This study analyzes the varying degrees of exposure to extreme heat across different regions and demographic groups in Taiwan, including age, gender, Indigenous populations, foreign migrants, and income levels. The research adopts the analytical framework developed by S. Nazrul Islam and John Winkel (2017) for assessing subnational socioeconomic inequalities, focusing on multidimensional inequality and the vicious cycle it creates under climate hazards. Additionally, the study incorporates the geographic analysis approach by B. Mashhoodi and D. Kasraian (2024) on heatwave exposure in the Netherlands. By integrating these methodologies, this research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how extreme heat impacts various communities differently, highlighting the underlying social inequalities that exacerbate vulnerability to climate change in Taiwan.

Heat exposure, socioeconomic inequality

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In the study, we explore the cause of 2011 seasonal mean state shift in Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) variance during December-February from 1979 to 2023. Our results indicate that known factors and long-term results do not fully explain the shift. Explanations involving Pacific Meridional Mode (PMM) and typical atmospheric patterns from stream function empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis have been ruled out. Mechanistic simulations with SPEEDY model show the observed sea surface temperature shift could be a responsible forcing but its origin requires further investigation.

MJO, Regime Shift, PMM, EOF Analysis, Model Simulation

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Bamboo forest is a vital part of the low-elevation mountains ecosystem, which provides a variety of ecosystem services to human beings. Previous studies often focused on smaller villages in developing countries when they investigated local residents’ subjective perceptions and conservation orientations toward bamboo forest ecosystems. We shifted the research area to an emerging industrialized economy, and expanded the scale to an entire county, encompassing cities, towns, and townships. Such research design was expected to reveal the contrasting insights of respondents as a result of their differences in geographical and socioeconomic factors. The results showed that respondents generally gave the highest ratings to several cultural services, which have been less highlighted in previous studies. The perceptions of ecosystem services among respondents from different backgrounds exhibit a considerable degree of consistency, with significant differences observed only in the views regarding a few specific ecosystem services. On the other hand, although all respondents considered that the conservation of bamboo forests was important, their attitude towards using personal money to maintain bamboo ecosystem services is not positive. Only one-third of the respondents expressed willingness to contribute financially, with a preference for an annual payment of $30 by the non-compulsory methods. Respondents’ attitude toward collective-centric environmental engagement and their occupation are among the few variables that can explain willingness to pay. This article, from an academic perspective, emphasizes that residents’ subjective opinions of bamboo forest ecosystem services in the context of urbanization and industrialization represent a research gap that should be thoroughly understood. This way could bring different insights from previous studies. On a practical aspect, we also provided empirical evidence for respondents’ preference to support government-led bamboo forest protection through voluntary payments, which holds significant reference value for policymakers in designing fiscally sustainable development measures.

willingness to pay, questionnaire survey, cultural ecosystem services, Taiwan

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Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) serve as a crucial link between humans and nature and are closely related to tourism development, thereby impacting the local economy. However, research has been sparse in evaluating CES values on Lyudao, despite the crucial economic role played by tourism on this island. This study aims to assess the distribution of CES categories on Lyudao through social media images analysis, with a focus on understanding the relationships among different CES categories, and establishing reference standards for CES categories evaluation in tourism-oriented islands. Our findings reveal that the predominant values of CES on Lyudao are outdoor recreation and landscape aesthetics, aligning with the island‘s tourism-oriented image. Analysis shows strong positive correlations between CES values with temporal and spatial grouping. In correlation analysis grouped by month, the strongest correlation was observed between landscape aesthetics value and cultural identity value. When grouped by location, the strongest correlation was found between outdoor recreation value and landscape aesthetics value. Moreover, heatmaps show clumped distribution for most CES values, while the dispersion of existence value reflects the scattered distribution of flora and fauna on Lyudao. Furthermore, we found low levels of spiritual and religious value, and since this value represents similar topics to cultural identity, it would be beneficial for future research to consider integrating these categories when studying CES on Lyudao.

Cultural Ecosystem Services, Lyudao, Social Media Image Analysis and Ecosystem service mapping

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Lyudao, located in the southeastern seas off Taiwan, is a volcanic island surrounded by rich reef habitats. However, the growing number of tourists has severely threatened Lyudao’s ecosystems. This study aims to evaluate the coastal habitats’ risks and provide a reference for future conservation measures. The analysis utilizes the InVEST Habitat Risk Assessment and Coastal Vulnerability models to assess both human-induced and natural risks, supplemented by BiLISA analysis to explore their correlation. The results indicate that fishing and sewage are the primary stressors posing the greatest risk. Future conservation efforts should focus on enhancing protections against these identified stressors.

