Topic
Climate change
About: Climate change is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 99222 publications have been published within this topic receiving 3572006 citations.
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01 Apr 2012
TL;DR: Warming experiments underpredict advances in the timing of flowering and leafing by 8.5-fold and 4.0-fold, respectively, compared with long-term observations, which introduces uncertainty into ecosystem models that are informed solely by experiments and suggest that responses to climate change that are predicted using such models should be re-evaluated.
685 citations
01 Sep 2009
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an independent scientifi c review of the range of methods proposed with the aim of providing an objective view on whether geoengineering could, and should, play a role in addressing climate change, and under what conditions.
Abstract: Geoengineering, or the deliberate large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment to counteract anthropogenic climate change, has been suggested as a new potential tool for addressing climate change. Efforts to address climate change have primarily focused on mitigation, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and more recently on addressing the impacts of climate change—adaptation. However, international political consensus on the need to reduce emissions has been very slow in coming, and there is as yet no agreement on the emissions reductions needed beyond 2012. As a result global emissions have continued to increase by about 3% per year (Raupach et al. 2007), a faster rate than that projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (IPCC 2001)7 even under its most fossil fuel intensive scenario (A1FI8) in which an increase in global mean temperature of about 4°C (2.4 to 6.4°C) by 2100 is projected (Rahmstorf et al. 2007). The scientifi c community is now becoming increasingly concerned that emissions will not be reduced at the rate and magnitude required to keep the increase in global average temperature below 2°C (above pre-industrial levels) by 2100. Concerns with the lack of progress of the political processes have led to increasing interest in geoengineering approaches. This Royal Society report presents an independent scientifi c review of the range of methods proposed with the aim of providing an objective view on whether geoengineering could, and should, play a role in addressing climate change, and under w
685 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a review of the state of the art on geographical patterns of species range shifts under contemporary climate change for plants and animals across both terrestrial and marine ecosystems is presented.
Abstract: Poleward and upward shifts are the most frequent types of range shifts that have been reported in response to contemporary climate change. However, the number of reports documenting other types of range shifts – such as in east-west directions across longitudes or, even more unexpectedly, towards tropical latitudes and lower elevations – is increasing rapidly. Recent studies show that these range shifts may not be so unexpected once the local climate changes are accounted for. We here provide an updated synthesis of the fast-moving research on climate-related range shifts. By describing the current state of the art on geographical patterns of species range shifts under contemporary climate change for plants and animals across both terrestrial and marine ecosystems, we identified a number of research shortfalls. In addition to the recognised geographic shortfall in the tropics, we found taxonomic and methodological shortfalls with knowledge gaps regarding range shifts of prokaryotes, lowland range shifts of terrestrial plants, and bathymetric range shifts of marine plants. Based on this review, we provide a research agenda for filling these gaps. We outline a comprehensive framework for assessing multidimensional changes in species distributions, which should then be contrasted with expectations based on climate change indices, such as velocity measures accounting for complex local climate changes. Finally, we propose a unified classification of geographical patterns of species range shifts, arranged in a bi-dimensional space defined by species’ persistence and movement rates. Placing the observed and expected shifts into this bi-dimensional space should lead to more informed assessments of extinction risks.
684 citations
TL;DR: This miniature ocean can serve as a giant mesocosm of the world's oceans, with various sources of disturbances interacting synergistically and therefore providing an insight into a major unknown: how resilient are marine ecosystems, and how will their current functioning be modified.
Abstract: Little doubt is left that climate change is underway, strongly affecting the Earth's biodiversity. Some of the greatest challenges ahead concern the marine realm, but it is unclear to what extent changes will affect marine ecosystems. The Mediterranean Sea could give us some of the answers. Data recovered from its shores and depths have shown that sea temperatures are steadily increasing, extreme climatic events and related disease outbreaks are becoming more frequent, faunas are shifting, and invasive species are spreading. This miniature ocean can serve as a giant mesocosm of the world's oceans, with various sources of disturbances interacting synergistically and therefore providing an insight into a major unknown: how resilient are marine ecosystems, and how will their current functioning be modified?
682 citations
TL;DR: In this article, an overview of climatic changes that have been observed during the past century at certain high-elevation sites, and changes in a more distant past documented by a variety of climate-sensitive environmental indicators, such as tree-rings and alpine glaciers, serve as a measure of the natural variability of climate in mountains over longer time scales.
Abstract: This paper provides an overview of climatic changes that have been observed during the past century at certain high-elevation sites, and changes in a more distant past documented by a variety of climate-sensitive environmental indicators, such as tree-rings and alpine glaciers, that serve as a measure of the natural variability of climate in mountains over longer time scales. Detailed studies such as those found in this special issue of Climatic Change , as well as those noted in this review, for the mountain regions of the world, advance our understanding in a variety of ways. They are not only helpful to characterize present and past climatological features in the mountainous zones, but they also provide useful information to the climate modeling community. Because of the expected refinements in the physical parameterizations of climate models in coming years, and the probable increase in the spatial resolution of GCMs, the use of appropriate data from high elevation sites will become of increasing importance for model initialization, verification, and intercomparison purposes. The necessity of accurate projections of climate change is paramount to assessing the likely impacts of climate change on mountain biodiversity, hydrology and cryosphere, and on the numerous economic activities which take place in these regions.
680 citations