Regional economic resilience can be defined as an economy’s ability to withstand and recover quickly from shocks. The ability to measure resilience is necessary to developing our understanding of what influences resilience. In this paper, we develop a new, two‐dimensional quantitative measure of resilience using observed differences between expected and actual employment in a region following a shock and distinguish the response to the shock from random variation. We demonstrate one application of this metric to US county‐level employment data to compare county responses to the 2007–2009 national recession and discuss how different regions of the United States responded to the shock of the Great Recession in terms of resilience. 相似文献
The boreal forest is globally important for its influence on Earth’s energy balance, and its sensitivity to climate change. Ecosystem functioning in boreal forests is shaped by fire activity, so anticipating the impacts of climate change requires understanding the precedence for, and consequences of, climatically induced changes in fire regimes. Long-term records of climate, fire, and vegetation are critical for gaining this understanding.
Objectives
We investigated the relative importance of climate and landscape flammability as drivers of fire activity in boreal forests by developing high-resolution records of fire history, and characterizing their centennial-scale relationships to temperature and vegetation dynamics.
Methods
We reconstructed the timing of fire activity in interior Alaska, USA, using seven lake-sediment charcoal records spanning CE 1550–2015. We developed individual and composite records of fire activity, and used correlations and qualitative comparisons to assess relationships with existing records of vegetation and climate.
Results
Our records document a dynamic relationship between climate and fire. Fire activity and temperature showed stronger coupling after ca. 1900 than in the preceding 350 yr. Biomass burning and temperatures increased concurrently during the second half of the twentieth century, to their highest point in the record. Fire activity followed pulses in black spruce establishment.
Conclusions
Fire activity was facilitated by warm temperatures and landscape-scale dominance of highly flammable mature black spruce, with a notable increase in temperature and fire activity during the twenty-first century. The results suggest that widespread burning at landscape scales is controlled by a combination of climate and vegetation dynamics that together drive flammability.
Survival of tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus) and Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii) seedlings was studied in order to interpret succession in conifer hardwood forests and to determine ways to suppress establishment of these species. Seed protected from rodents and birds, and unprotected seed was sown in clearcuts and in conifer stands 40 to 200+ years old. Second-year survival rates of tanoak seedlings were high (50–70%) in exposed clearcuts and conifer stands. Seed predators appear to be of prime importance in limiting tanoak establishment. Survival rates of Pacific madrone seedlings on the same sites as the tanoak were low (0–8%), and many factors caused mortality. Seedlings of both species grew slowly; after 3 years, average tanoak height was only 6.0 to 14.0 cm, average madrone height 2.0 to 6.0 cm. 相似文献
? Water availability is one of the main factors explaining flora composition and growth in Mediterranean regions, where it may decline with climate change.
? Our goal was to develop a model for forest site assessment in Mediterranean environments, focusing on water availability to assess potential vegetation composition and productivity in any places, whatever their level of disturbance.
? We designed a statistical model, using global climatic and geographic variables, as well as detailed local topographic and edaphic variables, to compute a bioclimatic index for Mediterranean forest environments. This model was calibrated in France with a flora index from 325 old forests. The model explained 80.3% of the flora index variance. The method fills a gap in existing models, bridging scales from the region to forest sites.
? Beyond its theoretical aspect, it was designed to allow practical tools to be derived from it for decision-making and management, such as the assessment of climate change impact on vegetation, and of forest productivity. Its development and adaptation is possible in other Mediterranean regions, and in any region where water is one of the main limiting factors.
The market for wood-fiber plastic composites (WPCs) is expanding rapidly in many countries including Japan, where WPCs are
mainly used for exterior products. In such applications, WPCs undergo undesirable color change, chalking, and shrinkage and
swelling, and accordingly there is a need to better understand the mechanisms responsible for the weathering of WPC and develop
methods of improving their weathering resistance. In this study, weatherability of WPC was assessed by natural and accelerated
weathering trials. Discoloration (whitening) of WPC during exposure was caused by degradation of both wood and plastic. Darker
color pigments as additives improved the color stability of WPC; however, chalking on the surfaces still occurred. The color
stability of WPC was improved by application of exterior coatings. Preweathering of WPC (before coatings were applied) increased
the absorption of coatings by the WPC and had a positive effect on the color stability and prevented chalking of the composites.
Parts of this study were presented at the IUFRO XXII World Congress Meeting, Brisbane, August 2005 and the IAWPS 2005, Yokohama,
November 2005 相似文献
The effects of wood harvesting and extraction machinery traffic on sensitive forest sites with peat soils were characterised with the objective of quantifying the threshold levels beyond which significant site impacts (compaction and rutting) would occur. The treatments involved running the machines in selected extraction racks (i.e., 3 m wide machine routes) while conducting normal wood thinning and extraction operations comprising one and two passes by the harvester and the forwarder with full payload, respectively. Soil disturbance thresholds were established by testing the level of significance of the difference in induced soil damage and compaction before and after machine traffic treatments. For volumetric soil water content lying between 10.0 and 14.9%, threshold cone penetration resistance levels for two 600/55–30.5 tyres were found to range from 594 to 640 kPa for deep-raised peat soil with initial strength lying between 524 and 581 kPa. In general, the proportion of the total rut depth data in each rack that exceeded the threshold level of 21.5 cm was about 5%. The threshold value corresponds to sinkage equivalent to 15% of the overall wheel diameter of the harvester, above which machine mobility would be hampered considerably. In addition, after harvester traffic the mean rut depth per unit rack length was 10.2×10−2 cm/m, and it ranged from 0.7 to 24.7×10−2 cm/m. 相似文献
The effects of schisandrin B (Sch B) and its analogs on solar irradiation-induced oxidative injury were examined in BJ human fibroblasts. Sch B and schisandrin C (Sch C) increased cellular reduced glutathione (GSH) level and protected against solar irradiation-induced oxidative injury. The photoprotection was paralleled by decreases in the elastases-type protease activity and matrix-metalloproteinases-1 expression in solar-irradiated fibroblasts. The cytochrome P-450-mediated metabolism of Sch B or Sch C caused ROS production. The results suggest that by virtue of its pro-oxidant action and the subsequent glutathione antioxidant response, Sch B or Sch C may offer the prospect of preventing skin photo-aging. 相似文献
Low density wood is more rapidly eroded than denser wood when exposed to the weather, possibly because it is more susceptible
to photodegradation. Fourier transform infrared microscopy was used to examine: (1) the depth of photodegradation in earlywood
and latewood of sugi (Japanese cedar) and earlywood of hinoki (Japanese cypress) exposed for up to 1500 h to artificial sunlight
emitted by a xenon lamp (375 W/m2 within the 300 to 700 nm spectral range); and (2) the relationship between the density of wood tissues and depth of photodegradation.
The depth of photodegradation varied between species (sugi and hinoki) as well as within a growth ring (sugi earlywood and
latewood), and there was an inversely proportional relationship between depth of photodegradation and wood density. These
findings may explain why low density earlywood is more rapidly eroded than latewood during weathering, and more generally,
why there is an inverse relationship between the density of wood species and their rate of erosion during artificial and natural
weathering.
Part of this work was presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Japan Wood Research Society, Sapporo, August 2004 相似文献