Lyudao, coral reef, InVEST, habitat risk assessment, coastal vulnerability model, BiLISA

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Nitrogen fixation (NF) affects the biological uptake of carbon dioxide in the ocean, as bioavailable nitrogen is a key limiting factor for the growth of marine phytoplankton. Tricho is the most dominant diazotroph in the tropical and subtropical ocean in the world, providing a significant amount of bioavailable nitrogen in oligotrophic oceans. No one has ever demonstrated the importance of Ni on NF in the field yet. My study aims to conduct a field experiment on Lyudao, Taiwan.

Trichodesmium, Nitrogen fixation, Nickel

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This study analyzed the filter paper data collected from six stations (Banqiao, Zhongming, Douliu, Chiayi, Xiaogang, and Hualien) between 2017 and 2023 to explore their spatial and temporal variations. The data included PM2.5 and its components (OC, EC, SO4 2- , NO3 - , and NH4 + ), which collectively account for 60-70% of total PM2.5 . Additionally, ozone data were obtained from the air quality monitoring network of the Ministry of the Environment over the same seven-year period (2017-2023). The daily ozone concentration was calculated as the eight-hour average value from 09:00 to 16:00. As shown in Figure 1(a), PM2.5 concentrations at all stations displayed an annual decreasing trend, indicating that government efforts in air quality control, including limiting industrial emissions, improving traffic management, and promoting green energy, have been effective. It is important to investigate whether there is a corresponding decrease in PM2.5 components, to identify any seasonal variation differences, and to determine the key factors influencing changes in pollution levels.

Aerosol Components, Pollution Trends, Seasonal Variation

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Taiwan is geographically situated in the downwind region of the Northeast monsoon during the winter and spring months. The island frequently experienced long-range transport (LRT) of pollutants from Northern China around this period as Taiwan is located at the periphery of the Siberian high-pressure system. Such atmospheric dynamics can lead to significant episodes of air quality deterioration in Taiwan, posing health risks to the population. In this research, we focus on an episode of air quality deterioration that was associated with LRT between 02 March and 04 March 2022 (Fig 1). Our study primarily focuses on two critical aspects: firstly, identifying the sources of the pollutants and understanding their transportation mechanisms. Secondly, examine how the pollutants interact with the weather system and the terrain of Taiwan.

Long-range Transport, Channel effect, Aerosol, Air pollution

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The South China Sea (112°E ~ 140°E, 10°N ~ 20°N) experiences substantial seasonal variations in precipitation and wind associated with the East Asia Monsoon; these variations also affect cloud radiative effects. This study investigates the seasonal characteristics of CREs using data from CERES satellite observations, ERA5 reanalysis, and TaiESM1 historical simulations. During boreal summer, the CERES data show that the longwave cloud radiative effect (LWCRE) averaged over the South China Sea is 65.3 Wm⁻², and the shortwave cloud radiative effect (SWCRE) is -76.1 Wm⁻². In winter, these values are approximately half of those in summer. Both ERA5 and TaiESM1 capture the seasonal variations in LWCRE and SWCRE but with notable biases. ERA5 consistently underestimates LWCRE by around 10 Wm⁻² across all seasons. TaiESM1 underestimates LWCRE in summer by 19.6 Wm⁻² (30%) and overestimates SWCRE in winter by -19.5 Wm⁻² (26%). This LWCRE bias likely results from insufficient high clouds, while this SWCRE bias may be attributed to an overabundance of low clouds.

South China Sea, Cloud Radiative Effects (CREs), ERA5, TaiESM1, Seasonal Variations

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臺中為清朝省城，日治初期頒布納入永續、生態及水文等考量的完善都市計畫，至民國時代計畫更迭發展至今；依計畫界線可分成四個階段：市區改正(1900-1911)、都市計畫(1912-1935)、都市擴張(1936-1975)、和廣域計畫(1976之後)。日治初期便在臺中市區建立氣象站，至今只歷經數次微幅搬遷，提供一百多年、長期連續的觀測數據。因都市發展會改變當地天氣特徵，本研究分析臺中站自1897年到2023年間氣溫、降水、濕度等數據，看能否顯示臺中發展的不同階段。初步分析包括：一、移除數據中的長期趨勢再進行傅立葉分析，發現數據中最明顯的週期訊號為年、半年，降水與相對溼度有許多高頻組成；二、比較臺中都市計畫四個階段期間的平均氣象數據，但差異不顯著，推測都市發展對當地氣象影響微弱，亦可能是完善都市計畫維持在地天氣特徵，有待深入研究。另發現氣象觀測數據讀取、編排和格式對文史領域學者較不友善，不利解讀和使用。

Taichung, Urban Development, Urban Climate, Urban Planning, Observational Data

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