Managing Climate Change and Weather Extremes for Nature-based Tourism Organizations in the United States

Weather and climate serve as profound motivators for tourism travels. Much of the United States (US) has experienced a warming trend as well as higher extreme weather frequency, and the trends are projected to be continued. Consequently, the changing climate is expected to have both direct and indirect impacts on tourism decision-making and travel patterns due to the complex relationship between climate, weather, and outdoor recreation. Climate resources capture the integrated effects of varied meteorological variables that interact with humans in different ways and can be categorized along a spectrum of quantifiable values. This dissertation proposed a Camping Climate Index that considers the uniqueness of the nature-based tourism segment interaction with climate variables, as well as explored the impact of climate variability on nature-based tourism organizations in the United States. Chapter 2 used a data-driven method that combines revealed tourists\u27 travel behaviors and multifaceted climate variables to mathematically developed a camping sector-specific climate index. The novel index is validated with 29 for-profit campgrounds across the United States. Chapter 3 examined the feasibility and application of the tourism climate index approach to the nature-based tourism for non-profit organizations in the United States. This study has advanced the understanding of the nuance among the nature-based tourism segments and facilitates the assessment the climate resources for tourism decision-making and sustainable management. Results show that the Camping Climate Index is more predictive of visitation, recreational vehicle camping, and tent camping compared to other indices, though not for all locations or tourism activities. Chapter 4 expand the study scope and explored the climate resources of entire contiguous United States. Climate change analyses have shown signals of either beneficial or adverse change in terms of climate resources for nature-based tourism, as it relates to the warming trend and weather extremes in the United States. The final chapter provides a discussion of the findings, implications, future research, and conclusions

Sustainable Entrepreneurship and the Effects of Climate Change

Sustainable entrepreneurship is a field that explores opportunities to exploit market failures in a sustainable manner, particularly when environmental challenges like climate change arise. Entrepreneurship researchers primarily focus on opportunities to mitigate climate change, not opportunities to exploit the effects of climate change. To address this gap, we present a camping case to study the effects of climate change on daily tent and RV sales from January 2007 to October 2016 at a for-profit campsite in the central United States. Findings demonstrate that daily weather and extreme weather (i.e., the operationalization of the effects of climate change) are significantly related to campsite sales dependent on meteorological season and camping type (i.e., tent or RV). There is also a strong weekend effect on sales. Based on our findings, we assert that camping businesses are capable of sustainably (i.e., without increasing camping capacity) exploit improving weather conditions in the focal study region

Climate Resources for Camping: A Resource-Based Theory Perspective

Camping is a salient economic contributor to nature-based tourism that is also beholden to the natural environment. Climate resources are the combination of naturally occurring meteorological variables of empirically observable importance to firm performance. Tourism climatologist are at the forefront of climate resource research, where investigations have been primarily empirically derived rather than guided by theory. Accordingly, we introduce climate resources to the management discipline’s resource-based theory, operationalizing climate resources as public goods in addition to other public goods like open access innovation. We investigate the value, rareness, and inimitability of climate resources at 36 managed United States National Park Service campgrounds from 1984 to 2019. Results spatially and temporally demonstrate (1) the value of climate resources to firm performance, (2) that climate resource value varies geographically, and (3) that climate resources are becoming rarer at lower latitude and altitude geographies. Implications, limitations, and future research directions are provided

COVID-19, Camping, and Construal Level Theory

This study explores the impact of COVID-19 on travelers’ future recreational vehicle, cabin, and tent camping decisions extending the Construal Level Theory. Findings suggest that camping consideration due to COVID-19 is significantly related to understanding about time and distance of travel and dependent on pandemic scale

Young star clusters in circumnuclear starburst rings

We analyse the cluster luminosity functions (CLFs) of the youngest star clusters in three galaxies exhibiting prominent circumnuclear starburst rings. We focus specifically on NGC 1512 and NGC 6951, for which we have access to H$\alpha$ data that allow us to unambiguously identify the youngest sample clusters. To place our results on a firm statistical footing, we first explore in detail a number of important technical issues affecting the process from converting the observational data into the spectral-energy distributions of the objects in our final catalogues. The CLFs of the young clusters in both galaxies exhibit approximate power-law behaviour down to the 90 per cent observational completeness limits, thus showing that star cluster formation in the violent environments of starburst rings appears to proceed similarly as that elsewhere in the local Universe. We discuss this result in the context of the density of the interstellar medium in our starburst-ring galaxies.Comment: 14 pages, incl. 12 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Camping, weather, and disasters: Extending the Construal Level Theory

