Global Overview of Tropical Dry Forests

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
G. N. Tanjina Hasnat ◽  
Mohammed Kamal Hossain
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Endangered Species ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Forest Type ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Tropical Dry Forests ◽  
Land Conversion ◽  
Dry Period ◽  
Dry Forests ◽  
The World

Forests cover almost one-third of the Earth's land surface. Tropical dry forests are the second-most-important forest type in the world covering approximately 42% of tropical and sub-tropical forest area. The main features of these forests are their deciduousness, a prolonged dry period extending 3-9 months, and little annual precipitation of 250-2,000 mm. Tropical dry forests are found in five of the eight realms in the world. More than half of the forests are distributed in the Americas, with other portions in Africa, Eurasia, Australia, and Southeast Asia. The forests are unique in nature, and provide shelter to a huge number of endemics and endangered species. Among woody plant species, about 40% are not found anywhere in the world. These forests are now the most threatened among all forest types. The conservation status of these forests is endangered. Deforestation, rapid civilization, land conversion, fire, and climate change are the major threats. Proper management with time-oriented policy could be helpful to restore these forests and protect the existing remnant areas.

Climate Change Effects, Adaptation, and Mitigation Techniques in Tropical Dry Forests

2022 ◽  
pp. 309-331
Author(s):  
G. N. Tanjina Hasnat
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Type ◽  
Tropical Dry Forests ◽  
Annual Rainfall ◽  
Precipitation Pattern ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Dry Forests ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
Mitigation Techniques ◽  
Adaptation And Mitigation

Tropical dry forests is one of the most unique forest types. It differs from other tropical forests with its climatic behavior like a prominent dry period, little annual rainfall, and high evapotranspiration. Out of six global bioclimatic zones, the forests are distributed in four. Climate change is now the most challenging issue regarding the fate of tropical dry forests. A severe climatic change is estimated to occur between 2040 and 2069 that could drastically change the precipitation pattern, temperature, aridity, and distribution of biodiversity. It could alter the forest type permanently. With a large number of heat-tolerant species, tropical dry forests have a great potentiality to conservationists with the prediction of a large area that could attain the climatic condition favorable for extension of tropical dry forests. But many of the species of tropical dry forests could be extinct due to changing climate at the same time. Proper adaptation and mitigation techniques could minimize the severity of climate change effects.

Climate Change Effects, Adaptation, and Mitigation Techniques in Tropical Dry Forests

2020 ◽  
pp. 42-64
Author(s):  
G. N. Tanjina Hasnat
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Type ◽  
Tropical Dry Forests ◽  
Annual Rainfall ◽  
Precipitation Pattern ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Dry Forests ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
Mitigation Techniques ◽  
Adaptation And Mitigation

Tropical dry forests is one of the most unique forest types. It differs from other tropical forests with its climatic behavior like a prominent dry period, little annual rainfall, and high evapotranspiration. Out of six global bioclimatic zones, the forests are distributed in four. Climate change is now the most challenging issue regarding the fate of tropical dry forests. A severe climatic change is estimated to occur between 2040 and 2069 that could drastically change the precipitation pattern, temperature, aridity, and distribution of biodiversity. It could alter the forest type permanently. With a large number of heat-tolerant species, tropical dry forests have a great potentiality to conservationists with the prediction of a large area that could attain the climatic condition favorable for extension of tropical dry forests. But many of the species of tropical dry forests could be extinct due to changing climate at the same time. Proper adaptation and mitigation techniques could minimize the severity of climate change effects.

