scholarly journals Forest carbon allocation modelling under climate change

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (12) ◽  
pp. 1937-1960 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarína Merganičová ◽  
Ján Merganič ◽  
Aleksi Lehtonen ◽  
Giorgio Vacchiano ◽  
Maša Zorana Ostrogović Sever ◽  
...  

Abstract Carbon allocation plays a key role in ecosystem dynamics and plant adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Hence, proper description of this process in vegetation models is crucial for the simulations of the impact of climate change on carbon cycling in forests. Here we review how carbon allocation modelling is currently implemented in 31 contrasting models to identify the main gaps compared with our theoretical and empirical understanding of carbon allocation. A hybrid approach based on combining several principles and/or types of carbon allocation modelling prevailed in the examined models, while physiologically more sophisticated approaches were used less often than empirical ones. The analysis revealed that, although the number of carbon allocation studies over the past 10 years has substantially increased, some background processes are still insufficiently understood and some issues in models are frequently poorly represented, oversimplified or even omitted. Hence, current challenges for carbon allocation modelling in forest ecosystems are (i) to overcome remaining limits in process understanding, particularly regarding the impact of disturbances on carbon allocation, accumulation and utilization of nonstructural carbohydrates, and carbon use by symbionts, and (ii) to implement existing knowledge of carbon allocation into defence, regeneration and improved resource uptake in order to better account for changing environmental conditions.

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 1103-1114 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Maignan ◽  
F.-M. Bréon ◽  
F. Chevallier ◽  
N. Viovy ◽  
P. Ciais ◽  
...  

Abstract. Atmospheric CO2 drives most of the greenhouse effect increase. One major uncertainty on the future rate of increase of CO2 in the atmosphere is the impact of the anticipated climate change on the vegetation. Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVM) are used to address this question. ORCHIDEE is such a DGVM that has proven useful for climate change studies. However, there is no objective and methodological way to accurately assess each new available version on the global scale. In this paper, we submit a methodological evaluation of ORCHIDEE by correlating satellite-derived Vegetation Index time series against those of the modeled Fraction of absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FPAR). A perfect correlation between the two is not expected, however an improvement of the model should lead to an increase of the overall performance. We detail two case studies in which model improvements are demonstrated, using our methodology. In the first one, a new phenology version in ORCHIDEE is shown to bring a significant impact on the simulated annual cycles, in particular for C3 Grasses and C3 Crops. In the second case study, we compare the simulations when using two different weather fields to drive ORCHIDEE. The ERA-Interim forcing leads to a better description of the FPAR interannual anomalies than the simulation forced by a mixed CRU-NCEP dataset. This work shows that long time series of satellite observations, despite their uncertainties, can identify weaknesses in global vegetation models, a necessary first step to improving them.


2020 ◽  
Vol 245 ◽  
pp. 105125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuanxuan Wang ◽  
Yaning Chen ◽  
Zhi Li ◽  
Gonghuan Fang ◽  
Fei Wang ◽  
...  

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ester González de Andrés

Forest ecosystems are undergoing unprecedented changes in environmental conditions due to global change impacts. Modification of global biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nitrogen, and the subsequent climate change are affecting forest functions at different scales, from physiology and growth of individual trees to cycling of nutrients. This review summarizes the present knowledge regarding the impact of global change on forest functioning not only with respect to climate change, which is the focus of most studies, but also the influence of altered nitrogen cycle and the interactions among them. The carbon dioxide (CO2) fertilization effect on tree growth is expected to be constrained by nutrient imbalances resulting from high N deposition rates and the counteractive effect of increasing water deficit, which interact in a complex way. At the community level, responses to global change are modified by species interactions that may lead to competition for resources and/or relaxation due to facilitation and resource partitioning processes. Thus, some species mixtures can be more resistant to drought than their respective pure forests, albeit it depends on environmental conditions and species’ functional traits. Climate change and nitrogen deposition have additional impacts on litterfall dynamics, and subsequent decomposition and nutrient mineralization processes. Elemental ratios (i.e., stoichiometry) are associated with important ecosystem traits, including trees’ adaptability to stress or decomposition rates. As stoichiometry of different ecosystem components are also influenced by global change, nutrient cycling in forests will be altered too. Therefore, a re-assessment of traditional forest management is needed in order to cope with global change. Proposed silvicultural systems emphasize the key role of diversity to assure multiple ecosystem services, and special attention has been paid to mixed-species forests. Finally, a summary of the patterns and underlying mechanisms governing the relationships between diversity and different ecosystems functions, such as productivity and stability, is provided.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 74
Author(s):  
Geng-Jian Zhou ◽  
Qiao-Xu Qin ◽  
Wei-Zhou Lin ◽  
Yuan-Biao Zhang

