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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is experiencing a surge in electricity demand, with power generation increasing 4 times in 25 years from 1990 to 2014. Despite the abundant primary renewable energy sources, the country has overlooked them in the past in national energy policies. However, in recent years, renewable energy has become a part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's energy conservation policy due to climate changes, technological progress, economies of scale, and increased competitiveness in supply chains. The Saudi government has created the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE) to develop national strategies for effectively utilizing renewable and nuclear energy. This paper reviews the current state of the art of the renewable energy technologies available on the market and evaluates the installation of renewable energy plants near Saudi Arabia's East Coast for a new town, focusing on technical rather than economic aspects. The paper provides a wide review of the possible technical solutions to exploit the producibility of different renewable sources, considering the challenging climate conditions typical of desert areas. The analysis of a real case study shows a high availability of wind and solar irradiance that allow a net energy production of 354 and 129 GWh, respectively. In addition, the comparison between a typical ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) system and an emerging floating PV reveals that for the same installed power, occupied area, and environmental conditions, the latter has a 4% greater performance ratio due to the cooling effect of water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the reliability of regional climate downscaling products from the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment-Southeast Asia (CORDEX-SEA) in reproducing the present-day wind at the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia (ECPM). A total of five CORDEX-SEA products, namely CNRM-CM5(RegCM4), CSIRO-Mk3-6-0(RegCM4), EC-EARTH(RegCM4), HadGEM2-ES(RegCM4) and MPI-ESM-MR(RegCM4), with a resolution of 25 km, were compared to reference data from the European Centre Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) fifth generation atmospheric reanalysis ERA5 spanning 1980–2005. This study focused on the period of the southwest monsoon, specifically the months of June, July and August (JJA), as wind during this season is known to play an important role in generating upwelling at the ECPM. The results obtained show that only three of the CORDEX-SEA products, CSIRO-Mk3-6-0(RegCM4), HadGEM2-ES(RegCM4) and MPI-ESM-MR(RegCM4), were able to reproduce the wind in terms of wind speed, wind stress curl and wind pattern as effectively as ERA5. An ensemble was made from these three CORDEX-SEA products, and it was found that the ensemble was able to reproduce a value of the Upwelling Index (UI) that was similar to the reference data, albeit with some bias. Hence, only the three stated CORDEX-SEA products and their ensemble are suitable to be used for future climate change studies within the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forecasting the likely economic losses arising from North Atlantic hurricanes is high on the agenda of both Caribbean and North American stakeholders. This paper develops a general equilibrium framework to conduct an impact assessment of climate change and hurricane formation. General equilibrium analysis accounts for not only primary effects but also feedback effects. The model simulations suggest that output losses occurring due to hurricanes are likely to have economy-wide effects. However, the rural economies of the region are likely to suffer the greatest (relative) effects. The findings of this study suggest that rural livelihoods should be mainstreamed in any adaptation initiatives adopted by the region. Ignoring these neighbourhood features in adaptation plans could negatively impact on poverty and unemployment in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• There is a distinction between usable and useful knowledge for climate change adaptation. • There are challenges to ensure boundary organisations have long-lasting impacts. • Two systemic changes are proposed to advance knowledge usefulness. Increased social and environmental vulnerability to extreme climatic events and inherent aggravation of environmental and social problems has placed climate change adaptation as an urgent challenge for decision-makers. Understanding and using climate change information to advance the implementation of climate-friendly policies further compounds this challenge. A rich scholarly literature focusing on climate change adaptation endorses that investing in mechanisms that narrow the gap between climate change information production and its use is crucial to increase adaptive capacity. Based on this assumption, this paper investigates the extent to which two collaborative projects that functioned as boundary organisations in Brazil (CiAdapta project) and Australia (Climate Change Adaptation for Natural Resource Management in East Coast Australia) increased access to information, and enabled the continual and continuous usefulness of produced knowledge for climate change adaptation. Considering the distinction between usable