Beginning in 2003, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus spread across Southeast Asia, causing unprecedented epidemics. Thailand was massively infected in 2004 and 2005 and continues today to experience sporadic outbreaks. While research findings suggest that the spread of HPAI H5N1 is influenced primarily by trade patterns, identifying the anthropogenic risk factors involved rema...

Surface sediment samples (0-5 cm) from 5 tidal salt marshes along the coast in California, USA were analyzed to investigate the occurrence and anthropogenic input of trace metals. Among study areas, Stege Marsh located in the central San Francisco Bay was the most contaminated marsh. Concentrations of metals in Stege Marsh sediments were higher than San Francisco Bay ambient levels. Zinc (55.3-...

[1] Temperature observations from the Northern Hemisphere reveal a warming since 1861 which is larger in winter than in summer. Possible explanations for a decline in seasonal spread are discussed using the Earth system model CLIMBER-2. Simulations forced by natural and anthropogenic factors (Milankovitch forcing, solar variability, volcanism, atmospheric CO2 concentration, deforestation) gener...

Frequent and intense anthropogenic fires present meaningful challenges to forest management in the boreal forest of China. Understanding the underlying drivers of human-caused fire occurrence is crucial for making effective and scientifically-based forest fire management plans. In this study, we applied logistic regression (LR) and Random Forests (RF) to identify important biophysical and anthr...

Observations reveal that the substantial cooling of the global lower stratosphere over 1979-2003 occurred in two pronounced steplike transitions. These arose in the aftermath of two major volcanic eruptions, with each cooling transition being followed by a period of relatively steady temperatures. Climate model simulations indicate that the space-time structure of the observed cooling is largel...

Estimates of the impacts of observed climate change during the 20th century obtained by different integrated assessment models (IAMs) are separated into their main natural and anthropogenic components. The estimates of the costs that can be attributed to natural variability factors and to the anthropogenic intervention with the climate system in general tend to show that: 1) during the first ha...