Current Research on Geography, Earth Science and Environment Vol. 8

The Impact of Climate Change on Wild Edible Fungi: The Case of Muğla, Türkiye

2026-06-11T08:23:35+00:00

In Türkiye, particularly in regions with rich forested areas around Muğla, collecting and consuming wild mushrooms is very important. Global climate changes, such as increasing temperatures and rainfall, can affect the amount of mushrooms growing in nature. Based on these findings, this study, using real data collected over 18 years, aimed to analyse the mushroom ecology in the forests of Muğla, investigating the relationship between mushroom species and their habitats, and the relationship between mushroom species and their host plants. The aim of this study is to examine the diversity and abundance of the species studied of wild mushrooms. This study investigated the correlation between the diversity and abundance of wild mushrooms found in various regions of and around the city of Muğla, using climatic data, and examined climatic factors such as monthly temperature and monthly precipitation. The relationships between wild mushrooms collected from 2006 to 2024 and different climatic factors were evaluated. Overall, the study showed that mushroom abundance, distribution, and phenology are strongly influenced by climate variability—especially temperature increases and changing precipitation patterns—with clear evidence of delayed and shifted fruiting seasons and broader impacts on biodiversity. It suggests that public awareness of the ecological importance of mushrooms and their potential health benefits is insufficient. Accordingly, enhanced education and outreach initiatives are recommended to improve public understanding, and the collection of wild mushrooms from forest ecosystems should be subject to regulation to ensure sustainability.

Natural Gas and Nigeria's Energy Trilemma: Balancing Equity, Security, and Sustainability

2026-06-11T08:26:53+00:00

Background: Nigeria's energy transition debate has intensified as the country seeks to utilise its vast natural gas reserves to address persistent electricity deficits, energy poverty and industrial underdevelopment while meeting global climate commitments. Within this context, the energy trilemma framework provides a useful lens for examining how natural gas policy can simultaneously influence energy equity, energy security and environmental sustainability in a developing hydrocarbon economy.

Aims: This chapter examines how Nigeria's natural gas sector can contribute to the energy trilemma dimensions of equity, security and environmental sustainability.

Methodology: It synthesises evidence from Livingstone's 2024 doctoral thesis, including stakeholder survey findings and secondary data for 1990-2022, and triangulates the results with recent peer-reviewed and official policy sources.

Findings: The evidence indicates that natural gas can support employment, fiscal revenue, labour income, GDP growth and cleaner energy access when it is linked to domestic utilisation, resilient infrastructure and credible governance. However, infrastructure deficits, vandalism, regulatory instability, affordability constraints, gas flaring and methane leakage weaken its contribution.

Conclusion: The chapter advances a conditional-gas-transition framework and proposes a Gas-for-Equity Compact that links access, affordability, infrastructure security, emissions control and renewable-ready planning. The chapter concludes that gas should be treated as a disciplined transition asset, not as an automatic bridge fuel or a permanent fossil-fuel development pathway.

Human Thermal Load in Temperate, Lowland, Continental Climate’s Cyclonic Weather Situations

2026-06-11T08:31:14+00:00

Introduction: Climate information expresses the type of climate, its spatial and temporal distribution, while thermal load information expresses the thermal load category or its frequency. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have investigated the relationship between the cyclonic weather type and human thermal load, either for the temperate. lowland, continental climate or for other climate types.

Aims: The aim of this study is to quantify human thermal load caused by cyclonic weather situations in the temperate, lowland, continental climate by using the new clothing thermal resistance model.

Methodology: The study was conducted at Martonvásár (Hungary, Central Europe), in the period 2021-2025. The study investigated thermal and evaporative heat exchange between humans and the atmosphere using a longitudinal observational dataset. A single observer recorded 10-minute atmospheric conditions across warm front, cold front, and clear-sky cyclonic situations. Meteorological variables (air temperature, humidity, wind, radiation, cloud cover, and pressure) were combined with fixed human anthropometric and metabolic parameters. A “comfortable clothing” resistance model was applied to estimate clothing thermal resistance and compensatory latent heat flux under varying environmental conditions.

