associated 1, were also up-regulated in P-deficient cells. The response of S. costatum to ambient P deficiency shows several similarities to the well-described responses of other marine diatom species, but also has its unique features. S. costatum has evolved the ability to re-program its circadian clock and intracellular biological processes in response to ambient P deficiency. This study provides new insights into the adaptive mechanisms to ambient P deficiency in marine diatoms.

Implementing adaptation strategies by legal, economic and planning instruments on climate change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Albrecht, Eike; Missler-Behr, Magdalena; Schmidt, Michael; Spyra, Simon P.N. (eds.) [Brandenburg Univ. of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (Germany)

2014-07-01

The causes and effects of climate change are just as varied as the proposed solutions and approaches for dealing with the problem. Given the global character of climate change, comprehensive global cooperation is called for that leads to effective and appropriate international action in accordance with the respective responsibilities. These will inevitably differ depending on the capabilities and the social and economic situations of the respective actors. The contributions in this book present a variety of ideas, approaches and tools regarding the adaptation to climate change in specific countries and regions. In addition to examining (existing) legal instruments, they also focus on the implementation of economic instruments and planning tools, as well as their (further) development. Rather than simply discussing strategies to counteract climate change by reducing emissions, the authors also search for ways of actively adapting to climate change.

Implementing adaptation strategies by legal, economic and planning instruments on climate change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Albrecht, Eike; Missler-Behr, Magdalena; Schmidt, Michael; Spyra, Simon P.N.

2014-01-01

The causes and effects of climate change are just as varied as the proposed solutions and approaches for dealing with the problem. Given the global character of climate change, comprehensive global cooperation is called for that leads to effective and appropriate international action in accordance with the respective responsibilities. These will inevitably differ depending on the capabilities and the social and economic situations of the respective actors. The contributions in this book present a variety of ideas, approaches and tools regarding the adaptation to climate change in specific countries and regions. In addition to examining (existing) legal instruments, they also focus on the implementation of economic instruments and planning tools, as well as their (further) development. Rather than simply discussing strategies to counteract climate change by reducing emissions, the authors also search for ways of actively adapting to climate change.

Climate adaptation in NVE's areas of responsibility - Strategy 2010 - 2014; Klimatilpasning innen NVEs ansvarsomraader - Strategi 2010 - 2014

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hamarsland, Arne T. (ed.)

2010-09-15

NVE has developed a comprehensive climate change strategies within their areas of responsibility. There is a systematic review of how a future climate change will affect NVE management areas; how to meet challenges, vulnerabilities, opportunities and proposals for adaptation measures. Climate adaptation is a dynamic process. It is therefore necessary to follow up the work continuously and correct direction at regular intervals. Climate change adaptation strategy of adaptation measures is a foundation and a direction sensor in NVE's business planning. (AG)

Radio-adaptive response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ikushima, T.

1992-01-01

Knowledge about cellular events in mammalian cells exposed to low doses of ionizing radiation is meager. Recent works showed that human lymphocytes become resistant to radiation-induced chromosomal damage after exposure to low doses of ionizing radiation. Experimental evidence for radio-adaptive response (RAR) in cultured mammalian cells was obtained. Exposure to very low doses of gamma-rays or tritium beta-rays make cells less susceptible to the induction of micronuclei and sister chromatid exchanges by subsequent higher doses. Many important characteristics of the novel response suggest that RAR is a stress response resulting in the enhanced repair of chromosomal DNA damage in cell under restricted conditions. Experiments are still in progress in order to elucidate the molecular basis for RAR processes. (author). 13 refs.; 2 figs., 1 tab

Modeling adaptation of wetland plants under changing environments

Science.gov (United States)

Muneepeerakul, R.; Muneepeerakul, C. P.

2010-12-01

An evolutionary-game-theoretic approach is used to study the changes in traits of wetland plants in response to environmental changes, e.g., altered patterns of rainfall and nutrients. Here, a wetland is considered as a complex adaptive system where plants can adapt their strategies and influence one another. The system is subject to stochastic rainfall, which controls the dynamics of water level, soil moisture, and alternation between aerobic and anaerobic conditions in soil. Based on our previous work, a plant unit is characterized by three traits, namely biomass nitrogen content, specific leaf area, and allocation to rhizome. These traits control the basic functions of plants such as assimilation, respiration, and nutrient uptake, while affecting their environment through litter chemistry, root oxygenation, and thus soil microbial dynamics. The outcome of this evolutionary game, i.e., the best-performing plant traits against the backdrop of these interactions and feedbacks, is analyzed and its implications on important roles of wetlands in supporting our sustainability such as carbon sequestration in biosphere, nutrient cycling, and repository of biodiversity are discussed.

Enhancing and expanding intersectional research for climate change adaptation in agrarian settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson-Hall, Mary; Carr, Edward R; Pascual, Unai

2016-12-01

Most current approaches focused on vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation to climate change frame gender and its influence in a manner out-of-step with contemporary academic and international development research. The tendency to rely on analyses of the sex-disaggregated gender categories of 'men' and 'women' as sole or principal divisions explaining the abilities of different people within a group to adapt to climate change, illustrates this problem. This framing of gender persists in spite of established bodies of knowledge that show how roles and responsibilities that influence a person´s ability to deal with climate-induced and other stressors emerge at the intersection of diverse identity categories, including but not limited to gender, age, seniority, ethnicity, marital status, and livelihoods. Here, we provide a review of relevant literature on this topic and argue that approaching vulnerability to climate change through intersectional understandings of identity can help improve adaptation programming, project design, implementation, and outcomes.

Poverty and Climate Change. Part 2. Adaptation Lessons from Past Experience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abeygunawardena, P. [Asian Development Bank ADB, Tokyo (Japan); Vyas, Y. [African Development Bank AfDB, Abidjan (Cote d' Ivoire); Knill, P. [Federal German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development BMZ, Bonn (Germany); Foy, T.; Harrold, M.; Steele, P.; Tanner, T. [Department for International Developmen DFID, London (United Kingdom); Hirsch, D.; Oosterman, M.; Rooimans, J. [Development Cooperation DGIS, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Den Haag (Netherlands); Debois, M.; Lamin, M. [Directorate-General for Development, European Commission EC, Brussels (Belgium); Liptow, H.; Mausolf, E.; Verheyen, R. [Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit GTZ, Eschborn (Germany); Agrawala, S.; Caspary, G.; Paris, R. [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD, Paris (France); Kashyap, A. [United Nations Development Programme UNDP, New York, NY (United States); Sharma, R. [United Nations Environment Programme UNEP, Nairobi (Kenya); Mathur, A.; Sharma, M.; Sperling, F. [World Bank, Washington, DC (United States)

2003-07-01

Adaptation is successful if it reduces the vulnerability of poor countries and poor people to existing climate variability, while also building in the potential to anticipate and react to further changes in climate in the future. The evidence from past experience suggests that this is best achieved through mainstreaming and integrating climate responses into development and poverty eradication processes, rather than by identifying and treating them separately. In this document, mainstreaming is used to describe the consideration of climate issues in decision making processes such as planning and budgeting. Integration is used when specific adaptation measures are added to design and implementation strategies. Thus, integration occurs in instances where adaptation is deemed to be a priority in order to effectively achieve development goals. The rationale for integrating adaptation in development strategies and practices is underlined by the fact that many of the interventions required to increase resilience to climatic changes generally benefit development objectives. Adaptation requires the development of human capital, strengthening of institutional systems, and sound management of public finances and natural resources. Such processes build the resilience of countries, communities, and households to all shocks and stresses, including climate variability and change, and are good development practice in themselves. Mainstreaming climate issues into national development policies ensures consistency between the needs of adaptation and poverty eradication. Separation of the two runs the risk of adaptation policies inadvertently conflicting with development and poverty policies, or conversely, development policies inadvertently increasing vulnerability to climatic factors. Accordingly, this issue is critical to the successful eradication of poverty and needs to be placed at the core of national development processes. The experiences described in this section show how

Two key concepts of the society-climate change interface: vulnerability and adaptation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Magnan, Alexandre

2010-06-01

Vulnerability and adaptation are two inseparable concepts, each being dependent on the other. Although they are extremely sensitive to the contextual specificities of particular areas, vulnerability reduction and adaptation strategies can only be developed at the interface between different spatial and temporal scales. This leads us to assert that faced with a common threat - climate change -, different types of vulnerability and adaptation exist. The aim of this text is to provide an overview of two concepts that can no longer be ignored in discussions on climate change: vulnerability and adaptation. These are two pillars for analysing both the potential impact of climate change on societies and regions, and also their ability to live with these consequences. We will begin by describing how the interdependence of these two concepts explains the position(s) of present and future societies in the face of climate change impacts. We will then show that they share certain determinants that may themselves provide an appropriate framework for analysis. Finally, we will insist on the fact that these two concepts nevertheless remain extremely difficult to grasp, as they require a multi-scalar and multi-temporal approach to regions, which also explains why they are a relevant response to the challenges posed by climate change. The conclusion will call for wider discussion, reiterating that since their nature is fundamentally linked to the diversity and specificities of regions and societies, we must accept the idea that faced with the same threat - climate change - there are different types of vulnerability and adaptation. (author)

Climate Change Adaptation Practices in Various Countries

Science.gov (United States)

Tanik, A.; Tekten, D.

2017-08-01

The paper will be a review work on the recent strategies of EU in general, and will underline the inspected sectoral based adaptation practices and action plans of 7 countries; namely Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, USA and Kenya from Africa continent. Although every countries’ action plan have some similarities on sectoral analysis, each country in accordance with the specific nature of the problem seems to create its own sectoral analysis. Within this context, green and white documents of EU adaptation to climate change, EU strategy on climate change, EU targets of 2020 on climate change and EU adaptation support tools are investigated.

Adaptation to climate change in agriculture in Bangladesh: The role of formal institutions.

Science.gov (United States)

Islam, Md Torikul; Nursey-Bray, Melissa

2017-09-15

Bangladesh is very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and adaptation is emerging as a key policy response. Place based programs that build adaptive capacity are needed. This paper explores the effectiveness of formal institutions in climate change adaptation for agriculture from the perspectives of farmers and institutional communities of practice within two drought-prone areas in Bangladesh. Our findings show that formal institutions via their communities of practice play an important role in building place based capacity for mitigation and adaptation strategies in agriculture. Over-emphasis on technology, lack of acknowledgement of cultural factors and a failure of institutional communities of practice to mediate and create linkages with informal institutional communities of practice remain barriers. We argue that in order for formal institutions to play an ongoing and crucial role in building adaptive agriculture in Bangladesh, they must incorporate cultural mechanisms and build partnerships with more community based informal institutions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Response and adaptation of grapevine cultivars to hydrological conditions forced by a changing climate in a complex landscape

Science.gov (United States)

De Lorenzi, Francesca; Bonfante, Antonello; Alfieri, Silvia Maria; Monaco, Eugenia; De Mascellis, Roberto; Manna, Piero; Menenti, Massimo

2014-05-01

requirements were determined. To assess cultivars adaptability, hydrological requirements were evaluated against hydrological indicators. A probabilistic assessment of adaptability was performed, and the inaccuracy of estimated hydrological requirements was accounted for by the error of estimate and its distribution. Maps of cultivars potential distribution, i.e. locations where each cultivar is expected to be compatible with climate, were derived and possible options for adaptation to climate change were defined. The 2021 - 2050 climate scenario was characterized by higher temperatures throughout the year and by a significant decrease in precipitation during spring and autumn. The results have shown the relevant variability of soils water regime and its effects on cultivars adaptability. In the future climate scenario, a hydrological indicator (i.e. relative evapotranspiration deficit - RETD), averaged over the growing season, showed an average increase of 5-8 %, and more pronounced increases occurred in the phenological phases of berry formation and ripening. At the locations where soil hydrological conditions were favourable (like the ancient terraces), hydrological indicators were quite similar in both climate scenarios and the adaptability of the cultivars was high both in the reference and future climate case. The work was carried out within the Italian national project AGROSCENARI funded by the Ministry for Agricultural, Food and Forest Policies (MIPAAF, D.M. 8608/7303/2008) Keywords: climate change, Vitis vinifera L., simulation model, yield response functions, potential cultivation area.

Factors influencing farmers’ choices of adaptation to climate change in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oluwakemi Adeola Obayelu

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Climate change poses a great threat to human security through erratic rainfall patterns and decreasing crop yields, contributing to increased hunger. The perceptions of the indigenous people about climate change and their responses to climate change have significant roles to play in addressing climate change. Therefore a critical study on farmers’ choices of adaptation to is critical for ensuring food security poverty alleviation. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 156 households in Ekiti state while descriptive statistics and multinomial logit were used to analyze the data obtained from the households. The results showed that the most widely used adaptation method by the farmers were soil and water conservation measures (67 percent. The multinomial logit analysis revealed that the factors explaining farmer’s choices of climate change adaptation include age of the farmers, gender of the household head, years of education, years of farming experience, household size, farmers information on climate change, farmers access to credit, farm income, non-farm income, livestock ownership and extension contact.

Epigenetic Mechanisms Regulating Adaptive Responses to Targeted Kinase Inhibitors in Cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Angus, Steven P; Zawistowski, Jon S; Johnson, Gary L

2018-01-06

Although targeted inhibition of oncogenic kinase drivers has achieved remarkable patient responses in many cancers, the development of resistance has remained a significant challenge. Numerous mechanisms have been identified, including the acquisition of gatekeeper mutations, activating pathway mutations, and copy number loss or gain of the driver or alternate nodes. These changes have prompted the development of kinase inhibitors with increased selectivity, use of second-line therapeutics to overcome primary resistance, and combination treatment to forestall resistance. In addition to genomic resistance mechanisms, adaptive transcriptional and signaling responses seen in tumors are gaining appreciation as alterations that lead to a phenotypic state change-often observed as an epithelial-to-mesenchymal shift or reversion to a cancer stem cell-like phenotype underpinned by remodeling of the epigenetic landscape. This epigenomic modulation driving cell state change is multifaceted and includes modulation of repressive and activating histone modifications, DNA methylation, enhancer remodeling, and noncoding RNA species. Consequently, the combination of kinase inhibitors with drugs targeting components of the transcriptional machinery and histone-modifying enzymes has shown promise in preclinical and clinical studies. Here, we review mechanisms of resistance to kinase inhibition in cancer, with special emphasis on the rewired kinome and transcriptional signaling networks and the potential vulnerabilities that may be exploited to overcome these adaptive signaling changes.

