Search Results
Impacts of meeting minimum access on critical earth systems amidst the Great Inequality
2022, Rammelt, Crelis F., Gupta, Joyeeta, Liverman, Diana, Scholtens, Joeri, Ciobanu, Daniel, Abrams, Jesse F., Bai, Xuemei, Gifford, Lauren, Gordon, Christopher, Hurlbert, Margot, Inoue, Cristina Y. A., Jacobson, Lisa, Lade, Steven J., Lenton, Timothy M., McKay, David I. Armstrong, Nakicenovic, Nebojsa, Okereke, Chukwumerije, Otto, Ilona M., Pereira, Laura M., Prodani, Klaudia, Rockström, Johan, Stewart-Koster, Ben, Verburg, Peter H., Zimm, Caroline
The Sustainable Development Goals aim to improve access to resources and services, reduce environmental degradation, eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. However, the magnitude of the environmental burden that would arise from meeting the needs of the poorest is under debate—especially when compared to much larger burdens from the rich. We show that the ‘Great Acceleration’ of human impacts was characterized by a ‘Great Inequality’ in using and damaging the environment. We then operationalize ‘just access’ to minimum energy, water, food and infrastructure. We show that achieving just access in 2018, with existing inequalities, technologies and behaviours, would have produced 2–26% additional impacts on the Earth’s natural systems of climate, water, land and nutrients—thus further crossing planetary boundaries. These hypothetical impacts, caused by about a third of humanity, equalled those caused by the wealthiest 1–4%. Technological and behavioural changes thus far, while important, did not deliver just access within a stable Earth system. Achieving these goals therefore calls for a radical redistribution of resources.
Future tree survival in European forests depends on understorey tree diversity
2022, Billing, Maik, Thonicke, Kirsten, Sakschewski, Boris, Bloh, Werner von, Walz, Ariane
Climate change heavily threatens forest ecosystems worldwide and there is urgent need to understand what controls tree survival and forests stability. There is evidence that biodiversity can enhance ecosystem stability (Loreau and de Mazancourt in Ecol Lett 16:106–115, 2013; McCann in Nature 405:228–233, 2000), however it remains largely unclear whether this also holds for climate change and what aspects of biodiversity might be most important. Here we apply machine learning to outputs of a flexible-trait Dynamic Global Vegetation Model to unravel the effects of enhanced functional tree trait diversity and its sub-components on climate-change resistance of temperate forests (http://www.pik-potsdam.de/~billing/video/Forest_Resistance_LPJmLFIT.mp4). We find that functional tree trait diversity enhances forest resistance. We explain this with 1. stronger complementarity effects (~ 25% importance) especially improving the survival of trees in the understorey of up to + 16.8% (± 1.6%) and 2. environmental and competitive filtering of trees better adapted to future climate (40–87% importance). We conclude that forests containing functionally diverse trees better resist and adapt to future conditions. In this context, we especially highlight the role of functionally diverse understorey trees as they provide the fundament for better survival of young trees and filtering of resistant tree individuals in the future.
Data-Driven Discovery of Stochastic Differential Equations
2022, Wang, Yasen, Fang, Huazhen, Jin, Junyang, Ma, Guijun, He, Xin, Dai, Xing, Yue, Zuogong, Cheng, Cheng, Zhang, Hai-Tao, Pu, Donglin, Wu, Dongrui, Yuan, Ye, Gonçalves, Jorge, Kurths, Jürgen, Ding, Han
Stochastic differential equations (SDEs) are mathematical models that are widely used to describe complex processes or phenomena perturbed by random noise from different sources. The identification of SDEs governing a system is often a challenge because of the inherent strong stochasticity of data and the complexity of the system's dynamics. The practical utility of existing parametric approaches for identifying SDEs is usually limited by insufficient data resources. This study presents a novel framework for identifying SDEs by leveraging the sparse Bayesian learning (SBL) technique to search for a parsimonious, yet physically necessary representation from the space of candidate basis functions. More importantly, we use the analytical tractability of SBL to develop an efficient way to formulate the linear regression problem for the discovery of SDEs that requires considerably less time-series data. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is demonstrated using real data on stock and oil prices, bearing variation, and wind speed, as well as simulated data on well-known stochastic dynamical systems, including the generalized Wiener process and Langevin equation. This framework aims to assist specialists in extracting stochastic mathematical models from random phenomena in the natural sciences, economics, and engineering fields for analysis, prediction, and decision making.
