Seasonality of biological and physical systems as indicators of climatic variation and change
- PDF / 409,152 Bytes
- 17 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 77 Downloads / 208 Views
Seasonality of biological and physical systems as indicators of climatic variation and change Jake F. Weltzin 1 & Julio L. Betancourt 2 & Benjamin I. Cook 3 & Theresa M. Crimmins 4 & Carolyn A. F. Enquist 5 & Michael D. Gerst 6 John E. Gross 7 & Geoffrey M. Henebry 8 & Rebecca A. Hufft 9 & Melissa A. Kenney 10 & John S. Kimball 11 & Bradley C. Reed 12 & Steven W. Running 13
&
Received: 8 June 2020 / Accepted: 12 October 2020/ # This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply 2020
Abstract
Evidence-based responses to climate change by society require operational and sustained information including biophysical indicator systems that provide up-to-date measures of trends and patterns against historical baselines. Two key components linking anthropogenic climate change to impacts on socio-ecological systems are the periodic inter- and intra-annual variations in physical climate systems (seasonality) and in plant and animal life cycles (phenology). We describe a set of national indicators that reflect sub-seasonal to seasonal drivers and responses of terrestrial physical and biological systems to climate change and variability at the national scale. Proposed indicators and metrics include seasonality of surface climate conditions (e.g., frost and freeze dates and durations), seasonality of freeze/thaw in freshwater systems (e.g., timing of stream runoff and durations of lake/river ice), seasonality in ecosystem disturbances (e.g., wildfire season timing and duration), seasonality in vegetated land surfaces (e.g., green-up and brown-down of landscapes), and seasonality of organismal life-history stages (e.g., timings of bird migration). Recommended indicators have strong linkages to variable and changing climates, include abiotic and biotic responses and feedback mechanisms, and are sufficiently simple to facilitate communication to broad audiences and stakeholders interested in understanding and adapting to climate change.
This article is part of a Special Issue on “National Indicators of Climate Changes, Impacts, and Vulnerability” edited by Anthony C. Janetos and Melissa A. Kenney Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi. org/10.1007/s10584-020-02894-0.
* Theresa M. Crimmins [email protected]; [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
Climatic Change
Keywords Seasonality . Climate variability and change . Assessment . Decision support . Metrics
1 Introduction Understanding existing and predicted impacts of climate change on managed and natural ecological systems is critical for supporting policy and resource management decisions. In the United States (U.S.), synthesizing global change effects on key U.S. systems and sectors and describing the current and future (25 to 100 year) trends are required at least once every 4 years by the U.S. Global Change Research Act (Section 106). This requirement is met through periodic production of
Data Loading...
