Nagai Shin, Taku M Saitoh, Hideyuki Takasu, Hiroshi Morimoto
{"title":"Influence of climate change on flowering phenology of Yoshino cherry at its southern distribution limit.","authors":"Nagai Shin, Taku M Saitoh, Hideyuki Takasu, Hiroshi Morimoto","doi":"10.1007/s00484-024-02797-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-024-02797-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>To clarify the influence of climate change on the flowering phenology of Yoshino cherry at its southern distribution limit, we examined the relationship between cold exposure for endodormancy release (chilling requirement) and heat requirement for bud growth on Hachijojima Island, Japan, from 1948 to 2024. Cold exposure and heat requirement had a significant relationship approximated by linear or log-linear functions. In years with less cold exposure, the first flowering dates were much later than normal, in accordance with the higher heat requirement. Our results indicate that the variation in the balance between cold exposure and heat requirement depending on the pattern of annual air temperature change is likely to vary the first flowering date greatly at the distribution limit of Yoshino cherry.</p>","PeriodicalId":588,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Biometeorology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142399033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploring perceived relationships between weather, climate and mental health: biometeorological perspectives of healthcare practitioners.","authors":"Mukhtaar Waja, Jennifer M Fitchett","doi":"10.1007/s00484-024-02791-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-024-02791-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Over the last decade, there has been an increase in research examining the influence of weather and climate in mental health caseloads. Variations in temperature, sunshine hours, cloud cover, precipitation and extreme weather events have been statistically linked to diagnoses and increases in hospital admissions for several mental health conditions. This study aimed to explore whether mental health practitioners perceive there to be a link between mental health and daily, seasonal, or inter-annual shifts in various climate variables in South Africa, and the timing and causal mechanisms thereof. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 50 practicing healthcare practitioners, and the data was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings of this research show that all 50 participants were aware of the link between weather, climate and mental health, primarily through their awareness of seasonal affective disorder. Of the 50 participants, 38 participants could explain the aetiology of seasonal affective disorder. Participants perceived sunlight and temperature to exert an influence on mental health. All 50 participants perceived exposure to sunlight to exert a positive influence on several mental health conditions. Of the 50 participants, 36 participants perceived increases in temperature to exert an adverse effect on mental health symptomology. A minority of 11 participants perceived precipitation to influence mental health conditions such as seasonal affective disorder, bipolar disorder, and substance abuse disorder. Participants' perceptions of the influence of precipitation on mental health provided a unique potential explanation of this relationship, which, at the time of writing, has not been discussed in formal research.</p>","PeriodicalId":588,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Biometeorology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142387176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kai Jin, Yidong Wu, Fei Wang, Cuijin Li, Quanli Zong, Chunxia Liu
{"title":"Assessment of climatic and anthropogenic influences on vegetation dynamics in China: a consideration of climate time-lag and cumulative effects.","authors":"Kai Jin, Yidong Wu, Fei Wang, Cuijin Li, Quanli Zong, Chunxia Liu","doi":"10.1007/s00484-024-02794-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00484-024-02794-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Determining the factors that drive vegetation variation is complicated by the intricate interactions between climatic and anthropogenic influences. Neglecting the short-term time-lag and cumulative effects of climate on vegetation growth (i.e., temporal effects) exacerbates the uncertainty in attributing long-term vegetation dynamics. This study evaluated the climatic and anthropogenic influences on vegetation dynamics in China from 2000 to 2019 by analyzing normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, and ten anthropogenic indicators through linear regression, correlation, multiple linear regression (MLR), residual, and principal component analyses. Across most regions, growing season NDVI (G-NDVI) exhibited heightened sensitivity to climatic variables from earlier periods or from both earlier and current periods, signaling extensive temporal climatic effects. Constructing new time series for temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation from 2000 to 2019, based on the optimal vegetation response timing to each climatic variable, revealed significant correlations with G-NDVI across 27.9%, 26.7%, and 23.3% of the study area, respectively. Climate variability and anthropogenic activities contributed 45% and 55% to the G-NDVI increase in China, respectively. Afforestation significantly promoted vegetation greening, while agricultural development had a marginally positive influence. In contrast, urbanization negatively impacted vegetation, particularly in eastern China, where farmland conversion to constructed land has been prevalent over the past two decades. Neglecting temporal effects would significantly reduce the areas with robust MLR models linking G-NDVI to climatic variables, thereby increasing uncertainty in attributing vegetation changes. The findings highlight the necessity of integrating multiple anthropogenic factors and climatic temporal effects in evaluating vegetation dynamics and ecological restoration.</p>","PeriodicalId":588,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Biometeorology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142379820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Enhancing autumn greenway walking experience: Exploring the combined effects of noise and thermal environment.","authors":"Yanhan Li, Liang Li, Wenqing Wang","doi":"10.1007/s00484-024-02790-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-024-02790-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The evaluation of outdoor green spaces is influenced by diverse sensory perceptions. Traffic noise and thermal conditions significantly impact greenway-walking satisfaction; their optimization is vital for improving user experience and encouraging outdoor engagement. The study examines a typical Beijing greenway during autumn, focusing on strategies to enhance the walking experience under the combined effects of noise and thermal environments through mobile measurements and surveys. The results show that: 1) The interplay between noise and thermal factors varies depending on the walking state. Upon arrival, an increase in noise significantly worsens thermal comfort; higher sound levels intensify warm thermal sensations, though this effect is not consciously perceived. Upon departure, the effect of noise on thermal perception is not obvious. In both walking states, thermal sensation significantly affects subjective noise perception, yet the trends of influence differ. Subjective noise loudness increases as thermal comfort worsens, showing significant correlation only upon departure. 