Results: The most important results are as follows: 1) In warm front weather situations, there can not only be an environmental heat deficit, but also a surplus. 2) In heat deficit situations, the clothing’s thermal resistance (r_cl,t) values varied between 0 and 2 clo. 3) Heat excess conditions are quantified by the compensatory latent heat flux density variable λE^comp. λE^comp values registered during warm front passages varied between 0 and 140 Wm^-2. At such times, there was precipitation; these are "warm rains". 4) In cold front weather situations, r_cl,t values varied between 2 - 2.6 clo for the largest registered heat deficits. 5) During cold front passages, the heat excess can be greater than during warm front passages. λE^comp values varied between 0 - 240 Wm^-2, but in one case a value of 560 Wm^-2 was registered. 6) Finally, it was demonstrated that under heat-deficient conditions, the difference in thermal load between an individual and a normative person increases as the differences in their anthropometric characteristics become greater.

Conclusion: The study concluded that the new clothing index model used can be successfully applied to estimate human thermal load in weather situations causing both heat deficiency and heat excess. Cold front movements cause larger fluctuations in human thermal load compared to warm front movements. Cloud cover plays a crucial role in determining the magnitude of these fluctuations.

Sustainable Groundwater Management: A Global Review of Resources, Challenges, Opportunities and Pathways

2026-06-11T08:34:36+00:00

Groundwater constitutes the world's largest accessible reservoir of liquid freshwater, sustaining drinking water supplies, agricultural production, and ecological functions across every inhabited continent. Yet this finite and largely invisible resource is under unprecedented pressure from agricultural intensification, rapid urbanisation, industrial demand, and the compounding effects of climate variability and change. Groundwater depletion, deteriorating water quality, governance deficits, and inequitable access collectively represent one of the most consequential and under-regulated environmental challenges of the twenty-first century. This critical review examines the current state of global groundwater resources, evaluating the principal drivers of stress, contamination dynamics, governance architectures, technological innovations, and socio-economic dimensions of groundwater use, while identifying evidence-based pathways toward sustainability. The literature underpinning this review was identified through targeted searches of multiple academic databases, conducted across the period January 2000 to March 2026. Drawing on literature spanning hydrogeological science, environmental governance, agronomy, remote sensing, and political ecology, the review synthesises knowledge across disciplinary boundaries to assess where meaningful progress has been made and where critical gaps remain. The chapter argues that piecemeal, technically focused interventions are insufficient and that durable solutions require integrated governance reform, equitable access policies, sustained investment in monitoring infrastructure, and strengthened international cooperation over transboundary aquifer systems. Managed aquifer recharge, satellite-based monitoring, and precision irrigation offer genuine opportunities, but their effectiveness is ultimately conditioned on political will, institutional capacity, and a collective recognition of groundwater as a shared intergenerational resource.

Climate-Resilient Restoration of Public Land Forests in the Churia–Terai River Systems of Nepal

2026-06-16T08:25:24+00:00

Public Land Forests (PLFs) are emerging as a practical and inclusive nature-based solution for restoring degraded landscapes while strengthening climate resilience in the Churia–Terai region of Nepal. This study examines whether PLFs contribute meaningfully to ecological restoration through participatory, agroforestry-based approaches, guided by the hypothesis that community-led PLF interventions enhance ecological integrity and adaptive capacity in climate-vulnerable river systems. The study was conducted under the Building a Resilient Churia Region in Nepal (BRCRN) project, covering 26 river systems. A mixed-methods framework integrating geospatial analysis, climate adaptation assessment, Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) tools, stakeholder consultations, and field validation was employed to capture both ecological and socio-economic dimensions. The study identified 83 PLF sites, spanning 3,244 ha across 18 river systems, as priority areas for restoration. Geospatial techniques, including satellite imagery (Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8), NDVI analysis, Digital Elevation Models (DEM), and GIS-based land use and terrain analysis, enabled systematic identification and prioritisation of degraded public lands with high restoration potential. The findings indicate that PLFs play a significant role in stabilising riverbanks, enhancing biodiversity, and sequestering carbon, thereby reducing flood and sedimentation risks while improving local resilience to climate variability. Importantly, participatory governance and inclusive benefit-sharing mechanisms foster local ownership and ensure that restoration benefits reach marginalised and vulnerable communities. Despite supportive policy provisions, challenges related to land tenure clarity, institutional coordination, and data integration continue to limit wider implementation. The study underscores that scaling PLFs as a landscape restoration strategy requires stronger institutional alignment, improved governance mechanisms, and sustained investment to effectively link ecological restoration with livelihood improvement and climate mitigation goals.

