Search results for " Climate"

Multiscale variation in drought controlled historical forest fire activity in the boreal forests of eastern Fennoscandia

2017

Forest fires are a key disturbance in boreal forests, and characteristics of fire regimes are among the most important factors explaining the variation in forest structure and species composition. The occurrence of fire is connected with climate, but earlier, mostly local-scale studies in the northern European boreal forests have provided little insight into fire-climate relationship before the modern fire suppression period. Here, we compiled annually resolved fire history, temperature, and precipitation reconstructions from eastern Fennoscandia from the mid-16th century to the end of the 19th century, a period of strong human influence on fires. We used synchrony of fires over the network…

Long-term decrease in Asian monsoon rainfall and abrupt climate change events over the past 6,700 years

2021

Significance The variability of the Asian summer monsoon (ASM) is important for the functioning of ecological and societal systems at regional to continental scales, but the long-term evolution and interannual variability of this system is not well understood. Here, we present a stable isotope–based reconstruction of ASM variability covering 4680 BCE to 2011 CE. Superimposed on a gradual drying trend, a rapid drop in mean annual precipitation (>40%) toward persistently drier conditions occurred in ∼1675 BCE. This megadrought caused regional forest deterioration and enhanced aeolian activity affecting Chinese ecosystems. We argue that this abrupt aridification starting ∼2000 BCE triggered wa…

Climate variability, innovation and firm performance: evidence from the European agricultural sector

2021

Abstract It is generally accepted that adaptation to climate variability requires a technological advancement strategy. However, the innovation process has received little explicit consideration in this framework. We employ a panel endogenous switching regression model to explore whether and to what extent climate variability affects firm performance through the ability to induce the development of adaptation innovations in key resource-based sectors in Europe during the period 2007–2017. Our findings confirm that the knowledge generation process at the heart of climate change adaptation technologies enhances firm performance, especially for firms in the aquaculture and fishing sub-sectors …

Evidence for a link between the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and annual asthma mortality rates in the US

2019

AbstractAn association between climatic conditions and asthma mortality has been widely assumed. However, it is unclear whether climatic variations have a fingerprint on asthma dynamics over long time intervals. The aim of this study is to detect a possible correlation between climatic indices, namely the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and asthma mortality rates over the period from 1950 to 2015 in the contiguous US. To this aim, an analysis of non-stationary and non-linear signals was performed on time series of US annual asthma mortality rates, AMO and PDO indices to search for characteristic periodicities. Results revealed that asthma death rates evalu…

Le Climosequenze: strumenti per valutare gli effetti dei cambiamenti climatici su alcune proprietà e caratteri funzionali del suolo - un caso studio …

2013

Green coffee, bioactive compounds’ analysis of experimental cultivation in Sicily: a new frontier in the Sicilian food sector

2023

Recently, climate change represents a new possibility for tropical cultivars fruit in Mediterranean areas. The focus of this work is the evaluation of the real possibility of coffee cultivation in Sicily, like coffee plants grown in tropical and subtropical regions. The objective was to evaluate plant adaptation to our climate and to study the chemical qualities of green coffee pulps and seeds: total phenolic content, antiradical capacity, fatty acids, amino acids, alkaloids, vitamins, proximate composition, polyphenolic profile and other bioactive compounds of cosmetic, pharmaceutical and agrary interest. Temperature, light and vegetative growth of Coffea arabica L. cv. “Caturra” plants we…

Effects of cold acclimation and dsRNA injections on Gs1l gene splicing in Drosophila montana

2017

Abstract Alternative splicing, in which one gene produce multiple transcripts, may influence how adaptive genes respond to specific environments. A newly produced transcriptome of Drosophila montana shows the Gs1-like (Gs1l) gene to express multiple splice variants and to be down regulated in cold acclimated flies with increased cold tolerance. Gs1l’s effect on cold tolerance was further tested by injecting cold acclimated and non-acclimated flies from two distantly located northern and southern fly populations with double stranded RNA (dsRNA) targeting Gs1l. While both populations had similar cold acclimation responses, dsRNA injections only effected the northern population. The nature of …

Reflections on the advent of a more enterprising culture in Finland : an exploratory study

2001

Validación de una Medida de Clima de Servicio en las Organizaciones

2012

Service climate is critical for organizations pertaining to the service sector. It reflects the importance organizations attribute to service quality and efforts to please customers. Using previous work of Schneider, White, and Paul (1998) as starting point, this research validates a measure of service climate in the Spanish language. Data from two survey study projects were brought together. A total of 120 hotels, located in Spain, participated in the research. The sample consisted of 508 frontline hotel employees distributed in 152 work-units. Our results confirmed that construct and predictive validity are satisfactory, with four factors describing the facets of service climate: Global S…

(Ré)concilier éclairage urbain et environnement nocturne : les enjeux d’une controverse sociotechnique

2014

International audience; Our paper explains the birth of an environmental problem, i.e. light pollution, viewed as a socio-technical controversy. Supported by the actor-network approach, it traces over forty years the conditions of its emergence, transformation and dissemination to local, national and transnational levels and through various professional disciplines. Schematically, “environmentalists” uphold a holistic approach of “nocturnality” and define artificial light as a pollutant. Facing them, the “technicist” defends a segmented approach and defines artificial light as a nuisance. The introduction of this controversy into the political agenda leads to institutional decisions that gr…