Description:    Wetland ecosystems are of global significance having productive, regulatory and informative function. These wetlands are crucial for the long-term protection of water sources, as well as the survival of its unique biodiversity. Most of the wetlands of Turkey are now facing serious threat from the anthropogenic sources and now near to the verge of extinction. This study has been carried out to monitor vegetation dynamics and ecological status of wetlands of Koyna basin at spatial and temporal scale. This study has involved MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images of the year 2000, 2004 and 2008 on daily basis with spatial resolution of 1 km. The MODIS 16 days composite NDVI time series products of 250-m spatial resolution from year 2000 to 2008 has been utilized to monitor the ecological status of the wetlands. The European Nature Information System habitat classification map, meteorological data (precipitation, temperature) coupled with field data has been utilized to validate NDVI values of nine habitats in the wetlands. The time series analyses of NDVI data values have been correlated with the groundwater level depth from 1996 to 2004. The overall analysis has shown a declining trend of NDVI over the year 2000 to 2008, indicated a degraded wetland condition in span of 9 years. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-12 DOI 10.1007/s10113-011-0241-x Authors Jay Krishna Thakur, Department Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, Institute of Geosciences, Martin Luther University, Von-Seckendorff-Platz 3, 06120 Halle (Saale), Germany P. K. Srivastava, Department of Civil Engineering, Water and Environment Management Research Center, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TR United Kingdom S. K. Singh, Centre of Atmospheric and Ocean Science, KBCAOS, IIDS, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, 211002 India Zoltán Vekerdy, Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation, Twente University, Hengelosestraat 99, 7514 AE Enschede, The Netherlands Journal Regional Environmental Change Online ISSN 1436-378X Print ISSN 1436-3798

Description:    A 108-year (1901–2008) downscaling of the twentieth-century reanalysis (20CR) using the Regional Spectral Model (RSM) has been conducted for the southeastern United States (SEUS) at a horizontal grid resolution of 10 km. This 108-year product, named as the Florida Climate Institute-Florida State University Land–Atmosphere Reanalysis for the southeastern United States at 10-km resolution version 1.0 [FLAReS1.0], has primarily been developed for anticipated application studies in hydrology, crop management, ecology, and other interdisciplinary fields in the SEUS. The analysis of this downscaled product reveals that it ameliorates the issue of artificial discontinuity in the precipitation time series of the 20CR from the variations inherent to RSM. This centennial scale product allows us to begin examining decadal scale variations of the regional features of the SEUS. The fidelity of the low-frequency variations of the winter rainfall associated with the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation is reasonably well captured in FLAReS1.0. In fact, the modulation of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) teleconnection with the SEUS rainfall by AMO in the downscaled product is also validated with observations. The ENSO-associated variations of accumulated rainfall from landfalling hurricanes in the SEUS are also well simulated in the downscaled climate simulation. It is to be noted that the success of this dynamical downscaling is also because the global reanalysis of 20CR showed comparable fidelity in these low-frequency variations of the SEUS climate. This method of dynamic downscaling global reanalysis with inclusion of spectral nudging at large wavelengths (in this case ≥500 km) toward the driving global reanalysis (20CR) is sometimes referred as a form of regional reanalysis. Content Type Journal Article Category Original Article Pages 1-9 DOI 10.1007/s10113-012-0372-8 Authors V. Misra, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University, P.O. Box 3064520, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4520, USA S. M. DiNapoli, Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Florida State University, 2035 E. Paul Dirac Dr., 200 RM Johnson Bldg, Tallahassee, FL 32306-2840, USA S. Bastola, Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Florida State University, 2035 E. Paul Dirac Dr., 200 RM Johnson Bldg, Tallahassee, FL 32306-2840, USA Journal Regional Environmental Change Online ISSN 1436-378X Print ISSN 1436-3798

Description: Publication date: September 2013 Source: Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Volume 66, Issue 2 Author(s): Michael Finus , Christos Kotsogiannis , Steve McCorriston Given the current trend in global emissions, the latest round of climate change negotiations at the Durban meeting of December 2011 (for the adoption of a comprehensive global treaty on climate change mitigation as soon as possible—and no later than 2015—and to come into force in 2020) has hardly shown the results one would have hoped for. Even for the most optimistic, it remains unclear whether one can expect a successful negotiating outcome by 2015. There are inherent difficulties associated with climate change negotiations, ranging from which countries should bear most responsibility for a given emission reduction target to the assessment of a globally efficient time path for pricing harmful greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). These difficulties become even more complex and challenging under the pervasive uncertainty of climate science and the uncertainty about the feedback loop between climate change damages and economic growth. During the past decades, the environmental economics literature has provided important insights regarding the design of environmental fiscal policies and treaties but there is a host of issues that remain relatively unexplored. For instance, we know little about the cooperative solution for carbon and trade policies when climate change affects the productive possibilities of countries. In this context, it is also not obvious whether observed policies could be improved upon in such a way that all countries gain in welfare. It remains also unclear what the carbon extraction path should be in the absence of a comprehensive treaty (such as, for example, if environmental policy is unilaterally chosen subject to an agreed ‘ceiling’ in global temperature). Though carbon pricing instruments like carbon taxes, cap-and-trade and hybrids have been well studied, not much is known about their properties in the presence of ‘offset’ schemes such as the Clean Development Mechanism. More work is also required to understand the strategic implications of the uncertainty surrounding climate change and how this affects, for example, the choice of climate change strategy (‘precautionary’ or ‘wait and see’), how uncertainty impacts the propensity of countries to sign a climate treaty, and the extent to which the possibility of a climate catastrophe fosters or hinders cooperation. Understanding political economy issues is also vital in tackling climate change because efficient climate policies stand little chance of being successfully negotiated and implemented if they do not receive the support of the electorate. The papers in the special issue of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management are precisely devoted to this broad research agenda.