Over the past few decades, the Earth’s climate has undergone conspicuous changes, some of which have a profound impact on social and governmental systems. The purpose of this paper is to establish a model for measuring national fragile and the impact of climate change on a country. For this purpose, we first define the Fragile States Index (FSI) to measure the fragility of a country based on population, crime rate and education, which are the three aspects that most countries or regions will focus on. Second, we use the FSI to illustrate how climate change affects the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Third, we analyze the definitive indicators of Indonesia and predict the changes of FSI. Finally, the effects of each intervention policy were obtained by analyzing Indonesia’s intervention policy on environmental change. To provide ideas for intervention on climate change.


2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Manoj Kumar ◽  
◽  
S.P.S. Rawat ◽  
Hukum Singh ◽  
N.H. Ravindranath ◽  
...  

Understanding climate change vulnerability of Indian forests has received wider attention in recent years and a number of assessments with different approaches have emerged over time. These assessments have mostly used climate-sensitive vegetation models to explain the climate change impacts. In these studies, trees constituting a particular forest are often clubbed together into small number of groups having similar functional traits referred as Plant Functional Types (PFTs). Most of the Forest Vegetation Models (FVMs) are still in their developmental stage and there have been attempts at various levels to develop more versatile and precise models. Several developing countries, including India, still lag behind in developing dynamic vegetation models (DVMs), which could be appropriate for the local applications to predict the impact on forests at regional level. This is restrained mainly because of the lack of long-term observations with respect to various interacting biotic, abiotic and climatic (or environmental) variables in a forest ecosystem, like water and nitrogen use efficiency, response to elevated concentration of CO2, nutrient cycling, net primary productivity, etc. The observations on influence of the environmental variables on forest ecosystems are available in discrete form. Existing FVMs integrate observations more appropriately for their place of origin for which they have been developed. Different types of forests in different climatic zones are supposed to respond differently to climatic changes. Hence, it is imperative that models are developed for the specific biogeographic regions in order to predict the influences more accurately. It may not be wise to use existing FVMs in their pristine form for all of the region without considering the regional influences. Various challenges associated with the usage of the generic models of external origin with special reference to Integrated Biosphere Simulator (IBIS) model - being widely used and accepted in Indian policy documents- is presented in this paper. We also discuss on the need for developing a regional FVM for climate change impact studies, so that the impact prediction is more precise and reliable.


Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 867 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleena Joy ◽  
Frank R. Dunshea ◽  
Brian J. Leury ◽  
Iain J. Clarke ◽  
Kristy DiGiacomo ◽  
...  

Climate change is a major global threat to the sustainability of livestock systems. Climatic factors such as ambient temperature, relative humidity, direct and indirect solar radiation and wind speed influence feed and water availability, fodder quality and disease occurrence, with production being most efficient in optimal environmental conditions. Among these climatic variables, ambient temperature fluctuations have the most impact on livestock production and animal welfare. Continuous exposure of the animals to heat stress compromises growth, milk and meat production and reproduction. The capacity of an animal to mitigate effects of increased environmental temperature, without progressing into stress response, differs within and between species. Comparatively, small ruminants are better adapted to hot environments than large ruminants and have better ability to survive, produce and reproduce in harsh climatic regions. Nevertheless, the physiological and behavioral changes in response to hot environments affect small ruminant production. It has been found that tropical breeds are more adaptive to hot climates than high-producing temperate breeds. The growing body of knowledge on the negative impact of heat stress on small ruminant production and welfare will assist in the development of suitable strategies to mitigate heat stress. Selection of thermotolerant breeds, through identification of genetic traits for adaption to extreme environmental conditions (high temperature, feed scarcity, water scarcity), is a viable strategy to combat climate change and minimize the impact on small ruminant production and welfare. This review highlights such adaption within and among different breeds of small ruminants challenged by heat stress.


