• Energy Research
• 2016-2025close
• 15. Life on land close
• Aurora Universities Network close
• Transport Research close

Mesocosm experiments have become increasingly popular in climate change research as they bridge the gap between small-scale, less realistic, microcosm experiments, and large-scale, more complex, natural systems. Characteristics of aquatic mesocosm designs (e.g., mesocosm volume, study duration, and replication) vary widely, potentially affecting the magnitude and direction of effect sizes measured in experiments. In this global systematic review we aim to identify the type, direction and strength of climate warming effects on aquatic species, communities and ecosystems in mesocosm experiments. Furthermore, we will investigate the context-dependency of the observed effects on several a priori determined effect moderators (ecological and methodological). Our conclusions will provide recommendations for aquatic scientists designing mesocosm experiments, as well as guidelines for interpretation of experimental results by scientists, policy-makers and the general public. We will conduct a systematic search using multiple online databases to gather evidence from the scientific literature on the effects of warming experimentally tested in aquatic mesocosms. Data from relevant studies will be extracted and used in a random effects meta-analysis to estimate the overall effect sizes of warming experiments on species performance, biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Experimental characteristics (e.g., mesocosm size and shape, replication-level, experimental duration and design, biogeographic region, community type, crossed manipulation) will be further analysed using subgroup analyses.

AbstractEnvironmental histories that span the last full glacial cycle and are representative of regional change in Australia are scarce, hampering assessment of environmental change preceding and concurrent with human dispersal on the continent ca. 47,000 years ago. Here we present a continuous 150,000-year record offshore south-western Australia and identify the timing of two critical late Pleistocene events: wide-scale ecosystem change and regional megafaunal population collapse. We establish that substantial changes in vegetation and fire regime occurred ∼70,000 years ago under a climate much drier than today. We record high levels of the dung fungus Sporormiella, a proxy for herbivore biomass, from 150,000 to 45,000 years ago, then a marked decline indicating megafaunal population collapse, from 45,000 to 43,100 years ago, placing the extinctions within 4,000 years of human dispersal across Australia. These findings rule out climate change, and implicate humans, as the primary extinction cause.

Starting from the relationship between urban planning and mobility management, TeMA has gradually expanded the view of the covered topics, always following a rigorous scientific in-depth analysis. This section of the Journal, Review Notes, is the expression of a continuous updating of emerging topics concerning relationships among urban planning, mobility and environment, through a collection of short scientific papers. The Review Notes are made of four parts. Each section examines a specific aspect of the broader information storage within the main interests of TeMA Journal. In particular, the Economy, business and land use section aims at presenting recent advancements on relevant topics that underlie socio-economic relationships between firms and territories. The present note aims at understanding where we are in the path towards SDG11 and the strategies to achieve it. TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, Vol 15 No 2 (2022): The city challenges and external agents. Methods, tools and best practices

The health of the ocean, central to human well-being, has now reached a critical point. Most fish stocks are overexploited, climate change and increased dissolved carbon dioxide are changing ocean chemistry and disrupting species throughout food webs, and the fundamental capacity of the ocean to regulate the climate has been altered. However, key technical, organizational, and conceptual scientific barriers have prevented the identification of policy levers for sustainability and transformative action. Here, we recommend key strategies to address these challenges, including (1) stronger integration of sciences and (2) ocean-observing systems, (3) improved science-policy interfaces, (4) new partnerships supported by (5) a new ocean-climate finance system, and (6) improved ocean literacy and education to modify social norms and behaviors. Adopting these strategies could help establish ocean science as a key foundation of broader sustainability transformations.

Starting from the relationship between urban planning and mobility management, TeMA has gradually expanded the view of the covered topics, always following a rigorous scientific in-depth analysis. This section of the Journal, Review Notes, is the expression of a continuous updating of emerging topics concerning relationships among urban planning, mobility and environment, through a collection of short scientific papers. The Review Notes are made of four parts. Each section examines a specific aspect of the broader information storage within the main interests of TeMA Journal. In particular, the Economy, business and land use section aims at presenting recent advancements on relevant topics that underlie socio-economic relationships between firms and territories. The present note underlines the benefits that entrepreneurship exerts on the city, with a specific focus on sustainability and green entrepreneurs. These ones are individuals who start business ventures without just seeking their profit maximization as a unique goal, but rather contribute to the sustainable development of the communities in which they are embedded. However, in order for them to have positive and long-lasting impacts, they need to cooperate with networks that embed several stakeholders and mainly local governments. TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, Vol 13 No 3 (2020): The city challenges and external agents. Methods, Tools and Best Practices

The Alps are an interesting case for studying the relationship between tourism and climate change. Despite a growing number of studies, the climate change impacts on the tourism sector remain uncertain, when the regional and local scale or seasonality are considered. This article presents a risk methodology to assess the spatial distribution of the main challenges and opportunities for winter and summer tourism due to climate change at the sub-regional level on a 2021-2050 scenario. This methodology has been tested on an Italian Alpine area, which consists of very different landscapes from plain to high mountains. The results show that high-altitude municipalities will face the stronger risks for winter touristic activities, due to reduced snow cover duration, but also opportunities to attract in summer tourists escaping from the hotter temperatures of the plain. At the same time, climate change could have secondary negative effects in these areas, as it will increase the frequency and the magnitude of extreme events. The results show that impacts of CC cannot be generalised, even in a limited area; same hazards due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns can generate very different risk scores, because of local conditions related to exposure and vulnerability factors. TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, Vol 15 No 1 (2022): The city challenges and external agents. Methods, tools and best practices

The transition from fossil to renewable energy needs changes in land use. The development of renewable energy sources introduce extra and sometimes new externalities, such as shadows and noise on landscape. There are governments who are experiencing difficulties when developing renewable energy sources especially when existing land owners (and others) start anticipating on those externalities. Therewith, land use conflicts have become a major issue for governments in meeting renewable energy policy objectives. This paper explores the way how three dilemmas: tiers of government dilemma, mode of governance dilemma and norm-setting dilemma are approached by public authorities using policy documents, interviews, literature research and examples of the Dutch energy transition. Tema. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, Vol 11, N° 3 (2018): The Resilience City/The Fragile City. Methods, tools and best practices