Can Perceptions of Environmental and Climate Change in Island Communities Assist in Adaptation Planning Locally?

Science.gov (United States)

Aswani, Shankar; Vaccaro, Ismael; Abernethy, Kirsten; Albert, Simon; de Pablo, Javier Fernández-López

2015-12-01

Local perceptions of environmental and climate change, as well as associated adaptations made by local populations, are fundamental for designing comprehensive and inclusive mitigation and adaptation plans both locally and nationally. In this paper, we analyze people's perceptions of environmental and climate-related transformations in communities across the Western Solomon Islands through ethnographic and geospatial methods. Specifically, we documented people's observed changes over the past decades across various environmental domains, and for each change, we asked respondents to identify the causes, timing, and people's adaptive responses. We also incorporated this information into a geographical information system database to produce broad-scale base maps of local perceptions of environmental change. Results suggest that people detected changes that tended to be acute (e.g., water clarity, logging intensity, and agricultural diseases). We inferred from these results that most local observations of and adaptations to change were related to parts of environment/ecosystem that are most directly or indirectly related to harvesting strategies. On the other hand, people were less aware of slower insidious/chronic changes identified by scientific studies. For the Solomon Islands and similar contexts in the insular tropics, a broader anticipatory adaptation planning strategy to climate change should include a mix of local scientific studies and local observations of ongoing ecological changes.

Climate change, nuclear power, and the adaptation-mitigation dilemma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kopytko, Natalie; Perkins, John

2011-01-01

Many policy-makers view nuclear power as a mitigation for climate change. Efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, however, interact with existing and new nuclear power plants, and these installations must contend with dilemmas between adaptation and mitigation. This paper develops five criteria to assess the adaptation-mitigation dilemma on two major points: (1) the ability of nuclear power to adapt to climate change and (2) the potential for nuclear power operation to hinder climate change adaptation. Sea level rise models for nine coastal sites in the United States, a review of US Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents, and reports from France's nuclear regulatory agency provided insights into issues that have arisen from sea level rise, shoreline erosion, coastal storms, floods, and heat waves. Applying the criteria to inland and coastal nuclear power plants reveals several weaknesses. Safety stands out as the primary concern at coastal locations, while inland locations encounter greater problems with interrupted operation. Adapting nuclear power to climate change entails either increased expenses for construction and operation or incurs significant costs to the environment and public health and welfare. Mere absence of greenhouse gas emissions is not sufficient to assess nuclear power as a mitigation for climate change. - Research Highlights: → The adaptation-mitigation criteria reveal nuclear power's vulnerabilities. → Climate change adaptation could become too costly at many sites. → Nuclear power operation jeopardizes climate change adaptation. → Extreme climate events pose a safety challenge.

Adaptation of Australia’s Marine Ecosystems to Climate Change: Using Science to Inform Conservation Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Johanna E. Johnson

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The challenges that climate change poses for marine ecosystems are already manifesting in impacts at the species, population, and community levels in Australia, particularly in Tasmania and tropical northern Australia. Many species and habitats are already under threat as a result of human activities, and the additional pressure from climate change significantly increases the challenge for marine conservation and management. Climate change impacts are expected to magnify as sea surface temperatures, ocean chemistry, ocean circulation, sea level, rainfall, and storm patterns continue to change this century. In particular, keystone species that form the foundation of marine habitats, such as coral reefs, kelp beds, and temperate rocky reefs, are projected to pass thresholds with subsequent implications for communities and ecosystems. This review synthesises recent science in this field: the observed impacts and responses of marine ecosystems to climate change, ecological thresholds of change, and strategies for marine conservation to promote adaptation. Increasing observations of climate-related impacts on Australia’s marine ecosystems—both temperate and tropical—are making adaptive management more important than ever before. Our increased understanding of the impacts and responses of marine ecosystems to climate change provides a focus for “no-regrets” adaptations that can be implemented now and refined as knowledge improves.

Adaptive Queue Management with Restraint on Non-Responsive Flows

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lan Li

2003-12-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes an adaptive queue management scheme (adaptive RED to improve Random Early Detection (RED on restraining non-responsive flows. Due to a lack of flow control mechanism, non-responsive flows can starve responsive flows for buffer and bandwidth at the gateway. In order to solve the disproportionate resource problem, RED framework is modified in this way: on detecting when the non-responsive flows starve the queue, packet-drop intensity (Max_p in RED can be adaptively adjusted to curb non-responsive flows for resource fair-sharing, such as buffer and bandwidth fair-sharing. Based on detection of traffic behaviors, intentionally restraining nonresponsive flows is to increase the throughput and decrease the drop rate of responsive flows. Our experimental results based on adaptive RED shows that the enhancement of responsive traffic and the better sharing of buffer and bandwidth can be achieved under a variety of traffic scenarios.

Tourism and climate change: socioeconomic implications, mitigation and adaptation measures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Utsab Bhattarai

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The relationship between tourism and changing climate has been discussed and studied for a relatively long time in tourism research. Over the past 15 years, more focused studies have begun to appear, and especially recently, the issue of adaptation and mitigation has been emphasized as an urgent research need in tourism and climate change studies. This paper is based on the review of selected articles which discuss the several forms of tourism and climate change and provide recommendations for mitigation and adaptation measures. This review paper assesses the impacts of climate change on the popular forms of tourism such as; mountain tourism, wildlife tourism, adventure tourism, sun/sand tourism; last chance tourism, and describes the extent of tourism vulnerabilities and their implications. The paper concludes that the appropriate adaptation and mitigation measures have to be followed to minimize the risk of climate change while trying to save all forms of tourism. The initiative of this article is to present an overview of the existing literature on the relationship between tourism and climate change in order to establish the current state of corporate and institutional responses within the tourism industry and to set out an agenda for future research. The currency of the review is evident given the recent surge in popular discussion on climate change and its effects on tourism, and the appearance of a broad and disparate array of studies on this topic. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ije.v4i2.12664 International Journal of Environment Vol.4(2 2015: 355-373

Partnering for climate change adaptations by Dutch housing associations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin Roders

2015-06-01

as partnering. These integrated methods aim to involve the construction sector early in the development of plans so that they can contribute their expertise. This creates a more efficient construction and maintenance process and delivers dwellings of higher quality. The housing associations cannot pre-empt all the effects of climate change alone. For adaptation measures at the neighbourhood level, they are dependent on collaboration with other stakeholders such as municipalities, but there are measures that can be applied at the building level, which falls within their range of influence. An example is the application of lighter colours on building façades in order to reflect radiation and reduce the air temperature close to the façades. The hazards of overflowing sewage systems caused by extreme precipitation can be reduced by applying measures to retain water temporarily, such as ‘green roofs’ or to ensure effective drainage such as open pavements. These measures reduce the peak load on the sewage system. Another effective measure is the use of materials that are not negatively affected by water so that if, despite all the precautionary measures, flooding does occur, the consequences would be less severe. Problem formulation This research assesses the potential of adopting a partnering approach as a governance tool with which to increase the implementation of climate change adaptation measures like those described above. The housing stock owned by Dutch housing associations is taken as a case study. Involving the construction sector through a partnering approach is promising, since construction companies are the ones who carry out the works. Their early commitment reduces the risks of miscommunication or  failure and enhances opportunities for innovative solutions. By doing this, not only do housing associations take responsibility for their actions, but the construction sector as a whole gains more responsibility for solving societal challenges and is

Helsinki Metropolitan Area Climate Change Adaptation Strategy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2012-07-01

The Helsinki Metropolitan Area Climate Change Adaptation Strategy has been prepared in close cooperation with the four cities of the metropolitan area (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen), the Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority HSY and other municipal, regional and state level organisations. In the strategy, strategic starting points and policies with which the metropolitan area prepares for the consequences of climate change, are compiled. The Helsinki Metropolitan Area adaptation strategy concentrates on the adaptation of the built and urban environment to the changing climate. The vision of the strategy is climate proof city - the future is built now. The strategy aims to (1) assess the impacts of climate change in the area, (2) prepare for the impacts of climate change and to extreme weather events and (3) to reduce the vulnerabilities of the area to climate variability and change. The target is to secure the well-being of the citizens and the functioning of the cities also in the changing climate conditions. The preparation of the adaptation strategy started in 2009 by producing the background studies. They include the regional climate and sea level scenarios, modelling of river floods in climate change conditions and a survey of climate change impacts in the region. Also, existing programmes, legislation, research and studies concerning adaptation were collected. The background studies are published in a report titled 'The Helsinki metropolitan area climate is changing - Adaptation strategy background studies' (in Finnish) (HSY 2010). HSY coordinated the strategy preparation. The work was carried out is close cooperation with the experts of the metropolitan area cities, regional emergency services, Ministry of the Environment, Helsinki Region Transport Authority and other regional organisations. The strategy work has had a steering group that consists of representatives of the cities and other central cooperation partners. The

Ecosystem service provision in a changing Europe: adapting to the impacts of combined climate and socio-economic change.

Science.gov (United States)

Dunford, Robert W; Smith, Alison C; Harrison, Paula A; Hanganu, Diana

Future patterns of European ecosystem services provision are likely to vary significantly as a result of climatic and socio-economic change and the implementation of adaptation strategies. However, there is little research in mapping future ecosystem services and no integrated assessment approach to map the combined impacts of these drivers. Map changing patterns in ecosystem services for different European futures and (a) identify the role of driving forces; (b) explore the potential influence of different adaptation options. The CLIMSAVE integrated assessment platform is used to map spatial patterns in services (food, water and timber provision, atmospheric regulation, biodiversity existence/bequest, landscape experience and land use diversity) for a number of combined climatic and socio-economic scenarios. Eight adaptation strategies are explored within each scenario. Future service provision (particularly water provision) will be significantly impacted by climate change. Socio-economic changes shift patterns of service provision: more dystopian societies focus on food provision at the expense of other services. Adaptation options offer significant opportunities, but may necessitate trade-offs between services, particularly between agriculture- and forestry-related services. Unavoidable trade-offs between regions (particularly South-North) are also identified in some scenarios. Coordinating adaptation across regions and sectors will be essential to ensure that all needs are met: a factor that will become increasingly pressing under dystopian futures where inter-regional cooperation breaks down. Integrated assessment enables exploration of interactions and trade-offs between ecosystem services, highlighting the importance of taking account of complex cross-sectoral interactions under different future scenarios of planning adaptation responses.

Europe adapts to climate change: Comparing National Adaptation Strategies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Biesbroek, G. Robbert; Swart, Rob J.; Carter, Timothy R.

2010-01-01

For the last two decades, European climate policy has focused almost exclusively on mitigation of climate change. It was only well after the turn of the century, with impacts of climate change increasingly being observed, that adaptation was added to the policy agenda and EU Member States started...

Changes in BOLD and ADC weighted imaging in acute hypoxia during sea-level and altitude adapted states

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rostrup, Egill; Larsson, Henrik B.W.; Born, Alfred P.

2005-01-01

possible structural changes as measured by diffusion weighted imaging. Eleven healthy sea-level residents were studied after 5 weeks of adaptation to high altitude conditions at Chacaltaya, Bolivia (5260 m). The subjects were studied immediately after return to sea-level in hypoxic and normoxic conditions...... was slightly elevated in high altitude as compared to sea-level adaptation. It is concluded that hypoxia significantly diminishes the BOLD response, and the mechanisms underlying this finding are discussed. Furthermore, altitude adaptation may influence both the magnitude of the activation-related response......, and the examinations repeated 6 months later after re-adaptation to sea-level conditions. The BOLD response, measured at 1.5 T, was severely reduced during acute hypoxia both in the altitude and sea-level adapted states (50% reduction during an average S(a)O(2) of 75%). On average, the BOLD response magnitude was 23...

Relationship between adaptation and cardiovascular response to tonic cold and heat pain Adaptability to tonic pain and cardiovascular responses.

Science.gov (United States)

Devoize, L; Chalaye, P; Lafrenaye, S; Marchand, S; Dallel, R

2016-05-01

The mechanisms of adaptation to tonic pain are not elucidated. We hypothesized that the adaptability to tonic pain is related to the cardiovascular system. Twenty-six subjects received over two sessions in a random order: tonic cold (7 ± 0.2 °C) and heat pain (47.5 ± 0.5 °C) on the hand for 5 min. Pain intensity, blood pressure (BP), and heart rate (HR) were continuously monitored. Pain experience during the heat (HIT) and cold (CIT) immersion tests exhibited different average time courses, being approximated with a linear and cubic function, respectively. In each test, two groups of participants could be identified based on the time course of their tonic thermal pain: one-third of participants were pain adaptive and two-thirds non adaptive. The adaptive group exhibited higher initial pain, lower last pain, and shorter latency to peak pain than the non-adaptive one. Interestingly, some participants were adaptive to both pain stimuli, most were not. HIT as well as CIT produced a stable elevation of BP. However, BP was higher during CIT than HIT (p = 0.034). HR was also increased during CIT and HIT, but the two tests differed with respect to the time course of responses. Finally, the intensity and time course of pain rating to both HIT and CIT correlated with neither BP nor HR responses. These results suggest that individual sensitivity and adaptability to tonic thermal pain is related to the intensity of initial pain rating and the latency to peak pain but not to cardiovascular responses. © 2015 European Pain Federation - EFIC®

Integrating climate change adaptation in energy planning and decision-making - Key challenges and opportunities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olhoff, Anne; Olsen, Karen Holm

2011-01-01

management framework is used as the basis for identifying key challenges and opportunities to enhance the integration of climate change adaptation in energy planning and decision-making. Given its importance for raising awareness and for stimulating action by planners and decision-makers, emphasis is placed......Energy systems are significantly vulnerable to current climate variability and extreme events. As climate change becomes more pronounced, the risks and vulnerabilities will be exacerbated. To date, energy sector adaptation issues have received very limited attention. In this paper, a climate risk...... barriers to integration of climate risks and adaptive responses in energy planning and decision making. Both detailed assessments of the costs and benefits of integrating adaptation measures and rougher ‘order of magnitude’ estimates would enhance awareness raising and momentum for action....

