South Asia, a land of contrasting landscapes, seasons and climates, is highly vulnerable to climate variability over intra-seasonal to decadal time scales. In winter, precipitation over the western parts of south Asia and fog over the Indo-Gangetic (IG) plains are the two major climatic features. During summer most of the region comes under the grip of monsoon. Winter precipitation over the north-western parts of South Asia is associated with eastwards propagating ‘western disturbances’ originating mostly from Mediterranean. Both observations and regional climate-model simulations show that the winter precipitation increases/decreases during the positive/negative phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the warm/cold phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). During these phases, the intensification of western disturbances results from the effect of an enhanced trough visible at sea-level as well as at higher altitudes over central Asia. The inter-annual variability of fog is coupled over IG plains with a significant trend in the fog frequencies, both in observations and ERA-Interim reanalysis data. This increase shows two distinct regime shifts in 1990 and 1998 with respect to mean and variance, this in contrast to a gradual increase of the humidity over the region. The thermodynamic analysis of the intra-seasonal summer monsoon active phases (APs) over Pakistan revealed that a few days before AP, an upper-level warm anomaly appears over the northern Hindu Kush-Himalaya region and is reinforced by surface heating. The baroclinic height anomalies, with a low-level anticyclone located east of the warming, causes a moisture convergence, strong enough to overcome the preexisting stable atmospheric conditions. The extratropical dynamics also play an important role for the inter-annual variation of the South-Asian monsoon. It is found that the two leading modes between the upper-level circulation in the Atlantic/European region and monsoon rainfall are the Circumglobal Teleconnection (CGT) and the summer NAO. The positive phase of the CGT is related to a widespread increase of monsoon rainfall, and a positive summer NAO is related to a precipitation dipole with its positive anomaly over Pakistan. / At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Submitted.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.

Mémoire (M.Ress.Renouv.)--Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1996. / Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Montana, 2008. / Title from author supplied metadata. Description based on contents viewed on July 15, 2009. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wyoming, 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 26, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 86-111).

Thesis (M.M.S.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-82).

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-51). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.E.S.)--York University, 2004. Graduate Programme in Environmental Studies. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-112). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: LINK NOT YET AVAILABLE.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:23:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-10-27Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:10:55Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 martins_la_me_botfca.pdf: 9668913 bytes, checksum: 69b87662a1dd037524113f277bfdba4c (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A Mata Atlântica é um dos biomas de maior biodiversidade do planeta, que há séculos tem sido sistematicamente destruída pelo desmatamento e fragmentação florestal, principalmente no domínio da Floresta Estacional Semidecidual. Os fragmentos remanescentes frequentemente têm sofrido distúrbios adicionais, tanto antrópicos quanto naturais. Deste modo, para a sua conservação e restauração é fundamental o conhecimento da resposta desses ecossistemas aos distúrbios. Este trabalho teve como objetivo geral caracterizar a estrutura da vegetação e a regeneração natural de um fragmento de floresta estacional semidecidual com diferentes históricos de perturbações e conhecer o papel das clareiras na regeneração de algumas das suas espécies arbóreas mais representativas. A pesquisa foi realizada em um fragmento de floresta estacional semidecidual com aproximadamente 615 ha (Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural (RPPN) Olavo Egydio Setúbal), no município de Lençóis Paulista (22. 27’S, 48.57W), SP. A amostragem foi feita através da demarcação de parcelas permanentes contíguas (10 x 10 m), totalizando um hectare em cada uma de três área na floresta( três hectares no total), sendo: área A , local que sofreu efeitos de um tornado ocorrido há cinco anos atrás; área B: área mais bem conservada, sem histórico recente de perturbações antrópicas e, área C, com registros de extração seletiva de madeira até meados da década de 70. Em cada área foram sorteadas 50 parcelas de 10 x 10 m para o levantamento fitossociológico do estrato arbóreo (indivíduos com altura 1,30 m) e regenerante (altura 0,50 e <1,30 m, levantado em 3 sub-parcelas de 10 x 1 m). Para a regeneração natural, cada subparcela amostrada foi categorizada como sendo de clareira (definição de Brokaw, 1982) ou de dossel fechado. O monitoramento do microclima foi feito quatro vezes... / The Atlantic Forest is one of the richest planest’s biomes in biodiversity, which has been systematically destroyed by deforestation and forest fragmentation., mainly at the Seasonal Semideciduous Forest domain. The remaining forest fragments have often suffered further disturbances , be natural or anthropogenic. To conserve or restore these ecosystems is fundamental to know how do they respond to the disturbances. This paper has the objective of characterizing the vegetation structure and the natural regeneration of a forest fragment with different disturbances histories, assessing the role of gaps in the regeneration of its most representatives tree species..The research was realized in a 615 ha seasonal semideciduous forest fragment (Private Natural Patrimony Reserve-RPPN “Olavo Egydio Setúbal”), at Lençóis Paulista Municipality (22. 27’S, 48.57W), SP. Sampling method was by contiguous permanent plots (10 x 10m), totalizing one hectare in each of three study sites within the forest (three ha in the total: Area A: site subjected to a tornado disturbance five years ago; Area B: site well conserved, with no recent anthropogenic disturbances events and, Area C: site were selective logging was registered until meddle 70’s. In each site 50 plots (10 x 10 m) were randomly assorted for the phytosociological (stems 1.30 height) and natural regeneration (1.30 < height 0.50 m, surveyed in three 1 x 10 m sub-plots within each plot) assessment. Each sub-plot established for natural regeneration survey was categorized as gap (Brokaw´s definition, 1982) or closed canopy. Microclimate was monitored four times in the year, within three consecutive days, in pairs of gap and closed canopy plots, in each of the three study sites. The preference of some tree species for regenerating in gap or closed canopy habitats was also tested. Within the three samples sites we sampled 10.570 individuals... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

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