Search results for "climate"

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…

From macro- to micro-climate? 3D Analysis of lesser kestrel Falco naumanni nest attendance

2013

Early Effects of No-Till Use on Durum Wheat (Triticum durum Desf.): Productivity and Soil Functioning Vary between Two Contrasting Mediterranean Soils

2022

The diffusion of no-tillage (NT) is to be encouraged because of the benefits it can provide in terms of improving soil fertility and counteracting global warming and climate change as part of climate-smart agriculture practices. However, the introduction of this management can be difficult, especially in the first years of application, and can lead to unpredictable yield results depending on the soil type. Therefore, the aim of this experiment was to evaluate the early effect of NT use, compared to the conventional mouldboard ploughing (CT), on two different soils, a clay-loam (GAL) and a sandy-clay-loam soil (SMA), by monitoring a set of 43 different soil and plant variables that were expe…

Subsoil Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi for Sustainability and Climate-Smart Agriculture: A Solution Right Under Our Feet?

2019

With growing populations and climate change, assuring food and nutrition security is an increasingly challenging task. Climate-smart and sustainable agriculture, that is, conceiving agriculture to be resistant and resilient to a changing climate while keeping it viable in the long term, is probably the best solution. The role of soil biota and particularly arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in this new agriculture is believed to be of paramount importance. However, the large nutrient pools and the microbiota of subsoils are rarely considered in the equation. Here we explore the potential contributions of subsoil AM fungi to a reduced and more efficient fertilization, carbon sequestration, an…

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

2013

ITALIAN COASTAL COMMUNITIES’ WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR THE MITIGATION OF CLIMATE CHANGE EFFECTS ON THE FISHING INDUSTRY

2020

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 …