Forest Area Research Articles

The Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh: assessing the impact on land use patterns and land surface temperature using machine learning.

Bangladesh, a third-world country with the seventh highest population density in the world, has always struggled to ensure its residents' basic needs. But in recent years, the country is going through a serious humanitarian and financial crisis that has been imposed by the neighboring country Myanmar which has forced the government to shelter almost a million Rohingya refugees in less than 3years (2017-2020). The government had no other option but to acquire almost 24.1 km2 of forest areas only to construct refugee camps for the Rohingyas which has led to catastrophic environmental outcomes. This study has analyzed the land use and land surface temperature pattern change of the Rohingya camp area for the course of 1997 to 2022 with a 5-year interval rate. Future prediction of the land use and temperature of Teknaf and Ukhiya was also done in this process using a machine learning algorithm for the years 2028 and 2034. The analysis says that in the camp area, from 1997 to 2017, percentage of settlements increased from 5.28 to 11.91% but in 2022, it reached 70.09%. The same drastically changing trend has also been observed in the land surface temperature analysis. In the month of January, the average temperature increased from 18.86 to 21.31°C between 1997 and 2017. But in 2022. it was found that the average temperature had increased up to 25.94°C in only a blink of an eye. The future prediction of land use also does not have anything pleasing in store.

Dynamic process of ecosystem water use efficiency and response to drought in the Yellow River Basin, China.

Ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE) is a crucial indicator of the impact of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems, reflecting the balance between biological processes (photosynthesis and transpiration) and physical processes (evapotranspiration). However, the response mechanisms and driving processes of WUE to drought remain to be further understood. In this study, we analyzed the spatial and temporal dynamics and response mechanisms of WUE in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) using data on Gross Primary Productivity (GPP), Evapotranspiration (ET) and Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), which revealed the cumulative effect of drought on WUE and assessed the ecosystem's resilience. The study results showed that (1) GPP, ET and WUE in the YRB exhibited a significant increasing trend, with 63.04 % of the area showing a marked increase in WUE. (2) GPP was the dominant factor influencing WUE in 65.36 % of the area, particularly in cropland and grassland, while ET was more influential in forested areas. Vapor pressure deficit (VPD) was identified as the principal driver affecting vegetation GPP in semi-arid and semi-humid regions of the YRB. In contrast, soil moisture (SM) was the limiting factor in arid areas. (3) 71.00 % of the WUE in the basin was affected by drought cumulative effects, with an average cumulative duration of 4.5 months. Arid regions experienced the most extended duration of 7.29 months, compared to 3.05 months in semi-humid regions. (4) 74.85 % of the regional ecosystems exhibited ecological resilience to drought, particularly in the source areas of the western basin of the YRB. Shrublands have the highest drought resilience among vegetation types, while grasslands have the lowest. The resilience of each climatic zone was in the order of semi-humid, semi-arid, and arid order. This study comprehensively analyzed of the spatial and temporal dynamics and response mechanisms of WUE in the YRB, offering a new perspective and scientific basis for understanding and predicting the ecosystem response to climate change.

Performance of The Trigona,Sapiens Honey Agribusiness Developed By Communities Around The Laiwoi KPH Forest Area In Amonggedo District, Konawe Regency, Southeast Sulawesi Province

Performance of The Trigona,Sapiens Honey Agribusiness Developed By Communities Around The Laiwoi KPH Forest Area In Amonggedo District, Konawe Regency, Southeast Sulawesi Province

Deliberative Governance Principles in Forest Areas Management with Special Purposes

Deliberative Governance Principles in Forest Areas Management with Special Purposes

Breeding parameters of a Great Tit (Parus major) population on the island of Cyprus compared to other Mediterranean populations