Community-based adaptation to climate change: an update

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ayers, Jessica; Huq, Saleemul

2009-06-15

Over a billion people - the world's poorest and most bulnerable communities – will bear the brunt of climate change. For them, building local capacity to cope is a vital step towards resilience. Community-based adaptation (CBA) is emerging as a key response to this challenge. Tailored to local cultures and conditions, CBA supports and builds on autonomous adaptations to climate variability, such as the traditional baira or floating gardens of Bangladesh, which help small farmers' crops survive climate-driven floods. Above all, CBA is participatory – a process involving both local stakeholders, and development and disaster risk reduction practitioners. As such, it builds on existing cultural norms while addressing local development issues that contribute to climate vulnerability. CBA is now gaining ground in many regions, and is ripe for the reassessment offered here.

Adapting to Change: The Value of Change Information and Meaning-Making

Science.gov (United States)

van den Heuvel, Machteld; Demerouti, Evangelia; Bakker, Arnold B.; Schaufeli, Wilmar B.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this 3-wave study is to examine the micro process of how employees adapt to change over time. We combined Conservation of Resources theory with insights from the organizational change literature to study employees in a Dutch police district undergoing reorganization. A model was tested where employee adaptability, operationalized by…

ADAPTATION PROCESS TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN AGRICULTURE- AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ghulam Mustafa

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Climatic variations affect agriculture in a process with no known end means. Adaptations help to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change. Unfortunately, adaptation has never been considered as a process. Current study empirically identified the adaptation process and its different stages. Moreover, little is known about the farm level adaptation strategies and their determinants. The study in hand found farm level adaptation strategies and determinants of these strategies. The study identified three stages of adaptation i.e. perception, intention and adaptation. It was found that 71.4% farmers perceived about climate change, 58.5% intended to adapt while 40.2% actually adapted. The study further explored that farmers do adaptations through changing crop variety (56.3%, changing planting dates (44.6%, tree plantation (37.5%, increase/conserve irrigation (39.3% and crop diversification (49.2%. The adaptation strategies used by farmers were autonomous and mostly determined perception to climate change. It was also noted that the adaptation strategies move in a circular process and once they are adapted they remained adapted for a longer period of time. Some constraints slow the adaptation process so; we recommend farmers should be given price incentives to speed-up this process.

Agricultural Adaptations to Climate Changes in West Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Guan, K.; Sultan, B.; Lobell, D. B.; Biasutti, M.; Piani, C.; Hammer, G. L.; McLean, G.

2014-12-01

Agricultural production in West Africa is highly vulnerable to climate variability and change and a fast growing demand for food adds yet another challenge. Assessing possible adaptation strategies of crop production in West Africa under climate change is thus critical for ensuring regional food security and improving human welfare. Our previous efforts have identified as the main features of climate change in West Africa a robust increase in temperature and a complex shift in the rainfall pattern (i.e. seasonality delay and total amount change). Unaddressed, these robust climate changes would reduce regional crop production by up to 20%. In the current work, we use two well-validated crop models (APSIM and SARRA-H) to comprehensively assess different crop adaptation options under future climate scenarios. Particularly, we assess adaptations in both the choice of crop types and management strategies. The expected outcome of this study is to provide West Africa with region-specific adaptation recommendations that take into account both climate variability and climate change.

Adapting inland fisheries management to a changing climate

Science.gov (United States)

Paukert, Craig P.; Glazer, Bob A.; Hansen, Gretchen J. A.; Irwin, Brian J.; Jacobson, Peter C.; Kershner, Jeffrey L.; Shuter, Brian J.; Whitney, James E.; Lynch, Abigail J.

2016-01-01

Natural resource decision makers are challenged to adapt management to a changing climate while balancing short-term management goals with long-term changes in aquatic systems. Adaptation will require developing resilient ecosystems and resilient management systems. Decision makers already have tools to develop or ensure resilient aquatic systems and fisheries such as managing harvest and riparian zones. Because fisheries management often interacts with multiple stakeholders, adaptation strategies involving fisheries managers and other partners focused on land use, policy, and human systems, coupled with long-term monitoring, are necessary for resilient systems. We show how agencies and organizations are adapting to a changing climate in Minnesota and Ontario lakes and Montana streams. We also present how the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission created a management structure to develop adaptation strategies. These examples demonstrate how organizations and agencies can cope with climate change effects on fishes and fisheries through creating resilient management and ecological systems.

Sharing opportunities for innovation in climate change adaptation ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2018-04-24

Apr 24, 2018 ... Sharing opportunities for innovation in climate change adaptation ... at an international forum on climate change adaptation organized at ... Direction des affaires internationals and School of Architecture, Universidad del Valle, ...

A need for planned adaptation to climate change in the wine industry

Science.gov (United States)

Metzger, Marc J.; Rounsevell, Mark D. A.

2011-09-01

The diversity of wine production depends on subtle differences in microclimate and is therefore especially sensitive to climate change. A warmer climate will impact directly on wine-grapes through over-ripening, drying out, rising acidity levels, and greater vulnerability to pests and disease, resulting in changes in wine quality (e.g. complexity, balance and structure) or potentially the style of wine that can be produced. The growing scientific evidence for significant climate change in the coming decades means that adaptation will be of critical importance to the multi-billion dollar global wine-industry in general, and to quality wine producers in particular (White et al 2006, 2009; Hertsgaard 2011). Adaptation is understood as an adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected environmental change, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities (IPCC 2007). Autonomous adaptation has been an integral part of the 20th century wine industry. Technological advances, changes in consumer demand, and global competition have meant that growers and producers have had to adapt to stay in business. The gradual temperature rise in the 20th Century (0.7 °C globally) has been accommodated successfully by gradual changes in vine management, technological measures, production control, and marketing (White et al 2009), although this has in many cases resulted in the production of bolder, more alcoholic wines (Hertsgaard 2011). In spite of this success, the wine industry is surprisingly conservative when it comes to considering longer term planned adaptation for substantial climate change impacts. A few producers are expanding to new locations at higher altitudes or cooler climates (e.g. Torres is developing new vineyards high in the Pyrenees, and Mouton Rothschild is setting up new vineyards in South America), and the legal and cultural restrictions of Appelation d'Origine Cȏntrollée (AOC) systems are being discussed (White et al 2009

Poverty and Climate Change. Part 1. Reducing the Vulnerability of the Poor through Adaptation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abeygunawardena, P. [Asian Development Bank ADB, Tokyo (Japan); Vyas, Y. [African Development Bank AfDB, Abidjan (Cote d' Ivoire); Knill, P. [Federal German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development BMZ, Bonn (Germany); Foy, T.; Harrold, M.; Steele, P.; Tanner, T. [Department for International Developmen DFID, London (United Kingdom); Hirsch, D.; Oosterman, M.; Rooimans, J. [Development Cooperation DGIS, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Den Haag (Netherlands); Debois, M.; Lamin, M. [Directorate-General for Development, European Commission EC, Brussels (Belgium); Liptow, H.; Mausolf, E.; Verheyen, R. [Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit GTZ, Eschborn (Germany); Agrawala, S.; Caspary, G.; Paris, R. [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD, Paris (France); Kashyap, A. [United Nations Development Programme UNDP, New York, NY (United States); Sharma, R. [United Nations Environment Programme UNEP, Nairobi (Kenya); Mathur, A.; Sharma, M.; Sperling, F. [World Bank, Washington, DC (United States)

2003-07-01

Despite international efforts, poverty has become more widespread in many countries in the last decade, making poverty reduction the core challenge for development in the 21st century. In the Millennium Declaration, 189 nations have resolved to halve extreme poverty by 2015 and all agencies involved in this paper are committed to contribute to this aim. However, climate change is a serious risk to poverty reduction and threatens to undo decades of development efforts. This paper focuses on the impacts of climate change on poverty reduction efforts in the context of sustaining progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and beyond. It discusses ways of mainstreaming and integrating adaptation to climate change into poverty reduction and sustainable development efforts. The chief messages emerging from this paper are: Climate change is happening and will increasingly affect the poor; and Adaptation is necessary and there is a need to integrate responses to climate change and adaptation measures into strategies for poverty reduction to ensure sustainable development. This decision to focus on adaptation is deliberate and is taken with the understanding that adaptation cannot replace mitigation efforts. The magnitude and rate of climate change will strongly depend on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere. The higher the concentrations of GHGs, the higher the likelihood of irreversible and grave damage to human and biological systems. Therefore, adaptation is only one part of the solution. Mitigation of climate change by limiting greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere is the indispensable other part.

A multi-layered governance framework for incorporating social science insights into adapting to the health impacts of climate change.

Science.gov (United States)

Bowen, Kathryn J; Ebi, Kristie; Friel, Sharon; McMichael, Anthony J

2013-09-10

Addressing climate change and its associated effects is a multi-dimensional and ongoing challenge. This includes recognizing that climate change will affect the health and wellbeing of all populations over short and longer terms, albeit in varied ways and intensities. That recognition has drawn attention to the need to take adaptive actions to lessen adverse impacts over the next few decades from unavoidable climate change, particularly in developing country settings. A range of sectors is responsible for appropriate adaptive policies and measures to address the health risks of climate change, including health services, water and sanitation, trade, agriculture, disaster management, and development. To broaden the framing of governance and decision-making processes by using innovative methods and assessments to illustrate the multi-sectoral nature of health-related adaptation to climate change. This is a shift from sector-specific to multi-level systems encompassing sectors and actors, across temporal and spatial scales. A review and synthesis of the current knowledge in the areas of health and climate change adaptation governance and decision-making processes. A novel framework is presented that incorporates social science insights into the formulation and implementation of adaptation activities and policies to lessen the health risks posed by climate change. Clarification of the roles that different sectors, organizations, and individuals occupy in relation to the development of health-related adaptation strategies will facilitate the inclusion of health and wellbeing within multi-sector adaptation policies, thereby strengthening the overall set of responses to minimize the adverse health effects of climate change.

A multi-layered governance framework for incorporating social science insights into adapting to the health impacts of climate change

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kathryn J. Bowen

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Background: Addressing climate change and its associated effects is a multi-dimensional and ongoing challenge. This includes recognizing that climate change will affect the health and wellbeing of all populations over short and longer terms, albeit in varied ways and intensities. That recognition has drawn attention to the need to take adaptive actions to lessen adverse impacts over the next few decades from unavoidable climate change, particularly in developing country settings. A range of sectors is responsible for appropriate adaptive policies and measures to address the health risks of climate change, including health services, water and sanitation, trade, agriculture, disaster management, and development. Objectives: To broaden the framing of governance and decision-making processes by using innovative methods and assessments to illustrate the multi-sectoral nature of health-related adaptation to climate change. This is a shift from sector-specific to multi-level systems encompassing sectors and actors, across temporal and spatial scales. Design: A review and synthesis of the current knowledge in the areas of health and climate change adaptation governance and decision-making processes. Results: A novel framework is presented that incorporates social science insights into the formulation and implementation of adaptation activities and policies to lessen the health risks posed by climate change. Conclusion: Clarification of the roles that different sectors, organizations, and individuals occupy in relation to the development of health-related adaptation strategies will facilitate the inclusion of health and wellbeing within multi-sector adaptation policies, thereby strengthening the overall set of responses to minimize the adverse health effects of climate change.

A Meta-Analysis of Urban Climate Change Adaptation ...

Science.gov (United States)

The concentration of people, infrastructure, and ecosystem services in urban areas make them prime sites for climate change adaptation. While advances have been made in developing frameworks for adaptation planning and identifying both real and potential barriers to action, empirical work evaluating urban adaptation planning processes has been relatively piecemeal. Existing assessments of current experience with urban adaptation provide necessarily broad generalizations based on the available peer-reviewed literature. This paper uses a meta-analysis of U.S. cities’ current experience with urban adaptation planning drawing from 54 sources that include peer-reviewed literature, government reports, white papers, and reports published by non-governmental organizations. The analysis specifically evaluates the institutional support structures being developed for urban climate change adaptation. The results demonstrate that adaptation planning is driven by a desire to reduce vulnerability and often catalyzes new collaborations and coordination mechanisms in urban governance. As a result, building capacity for urban climate change adaptation planning requires a focus not only on city governments themselves but also on the complex horizontal and vertical networks that have arisen around such efforts. Existing adaptation planning often lacks attention to equity issues, social vulnerability, and the influence of non-climatic factors on vulnerability. Engaging city govern

Adaptation of reproductive phenology to climate change with ecological feedback via dominance hierarchies.

Science.gov (United States)

Johansson, Jacob; Smith, Henrik G; Jonzén, Niclas

2014-03-01

Phenological shifts belong to the most commonly observed biological responses to recent climate change. It is, however, often unclear how these shifts are linked to demography and competitive interactions. We develop an eco-evolutionary model to study adaptation of timing of reproduction in organisms with social dominance hierarchies. We focus on residential birds with winter flocks, where success in competition for territories among offspring depends on ranking given by prior residence. We study the effects of environmental change on breeding population densities, ensuing selection pressures and long-term evolutionary equilibria. We consider changes in food peak date, in winter survival, in total reproductive output and in the width of the food distribution. We show that the evolutionarily stable hatching date will advance with increasing winter survival and reproductive output since these parameters increase habitat saturation and post-fledging competition. Increasing the length of the breeding season also selects for earlier hatching date due to the reduced costs for producing offspring with high ranking. Our analysis shows that there is little correlation between short-term and long-term population responses across different scenarios of environmental change. However, short-term population growth consistently predicts selection for earlier reproduction. Hence, the model identifies changed breeding population density as a key factor to understanding phenological adaptation in systems with prior residence advantages. While selection for change in reproductive phenology is often explained by changed seasonal variation in environmental variables, such as food abundance, we show that environmental change without apparent effects on seasonality can critically affect phenological adaptation. Such factors can mask or even override influences of changed seasonality on phenology. The model thus offers a conceptually new set of explanations for understanding phenological

Utilizing forest tree genetic diversity for an adaptation of forest to climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Schueler, Silvio; Lackner, Magdalena; Chakraborty, Debojyoti

2017-04-01

Since climate conditions are considered to be major determinants of tree species' distribution ranges and drivers of local adaptation, anthropogenic climate change (CC) is expected to modify the distribution of tree species, tree species diversity and the forest ecosystems connected to these species. The expected speed of environmental change is significantly larger than the natural migration and adaptation capacity of trees and makes spontaneous adjustment of forest ecosystems improbable. Planting alternative tree species and utilizing the tree species' intrinsic adaptive capacity are considered to be the most promising adaptation strategy. Each year about 900 million seedlings of the major tree species are being planted in Central Europe. At present, the utilization of forest reproductive material is mainly restricted to nationally defined ecoregions (seed/provenance zones), but when seedlings planted today become adult, they might be maladapted, as the climate conditions within ecoregions changed significantly. In the cooperation project SUSTREE, we develop transnational delineation models for forest seed transfer and genetic conservation based on species distribution models and available intra-specific climate-response function. These models are being connected to national registers of forest reproductive material in order support nursery and forest managers by selecting the appropriate seedling material for future plantations. In the long-term, European and national policies as well as regional recommendations for provenances use need to adapted to consider the challenges of climate change.

