INFLUENCE OF GREEN PLANTS ON DISTRIBUTION OF SOLAR RADIATION UNDER CONDITIONS OF URBAN BUILDING

The environmental function of vegetation provides a comfortable living conditions for people in the city. Green plantations affect the gas composition of air and the degree of its pollution, form the climatic characteristics of urban development, reduce the influence of the noise factor, have phytoncide properties, form a comfortable environment for human habitation

Intensity of Vascular Streak Dieback in Different Cocoa Clones and Various Agro-climatic Conditions

Vascular streak dieback (VSD) is one of the main diseases on cocoa. This disease can produce a heavy damage in susceptible plants. Agro-climatic condition influences the VSD disease severity level. A study on the relationship between agro-climatic condition and VSD disease severity was conducted in eight locations which were selected based on difference in agro-climatic conditions including altitude, rainfall, number of wet, and dry months. Randomized complete block design was used consisting of eight agro-climatic conditions as treatments which consisted of 200 trees samples, and scored for VSD intensity. A study was also conducted on the response of cocoa clones with different level of resistance at different altitude at Kendeng Lembu, Jatirono, Sungai Lembu, Banjarsari, and Sumber Asin Plantations. A split plot design was applied consisting of two factors. The first factor was location including Pager Gunung (highland) and Besaran (lowland). The second factor was clone resistance with two levels: PA 191 (resistant) and BL 703 (susceptible). VSD scores and stomatal characteristics (stomata number, stomata diameter, and stomata aperture) were determined. The results of experiment showed that VSD scoring differed significantly between the eight agro-climatic conditions. The highest VSD score occurred in the lowland (Gereng Rejo, Banjarsari Plantation, 38 m asl.), where the average annual rainfall was 2161 mm, with five dry months. Cocoa trees in Sumber Asin (580 m asl.), with the average annual rainfall of 2302 mm and 8.5 wet months/3.5 dry months were mostly free of VSD disease. Altitude was positively correlated with rainfall, and negatively correlated with VSD severity. Number of wet months was negatively correlated with VSD severity. Conversely, number of dry months was positively correlated with VSD. The result indicated that genotype, environment, or their interaction did not significantly affect number and aperture of stomata. Although stomatal diameter was significantly affected by environment, genotypes or their interaction with environment did not influence this character

Tanzanian forest tree plot diversity and elevation

Observed variation in species richness on ecological gradients and between regions has attracted several different explanations. Climatic factors, such as energy availability, precipitation and mean annual temperature, are frequently cited to explain differences in species richness (Wright et al. 1993). The relative amount of variation in these variables may be of importance as well as absolute values (Stevens 1989, 1992). Alternatively, the history of colonization and extirpation have been used to explain regional variation in diversity (Guo et al. 1998; Latham & Ricklefs 1993a, b). Area is an important factor, for example on an elevational gradient the tops of mountains are not only cooler than the bottoms, but they are also much smaller (Rahbek 1997)

Estimating how inflated or obscured effects of climate affect forecasted species distribution

Climate is one of the main drivers of species distribution. However, as different environmental factors tend to co-vary, the effect of climate cannot be taken at face value, as it may be either inflated or obscured by other correlated factors. We used the favourability models of four species (Alytes dickhilleni, Vipera latasti, Aquila fasciata and Capra pyrenaica) inhabiting Spanish mountains as case studies to evaluate the relative contribution of climate in their forecasted favourability by using variation partitioning and weighting the effect of climate in relation to non-climatic factors. By calculating the pure effect of the climatic factor, the pure effects of non-climatic factors, the shared climatic effect and the proportion of the pure effect of the climatic factor in relation to its apparent effect (r), we assessed the apparent effect and the pure independent effect of climate. We then projected both types of effects when modelling the future favourability for each species and combination of AOGCM-SRES (two Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models: CGCM2 and ECHAM4, and two Special Reports on Emission Scenarios (SRES): A2 and B2). The results show that the apparent effect of climate can be either inflated (overrated) or obscured (underrated) by other correlated factors. These differences were species-specific; the sum of favourable areas forecasted according to the pure climatic effect differed from that forecasted according to the apparent climatic effect by about 61% on average for one of the species analyzed, and by about 20% on average for each of the other species. The pure effect of future climate on species distributions can only be estimated by combining climate with other factors. Transferring the pure climatic effect and the apparent climatic effect to the future delimits the maximum and minimum favourable areas forecasted for each species in each climate change scenario.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and FEDER (project CGL2009-11316/BOS). D. Romero is a PhD student at the University of Malaga with a grant of the Ministerio de Educacio´n y Ciencia (AP 2007-03633

Is the Share of Agricultural Maintenance Research Rising?