Many studies on the Great Tit, Parus major, have been conducted within the Mediterranean Basin, especially on its reproductive biology, forest habitat interactions, and nutritional resources. However, to date no detailed scientific research on these issues has been conducted on the island of Cyprus with a general paucity in research on this topic from the Eastern Mediterranean. Island species, through reduced gene flow and general isolation often evolve reproductive differences from their mainland relatives. As Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean and the most easterly positioned it provides an ideal opportunity compare the breeding biology of this island population with those from the wider Mediterranean region. This study aimed to gather some baseline reproductive data for Great Tits breeding in Cyprus. This data was then used to compare the reproductive outputs of Cypriot Great Tits from the sub species Parus major aphrodite with other Mediterranean island populations. This study was performed over a 3-year period during the breeding seasons of 2016-2018 in four evergreen forest areas. Mean clutch size was 7.7 eggs and hatching success 76.0%. The mean weight of the young was 16.3 g and mean tarsus length 18.7 mm. Significant differences were found between the years of the study, both in mean clutch size (p<0.0001) and the day of the first egg (p<0.0001), with 2016 producing the largest clutches and clutches being laid earlier than the subsequent two years. The start of the breeding season of the Great Tit was considerably earlier in Cyprus compared to other Mediterranean regions.

Edukasi Partisipatif Tentang Hasil Hutan Bukan Kayu Bagi Masyarakat Sebagai Upaya Untuk Melestarikan Hutan Kalimantan

This community service aims to increase community knowledge around Special Purpose Forest Areas (KHDTK) regarding non-timber forest products (HHBK) and increase community awareness and participation in maintaining and utilizing forest products sustainably. The method of implementing this service used participatory-based education. Evaluation of activities used questionnaire instruments and pretest-posttest analysis. To determine the effectiveness of using the service method, use the normalized gain score and the N-Gain effectiveness interpretation category. The results of this service showed that educational activities about HHBK for the community around the KHDTK area of Tanjungpura University, which were carried out in Simpang Kasturi Village were quite effective. The knowledge of the Simpang Kasturi Village community about HHBK increased by 61.4% after educational activities were carried out. People were increasingly aware of the importance of protecting and preserving forests, especially forest areas in Simpang Kasturi Village.

Evaluating the predictors of habitat use and successful reproduction in a model bird species using a large‐scale automated acoustic array

The emergence of continental to global scale biodiversity data has led to growing understanding of patterns in species distributions, and the determinants of these distributions, at large spatial scales. However, identifying the specific mechanisms, including demographic processes, determining species distributions remains difficult, as large‐scale data are typically restricted to observations of only species presence. New remote automated approaches for collecting data, such as automated recording units (ARUs), provide a promising avenue towards direct measurement of demographic processes, such as reproduction, that cannot feasibly be measured at scale by traditional survey methods. In this study, we analyze data collected by ARUs from 452 survey points across an approximately 1500 km long study region to compare patterns in adult and juvenile distributions in great horned owl Bubo virginianus. We specifically examine whether habitat associated with successful reproduction is the same as that associated with adult presence. We postulated that congruence between these two distributions would suggest that all areas of the species' range contribute equally to maintenance of the population, whereas significant differences would suggest more specificity in the species' requirements for successful reproduction. We filtered adult and juvenile calls of the species for manual review using automated classification and constructed single season occupancy models to compare land cover and vegetation covariates which significantly predicted presence of each life stage. We found that habitat use by adults was significantly predicted by increasing amounts of forest cover, reduced forest basal area, and lower elevations; whereas juvenile presence was significantly predicted only by decreasing amounts of forest cover, a pattern opposite that of adults. These results show that presence of adult great horned owls is not a sufficient proxy for locations at which reproduction occurs, and also demonstrate a highly scalable workflow that could be used for similar analyses in other sound‐producing species.