Diversity and Distribution of Tropical Dry Forests

2020 ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Raja Prakasam ◽  
Balaguru Balakrishnan ◽  
Soosairaj Sebastian
Keyword(s):  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Floristic Composition ◽  
Eastern Ghats ◽  
Tropical Dry Forests ◽  
Plant Resources ◽  
Dry Forests ◽  
Distribution Maps ◽  
National Wealth ◽  
Floristic Studies

Tropical dry forests occur as patches in Tamil Nadu distributed along the East Coast, Eastern Ghats, and plains of the Indian Peninsula. The floristic studies of these regions are of great national relevance as plant resources in a tropical climate contribute to national wealth. Dry forests of the plains in Tamil Nadu have been neglected and the area under study has remained practically unexplored. This chapter studies distribution of tropical dry forests, especially in Pudukkottai district in Tamil Nadu. In total, 187 sacred groves were surveyed for their distribution and floristic composition. The GPS position of each grove was noted and their distribution maps were prepared. The groves were classified based on conservation status, namely well conserved, moderately conserved and degraded. Extensive botanical explorations were carried out periodically during 2012–2016 in these groves and 812 species belonging to 480 genera under 124 families were recorded. The endemic, threatened species of these groves were also documented.

scholarly journals Moving Birds in Hawai'i: Assisted Colonisation in a Colonised Land

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-64
Author(s):  
Thom Van Dooren
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Endangered Species ◽  
Native Hawaiian ◽  
Avian Species ◽  
Kanaka Maoli ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Many

In September 2011, a delicate cargo of 24 Nihoa Millerbirds was carefully loaded by conservationists onto a ship for a three-day voyage to Laysan Island in the remote Northwest Hawaiian Islands. The goal of this effort was to establish a second population of this endangered species, an “insurance population” in the face of the mounting pressures of climate change and potential new biotic arrivals. But the millerbird, or ulūlu in Hawaiian, is just one of the many avian species to become the subject of this kind of “assisted colonisation.” In Hawai'i, and around the world, recent years have seen a broad range of efforts to safeguard species by finding them homes in new places. Thinking through the ulūlu project, this article explores the challenges and possibilities of assisted colonisation in this colonised land. What does it mean to move birds in the context of the long, and ongoing, history of dispossession of the Kānaka Maoli, the Native Hawaiian people? How are distinct but entangled process of colonisation, of unworlding, at work in the lives of both people and birds? Ultimately, this article explores how these diverse colonisations might be understood and told responsibly in an era of escalating loss and extinction.

scholarly journals Climate Change & Childhood

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guddi Singh
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Endangered Species ◽  
Young Person ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
World Wildlife Fund ◽  
The World ◽  
Gold Coins

When I was a child, I was a proud member of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature. I would pore over my issued green wallet and the gleaming silver-gold coins with endangered species imprinted where the Queen’s head should be. Saving the world was a noble goal, and as a young person, I was earnest about it. Today, as a practicing paediatrician, I see it less as a quaint interest than a matter of life and death.

scholarly journals Reptile diversity and community composition in the Puyango dry forest

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Acosta Vásconez Ana ◽  
Cisneros-Heredia Diego ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Tropical Dry Forests ◽  
Pitfall Traps ◽  
Phylogenetic Groups ◽  
Dry Forests ◽  
History Of ◽  
Dry Deciduous Forest

Reptiles are key animals in vertebrate communities in most ecosystems. However, there is little information on their diversity and abundance in dry forests of Ecuador. Between 2013 and 2014 we studied the reptile diversity and natural history of the Puyango Protected Forest, on the border between the province of Loja and El Oro, Ecuador. This area protects relicts of dry deciduous forest in hills and patches of semi-deciduous forest around ravines. We used belt transects in three different streams and irregular band transects in trails, together with pitfall traps, funnel traps, and litter quadrants. The richness of the Puyango Protected Forest represents a small percentage of the Ecuadorian reptile diversity, but covers much of the representative phylogenetic groups of tropical dry forests of the world. Sampling was effective to determine saurian diversity, but more sampling is needed to estimate snake diversity. Evidence of the presence of 21 species, divided into 10 families, was obtained; of which 14 are snakes (including a potential new species of the genus Epictia) and seven are lizards. Natural history is described for each species, including time and space use, and their conservation status is analyzed. The reptile community is characterized by a relative homogeneity over the vegetation remnants and the highest abundances correspond to saurian species.

scholarly journals A generic method for hydrological drought identification across different climate regions

