• Energy Research
• Restricted close
• Embargo close
• 15. Life on land close
• US close
• GB close
• CN close
• RU close

Using 40-year experiment data from a mono-modal rainfall area of northern Togo, we analyzed soil fertility dynamics when 2 and 3-year fallows were alternated with 3-year rotation of groundnut, cotton and sorghum. The control treatment consisted to continuous cultivate the soil in a rotation of groundnut/cotton/sorghum without fallow periods. For each rotation, two fertilisation rates were applied: no fertilisation and mineral fertiliser application during the cropping and/or the fallow periods. Yields of unfertilised crops, which averaged 1 t ha-1 during the first years of cultivation, were often nil in the long-term. In the long-term, yields of fertilised cotton and sorghum decreased by 32 and 50 %, respectively compared to the average of 2.4 and 1.6 t ha-1 obtained during the first decade of cultivation. The long-term decline in crop productivity was mitigated when fallow periods were alternated with cropping periods, and consequently there was partial compensation in terms of production for the unproductive fallowed plots. Long-term yields of fertilised cotton and sorghum in the periodically fallowed plots were 40 and 50 % higher than those in continuously cropped plots, respectively; they were 90 and 60 % higher than those in continuously cropped plots without fertilisation. Like for crop productivity, soil C, N and exchangeable Ca and Mg decreased less in periodically fallowed plots than in continuously cropped plots. The limited soil C decline when fallows were alternated with crops appears to be the consequence of no-tillage period rather than the effect of the highest C inputs to the soil.

In this study, air concentrations of BaP in two different seasons (winter 2015 and summer 2016) and BaP levels in ground vegetation from Tarragona County were used as control simulations performed with the WRF-CHIMERE air quality modelling system, in order to reproduce the incidence of that hazardous chemical in air and soils. The CTM was validated for the present climatology, showing a good ability to represent air and soil concentrations of BaP over the target domain (petrochemical, chemical, urban and background sites), particularly in the winter. Then, the variation of the BaP concentrations in air and soils were simulated for the time series 1996-2015 and for the climate change scenario RCP8.5 (2031-2050). While an increase is projected for the levels in air, particularly in chemical and remote sites where the variation can go up to 10%, in terms of soil deposition the findings are the opposite, with an evident decrease in soil BaP concentrations, particularly for background sites. Finally, a potential health effect of BaP for the local population (lung cancer) was assessed. Although according to the projections the EU threshold for BaP atmospheric incidence (1 ng m-3) will not be reached by 2050, there will be an increase in the life-time risk of lung cancer, particularly in the most populated areas within the simulation domain.

Stories play an exceptionally important role in how people assign value to a place. Taken together, all those stories essentially give a place an identity. The aim of placemaking is to ensure that the people using a place can appreciate that place. Placemaking approaches are focussed on strategic interventions in a place and aimed at changing the meaning and value of that place for local people, thus creating a qualitative place for enhanced storytelling. Using greenery is a common approach in place-making. Urban greenery has gone through a process of emancipation in the past 15 years. This emancipation has led to awareness that urban greenery is about more than just ecology and biodiversity, but also has social and economic consequences for a city’s fortunes. It is clear that green spaces do not stand alone: they are part of a complex urban system, and the use of green spaces in this complex system has immediate repercussions for how the city functions. With the changing role of green spaces within cities, the need to manage these spaces is emphasized. In this sense, the place-making approach, along with the storytelling approach could provide valuable insight on the planning and management of green spaces within the urban environment, with the aim to enhance quality of life by means of the social connection between people, the users of the space, and the qualitative place provided. This research illustrated that green space managers would need more social and organizational skills to manage modern urban green spaces in an attempt to create qualitative, usable spaces for citizens, spaces that are built upon stories and spaces that would further enable future stories of citizen life. The Story Behind the Place: Creating Urban Spaces That Enhance Quality of Life (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271918395_The_Story_Behind_the_Place_Creating_Urban_Spaces_That_Enhance_Quality_of_Life [accessed Dec 21, 2015].

Species distribution models (SDMs) provide realistic scenarios to explain the influence of bioclimatic variables on plant pathogen distribution. Diplodia sapinea is most harmful to plantations of both exotic and native pine species in Italy, causing economic consequences expecially to edible seed production. In this study, we developed maximum entropy models for D. sapinea in Italy to reach the following goals: (i) to carry out the pathogen's first geographical distribution analysis in Italy and determine which ecogeographical variables (EGVs) may influence its outbreaks; (ii) to detect the effect of climate change on the potential occurrence of disease outbreaks by 2050 and 2070. We used Maxent ver. 3.4.0 to develop SDMs. We used six global climate models (BCC-CSM1-1, CCSM4, GISS-E2-R, MIROC5, HadGEM2-ES and MPI-ESM-LR) for two representative concentration pathways (4.5 and 8.5) and two time projections (2050 and 2070) to detect future climate projections of D. sapinea. The most important EGVs influencing outbreaks were land cover, altitude, mean temperature of driest and wettest quarter, precipitation of wettest quarter, precipitation seasonality and minimum temperature of coldest month. The distribution of D. sapinea mostly expanded in central and southern Italy and shifted in altitude upwards on average by ca. 93m a.s.l. Moreover the fungus expanded the range where disease outbreaks may be recorded in response to an increase in the mean temperature of wettest and driest quarter by ca. 1.9 C and 5.8 C, respectively in all climate change scenarios. Precipitation of wettest quarter did not differ between current and any of future models. Under different climate change scenarios D. sapinea's disease outbreaks will be likely to affect larger areas of pine forests in the country, probably causing heavy effects on the dynamics and evolution of these stands or perhaps constraining their survival.

