Forest Climate Change Research Articles

Modeling the influence of forest vegetation and climate change on the long-term performance of a cover with capillary barrier effects used to control acid mine drainage: the Lorraine case study

ABSTRACT The Lorraine mine site in Témiscamingue region (Québec, Canada) was reclaimed with a cover with capillary barrier effects (CCBE) to limit acid mine drainage generation. The main objective of this study is to predict the long-term hydrogeological behaviour of the CCBE at Lorraine site, including the influence of vegetation and climate change (CC). Numerical simulations showed that performance of the CCBE is: (1) not affected by forest vegetation and CC in the saturated zone in the north of the Lorraine site and (2) more sensitive to vegetation in the unsaturated zone in the south where the phreatic level is low.

Are Countries Ready for REDD+ Payments? REDD+ Readiness in Bhutan, India, Myanmar, and Nepal

The Paris Agreement recognized the significant role of forests in climate change mitigating and adapting. It also emphasized the importance of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism as a vital tool for achieving the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. This study aims to assess the REDD+ readiness of Bhutan, India, Myanmar, and Nepal in preparation for effectively implementing REDD+ at the national level. A total of 57 indicators across five categories were used to evaluate readiness: overall readiness, technical readiness, institutional readiness, financing readiness, and strategy and safeguard readiness. The indicator-based questionnaire was administered to government officials, NGOs, private sectors, and academics. The results showed that Nepal was slightly more advanced in overall readiness, owing in part to the longer readiness period of the World Bank-supported Terai Arc ER-P. India scored highly in technical readiness and has several sub-national programmes for REDD+ implementation. Bhutan had strong ratings for strategy and safeguard readiness but lower scores for institutional and financing readiness. Myanmar had consistent ratings across readiness areas, but a lower score for technical readiness. However, political and governance situations pose significant challenges to the effective implementation of REDD+ in Myanmar.

Climate Change Impact on Forest Cover: A Critical Review

Climate change affects forest cover through increased temperature, change in precipitation, frequent extreme events, and a shifting disturbance regime. In view of understanding the existing studies carried out on climate change impact on forest cover, we reviewed the findings of several researchers to assess the impact of changing climatic parameters on forest cover. The role of deforestation on climate change was analyzed by presenting some of the arguments made by several researchers. Further, the influence of forests in climate change was evaluated by the amount of carbon sequestrated in the forests throughout the world and the effect of climate change on carbon sequestration was also done with the help of review of the literature. Direct, Indirect and compound effects of climate change impact on forest cover were also shortlisted and discussed. Then certain coping mechanisms were also discussed by the authors for the forests whose health was highly affected due to climate change. Several research publications demonstrating the response of forest cover to climate change were critically analyzed. The review revelaed that climatic variations are very important to understand the forest cover changes of an ecosystem in which the climate prevails. It is also understood that the variability of rainfall and temperature were not the main cause for forest cover changes. Climate change impact assessment has significant implications on carbon sequestration greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation strategies to climate change. Utilising remote sensing data for documenting and identifying forest degradation status is a viable option for planning climate change mitigation in forest regions.

Ecoclimates

One of the greatest challenges to mankind is understanding the underlying principles of climate change. Over the last years, the role of forests in climate change has received increased attention. This is due to the observation that not only the atmosphere has a principal impact on vegetation growth but also that vegetation is contributing to local variations of weather resulting in diverse microclimates. The interconnection of plant ecosystems and weather is described and studied as ecoclimates. In this work we take steps towards simulating ecoclimates by modeling the feedback loops between vegetation, soil, and atmosphere. In contrast to existing methods that only describe the climate at a global scale, our model aims at simulating local variations of climate. Specifically, we model tree growth interactively in response to gradients of water, temperature and light. As a result, we are able to capture a range of ecoclimate phenomena that have not been modeled before, including geomorphic controls, forest edge effects, the Foehn effect and spatial vegetation patterning. To validate the plausibility of our method we conduct a comparative analysis to studies from ecology and climatology. Consequently, our method advances the state-of-the-art of generating highly realistic outdoor landscapes of vegetation.