Relationship between globalization and the forest area footprint: an ardl approach for Brazil

Relationship between globalization and the forest area footprint: an ardl approach for Brazil

Carbon storage through China’s planted forest expansion

China’s extensive planted forests play a crucial role in carbon storage, vital for climate change mitigation. However, the complex spatiotemporal dynamics of China’s planted forest area and its carbon storage remain uncaptured. Here we reveal such changes in China’s planted forests from 1990 to 2020 using satellite and field data. Results show a doubling of planted forest area, a trend that intensified post-2000. These changes lead to China’s planted forest carbon storage increasing from 675.6 ± 12.5 Tg C in 1990 to 1,873.1 ± 16.2 Tg C in 2020, with an average rate of ~ 40 Tg C yr−1. The area expansion of planted forests contributed ~ 53% (637.2 ± 5.4 Tg C) of the total above increased carbon storage in planted forests compared with planted forest growth. This proactive policy-driven expansion of planted forests has catalyzed a swift increase in carbon storage, aligning with China’s Carbon Neutrality Target for 2060.

Repeat GEDI footprints measure the effects of tropical forest disturbances

More of the Amazon rainforest is disturbed each year than completely deforested, but the impact of these disturbances on the carbon cycle remains poorly understood. Recent algorithmic advances using optical and radar remote sensing have improved detection of disturbances at fine spatiotemporal resolution, but quantifying changes in forest structure and biomass associated with these detected disturbances has proven challenging. The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI), a spaceborne lidar mission collecting data from 2019 to 2023, provides an opportunity to address this problem. GEDI captured billions of measurements of forest height, plant area, and understory structure within ∼25-m diameter footprints scattered across the tropics. Though the instrument had no guaranteed repeat cycle, it sometimes sampled nearby locations twice; some of these spatially near-coincident footprints happened to measure forest structure before and after a detected disturbance, providing information on how disturbance affected aboveground biomass. In this study, we developed an efficient general-purpose open-source pipeline for identifying spatially coincident footprints, which is a computationally complex task, and used the pipeline to find over 13,700 footprint pairs with intervening disturbance events across the Amazon biome. We also identified a set of ∼65,000 spatially near-coincident footprint pairs that lacked an intervening disturbance but came from regions with similar disturbance threat; these provided a control dataset to evaluate the effectiveness of estimating forest structure and biomass changes with nearby footprints. Analysis of this Amazon-wide dataset demonstrated that GEDI was able to measure statistically significant canopy height and biomass deficits following non-stand-replacing disturbances as small as 900 m2 (30 m × 30 m). GEDI's unique three-dimensional view of forest structure also reflected the effects of different intensities of fire disturbance, including 20% of burned areas where the upper canopy retained most of its height, but the understory suffered substantial foliage losses. Finally, we modeled the relationship between Landsat and Sentinel-1 disturbance detection parameters and GEDI-estimated percent biomass loss, showing that certain satellite-derived intensity metrics are correlated with increasing biomass loss and identifying temporal trends in biomass loss and recovery following disturbance. This work represents an important step towards the development of a pan-tropical, spatially explicit system for tracking carbon losses and structural changes arising from forest disturbance.

Golden lion tamarin metapopulation dynamics five years after heavy losses to yellow fever.

The golden lion tamarin (GLT) is an Endangered primate endemic to Brazil's lowland Atlantic Forest. After centuries of deforestation and capture for the pet trade, only a few hundred individuals survived, all in isolated forest fragments 85 km from Rio de Janeiro city. Intensive conservation actions, including reintroduction of zoo-born tamarins, increased numbers to about 3700 in 2014. The most severe yellow fever epidemic/epizootic in Brazil in 80 years reduced two of the largest GLT populations by over 90%. Herein we report the results of a 2023 survey of GLTs designed to examine the dynamics of population recovery following yellow fever. Results indicate that populations hard hit by yellow fever are recovering due in part to immigration from adjacent forest fragments. No local extirpations were observed. About 4800 GLTs live in the survey area. This represents a 31% increase since the baseline survey completed in 2014. Two factors explain most of the increase: four large areas that had no GLTs or very low-density populations in 2014 are now at moderate density (three areas) or low density (one area), explaining 71% of overall increase since 2014. Increase in forest area within our survey area may explain up to 16% of the increase in GLT numbers since 2014. Results of computer simulations suggest that strengthening forest connectivity will facilitate metapopulation resilience in the face of mortality factors such as yellow fever.