Climate ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lingjun Hao ◽  
Daniel Herrera-Avellanosa ◽  
Claudio Del Pero ◽  
Alexandra Troi

Climate change imposes great challenges on the built heritage sector by increasing the risks of energy inefficiency, indoor overheating, and moisture-related damage to the envelope. Therefore, it is urgent to assess these risks and plan adaptation strategies for historic buildings. These activities must be based on a strong knowledge of the main building categories. Moreover, before adapting a historic building to future climate, it is necessary to understand how the past climate influenced its design, construction, and eventual categories. This knowledge will help when estimating the implication of climate change on historic buildings. This study aims at identifying building categories, which will be the basis for further risk assessment and adaptation plans, while at the same time analyzing the historical interaction between climate and human dwelling. The results show some correlations between building categories and climate. Therefore, it is necessary to use different archetypes to represent the typical buildings in different climate zones. Moreover, these correlations imply a need to investigate the capability of the climate-responsive features in future climate scenarios and to explore possible further risks and adaptation strategies.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher P. O. Reyer ◽  
Ramiro Silveyra Gonzalez ◽  
Klara Dolos ◽  
Florian Hartig ◽  
Ylva Hauf ◽  
...  

Abstract. Process-based vegetation models are widely used to predict local and global ecosystem dynamics and climate change impacts. Due to their complexity, they require careful parameterization and evaluation to ensure that projections are accurate and reliable. The PROFOUND Database (PROFOUND DB) provides a wide range of empirical data to calibrate and evaluate vegetation models that simulate climate impacts at the forest stand scale. A particular advantage of this database is its wide coverage of multiple data sources at different hierarchical and temporal scales, together with environmental driving data as well as the latest climate scenarios. Specifically, the PROFOUND DB provides general site descriptions, soil, climate, CO2, nitrogen deposition, tree and forest stand-level, as well as remote sensing data for nine contrasting forest stands distributed across Europe. Moreover, for a subset of five sites, time series of carbon fluxes, atmospheric heat conduction, and soil water are also available. The climate and nitrogen deposition data contain several datasets for the historic period and a wide range of future climate change scenarios following the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0, RCP8.5). We also provide pre-industrial climate simulations that allow for model runs aimed at disentangling the contribution of climate change to observed forest productivity changes. The PROFOUND DB is available freely as a SQLite relational database or ASCII flat file version (at https://doi.org/10.5880/PIK.2019.008). The data policies of the individual, contributing datasets are provided in the metadata of each data file. The PROFOUND DB can also be accessed via the ProfoundData R-package (https://github.com/COST-FP1304-PROFOUND/ProfoundData), which provides basic functions to explore, plot, and extract the data for model set-up, calibration and evaluation.


Author(s):  
Aboli Mendhe ◽  
Ankit Ghode ◽  
Umesh Jibhakate ◽  
Ritik Chalurkar ◽  
Niraj Bhople ◽  
...  

Since the 21st century, the idea of green constructing has gradually become popular again was launched in many countries, which has become a popular alternative to sustainable development construction industry. Over the past few decades, many scholars and experts have done more research on the green structure. Green construction technology is one of the world’s leading topics set to reduce the major impact of the construction industry on the environment, society and the economy. The world has an urgent need for sustainability and an intelligent development as the problem of pollution and global warming grows rapidly around the world. Major climate change has also been noted and experience globally due to the proliferation of Green House Gases (GHG's). The purpose of this paper is to focus on how sustainable constructing material can help reduce the impact of environmental degradation, and produce healthy buildings that are sustainable for the human being and for our environment.


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