scholarly journals Spatial and temporal patterns of plantation forests in the United States since the 1930s: An annual and gridded data set for regional Earth system modeling

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangsheng Chen ◽  
Shufen Pan ◽  
Daniel J. Hayes ◽  
Hanqin Tian

Abstract. Plantation forest area in the conterminous United States (CONUS) ranked second among the world’s nations in the land area apportioned to forest plantation management. As compared to the naturally-regenerated forests, plantation forests demonstrate significant differences in biophysical characteristics, and biogeochemical and hydrological cycles as a result of more intensive management practices. Inventory data have been reported for multiple time periods at plot, state and regional scales across the CONUS, but there lacks the requisite annual and spatially-explicit plantation data set over a long-term period for analysis of the role of plantation management at regional or national scale. Through synthesizing multiple inventory data sources, this study developed methods to spatialize the time series plantation forest and tree species distribution data for the CONUS over the 1928–2012 time period. According to this new data set, plantation forest area increased from near zero in the 1930s to 268.27 thousand km2 by 2012, accounting for 8.65 % of the total forest land area in the CONUS. Regionally, the South contained the highest proportion of plantation forests, accounting for about 19.34 % of total forest land area in 2012. This time series and gridded data set developed here can be readily applied in regional Earth system modeling frameworks for assessing the impacts of plantation management practices on forest productivity, carbon and nitrogen stocks, and greenhouse gas (e.g., CO2, CH4 and N2O) and water fluxes at regional or national scales. The gridded plantation distribution and tree species maps, the state-level tree planting area and plantation distribution area during 1928–2012 are available from doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.873558.

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 545-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangsheng Chen ◽  
Shufen Pan ◽  
Daniel J. Hayes ◽  
Hanqin Tian

Abstract. Plantation forest area in the conterminous United States (CONUS) ranked second among the world's nations in the land area apportioned to forest plantation. As compared to the naturally regenerated forests, plantation forests demonstrate significant differences in biophysical characteristics, and biogeochemical and hydrological cycles as a result of more intensive management practices. Inventory data have been reported for multiple time periods on plot, state, and regional scales across the CONUS, but the requisite annual and spatially explicit plantation data set over a long-term period for analysis of the role of plantation management on regional or national scales is lacking. Through synthesis of multiple inventory data sources, this study developed methods to spatialize the time series plantation forest and tree species distribution data for the CONUS over the 1928–2012 time period. According to this new data set, plantation forest area increased from near zero in the 1930s to 268.27 thousand km2 in 2012, accounting for 8.65 % of the total forestland area in the CONUS. Regionally, the South contained the highest proportion of plantation forests, accounting for about 19.34 % of total forestland area in 2012. This time series and gridded data set developed here can be readily applied in regional Earth system modeling frameworks for assessing the impacts of plantation management practices on forest productivity, carbon and nitrogen stocks, and greenhouse gases (e.g., CO2, CH4, and N2O) and water fluxes on regional or national scales. The gridded plantation distribution and tree species maps, and the interpolated state-level annual tree planting area and plantation area during 1928–2012, are available from https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.873558.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bowen Zhang ◽  
Hanqin Tian ◽  
Chaoqun Lu ◽  
Shree R. S. Dangal ◽  
Jia Yang ◽  
...  

Abstract. Given the important role of nitrogen input from livestock system in the terrestrial nutrient cycles and the atmospheric chemical composition, it is vital to have a robust estimation of the magnitude, spatiotemporal variation of manure nitrogen production and the application to cropland and rangeland across the globe. In this study, we used the dataset from Global Livestock Impact Mapping System (GLIMS) in conjunction with country-specific annual livestock population to reconstruct the manure nitrogen production from 1860 to 2014. The estimated manure nitrogen production increased from 21.4 Tg N yr−1 in 1860 to 131.0 Tg N yr−1 in 2014, with a significant increasing trend during 1860–2014 (0.7 Tg N yr−1, p < 0.01). Changes in manure nitrogen production exhibited highly spatial variability and concentrated in several hotspots (e.g., Western Europe, India, Northeast China and Southeast Australia) across the globe over the study period. In the 1860s, northern mid-latitude accounted for ~ 52 % of the global total manure production, while tropical region became the largest share (~ 48 %) in the recent five years (2010–2014). Among all the continents, Asia accounted for over one-fourth of the global manure production during 1860–2014. Cattle dominated the manure nitrogen production and contributed ~ 44 % of the total manure nitrogen production in 2014, followed by goat, sheep, chicken and swine. The manure nitrogen production applied to cropland and rangeland accounts for less than one-fifth of the total manure nitrogen production over the study period. The 5-arc minute gridded global data set of manure nitrogen production generated from this study could be used as an input for global or regional land surface/ecosystem models to evaluate the impacts of manure nitrogen on key biogeochemical processes and water quality, and the best management practices of manure nitrogen applications to cropland and rangeland across the globe could be important for food security and environmental sustainability. Datasets available at: doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.871980.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 667-678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bowen Zhang ◽  
Hanqin Tian ◽  
Chaoqun Lu ◽  
Shree R. S. Dangal ◽  
Jia Yang ◽  
...  

