Rapid buildup of greenhouse gases is expected to increase the Earth surface mean temperature, with unclear effects on temperature variability1-3. This adds urgency to better understand the direct effects of the changing climate on human health. However, the effects of prolonged exposures to temperatures, which are important for understanding the public health burden, are unclear. Here we demons...

This discussion paper is/has been under review for the journal Climate of the Past (CP). Please refer to the corresponding final paper in CP if available. Abstract Accumulation and δ 18 O data from Alpine ice cores provide information on past temperature and precipitation. However, their correlation with seasonal or annual mean temperature and precipitation at nearby sites is often low. Based o...

Emergency room (ER) visits for accidental casualties, according to the International Classification of Deceases 10th Revision Chapters 19 and 20, include injury, poisoning, and external causes (IPEC). Annual distribution of 187,008 ER visits that took place between 2009 and 2011 in Beijing, China displayed regularity rather than random characteristics. The annual cycle from the Fourier series f...

The next generation of weed seed germination models will need to account for variable soil microclimate conditions. To predict this microclimate environment we have developed a suite of individual tools (models) that can be used in conjunction with the next generation of weed seed germination models. The three tools that will be outlined here are GlobalTempSIM, GlobalRainSIM, and the soil tempe...

Aim To assess the impact of certain climatic variables on the breeding success of some populations of Bonelli’s eagle (Hieraaetus fasciatus V. 1822) throughout its latitudinal distribution range, in order to account for recent and differential declines in populations. Location Western Mediterranean, from southern Morocco to southern France. Methods Seven populations were considered for the lati...

Net primary production (NPP), the difference between CO2 fixed by photosynthesis and CO2 lost to autotrophic respiration, is one of the most important components of the carbon cycle. Our goal was to develop a simple regression model to estimate global NPP using climate and land cover data. Approximately 5600 global data points with observed mean annual NPP, land cover class, precipitation, and ...

Biomass and net primary productivity (NPP) are important factors for studying terrestrial carbon storage and the carbon cycle. Using data from existing literature, this study synthesized and analyzed a comprehensive database of direct field observations of forest biomass and NPP for Southwestern China. The biomass of mature natural forests and mature planted forests range from 81.2 Mg ̈ha ́1 to 6...

This study was aimed to assess the decomposition temperature sensitivity (Q10) of C fractions cycling from yearly through decades’ and up to centennial timescales using a data assimilation approach. A three-pool C-cycling model was optimally fitted with previously-published data from a 588-day long soil incubation experiment conducted at two temperatures (25 and 35 C) for 12 soils collected fro...

Numerical computations are performed with the three-dimensional polythermal ice-sheet model SICOPOLIS in order to investigate the possible impact of a greenhouse-gas-induced climate change on the Greenland ice sheet. The assumed increase of the mean annual air temperature above the ice covers a range from T = 1 C to 12 C, and several parameterizations for the snowfall and the surface melting ar...

There have been debates on the driving factors of C4 plant expansion, such as PCO2 decline in the late Micocene and warmer climate and precipitation at large-scale modern ecosystems. These disputes are mainly due to the lack of direct evidence and extensive data analysis. Here we use mass flora data to explore the driving factors of C4 distribution and divergent patterns for different C4 taxa a...