Concepts

Physiological stress experienced by plants due to reduced water availability that can harm fitness by inducing leaf loss, reducing flower size, and decreasing seed production

Limitations on activity imposed by temperature and radiation conditions

The ability of organisms to adjust to changing climatic conditions through genetic, phenotypic, or behavioral changes

Direct damage to plant buds and flowers from freezing temperatures occurring during vulnerable developmental stages

Ecosystem responses to climate change that exert positive or negative feedbacks on climate, mediated by slow-moving factors such as shifts in vegetation community composition

The role of atmospheric aerosols in cloud formation and precipitation by acting as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and ice-nucleating particles (INPs)

Physical processes affecting snow particle formation, growth, and characteristics including aggregation, riming, sublimation, and fragmentation

Heat transfer through soil via molecular conduction

Enhanced plant growth due to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations

Large-scale atmospheric weather patterns that influence regional temperature and precipitation distributions

Process of using large-scale climate model outputs to generate local or regional scale climate projections

Effects of climate variables on organism fitness that operate through changes in resource availability rather than direct physiological impacts

Transfer of sensible and latent heat between surface and atmosphere via turbulent mixing

Forward movement of ice sheets that leave behind terminal moraines and other glacial deposits

The positive feedback mechanism where reduced snow cover lowers surface albedo, increasing absorption and further reducing snow cover

Horizontal and vertical movement of atmospheric water vapor from oceanic sources to terrestrial precipitation regions

When clustered plants experience facilitative interactions that cause leaves to be cooler relative to surrounding soils

Influence of slope orientation on temperature due to differential solar heating throughout the day

Vertical mixing of air in the atmospheric boundary layer that affects aerosol concentrations and vertical distribution

Expanding range and increased development of disease vectors like mosquitos, black flies, and biting midges due to warming temperatures

Nighttime accumulation of cold dense air in valleys and topographic depressions due to radiative cooling and gravity drainage

Vertical transfer of momentum from upper atmospheric levels down to near-surface levels through turbulent mixing or gravity waves

Environmental changes with elevation including increased solar heating, low nocturnal temperatures, sudden intense storms, large interannual variations in snowpack, shorter growing season, lower plant...