and useful information, we applied six criteria to guide the data analysis and extract key lessons from each project. Our findings confirm that face-to-face interactions are more likely to result in research having the societal impact that is being increasingly required by research and funding bodies. Our findings also indicate that two key systemic changes are critical for the long-term influence of boundary organisations for advancing climate change adaptation. These include changes to the science, knowledge production process; and shift in the political culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gulf Stream is a vital limb of the North Atlantic circulation that influences regional climate, sea level, and hurricane activity. Given the Gulf Stream's relevance to weather and climate, many studies have attempted to estimate trends in its volumetric transport from various data sets, but results have been inconclusive, and no consensus has emerged whether it is weakening with climate change. Here we use Bayesian analysis to jointly assimilate multiple observational data sets from the Florida Straits to quantify uncertainty and change in Gulf Stream volume transport since 1982. We find with virtual certainty (probability P > 99%) that Gulf Stream volume transport through the Florida Straits declined by 1.2 ± 1.0 Sv in the past 40 years (95% credible interval). This significant trend has emerged from the data set only over the past ten years, the first unequivocal evidence for a recent multidecadal decline in this climate‐relevant component of ocean circulation. Plain Language Summary: The Gulf Stream is a major ocean current located off the East Coast of the United States. It carries a tremendous amount of seawater and along with it heat, carbon, and other ocean constituents. Because of this, the Gulf Stream plays an important role in weather and climate, influencing phenomena as seemingly unrelated as sea level along coastal Florida and temperature and precipitation over continental Europe. Given how important this ocean current is to science and society, scientists have tried to determine whether the Gulf Stream has undergone significant changes under global warming, but so far, they have not reached a firm conclusion. Here we report our effort to synthesize available Gulf Stream observations from the Florida Straits near Miami, and to assess whether and how the Gulf Stream transport there has changed since 1982. We conclude with a high degree of confidence that Gulf Stream transport has indeed slowed by about 4% in the past 40 years, the first conclusive, unambiguous observational evidence that this ocean current has undergone significant change in the recent past. Future studies should try to identify the cause of this change. Key Points: Gulf Stream volume transport through Florida Straits declined by 1.2 ± 1.0 Sv during the past 40 years (95% credible interval)We find a weakening trend in the Gulf Stream by applying Bayesian methods to synthesize cable, in situ, and satellite data sets congruently [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transgenerational plasticity (TGP) occurs when phenotypes are shaped by the environment in both the current and preceding generations. Transgenerational responses to rainfall, CO2 and temperature suggest that TGP may play an important role in how species cope with climate change. However, little is known about how TGP will evolve as climate change continues. Here, we provide a quantitative test of the hypothesis that the predictability of the environment influences the magnitude of the transgenerational response. To do so, we take advantage of the latitudinal decrease in the predictability of temperatures in near shore waters along the US East Coast. Using sheepshead minnows (Cyprinodon variegatus) from South Carolina, Maryland, and Connecticut, we found the first evidence for a latitudinal gradient in thermal TGP. Moreover, the degree of TGP in these populations depends linearly on the decorrelation time for temperature, providing support for the hypothesis that thermal predictability drives the evolution of these traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilience to climate change depends on a species' adaptive potential and phenotypic plasticity. The latter can enhance survival of individual organisms during short periods of extreme environmental perturbations, allowing genetic adaptation to take place over generations. Along the U.S. East Coast, estuarine‐dependent spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) populations span a steep temperature gradient that provides an ideal opportunity to explore the molecular basis of phenotypic plasticity. Genetically distinct spotted seatrout sampled from a northern and a southern population were exposed to acute cold and heat stress (5 biological replicates in each treatment and control group), and their transcriptomic responses were compared using RNA‐sequencing (RNA‐seq). The southern population showed a larger transcriptomic response to acute cold stress, whereas the northern population showed a larger transcriptomic response to acute heat stress compared with their respective population controls. Shared transcripts showing significant differences in expression levels were predominantly enriched in pathways that included metabolism, transcriptional regulation, and immune response. In