Particulate matter suspended in air (i.e. aerosol particles) exerts a substantial influence on the climate of our planet and is responsible for causing severe public health problems in many regions across the globe. Human activities have altered the natural and anthropogenic emissions of aerosol particles through direct emissions or indirectly by modifying natural sources. The climate effects of the latter have been largely overlooked. Humans have dramatically altered the land surface of the planet causing changes in natural aerosol emissions from vegetated areas. Regulation on anthropogenic and natural aerosol emissions have the potential to affect the climate on regional to global scales. Furthermore, the regional climate effects of aerosol particles could potentially be very different than the ones caused by other climate forcers (e.g. well mixed greenhouse gases). The main objective of this work was to investigate the climatic effects of land use and air pollution via aerosol changes. Using numerical model simulations it was found that land use changes in the past millennium have likely caused a positive radiative forcing via aerosol climate interactions. The forcing is an order of magnitude smaller and has an opposite sign than the radiative forcing caused by direct aerosol emissions changes from other human activities. The results also indicate that future reductions of fossil fuel aerosols via air quality regulations may lead to an additional warming of the planet by mid-21st century and could also cause an important Arctic amplification of the warming. In addition, the mean position of the intertropical convergence zone and the Asian monsoon appear to be sensitive to aerosol emission reductions from air quality regulations. For these reasons, climate mitigation policies should take into consideration aerosol air pollution, which has not received sufficient attention in the past.

The stratification of bird species along elevational gradients is widely reported, with montane bird communities typically characterized by distinctive species occurring in relatively small and isolated populations; as such, these species are the subject of considerable interest to ecologists and conservationists. The stratification of species along elevation is largely attributed to compressed climatic zonation. Recent evidence that bird species are shifting up in elevation has fueled speculation that these species are tracking their climactic niches in response to climate change. However, there is also evidence plant communities are shifting in elevation, presenting a potential additional mechanism explaining changes observed in the bird community. Uncertainty as to the degree to which climate directly influences bird abundance versus the degree to which climate indirectly influences bird abundance via habitat composition and structure represents a key impediment to understanding the ecology of these species in montane environments. To address this question I measured species abundance, habitat characteristics, and temperature at 150 survey points located along 15 elevational transects in the Presidential Mountains of New Hampshire in the summers of 2014 and 2015. I used N-mixture models to correct for imperfect detection of species and structural equation models, incorporating abundance, habitat, temperature, and precipitation derived from a downscaled regional dataset to assign variation to the direct and indirect effects of climate upon birds. Analysis of 21 species revealed species-specific patterns on how climate exerts direct effects and indirect effects mediated by forest composition and structure on bird abundance. This work represents an important contribution to the ecological understanding of the pathways by which climate influences bird abundance. Finding that 62% of species experience both direct and indirect effects of climate, with 62% experiencing stronger direct than indirect effects, these results underscore the vulnerability of these species to climate change. With 81% of species found to experience indirect effects of climate via forests, these findings indicate great conservation value of maintaining forest habitat amidst climate change. Overall, this information will facilitate the refinement of predictive models of the abundance of montane bird species and represents an approach that will advance future investigations of climate effects in the Northern Appalachians and other systems.

En muchas áreas citrícolas del mundo el piojo rojo de California (PRC), Aonidiella aurantii (Hemiptera: Diaspididae), está considerado una plaga clave. En el Este de España se ha extendido durante las últimas décadas hasta cubrir una amplia extensión de cítricos. El control químico es difícil y frecuentemente es seguido de infestaciones recurrentes en poco tiempo, de la aparición de resistencias a diferentes productos usados para su control y de la eliminación de enemigos naturales en el campo. La mejora del manejo integrado y las técnicas de control biológico del PRC requieren conocer la composición de los enemigos naturales en cada zona climática, la fluctuación en su abundancia estacional, los niveles de parasitismo y depredación, como se distribuyen en la planta y como son afectados por el clima y el cambio climático. Aunque mucho se ha estudiado en laboratorio sobre los parasitoides Aphytis (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae), los principales agentes de control del PRC, todavía no se conoce qué combinación de enemigos naturales consigue el mejor nivel de control en el campo, cómo varían los niveles de parasitismo a lo largo del año o cómo los parasitoides se distribuyen y compiten en el campo en relación con el clima. La acción de los Aphytis, ectoparasitoides, es complementada en muchas zonas citrícolas por los endoparasitoides Comperiella bifasciata y Encarsia perniciosi (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae), los cuales pueden parasitar estadíos diferentes a Aphytis. Muy poco se sabe sobre el comportamiento y las respuestas biológicas bajo diferentes condiciones climáticas de estos endoparasitoides. Del mismo modo, el efecto de los depredadores sobre la población del piojo ha sido raramente estudiado. Actualmente, A. melinus, una especie introducida en el Este de España y el competidor superior, ha desplazado al parasitoide nativo A. chrysomphali de las zonas cálidas y secas ya que puede tolerar mejor las temperaturas cálidas del verano. / Sorribas Mellado, JJ. (2011). Biological control of California red scale, Aonidiella aurantii (Hemiptera: Diaspididae): spatial and temporal distribution of natural enemies, parasitism levels and climate effects [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/14794