Severe Weather in United States Under a Changing Climate

Wuebbles, Donald J.; Kunkel, Kenneth E.; Wehner, Michael; Zobel, Zachary

doi:10.1002/2014eo180001

Cited by 80 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The larger displays and greater attraction of perennial species in Michigan highlight the benefit of developing native perennial seed mixes for supporting pollinators in the Midwest region of the USA, where these plants can provide multiple seasons of bloom and may be better adapted to survive the fluctuating weather conditions predicted to become more common in this region (Tilman and El Haddi 1992, Wuebbles et al 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Native wildflower plantings support wild bee abundance and diversity in agricultural landscapes across the United States

Williams

Ward

Pope

et al. 2015

Ecological Applications

221

178

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Global trends in pollinator-dependent crops have raised awareness of the need to support managed and wild bee populations to ensure sustainable crop production. Provision of sufficient forage resources is a key element for promoting bee populations within human impacted landscapes, particularly those in agricultural lands where demand for pollination service is high and land use and management practices have reduced available flowering resources. Recent government incentives in North America and Europe support the planting of wildflowers to benefit pollinators; surprisingly, in North America there has been almost no rigorous testing of the performance of wildflower mixes, or their ability to support wild bee abundance and diversity. We tested different wildflower mixes in a spatially replicated, multiyear study in three regions of North America where production of pollinator-dependent crops is high: Florida, Michigan, and California. In each region, we quantified flowering among wildflower mixes composed of annual and perennial species, and with high and low relative diversity. We measured the abundance and species richness of wild bees, honey bees, and syrphid flies at each mix over two seasons. In each region, some but not all wildflower mixes provided significantly greater floral display area than unmanaged weedy control plots. Mixes also attracted greater abundance and richness of wild bees, although the identity of best mixes varied among regions. By partitioning floral display size from mix identity we show the importance of display size for attracting abundant and diverse wild bees. Season-long monitoring also revealed that designing mixes to provide continuous bloom throughout the growing season is critical to supporting the greatest pollinator species richness. Contrary to expectation, perennials bloomed in their first season, and complementarity in attraction of pollinators among annuals and perennials suggests that inclusion of functionally diverse species may provide the greatest benefit. Wildflower mixes may be particularly important for providing resources for some taxa, such as bumble bees, which are known to be in decline in several regions of North America. No mix consistently attained the full diversity that was planted. Further study is needed on how to achieve the desired floral display and diversity from seed mixes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Native wildflower plantings support wild bee abundance and diversity in agricultural landscapes across the United States

Williams

Ward

Pope

et al. 2015

Ecological Applications

221

178

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Total annual and seasonal precipitation has already shifted in some areas of the US, and climate models predict this trend will continue [38] and incidence of severe weather to increase [39, 40]. Determining the impact of recent climate change on road traffic injuries is difficult, given lack of precise exposure information, though the number of deaths in vehicles from flash floods in Texas exhibited a general upward trend from 1959 to 2009 [41].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adverse weather conditions and fatal motor vehicle crashes in the United States, 1994-2012

et al. 2016

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BackgroundMotor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of injury mortality. Adverse weather and road conditions have the potential to affect the likelihood of motor vehicle fatalities through several pathways. However, there remains a dearth of assessments associating adverse weather conditions to fatal crashes in the United States. We assessed trends in motor vehicle fatalities associated with adverse weather and present spatial variation in fatality rates by state.MethodsWe analyzed the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) datasets from 1994 to 2012 produced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that contains reported weather information for each fatal crash. For each year, we estimated the fatal crashes that were associated with adverse weather conditions. We stratified these fatalities by months to examine seasonal patterns. We calculated state-specific rates using annual vehicle miles traveled data for all fatalities and for those related to adverse weather to examine spatial variations in fatality rates. To investigate the role of adverse weather as an independent risk factor for fatal crashes, we calculated odds ratios for known risk factors (e.g., alcohol and drug use, no restraint use, poor driving records, poor light conditions, highway driving) to be reported along with adverse weather.ResultsTotal and adverse weather-related fatalities decreased over 1994–2012. Adverse weather-related fatalities constituted about 16 % of total fatalities on average over the study period. On average, 65 % of adverse weather-related fatalities happened between November and April, with rain/wet conditions more frequently reported than snow/icy conditions. The spatial distribution of fatalities associated with adverse weather by state was different than the distribution of total fatalities. Involvement of alcohol or drugs, no restraint use, and speeding were less likely to co-occur with fatalities during adverse weather conditions.ConclusionsWhile adverse weather is reported for a large number of motor vehicle fatalities for the US, the type of adverse weather and the rate of associated fatality vary geographically. These fatalities may be addressed and potentially prevented by modifying speed limits during inclement weather, improving road surfacing, ice and snow removal, and providing transit alternatives, but the impact of potential interventions requires further research.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12940-016-0189-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…While significant uncertainty remains, there is mounting evidence that an increase in extreme weather events will accompany the intensification and acceleration of climate change (Coumou and Rahmstorf, 2012;World Meteorological Organization [WMO], 2013;Wuebbles et al, 2014). Extreme weather events include those with an extended temporal duration (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Principles of geomorphic disturbance and recovery in response to storms

Phillips

Dyke

2016

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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ABSTRACT:The most important geomorphic responses to storms are qualitative changes in system state. Minor storms produce no state change or very rapid recovery to pre-storm state, and extinction events wipe out the system. In other cases disturbance results in a state change, which may be transitional (change to a previously existing state), state space expansion (change to a new state), and clock-resetting events that return the system to its initial state. Recovery pathways are much more varied than the monotonic progressions represented in classic vegetation succession and linear channel evolution models. Those linear sequential pathways are only one of several archetypal recovery pathways, which also include binary, convergent, divergent, and more complex networks. Filterdominated systems are more likely to follow linear sequential or convergent patterns, whereas amplifier-dominance is characteristic of divergent and more complex mesh or fully-connected patterns. Amplifier domination is also more likely to lead to evolutionary or state space expansion responses. Amplification and filtering in geomorphic response and recovery can be assessed using the 'Four R's' framework of response, resistance, relaxation, and recursion. High resistance and resilience, rapid relaxation times, and stable recursive feedback networks reduce or offset effects of disturbances, thus filtering their impacts. Conversely, low resistance and resilience, slow relaxation, and dynamically unstable feedbacks can exaggerate disturbances, creating disproportionately large and long-lived impacts, thereby amplifying disturbances.Unless new filter mechanisms evolve (either autogenically or anthropically), or the number of extinction or clock-resetting events increases, intensified storminess will result in more geomorphic variability. These ideas are applied to a case study of a flood on the Clark Fork River, Montana, USA.

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Severe Weather in United States Under a Changing Climate

Cited by 80 publications

References 8 publications

Native wildflower plantings support wild bee abundance and diversity in agricultural landscapes across the United States

Native wildflower plantings support wild bee abundance and diversity in agricultural landscapes across the United States

Adverse weather conditions and fatal motor vehicle crashes in the United States, 1994-2012

Principles of geomorphic disturbance and recovery in response to storms

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