Abstract. Given the important role of nitrogen input from livestock systems in terrestrial nutrient cycles and the atmospheric chemical composition, it is vital to have a robust estimation of the magnitude and spatiotemporal variation in manure nitrogen production and its application to cropland across the globe. In this study, we used the dataset from the Global Livestock Impact Mapping System (GLIMS) in conjunction with country-specific annual livestock populations to reconstruct the manure nitrogen production during 1860–2014. The estimated manure nitrogen production increased from 21.4 Tg N yr−1 in 1860 to 131.0 Tg N yr−1 in 2014 with a significant annual increasing trend (0.7 Tg N yr−1, p < 0.01). Changes in manure nitrogen production exhibited high spatial variability and concentrated in several hotspots (e.g., Western Europe, India, northeastern China, and southeastern Australia) across the globe over the study period. In the 1860s, the northern midlatitude region was the largest manure producer, accounting for ∼ 52 % of the global total, while low-latitude regions became the largest share (∼ 48 %) in the most recent 5 years (2010–2014). Among all the continents, Asia accounted for over one-fourth of the global manure production during 1860–2014. Cattle dominated the manure nitrogen production and contributed ∼ 44 % of the total manure nitrogen production in 2014, followed by goats, sheep, swine, and chickens. The manure nitrogen application to cropland accounts for less than one-fifth of the total manure nitrogen production over the study period. The 5 arcmin gridded global dataset of manure nitrogen production generated from this study could be used as an input for global or regional land surface and ecosystem models to evaluate the impacts of manure nitrogen on key biogeochemical processes and water quality. To ensure food security and environmental sustainability, it is necessary to implement proper manure management practices on cropland across the globe. Datasets are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.871980 (Zhang et al., 2017).


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 249-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Shangguan ◽  
Yongjiu Dai ◽  
Qingyun Duan ◽  
Baoyuan Liu ◽  
Hua Yuan

Author(s):  
Federica Alfani ◽  
Aslihan Arslan ◽  
Nancy McCarthy ◽  
Romina Cavatassi ◽  
Nicholas Sitko

Abstract This paper aims at identifying whether and how sustainable land management practices and livelihood diversification strategies have contributed to moderating the impacts of the El Niño-related drought in Zambia. This is done using a specifically designed survey called the El Niño Impact Assessment Survey, which is combined with the Rural Agricultural Livelihoods Surveys, as well as high resolution rainfall data at the ward level over 34 years. This unique panel data set allows us to control for the time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity to understand the impacts of shocks like El Niño, which are expected to become more frequent and severe as a result of climate change. We find that maize yields were substantially reduced and that household incomes were only partially protected from the shock thanks to diversification strategies. Mechanical erosion control measures and livestock diversification emerge as the only strategies that provided yield and income benefits under weather shock.


GPS Solutions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Klos ◽  
Henryk Dobslaw ◽  
Robert Dill ◽  
Janusz Bogusz

AbstractWe examine the sensitivity of the Global Positioning System (GPS) to non-tidal loading for a set of continental Eurasia permanent stations. We utilized daily vertical displacements available from the Nevada Geodetic Laboratory (NGL) at stations located at least 100 km away from the coast. Loading-induced predictions of displacements of earth’s crust are provided by the Earth-System-Modeling Group of the GFZ (ESMGFZ). We demonstrate that the hydrological loading, supported by barystatic sea-level changes to close the global mass budget (HYDL + SLEL), contributes to GPS displacements only in the seasonal band. Non-tidal atmospheric loading, supported by non-tidal oceanic loading (NTAL + NTOL), correlates positively with GPS displacements for almost all time resolutions, including non-seasonal changes from 2 days to 5 months, which are often considered as noise, intra-seasonal and seasonal changes with periods between 4 months and 1.4 years, and, also, inter-annual signals between 1.1 and 3.0 years. Correcting the GPS vertical displacements by NTAL leads to a reduction in the time series variances, evoking a whitening of the GPS stochastic character and a decrease in the standard deviation of noise. Both lead, on average, to an improvement in the uncertainty of the GPS vertical velocity by a factor of 2. To reduce its impact on the GPS displacement time series, we recommend that NTAL is applied at the observation level during the processing of GPS observations. HYDL might be corrected at the observation level or remain in the data and be applied at the stage of time series analysis.


Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quy Van Khuc ◽  
Tuyet-Anh T. Le ◽  
Trung H. Nguyen ◽  
Duy Nong ◽  
Bao Quang Tran ◽  
...  

Vietnam’s forests have experienced a notable transformation over the past 20 years from net deforestation to reforestation and expanding forests. Continued reforestation that aims to achieve further economic and environmental benefits remains a national priority and strategy. We explore the current status of plantation forests and highlight possible means to facilitate their expansion in the uplands of Vietnam. We employ mixed method triangulation to empirically explore plantation forests and their economic role in household livelihood, to quantify trade-offs between plantation forests and shifting cultivation, and to assess the constraints on plantation forest expansion in Nghe An province, north-central Vietnam. Results show that forest in the study area expanded by 406,000 ha (71.1%) between 1990 and 2016. Plantation forests increased by nearly 500% (from 32,000 ha to 190,000 ha), while natural forests expanded by 48.1% (from 538,000 ha to 797,000 ha). Plantation forests contributed an average of 35.1 percent of total household income in wealthier households and 27.9 percent of income in poor households. Switching from shifting cultivation to plantation forests would increase total household income and average carbon stock but decrease food provision. Total Economic Value would be higher for plantation forest scenarios if increased carbon stocks in plantations can be monetized. This carbon income might drive conversion of shifting cultivation to plantation forests. Constraints on further expansion of plantation forest are low external cooperation, education, market stability, and agroforestry extension services. Our empirical results inform national plantation forest development, sustainable upland livelihood development, and climate change mitigation programs to ultimately facilitate forest transition and improve the resilience and sustainability of socio-ecological systems.


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