Developing the evidence base for mainstreaming adaptation of stormwater systems to climate change.

Science.gov (United States)

Gersonius, B; Nasruddin, F; Ashley, R; Jeuken, A; Pathirana, A; Zevenbergen, C

2012-12-15

In a context of high uncertainty about hydro-climatic variables, the development of updated methods for climate impact and adaptation assessment is as important, if not more important than the provision of improved climate change data. In this paper, we introduce a hybrid method to facilitate mainstreaming adaptation of stormwater systems to climate change: i.e., the Mainstreaming method. The Mainstreaming method starts with an analysis of adaptation tipping points (ATPs), which is effect-based. These are points of reference where the magnitude of climate change is such that acceptable technical, environmental, societal or economic standards may be compromised. It extends the ATP analysis to include aspects from a bottom-up approach. The extension concerns the analysis of adaptation opportunities in the stormwater system. The results from both analyses are then used in combination to identify and exploit Adaptation Mainstreaming Moments (AMMs). Use of this method will enhance the understanding of the adaptive potential of stormwater systems. We have applied the proposed hybrid method to the management of flood risk for an urban stormwater system in Dordrecht (the Netherlands). The main finding of this case study is that the application of the Mainstreaming method helps to increase the no-/low-regret character of adaptation for several reasons: it focuses the attention on the most urgent effects of climate change; it is expected to lead to potential cost reductions, since adaptation options can be integrated into infrastructure and building design at an early stage instead of being applied separately; it will lead to the development of area-specific responses, which could not have been developed on a higher scale level; it makes it possible to take account of local values and sensibilities, which contributes to increased public and political support for the adaptive strategies. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Dynamics of Vulnerability and Implications for Climate Change Adaptation: Lessons from Urban Water Management

Science.gov (United States)

Dilling, L.; Daly, M.; Travis, W.; Wilhelmi, O.; Klein, R.; Kenney, D.; Ray, A. J.; Miller, K.

2013-12-01

Recent reports and scholarship have suggested that adapting to current climate variability may represent a "no regrets" strategy for adapting to climate change. Filling "adaptation deficits" and other approaches that rely on addressing current vulnerabilities are of course helpful for responding to current climate variability, but we find here that they are not sufficient for adapting to climate change. First, following a comprehensive review and unique synthesis of the natural hazards and climate adaptation literatures, we advance six reasons why adapting to climate variability is not sufficient for adapting to climate change: 1) Vulnerability is different at different levels of exposure; 2) Coping with climate variability is not equivalent to adaptation to longer term change; 3) The socioeconomic context for vulnerability is constantly changing; 4) The perception of risk associated with climate variability does not necessarily promote adaptive behavior in the face of climate change; 5) Adaptations made to short term climate variability may reduce the flexibility of the system in the long term; and 6) Adaptive actions may shift vulnerabilities to other parts of the system or to other people. Instead we suggest that decision makers faced with choices to adapt to climate change must consider the dynamics of vulnerability in a connected system-- how choices made in one part of the system might impact other valued outcomes or even create new vulnerabilities. Furthermore we suggest that rather than expressing climate change adaptation as an extension of adaptation to climate variability, the research and practice communities would do well to articulate adaptation as an imperfect policy, with tradeoffs and consequences and that decisions be prioritized to preserve flexibility be revisited often as climate change unfolds. We then present the results of a number of empirical studies of decision making for drought in urban water systems in the United States to understand

Time-dependent changes in rat lymphocyte activity in response to isolation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jessop, J.J.; Bayer, B.M.

1986-01-01

The authors have found that isolation of rats, previously adapted to group-housing conditions, resulted in time-dependent changes in mitogenic and cytolytic responses of lymphocytes. A depression (40-60%) of the uptake of 3 H-thymidine by splenic and blood lymphocytes stimulated with either phytohemagglutinin (PHA) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was observed during the first 48 hours after transfer of the animals to individual cages. Within 4 days the mitogenic response increased and was comparable to that of animals which had been continuously group-housed. The response continued to increase and by 10 days was enhanced by 2 to 4 fold and remained elevated for at least 8 weeks. Similar changes in activity were observed with both splenic and blood lymphocytes, however, thymic lymphocytes taken from isolated animals demonstrated no change in reactivity to PHA. As with mitogenic responses, the cytolytic activity of splenic lymphocytes was also depressed during the initial days of isolation and as isolation continued, the activity returned to normal and was significantly enhanced (80%) within 5 weeks. These data show that changes in lymphocyte activity are dependent on the duration of exposure to isolated housing conditions and may be a part of the acute, adaptive and chronic phases of the response of rats to the stress of isolation

Climate change adaptation benefits of potential conservation partnerships.

Science.gov (United States)

Monahan, William B; Theobald, David M

2018-01-01

We evaluate the world terrestrial network of protected areas (PAs) for its partnership potential in responding to climate change. That is, if a PA engaged in collaborative, trans-boundary management of species, by investing in conservation partnerships with neighboring areas, what climate change adaptation benefits might accrue? We consider core tenets of conservation biology related to protecting large areas with high environmental heterogeneity and low climate change velocity and ask how a series of biodiversity adaptation indicators change across spatial scales encompassing potential PA and non-PA partners. Less than 1% of current world terrestrial PAs equal or exceed the size of established and successful conservation partnerships. Partnering at this scale would increase the biodiversity adaptation indicators by factors up to two orders of magnitude, compared to a null model in which each PA is isolated. Most partnership area surrounding PAs is comprised of non-PAs (70%), indicating the importance of looking beyond the current network of PAs when promoting climate change adaptation. Given monumental challenges with PA-based species conservation in the face of climate change, partnerships provide a logical and achievable strategy for helping areas adapt. Our findings identify where strategic partnering efforts in highly vulnerable areas of the world may prove critical in safeguarding biodiversity.

Household Adaptive Behavior in Response to Coastal Flood Risk and External Stressors

Science.gov (United States)

Buchanan, M. K.

2017-12-01

Approximately forty percent of the world's population sits along ocean coastlines. This urban exposure to flooding is increasing due to population growth and sea level rise resulting from anthropogenic climate change. Recent research improving the characterization of physical hazards from climate change on the coastal zone has helped cities assess their risks. This work includes improving our understanding of the rate and magnitude of sea level rise, the change in distribution of tropical cyclones, and the resulting frequency and severity of flooding on global to local scales. However, the ability of settlements to cope or thrive under changing climate conditions will likely depend on the cooperation and initiative of households, regardless of any governmental efforts to reduce risk. Understanding individuals' likely responses to changing coastal hazards is thus critical for decision-makers to plan for a sustainable future. Individuals may be motivated not only by information regarding emerging flood hazards, but also by cognitive and contextual factors. For governments to develop effective adaptation policies, it is important to understand what factors tend to motivate household adaptation. We apply principles from economics and psychology to investigate how people respond to various existing adaptation options and policies, using a household survey with experiments in New York City neighborhoods affected by Hurricane Sandy. We investigate a comprehensive set of factors that may influence household adaptive behavior. A striking 64% of homeowners and 83% of renters intend to relocate among different plausible future conditions, such as frequent nuisance flooding and the adaptation of peers. This amount is substantial considering the political sensitivity of `retreat' and the lack of regional and federal preparation for large-scale climate-induced migration.

Climate change adaptation for the US National Wildlife Refuge System

Science.gov (United States)

Griffith, Brad; Scott, J. Michael; Adamcik, Robert S.; Ashe, Daniel; Czech, Brian; Fischman, Robert; Gonzalez, Patrick; Lawler, Joshua J.; McGuire, A. David; Pidgorna, Anna

2009-01-01

Since its establishment in 1903, the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) has grown to 635 units and 37 Wetland Management Districts in the United States and its territories. These units provide the seasonal habitats necessary for migratory waterfowl and other species to complete their annual life cycles. Habitat conversion and fragmentation, invasive species, pollution, and competition for water have stressed refuges for decades, but the interaction of climate change with these stressors presents the most recent, pervasive, and complex conservation challenge to the NWRS. Geographic isolation and small unit size compound the challenges of climate change, but a combined emphasis on species that refuges were established to conserve and on maintaining biological integrity, diversity, and environmental health provides the NWRS with substantial latitude to respond. Individual symptoms of climate change can be addressed at the refuge level, but the strategic response requires system-wide planning. A dynamic vision of the NWRS in a changing climate, an explicit national strategic plan to implement that vision, and an assessment of representation, redundancy, size, and total number of units in relation to conservation targets are the first steps toward adaptation. This adaptation must begin immediately and be built on more closely integrated research and management. Rigorous projections of possible futures are required to facilitate adaptation to change. Furthermore, the effective conservation footprint of the NWRS must be increased through land acquisition, creative partnerships, and educational programs in order for the NWRS to meet its legal mandate to maintain the biological integrity, diversity, and environmental health of the system and the species and ecosystems that it supports.

Neuromuscular adaptations associated with knee joint angle-specific force change.

Science.gov (United States)

Noorkõiv, Marika; Nosaka, Kazunori; Blazevich, Anthony J

2014-08-01

Neuromuscular adaptations to joint angle-specific force increases after isometric training have not yet been fully elucidated. This study examined angle-specific neuromuscular adaptations in response to isometric knee extension training at short (SL, joint angle 38.1° ± 3.7°) versus long (LL, 87.5° ± 6.0°) muscle lengths. Sixteen men trained three times a week for 6 wk either at SL (n = 8) or LL (n = 8). Voluntary maximal isometric knee extensor (MVC) force, doublet twitch force, EMG amplitudes (EMG/Mmax), and voluntary activation during MVC force (VA%) were measured at eight knee joint angles (30°-100°) at weeks 0, 3, and 6. Muscle volume and cross-sectional area (CSA) were measured from magnetic resonance imaging scans, and fascicle length (Lf) was assessed using ultrasonography before and after training. Clear joint angle specificity of force increase was seen in SL but not in LL. The 13.4% ± 9.7% (P = 0.01) force increase around the training angle in SL was related to changes in vastus lateralis and vastus medialis EMG/Mmax around the training angle (r = 0.84-0.88, P < 0.05), without changes in the doublet twitch force-angle relation or muscle size. In LL, muscle volume and CSA increased and the changes in CSA at specific muscle regions were correlated with changes in MVC force. A 5.4% ± 4.9% (P = 0.001) increase in Lf found in both groups was not associated with angle-specific force changes. There were no angle-specific changes in VA%. The EMG/Mmax, although not VA%, results suggest that neural adaptations underpinned training-related changes at short quadriceps lengths, but hypertrophic changes predominated after training at long lengths. The findings of this study should contribute to the development of more effective and evidence-based rehabilitation and strength training protocols.

Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change in Canadian Jurisdictions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephanie E. Austin

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Climate change poses numerous risks to the health of Canadians. Extreme weather events, poor air quality, and food insecurity in northern regions are likely to increase along with the increasing incidence and range of infectious diseases. In this study we identify and characterize Canadian federal, provincial, territorial and municipal adaptation to these health risks based on publically available information. Federal health adaptation initiatives emphasize capacity building and gathering information to address general health, infectious disease and heat-related risks. Provincial and territorial adaptation is varied. Quebec is a leader in climate change adaptation, having a notably higher number of adaptation initiatives reported, addressing almost all risks posed by climate change in the province, and having implemented various adaptation types. Meanwhile, all other Canadian provinces and territories are in the early stages of health adaptation. Based on publically available information, reported adaptation also varies greatly by municipality. The six sampled Canadian regional health authorities (or equivalent are not reporting any adaptation initiatives. We also find little relationship between the number of initiatives reported in the six sampled municipalities and their provinces, suggesting that municipalities are adapting (or not adapting autonomously.

Public Health Adaptation to Climate Change in Canadian Jurisdictions

Science.gov (United States)

Austin, Stephanie E.; Ford, James D.; Berrang-Ford, Lea; Araos, Malcolm; Parker, Stephen; Fleury, Manon D.