Neural Cellular Automata-based Land Use Changes Simulation

Abstract. Simulating land use and land cover changes (LUCC) is important for urban planning and environmental studies. In this study, we introduce a neural cellular automata (NCA) model that integrates biological principles and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for land use simulation. We conduct experiments in the city of Wuhan, China. The NCA model achieved the highest performance with an OA of 0.858, F1 score of 0.753, Kappa coefficient of 0.799, and FOM of 0.427. Comparisons of land use data of Wuhan city from 2000 and 2010 with the simulated optimal results indicate that forest areas closer to urban centers are more susceptible to modernization processes, showing the advantage of NCA in accurately simulating land use changes in the central urban area.

Calibration and Verification of Discrete Element Parameters of Surface Soil in Camellia Oleifera Forest

To analyze the interaction between the surface soil and the soil-contacting component (65 Mn) in the camellia oleifera forest planting area in Changsha City, Hunan, China, in this study, we conducted discrete element calibration using physical and simulation tests. The chosen contact model was Hertz–Mindlin with JKR cohesion, with the soil repose angle as the response variable. The repose angle of the soil was determined to be 36.03° based on the physical tests. The significant influencing factors of the repose angle determined based on the Plackett–Burman test were the soil–soil recovery coefficient, soil–soil rolling friction coefficient, soil-65 Mn static friction coefficient, and surface energy of soil for the JKR model. A regression model for the repose angle was developed using the Box–Behnken response surface optimization method to identify the best parameter combination. The optimal parameter combination for the JKR model was determined as follows: surface energy of soil: 0.400, soil–soil rolling friction coefficient: 0.040, soil-65 Mn static friction coefficient: 0.404, and soil–soil recovery coefficient: 0.522. The calibrated discrete element parameters were validated through experiments on the repose angle and steel rod insertion. The results indicated that the relative errors obtained from the two verification methods were 2.44% and 1.71%, respectively. This research offers fundamental insights for understanding the interaction between soil and soil-contacting components and optimizing their design.

Forest Plot Decay Level Classification from ALS-Derived L-moments

Abstract. Forests play key roles in climate regulation and essential environmental services for living organisms. This is why forests are the central focus of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 15). Thus, effective forest management is critical for forest sustainability and preservation. Remote sensing advancements have improved forest mensuration leveraging cost and time, contrary to the field surveying approach. Often, field data is required to validate remotely sensed results. However, circumstances in the forest may render field data collection impossible. This study applied LiDAR-derived L-moments to directly estimate and classify five forest plot decay levels, to understand forest growth dynamics in the absence of field data. Two L-moment-based rules were tested and evaluated for classifying the plot decay levels from ALS height returns. Our findings show that the first rule (Lcv = 0.5) classified decay Levels 1 and 2 at Lcv &lt; 0.5 and Levels 3 to 5 at Lcv &gt; 0.5, while the second rule (Lskew = 0) classified decay Level 1 at Lskew &lt; 0, and Levels 2 to 5 at Lskew &gt; 0. This indicates that, while discriminating plot decay levels, the L-moment-based rules can classify healthy forest areas and areas of deadwood of varying decay levels directly from ALS height returns. This can be convenient for forest managers to exploit for classifying plot decay levels and for mapping areas of large gaps for planning forest resources for effective forest management. Furthermore, the approach can equally be significant for assessing forest biomass, biodiversity, and carbon stock.