Low-cost adaptation options to support green growth in agriculture, water resources, and coastal zones
2022, Salack, Seyni, Sanfo, Safiétou, Sidibe, Moussa, Daku, Elidaa K., Camara, Ibrahima, Dieng, Mame Diarra Bousso, Hien, Koufanou, Torou, Bio Mohamadou, Ogunjobi, Kehinde O., Sangare, Sheick Ahmed Khalil S. B., Kouame, Konan Raoul, Koffi, Yao Bernard, Liersch, Stefan, Savadogo, Moumini, Giannini, Alessandra
The regional climate as it is now and in the future will put pressure on investments in sub-Saharan Africa in water resource management, fisheries, and other crop and livestock production systems. Changes in oceanic characteristics across the Atlantic Ocean will result in remarkable vulnerability of coastal ecology, littorals, and mangroves in the middle of the twenty-first century and beyond. In line with the countries' objectives of creating a green economy that allows reduced greenhouse gas emissions, improved resource efficiency, and prevention of biodiversity loss, we identify the most pressing needs for adaptation and the best adaptation choices that are also clean and affordable. According to empirical data from the field and customized model simulation designs, the cost of these adaptation measures will likely decrease and benefit sustainable green growth in agriculture, water resource management, and coastal ecosystems, as hydroclimatic hazards such as pluviometric and thermal extremes become more common in West Africa. Most of these adaptation options are local and need to be scaled up and operationalized for sustainable development. Governmental sovereign wealth funds, investments from the private sector, and funding from global climate funds can be used to operationalize these adaptation measures. Effective legislation, knowledge transfer, and pertinent collaborations are necessary for their success.
The Long-Term Evolution of the Atmosphere of Venus: Processes and Feedback Mechanisms: Interior-Exterior Exchanges
2022, Gillmann, Cedric, Way, M. J., Avice, Guillaume, Breuer, Doris, Golabek, Gregor J., Höning, Dennis, Krissansen-Totton, Joshua, Lammer, Helmut, O’Rourke, Joseph G., Persson, Moa, Plesa, Ana-Catalina, Salvador, Arnaud, Scherf, Manuel, Zolotov, Mikhail Y.
This work reviews the long-term evolution of the atmosphere of Venus, and modulation of its composition by interior/exterior cycling. The formation and evolution of Venus’s atmosphere, leading to contemporary surface conditions, remain hotly debated topics, and involve questions that tie into many disciplines. We explore these various inter-related mechanisms which shaped the evolution of the atmosphere, starting with the volatile sources and sinks. Going from the deep interior to the top of the atmosphere, we describe volcanic outgassing, surface-atmosphere interactions, and atmosphere escape. Furthermore, we address more complex aspects of the history of Venus, including the role of Late Accretion impacts, how magnetic field generation is tied into long-term evolution, and the implications of geochemical and geodynamical feedback cycles for atmospheric evolution. We highlight plausible end-member evolutionary pathways that Venus could have followed, from accretion to its present-day state, based on modeling and observations. In a first scenario, the planet was desiccated by atmospheric escape during the magma ocean phase. In a second scenario, Venus could have harbored surface liquid water for long periods of time, until its temperate climate was destabilized and it entered a runaway greenhouse phase. In a third scenario, Venus’s inefficient outgassing could have kept water inside the planet, where hydrogen was trapped in the core and the mantle was oxidized. We discuss existing evidence and future observations/missions required to refine our understanding of the planet’s history and of the complex feedback cycles between the interior, surface, and atmosphere that have been operating in the past, present or future of Venus.