Species Diversity, Biomass and Carbon Stock Assessment of Kanhlyashay Natural Mangrove Forest

Mangrove ecosystems sequester and store large amounts of carbon in both biomass and soil. In this study, species diversity, the above and below-ground biomass as well as carbon stock by the mangroves in Kanhlyashay natural mangrove forest were estimated. Six true mangrove species from four families were recorded in the sample plots of the study area. Among them, Avicennia officinalis L. from the Acanthaceae family was the abundance of species with an importance value of 218.69%. Shannon–Wiener’s diversity index value (H′ = 0.71) of the mangrove community was very low compared to other natural mangrove forests since the mangrove stands in the study site possessed a low number of mangrove species and were dominated by a few species. Estimated mean biomass was 335.55 ± 181.41 Mg ha−1 (AGB = 241.37 ± 132.73 Mg ha−1, BGB = 94.17 ± 48.73 Mg ha−1). The mean overall C-stock of the mangrove stand was 150.25 ± 81.35 Mg C ha−1 and is equivalent to 551.10 ± 298.64 Mg CO2 eq. The role of forests in climate change is two-fold as a cause and a solution for greenhouse gas emissions. The result of the study demonstrated that the mangroves in Letkhutkon village have high carbon storage potential, therefore it is necessary to be sustainably managed to maintain and increase carbon storage. Climate change mitigation may be achieved not only by reducing the carbon emission levels but also by maintaining the mangrove ecosystem services as carbon sinks and sequestration.

The Role of Forests in Climate Change Regarding Carbon, Nitrogen, and Water: A Case Study of Pinus densiflora

We examined the influence of climate change on the dynamics of Pinus densiflora, the most dominant tree species in South Korea, to explore its potential for climate change mitigation. We considered changes in precipitation, temperature, and CO2 under four representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios separately and in combination to evaluate the responses of Pinus densiflora to climate change. A well-tested ecohydrological and biogeochemical model, ecosys, was used to study the Gwangneung Experimental Forest in South Korea. Results showed that the positive effects of CO2 fertilizer on gross primary productivity (GPP) and net primary productivity (NPP) outweighed the negative effects caused by changes in precipitation and temperature. In particular, NPP improvements of 3.79%, 13.44%, 18.26%, and 28.91% were modeled under RCP values of 2.6, 4.5, 6.5, and 8.5, respectively, compared to the baseline. We found that nitrogen leaching and N2O flux reduced as climate change become severe due to increases in nutrient uptake, leading to reduced soil nitrogen losses. Although evapotranspiration increased as the intensity of climate change increased, reductions in the stomatal opening improved the water use efficiency of Pinus densiflora. These results indicated that Pinus densiflora could serve as an environmentally friendly option to minimize climate change consequences.

Youth Inclusion in Forest Policy Dialogue: Contemplating Human–Forest Relationships through Arts-Based Methods

Awareness of human–forest relationships offers a basis for meaningful forest policy participation. However, weakening connections to forests, particularly among young people, hamper youth inclusion in policy arenas. We consider the use of arts-based methods as knowledge practices that nurture human–forest relationships and may promote inclusive policies. Arts-based methods, such as photography, music, or drama, offer insights and elicit opinions. Within the forest domain, exploiting such methods requires better understanding of how participants perceive them. Here we present two cases where young people (17–30 years) unfold their forest relationships. Following prompted retrospective reflections, we qualitatively analyse participant perceptions of the interventions. Case one is an innovation workshop blending art and science, where young research participants joined artists and environmental and forest scientists. Case two is a writing exercise for young research participants, where a hip-hop/rap video about laser scanning and the role of forests in climate change was used to catalyse participants’ reflections. Analysis applied the tripartite model of attitude comprising cognitive, affective, and behavioural dimensions. The workshop results emphasise benefits of networking and fruitful reflections, coupled with unequal participation concerns. The video experience yielded a range of thoughts and emotions, including excitement and invitingness, but also irritation, doubts over its influence, and no explicit behavioural intentions. The findings suggest that realising the opportunities of arts-based knowledge practices requires time and space for ensuring that young people’s voices are heard. More inclusive participation of youth in formal and informal forest policy dialogue calls for careful facilitation and means to secure continuation.