2015-01-01

Climate change poses numerous risks to the health of Canadians. Extreme weather events, poor air quality, and food insecurity in northern regions are likely to increase along with the increasing incidence and range of infectious diseases. In this study we identify and characterize Canadian federal, provincial, territorial and municipal adaptation to these health risks based on publically available information. Federal health adaptation initiatives emphasize capacity building and gathering information to address general health, infectious disease and heat-related risks. Provincial and territorial adaptation is varied. Quebec is a leader in climate change adaptation, having a notably higher number of adaptation initiatives reported, addressing almost all risks posed by climate change in the province, and having implemented various adaptation types. Meanwhile, all other Canadian provinces and territories are in the early stages of health adaptation. Based on publically available information, reported adaptation also varies greatly by municipality. The six sampled Canadian regional health authorities (or equivalent) are not reporting any adaptation initiatives. We also find little relationship between the number of initiatives reported in the six sampled municipalities and their provinces, suggesting that municipalities are adapting (or not adapting) autonomously. PMID:25588156

Questioning Complacency: Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adaptation in Norway

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

O'Brien, Karen; Eriksen, Siri; Sygna, Linda; Naess, Lars Otto

2006-01-01

Most European assessments of climate change impacts have been carried out on sectors and ecosystems, providing a narrow understanding of what climate change really means for society. Furthermore, the main focus has been on technological adaptations, with less attention paid to the process of climate change adaptation. In this article, we present and analyze findings from recent studies on climate change impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation in Norway, with the aim of identifying the wider social impacts of climate change. Three main lessons can be drawn. First, the potential thresholds and indirect effects may be more important than the direct, sectoral effects. Second, highly sensitive sectors, regions, and communities combine with differential social vulnerability to create both winners and losers. Third, high national levels of adaptive capacity mask the barriers and constraints to adaptation, particularly among those who are most vulnerable to climate change. Based on these results, we question complacency in Norway and other European countries regarding climate change impacts and adaptation. We argue that greater attention needs to be placed on the social context of climate change impacts and on the processes shaping vulnerability and adaptation

Analyzing Katana referral hospital as a complex adaptive system: agents, interactions and adaptation to a changing environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Karemere, Hermès; Ribesse, Nathalie; Marchal, Bruno; Macq, Jean

2015-01-01

This study deals with the adaptation of Katana referral hospital in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in a changing environment that is affected for more than a decade by intermittent armed conflicts. His objective is to generate theoretical proposals for addressing differently the analysis of hospitals governance in the aims to assess their performance and how to improve that performance. The methodology applied approach uses a case study using mixed methods ( qualitative and quantitative) for data collection. It uses (1) hospital data to measure the output of hospitals, (2) literature review to identify among others, events and interventions recorded in the history of hospital during the study period and (3) information from individual interviews to validate the interpretation of the results of the previous two sources of data and understand the responsiveness of management team referral hospital during times of change. The study brings four theoretical propositions: (1) Interaction between key agents is a positive force driving adaptation if the actors share a same vision, (2) The strength of the interaction between agents is largely based on the nature of institutional arrangements, which in turn are shaped by the actors themselves, (3) The owner and the management team play a decisive role in the implementation of effective institutional arrangements and establishment of positive interactions between agents, (4) The analysis of recipient population's perception of health services provided allow to better tailor and adapt the health services offer to the population's needs and expectations. Research shows that it isn't enough just to provide support (financial and technical), to manage a hospital for operate and adapt to a changing environment but must still animate, considering that it is a complex adaptive system and that this animation is nothing other than the induction of a positive interaction between agents.

Influence of smallholder farmers’ perceptions on adaptation strategies to climate change and policy implications in Zimbabwe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiri Obert

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Smallholder agricultural production is largely affected by climate change and variability. Despite the negative effects brought by climate variability, smallholder farmers are still able to derive livelihoods. An understanding of factors that influence farmers’ responses and adaptation to climate variability can improve decision making for governments and development partners. This study investigated farmers’ perceptions and adaptation strategies to climate change and how these influence adaptation policies at local level. A survey was conducted with 100 households randomly selected from Chiredzi district. Data collected was used to derive farmer perceptions to climate change as well as the influence of their perceptions and subsequent adaptation methods to ensuing local agricultural adaptation measures and policies. The results indicated that smallholder farmers perceived general reduction in long-term annual rainfall and rising local average temperatures. Adverse trends in rainfall and average temperature perceived by farmers were consistent with empirical data. These perceptions and other socio-economic factors helped to shape smallholder farmer agricultural adaptation strategies. Policy implications are that the government and development partners should seek ways to assist autonomous adaptations by farmers through investments in planned adaptation initiatives.

Policy Coherence and Interplay between Climate Change Adaptation Policies and the Forestry Sector in Nepal

Science.gov (United States)

Ranabhat, Sunita; Ghate, Rucha; Bhatta, Laxmi Dutt; Agrawal, Nand Kishor; Tankha, Sunil

2018-06-01

Least Developed Countries are likely to be hit the hardest by climate change and need focused efforts towards adaptation. Nepal recognizes that it needs to integrate climate change adaptation into various policies, but limited understanding of how to make these policies coherent is among the factors that hinder effective adaptation action. This can lead to wasted resources and lost opportunities. This paper applies concepts from policy coherence for development frameworks and policy content analysis to examine coherence in Nepal's climate and forest policies—and discusses the factors hindering effective implementation. The policies are analyzed at the horizontal/external level at three layers—motivation, measures, and planned implementation process. The paper finds that policies are more consistent on motivation level and adaptation measures, but are less coherent on implementation. The National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) is more explicit in identifying institutions, organizations, roles and responsibilities, resource allocation (financial), and a monitoring and evaluation plan for climate change adaptation while other policies such as Climate Change Policy 2011, National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2014-2020, Forest Policy 2015, and Forest Sector Strategy 2016 have critical gaps in this area. This paper conclude that formulation of a policy, articulating targets, and mobilizing financial resources are in themselves not sufficient to effectively address climate change adaptation. Policy-based legislation is required, together with development of a supportive collaborative multi-stakeholder approach at different levels of governance, backed up by effective, collaborative monitoring and enforcement.

Water System Adaptation To Hydrological Changes: Module 7, Adaptation Principles and Considerations

Science.gov (United States)

This course will introduce students to the fundamental principles of water system adaptation to hydrological changes, with emphasis on data analysis and interpretation, technical planning, and computational modeling. Starting with real-world scenarios and adaptation needs, the co...

Bystander effects, adaptive response and genomic instability induced by prenatal irradiation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Streffer, Christian [Institute for Science and Ethics, University Duisburg-Essen, Auf dem Sutan 12, D-45239 Essen (Germany)]. E-mail: streffer.essen@t-online.de

2004-12-02

The developing human embryo and fetus undergo very radiosensitive stages during the prenatal development. It is likely that the induction of low dose related effects such as bystander effects, the adaptive response, and genomic instability would have profound effects on embryonic and fetal development. In this paper, I review what has been reported on the induction of these three phenomena in exposed embryos and fetuses. All three phenomena have been shown to occur in murine embryonic or fetal cells and structures, although the induction of an adaptive response (and also likely the induction of bystander effects) are limited in terms of when during development they can be induced and the dose or dose-rate used to treat animals in utero. In contrast, genomic instability can be induced throughout development, and the effects of radiation exposure on genome instability can be observed for long times after irradiation including through pre- and postnatal development and into the next generation of mice. There are clearly strain-specific differences in the induction of these phenomena and all three can lead to long-term detrimental effects. This is true for the adaptive response as well. While induction of an adaptive response can make fetuses more resistant to some gross developmental defects induced by a subsequent high dose challenge with ionizing radiation, the long-term effects of this low dose exposure are detrimental. The negative effects of all three phenomena reflect the complexity of fetal development, a process where even small changes in the timing of gene expression or suppression can have dramatic effects on the pattern of biological events and the subsequent development of the mammalian organism.

Studies on adaptive response of lymphocyte transformation induced by low-dose irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Du Zeji; Su Liaoyuan; Tian Hailin; Zou Huawei

1995-10-01

Human peripheral blood lymphocytes stimulated by mitogen in vitro for 24 h were exposed to low-dose γ-ray irradiation (0.5∼4.0 cGy, adaptive dose). They showed an adaptive response to the inhibition of 3 H-TdR incorporation by subsequent higher acute doses of γ-ray (challenge dose). At the interval of 24 h between adaptive dose and challenge dose, the strongest adaptive response induced by low-dose irradiation was found. It is also found that the response induced by 1.0 cGy of adaptive dose was more obvious than that by other doses and that 3.0 Gy of challenge dose produced the strongest adaptive response. As the challenge doses increased, the adaptive response reduced. (2 figs., 2 tabs.)

Climate change adaptation in Ethiopia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Weldegebriel, Zerihun Berhane; Prowse, Martin

Ethiopia is vulnerable to climate change due to its limited development and dependence on agriculture. Social protection schemes like the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) can play a positive role in promoting livelihoods and enhancing households’ risk management. This article examines......, they suggest the PSNP may not be helping smallholders diversify income sources in a positive manner for climate adaptation. The article concludes by arguing for further investigation of the PSNP’s influence on smallholders’ adaptation strategies....

Equity in Adaptation to Climate Change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gemenne, F.

2009-01-01

Most observers agree that equity has become a key condition for the success of a global agreement on climate, and that any deal that would seem inequitable would be doomed to fail. The UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) makes a distinction between developed countries, developing countries, and least advanced countries; as well as between vulnerable countries and particularly vulnerable countries. The first distinction has to do with equity in mitigation efforts, whereas the latter is concerned with equity in the allocation of adaptation funding (Mace 2006). Adaptation itself is poorly defined: the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change) does not go further than defining it as the adjustment of human or natural systems confronted to a new or changing environment (IPCC 2007). It took a very long time for adaptation to be acknowledged as a key aspect of the fight against global warming. Funding mechanisms were long overdue when they were finally implemented, and remain heavily discussed. A sufficient amount of funding for adaptation appears today as the sine qua non condition for the participation of developing countries to a global deal on climate. This amount has been estimated at US$ 100 billion at least on a yearly basis, including support for mitigation efforts. However, though equity concerns have been placed at the core of the negotiation on mitigation efforts, they have been little addressed in the discussions on adaptation. As a result of this, the criteria that will be used to allocate the adaptation funding remain unclear and vague, which could be detrimental for the negotiation process as a whole. This paper aims to offer a new perspective on this issue, departing from the traditional perspective inspired by retributive justice. (author)

The diversity of gendered adaptation strategies to climate change of Indian farmers: A feminist intersectional approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Ravera, Federica; Martín-López, Berta; Pascual, Unai; Drucker, Adam

2016-12-01

This paper examines climate change adaptation and gender issues through an application of a feminist intersectional approach. This approach permits the identification of diverse adaptation responses arising from the existence of multiple and fragmented dimensions of identity (including gender) that intersect with power relations to shape situation-specific interactions between farmers and ecosystems. Based on results from contrasting research cases in Bihar and Uttarakhand, India, this paper demonstrates, inter alia, that there are geographically determined gendered preferences and adoption strategies regarding adaptation options and that these are influenced by the socio-ecological context and institutional dynamics. Intersecting identities, such as caste, wealth, age and gender, influence decisions and reveal power dynamics and negotiation within the household and the community, as well as barriers to adaptation among groups. Overall, the findings suggest that a feminist intersectional approach does appear to be useful and worth further exploration in the context of climate change adaptation. In particular, future research could benefit from more emphasis on a nuanced analysis of the intra-gender differences that shape adaptive capacity to climate change.

Technologies for climate change adaptation. Agriculture sector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhu, X [ed.; UNEP Risoe Centre, Roskilde (Denmark); Clements, R; Quezada, A; Torres, J [Practical Action Latin America, Lima (Peru); Haggar, J [Univ. of Greenwich, London (United Kingdom)

2011-08-15

This guidebook presents a selection of technologies for climate change adaptation in the agriculture sector. A set of 22 adaptation technologies are showcased. These are based primarily on the principles of agroecology, but also include scientific technologies of climate and biological sciences complemented by important sociological and institutional capacity building processes that are required for climate change to function. The technologies cover: 1) Planning for climate change and variability. 2) Sustainable water use and management. 3) Soil management. 4) Sustainable crop management. 5) Sustainable livestock management. 6) Sustainable farming systems. 7) Capacity building and stakeholder organisation. Technologies that tend to homogenise the natural environment and agricultural production have low possibilities of success in environmental stress conditions that are likely to result from climate change. On the other hand, technologies that allow for, and promote diversity are more likely to provide a strategy which strengthens agricultural production in the face of uncertain future climate change scenarios. The 22 technologies showcased in this guidebook have been selected because they facilitate the conservation and restoration of diversity while also providing opportunities for increasing agricultural productivity. Many of these technologies are not new to agricultural production practices, but they are implemented based on the assessment of current and possible future impacts of climate change in a particular location. agroecology is an approach that encompasses concepts of sustainable production and biodiversity promotion and therefore provides a useful framework for identifying and selecting appropriate adaptation technologies for the agriculture sector. The guidebook provides a systematic analysis of the most relevant information available on climate change adaptation technologies in the agriculture sector. It has been compiled based on a literature

The North Cascadia Adaptation Partnership: A Science-Management Collaboration for Responding to Climate Change

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Crystal L. Raymond

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The U.S. Forest Service (USFS and National Park Service (NPS have highlighted climate change as an agency priority and issued direction to administrative units for responding to climate change. In response, the USFS and NPS initiated the North Cascadia Adaptation Partnership (NCAP in 2010. The goals of the NCAP were to build an inclusive partnership, increase climate change awareness, assess vulnerability, and develop science-based adaptation strategies to reduce these vulnerabilities. The NCAP expanded previous science-management partnerships on federal lands to a larger, more ecologically and geographically complex region and extended the approach to a broader range of stakeholders. The NCAP focused on two national forests and two national parks in the North Cascades Range, Washington (USA, a total land area of 2.4 million ha, making it the largest science-management partnership of its kind. The NCAP assessed climate change vulnerability for four resource sectors (hydrology and access; vegetation and ecological disturbance; wildlife; and fish and developed adaptation options for each sector. The NCAP process has proven to be a successful approach for implementing climate change adaptation across a region and can be emulated by other land management agencies in North America and beyond.

The North Cascadia Adaptation Partnership: a science-management collaboration for responding to climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Crystal L. Raymond; David L. Peterson; Regina M. Rochefort

2013-01-01

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and National Park Service (NPS) have highlighted climate change as an agency priority and issued direction to administrative units for responding to climate change. In response, the USFS and NPS initiated the North Cascadia Adaptation Partnership (NCAP) in 2010. The goals of the NCAP were to build an inclusive partnership, increase...

Agriculture adaptation in climate change : adaptation report

OpenAIRE

Spiteri Gingell, David; Seychell, Martin; Attard, George; Borg, Simone; Cremona, Marco; Sammut, Charles; Muscat, Mark; Camilleri, George; Debono, Robert; The Climate Change Committee for Adaptation (CCCA)

2010-01-01

There is the need for a legal instrument that would first and foremost establish the executive powers of a new entity with overarching responsibilities and powers over all the authorities that have sectoral responsibilities for climate change. Such a legal instrument should also identify these sectoral authorities and their responsibilities, preferably within an Annex which could be amended and adjusted in a flexible manner. This instrument should be managed by a new unit on climate change wi...

