scholarly journals Disturbance history mediates climate change effects on subtropical forest biomass and dynamics

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 7184-7199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre F. Souza ◽  
Solon Jonas Longhi
Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 885
Author(s):  
Serban Chivulescu ◽  
Juan García-Duro ◽  
Diana Pitar ◽  
Ștefan Leca ◽  
Ovidiu Badea

Research Highlights: Carpathian forests hold high ecological and economic value while generating conservation concerns, with some of these forests being among the few remaining temperate virgin forests in Europe. Carpathian forests partially lost their original integrity due to their management. Climate change has also gradually contributed to forest changes due to its modification of the environmental conditions. Background and Objectives: Understanding trees’ responses to past climates and forms of management is critical in foreseeing the responses of forests to future conditions. This study aims (1) to determine the sensitivity of Carpathian forests to past climates using dendrochronological records and (2) to describe the effects that climate change and management will have on the attributes of Carpathian forests, with a particular focus on the different response of pure and mixed forests. Materials and Methods: To this end, we first analysed the past climate-induced growth change in a dendrochronological reference series generated for virgin forests in the Romanian Curvature Carpathians and then used the obtained information to calibrate spatially explicit forest Landis-II models for the same region. The model was used to project forest change under four climate change scenarios, from mild to extreme. Results: The dendrochronological analysis revealed a climate-driven increase in forest growth over time. Landis-II model simulations also indicate that the amount of aboveground forest biomass will tend to increase with climate change. Conclusions: There are differences in the response of pure and mixed forests. Therefore, suitable forest management is required when forests change with the climate.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 89-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Alberti ◽  
Martino Cantone ◽  
Loris Colombo ◽  
Gabriele Oberto ◽  
Ivana La Licata

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Filadelfo ◽  
Jonathon Mintz ◽  
Daniel Carvell ◽  
Alan Marcus

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 1819
Author(s):  
Eleni S. Bekri ◽  
Polychronis Economou ◽  
Panayotis C. Yannopoulos ◽  
Alexander C. Demetracopoulos

Freshwater resources are limited and seasonally and spatially unevenly distributed. Thus, in water resources management plans, storage reservoirs play a vital role in safeguarding drinking, irrigation, hydropower and livestock water supply. In the last decades, the dams’ negative effects, such as fragmentation of water flow and sediment transport, are considered in decision-making, for achieving an optimal balance between human needs and healthy riverine and coastal ecosystems. Currently, operation of existing reservoirs is challenged by increasing water demand, climate change effects and active storage reduction due to sediment deposition, jeopardizing their supply capacity. This paper proposes a methodological framework to reassess supply capacity and management resilience for an existing reservoir under these challenges. Future projections are derived by plausible climate scenarios and global climate models and by stochastic simulation of historic data. An alternative basic reservoir management scenario with a very low exceedance probability is derived. Excess water volumes are investigated under a probabilistic prism for enabling multiple-purpose water demands. Finally, this method is showcased to the Ladhon Reservoir (Greece). The probable total benefit from water allocated to the various water uses is estimated to assist decision makers in examining the tradeoffs between the probable additional benefit and risk of exceedance.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 427
Author(s):  
Tianyang Zhou ◽  
Jiaxin Zhang ◽  
Yunzhi Qin ◽  
Mingxi Jiang ◽  
Xiujuan Qiao

From supporting wood production to mitigating climate change, forest ecosystem services are crucial to the well-being of humans. Understanding the mechanisms that drive forest dynamics can help us infer how to maintain forest ecosystem services and how to improve predictions of forest dynamics under climate change. Despite the growing number of studies exploring above ground biomass (AGB) dynamics, questions of dynamics in biodiversity and in number of individuals still remain unclear. Here, we first explored the patterns of community dynamics in different aspects (i.e., AGB, density and biodiversity) based on short-term (five years) data from a 25-ha permanent plot in a subtropical forest in central China. Second, we examined the relationships between community dynamics and biodiversity and functional traits. Third, we identified the key factors affecting different aspects of community dynamics and quantified their relative contributions. We found that in the short term (five years), net above ground biomass change (ΔAGB) and biodiversity increased, while the number of individuals decreased. Resource-conservation traits enhanced the ΔAGB and reduced the loss in individuals, while the resource-acquisition traits had the opposite effect. Furthermore, the community structure contributed the most to ΔAGB; topographic variables and soil nutrients contributed the most to the number of individuals; demographic process contributed the most to biodiversity. Our results indicate that biotic factors mostly affected the community dynamics of ΔAGB and biodiversity, while the number of individuals was mainly shaped by abiotic factors. Our work highlighted that the factors influencing different aspects of community dynamics vary. Therefore, forest management practices should be formulated according to a specific protective purpose.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1091
Author(s):  
Vanessa Mendoza-Grimón ◽  
Regla Amorós ◽  
Juan Ramón Fernández-Vera ◽  
Jose Manuel Hernádez-Moreno ◽  
María del Pino Palacios-Díaz

Cape Verde is a semiarid country where lack of rainfall exacerbates the scarce resources available for livestock which, therefore, make it very vulnerable to climate change. By providing reclaimed water (RW) for irrigation, it is possible to decrease forage importation. Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) improves health security by preventing contact between water and harvested plants. Sorghum is a water-efficient crop that provides good nutritional value. The aim of this experiment was to study the nutrient and fiber contents of the Sorghum Payenne variety using subsurface (T1) and surface (T2) drip irrigation by RW vs. conventional water (T3) and plant maturity to assure the feasibility of water reuse to produce forage. Ntot–Ptot–Ca–Mg and Na were significantly higher in the RW plants than in the conventional water ones. Ntot–Ptot–K and Fe contents significantly lowered, while Ca–Na and Mn significantly rose as plant maturity increased. All the fiber values meet the Nos. 2 and 3 quality standards, and the Prime and No. 1 for NDF and ADF, respectively. The obtained good forage quality let to avoid the competence of conventional water and to reuse nutrients added by RW. If generalized, this solution would reduce forage importation by improving food sovereignty and farmers’ profitability, and would enhance resilience against climate change effects.


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