The global distribution of vegetation is broadly determined by climate, and where bioclimatic parameters are favorable for several plant functional types (PFTs), by the competition between them. Most current dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) do not, however, explicitly simulate interPFT competition and instead determine the existence and fractional coverage of PFTs based on quasi-equilib...

Many situations in complex systems require quantitative estimates of the lack of information in one probability distribution relative to another. In short term climate and weather prediction, examples of these issues might involve the lack of information in the historical climate record compared with an ensemble prediction, or the lack of information in a particular Gaussian ensemble prediction...

In this chapter we review stochastic modelling methods in climate science. First we provide a conceptual framework for stochastic modelling of deterministic dynamical systems based on the Mori-Zwanzig formalism. The Mori-Zwanzig equations contain a Markov term, a memory term and a term suggestive of stochastic noise. Within this framework we express standard model reduction methods such as aver...

Will a group of people reach a collective target through individual contributions when everyone suffers individually if the target is missed? This "collective-risk social dilemma" exists in various social scenarios, the globally most challenging one being the prevention of dangerous climate change. Reaching the collective target requires individual sacrifice, with benefits to all but no guarant...

Potential interactions between food production and climate mitigation are explored for two situations in sub-Saharan Africa, where deforestation and land degradation overlap with hunger and poverty. Three agriculture intensification scenarios for supplying nitrogen to increase crop production (mineral fertilizer, herbaceous legume cover crops--green manures--and agroforestry--legume improved tr...

BACKGROUND Self-handicapping is an attribution-related process whereby individuals create performance impediments/excuses to protect self-worth in socially evaluative environments. Thus, the prevailing motivational climate would appear to be an important factor when attempting to understand the situational self-handicapping process within school physical education. AIMS Drawing from achieveme...

Paragraph 31(iii) of the Doha Ministerial Declaration mandates to the liberalization of environmental goods and services. This mandate offers a good opportunity to put climate-friendly goods and services on a fast track to liberalization. Agreement on this paragraph should represent one immediate contribution that the WTO can make to fight against climate change. This paper presents the key iss...

This review deals with the latest developments in dendroclimatology focused on climate reconstruction. It presents results from research carried out during the period 1992–2001, when both the geographical and chronological extension of tree-ring data were greatly improved. Research projects are presently being carried out in nearly all the main forest land areas of the Subarctic and Subantarcti...

Climate change brings into sharp relief the most difficult problems in addressing the interaction between science and policy. Instead of trying to solve an existing environmental problem one tries to prevent a problem that scientists expect to come. Results from model simulations have an unprecedented role in shaping the public debate. Forecasts of climate change and potential impacts are basic...

Recent coordinated efforts, in which numerous general circulation climate models have been run for a common set of experiments, have produced large datasets of projections of future climate for various scenarios. Those multimodel ensembles sample initial conditions, parameters, and structural uncertainties in the model design, and they have prompted a variety of approaches to quantifying uncert...