Populations living in seasonal environments are exposed to systematic changes in physical conditions that restrict the growth and reproduction of many species to only a short time window of the annual cycle. Several studies have shown that climate changes over the latter part of the 20th century affected the phenology and population dynamics of single species. However, the key limitation to for...

Ecological theory asserts that the climate of a region exerts top-down controls on regional ecosystem patterns and processes, across space and time. To provide empirical evidence of climatic controls, it would be helpful to define climatic regions that minimized variance in key climate attributes, within climatic regions—define the periods and features of climatic regimes, and then look for con...

The end products of atmospheric degradation are not only CO2 and H2O but also sulfate and nitrate depending on the chemical composition of the substances which are subject to degradation processes. Atmospheric degradation has thus a direct influence on the radiative balance of the earth not only due to formation of greenhouse gases but also of aerosols. Aerosols of a diameter of 0.1 to 2 microm...

Climatic warming during the last 100-150 years has resulted in a significant glacier ice loss from mountainous areas of the world. Certain natural processes which pose hazards to people and development in these areas have accelerated as a result of this recent deglaciation. These include glacier avalanches, landslides and slope instability caused by glacier debuttressing, and outburst floods fr...