Afforestation Management Research Articles

A new climatic classification of afforestation in Three-North regions of China with multi-source remote sensing data

Afforestation and reforestation activities achieve high attention at the policy agenda as measures for carbon sequestration in order to mitigate climate change. The Three-North Shelter Forest Program, the largest ecological afforestation program worldwide, was launched in 1978 and will last until 2050 in the Three-North regions (accounting for 42.4 % of China’s territory). Shelter forests of the Three-North Shelter Forest Program have exhibited severe decline after planting in 1978 due to lack of detailed climatic classification. Besides, a comprehensive assessment of climate adaptation for the current shelter forests was lacking. In this study, the aridity index determined by precipitation and reference evapotranspiration was employed to classify climatic zones for the afforestation program. The precipitation and reference evapotranspiration with 1-km resolution were estimated based on data from the tropical rainfall measuring mission and moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer, respectively. Then, the detailed climatic classification for the afforestation program was obtained based on the relationship between the different vegetation types and the aridity index. The shelter forests in 2008 were derived from Landsat TM in the Three-North regions. In addition, climatic zones and shelter forests were corrected by comparing with natural vegetation map and field surveys. By overlaying the shelter forests on the climatic zones, we found that 16.30 % coniferous forests, 8.21 % broadleaved forests, 2.03 % mixed conifer-broadleaved forests, and 10.86 % shrubs were not in strict accordance with the climate conditions. These results open new perspectives for potential use of remote sensing techniques for afforestation management.

The response of ground-dwelling spiders (Araneae) and hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) to afforestation assessed using within-site tracking

In manycountries throughout the world, the area of plantation forests continues to increase and they now dominate many landscapes. In recent decades, forest cover in Ireland has expanded largelydue to commercial afforestation with non-native conifers. This study provides the first within-site assessment of the response of two important arthropod groups to afforestation in agricultural grasslands in Ireland. Five sites were studied 1 year beforeand7yearsafterafforestationusingpitfalltrappingforactiveground-dwellingspidersandMalaisetrapping forhoverflies.Bothspeciesgroupswerestudiedingrasslandhabitat,andspiderswerealsosampledinfieldboundaryhedgerowhabitat.Afforestationwithinthestudysiteshadapositiveeffectonground-dwellingspiderdiversity over the first 7 years; total species richness increased in afforested grassland and hedgerow habitats, and forest specialist species richness increased in afforested grassland habitat. This was concurrent with, and most likely influenced by, the increase in habitat structure created by the forest vegetation, litter and deadwood layers and the increase in canopy cover. There was no effect of afforestation on hoverfly species richness over the first 7 years, possibly due to confounding effects of hoverfly movements across landscapes. Spider and hoverfly species compositions were also positively affected by afforestation. These results indicated that afforestation in our study sites, set within a predominantly agricultural landscape, benefitted arthropod diversity by increasing habitat diversity. Hedgerow habitats were also an important contributor to biodiversity in these newly planted forests. Ecologically oriented planning and management of afforestation must consider the influence of habitat quality in forest plantations, including the protection of biodiversity rich habitats and the quality of the land being afforested, to improve the contribution to biodiversity enhancement and conservation.