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And Local Scale (and + local_scale)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Earth and Environmental Science40%

Kinds of And Local Scale

  • regional and local scale
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    Selected Abstracts

    Performance comparison of some dynamical and empirical downscaling methods for South Africa from a seasonal climate modelling perspective

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 11 2009
    Willem A. Landman
    Abstract The ability of advanced state-of-the-art methods of downscaling large-scale climate predictions to regional and local scale as seasonal rainfall forecasting tools for South Africa is assessed. Various downscaling techniques and raw general circulation model (GCM) output are compared to one another over 10 December-January-February (DJF) seasons from 1991/1992 to 2000/2001 and also to a baseline prediction technique that uses only global sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies as predictors. The various downscaling techniques described in this study include both an empirical technique called model output statistics (MOS) and a dynamical technique where a finer resolution regional climate model (RCM) is nested into the large-scale fields of a coarser GCM. The study addresses the performance of a number of simulation systems (no forecast lead-time) of varying complexity. These systems' performance is tested for both homogeneous regions and for 963 stations over South Africa, and compared with each other over the 10-year test period. For the most part, the simulations method outscores the baseline method that uses SST anomalies to simulate rainfall, therefore providing evidence that current approaches in seasonal forecasting are outscoring earlier ones. Current operational forecasting approaches involve the use of GCMs, which are considered to be the main tool whereby seasonal forecasting efforts will improve in the future. Advantages in statistically post-processing output from GCMs as well as output from RCMs are demonstrated. Evidence is provided that skill should further improve with an increased number of ensemble members. The demonstrated importance of statistical models in operation capacities is a major contribution to the science of seasonal forecasting. Although RCMs are preferable due to physical consistency, statistical models are still providing similar or even better skill and should still be applied. Copyright © 2008 Royal Meteorological Society [source]

    The importance of local-scale openness within regions dominated by closed woodland,

    JOURNAL OF QUATERNARY SCIENCE, Issue 6 2007
    Ralph Fyfe
    Abstract New and existing pollen data from Wales, UK, are used to assess the level of landscape openness at the regional and local scale. At the regional scale, the existing pollen data support the high-forest model of vegetation structure by 6000 cal. yr. BC prior to any palynological signal for anthropogenic impact in the region. New data from two sites in southwest Wales follow the general regional pattern of early to middle Holocene vegetation succession, but are striking owing to maintenance of high non-arboreal pollen percentages (NAPs) throughout the mid-Holocene. It is argued that these NAPs indicate that a significant degree of openness can be found at the local level (and beyond the confines of the peat-forming site) within regions characterised by closed woodland. It is possible that woodland development in these areas may have been suppressed by reduced drainage, although the role of grazing animals in maintenance of clearings cannot be assessed. Implications for this local degree of openness are discussed, in particular the significance of vegetation heterogeneity at the local scale for the construction of place or locale for prehistoric communities. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

    Spatial patterns of association at local and regional scales in coastal sand dune communities

    JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE, Issue 5 2009
    Estelle Forey
    Abstract Questions: Are positive understorey-dominant associations important in physically severe dune communities and does the strength of positive associations vary with disturbance at the local scale and with stress at the regional scale? Do associational patterns observed at the neighbourhood scale predict diversity at higher scales? Location: Coastal sand dunes, Aquitaine (France). Methods: Associational patterns with five dominant species were recorded along a local gradient of disturbance and a 240-km long regional gradient. Density, richness, cover and variance ratio of understorey species were recorded in quadrats located in dominant and in open areas. Spatial pattern of dominant plant species was recorded using a distance-based method. Results: Positive understorey-dominant associations were most frequent at both regional and local scale, although negative associations with understorey species were observed for one of the five dominants. At the regional scale, there was a shift in the magnitude of spatial associations, with higher positive associations in the most stressful sites, whereas spatial associations where not affected by the local disturbance gradient. Positive associations were not related to the size of the dominants but rather influenced by the identity of the dominant species. Conclusions: Our study highlights the potential crucial role of facilitation together with the importance of turnover of the dominants in explaining large-scale variation in diversity. However, because positive associations may also be attributed to environmental heterogeneity or co-occurrence of microhabitat preferences of species, experiments are needed to fully assess the relative importance of facilitation versus other drivers of community diversity. [source]