response to heat stress, only the northern population significantly upregulated genes in the apoptosis pathway, which could suggest greater vulnerability to future heat waves in this population as compared to the southern population. Genes showing population‐specific patterns of expression, including hpt, acot, hspa5, and hsc71, are candidates for future studies aiming to monitor intraspecific differences in temperature stress responses in spotted seatrout. Our findings contribute to the current understanding of phenotypic plasticity and provide a basis for predicting the response of a eurythermal fish species to future extreme temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilizes Bayesian model averaging (BMA) as a framework to constrain the spread of uncertainty in climate projections of precipitation over the contiguous United States (CONUS). We use a subset of historical model simulations and future model projections (RCP8.5) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5). We evaluate the representation of five precipitation summary metrics in the historical simulations using observations from the NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellites. The summary metrics include mean, annual and interannual variability, and maximum and minimum extremes of precipitation. The estimated model average produced with BMA is shown to have higher accuracy in simulating mean rainfall than the ensemble mean (RMSE of 0.49 for BMA versus 0.65 for ensemble mean), and a more constrained spread of uncertainty with roughly a third of the total uncertainty than is produced with the multimodel ensemble. The results show that, by the end of the century, the mean daily rainfall is projected to increase for most of the East Coast and the Northwest, may decrease in the southern United States, and with little change expected for the Southwest. For extremes, the wettest year on record is projected to become wetter for the majority of CONUS and the driest year to become drier. We show that BMA offers a framework to more accurately estimate and to constrain the spread of uncertainties of future climate, such as precipitation changes over CONUS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Storm surge and coastal flooding caused by tropical cyclones (hurricanes) and extratropical cyclones (nor'easters) pose a threat to communities along the Atlantic coast of the United States. Climate change and sea level rise are altering the statistics of these extreme events in a rather complex fashion. Here we use a fully coupled global weather/climate modeling system (GFDL CM4) to study characteristics of extreme daily sea level (ESL) along the U.S. Atlantic coast and their response to global warming. We find that under natural weather processes, the Gulf of Mexico coast is most vulnerable to storm surge and related ESL. New Orleans is a striking hotspot with the highest surge efficiency in response to storm winds. Under a 1% per year atmospheric CO2 increase on centennial time scales, the anthropogenic signal in ESL is robust along the U.S. East Coast. It can emerge from the background variability as soon as in 20 years, or even before global sea level rise is taken into account. The regional dynamic sea level rise induced by the weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation facilitates this early emergence, especially during wintertime coastal flooding associated with nor'easters. Along the Gulf Coast, ESL is sensitive to the modification of hurricane characteristics under the CO2 forcing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Projected climate changes along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts were examined using the eddy-resolving Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). First, a control (CTRL) ROMS simulation was performed using boundary conditions derived from observations. Then climate change signals, obtained as mean seasonal cycle differences between the recent past (1976–2005) and future (2070–99) periods in a coupled global climate model under the RCP8.5 greenhouse gas trajectory, were added to the initial and boundary conditions of the CTRL in a second (RCP85) ROMS simulation. The differences between the RCP85 and CTRL simulations were used to investigate the regional effects of climate change. Relative to the coarse-resolution coupled climate model, the downscaled projection shows that SST changes become more pronounced near the U.S. East Coast, and the Gulf Stream is further reduced in speed and shifted southward. Moreover, the downscaled projection shows enhanced warming of ocean bottom temperatures along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts, particularly in the Gulf of Maine and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The enhanced warming was related to an improved representation of the ocean circulation, including topographically trapped coastal ocean currents and slope water intrusion through the Northeast Channel into the Gulf of Maine. In response to increased radiative forcing, much warmer than present-day Labrador Subarctic Slope Waters entered the Gulf of Maine through the Northeast Channel, warming the deeper portions of the gulf by more than 4°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme rainfall and flooding associated with landfalling tropical cyclones (TCs) have large societal impacts, both