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Insects are highly successful animals. They have limited ability to regulate their temperature and therefore will expand range in response to warming temperatures. Climate change and associated rising global temperature is impacting the range and distribution of stinging insects. There is evidence that many species are expanding range toward the poles, primarily in response to warming. With expanded distribution of stinging insects, increased interaction with humans is anticipated with consequently increased rates of sting-related reactions and need for intervention. This article focuses on evidence that insects are expanding their range in response to warming temperature, increasing likelihood of human interaction.

Climate change is expected to increase growing temperatures in rice cultivating regions worldwide. Recent research demonstrates that elevated temperature can increase arsenic concentrations in rice tissue, exacerbating an existing threat to rice quality and human health. However, the specific temperature-induced changes in the plant-soil system responsible for increased arsenic concentrations remain unclear and such knowledge is necessary to manage human dietary arsenic exposure in a warmer future. To elucidate these changes, we established four temperature treatments in climate-controlled growth chambers and grew rice plants (Oryza sativa cv. M206) in pots filled with Californian paddy soil with arsenic concentrations of 7.7 mg kg-1. The four chosen temperatures mimicked IPCC forecasting for Northern California, with a roughly 2.5 °C increase between treatments (nighttime temperatures ~2 °C cooler). We observed that arsenic concentrations in porewater, root iron plaque, and plant tissue increased in response to elevated temperature. There was a positive linear relationship between temperature and rice grain arsenic, almost all of which was present as inorganic As (III). Above-ground allocation patterns were consistent across treatments. We found no upregulation in the gene encoding the OsABCC1 transporter, believed to be important for arsenic sequestration in vacuoles and thereby preventing arsenic transfer to grain. Rice plants grown at higher temperatures had more adsorbed arsenic per unit of iron plaque (measured as [As]/[Fe]), indicating temperature may impact arsenic sorption to root plaque. We present evidence that increased soil mobilization of arsenic was the driving factor responsible for increased arsenic uptake into rice grain. Transpiration, which can increase arsenic transport to roots, was also heightened with elevated temperature but appeared to play a secondary role. Our system had low soil arsenic concentrations typical for California. Our findings highlight that elevated growing temperatures may increase the risk of dietary arsenic exposure in rice systems that were previously considered low risk.

Climate change is intensifying conflicts between people and wildlife

Since CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is a viable CO2 abatement option, CO2 capture power plants (CCPPs) could become a significant part of the future generation mix. This paper investigates the flexibility of the operation of a representative post-combustion CCPP with ancillary facilities. A mathematical model of the operation of such a plant is developed. This model quantifies the relation between the major operating characteristics of a CCPP, including efficiency penalty, capacity penalty, net power output, and net CO2 emission. On this basis, a profit maximization model is proposed. This model would help a CCPP decide its power output schedule, CO2 capture schedule, and bidding strategies in response of volatile power and carbon prices in a day-ahead energy market and a cap-and-trade carbon emission market. The validity and the usefulness of the proposed model are demonstrated using numerical results.

Extreme heat is a leading weather‐related cause of morbidity and mortality, with heat exposure becoming more widespread, frequent, and intense as climates change. The use of heat early warning and response systems (HEWSs) that integrate weather forecasts with risk assessment, communication, and reduction activities is increasingly widespread. HEWSs are frequently touted as an adaptation to climate change, but little attention has been paid to the question of how best to ensure effectiveness of HEWSs as climates change further. In this paper, we discuss findings showing that HEWSs satisfy the tenets of an intervention that facilitates adaptation, but climate change poses challenges infrequently addressed in heat action plans, particularly changes in the onset, duration, and intensity of dangerously warm temperatures, and changes over time in the relationships between temperature and health outcomes. Iterative management should be central to a HEWS, and iteration cycles should be of 5 years or less. Climate change adaptation and implementation science research frameworks can be used to identify HEWS modifications to improve their effectiveness as temperature continues to rise, incorporating scientific insights and new understanding of effective interventions.We conclude that, at a minimum, iterative management activities should involve planned reassessment at least every 5 years of hazard distribution, population‐level vulnerability, and HEWS effectiveness.