2) During autumn greenway walks, acoustic factors exert a greater impact on Overall Environmental Satisfaction (OES), with subjective noise loudness being more influential than noise level, followed by air temperature (T<sub>a</sub>). Greater noise decreases OES, while OES increases initially with T<sub>a</sub> and then decreases. The integrated effects of noise-thermal factors on OES show significant changes. 3) To enhance the autumn greenway-walking experience, the advised parameters are A-weighted Sound Level (ASL) ≤ 59.12 dBA and 15.17 °C ≤ T<sub>a</sub> ≤ 18.75 °C. Finally, three design strategies are proposed: reducing subjective noise loudness, differentiating design based on walking status and balancing acoustic-thermal perceptual preferences.</p>","PeriodicalId":588,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Biometeorology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142363927","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Asymmetric responses of EVI and tree ring growth to extreme climate on the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau.","authors":"Mengyuan Wei, Liang Jiao, Peng Zhang, Ruhong Xue, Xuge Wang, Qian Li","doi":"10.1007/s00484-024-02786-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-024-02786-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Extreme climate events have increased in terms of their amplitudes, frequency and severity, greatly affecting ecosystem functions and the balance of the global carbon cycle. However, there are still uncertainties about how extreme climate change will affect tree growth. This study characterized the responses of tree growth to extreme climate on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau from 2000 to 2020. Meanwhile, a back propagation neural network was used to predict tree growth trends under two future emission scenarios from 2020 to 2050. This study revealed that: (1) the tree-ring width index (RWI) showed a decreasing trend (- 0.04/decade) in the eastern region, but the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) showed an increasing trend (0.05/decade) from 2000 to 2020. While both RWI and EVI in the middle and western regions showed increasing trends. (2) The responses of RWI and EVI to extreme climate were regionally asymmetric. In the eastern region, extreme precipitation inhibited tree radial growth, while extreme warm nights promoted tree canopy growth. In two other regions, both extreme precipitation and extreme warm nights promoted tree growth. (3) The model predicts that there was no significant change in RWI and EVI in the western region, but both RWI and EVI showed an increasing trend in the middle and eastern regions under the low emission scenario. Under the high emission scenario, the growth of tree stem and canopy in all three regions shows a general decreasing trend. The results of this study both improved the understanding of the differences in carbon allocation between tree stem (RWI) and canopy (EVI) and identified vulnerability thresholds for tree populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":588,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Biometeorology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142360903","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Effect of various temperature indicators on patients' hospitalization with cardiovascular diseases in Zhangye city, China.","authors":"Xin Zhao, Xin Li, Jiyuan Dong","doi":"10.1007/s00484-024-02793-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-024-02793-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study assessed the impact of various temperature indices, including mean temperature (MT), diurnal temperature range (DTR), and temperature changes between neighboring days (TCN) on hospitalization rates for cardiovascular system diseases among residents of Zhangye City, a typical western city in China. The Quasi-Poisson generalized additive regression model (GAM) in conjunction with a distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) was applied to estimate the association of temperature indices with CVD hospitalization rates in Zhangye City during the periods of 2015-2021. The exposure-response relationship and relative risk were discussed and stratified analyses by age and gender were conducted. We found that the hospitalization rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients in Zhangye City was significantly related to different temperature indicators (MT, DTR, TCN). Both low and high MT, DTR, and TCN increased the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) among residents. Besides, different demographic populations exhibited distinct sensitivities to temperature conditions. Relevant authorities should devise corresponding preventive and control measures to protect vulnerable populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":588,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Biometeorology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142338905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Levent Bayam, Kadir Oznam, Aysenur Guler, Eren Uyan, Mehmet Erdem
{"title":"Orthopaedic patients' emergency department attendance behavior in relation to weather conditions: temperature, rain, day and time, and regional thursday effect.","authors":"Levent Bayam, Kadir Oznam, Aysenur Guler, Eren Uyan, Mehmet Erdem","doi":"10.1007/s00484-024-02789-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-024-02789-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Great variation was noticed in emergency department (ED) afflux in relation to daily weather conditions, including difficulties in arranging the correct number of orthopaedic on-calls on the floor. This study aimed to quantify the association between the number of patients referred to the orthopaedic team from the ED and weather conditions, particularly daily temperature and rain. Data were obtained from a large state research hospital's ED attendance. Weather information for the local area for the year was obtained from the regional meteorological office. Data were evaluated using descriptive statistics, with one-way analysis of variance for the relationship between the day of the week and patient numbers, the Pearson test for correlations between daily ED patient flow and daily temperature and the Spearman correlation test for correlations between daily patient flow and daily rain status. A positive and meaningful correlation existed between daily patient influx and daily temperature, along with a negative correlation between daily patient flow and daily rain. Throughout the year, significantly more patients were referred to the orthopaedic team on Thursdays than on any other day of the week. Patients tended to visit the ED more on warm days and days without rain. These results may help in organising daily, monthly or seasonal on-call orthopaedic team requirements despite the challenges. Incorporating climate forecasts into planning the on-call service might help alleviate the stress on the team.