An Immune-inspired Adaptive Automated Intrusion Response System Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ling-xi Peng

2012-09-01

Full Text Available An immune-inspired adaptive automated intrusion response system model, named as , is proposed. The descriptions of self, non-self, immunocyte, memory detector, mature detector and immature detector of the network transactions, and the realtime network danger evaluation equations are given. Then, the automated response polices are adaptively performed or adjusted according to the realtime network danger. Thus, not only accurately evaluates the network attacks, but also greatly reduces the response times and response costs.

National strategy for climate change adaptation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2010-01-01

This book expresses the French State's view on the way to deal with the issue of climate change adaptation. After having recalled the ineluctability of some observed changes, the actors involved in this adaptation, and some guideline principles to implement adaptation, a first chapter describes the context: international mobilization, climate data evolution, definition of new criteria and critical thresholds, relationship between adaptation, alleviation and sustainable development, tensions between long and short terms. It discusses the objectives: public security and health, alleviation of inequalities with respect to risks, cost reduction, natural heritage preservation. Nine strategic axes are then identified: to develop knowledge, to strengthen the survey system, to inform, to educate and to make all actors aware, to promote a territory-based approach, to finance adaptation actions, to use regulatory and law instruments, to support voluntary approaches and the dialogue with private actors, to take the overseas peculiarity into account, and to contribute to international exchanges. The next chapters are respectively dealing with transverse approaches (water, risk prevention, health, and biodiversity), sector-based insights (agriculture, energy and industry, transports, building and housing, tourism, banks and insurance companies), medium-based approach (cities, littoral and seas, mountain, forest). The last part deals with the implementation issue

Adapting to climate change in China: achievements and challenges

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yin, Yongyuan; Cuccillato, Emanuele; Kelly, Ellen

2011-11-15

With millions of people dependent on natural resources and agriculture, China is very vulnerable to climate change. The need to adapt to future changes is gaining importance in the country's political agenda. The government's latest five-year plan, for example, is the first to include a section on adaptation, and the development of a national adaptation strategy is under way. But there are still major gaps in the knowledge and processes required to develop effective adaptation policies at national and local levels. Some of the key challenges include a lack of accurate regional climate models and vulnerability assessments, little integration across sectors and disciplines, and limited stakeholder engagement. The Adapting to Climate Change in China (ACCC) project is focused on these issues and is expected to significantly contribute to developing effective adaptation planning processes.

CRISPR-Cas: Adapting to change.

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Simon A; McKenzie, Rebecca E; Fagerlund, Robert D; Kieper, Sebastian N; Fineran, Peter C; Brouns, Stan J J

2017-04-07

Bacteria and archaea are engaged in a constant arms race to defend against the ever-present threats of viruses and invasion by mobile genetic elements. The most flexible weapons in the prokaryotic defense arsenal are the CRISPR-Cas adaptive immune systems. These systems are capable of selective identification and neutralization of foreign DNA and/or RNA. CRISPR-Cas systems rely on stored genetic memories to facilitate target recognition. Thus, to keep pace with a changing pool of hostile invaders, the CRISPR memory banks must be regularly updated with new information through a process termed CRISPR adaptation. In this Review, we outline the recent advances in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms governing CRISPR adaptation. Specifically, the conserved protein machinery Cas1-Cas2 is the cornerstone of adaptive immunity in a range of diverse CRISPR-Cas systems. Copyright © 2017, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

A global conservation system for climate-change adaptation.

Science.gov (United States)

Hannah, Lee

2010-02-01

Climate change has created the need for a new strategic framework for conservation. This framework needs to include new protected areas that account for species range shifts and management that addresses large-scale change across international borders. Actions within the framework must be effective in international waters and across political frontiers and have the ability to accommodate large income and ability-to-pay discrepancies between countries. A global protected-area system responds to these needs. A fully implemented global system of protected areas will help in the transition to a new conservation paradigm robust to climate change and will ensure the integrity of the climate services provided by carbon sequestration from the world's natural habitats. The internationally coordinated response to climate change afforded by such a system could have significant cost savings relative to a system of climate adaptation that unfolds solely at a country level. Implementation of a global system is needed very soon because the effects of climate change on species and ecosystems are already well underway.

Climate Change Adaptation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hudecz, Adriána

The European Union ROADEX Project 1998 – 2012 was a trans-national roads co-operation aimed at developing ways for interactive and innovative management of low traffic volume roads throughout the cold climate regions of the Northern Periphery Area of Europe. Its goals were to facilitate co......-operation and research into the common problems of the Northern Periphery. This report is an output of the ROADEX “Implementing Accessibility” project (2009-2012). It gives a summary of the results of research into adaptation measures to combat climate change effects on low volume roads in the Northern Periphery...... causes changes in other climatic variables such as rainfall, humidity and wind speed that impact on the functioning of infrastructure such road networks. This paper discusses the climate changes predicted by the world’s meteorological organisations and considers how these may impact on the public...

Justice in Urban Climate Change Adaptation: Criteria and Application to Delhi

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sara Hughes

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Cities around the world are increasingly developing plans to adapt to the consequences of climate change. These plans will have important consequences for urban populations because they are likely to reshape and reconfigure urban infrastructures, services, and decision making processes. It is critical that these adaptation plans are developed in a way that is just. Criteria was developed that can be used to assess justice in adaptation so that the processes, priorities, and impacts address the needs of the most vulnerable urban populations. Further, mechanisms are outlined that have been proposed as responsible for producing urban injustice. The justice criteria are applied to the case of adaptation planning in Delhi and the extent to which poor and informal populations are included and affected by this planning. The analysis shows that adaptation planning in Delhi does not meet the justice criteria in part because of a lack of capacity and the political economy of poverty in the city. The criteria for justice and mechanisms of injustice offer an important step toward developing a greater understanding of not only whether city-level adaptation planning is just, but also why it is or is not.

Local adaptation in transgenerational responses to predators

Science.gov (United States)

Walsh, Matthew R.; Castoe, Todd; Holmes, Julian; Packer, Michelle; Biles, Kelsey; Walsh, Melissa; Munch, Stephan B.; Post, David M.

2016-01-01

Environmental signals can induce phenotypic changes that span multiple generations. Along with phenotypic responses that occur during development (i.e. ‘within-generation’ plasticity), such ‘transgenerational plasticity’ (TGP) has been documented in a diverse array of taxa spanning many environmental perturbations. New theory predicts that temporal stability is a key driver of the evolution of TGP. We tested this prediction using natural populations of zooplankton from lakes in Connecticut that span a large gradient in the temporal dynamics of predator-induced mortality. We reared more than 120 clones of Daphnia ambigua from nine lakes for multiple generations in the presence/absence of predator cues. We found that temporal variation in mortality selects for within-generation plasticity while consistently strong (or weak) mortality selects for increased TGP. Such results provide us the first evidence for local adaptation in TGP and argue that divergent ecological conditions select for phenotypic responses within and across generations. PMID:26817775

Local adaptation in transgenerational responses to predators.

Science.gov (United States)

Walsh, Matthew R; Castoe, Todd; Holmes, Julian; Packer, Michelle; Biles, Kelsey; Walsh, Melissa; Munch, Stephan B; Post, David M

2016-01-27

Environmental signals can induce phenotypic changes that span multiple generations. Along with phenotypic responses that occur during development (i.e. 'within-generation' plasticity), such 'transgenerational plasticity' (TGP) has been documented in a diverse array of taxa spanning many environmental perturbations. New theory predicts that temporal stability is a key driver of the evolution of TGP. We tested this prediction using natural populations of zooplankton from lakes in Connecticut that span a large gradient in the temporal dynamics of predator-induced mortality. We reared more than 120 clones of Daphnia ambigua from nine lakes for multiple generations in the presence/absence of predator cues. We found that temporal variation in mortality selects for within-generation plasticity while consistently strong (or weak) mortality selects for increased TGP. Such results provide us the first evidence for local adaptation in TGP and argue that divergent ecological conditions select for phenotypic responses within and across generations. © 2016 The Author(s).

Climate Change Adaptation Options for the Congo Basin Countries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Garderen, van L.; Ludwig, F.

2012-01-01

During the last decades, the importance and seriousness of climate change and it’s impacts have become more and more understood. The climate is already changing and therefor adaptation to these changes need to be made. Central Africa needs to adapt to climate change just as much as the rest of the

European information on climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation

Science.gov (United States)

Jol, A.; Isoard, S.

2010-09-01

Vulnerability to natural and technological disasters is increasing due to a combination of intensifying land use, increasing industrial development, further urban expansion and expanding infrastructure and also climate change. At EU level the European Commission's White Paper on adaptation to climate change (published in 2009) highlights that adaptation actions should be focused on the most vulnerable areas and communities in Europe (e.g. mountains, coastal areas, river flood prone areas, Mediterranean, Arctic). Mainstreaming of climate change into existing EU policies will be a key policy, including within the Water Framework Directive, Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Nature protection and biodiversity policies, integrated coastal zone management, other (sectoral) policies (agriculture, forestry, energy, transport, health) and disaster risk prevention. 2010 is the international year on biodiversity and the Conference of Parties of the biodiversity convention will meet in autumn 2010 (Japan) to discuss amongst other post-2010 strategies, objectives and indicators. Both within the Biodiversity Convention (CBD) and the Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) there is increasing recognition of the need for integration of biodiversity conservation into climate change mitigation and adaptation activities. Furthermore a number of European countries and also some regions have started to prepare and/or have adopted national adaptation plans or frameworks. Sharing of good practices on climate change vulnerability methods and adaptation actions is so far limited, but is essential to improve such plans, at national, sub national and local level where much of the adaptation action is already taking place and will be expanding in future, also involving increasingly the business community. The EU Clearinghouse on CC impacts, vulnerability and adaptation should address these needs and it is planned to be operational end of 2011. The EEA is expected to have a role in its

Framing adaptation: three aspects for climate change risk management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jones, Roger

2007-01-01

Full text: Substantial resources are being allocated to adaptation research and implementation. To use these resources wisely, framing the context within which adaptation decisions are made is critical. Three aspects are: Methods for assessing how much climate change to adapt to by when; Understanding the dynamic between different conceptual models for framing adaptation based on: a. Damages increasing proportionally with change, or b. Ricardian models that require adjustments to attain the 'new normal'; Adopting staged management strategies that depend on system status, which may range from business-as-usual to critical. General adaptation requirements and planning horizons need to have already been identified in scoping studies. Planning horizons include both operational and aspirational targets. Incremental adaptation can be informed by an aspirational goal far off into the future, but is undertaken through a shorter term operational approach. The need to anticipate long-term outcomes in advance is most relevant to measures that require large initial planning and investment, those with long lifetimes, or those where potential damages are irreversible and unacceptable. Five major sources of climate change uncertainty are relevant to assessing how much climate change to adapt to by when: ongoing climate variability and rate of change; past and future commitments to climate change; regional climate change projections; climate sensitivity; greenhouse gas emission scenarios and radiative forcing. These factors combine with different levels of importance depending on the relevant planning horizon. Short-term adaptation is most sensitive to the first and second factors, and long-term adaptation to the last three factors. These factors can be assessed within a probabilistic framework. Two conceptual models dominate assessments designed to inform adaptation. The IPCC Third and Fourth Assessment Reports clearly show that a great many risks increase proportionally with

County Governor's climate change work. Roles and responsibilities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change; Fylkesmannens klimaarbeid. Roller og oppgaver for aa redusere klimagassutslipp og tilpasse seg klimaendringene

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2009-07-01

The document provides an overall description of the County Department's tasks in the work of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to climate change. Chapters 2 and 3 provides a picture of climate change and a description of the County Department's role in the implementation of the national climate policy. Chapter 4 describes the municipalities and county municipalities' responsibilities in climate change. Chapter 5 is a specific review of the County Department of Climate tasks as a regional sector authority in the environmental area, agricultural area and the emergency and civil protection area. (AG)

Guidelines for the adaptation to floods in changing climate

Science.gov (United States)

Doroszkiewicz, Joanna; Romanowicz, Renata J.

2017-08-01

A decrease of flood damages in the future requires not only adaptation to flood caused by present day climate, but also climate change effects on floods should be taken into account. The paper illustrates the need to take into account changing climate conditions in flood adaptation strategies and to apply in practice the concept of integrated water resource management (IWRM). IWRM is based on a number of policy instruments, economic instruments, political signals, and also, on the effects of climate change on floods and collaboration across national, regional and local administrative units. The guidelines for a country adaptation to floods in a changing climate are outlined. A comparison of the adaptive capacities in Poland and Norway is used to illustrate the need for the implementation of proposed guidelines to assure flood risk management under climate change in a sustainable way.

Monitoring and Evaluation Toolkit for Climate Change Adaptation ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Many African countries, regions and organizations are making plans for climate change adaptation. If such plans are to be effective, they will need to be monitored and evaluated on an ongoing basis. This grant will support the integration of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in climate change adaptation initiatives by ...

Climate change in semi-arid Malawi: Perceptions, adaptation strategies and water governance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miriam K. Joshua

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Climate change and variability are a threat to sustainable agricultural production in semi-arid areas of Malawi. Overdependence on subsistence rain-fed agriculture in these areas calls for the identification of sustainable adaptation strategies. A study was therefore conducted in Chikwawa, a semi-arid district in southern Malawi, to: (1 assess community’s perception of a changing climate against empirical evidence, (2 determine their local adaptive measures, (3 evaluate the potential of irrigated agriculture as an adaptive measure in household food security and (4 challenges over access to available water resources. The study employed focus group discussions and key informant interviews to assess people’s perceptions of climate change and variability and their desired interventions. To validate the people’s perceptions, rainfall and temperature data for the period 1960–2010 were analysed. A participatory complete randomised experimental design in both rain-fed and dry season–irrigated conditions was conducted to assess a maize cropping system that would improve adaptation. The study established persistent declining yields from rain-fed production in part because of perennial rainfall failure. In response, the community has shifted its focus to irrigation as an adaptation strategy, which has in turn triggered water conflicts in the community over the control of the resource. Water legislation however fails to adequately provide for rules governing sharing of water resources between various stakeholders. This article therefore recommends development of an appropriate institutional framework that forms a strong basis for equitable distribution of water for irrigation in areas most vulnerable to extreme climate events – including droughts and floods. Keywords: Food Security; Climate Change and Variability; Rainfall Variability; Irrigation; Water Resources; Governance Crisis

[Studies on the changes of adaptation with children in the dental setting. The relationship between the changes of adaptation and various psychological tests].

