A wealth of information is available on extreme heat and humidity associated with mortality for cities of the developed world, but there is a dearth in the literature for coastal cities of the developing world. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of ambient heat on all-cause mortality on the urban population of Surat, a coastal city in India.
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) signals penetrate through the dry snow and cloud providing crucial data over the Himalayan temperate glaciers and complement the optical images. In the present study, RISAT- 1 C band and AWiFS images of winter/ablation period over Samudra Tapu and Gepang Gath moraine dammed lakes (MDLs) in Himachal Pradesh have been analysed.
We report on illegal international trade in Indian Star Tortoises (Geochelone elegans), with a particular focus on India and Thailand.Within India, this species has received protection as a Schedule IV list species of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 for over 40 years. This study documents the illegal trade of 55,000 individuals poached from just one ‘trade hub’ in India
Atmospheric aerosols are of significant environmental importance, due to their effects on air quality, as well as their ability to alter the planet’s radiative balance. Recent studies characterizing the effects of climate change on air quality and the broader distribution of aerosols in the atmosphere show significant, but inconsistent results, including the sign of the effect.
A population-based propensity-score matched cohort study design was used based on the Ontario population from the Canadian Community Health Survey (2001-2010). Participants were adults aged 20 years or older who moved from a low walkability neighborhood (defined as any neighborhood with a Walk Score<90) to either a high (Walk Score≥90) or another low walkability neighborhood. The incidence of hypertension was assessed by linking the cohort to administrative health databases using a validated algorithm. Propensity-score matched Cox proportional hazard models were used.
Reference evapotranspiration (ET0) is often used to estimate actual evapotranspiration in water balance studies. In this study, the present and future spatial distributions and temporal trends of ET0 in the Xiangjiang River Basin (XJRB) in China were analyzed.
Estimates of extinction risk for Amazonian plant and animal species are rare and not often incorporated into land-use policy and conservation planning. We overlay spatial distribution models with historical and projected deforestation to show that at least 36% and up to 57% of all Amazonian tree species are likely to qualify as globally threatened under International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria. If confirmed, these results would increase the number of threatened plant species on Earth by 22%.
Climate has a strong influence on fire activity, varying across time and space. We analyzed the relationships between fire–weather conditions during the main fire season and antecedent waterbalance conditions and fires in two Mediterranean-type regions with contrasted management histories: five southern countries of the European Union (EUMED)(all fires); the Pacific western coast of the USA (California and Oregon, PWUSA)(national forest fires).
In a new investigation of model projections of greenhouse gas warming impact on the Mediterranean, Zappa et al (2015 Environ. Res. Lett. 10 104012) find that the decline in basin-wide precipitation scales linearly with the strength of the 850 hPa zonal wind over North Africa. This result supports previous findings that climate change will affect the Mediterranean primarily through changing the regional atmospheric circulation. The results of this study may guide improvements of climate models to better simulate the impact of greenhouse gas warming in this critical world region.
Global dimming refers to the decrease in surface solar radiation (SSR) observed from the 1960s to the 1980s at different measurement sites all around the world. It is under debate whether anthropogenic aerosols emitted from urban areas close to the measurement sites are mainly responsible for the dimming. In order to assess this urbanization impact on SSR, we use spatially explicit population density data of 0.08° resolution to construct population indices (PI) at 157 high data quality sites.
