Climate change, risk perception, and protection motivation among high-altitude residents of the Mt. Everest region in Nepal.

Mountain ecosystems are considered vulnerable to early impacts of climate change. Whether and how local residents of these areas perceive these changes, however, remain under-studied questions. By conducting a household survey in the Khumbu region of Nepal, this study assessed local residents' experience-based perception of changes in climate trends and patterns, perceived risk, and attitudes towards climate issues. Multivariate cluster analysis based on residents' climate change beliefs revealed three segments: "Cautious," "Disengaged," and "Alarmed." A comparison of these segments along key psychosocial constructs of Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) revealed significant inter-segment differences in residents' perception of severity, vulnerability, response efficacy, self-efficacy, and response cost associated with engaging in mitigating behavior. Results shed light on how residents of high elevation areas that are considered to be exposed to early impacts of climate change perceive the risk and intend to respond. These findings could also assist stakeholders working in other similar mountain ecosystems in understanding vulnerability and in working towards climate readiness.

Dataset of forest landowner survey to assess interest in supplying woody biomass in two Southeastern United States fuelsheds.

This article presents data from a recent mail survey of forest landowners regarding their land ownership characteristics and motivations, past and future management activities, and owner perceptions of bioenergy and its impact on forests. The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled 'Opportunities and Attitudes of Private Forest Landowners in Supplying Woody Biomass for Renewable Energy' [1]. The survey was conducted in the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the United States, where two primary ports exporting wood pellets to Europe are located. Specifically, the data include responses on forest characteristics, forest management activities, knowledge and interest in woody biomass for energy production, and sociodemographic variables. Additionally, landowner decisions for supplying wood for traditional forest products and biomass for energy were modeled. More than 2900 forest landowners were contacted, with 707 owners providing completed surveys.

Modeling transient response of forests to climate change.

Our hypothesis is that a high diversity of dominant life forms in Tennessee forests conveys resilience to disturbance such as climate change. Because of uncertainty in climate change and their effects, three climate change scenarios for 2030 and 2080 from three General Circulation Models (GCMs) were used to simulate a range of potential climate conditions for the state. These climate changes derive from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) "A1B" storyline that assumes rapid global economic growth. The precipitation and temperature projections from the three GCMs for 2030 and 2080 were related to changes in five ecological provinces using the monthly record of temperature and precipitation from 1980 to 1997 for each 1km cell across the state as aggregated into the provinces. Temperatures are projected to increase in all ecological provinces in all months for all three GCMs for both 2030 and 2080. Precipitation differences from the long-term average are more complex but less striking. The forest ecosystem model LINKAGES was used to simulate conditions for five ecological provinces from 1989 to 2300. Average output projects changes in tree diversity and species composition in all ecological provinces in Tennessee with the greatest changes in the Southern Mixed Forest province. Projected declines in total tree biomass are followed by biomass recovery as species replacement occurs in stands. The Southern Mixed Forest province results in less diversity in dominant trees as well as lower overall biomass than projections for the other four provinces. The biomass and composition changes projected in this study differ from forest dynamics expected without climate change. These results suggest that biomass recovery following climate change is linked to dominant tree diversity in the southeastern forest of the US. The generality of this observation warrants further investigation, for it relates to ways that forest management may influence climate change effects.