A complex habitat containing more rich and vast abiotic factors, such as sunlight, rain, water, and soil, has a much higher chance of successfully providing homes to different species of plants and animals than any homogeneous landscape would. This goal of researchers was to prove that the biodiversity of a homogeneous habitat is much lower than that of a heterogeneous area, meaning it only provides for very few species of plants and animals. Researchers sought to test this hypothesis in an ecosystem located in Northeastern US. They constructed an index consisting of organized study plots that sought to summarize differences in terrain and soil properties. Researchers then measured the species richness and diversity in several study plots with high geomorphological heterogeneity within their species and others with low geomorphological heterogeneity. The results of the study proved that areas that experienced more change in terrain and soil conditions (heterogeneous) were much more diverse when it came to shrub and tree species. They also concluded that the differences in aspects and soil drainage were particularly important predictors of biotic diversity. The results of the study showed a close relationship between abiotic and biotic diversity and thus have important implications to conservation strategies in the coming future. I found this research article to be informative and interesting. Some of the information on the study, including geomorphological heterogeneity, was for the most part new to me. I was generally aware of the effect of a habitats diversity on the niches it could provide for. I learned that the variation in soil and drainage was a major factor when it came to the diversity of a landscape. Think that this article would be interesting to others because it provides detailed explanations of an interesting topic most of us already know about. The hypothesis backed by persuasive data and eventually the conclusion of the study which i think will also be of interest to others.

Different steps were required to acquire the needed data. Variations in topographic aspects, slope, drainage, soil depth, and horizon textures were estimated separately and combined to produce an index of geomorphological heterogeneity for every 2 hectares. Each of these geomorphological features were combined into a single composite data set. Researchers used the Shannon-Weaver diversity index to create an index of geomorphological heterogeneity for all the cells.

Authors:

Michael R. Burnette; Pete V. August; James H. Brown Jr.; Keith T. Killingbeck

Link to Article:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.1998.96238.x/full

Citations:

Ali A. El-Keblawy, Abdel-Hamid A. Khedr, Tamer A. Khafaga, Mountainous landscape vegetation and species composition at Wadi Helo: A protected area in Hajar Mountains, UAE, Arid Land Research and Management, 2016, 30, 4, 389

Habitat destruction has forced many species that were once neighbors in their natural habitats to move into much smaller and unfamiliar territory. Habitat loss and fragmentation are two major threats to biodiversity around the world. The structure for the conservation of fragmented populations is established on the principles of Island biography. This idea of Island biography is focused on a species composition and richness on an Island habitat and aims at understanding and explaining the factors effecting the species diversity. Despite several decades of conducted research, researchers have not yet proven that patch areas can predict a species occupancy in fragmented areas do to lack of quantitative synthesis. In this scholarly article, data from 1,015 bird, mammal, reptile, amphibian, and invertebrate population networks was collected on 6 continents. The surprising results showed that patch area and isolation are poor predictors of occupancy for most of the listed species. Researchers examined improper scaling and biases in the species delineation and seek to find proof that the type of land cover that separates patches mostly effects the sensitivity of species to patch area and isolation.  The results of the research indicated that the patch area and isolation are important factors that effect the occupancy of several species.

Researchers maximized the size, accuracy, and standardization of their datasets by directly collecting raw data from authors and conducting their own statistical analyses. Studies were also found by a complete search using the Web of Science (March 2005) using the following terms:  “patch occupancy,” “habitat occupancy,” “metapopulation,” “island biogeography,” and “incidence function.” Several hundred articles were screened of which 280 were examined in detail and 109 of the 280 were deemed ok to be included in the research.

I found this research project really interesting. Habitat destruct has always been a topic of interest to me and this article went into much more detail. I found it specially interesting to learn of the importance of patch area and isolation. I believe the results of this research are important and should be utilized to predict and in the end protect more species in danger do to fragmentaiton.