Camping is an outdoor accommodation and type of recreation that is susceptible to weather and climate change. Camping—in addition to the relationships camping shares with weather— remains understudied despite the subsectors’ salient economic impact and high participation rate. The observable effects of non-meteorological/climatological (e.g., pandemic) is also a topic that has received limited attention. Accordingly, we introduce the Camping-Weather-Disaster (CWD) framework to examine the concurrent impact of weather and the COVID-19 disaster on post-disaster camping trip plans among leisure travelers in the 48 contiguous United States (n=2,442). Extending the Construal Level Theory, the CWD framework considers traveler construal (i.e., understanding) of a disaster and psychological distance (i.e., mental frame of reference) from a disaster alongside empirically observable state-level weather and COVID-19 cases. Results demonstrate that (1) concrete construal about timing and distance of travel is positively related to post-disaster camping trip plans; (2) weather is a significant predictor of post-disaster camping trip plans where there are regionally fewer COVID-19 cases; and (3) state-level COVID-19 cases are the most salient predictor of post-disaster camping trip plans where there are regionally more COVID-19 cases. Although the study context is camping, the CWD framework can be applied to other subsectors of tourism to build understanding and adaptive capacity to future natural conditions and disasters

The “sense” behind proactive behaviors: Feedback seeking, meaningfulness, and personal initiative

With organizations increasingly requiring employees to proactively manage their job and career, researchers have examined various proactive behaviors, such as feedback-seeking behavior and personal initiative. However, few studies have explored the relationships and dynamics among these behaviors. Based on sensemaking theory, this paper argues that employees' feedback-seeking behavior is positively associated with their performance through two stages: meaningfulness and personal initiative. Our hypotheses were tested and supported using two samples: 196 supervisor-subordinate dyads from one large organization in China (Study 1) and panel data of 207 full-time employees from the UK (Study 2). Our findings highlight the importance of recognizing the distinctiveness of different forms of proactive behavior and the synergistic way they contribute to performance. We also demonstrate that employees can seek feedback and construct meaningful work experiences in an agentic manner, which contributes to the literature on career crafting and career self-management

Source Apportionment of Gaseous and Particulate PAHs from Traffic Emission Using Tunnel Measurements in Shanghai, China

Understanding sources and contributions of gaseous and particulate PAHs from traffic-related pollution can provide valuable information for alleviating air contamination from traffic in urban areas. On-road sampling campaigns were comprehensively conducted during 2011–2012 in an urban tunnel of Shanghai, China. 2–3 rings PAHs were abundant in the tunnel\u27s gas and particle phases. Diagnostic ratios of PAHs were statistically described; several were significantly different between the gas and particle phases. Principal component analysis (PCA), positive matrix factorization (PMF), bivariate correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis (MLRA) were applied to apportion sources of gaseous and particulate PAHs in the tunnel. Main sources of the gaseous PAHs included evaporative emission of fuel, high-temperature and low-temperature combustion of fuel, accounting for 50–51%, 30–36% and 13–20%, respectively. Unburned fuel particles (56.4–78.3%), high-temperature combustion of fuel (9.5–26.1%) and gas-to-particle condensation (12.2–17.5%) were major contributors to the particulate PAHs. The result reflected, to a large extent, PAH emissions from the urban traffic of Shanghai. Improving fuel efficiency of local vehicles will greatly reduce contribution of traffic emission to atmospheric PAHs in urban areas. Source apportionment of PM10 mass was also performed based on the organic component data. The results showed that high-temperature combustion of fuel and gas-to-particle condensation contributed to 15–18% and 7–8% of PM10 mass, respectively, but 55–57% of the particle mass was left unexplained. Although the results from the PCA and PMF models were comparable, the PMF method is recommended for source apportionment of PAHs in real traffic conditions. In addition, the combination of multivariate statistical method and bivariate correlation analysis is a useful tool to comprehensively assess sources of PAHs

Povezanost polimorfizma pojedinačnog nukleotida gena ARID4A i kvalitete sperme kineskog vodenog bivola