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 2437-2451 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. H. J. van Huijgevoort ◽  
P. Hazenberg ◽  
H. A. J. van Lanen ◽  
R. Uijlenhoet
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Threshold Level ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Hydrological Drought ◽  
Dry Period ◽  
Drought Duration ◽  
Variable Threshold ◽  
The World ◽  
Level Method ◽  
Zero Runoff

Abstract. The identification of hydrological drought at global scale has received considerable attention during the last decade. However, climate-induced variation in runoff across the world makes such analyses rather complicated. This especially holds for the drier regions of the world (both cold and warm), where, for a considerable period of time, zero runoff can be observed. In the current paper, we present a method that enables to identify drought at global scale across climate regimes in a consistent manner. The method combines the characteristics of the classical variable threshold level method that is best applicable in regions with non-zero runoff most of the time, and the consecutive dry days (period) method that is better suited for areas where zero runoff occurs. The newly presented method allows a drought in periods with runoff to continue in the following period without runoff. The method is demonstrated by identifying droughts from discharge observations of four rivers situated within different climate regimes, as well as from simulated runoff data at global scale obtained from an ensemble of five different land surface models. The identified drought events obtained by the new approach are compared to those resulting from application of the variable threshold level method or the consecutive dry period method separately. Results show that, in general, for drier regions, the threshold level method overestimates drought duration, because zero runoff periods are included in a drought, according to the definition used within this method. The consecutive dry period method underestimates drought occurrence, since it cannot identify droughts for periods with runoff. The developed method especially shows its relevance in transitional areas, because, in wetter regions, results are identical to the classical threshold level method. By combining both methods, the new method is able to identify single drought events that occur during positive and zero runoff periods, leading to a more realistic global drought characterization, especially within drier environments.

Response of the endangered tropical dry forests to climate change and the role of Mexican Protected Areas for their conservation

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 364-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Prieto-Torres ◽  
Adolfo G. Navarro-Sigüenza ◽  
Diego Santiago-Alarcon ◽  
Octavio R. Rojas-Soto
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Tropical Dry Forests ◽  
Dry Forests

scholarly journals Environmental Geochemistry on a Global Scale

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane A. Plant ◽  
Barry Smith
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Life Support ◽  
Chemical Elements ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Environmental Geochemistry ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Boundaries

Recent population growth and economic development are extending the problems associated with land degradation, pollution, urbanization, and the effects of climate change over large areas of the earth’s surface, giving increasing cause for concern about the state of the environment. Many problems are most acute in tropical, equatorial, and desert regions where the surface environment is particularly fragile because of its long history of intense chemical weathering over geological timescales. The speed and scale of the impact of human activities are now so great that, according to some authors, for example, McMichael (1993), there is the threat of global ecological disruption. Concern that human activities are unsustainable has led to the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development Our Common Future (Barnaby 1987) and the establishment of a United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development responsible for carrying out Agenda 21, the action plan of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Considerable research into the global environment is now being undertaken, especially into issues such as climate change, biodiversity, and water quality. Relatively little work has been carried out on the sustainability of the Earth’s land surface and its life support systems, however, other than on an ad-hoc basis in response to problems such as mercury poisoning related to artisanal gold mining in Amazonia or arsenic poisoning as a result of water supply problems in Bangladesh (Smedley 1999). This chapter proposes a more strategic approach to understanding the distribution and behavior of chemicals in the environment based on the preparation of a global geochemical baseline to help to sustain the Earth’s land surface based on the systematic knowledge of its geochemistry. Geochemical data contain information directly relevant to economic and environmental decisions involving mineral exploration, extraction, and processing; manufacturing industries; agriculture and forestry; many aspects of human and animal health; waste disposal; and land-use planning. A database showing the spatial variations in the abundance of chemical elements over the Earth’s surface is, therefore, a key step in embracing all aspects of environmental geochemistry. Although environmental problems do not respect political boundaries, data from one part of the world may have important implications elsewhere.

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