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Mean January Temperatures (mean + january_temperature)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Earth and Environmental Science	60%

Selected Abstracts

The health of Arctic populations: Does cold matter?

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 1 2010
T. Kue Young
The objective of the study was to examine whether cold climate is associated with poorer health in diverse Arctic populations. With climate change increasingly affecting the Arctic, the association between climate and population health status is of public health significance. The mean January and July temperatures were determined for 27 Arctic regions based on weather station data for the period 1961,1990 and their association with a variety of health outcomes assessed by correlation and multiple linear regression analyses. Mean January temperature was inversely associated with infant and perinatal mortality rate, age-standardized mortality rate from respiratory diseases, and age-specific fertility rate for teens and directly associated with life expectancy at birth in both males and females, independent of a variety of socioeconomic, demographic, and health care factors. Mean July temperature was also associated with infant mortality and mortality from respiratory diseases, and with total fertility rate. For every 10°C increase in mean January temperature, the life expectancy at birth among males increased by about 6 years and infant mortality rate decreased by about 4 deaths/1,000 livebirths. Cold climate is significantly associated with higher mortality and fertility in Arctic populations and should be recognized in public health planning. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Palaeoenvironmental context of the Late-glacial woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) discoveries at Condover, Shropshire, UK

GEOLOGICAL JOURNAL, Issue 4 2009
J. R. M. Allen
Abstract In 1986/1987 the remains of several mammoths, Mammuthus primigenius (Blumenbach), were discovered on the spoil heap of an actively working gravel pit at Condover, Shropshire, England. The discovery of the remains posed two questions that could be addressed by analyses of biological proxies. First, as none of the bones was found in situ it was necessary to confirm the stratum in which the remains occurred. Second, what was the environment in which these animals lived and died? A range of biological indicators was used to address these questions, including pollen, spore and algal, plant macrofossil, invertebrate, anuran and biological mineral analyses. Multivariate statistical analyses of palynological and Pediastrum data, along with evidence from the Coleopteran assemblages, support the attribution of the mammoth bones to a unit of dark grey clayey sandy silt, although they may have lived at the time of the overlying green detritus mud. The palaeobiological data supports the correlation of these sediments to the Devensian Late-glacial. The mammoths entered this basin at the start of the Late-glacial Interstadial (Greenland Interstadial 1e) (ca. 14,830,3930 cal. year BP; 12,300,±,110 14C year BP) and became mired in soft cohesive sediments. Palaeotemperature reconstructions, based on the Coleopteran assemblages, from the time when the mammoths actually became mired, show that the climate was temperate with mean July temperatures between 15 and 19°C and mean January temperatures between ,13 and +6°C. Biological indicators from the sediments encasing the mammoths indicate that the landscape surrounding the basin was treeless and dry, contrasting with rich vegetation within the basin itself that had possibly attracted the mammoths to the site. Evidence of sedimentary disturbance suggests that the mammoths caused large-scale bioturbation of the deposits making palaeoenvironmental interpretations difficult. Fossils of terrestrial blowflies, carcass and dung beetles show that some of the decaying corpses must have lain exposed on the land surface for sufficient time for the soft parts to have rotted away and skin and bones to have become desiccated before many of them sank into the dark grey clayey sandy silt. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Reconstruction of winter climate variations during the 19th century in Japan

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 11 2008
Junpei Hirano
Abstract An attempt was made to reconstruct winter climate conditions in Japan for the period 1810/1811 to 1858/1859 on the basis of daily weather records documented in old diaries. Daily weather maps for each winter were drawn using 19th century weather records collected by our research group. Maps were divided into five types by classifying daily snowfall and rainfall distributions and the occurrence frequencies of each weather pattern for the period 1810/1811 to 1858/1859 were analysed. It was found that the occurrence frequencies of winter monsoon weather patterns were high from the late 1820s to the early 1840s. This period almost coincided with a summer cold period in the 19th century. The result implies that strengthening of a cold air mass around Japan occurred in the late 1820s, not only in summer but also in winter. The frequencies of the typical winter monsoon patterns correspond with the freezing dates of Lake Suwa, which have been used as an indicator of winter coldness in previous studies. On the basis of the frequencies of the winter monsoon weather patterns, mean January temperatures for western Japan were estimated. In the time series of estimated temperatures, a cooling period from the late 1820s to the early 1830s was revealed. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society [source]

Coleoptera from the Late Weichselian deposits at Nørre Lyngby, Denmark and their bearing on palaeoecology, biogeography and palaeoclimate

BOREAS, Issue 1 2000
GEOFFREY RUSSELL COOPE
The freshwater sediments exposed on the cliffs at Nørre Lyngby northern Jutland has long been a classical locality for the study of Danish Quaternary geology, palaeontology and archaeology. These deposits date from the latter part of the Allerød period (i.e. G I-1). Samples for insect analysis have been taken from both the northern and southern exposures of these deposits. Ninety-five- taxa of Coleoptera (beetles) were obtained, of which 69 could be named to species. Of the latter, 23 are not found living in Denmark today. Most of these are still living in northern Fennoscandia but one species is now confined to Mongolia. These assemblages have enabled a detailed picture of the local environment to be reconstructed, showing that the basin-like profile of the deposits represents a section through a channel with slowly moving water. It has been possible to quantify the thermal climate of the time using the Mutual Climatic Range method indicating that mean July temperatures were about 10°C and mean January temperatures were about , 12°C. These figures are considered in the context of Lateglacial climatic reconstructions obtained from coleopteran assemblages elsewhere in northwestern Europe. [source]