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Observed changes in phenology across the USA: A regional review for the 2013 National Climate Assessment, Midwest Regional Information Sheet

This is one in a series of eight, geographic region-focused information sheets that summarizes documented changes in plant and animal phenology over the past century across the United States. This summary is based on long-term studies (10 years or more) published in the primary scientific literature since 2001. A forthcoming manuscript synthesizes the findings of the eight regional information sheets. This information was developed in support of the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s National Climate Assessment and can be used to facilitate preparation for the cascading effects of ongoing climate change.

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Miss

Observed changes in phenology across the USA: A regional review for the 2013 National Climate Assessment, Southeast Regional Information Sheet

This is one in a series of eight, geographic region-focused information sheets that summarizes documented changes in plant and animal phenology over the past century across the United States. This summary is based on long-term studies (10 years or more) published in the primary scientific literature since 2001. A forthcoming manuscript synthesizes the findings of the eight regional information sheets. This information was developed in support of the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s National Climate Assessment and can be used to facilitate preparation for the cascading effects of ongoing climate change.

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Lou

Pacific Ocean and Cenozoic evolution of climate

The Pacific Ocean has played a major role in climate evolution throughout the Cenozoic (65–0 Ma). It is a fundamental component of global heat transport and circulation, the dominant locus of primary productivity, and, consequently, the largest reservoir for carbon exchange between the oceans and the atmosphere. A satisfactory understanding of the Cenozoic evolutionary history of the Pacific and its impact on global climate is currently data-limited. Nevertheless, the large dynamic range of Cenozoic conditions sets the stage to greatly expand our understanding of global climate and biogeochemical cycles. Past Earth “experiments” are particularly useful to understand interactions between climate and geosystems under different greenhouse gas loads. We highlight in this review four important problems in which the Pacific played a major role: the effect of changing geographic boundary conditions on ocean circulation; interactions between the carbon cycle and climate; the Pacific Ocean's influence on North American climate and its water cycle; and the gradual evolution of climate systems.

Reviews of Geophysics

Assessment of pollution and other impairments of US reservoirs based on expert opinion

A comprehensive understanding of the prevailing pollution and other impairments to reservoirs is necessary at the national level to analyze patterns and causes as well as allocate national resources effectively. Most of these impairments are associated with sedimentation, nutrient contamination, and other pollution factors. The costs involved in conducting on-site surveys at multiple locations are potential obstacles for obtaining empirical data on large-scale spatial impairments. In such cases, inputs from specialists may be required to offset the absence of empirical data for determining the impairment statuses of thousands of geographically dispersed reservoirs. Thus, our aim was to examine whether expert opinion could offer a comprehensive review of the impairment statuses of numerous reservoirs in the United States. We designed and executed an internet-based survey of reservoir specialists to gather their ratings on visually evident elements of reservoir impairment. To evaluate the ratings, we searched for correlations with factors known to have impacts on reservoir impairment. Canonical correlation analyses indicated that nine metrics used by experts to rate impairment levels on an ordinal scale were correlated with metrics descriptive of the physical qualities of reservoirs, land use in catchments, and prevailing local climate. We thus conclude that expert opinions may facilitate assessments of impairment levels over large geographical areas. Lastly, we define the circumstances under which it is permissible to rely on expert opinions and propose criteria that could improve the quality of the data collected.

continental United States

Observed changes in phenology across the USA: A regional review for the 2013 National Climate Assessment, Great Plains Regional Information Sheet.

This is one in a series of eight, geographic region-focused information sheets that summarizes documented changes in plant and animal phenology over the past century across the United States. This summary is based on long-term studies (10 years or more) published in the primary scientific literature since 2001. A forthcoming manuscript synthesizes the findings of the eight regional information sheets. This information was developed in support of the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s National Climate Assessment and can be used to facilitate preparation for the cascading effects of ongoing climate change.

Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma,

Observed changes in phenology across the USA: A regional review for the 2013 National Climate Assessment, Pacific Northwest Regional Information Sheet

This is one in a series of eight, geographic region-focused information sheets that summarizes documented changes in plant and animal phenology over the past century across the United States. This summary is based on long-term studies (10 years or more) published in the primary scientific literature since 2001. A forthcoming manuscript synthesizes the findings of the eight regional information sheets. This information was developed in support of the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s National Climate Assessment and can be used to facilitate preparation for the cascading effects of ongoing climate change.

Idaho, Oregon, Washington

Uncertainty of groundwater vulnerability assessments for agricultural regions in Hawaii: Review

There are important challenges associated with assessing potential groundwater vulnerability hazards that may result from regional scale applications of agrochemicals. The increasing availability of Geographic Information System (GIS) software to those involved in assisting with landuse decisions has resulted in the widespread production of multicolored risk management maps for many environmentally sensitive issues. Soil-based GIS's have recently been coupled to various solute-leaching models to make near-surface groundwater vulnerability assessments for guidance in pesticide regulation in several states. In general, these assessments rest on soil, climatic, and chemical data that are extremely sparse and contain considerable uncertainty. It is also important to acknowledge the uncertainty associated with the transport/fate processes that are not accounted for by the modeling approach used to make the assessment. In this paper, we review the results from a series of papers that have focused on characterization of uncertainty in pesticide mobility estimates, using the attenuation and retardation indices (AF and RF), for the Pearl Harbor Basin on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Relative to data error uncertainties, we discuss the impacts of: (i) soil, climatic, and chemical data base uncertainties, (ii) reductions in data base uncertainties, (iii) extrapolation of soil data base information based on soil taxonomy and soil survey, and (iv) importing information from outside the region of interest. Relative to model error uncertainties, we compare pesticide leaching estimates from the simple AF and RF mobility indices with simulations from the EPA's Pesticide Root Zone Model (PRZM) and field observations. Finally, we outline a Regional Integrated Risk Assessment approach for characterizing regional scale groundwater vulnerability for near-surface nonpoint sources.

Hawaii

Observed changes in phenology across the USA: A regional review for the 2013 National Climate Assessment, Alaska and the Arctic Regional Information Sheet

This is one in a series of eight, geographic region-focused information sheets that summarizes documented changes in plant and animal phenology over the past century across the United States. This summary is based on long-term studies (10 years or more) published in the primary scientific literature since 2001. A forthcoming manuscript synthesizes the findings of the eight regional information sheets. This information was developed in support of the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s National Climate Assessment and can be used to facilitate preparation for the cascading effects of ongoing climate change.

Alaska

Observed changes in phenology across the USA: A regional review for the 2013 National Climate Assessment, Hawaii and Pacific Islands Regional Information Sheet

This is one in a series of eight, geographic region-focused information sheets that summarizes documented changes in plant and animal phenology over the past century across the United States. This summary is based on long-term studies (10 years or more) published in the primary scientific literature since 2001. A forthcoming manuscript synthesizes the findings of the eight regional information sheets. This information was developed in support of the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s National Climate Assessment and can be used to facilitate preparation for the cascading effects of ongoing climate change.

Hawai‘i

Generalisation operators

This chapter summarises cartographic generalisation operators used to generalise geospatial data. It includes a review of recent approaches that have been tested or implemented to generalise networks, points, or groups. Emphasis is placed on recent advances that permit additional flexibility to tailor generalisation processing in particular geographic contexts, and to permit more advanced types of reasoning about spatial conflicts, preservation of specific feature characteristics, and local variations in geometry, content and enriched attribution. Rather than an exhaustive review of generalisation operators, the chapter devotes more attention to operators associated with network generalisation, which illustrates well the logic behind map generalisation developments. Three case studies demonstrate the application of operators to road thinning, to river network and braid pruning, and to hierarchical point elimination. The chapter closes with some summary comments and future directions.

Book chapter