    Statistical downscaling of daily precipitation from observed and modelled atmospheric fields

    HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 8 2004
    Stephen P. Charles
    Abstract Statistical downscaling techniques have been developed to address the spatial scale disparity between the horizontal computational grids of general circulation models (GCMs), typically 300,500 km, and point-scale meteorological observations. This has been driven, predominantly, by the need to determine how enhanced greenhouse projections of future climate may impact at regional and local scales. As point-scale precipitation is a common input to hydrological models, there is a need for techniques that reproduce the characteristics of multi-site, daily gauge precipitation. This paper investigates the ability of the extended nonhomogeneous hidden Markov model (extended-NHMM) to reproduce observed interannual and interdecadal precipitation variability when driven by observed and modelled atmospheric fields. Previous studies have shown that the extended-NHMM can successfully reproduce the at-site and intersite statistics of daily gauge precipitation, such as the frequency characteristics of wet days, dry- and wet-spell length distributions, amount distributions, and intersite correlations in occurrence and amounts. Here, the extended-NHMM, as fitted to 1978,92 observed ,winter' (May,October) daily precipitation and atmospheric data for 30 rain gauge sites in southwest Western Australia, is driven by atmospheric predictor sets extracted from National Centers for Environmental Prediction,National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis data for 1958,98 and an atmospheric GCM hindcast run forced by observed 1955,91 sea-surface temperatures (SSTs). Downscaling from the reanalysis-derived predictors reproduces the 1958,98 interannual and interdecadal variability of winter precipitation. Downscaling from the SST-forced GCM hindcast only reproduces the precipitation probabilities of the recent 1978,91 period, with poor performance for earlier periods attributed to inadequacies in the forcing SST data. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

    Are urban bird communities influenced by the bird diversity of adjacent landscapes?

    JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2001
    Philippe Clergeau
    Summary 1The species diversity of adjacent landscapes influences the conservation or restoration of several animal groups in urban areas, but the effect on birds is unclear. To address this question, we compared bird species richness (BSR) and community composition between periurban (area surrounding the town) and urban (suburban and centre areas) landscapes across three spatial scales. 2At a large biogeographical scale (temperate and boreal climatic zone), relationships between the BSR of urban areas and their surrounding landscapes were examined in a meta-analysis of 18 published studies. In general, BSR was negatively correlated with latitude and urbanization. The BSR of suburban and centre landscapes correlated positively with the BSR of periurban landscapes. However, latitudinal effects were also involved, as BSR in urban and periurban landscapes declined as town latitude increased. Similarity indices were low (50%) between periurban and centre bird communities. 3At a regional scale, we assessed winter bird data from several towns within three regions of temperate and boreal countries (western France, northern Finland and eastern Canada). The type of periurban landscape, number of inhabitants and town diameter did not affect BSR. BSR was similar between the cities of a given biogeographical area. Bird communities were more similar between similar habitat types of different cities than between different habitats of the same city. 4At a local scale, we tested the influence of proximity to the periurban landscape on BSR in parks of western French towns of different size. Neither BSR nor community similarity changed in relation to the distance of the park from the periurban landscape. 5Guild composition according to diet and feeding habitat did not vary between urban and periurban locations at regional or local scales. 6We conclude that, at regional and local scales, urban bird communities are independent of the bird diversity of adjacent landscapes, and that local features are more important than surrounding landscapes in determining BSR. Whatever the biodiversity quality of the periurban landscape, site-specific actions such as shrub and tree planting, water restoration and increasing vegetation diversity can change bird diversity in towns and improve the quality of human,wildlife contacts. [source]