Authors

1. Laura R. Prugh
   • aDepartment of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, 137 Mulford Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720;
2. Karen E. Hodges
   • bCentre for Species at Risk and Habitat Studies, University of British Columbia Okanagan, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC, Canada V1V 1V7; and 
3. Anthony R. E. Sinclair
   • cCentre for Biodiversity Research, University of British Columbia, 6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4
4. Justin S. Brashares
   • aDepartment of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, 137 Mulford Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720;

Link to full scholarly

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/52/20770.full

The topic of the article Urban Heat Island Mitigation and Urban Planning: The Case of the Mexicali, B. C. Mexico, by Jorge Villanueva-Solis, asks the question, how Mexicali’s, a city in Mexico, rising climate be impacted and potentially reduced by analyzing and modeling its urban structure. The phenomenon called Urban Heat Island (UHI) is the main reason why cities climate is typically warmer than outside and includes impacts on air quality, water demand, and energy. IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is an organization created by the United Nations given the task of creating awareness of climate change through scientific view released a report describing the changes needed in cities to decrease their climate change. They reported the need for urban centers to devote their efforts to adaptation through urban planning and therefore reduce the risks of direct and indirect impacts of climate change. This article focuses on the heightened UHI, how its impacted by urban expansion, and its impacts on the city of Mexicali. Results of the study showed that the use of dynamic modeling as a tool applied to urban planning and focused on the reduction and adaptation to climate change. The studies results also showed that regarding implementation of strategies, results indicated that the most effective results are obtained when the strategy is applied generally. The study found that housing land use can significantly reduce the Urban Heat Island in Mexicali.

Two components of collecting data were used to find the data needed. In the first component, data was gathered using a digital satellite that provided clear information on thermal variation. Thermal characteristics within the city were obtained from the infrared band of the satellite. The second method used dynamic modeling and simulation of scenarios, which analyzed the urban spaces process of growth and transformation. The topic of this research was intriguing to me because it proposed one of many answers to the topic of reducing climate change.  The research for this article proposed that a cities capacity for adaptation and mitigation is the key to slowing down climate change. I believe that a carefully and well plan urban center could end up seeing better climate change reduction results. The topic of climate change reduction is a broad topic that I think will be interesting to many people. I also think that this different way of approaching climate change will be of interest to some people.

Citation:

Villanueva-Solis, J. (2017) Urban Heat Island Mitigation and Urban Planning: The Case of the Mexicali, B. C. Mexico. American Journal of Climate Change, 6, 22-39. doi: 10.4236/ajcc.2017.61002.

Abstract:     http://www.scirp.org/Journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=73976

Article:      http://file.scirp.org/pdf/AJCC_2017020716072125.pdf

The article Changes of Extreme Climate Events in Latvia by Zanita Avotniece1 / Maris Klavins1 / Valerijs Rodinovs1, focuses on the topic of the recognizably increasing climate, specifically in Latvia, and the effects the changes have on human health, agriculture, forestry, and other categories. All elements of the climate system, including: air/water temperatures, precipitation, river runoffs, ice and snow cover, and many others, are affected by the change in climate.  Reports have shown that near the surface of the Earth, their have been significant worldwide increase in mean temperature, suggesting that climate is changing. Characteristics of climate change not only include changes in mean values, but also changes in the variability of climate indicators and extremes.(extreme heat events and heat waves, extreme precipitation, floods…). This article investigates the changes of indexes describing positive and negative temperature extremes together with intense precipitation as well as the structural change in extreme climate phenomenons in Latvia. The accurate data gathered by this investigation showing the climate fluctuations in a small nation in Europe, I think will be interesting to some people interested in climate change. I myself was interested in the information and data shown by the investigation, especially about the extreme climate events impact on agriculture and human health.

Data was gathered by using trend analysis of long-term changes in the frequency of extreme climate events. Another form of data collected was Climate Data collected daily by 14 major meteorological observation stations in Latvia. Variable data, which included maximum/minimum and average daily temperatures and daily precipitation, was collected by Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre, and weather stations between years 1950-2010. Assessment of the impacts and occurrence of the climate event was done through the investigation of changes of indexes in Latvia.

Citation Information: Scientific Journal of Riga Technical University. Environmental and Climate Technologies. Volume 9, Issue , Pages 4–11, ISSN (Online) 2255-8845, ISSN (Print) 1691-5208, DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/v10145-012-0010-1, December 2012

https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/rtuect.2012.9.issue/v10145-012-0010-1/v10145-012-0010-1.pdf