Science.gov (United States)

Uchida, T; Mukai, Y; Sasa, R

1991-01-01

The purpose of this study was to discover the changes in the adaptation of children to the Dental setting, and to discover the relationship between the adaptation, and the personality of the child, the personality of the mother, as well as the relationship between the mother and child. The subjects were 60 two to six year old children and their mothers who visited at the Department of Pedodontics, School of Dentistry, Showa University. The results were as follows: 1) The changes of adaptation were classified in groups of four classes. Four groups: Continuous Adaptability (45.0%) Acquired Adaptability (18.3%) Continuous Inadaptability (16.7%) Extreme Inadaptability (20.0%) 2) The inadaptability groups (Continuous Inadaptability and Extreme Inadaptability) of the two to three year old children did not correlate to the change of adaptation and personality of the child, and the relationship between the mother and child. 3) The extreme inadaptability group with the four year old children showed a connection with the change of adaptation and the various Psychological Tests. Concerning personality, the children showed elements of "dependence" "retrogression" and "maladaptation to school (kindergarten)". Concerning the mother child relationship, there were elements of "anxiety" "dotage" "follow blindly" "disagreement". 4) Nobody showed extreme inadaptability in the group of five to six year old children. Continuous Inadaptability group with the five to six year old children showed scarcely any problems. 5) The Personality of mother did not correlate to the change of adaptation of children in the dental setting.

Questionnaire Adapting: Little Changes Mean a Lot.

Science.gov (United States)

Sousa, Vanessa E C; Matson, Jeffrey; Dunn Lopez, Karen

2017-09-01

Questionnaire development involves rigorous testing to ensure reliability and validity. Due to time and cost constraints of developing new questionnaires, researchers often adapt existing questionnaires to better fit the purpose of their study. However, the effect of such adaptations is unclear. We conducted cognitive interviews as a method to evaluate the understanding of original and adapted questionnaire items to be applied in a future study. The findings revealed that all subjects (a) comprehended the original and adapted items differently, (b) changed their scores after comparing the original to the adapted items, and (c) were unanimous in stating that the adapted items were easier to understand. Cognitive interviewing allowed us to assess the interpretation of adapted items in a useful and efficient manner before use in data collection.

Adapting to climate change : an introduction for Canadian municipalities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mehdi, B.

2006-02-01

Climate change studies have indicated that Canada will experience large shifts in weather patterns in the next few decades due to both natural variations as well as human activities that release greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world's average surface temperature is expected to increase by 1.4 to 5.8 degrees C over the period 1990-2100. The use of fossils fuels in transportation, manufacturing, heating, cooling, and electricity generation is the biggest source of GHGs such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The rest comes from land use activities, such as agriculture and forestry. Total GHG emissions in Canada amounted to 740 megatonnes in 2003. Municipalities are directly and indirectly responsible for almost half of those emissions. This document outlined decision-making processes to help municipal governments make informed decisions and take appropriate mitigative action. Topics of discussion focused on the effect of global warming on public health, agriculture, water, coastline and marine management. Among the impacts of climate change are droughts; diminished and lower quality surface water; a higher incidence of vector-borne diseases; more frequent heat waves with discomfort in urban centres; and, an increase in storm surges in coastal regions. The greatest concerns for most municipalities are intense precipitation, heavy winds, or ice storms. Examples of how 6 Canadian communities are starting to address climate change adaptation were presented in the hope that these examples will help raise awareness of climate change impacts in other communities and provide ideas as to how these challenges might be addressed. The Toronto Heat-Health Alert System, the Greater Vancouver Regional District Stormwater Management Program, the Halifax Regional Municipality ClimateSMART Initiative, Sept-Iles' Shoreline Erosion Program, the City of Iqaluit Sustainable Development strategy and the Tidal

Adapting to climate change

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arndt, Channing; Strzepek, Kenneth; Tarp, Finn

2011-01-01

Mozambique, like many African countries, is already highly susceptible to climate variability and extreme weather events. Climate change threatens to heighten this vulnerability. In order to evaluate potential impacts and adaptation options for Mozambique, we develop an integrated modeling...... framework that translates atmospheric changes from general circulation model projections into biophysical outcomes via detailed hydrologic, crop, hydropower and infrastructure models. These sector models simulate a historical baseline and four extreme climate change scenarios. Sector results are then passed...... down to a dynamic computable general equilibrium model, which is used to estimate economy-wide impacts on national welfare, as well as the total cost of damages caused by climate change. Potential damages without changes in policy are significant; our discounted estimates range from US2.3 to US2.3toUS7...

Adaptation of reach-to-grasp movement in response to force perturbations.

Science.gov (United States)

Rand, M K; Shimansky, Y; Stelmach, G E; Bloedel, J R

2004-01-01

This study examined how reach-to-grasp movements are modified during adaptation to external force perturbations applied on the arm during reach. Specifically, we examined whether the organization of these movements was dependent upon the condition under which the perturbation was applied. In response to an auditory signal, all subjects were asked to reach for a vertical dowel, grasp it between the index finger and thumb, and lift it a short distance off the table. The subjects were instructed to do the task as fast as possible. The perturbation was an elastic load acting on the wrist at an angle of 105 deg lateral to the reaching direction. The condition was modified by changing the predictability with which the perturbation was applied in a given trial. After recording unperturbed control trials, perturbations were applied first on successive trials (predictable perturbations) and then were applied randomly (unpredictable perturbations). In the early predictable perturbation trials, reach path length became longer and reaching duration increased. As more predictable perturbations were applied, the reach path length gradually decreased and became similar to that of control trials. Reaching duration also decreased gradually as the subjects adapted by exerting force against the perturbation. In addition, the amplitude of peak grip aperture during arm transport initially increased in response to repeated perturbations. During the course of learning, it reached its maximum and thereafter slightly decreased. However, it did not return to the normal level. The subjects also adapted to the unpredictable perturbations through changes in both arm transport and grasping components, indicating that they can compensate even when the occurrence of the perturbation cannot be predicted during the inter-trial interval. Throughout random perturbation trials, large grip aperture values were observed, suggesting that a conservative aperture level is set regardless of whether the

What to change and what to keep? Values and dynamics of adaptation to climate change

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sebastian Wessels

2015-04-01

Full Text Available This paper uses a complex systems theory framework to clarify what adaptation to climate change means in practice, which is to make targeted changes to a society's functioning in order to avoid changes happening to that which is of value to the members of that society. It is shown that the question what is to be changed and what to be preserved is not prescribed by the facts of climate change and technology, but a contingent one to be made by society. Discussing four important domains of adaptation and the respective narratives found in academia and politics, it is investigated how these decisions are formed, giving special consideration to the case of Germany. This leads to the finding that the generally defensive framings that characterizes common notions of adaptation reinforce predominant cultural paradigms and social dynamics that arguably have contributed considerably to the need for adaptation to climate change in the first place and will most likely create further need for adaptation in the future. A paradoxical tendency to accelerate predominant social dynamics in attempts to keep current states of affairs unchanged is identified. It is concluded that the concept of adaptation is a regression behind the concept of sustainability which can easily accommodate adaptation needs but avoids the identified pitfalls of adaptation by its future orientation and oft-criticized openness.

Adaptation strategies for health impacts of climate change in Western Australia: Application of a Health Impact Assessment framework

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spickett, Jeffery T.; Brown, Helen L.; Katscherian, Dianne

2011-01-01

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing the globe and there is substantial evidence that this will result in a number of health impacts, regardless of the level of greenhouse gas mitigation. It is therefore apparent that a combined approach of mitigation and adaptation will be required to protect public health. While the importance of mitigation is recognised, this project focused on the role of adaptation strategies in addressing the potential health impacts of climate change. The nature and magnitude of these health impacts will be determined by a number of parameters that are dependent upon the location. Firstly, climate change will vary between regions. Secondly, the characteristics of each region in terms of population and the ability to adapt to changes will greatly influence the extent of the health impacts that are experienced now and into the future. Effective adaptation measures therefore need to be developed with these differences in mind. A Health Impact Assessment (HIA) framework was used to consider the implications of climate change on the health of the population of Western Australia (WA) and to develop a range of adaptive responses suited to WA. A broad range of stakeholders participated in the HIA process, providing informed input into developing an understanding of the potential health impacts and potential adaptation strategies from a diverse sector perspective. Potential health impacts were identified in relation to climate change predictions in WA in the year 2030. The risk associated with each of these impacts was assessed using a qualitative process that considered the consequences and the likelihood of the health impact occurring. Adaptations were then developed which could be used to mitigate the identified health impacts and provide responses which could be used by Government for future decision making. The periodic application of a HIA framework is seen as an ideal tool to develop appropriate adaptation strategies to

Impact of African traditional worldviews on climate change adaptation.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanganyado, Edmond; Teta, Charles; Masiri, Busani

2018-03-01

Recent studies show cultural worldviews are a key determinant of environmental risk perceptions; thus, they could influence climate change adaptation strategies. African traditional worldviews encourage harmony between humans and the environment through a complex metaphysical belief system transmitted through folklore, taboos, and traditional knowledge. However, African traditional worldviews hold a belief in traditional gods that was shown to have a low connectedness to nature and a low willingness to change. In Makueni District, Kenya, 45% of agropastoralists surveyed believed drought was god's plan and could not be changed. In contrast, traditional knowledge, which is shaped by African traditional worldviews, is often used to frame adaptive strategies such as migration, changing modes of production, and planting different crop varieties. Furthermore, traditional knowledge has been used as a complement to science in areas where meteorological data was unavailable. However, the role of African traditional worldviews on climate change adaption remains understudied. Hence, there is a need to systematically establish the influence of African traditional worldviews on climate change risk perception, development of adaptive strategies, and policy formulation and implementation. In this commentary, we discuss the potential impacts of African traditional worldviews on climate change adaptation. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2018;14:189-193. © 2018 SETAC. © 2018 SETAC.

Climate change adaptation in Africa : annual report 2006-2007

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-01-01

The Climate Change Adaptation Program was developed by Canada's International Development Research Centre and the United Kingdom's Department for International Development in order to address the needs of African communities vulnerable to climate change. The objectives of the program are to strengthen the capacity of African scientists, organization and communities to contribute to adaptation to climate change, as well as to generate a better understanding of climate change adaptation, and to support adaptation strategies and their adoption by rural and urban Africans. This annual report provided details of the first year of the program's implementation, in which an advisory board was established in order to balance donor representation and African expertise in adaptation. The first year of the program also saw the recruitment of a 13 person staff and the development of proposals for the first allocation of funding. A financial summary was provided. The report provided details of outreach and communications activities used to introduce the program to African and international audiences. 3 tabs., 44 figs

Impacts and responses to environmental change in coastal livelihoods of south-west Bangladesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Hossain, Mostafa A R; Ahmed, Munir; Ojea, Elena; Fernandes, Jose A

2018-05-12

Aquatic ecosystems are of global importance for maintaining high levels of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and for the number of livelihoods dependent on them. In Bangladesh, coastal and delta communities rely on these systems for a livelihood, and the sustainability of the productivity is seriously threatened by both climate change and unsustainable management. These multiple drivers of change shape the livelihood dependence and adaptation responses, where a better understanding is needed to achieve sustainable management in these systems, while maintaining and improving dependent livelihoods. This need has been addressed in this study in the region of Satkhira, in the southwest coast of Bangladesh, where livelihoods are highly dependent on aquatic systems for food supply and income. Traditional wild fish harvest in the rivers and aquaculture systems, including ghers, ponds, and crab points have been changing in terms of the uses and intensity of management, and suffering from climate change impacts as well. By means of six focus groups with 50 participants total, and validated by expert consultations, we conduct an analysis to understand the main perceived impacts from climate and human activities; and the adaptation responses from the aquatic system livelihoods. We find that biodiversity has decreased drastically, while farmed species have increased and shrimp gher farming turned more intensive becoming the main source of income. All these changes have important implications for food supply in the region and environmental sustainability. Dramatic responses taken in the communities include exit the fisheries and migration, and more adaptive responses include species diversification, crab fattening and working more on the pond and gher infrastructure. This study evidences the results of the combination of multiple stressors in productive systems and the barriers to adaptation in aquatic ecosystem dependent communities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All

Environmental impacts of climate change adaptation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Enriquez-de-Salamanca, Alvaro; Diaz Sierra, R.; Martin-Aranda, Rosa; Ferreira Dos Santos, M.J.

Climate change adaptation reduces adverse effects of climate change but may also have undesirable environmental impacts. However, these impacts are yet poorly defined and analysed in the existing literature. To complement this knowledge-gap, we reviewed the literature to unveil the relationship

Mobilizing Private Sector Investment in Adaptation to Climate Change

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Climate change and the private sector Private sector investment in climate change adaptation has ... Encouraging investments in adaptation This research will create an evidence base ... New project to improve water management in the Sahel.

Adapting to rates versus amounts of climate change: a case of adaptation to sea-level rise

Science.gov (United States)

Shayegh, Soheil; Moreno-Cruz, Juan; Caldeira, Ken

2016-10-01

Adaptation is the process of adjusting to climate change in order to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities associated with it. Most adaptation strategies are designed to adjust to a new climate state. However, despite our best efforts to curtail greenhouse gas emissions, climate is likely to continue changing far into the future. Here, we show how considering rates of change affects the projected optimal adaptation strategy. We ground our discussion with an example of optimal investment in the face of continued sea-level rise, presenting a quantitative model that illustrates the interplay among physical and economic factors governing coastal development decisions such as rate of sea-level rise, land slope, discount rate, and depreciation rate. This model shows that the determination of optimal investment strategies depends on taking into account future rates of sea-level rise, as well as social and political constraints. This general approach also applies to the development of improved strategies to adapt to ongoing trends in temperature, precipitation, and other climate variables. Adaptation to some amount of change instead of adaptation to ongoing rates of change may produce inaccurate estimates of damages to the social systems and their ability to respond to external pressures.