Drivers and spatial patterns of avian defaunation in tropical forests

AbstractAimWildlife overexploitation, either for food consumption or for the pet trade, is one of the main threats to bird species in tropical forests. Yet, the spatial distribution and intensity of harvesting pressure on tropical birds remain challenging to quantify. Here, we identify the drivers of hunting‐induced declines in bird abundance and quantify the magnitude and the spatial extent of avian defaunation at a pantropical scale.LocationPantropical.MethodsWe compiled 2968 abundance estimates in hunted and non‐hunted sites across the tropics spanning 518 bird species. Using a Bayesian modelling framework, we fitted species' abundance response ratios to a set of drivers of hunting pressure and species traits. Subsequently, we applied our model to quantify the spatial patterns of avian defaunation across tropical forests and to assess avian defaunation across biogeographic realms, and for species captured for the pet trade or for food consumption.ResultsBody mass and its interactions with hunter accessibility and proximity to urban markets were the most important drivers of hunting‐induced bird abundance declines. We estimated a mean abundance reduction of 12% across the tropics for all species, and that 43% of the extent of tropical forests harbour defaunated avian communities. Large‐bodied species and the Indomalayan realm displayed the greatest abundance declines. Further, moderate to high levels of defaunation extended over 24% of the pantropical forest area, with distinct spatial patterns for species captured for the pet trade (Brazil, China and Indonesia) and for food consumption (SE Asia and West Africa).Main ConclusionsOur study emphasizes the role of hunter accessibility and the proximity to urban markets as major drivers of bird abundance declines due to hunting and trapping. We further identified hotspots where overexploitation has detrimental effects on tropical birds, encompassing local extinction events, thus underscoring the urgent need for conservation efforts to address unsustainable exploitation for both subsistence and trade.

The Role of Local Governments in Supporting Social Forestry Implementation in Indonesia: A Social Network Analysis and Evidence from Eastern Indonesia

Social forestry has become an integral part of Indonesia's efforts to balance economic development, conservation of natural resources, and the well-being of local communities. The Jokowi administration has made significant efforts to promote this initiative, including allocating 12.7 million hectares of state forest areas and recognizing it as an instrument to address tenure issues in forest areas through the Omnibus Law on Job Creation with getting support from various regulations by relevant ministries. However, social forestry support is needed down to the local government/regional levels (provincial, regency, and village levels). This study aims to analyze the local government’s support for implementing social forestry. We employ Social Network Analysis to identify local government entities and their relationships in implementation processes. Additionally, document analysis is used to assess the extent of local government support through their working documents. The study shows that local government support for the implementation is still limited, with its execution primarily concentrated within a few agencies. Social forestry has not yet fully become a strategy for achieving community well-being around forests, enhancing local economies, or protecting forest resources. Furthermore, stakeholders' understanding of social forestry, resource availability, and local government policies to support it remains limited. Improvements in these three aspects are necessary to ensure successful implementation at the regional levels.

Erosion in the coastal areas of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: Current challenges and solutions

Coastal erosion is one of the types of geological disasters that is occurring quite commonly and seriously in the Mekong Delta. The problem of landslides and erosions is one of the major concerns for coastal stability. Currently, along 9 coastal provinces, there are over 115 serious erosion and landslide points; each year, a total of 300 –500 hectares of coastal land can be lost. Erosion and landslides narrow the area of mangrove forests, residential land, and aquaculture land of local people. The Mekong Delta has to spend billions of VND yearly to build breakwaters and sea dikes and restore mangrove forests. Many structural and non-structural measures have been implemented to reduce the risk of erosion over the past two decades. However, there is not much assessment of the sustainability of landslide prevention projects. The research question is what are the challenges and difficulties in the ongoing fight against erosion in the coastal plain. Through a practical approach from surveying works in coastal areas, the results show that choosing an effective solution depends mainly on the cost factor and the terrain of the ground. Water resource management policy on the Mekong River system is difficult to find a satisfactory answer.

