Climate change and the Delta, San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science

Anthropogenic climate change amounts to a rapidly approaching, “new” stressor in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta system. In response to California’s extreme natural hydroclimatic variability, complex water-management systems have been developed, even as the Delta’s natural ecosystems have been largely devastated. Climate change is projected to challenge these management and ecological systems in different ways that are characterized by different levels of uncertainty. For example, there is high certainty that climate will warm by about 2°C more (than late-20th-century averages) by mid-century and about 4°C by end of century, if greenhouse-gas emissions continue their current rates of acceleration. Future precipitation changes are much less certain, with as many climate models projecting wetter conditions as drier. However, the same projections agree that precipitation will be more intense when storms do arrive, even as more dry days will separate storms. Warmer temperatures will likely enhance evaporative demands and raise water temperatures. Consequently, climate change is projected to yield both more extreme flood risks and greater drought risks. Sea level rise (SLR) during the 20th century was about 22cm, and is projected to increase by at least 3-fold this century. SLR together with land subsidence threatens the Delta with greater vulnerabilities to inundation and salinity intrusion. Effects on the Delta ecosystem that are traceable to warming include SLR, reduced snowpack, earlier snowmelt and larger storm-driven streamflows, warmer and longer summers, warmer summer water temperatures, and water-quality changes. These changes and their uncertainties will challenge the operations of water projects and uses throughout the Delta’s watershed and delivery areas. Although the effects of climate change on Delta ecosystems may be profound, the end results are difficult to predict, except that native species will fare worse than invaders. Successful preparation for the coming changes will require greater integration of monitoring, modeling, and decision making across time, variables, and space than has been historically normal

EPA 9—Collaborate as a Member of an Interprofessional Team: a Short Communication from the AAMC Core EPAs for Entering Residency Pilot Schools

Members of the Association of American Medical Colleges Core Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) for Entering Residency Pilot worked to conceptualize how graduates might be entrusted for EPA 9: Collaborate as a member of an interprofessional team. Through an iterative group process informed by the literature and application to local curriculum and clinical experiences, we drafted a developmental framework and curriculum mapping tool. Ultimately, entrustment requires assessment in clinical settings. Nonetheless, teamwork and communication skills that are relevant to future entrustment can be taught and assessed in pre-clinical contexts such as small groups to ensure students are on an entrustment trajectory

Effects of interactive global changes on methane uptake in an annual grassland.

The future size of the terrestrial methane (CH4) sink of upland soils remains uncertain, along with potential feedbacks to global warming. Much of the uncertainty lies in our lack of knowledge about potential interactive effects of multiple simultaneous global environmental changes. Field CH4 fluxes and laboratory soil CH4 consumption were measured five times during 3 consecutive years in a California annual grassland exposed to 8 years of the full factorial combination of ambient and elevated levels of precipitation, temperature, atmospheric CO2 concentration, and N deposition. Across all sampling dates and treatments, increased precipitation caused a 61% reduction in field CH4 uptake. However, this reduction depended quantitatively on other global change factors. Higher precipitation reduced CH4 uptake when temperature or N deposition (but not both) increased, and under elevated CO2 but only late in the growing season. Warming alone also decreased CH4 uptake early in the growing season, which was partly explained by a decrease in laboratory soil CH4 consumption. Atmospheric CH4 models likely need to incorporate nonadditive interactions, seasonal interactions, and interactions between methanotrophy and methanogenesis. Despite the complexity of interactions we observed in this multifactor experiment, the outcome agrees with results from single‐factor experiments: an increased terrestrial CH4 sink appears less likely than a reduced one

Supporting weight management services during the COVID-19 pandemic: Phase I insights

Societal changes required to manage the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic may have inadvertently promoted weight gain, due to the adverse impact on socio-economics, psychological health, and the resulting metabolic impact of elevated stress, emotional eating and physical inactivity. Evidence on the impact of COVID-19 has rapidly accumulated, to demonstrate that people living with obesity are at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 infection. It is therefore important to understand what is happening in terms of weight management practice to develop local and national thinking. This project will explore the impact of the COVID-19 upon the provision of tier 2 and 3 weight management services (WMS) in England during the lockdown period (phase I; March-June 2020); and determine what needs to happen in the future (phase II; September-November 2020). This report documents findings from phase I

Perceptions and Experiences of Environmental Health Risks Among New Mothers: A Qualitative Study in Ontario, Canada

There is a growing awareness and concern in contemporary societies about potential health impacts of environmental contaminants on children. Mothers are traditionally more involved than other family members in managing family health and household decisions and thus targeted by public health campaigns to minimise risks. However little is known about how new mothers perceive and experience environmental health risks to their children. In 2010, we undertook a parallel case study using qualitative, in-depth interviews with new mothers and focus groups with public health key informants in two Public Health Units in Ontario Province, Canada. We found that the concern about environmental hazards among participants ranged from having no concerns to actively incorporating prevention into daily life. Overall, there was a common perception among participants that many risks, particularly in the indoor environment, were controllable and therefore of little concern. But environmental risks that originate outside the home were viewed as less controllable and more threatening. In response to such threats, mothers invoked coping strategies such as relying on the capacity of children\u27s bodies to adapt. Regardless of the strategies adopted, actions (or inactions) were contingent upon active information seeking. We also found an optimistic bias in which new mothers reported that other children were at greater risk despite similar environmental circumstances. The findings suggest that risk communication experts must attend to the social and environmental contexts of risk and coping when designing strategies around risk reducing behaviours

Dynamique de la zone de swash : influence de la marée et de la morphologie sur les paramètres du run-up

The impact of tide and morphology on run-up parameters in dissipative conditions is assessed, using high-frequency video observations. The infragravity run-up is dominant and shows variations of about 60% during an entire tidal cycle. This behavior cannot be explained by the evolution of offshore wave conditions. Wave conditions in the surf zone and the beach slope are tidally modulated and significantly correlated to the runup. The role of the shape of the beach profile is also investigated