Abstract Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important long-lived greenhouse gas and precursor of stratospheric ozone-depleting mono-nitrogen oxides. The atmospheric concentration of N2O is persistently increasing; however, large uncertainties are associated with the distinct source strengths. Here we investigate for the first time N2O emission from terrestrial vegetation in response to natural solar ultra violet radiation. We conducted field site measurements to investigate N2O atmosphere exchange from grass vegetation exposed to solar irradiance with and without UV-screening. Further laboratory tests were conducted with a range of species to study the controls and possible loci of UV-induced N2O emission from plants. Plants released N2O in response to natural sunlight at rates of c. 20–50 nmol m−2 h−1, mostly due to the UV component. The emission response to UV-A is of the same magnitude as that to UV-B. Therefore, UV-A is more important than UV-B given the natural UV-spectrum at Earth's surface. Plants also emitted N2O in darkness, although at reduced rates. The emission rate is temperature dependent with a rather high activation energy indicative for an abiotic process. The prevailing zone for the N2O formation appears to be at the very surface of leaves. However, only c. 26% of the UV-induced N2O appears to originate from plant-N. Further, the process is dependent on atmospheric oxygen concentration. Our work demonstrates that ecosystem emission of the important greenhouse gas, N2O, may be up to c. 30% higher than hitherto assumed.

Changes in the composition, structure, and altitudinal distribution of low forests at the upper limit of their growth over the past 50 years have been studied in the Tylaisko-Konzhakovsko-Serebryanskii Massif (the Northern Urals). The qualitative and quantitative assessment of these changes has been made on the basis of descriptions, photographs, and maps made in 1956 and 2005. The results show that the upper boundary of low forests on the majority of slopes has ascended. Considerable changes have occurred in the composition, density, and height of the tree layer in the communities that formed the upper low-forest boundary in 1956. Among a fairly large number of tree species growing in the subgoltzy belt (Picea obovata, Larix sibirica, Pinus sibirica, and Abies sibirica), the birch Betula tortuosa has expanded most actively, whereas the proportions of P. obovata and especially L. sibirica in low forests have decreased. These changes are explained by climate warming and increasing humidity.

Bioenergy crops are well known for their ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the soil carbon stock. Although such crops are often held to be in competition with food crops and thus raise the question of current and future food security, at the same time mitigation measures are required to tackle climate change and sustain local farming communities and crop production. However, in some cases the actions envisaged for specific pedo-climatic conditions are not always economically sustainable by farmers. In this frame, energy crops with high environmental adaptability and yields, such as giant reed (Arundo donax L.), may represent an opportunity to improve farm incomes, making marginal areas not suitable for food production once again productive. In so doing, three of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations would be met, namely SDG 2 on food security and sustainable agriculture, SDG 7 on reliable, sustainable and modern energy, and SDG 13 on action to combat climate change and its impacts. In this work, the response of giant reed in the marginal areas of an agricultural district of southern Italy (Destra Sele) and expected farm incomes under climate change (2021-2050) are evaluated. The normalized water productivity index of giant reed was determined (WP; 30.1gm-2) by means of a SWAP agro-hydrological model, calibrated and validated on two years of a long-term field experiment. The model was used to estimate giant reed response (biomass yield) in marginal areas under climate change, and economic evaluation was performed to determine expected farm incomes (woodchips and chopped forage). The results show that woodchip production represents the most profitable option for farmers, yielding a gross margin 50% lower than ordinary high-input maize cultivation across the study area.

Climate change has been widely recognised as one of the most urgent and growing threats to natural and cultural heritage in the twenty-first century, and the indelible impact of humanity has led to the definition of a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. Indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected by natural and human-induced changes to the environment. Their vulnerability is exacerbated by centuries of cultural and territorial disenfranchisement within settler-colonial nations. This dissertation aims at understanding Indigenous perceptions of heritage in the face of climate change and its intersection with the impacts of settler- colonialism. It analyses how these on-the-ground perceptions can, in turn, inform heritage organisations and contribute to safeguarding the many facets of tangible and intangible Indigenous heritage for future generations in the Anthropocene. This is accomplished through a comparative, transnational case study of two communities each from the Dehcho First Nations in the Northwest Territories, Canada, and the Aymara and Quechua peoples in northern Chile. I use a multi-method approach consisting of semi-structured interviews, oral histories and participant observation. The data is complemented by environmental and heritage legislation and grey literature at multiple organisational scales for both case studies. Three lines of enquiry are explored through an applied comparative thematic analysis: i) the perceptions of climate change and associated land loss/change among Indigenous groups and how this impacts each group’s notions of challenges to its cultural identity; ii) the intersection of the effects of post- colonialism, ongoing industrial activities and climate change on the intergenerational transmission of ancestral knowledge and notions of place attachment; and iii) how international, national and regional political and sociocultural rhetoric on environmental and heritage conservation affect local, grassroots considerations for safeguarding heritage. The similarities and contrasts of the Dehcho First Nations, Aymara and Quechua experiences of climate change across the North-South divide are related from the grassroots to arrive at redefining heritage practices in the Anthropocene. The results demonstrate that decolonising heritage is not only necessary, but that this decolonisation depends on building and actively engaging in intercultural empathy through the global threat of climate change. In order to understand how Indigenous practices, places, and items are valorised—attributed value—as heritage in the face of climate change, one must empathise with the cultural loss that exists in the temporal and cognitive spaces between Indigenous individuals’ moments of nostalgic reference and today.