Using multiscale lidar to determine variation in canopy structure from African forest elephant trails

AbstractRecently classified as a unique species by the IUCN, African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) are critically endangered due to severe poaching. With limited knowledge about their ecological role due to the dense tropical forests they inhabit in central Africa, it is unclear how the Afrotropics are influenced by elephants. Although their role as seed dispersers is well known, they may also drive large‐scale processes that determine forest structure through the creation of elephant trails and browsing the understory, allowing larger, carbon‐dense trees to succeed. Multiple scales of lidar were collected by NASA in Lopé National Park, Gabon from 2015 to 2022. Utilizing two airborne lidar datasets in an African forest elephant stronghold, detailed canopy structural information was used in conjunction with elephant trail data to determine how forest structure varies on and off trails. Forest along elephant trails displayed different structural characteristics than forested areas off trails, with lower canopy height, canopy cover, and different vertical distribution of plant density. Less plant area density was found on trails at 1 m in height, while more vegetation was found at 12 m, compared to off trail locations. Trails in forest areas with previous logging history had lower plant area in the top of the canopy. Forest elephants can be considered as “logging light” ecosystem engineers, affecting canopy structure through browsing and movement. Both airborne lidar scales were able to capture elephant impact along trails, with the high‐resolution discrete return lidar performing higher than waveform lidar.

Three new species of Vaccinium L. (Ericaceae) from Mindanao Island, Philippines

Three new species of Vaccinium endemic to the island of Mindanao, Philippines are here described and illustrated. Vaccinium fallax most closely resembles V. myrtoides, but differs by having smaller leaves, caducous bracts, shorter pedicels, a broadly obconical hypanthium, broadly triangular calyx lobes, and a deep pink and broadly urceolate corolla. It grows on exposed areas and among sulfur vents at and near the summit of Mt. Apo. Vaccinium gamay most closely resembles V. gitingense, but differs in having shorter inflorescences, early caducous inflorescence bracts, shorter pedicels, presence of clavate glands on the hypanthium, and an absence of anther spurs. It grows on exposed areas in the ultramafic forest of Mt. Hamiguitan. It is one of only two Philippine Vaccinium species possessing distinctly callose-thickened calyx lobes, the other being V. gitingense. Vaccinium vomicum most closely resembles V. carmesinum, but differs by having smaller leaves, presence of glands on the extreme end of the leaf blade base, presence of clavate glands on the hypanthium, shorter stamens, and presence of stalked glands on the dentate apex of the tubules. It grows in the mossy rainforest of Mt. Kitanglad, and it is the only Philippine species of Vaccinium with glands on the extreme end of its leaf blade base. Following IUCN guidelines, we propose a conservation status of Critically Endangered for V. fallax, Endangered for V. gamay, and Data Deficient for V. vomicum. With these discoveries, the number of Vaccinium species in Mindanao Islands increases to 22 and in the Philippines to 44. Furthermore, the Mindanao Islands can now be considered the center of Vaccinium diversity in the Philippines.

Streamflow Variation under Climate Conditions Based on a Soil and Water Assessment Tool Model: A Case Study of the Bailong River Basin

We coupled the global climate models (GCMs) from the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) and Future Land Use Simulation model (FLUS) to evaluate land use change in the Bailong River Basin (BRB) under three shared socioeconomic pathway and representative concentration pathway scenarios (SSP1–2.6, SSP2–4.5, SSP5–8.5). Additionally, we used calibrated soil and water assessment tools (SWATs) to evaluate the streamflow in the BRB from 2008 to 2100 under the combined influence of climate and land use changes. The results indicate that (1) under the SSP126-EP scenario, forests have been well preserved, and there has been an increase in the combined area of forests and water bodies. The SSP245-ND scenario has a similar reduction pattern in agricultural land as SSP126-EP, with relatively good grassland preservation and a moderate expansion rate in built-up land. In contrast, the SSP585-EG scenario features a rapid expansion of built-up land, converting a significant amount of farmland and grassland into built-up land. (2) From 2021 to 2100, the annual average flow increases under all three scenarios, and the streamflow change is most significant under SSP5–8.5. (3) Compared to the baseline period, the monthly runoff increases, with the most significant increase occurring during the summer months (June to August). This study offers a thorough assessment of potential future changes in streamflow. Its findings are expected to be applied in the future to improve the management of water resources at a local level.