ARID4A (AT-rich interaction domain 4A) is closely related to animal sperm quality traits. In the present study, the association between ARID4A gene polymorphisms of Chinese water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) with sperm quality traits was examined, including ejaculate volume, sperm concentration, post-thaw sperm motility, and sperm abnormality of buffalo semen. Seven single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of ARID4A gene were detected in 156 Chinese water buffaloes by Sanger sequencing and identifying overlap peaks. Among the SNPs, six were associated with at least one sperm quality trait. In brief, g.21192G>C, g.21285C>G, and g.21364A>G could be used as potential markers for selecting semen with low sperm abnormality, high ejaculate volume, sperm concentration, and sperm motility. Furthermore, 10 haplotypes (H1: -CTCGG, H2: GTGGCA, H3: GCGGCA, H4: GCTGCA, H5: GCTCGA, H6: GTGGGG, H7: GCTCCG, H8: -CGGGA, H9: GCGGCG, and H10: GTTGCA) were formed by the six SNPs through linkage disequilibrium analysis, and then 14 different combined haplotypes were collected. Correlation analysis showed that the combined H1H2 haplotype had the highest genotype frequency. Notably, the combined H1H2 haplotype had low sperm concentration, low sperm motility, and high sperm abnormality. The combined H2H3 haplotype could be used as a potential molecular marker for selecting semen with high sperm motility. In general, we illustrated a significant correlation between SNPs in ARID4A and sperm quality traits of Chinese water buffalo, which may be useful in the marker-assisted selection of buffalo breeding. This study was the first to analyze the genetic polymorphisms of ARID4A and association with sperm qualities of Chinese buffalo.Gen ARID4A (engl AT-rich interaction domain 4A) usko je povezan s kvalitetom sperme. U ovom je radu istraživana povezanost polimorfizma gena ARID4A u kineskih vodenih bivola (Bubalus bubalis) s kvalitetom sperme, uključujući volumen ejakulata, koncentraciju sperme, pokretljivost spermija nakon odmrzavanja i abnormalnost spermija u sjemenu bivola. U 156 kineskih vodenih bivola otkriveno je sedam polimorfizama pojedinačnog nukleotida (SNPs) gena ARID4A Sangerovim sekvenciranjem i identifikacijom preklopljenih vrhova. Među SNP-ovima njih je šest bilo povezano s barem jednim svojstvom kvalitete spermija. Ukratko, g. 21192G>C, g. 21285C>G i g. 21364A>G mogu se upotrijebiti kao potencijalni markeri za selekciju sjemena s niskom abnormalnošću spermija, većim volumenom ejakulata, većom koncentracijom i pokretljivošću spermija. Nadalje, šest SNP-ova formiralo je 10 haplotipova (H1: -CTCGG, H2: GTGGCA, H3: GCGGCA, H4: GCTGCA, H5: GCTCGA, H6: GTGGGG, H7: GCTCCG, H8: -CGGGA, H9: GCGGCG i H10: GTTGCA) analizom povezanosti nepodudarnosti te je ustanovljeno 14 različitih kombiniranih haplotipova. Analiza korelacije pokazala je da kombinirani haplotip H1H2 ima najveću učestalost. Kombinirani haplotip H1H2 imao je najmanju koncentraciju sperme, slabu pokretljivost seprmija i znatnu abnormalnost spermija. Kombinirani haplotip H2H3 može se upotrijebiti kao potencijalni molekularni marker za odabir sjemena s većom pokretljivošću. Općenito je pokazana znakovita korelacija između SNP-ova u ARID4A i kvalitete sperme kineskog vodenog bivola, što može biti korisno u selekciji bivola potpomognutoj markerima. Ovo je prvo istraživanje koje je analiziralo genske polimorfizme ARID4A i njihovu povezanost s kvalitetom sjemena kineskih vodenih bivola

Global land surface temperature influenced by vegetation cover and PM2.5 from 2001 to 2016

Land surface temperature (LST) is an important parameter to evaluate environmental changes. In this paper, time series analysis was conducted to estimate the interannual variations in global LST from 2001 to 2016 based on moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) LST, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) products and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) data from the Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group. The results showed that LST, seasonally integrated normalized difference vegetation index (SINDVI), and PM2.5 increased by 0.17 K, 0.04, and 1.02 �g/m3 in the period of 2001–2016, respectively. During the past 16 years, LST showed an increasing trend in most areas, with two peaks of 1.58 K and 1.85 K at 72�N and 48�S, respectively. Marked warming also appeared in the Arctic. On the contrary, remarkable decrease in LST occurred in Antarctic. In most parts of the world, LST was affected by the variation in vegetation cover and air pollutant, which can be detected by the satellite. In the Northern Hemisphere, positive relations between SINDVI and LST were found; however, in the Southern Hemisphere, negative correlations were detected. The impact of PM2.5 on LST was more complex. On the whole, LST increased with a small increase in PM2.5 concentrations but decreased with a marked increase in PM2.5. The study provides insights on the complex relationship between vegetation cover, air pollution, and land surface temperature