in fatalities and economic losses. This study examines the response of TC rainfall to climate change projected under future anthropogenic greenhouse emissions, focusing on Hurricane Irene, which produced severe flooding across the Northeastern United States in August 2011. Numerical simulations are made with the Weather Research and Forecasting model, placing Irene in the present‐day climate and one projected for the end of 21st century climate represented by Phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 scenario. Projected future changes to surface and atmospheric temperature lead to a storm rainfall increase of 32% relative to the control run, exceeding the rate expected by the Clausius‐Clapeyron relation given a ~3‐K lower atmospheric warming. Analyses of the atmospheric water balance highlight contributions to the increase in rainfall rate from both increased circulation strength and atmospheric moisture. Storm rainfall rate shows contrasting response to global warming during TC and extratropical transition periods. During the TC phase, Irene shows a significant increase of storm rainfall rate in inner core regions. This increase shifts to outer rainbands as Irene undergoes extratropical transition, collocated with the maximum tangential wind increase and the change of secondary circulation strength. Changes of storm track from the control run to global warming projections play a role in the change of spatial rainfall pattern. Distinct roles of surface and atmospheric warming in storm rainfall and structure changes are also examined. Plain Language Summary: Landfalling tropical cyclones (TCs) can undergo the process of extratropical transition, through which storm structure and dynamics transform, enabling them to persist (and extend their hazards) to middle‐ and high‐latitude regions, which have large‐scale conditions hostile to TCs. These so‐called post‐TCs can produce enhanced rainfall relative to typical TCs, leading to more severe flood hazards. For example, Hurricane Irene (2011) produced extreme flooding along the East Coast of the United States and Canada, especially in mid‐Atlantic regions and New England. Future changes of post‐TCs have strong implications for flood risk assessment and management. To provide new insights on this issue, we conducted a case study focusing on Hurricane Irene (2011) by placing Irene in a projected warmer climate, which allows us to examine aspects of the influence of climate change on future storm rainfall rate. Irene produced heavier rainfall in a warming climate than the current climate. This increase is mainly concentrated in the inner core region at the TC phase and shifts to outer regions at the post‐TC phase. The magnitude of Irene rainfall rate increase exceeds the rate of water vapor increase under the warmer climate, highlighting increased flood risk in the future. Key Points: Increase of Irene rain rate is observed in inner core regions for tropical cyclone phase but in outer rainbands during transition periodIncrease of Irene rain rate exceeds the rate of water vapor increase in a warming climate, suggesting the importance of dynamical effects [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates changes in the location, frequency, intensity, and dynamical processes of North Atlantic extratropical cyclones with warming consistent with the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) representative concentration pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) scenario. The modeling, analysis, and prediction (MAP) climatology of midlatitude storminess (MCMS) feature-tracking algorithm was utilized to analyze 10 cold-season high-resolution atmospheric simulations over the North Atlantic region in current and future climates. Enhanced extratropical cyclone activity is most evident in the northeast North Atlantic and off the U.S. East Coast. These changes in cyclone activity are offset from changes in eddy kinetic energy and eddy heat flux. Investigation of the minimum SLP reached at each grid point reveals a lack of correspondence between the strongest events in the current and future simulations, indicating the future simulations produced a different population of storms. Examination of the percent change of storms in the storm-track region shows a reduction in the number of strong storms (i.e., those reaching a minimum SLP perturbation of at least −51 hPa). Storm-relative composites of strong and moderate storms show an increase in precipitation, associated with enhanced latent heat release and strengthening of the 900-700-hPa layer-average potential vorticity (PV). Other structural changes found for cyclones in a future climate include weakened upper-level PV for strong storms and a weakened near-surface potential temperature anomaly for moderate storms, demonstrating a change in storm dynamics. Furthermore, the impacts associated with extratropical cyclones, such as strong near-surface winds and heavy precipitation, strengthen and become more frequent with warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author focuses on the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. Topics discussed include findings of a study concerning the rising hazard of storm-surge flooding following hurricanes like Harvey, Irma, and Maria; ways which affects global warming; and importance of factors unrelated to modern climate change.