Farmers’ Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change and Their Implications in the Zou Department of South Benin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adégnandjou Mahouna Roland Fadina

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Climate change is a global phenomenon. Its impact on agricultural activities in developing countries has increased dramatically. Understanding how farmers perceive climate change and how they adapt to it is very important to the implementation of adequate policies for agricultural and food security. This paper aims to contribute to an understanding of farmers’ adaptation choices, determinants of the adaptation choices and the long-term implications of the adaptation choices. Data were collected from 120 respondents in the Zou Department of Benin. A binary logit model was used to analyze the factors influencing household decisions to adapt to climate change. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was estimated to analyze the factors influencing households’ choice of adaptation strategies to climate change. The results show that farmers have a developed perception of climate change. These changes are translated by rainfall disturbances (rainfall delays, early cessation, bad rainfall distribution etc., shortening of the small dry season, increasing of temperature and sometimes, violent winds. The survey reveals that Benin farmers adopt many strategies in response to climate change. These strategies include “Crop–livestock diversification and other good practices (mulching, organic fertilizer,” “Use of improved varieties, chemical fertilizers and pesticides,” “Agroforestry and perennial plantation” and “Diversification of income-generating activities.” The findings also reveal that most of the respondents use these strategies in combination. From the binary logit model, we know that “farming experience” and “educational level of household head” positively influence adaptation decisions. The result of the multinomial logit analysis shows that farming experience, educational level, farm size and gender have a significant impact on climate change adaptation strategies. Based on in-depth analysis of each strategy, we

Climate change risks and adaptation options across Australian seafood supply chains – A preliminary assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Fleming

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Climate change is already impacting the biology of the oceans and some dependent industries are in turn responding to these impacts. The development of response options for users of marine resources, such as fishers, is important in guiding adaptation efforts. However, harvesting fish is only the first step in a supply chain that delivers seafood to consumers. Impacts higher up the chain have seldom been considered in fisheries-climate research yet an understanding of these impacts and how climate risks and adaptation information are interpreted and used by stakeholders across the chain is vital for developing viable and sustainable adaptation options. We examined stakeholder perceptions of points where climate change impacts and adaptations currently occur, or may occur in the future, across the supply chains of several Australian fisheries (southern rock lobster, tropical rock lobster, prawn and aquaculture sectors (oyster, aquaculture prawn. We found that climate change impacts are well understood at the harvest stage and there is evidence of potential impacts and disruption to supply chains. Yet, there currently is no strong driver for change higher up the chain. Holistic adaptation planning along the supply chain, underpinned by targeted information and policy for the catch, processing and distribution, and marketing phases is needed. This effort is needed now, as some adaptation options have long lead times, and a delay in adaptation planning may limit future options. Given potential lead times and associated uncertainty, a risk-based approach is recommended with regard to adaptation planning for Australia’s seafood sector.

Climate change in the oceans: evolutionary versus phenotypically plastic responses of marine animals and plants.

Science.gov (United States)

Reusch, Thorsten B H

2014-01-01

I summarize marine studies on plastic versus adaptive responses to global change. Due to the lack of time series, this review focuses largely on the potential for adaptive evolution in marine animals and plants. The approaches were mainly synchronic comparisons of phenotypically divergent populations, substituting spatial contrasts in temperature or CO2 environments for temporal changes, or in assessments of adaptive genetic diversity within populations for traits important under global change. The available literature is biased towards gastropods, crustaceans, cnidarians and macroalgae. Focal traits were mostly environmental tolerances, which correspond to phenotypic buffering, a plasticity type that maintains a functional phenotype despite external disturbance. Almost all studies address coastal species that are already today exposed to fluctuations in temperature, pH and oxygen levels. Recommendations for future research include (i) initiation and analyses of observational and experimental temporal studies encompassing diverse phenotypic traits (including diapausing cues, dispersal traits, reproductive timing, morphology) (ii) quantification of nongenetic trans-generational effects along with components of additive genetic variance (iii) adaptive changes in microbe-host associations under the holobiont model in response to global change (iv) evolution of plasticity patterns under increasingly fluctuating environments and extreme conditions and (v) joint consideration of demography and evolutionary adaptation in evolutionary rescue approaches.

Germplasm enhancement for adaptation to climate changes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcelo J Carena

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Billions of dollars and crops are being lost to drying high moisture grain; drought, cold, and salt susceptibility; andto processing poor quality grain. Maize is a model crop for adaptation to climate changes. Breeding for adaptation is best doneunder challenging environmental conditions where strengths and weaknesses are quickly identified and most stable genotypes areselected. The North Dakota State University (NDSU maize breeding program is strategically located to develop products underextreme weather. It currently exploits northern U.S. environments that allow screening for adaptation traits that are as important asyield. The program focuses on germplasm adaptation and its integration into cultivar development, particularly those carryingunique alleles not present in the B73 and NAM genomes. There is a need for projects that are vital to agricultural research and willmeet present and future demands of superior genotypes tolerant to climate changes in the U.S. and abroad.

A Climate Change Adaptation Strategy for Management of ...

Science.gov (United States)

Sea level rise is causing shoreline erosion, increased coastal flooding, and marsh vulnerability to the impact of storms. Coastal marshes provide flood abatement, carbon and nutrient sequestration, water quality maintenance, and habitat for fish, shellfish, and wildlife, including species of concern, such as the saltmarsh sparrow (Ammodramus caudacutus). We present a climate change adaptation strategy (CCAS) adopted by scientific, management, and policy stakeholders for managing coastal marshes and enhancing system resiliency. A common adaptive management approach previously used for restoration projects was modified to identify climate-related vulnerabilities and plan climate change adaptive actions. As an example of implementation of the CCAS, we describe the stakeholder plans and management actions the US Fish and Wildlife Service and partners developed to build coastal resiliency in the Narrow River Estuary, RI, in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. When possible, an experimental BACI (before-after, control-impact) design, described as pre- and post-sampling at the impact site and one or more control sites, was incorporated into the climate change adaptation and implementation plans. Specific climate change adaptive actions and monitoring plans are described and include shoreline stabilization, restoring marsh drainage, increasing marsh elevation, and enabling upland marsh migration. The CCAS provides a framework and methodology for successfully managing coa

Optimal time interval for induction of immunologic adaptive response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ju Guizhi; Song Chunhua; Liu Shuzheng

1994-01-01

The optimal time interval between prior dose (D1) and challenge dose (D2) for the induction of immunologic adaptive response was investigated. Kunming mice were exposed to 75 mGy X-rays at a dose rate of 12.5 mGy/min. 3, 6, 12, 24 or 60 h after the prior irradiation the mice were challenged with a dose of 1.5 Gy at a dose rate of 0.33 Gy/min. 18h after D2, the mice were sacrificed for examination of immunological parameters. The results showed that with an interval of 6 h between D1 and D2, the adaptive response of the reaction of splenocytes to LPS was induced, and with an interval of 12 h the adaptive responses of spontaneous incorporation of 3 H-TdR into thymocytes and the reaction of splenocytes to Con A and LPS were induced with 75 mGy prior irradiation. The data suggested that the optimal time intervals between D1 and D2 for the induction of immunologic adaptive response were 6 h and 12 h with a D1 of 75 mGy and a D2 of 1.5 Gy. The mechanism of immunologic adaptation following low dose radiation is discussed

Molecular mechanism of radioadaptive response: A cross-adaptive response for enhanced repair of DNA damage in adapted cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takaji Ikushima

1997-01-01

The radioadaptive response (RAR) has been attributed to the induction of a repair mechanism by low doses of ionizing radiation, but the molecular nature of the mechanism is not yet elucidated. We have characterized RAR in a series of experiments in cultured Chinese hamster V79 cells. A 4-h interval is required for the full expression of RAR, which decays with the progression of cell proliferation. Treatments with inhibitors of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, protein- or RNA synthesis, and protein kinase C suppress the RAR expression. The RAR cross-reacts on clastogenic lesions induced by other physical and chemical DNA-damaging agents. The presence of newly synthesised proteins has been detected during the expression period. Experiments performed using single-cell gel electrophoresis provided more direct evidence for a faster and enhaced DNA repair rate in adapted cells. Here, using single-cell gel electrophoresis, a cross-adaptive response has been demonstrated for enhanced repair of DNA damage induced by neocarzinostatin in radio-adapted cells. (author)

Long-distance gene flow and adaptation of forest trees to rapid climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Kremer, Antoine; Ronce, Ophélie; Robledo-Arnuncio, Juan J; Guillaume, Frédéric; Bohrer, Gil; Nathan, Ran; Bridle, Jon R; Gomulkiewicz, Richard; Klein, Etienne K; Ritland, Kermit; Kuparinen, Anna; Gerber, Sophie; Schueler, Silvio

2012-01-01

Forest trees are the dominant species in many parts of the world and predicting how they might respond to climate change is a vital global concern. Trees are capable of long-distance gene flow, which can promote adaptive evolution in novel environments by increasing genetic variation for fitness. It is unclear, however, if this can compensate for maladaptive effects of gene flow and for the long-generation times of trees. We critically review data on the extent of long-distance gene flow and summarise theory that allows us to predict evolutionary responses of trees to climate change. Estimates of long-distance gene flow based both on direct observations and on genetic methods provide evidence that genes can move over spatial scales larger than habitat shifts predicted under climate change within one generation. Both theoretical and empirical data suggest that the positive effects of gene flow on adaptation may dominate in many instances. The balance of positive to negative consequences of gene flow may, however, differ for leading edge, core and rear sections of forest distributions. We propose future experimental and theoretical research that would better integrate dispersal biology with evolutionary quantitative genetics and improve predictions of tree responses to climate change. PMID:22372546

Smart plants, smart models? On adaptive responses in vegetation-soil systems

Science.gov (United States)

van der Ploeg, Martine; Teuling, Ryan; van Dam, Nicole; de Rooij, Gerrit

2015-04-01

Hydrological models that will be able to cope with future precipitation and evapotranspiration regimes need a solid base describing the essence of the processes involved [1]. The essence of emerging patterns at large scales often originates from micro-behaviour in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system. A complicating factor in capturing this behaviour is the constant interaction between vegetation and geology in which water plays a key role. The resilience of the coupled vegetation-soil system critically depends on its sensitivity to environmental changes. To assess root water uptake by plants in a changing soil environment, a direct indication of the amount of energy required by plants to take up water can be obtained by measuring the soil water potential in the vicinity of roots with polymer tensiometers [2]. In a lysimeter experiment with various levels of imposed water stress the polymer tensiometer data suggest maize roots regulate their root water uptake on the derivative of the soil water retention curve, rather than the amount of moisture alone. As a result of environmental changes vegetation may wither and die, or these changes may instead trigger gene adaptation. Constant exposure to environmental stresses, biotic or abiotic, influences plant physiology, gene adaptations, and flexibility in gene adaptation [3-7]. To investigate a possible relation between plant genotype, the plant stress hormone abscisic acid (ABA) and the soil water potential, a proof of principle experiment was set up with Solanum Dulcamare plants. The results showed a significant difference in ABA response between genotypes from a dry and a wet environment, and this response was also reflected in the root water uptake. Adaptive responses may have consequences for the way species are currently being treated in models (single plant to global scale). In particular, model parameters that control root water uptake and plant transpiration are generally assumed to be a property of the plant

Adaptation to climate change in the Ontario public health sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paterson Jaclyn A

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Climate change is among the major challenges for health this century, and adaptation to manage adverse health outcomes will be unavoidable. The risks in Ontario – Canada’s most populous province – include increasing temperatures, more frequent and intense extreme weather events, and alterations to precipitation regimes. Socio-economic-demographic patterns could magnify the implications climate change has for Ontario, including the presence of rapidly growing vulnerable populations, exacerbation of warming trends by heat-islands in large urban areas, and connectedness to global transportation networks. This study examines climate change adaptation in the public health sector in Ontario using information from interviews with government officials. Methods Fifty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted, four with provincial and federal health officials and 49 with actors in public health and health relevant sectors at the municipal level. We identify adaptation efforts, barriers and opportunities for current and future intervention. Results Results indicate recognition that climate change will affect the health of Ontarians. Health officials are concerned about how a changing climate could exacerbate existing health issues or create new health burdens, specifically extreme heat (71%, severe weather (68% and poor air-quality (57%. Adaptation is currently taking the form of mainstreaming climate change into existing public health programs. While adaptive progress has relied on local leadership, federal support, political will, and inter-agency efforts, a lack of resources constrains the sustainability of long-term adaptation programs and the acquisition of data necessary to support effective policies. Conclusions This study provides a snapshot of climate change adaptation and needs in the public health sector in Ontario. Public health departments will need to capitalize on opportunities to integrate climate change into

Adaptation to climate change in the Ontario public health sector

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background Climate change is among the major challenges for health this century, and adaptation to manage adverse health outcomes will be unavoidable. The risks in Ontario – Canada’s most populous province – include increasing temperatures, more frequent and intense extreme weather events, and alterations to precipitation regimes. Socio-economic-demographic patterns could magnify the implications climate change has for Ontario, including the presence of rapidly growing vulnerable populations, exacerbation of warming trends by heat-islands in large urban areas, and connectedness to global transportation networks. This study examines climate change adaptation in the public health sector in Ontario using information from interviews with government officials. Methods Fifty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted, four with provincial and federal health officials and 49 with actors in public health and health relevant sectors at the municipal level. We identify adaptation efforts, barriers and opportunities for current and future intervention. Results Results indicate recognition that climate change will affect the health of Ontarians. Health officials are concerned about how a changing climate could exacerbate existing health issues or create new health burdens, specifically extreme heat (71%), severe weather (68%) and poor air-quality (57%). Adaptation is currently taking the form of mainstreaming climate change into existing public health programs. While adaptive progress has relied on local leadership, federal support, political will, and inter-agency efforts, a lack of resources constrains the sustainability of long-term adaptation programs and the acquisition of data necessary to support effective policies. Conclusions This study provides a snapshot of climate change adaptation and needs in the public health sector in Ontario. Public health departments will need to capitalize on opportunities to integrate climate change into policies and programs