This study measures the amount of agricultural research engaged in maintenance research for commodities and non-commodities. The percentage of commodity based maintenance research has risen from roughly 35% in 1986 to 41% in 2008. The percentage of non-commodity based agricultural research is roughly 29%. Additionally, an empirical model is developed to explain maintenance research expenditures. The influences of agricultural research funding, climatic conditions, pest and pathogen control, and agricultural production on maintenance research expenditures are tested in the long and short run. Each category has a statistically significant impact on maintenance research expenditures.maintenance research, research depreciation, agricultural research, total factor productivity, Productivity Analysis,

Updating known distribution models for forecasting climate change impact on endangered species

To plan endangered species conservation and to design adequate management programmes, it is necessary to predict their distributional response to climate change, especially under the current situation of rapid change. However, these predictions are customarily done by relating de novo the distribution of the species with climatic conditions with no regard of previously available knowledge about the factors affecting the species distribution. We propose to take advantage of known species distribution models, but proceeding to update them with the variables yielded by climatic models before projecting them to the future. To exemplify our proposal, the availability of suitable habitat across Spain for the endangered Bonelli’s Eagle (Aquila fasciata) was modelled by updating a pre-existing model based on current climate and topography to a combination of different general circulation models and Special Report on Emissions Scenarios. Our results suggested that the main threat for this endangered species would not be climate change, since all forecasting models show that its distribution will be maintained and increased in mainland Spain for all the XXI century. We remark on the importance of linking conservation biology with distribution modelling by updating existing models, frequently available for endangered species, considering all the known factors conditioning the species’ distribution, instead of building new models that are based on climate change variables only.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and FEDER (project CGL2009-11316/BOS

The exotic invasive plant Vincetoxicum rossicum is a strong competitor even outside its current realized climatic temperature range

Dog-strangling vine (Vincetoxicum rossicum) is an exotic plant originating from Central and Eastern Europe that is becoming increasingly invasive in southern Ontario, Canada. Once established, it successfully displaces local native plant species but mechanisms behind this plant’s high competitive ability are not fully understood. It is unknown whether cooler temperatures will limit the range expansion of V. rossicum, which has demonstrated high tolerance for other environmental variables such as light and soil moisture. Furthermore, if V. rossicum can establish outside its current climatic limit it is unknown whether competition with native species can significantly contribute to reduce fitness and slow down invasion. We conducted an experiment to test the potential of V. rossicum to spread into northern areas of Ontario using a set of growth chambers to simulate southern and northern Ontario climatic temperature regimes. We also tested plant-plant competition by growing V. rossicum in pots with a highly abundant native species, Solidago canadensis, and comparing growth responses to plants grown alone. We found that the fitness of V. rossicum was not affected by the cooler climate despite a delay in reproductive phenology. Growing V. rossicum with S. canadensis caused a significant reduction in seedpod biomass of V. rossicum. However, we did not detect a temperature x competition interaction in spite of evidence for adaptation of S. canadensis to cooler temperature conditions. We conclude that the spread of V. rossicum north within the tested range is unlikely to be limited by climatic temperature but competition with an abundant native species may contribute to slow it down

Give it up for climate change : a defence of the beneficiary pays principle

This article focuses on the normative problem of establishing how the burdens associated with implementing policies designed to prevent, or manage, climate change should be shared amongst states involved in ongoing international climate change negotiations. This problem has three key features: identifying the nature and extent of the burdens that need to be borne; identifying the type of agent that should be allocated these burdens; and distributing amongst the particular ‘tokens’ of the relevant ‘agent type’ climatic burdens according to principles that none could reasonably reject. The article defends a key role in climatic burden-sharing policy for the principle that states benefiting most from activities that cause climate change should bear the greatest burden in terms of the costs of preventing dangerous climate change. I outline two versions of this ‘beneficiary pays’ principle; examine the strengths and weakness of each version; and explore how the most plausible version (which I call the ‘unjust enrichment’ account) could be operationalized in the context of global climate governance

Climate and Land Degradation

On the occasion of the Seventh session of the Conference of Parties, The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has prepared this brochure which explains the role of different climatic factors in land degradation and WMO's contribution in addressing this important subject. Educational levels: Undergraduate lower division, Undergraduate upper division, Graduate or professional, Informal education, General public

Wind environmental evaluation of neighborhood areas in major towns of Malaysia

This paper discusses planning guidelines of neighborhood residential areas in consideration of wind flow in Malaysia. It aims to reduce the energy consumption particularly from the use of air-conditioners. Wind flow at the neighborhood level has a large potential to promote natural ventilation in each dwelling unit. This paper reports results of the wind environmental evaluation of case study areas under respective climatic conditions in major towns of Malaysia. The results showed that the calculated mean wind velocities in most terraced houses cases did not meet required criterion under respective climatic conditions in the east coast towns and inland town of Peninsular Malaysia. This was mainly due to the weak wind conditions in these towns. It was considered that the location of towns, i.e. distance from the coastal line, had significant influence on such weak wind conditions. This paper finally suggested that the high-rise housing could be one of the effective means to utilize higher wind at the elevated floor level under weak wind conditions in urban Malaysia