Twenty-first-century projections of Atlantic climate change are downscaled to explore the robustness of potential changes in hurricane activity. Multimodel ensembles using the phase 3 of the Coupled Model In-tercomparison Project (CMIP3)/Special Report on Emissions Scenarios AlB (SRES AlB; late-twenty-first century) and phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5)/representative concentration pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5; early- and late-twenty-first century) scenarios are examined. Ten individual CMIP3 models are downscaled to assess the spread of results among the CMIP3 (but not the CMIP5) models. Downscaling simulations are compared for 18-km grid regional and 50-km grid global models. Storm cases from the regional model are further downscaled into the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) hurricane model (9-km inner grid spacing, with ocean coupling) to simulate intense hurricanes at a finer resolution. A significant reduction in tropical storm frequency is projected for the CMIP3 (-27%), CMIPS-early (-20%) and CMIP5-late (-23%) ensembles and for 5 of the 10 individual CMIP3 models. Lifetime maximum hurricane intensity increases significantly in the high-resolution experiments-by 4%-6% for CMIP3 and CMIP5 ensembles. A significant increase (-1-87%) in the frequency of very intense (categories 4 and 5) hurricanes (winds ⩾ 59ms-1) is projected using CMIP3, but smaller, only marginally significant increases are projected (+45% and +39%) for the CMIPS-early and CMIP5-late scenarios. Hurricane rainfall rates increase robustly for the CMIP3 and CMIP5 scenarios. For the late-twenty-first century, this increase amounts to +20% to +30% in the model hurricane's inner core, with a smaller increase (∼10%) for averaging radii of 200 km or larger. The fractional increase in precipitation at large radii (200-400 km) approximates that expected from environmental water vapor content scaling, while increases for the inner core exceed this level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the changes in ocean waves which have occurred along the U.S East Coast in the past 30 years. According to the authors, wave heights measured at buoys during the summer hurricane season have increased significantly. Extreme wave heights are higher and more common in the past decade. Waves measured during the extratropical storm season in winter have not had a statistically significant change. They conclude that the progressive increase in wave heights has been caused by an intensification of hurricanes, with increased numbers of storms being a contributing factor.

Groundwater–surface water exchange in salt marsh ecosystems mediates nearshore salt, nutrient, and carbon budgets with implications for biological productivity and global climate. Despite their importance, a synthesis of salt marsh groundwater studies is lacking. In this review, we summarize drivers mediating salt marsh hydrogeology, review field and modeling techniques, and discuss patterns of exchange. New data from a Delaware seepage meter study are reported which highlight small-scale spatial variability in exchange rates. A synthesis of the salt marsh hydrogeology literature reveals a positive relationship between tidal range and submarine groundwater discharge but not porewater exchange, highlighting the multidimensional drivers of marsh hydrogeology. Field studies are heavily biased towards microtidal systems of the US East Coast, with little global information available. A preliminary estimate of marsh porewater exchange along the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic Bights is 8–30 × 1013 L y−1, equivalent to recirculating the entire volume of seawater overlying the shelf through tidal marsh sediments in ~30–90 years. This review concludes with a discussion of critical questions to address that will decrease uncertainty in global budget estimates and enhance our capacity to predict future responses to global climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied the effects of metabolic cold adaptation (MCA) in two populations of a eurythermal species, spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) along the U.S. East Coast. Fish were captured from their natural environment and acclimated at control temperatures 15 °C or 20 °C. Their oxygen consumption rates, a proxy for metabolic rates, were measured using intermittent flow respirometry during acute temperature decrease or increase (2.5 °C per hour). Mass-specific standard metabolic rates (SMR) were higher in fish from the northern population across an ecologically relevant temperature gradient (5 °C to 30 °C). SMR were up to 37% higher in the northern population at 25 °C and maximum metabolic rates (MMR) were up to 20% higher at 20 °C. We found evidence of active metabolic compensation in the southern population from 5 °C to 15 °C (Q10 < 2), but not in the northern population. Taken together, our results indicate differences in metabolic plasticity between the northern and southern populations of spotted seatrout and provide a mechanistic basis for predicting population-specific responses to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]