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Catastrophic Losses (catastrophic + loss)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Earth and Environmental Science	33%

Selected Abstracts

Catastrophic Losses and Insurer Profitability: Evidence From 9/11

JOURNAL OF RISK AND INSURANCE, Issue 1 2008
Xuanjuan Chen
We examine the effects of 9/11 on the insurance industry, hypothesizing a short-run claim effect, resulting from insufficient premium ex ante for catastrophic losses, and a long-run growth effect, resulting from ex post insurance supply reductions and risk updating. Following Yoon and Starks (1995) we use short- and long-run abnormal forecast revisions to measure both effects, analyzing them as a function of firm-specific characteristics. We find that firm type, loss estimates, reinsurance use, and tax position are important determinants of the short-run position. Firm type, loss estimates, financial strength, underwriting risk, and reinsurance are key determinants of the firm's long-run position. [source]

Does It Make Sense to Restore Wildland Fire in Changing Climate?

RESTORATION ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2008
Peter Z. Fulé
Abstract Forest restoration guided by historical reference conditions of fire regime, forest structure, and composition has been increasingly and successfully applied in fire-adapted forests of western North America. But because climate change is expected to alter vegetation distributions and foster severe disturbances, does it make sense to restore the ecological role of wildland fire through management burning and related activities such as tree thinning? I suggest that some site- and date-specific historical conditions may be less relevant, but reference conditions in the broad sense are still useful. Reference conditions encompass not only the recent past but also evolutionary history, reflecting the role of fire as a selective force over millennia. Taking a long-term functional view of historical reference conditions as the result of evolutionary processes can provide insights into past forest adaptations and migrations under various climates. As future climates change, historical reference data from lower, southerly, and drier sites may be useful in places that are higher, northerly, and currently wetter. Almost all models suggest that the future will have substantial increases in wildfire occurrence, but prior to recent human-caused fire exclusion, fire-adapted pine forests of western North America were among the most frequently burned in the world. Restoration of patterns of burning and fuels/forest structure that reasonably emulate historical conditions prior to fire exclusion is consistent with reducing the susceptibility of these ecosystems to catastrophic loss. Priorities may include fire and thinning treatments of upper elevation ecotones to facilitate forest migration, whereas vulnerable low-elevation forests may merit less management investment. [source]

Emergence of larval yellow perch, Perca flavescens, in South Dakota lakes: potential implications for recruitment

FISHERIES MANAGEMENT & ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2008
D. A. ISERMANN
Abstract, Temporal patterns in length frequency distributions and hatch dates were described for larval yellow perch, Perca flavescens (Mitchill), captured in surface ichthyoplankton trawls from late April to mid-June 2000 to 2002 in six South Dakota, USA lakes. Fewer than 15 larval yellow perch were collected in four of six lakes during 2002, suggesting that in some cases factors prior to, during or immediately after hatching likely play a critical role in the perch recruitment process. When larval yellow perch were encountered in larger numbers, temporal trends in total length (TL) frequencies indicated that only a single cohort was produced annually in each lake. Most yellow perch in these lakes hatched between 29 April and 17 May, and most hatching occurred during 5,11 days each year. Larval TL was not related to hatch date. The apparent prevalence of relatively short hatch periods in these yellow perch populations probably increases the risk of catastrophic losses resulting from periods of poor environmental conditions. [source]

Evidence that channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus (Rafinesque), mortality is not linked to ingestion of the hepatotoxin microcystin-LR

JOURNAL OF FISH DISEASES, Issue 5 2002
G S Snyder
Catfish farms located in the south-eastern USA using brackish (3,5 g NaCl L,1) well water experience sporadic fish kills sometimes with high mortality. An investigation of three catastrophic losses occurring in this region identified no involvement of infectious diseases or traditional water quality problems, including oxygen, ammonia or nitrite. The high mortality and time course of the problem was indicative of exposure to a toxin. Attempts by other workers to explain the cause of this unique syndrome (high chloride associated toxicosis of catfish, HCTC), suggested that the losses might be because of microcystin-producing blooms of Microcystis aeruginosa, but our investigations failed to support this conclusion. We found that (1) the liver histology of catfish experimentally exposed to pure microcystin-LR is very different from that of catfish sampled during outbreaks of HCTC; (2) measurements of microcystin-LR concentrations in the three cases were far lower than the concentration required to kill catfish by experimental immersion; (3) the HCTC toxin appears to have a short half-life, whereas microcystin-LR does not; (4) experimental gavage of catfish with massive amounts of microcystin-LR does not cause the acute mortality typical of HCTC; (5) outbreaks of HCTC appear to be associated with heavy blooms of Anacystis marina, a halophytic cyanobacteria, not with blooms of M. aeruginosa. [source]

Dynamic Prevention in Short-Term Insurance Contracts

JOURNAL OF RISK AND INSURANCE, Issue 2 2008
M. Martin Boyer
This article looks at the dynamic properties of insurance contracts when insurers have a better technology at preventing catastrophic losses than the insured. When the prevention technology is irreversible and its benefits last for all future periods although its cost is borne in the period in which it is made, a hold-up problem occurs because the insured can change insurer after his initial insurer has invested in prevention. Investment in prevention is then delayed compared to the first best outcome. When the audit cost must be incurred by the insured when he wants to change insurer, the incumbent insurer has an informational advantage so that he can keep his client over the entire investment horizon, even though long-term contracts are not possible. This does not avoid the delay in investment, however. [source]