University of East Anglia

About: University of East Anglia is a education organization based out in Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Climate change. The organization has 13250 authors who have published 37504 publications receiving 1669060 citations. The organization is also known as: UEA.

Atmospheric aerosol models for systems including the ions H+, NH4+, Na+, SO42−, NO3−, Cl−, Br−, and H2O

Abstract: [1] Mole fraction based equations for aqueous phase activities, together with equilibrium constants for the formation of gases and solids, have been combined with a Gibbs free energy minimization algorithm to create equilibrium phase partitioning models of inorganic atmospheric aerosols. The water content, phase state (solid or liquid), and gas/aerosol partitioning are predicted for known ionic composition, relative humidity, and temperature. The models are valid from <200 to 328 K for the subsystems (H+-SO42−-NO3−-Cl−-Br−-H2O) and (H+-NH4+-SO42−-NO3−-H2O), and 298.15 K only for (H+-NH4+-Na+-SO42−-NO3−-Cl−-H2O). The models involve no simplifying assumptions and include all solid phases identified in bulk experiments, including hydrated and double salt forms not treated in most other studies. The Henry's law constant of H2SO4 is derived as a function of temperature, based upon available data, and the model treatment of the solubility of HBr in aqueous H2SO4 is revised. Phase diagrams are calculated for the (NH4)2SO4/H2SO4/H2O system to low temperature. The models are also used to explore the importance of the double salts in urban inorganic aerosols. These Aerosol Inorganics Model (AIM) models can be run on the Web for a variety of problem types at http://mae.ucdavis.edu/wexler/aim.html and http://www.uea.ac.uk/∼e770/aim.html, and their use is summarized here.

Does public policy support or undermine climate change adaptation? Exploring policy interplay across different scales of governance

Abstract: Policy makers have now recognised the need to integrate thinking about climate change into all areas of public policy making. However, the discussion of ‘climate policy integration’ has tended to focus on mitigation decisions mostly taken at international and national levels. Clearly, there is also a more locally focused adaptation dimension to climate policy integration, which has not been adequately explored by academics or policy makers. Drawing on a case study of the UK, this paper adopts both a top-down and a bottom-up perspective to explore how far different sub-elements of policies within the agriculture, nature conservation and water sectors support or undermine potential adaptive responses. The top-down approach, which assumes that policies set explicit aims and objectives that are directly translated into action on the ground, combines a content analysis of policy documents with interviews with policy makers. The bottom-up approach recognises the importance of other actors in shaping policy implementation and involves interviews with actors in organisations within the three sectors. This paper reveals that neither approach offers a complete picture of the potentially enabling or constraining effects of different policies on future adaptive planning, but together they offer new perspectives on climate policy integration. These findings inform a discussion on how to implement climate policy integration, including auditing existing policies and ‘climate proofing’ new ones so they support rather than hinder adaptive planning.

Ecosystem services and economic theory: integration for policy-relevant research.

Abstract: It has become essential in policy and decision-making circles to think about the economic benefits (in addition to moral and scientific motivations) humans derive from well-functioning ecosystems. The concept of ecosystem services has been developed to address this link between ecosystems and human welfare. Since policy decisions are often evaluated through cost–benefit assessments, an economic analysis can help make ecosystem service research operational. In this paper we provide some simple economic analyses to discuss key concepts involved in formalizing ecosystem service research. These include the distinction between services and benefits, understanding the importance of marginal ecosystem changes, formalizing the idea of a safe minimum standard for ecosystem service provision, and discussing how to capture the public benefits of ecosystem services. We discuss how the integration of economic concepts and ecosystem services can provide policy and decision makers with a fuller spectrum of information for making conservation–conversion trade-offs. We include the results from a survey of the literature and a questionnaire of researchers regarding how ecosystem service research can be integrated into the policy process. We feel this discussion of economic concepts will be a practical aid for ecosystem service research to become more immediately policy relevant.

Nutrient Biogeochemistry of the Coastal Zone

Abstract: REVIEW The coastal seas are one of the most valuable and vulnerable of Earth9s habitats. Significant inputs of nutrients to the coastal zone arrive via rivers, groundwater, and the atmosphere. Nutrient fluxes through these routes have been increased by human activity. In addition, the N:P:Si ratios of these inputs have been perturbed, and many coastal management practices exacerbate these perturbations. There is evidence of impacts arising from these changes (in phytoplankton numbers and relative species abundance, and deep-water oxygen declines) in areas of restricted water exchange. Elsewhere, the nutrient fluxes through the coastal zone appear to be still dominated by large inputs from the open ocean, and there is little evidence of anthropogenic perturbations.