Climate Change Research And Technology For Adaptation And Mitigation Intech Blanco J by Blanco J., Kheradmand H., (eds.) (2011) 9789533076218, 9533076216 instant download after payment.

The average annual global temperature increased by 0.76°C during the past century (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007) and climate modelling results show an increase in annual temperature in boreal regions of 0.1 – 0.4°C/decade over the 21st century, depending on the scenario and model. Warming will be unevenly distributed, being greater in summer in lower and middle latitudes but greater in winter at higher latitudes, and this differential will increase. Mean annual precipitation is projected to increase in the North and decrease in the South, and winter precipitation will increase in northern and central Europe, continuing the trends established in the 20th century of a 10 – 40% increase in northern Europe and a decrease of up to 20% in southern Europe (IPCC, 2007). The increase in winter precipitation is due to the increased water carrying capacity of the atmosphere resulting from the higher temperature.
Global warming will increase the frequency of soil freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs) in cool-temperate and high-latitude regions previously subject to prolonged winter soil frost (Kreyling et al., 2007; Henry, 2008). Warmer winters will result in fewer soil freezing days and in boreal Europe, lowland permafrost is expected to eventually disappear (Harris et al., 2009). The length of the frost-free season has already increased in most mid- and high-latitude regions of both hemispheres over the values established in the middle of the 20th century. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is mostly manifested as an earlier start to spring, which will arrive progressively earlier in Europe by 2.5 d per decade (Menzel et al., 2006).