Abstract Globally, about 20–30% of total energy demand is for residential use. Yet, our understanding of household energy consumption remains obscure. Due to methodological issues, conventional residential energy research has often failed to untangle the complexities of household energy use. In addition, theoretical deficiencies have led to underestimation of the complexities of households’ role (vs. buildings’ role) in residential energy use processes. This research hypothesizes that households have an indirect effect on energy use – through their housing choice behaviors – that can be untangled from buildings’ effect. Using data from the latest Residential Energy Consumption Survey, this paper develops a Structural Equation Model to estimate the direct, indirect, and total effects of household and housing characteristics on per-capita residential energy use in the U.S. Outcomes support the research hypothesis and recommend that, when incorporating the housing choice effect, households’ overall effect on energy use is larger than what has been perceived conventionally. Findings of this study provide a new approach to understanding residential energy use by highlighting the role of households and their housing choices in shaping residential energy consumption patterns. Policy makers can incorporate housing policy into energy policy and reduce residential energy consumption more effectively.

Mixing of hydrothermal fluids and seawater at the ocean floor, combined with slow reaction kinetics for oxidation/reduction reactions, provides a source of metabolic energy for chemolithotrophic microorganisms which are the primary biomass producers for an extensive submarine ecosystem that is essentially independent of photosynthesis. Thermodynamic models are used to explore geochemical constraints on the amount of metabolic energy potentially available from chemosynthetic reactions involving S, C, Fe, and Mn compounds during mixing of hydrothermal fluids with seawater. For the vent fluid used in the calculations (EPR 21 degrees N OBS), the model indicates that mixing environments are favorable for oxidation of H2S, CH4, Fe2+ and Mn2+ only below approximately 38 degrees C, with methanogenesis and reduction of sulfate or S degrees favored at higher temperatures, suggesting that environments dominated by mixing provide habitats for mesophilic (but not thermophilic) aerobes and thermophilic (but not mesophilic) anaerobes. A maximum of approximately 760 cal per kilogram vent fluid is available from sulfide oxidation while between 8 and 35 cal/kg vent fluid is available from methanotrophy, methanogenesis, oxidation of Fe or Mn, or sulfate reduction. The total potential for chemosynthetic primary production at deep-sea hydrothermal vents globally is estimated to be about 10(13) g biomass per year, which represents approximately 0.02% of the global primary production by photosynthesis in the oceans. Thermophilic methanogens and sulfate- and S degree-reducers are likely to be the predominant organisms in the walls of vent chimneys and in the diffuse mixing zones beneath warm vents, where biological processes may contribute to the high methane concentrations of vent fluids and heavy 34S/32S ratios of vent sulfide minerals. The metabolic processes taking place in these systems may be analogs of the first living systems to evolve on the Earth.

National and international policies, mechanisms, and tools are being used by health authorities to promote effective risk management of climate change, including through addressing health inequalities and effective governance.

AbstractHabitat connectivity is a key factor influencing species range dynamics. Rapid warming in the Arctic is leading to widespread heterogeneous shrub expansion, but impacts of these habitat changes on range dynamics for large herbivores are not well understood. We use the climate–shrub–moose system of northern Alaska as a case study to examine how shrub habitat will respond to predicted future warming, and how these changes may impact habitat connectivity and the distribution of moose (Alces alces). We used a 19 year moose location dataset, a 568 km transect of field shrub sampling, and forecasted warming scenarios with regional downscaling to map current and projected shrub habitat for moose on the North Slope of Alaska. The tall‐shrub habitat for moose exhibited a dendritic spatial configuration correlated with river corridor networks and mean July temperature. Warming scenarios predict that moose habitat will more than double by 2099. Forecasted warming is predicted to increase the spatial cohesion of the habitat network that diminishes effects of fragmentation, which improves overall habitat quality and likely expands the range of moose. These findings demonstrate how climate change may increase habitat connectivity and alter the distributions of shrub herbivores in the Arctic, including creation of novel communities and ecosystems.