Peat swamp forest-firesimpacts on local livelihoods: a case study in Kapuas Kahayan Protected Forest Management Unit, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Peat swamp forests have received great global attention in the last few decades because of their carbon stock, which is closely related to climate change and global warming. In addition to the global role of peat swamp forests in climate change and carbon storage, peat swamp forests also have some social and economic functions because of their great contribution to the livelihoods of local people. In Central Kalimantan, peat swamp forests have been experiencing a massive degradation mainly due to fires. This study aims to describe the utilization of peat swamp forests and the impacts of peat-swamp-forest fires on local people’s livelihoods in Central Kalimantan. The research was conducted by interviewing local communities around the area, then the data were analyzed qualitatively. The study result shows that there are 8 utilization activities related to livelihoods by local people on peat swamp forest i.e. logging; gathering rattan, orchid, medicinal plants, grasses and epiphytes, damar, gemor (tree bark); fishing and hunting; freshwater utilization, foods gathering, sacred spots for local belief, and traditional agriculture. Overall, forest fires have significantly negative impacts on local livelihoods as fires cause the loss of biodiversity and decrease the quality of ecosystem services. These losses lead to the disappearance of income and food sources for local people. However, there are also some small advantages or positive impacts of forest fires i.e higher production of fish after forest fires, and more jobs in forest rangers and land rehabilitation from both government and non-government organizations.

Pre-service teachers’ opinions about a two-day climate change education workshop

A two-day workshop was designed in order to increase awareness of pre-service teachers about the role of forests in adapting and mitigating the effects of climate change. In this workshop, five different activities were developed to reflect five sections, which are listed as forest strengths and weakness, general knowledge on climate change, the role of forests in climate change, forest policies and climate change and climate refugees, were implemented as part of project “Educating on Climate Forests.” The designed activities focused on increasing participants’ awareness about general knowledge on climate change, the adaptation and mitigation strategies in order to adapt living with climate change, the climate refugee situation, the importance of forest management and environmental conservation strategies and the destructive effects of deforestation. The present study investigated pre-service teachers’ opinions about the designed activities. Through the designed activities, participants had an opportunity to develop deeper insights into the role of forests in adapting and mitigating the effects of climate change. After each activity, participants’ opinions were gathered via written reflection forms. In general, the results revealed that participants thought the implemented activities were increased their awareness. Although they stated that they had time and material insufficiency, they proposed suggestions for improving the activities.

Modelagem da biomassa da regeneração natural em plantio de Pinus

Dados confiáveis de biomassa são muito importantes na avaliação de ecossistemas, e auxiliam no entendimento da contribuição das florestas nas mudanças climáticas. Variáveis que descrevem o porte da árvore, como diâmetro e altura, estão associadas diretamente com a biomassa, o que permite o uso de modelos de regressão para a estimativa desse elemento. Este trabalho se propôs estimar, por modelos de regressão, a biomassa de diferentes compartimentos de árvores de regeneração natural em um plantio de Pinus taeda L. Os dados foram obtidos por meio do método destrutivo direto, utilizando-se 100 árvores selecionadas aleatoriamente no sub-bosque de um povoamento de P. taeda. Foram analisados três modelos aritméticos, três logarítmicos e dois modelos desenvolvidos pelo processo Stepwise. As equações logarítmicas desenvolvidas pelo procedimento Stepwise apresentaram as melhores estimativas para a biomassa aérea total e do fuste. Entretanto, para os compartimentos acículas e galhos, os melhores ajustes foram observados com o modelo de Husch, e para a predição da biomassa do sistema radicular, o modelo de Berkhout mostrou-se o mais adequado.

It's not only the carbon in the trees

Climate Change Forest loss affects climate not just because of the impacts it has on the carbon cycle, but also because of how it affects the fluxes of energy and water between the land and the atmosphere. Evaluating global impact is complicated because deforestation can produce different results in

An overview of interrelationship between climate change and forests

Global warming is a well-known natural phenomenon that needs to be controlled for environmental conservation. Based on the ecological interrelationship between forest and climate, the concept of our review was formulated with the aim of providing current information about deforestation and its effects on climate change, the impacts of climate change on forests and the role of forests in climate change. Based on recent research findings, the annual rate of deforestation is 0.14% per year with 2.3 million square kilometers lost between 2000 and 2012. The net carbon emission from deforestation and forest degradation, which can cause climate change, was high and it has not changed significantly over the last two decades. On the other hand, temperature, drought, precipitation and fire can affect forest health (especially for young trees). But if we define these factors in detail, solar radiation alone may not affect tree growth, although together with temperature it can affect growth. Moreover, the frequency of fire affected the regeneration of tropical moist deciduous and Amazonian forest types more significantly than temperate and tropical dry deciduous forest types. Non-equilibrium species distribution has been occurring and frequency of species has been changed throughout the world. However, the amount of carbon storage by world forests is significant (650 billion tons) although carbon sequestration potential varies with forest types and water deficiency.