</p>","PeriodicalId":588,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Biometeorology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142338908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S J Roffe, L B Ajikah, J John, R M Garland, K Lehtipalo, M K Bamford
{"title":"High aerospora levels and associated atmospheric circulation patterns: Pretoria, South Africa.","authors":"S J Roffe, L B Ajikah, J John, R M Garland, K Lehtipalo, M K Bamford","doi":"10.1007/s00484-024-02781-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-024-02781-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>At high exposure levels, airborne pollen grains and fungal spores (termed aerospora hereafter), can trigger severe allergic respiratory diseases. For South Africa's administrative capital Pretoria, which boasts dense vegetation within a large urban forest, it is valuable from a health perspective to understand daily atmospheric circulation patterns associated with high aerospora levels. Therefore, we utilised a daily aerospora grain count dataset collected in Pretoria from 08/2019-02/2023 to investigate atmospheric circulation patterns (derived from ERA5 reanalysis sea level pressure [SLP] and 500 hPa geopotential height [zg500] fields) associated with high-risk aerospora levels (aerospora grain count > 90th percentile). Concentrated during October-May, there were 128 high-risk days, with 69.6% of days occurring in November, February and April. Although generally above-average mid-tropospheric subsidence levels prevailed over Pretoria during high-risk days, no single distinct atmospheric circulation pattern was associated with these high-risk days. Therefore, using Principal Component Analysis, we classified 14 Circulation Weather Types (CWTs) for October-May months between 08/2019-02/2023 to assess which CWTs most frequently occurred during high-risk days. Three CWTs had a statistically significant proportion of high-risk days - collectively they occurred during 37.1% of days studied, yet accounted for 45.3% of high-risk days. Among these CWTs, two CWTs were similarly associated with surface and mid-tropospheric high-pressure conditions, while the third was associated with a surface and mid-tropospheric trough. By comparing our CWT classification to daily synoptic charts (from the South African Weather Service), our classification can be used to identify days with potentially high allergenicity risk over Pretoria.</p>","PeriodicalId":588,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Biometeorology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142338907","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Forecasting thermal stress for sports tourists at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.","authors":"Christopher Craig, Ismail Karabas","doi":"10.1007/s00484-024-02785-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-024-02785-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study explores thermal stress conditions (i.e. heat, humidity, sunlight exposure) sports tourists can expect when attending the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Sports tourism's growth is driven by international mega-events like FIFA World Cups and Olympic Games. With planning ongoing for the 2026 FIFA World Cup football (soccer) tournament, what remains unstudied are the heat conditions spectators can expect at the 16 host stadiums in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The inquiry is important considering (1) the tournament is taking place in warm-weather months of June and July, (2) thermal stress contributes to heat-related illnesses like heat stroke, and (3) many destination-bound tourists will be at elevated risk to heat. Accordingly, we report historical and forecasted thermal stress levels documenting expected conditions at each host stadium. Notably, forecasts indicate worsening thermal stress compared to long-term means, providing support for the study's methodology. Practical implications and limitations are provided.</p>","PeriodicalId":588,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Biometeorology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142338906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hardik H Gajjar, Deepesh Upadhyay, Manzoor Hussain, Jai Devi Jeyaraman
{"title":"Outdoor thermal sensation scale through biometeorological assessment for semi-arid climate.","authors":"Hardik H Gajjar, Deepesh Upadhyay, Manzoor Hussain, Jai Devi Jeyaraman","doi":"10.1007/s00484-024-02788-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-024-02788-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Extreme temperatures in urban areas cause discomfort leading to a rise in health risks, like heat-related mortality (hyperthermia). It is, hence, important to have a comfortable thermal environment. Assessing outdoor thermal comfort is challenging and complicated due to its dependencies on biometeorological and psychological factors. This study investigates the outdoor thermal comfort in Ahmedabad, a city with semi-arid climate in India through biometeorological measurements and thermal comfort surveys. The study carried out thermal comfort surveys of 1620 subjects spread across the city in 2022-23 covering all the seasons. The temperature and relative humidity were in the range of 21.6 °C to 44.9 °C and 8 to 86% respectively. About 43% of the subjects felt thermally comfortable during the survey. Based on the survey results, the annual neutral Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) obtained was 27.5 °C, and the comfortable PET range was between 21.1 °C and 33.9 °C which covers a wide range. Neutral PET for summer and winter seasons obtained were similar, which indicates winters are getting milder and people of Ahmedabad are getting more adaptive towards warmer temperature. These results hold special significance as there is limited research on outdoor thermal comfort in such climate zone of India.</p>","PeriodicalId":588,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Biometeorology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142338909","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}