India’s Clean Energy Transition: A Review of Renewable Energy Contributions

2026-07-02T09:03:43+00:00

India's clean energy transition has gained increasing importance in response to rising energy demand, dependence on fossil fuels, and climate change concerns. This review examines the contribution of renewable energy sources to India's energy sector, with attention to solar, wind, small hydropower, biomass, and waste-to-energy systems, as well as policy measures that have supported their expansion. The manuscript summarises installed renewable capacity as reported on 28 February 2025, when total capacity, excluding large hydro, was 167,709.53 MW. Solar power represented the largest component, at 102,566.02 MW, followed by wind power at 48,588.56 MW, biomass-based cogeneration at 10,743.11 MW, small hydropower at 5,100.55 MW, waste to power at 309.34 MW, and off-grid waste-to-energy at 401.95 MW. The review also discusses India's broader renewable energy position, including the reported 214.68 GW of renewable capacity by February 2025 when hydropower is included. Government initiatives, including the National Action Plan on Climate Change, the National Solar Mission, renewable purchase obligations, rooftop solar support, and recent transmission-related incentives, have contributed to capacity growth and investment. At the same time, the review indicates that installed capacity alone does not resolve challenges related to generation reliability, intermittency, land use, ecosystem disturbance, waste management, grid integration, and policy implementation. The environmental discussion shows that renewable technologies reduce dependence on conventional fossil fuels but retain local and life-cycle impacts that require careful assessment. The review concludes that renewable energy is central to India's clean energy pathway, provided that technological innovation, institutional capacity, environmental safeguards, and investment support are strengthened.

The Gulf of Aden Mixed Layer: Annual Cycles and Long-Term Trends

2026-07-02T09:09:29+00:00

The mixed layer depth (MLD) is a critical feature of the upper ocean that controls physical heat transfer and marine biological processes. This chapter presents a detailed investigation of the monthly climatology of MLD in the Gulf of Aden and reveals a strong seasonal cycle across the basin. During winter (December to February), severe surface cooling drives deep convective mixing and creates a deeply mixed upper ocean, particularly in the western and northern regions. In spring, rapid surface warming substantially increases the static stability of the water column. Consequently, the mixed layer shoals rapidly and remains exceptionally shallow throughout summer (June to August). Although the Gulf experiences net heat loss in summer because of strong evaporative winds, the calculated energy required to break the existing stratification is too high to permit deep vertical mixing. The basin also exhibits a sharp north-south MLD asymmetry that reverses between winter and summer. Furthermore, a uniquely deep mixed-layer core forms in the central Gulf during summer due to the persistent presence of mesoscale ocean eddies. Long-term trends are evaluated using ocean model reanalysis data spanning from 1993 to the present. A clear annual deepening trend is observed across the entire basin, with the fastest rate of 0.19 m/y occurring in the western Gulf. This long-term deepening is driven mainly by winter mixing, with rates reaching 0.53 m/y in the west, whereas summer trends remain weak. This climatology and trend analysis provide a baseline for future ocean and climate research in this dynamic marginal sea.

Exploratory Data Analysis in Modern Geophysics: A Practical Tutorial Using R

2026-07-25T09:01:17+00:00

Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) has recently supported the correction of several long-standing misconceptions in geophysics, where a number of erroneous theories had been regarded as fundamental laws. These include revisions to the Gutenberg–Richter law, re-evaluation of the Omori formula, improved visualisation of plate boundaries around Japan, and renewed prospects for earthquake prediction. To apply EDA effectively to one's own data, a basic grounding in statistics and the ability to use a statistical software environment are essential. In this chapter, we introduce the use of R, an open-source statistical computing platform, and demonstrate that conducting such analyses is both accessible and straightforward. Earthquake data were obtained from catalogues published by the Japan Meteorological Agency, and all computations were performed in R. The analyses show that modern statistical methods, particularly EDA combined with computational tools, substantially enhance the accuracy, interpretability, and visualisation of seismic data. Key earthquake-related quantities are found to follow distinct statistical behaviours, including normal distributions of magnitudes, log-normal distributions of released energy, and first-order decay patterns with clear half-lives in aftershock sequences. Enhanced three-dimensional visualisation further clarifies the structural relationships among plate boundaries and seismic activity. Overall, the findings demonstrate that data-driven and statistically rigorous approaches not only deepen understanding of earthquake processes but also challenge several long-standing empirical assumptions. This highlights the need for their re-evaluation and provides a stronger foundation for future research, including potential advances in earthquake prediction.