Tag: Climate change

Monarch Butterflies in Western North America: A Holistic Review of Population Trends, Ecology, Stressors, Resilience and Adaptation

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Author: James, David G. Description: Monarch butterfly populations in western North America suffered a substantial decline, from millions of butterflies overwintering in California in the 1980s to less than 400,000 at the beginning of the 21st century. The introduction of neonicotinoid insecticides in the mid-1990s and their subsequent widespread use appears to be the most likely major factor behind this sudden decline. Habitat loss and unfavorable climates (high temperatures, aridity, and winter storms) have also played important and ongoing roles. These factors kept overwintering populations stable but below 300,000 during…

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Temperature is positively associated with tree mortality in California subalpine forests containing whitebark pine

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Author: Young, Derek J. N.; Slaton, Michèle R.; Koltunov, Alexander Description: Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) is a keystone high-elevation tree species occurring across much of western North America, yet it has been listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act due to rapid population declines and extensive ongoing pressures from white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola), mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae), and increasing temperature and aridity associated with climate change. Past research has shown that whitebark pine mortality is more likely in hotter and drier sites, but no…

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Increasing frequency and intensity of the most extreme wildfires on Earth

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Author: Cunningham, Calum X.; Williamson, Grant J.; Bowman, David M. J. S. Description: Climate change is exacerbating wildfire conditions, but evidence is lacking for global trends in extreme fire activity itself. Here we identify energetically extreme wildfire events by calculating daily clusters of summed fire radiative power using 21 years of satellite data, revealing that the frequency of extreme events (>99.99th percentile) increased by 2.2-fold from 2003 to 2023, with the last 7 years including the 6 most extreme. Although the total area burned on Earth may be declining, our…

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Combined Effect of Hot Weather and Outdoor Air Pollution on Respiratory Health: Literature Review

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Author: Grigorieva, Elena; Lukyanets, Artem Description: Association between short-term exposure to ambient air pollution and respiratory health is well documented. At the same time, it is widely known that extreme weather events intrinsically exacerbate air pollution impact. Particularly, hot weather and extreme temperatures during heat waves (HW) significantly affect human health, increasing risks of respiratory mortality and morbidity. Concurrently, a synergistic effect of air pollution and high temperatures can be combined with weather-air pollution interaction during wildfires. The purpose of the current review is to summarize literature on interplay of…

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Climate change increases risk of extreme rainfall following wildfire in the western United States

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Author: Touma, Danielle; Stevenson, Samantha; Swain, Daniel L.; Singh, Deepti; Kalashnikov, Dmitri A.; Huang, Xingying Description: Post-wildfire extreme rainfall events can have destructive impacts in the western United States. Using two climate model large ensembles, we assess the future risk of extreme fire weather events being followed by extreme rainfall in this region. By mid-21st century, in a high warming scenario (RCP8.5), we report large increases in the number of extreme fire weather events followed within 1 year by at least one extreme rainfall event. By 2100, the frequency of…

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Assessing recent warming using instrumentally homogeneous sea surface temperature records

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Author: Hausfather, Z.; Cowtan, K.; Clarke, D.C.; Jacobs, P.; Richardson, M.; Rohde, R. Description: Sea surface temperature (SST) records are subject to potential biases due to changing instrumentation and measurement practices. Significant differences exist between commonly used composite SST reconstructions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Extended Reconstruction Sea Surface Temperature (ERSST), the Hadley Centre SST data set (HadSST3), and the Japanese Meteorological Agency’s Centennial Observation-Based Estimates of SSTs (COBE-SST) from 2003 to the present. The update from ERSST version 3b to version 4 resulted in an increase in…

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Risky Development: Increasing Exposure to Natural Hazards in the United States

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Author: Iglesias, Virginia; Braswell, Anna E.; Rossi, Matthew W.; Joseph, Maxwell B.; McShane, Caitlin; Cattau, Megan; Koontz, Michael J.; McGlinchy, Joe; Nagy, R. Chelsea; Balch, Jennifer; Leyk, Stefan; Travis, William R. Description: Losses from natural hazards are escalating dramatically, with more properties and critical infrastructure affected each year. Although the magnitude, intensity, and/or frequency of certain hazards has increased, development contributes to this unsustainable trend, as disasters emerge when natural disturbances meet vulnerable assets and populations. To diagnose development patterns leading to increased exposure in the conterminous United States (CONUS),…

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Tropical forests and the global carbon cycle: impacts of atmospheric carbon dioxide, climate change and rate of deforestation

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Author: Cramer, W.; Bondeau, A.; Schaphoff, S.; Lucht, W.; Smith, B.; Sitch, S. Description: The remaining carbon stocks in wet tropical forests are currently at risk because of anthropogenic deforestation, but also because of the possibility of release driven by climate change. To identify the relative roles of CO2 increase, changing temperature and rainfall, and deforestation in the future, and the magnitude of their impact on atmospheric CO2 concentrations, we have applied a dynamic global vegetation model, using multiple scenarios of tropical deforestation (extrapolated from two estimates of current rates)…

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