Aims: This study focused on the newest evidence of the relationship between forest environmental exposure and human health and assessed the health efficacy of forest bathing on the human body as well as the methodological quality of a single study, aiming to provide scientific guidance for interdisciplinary integration of forestry and medicine. Method: Through PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library, 210 papers from January 1, 2015, to April 1, 2019, were retrieved, and the final 28 papers meeting the inclusion criteria were included in the study. Result: The methodological quality of papers included in the study was assessed quantitatively with the Downs and Black checklist. The methodological quality of papers using randomized controlled trials is significantly higher than that of papers using non-randomized controlled trials (p < 0.05). Papers included in the study were analyzed qualitatively. The results demonstrated that forest bathing activities might have the following merits: remarkably improving cardiovascular function, hemodynamic indexes, neuroendocrine indexes, metabolic indexes, immunity and inflammatory indexes, antioxidant indexes, and electrophysiological indexes; significantly enhancing people's emotional state, attitude, and feelings towards things, physical and psychological recovery, and adaptive behaviors; and obvious alleviation of anxiety and depression. Conclusion: Forest bathing activities may significantly improve people's physical and psychological health. In the future, medical empirical studies of forest bathing should reinforce basic studies and interdisciplinary exchange to enhance the methodological quality of papers while decreasing the risk of bias, thereby raising the grade of paper evidence.

Abstract:Flow regime refers to five elements of streamflow including flow magnitude, frequency, timing, duration and change rate. In spite of wide recognition of its critical significance in aquatic functions and ecosystem integrity, its responses to forest or land use change are rarely and quantitatively assessed. This paper used the Meijiang watershed (6983.2 km 2 ), situated in the upper reach of the Poyang Lake basin, as an example to first demonstrate how flow regimes were altered by deforestation and then show if the altered flow regimes were possibly recovered by consequent reforestation. Two breakpoints (year 1968 and year 1985) with significant annual streamflow changes were detected, and they were then used to define three distinct periods including the reference or control period (1957 to 1967), deforestation (1968 to 1984) and reforestation . The paired year approach was then applied to quantitatively analyse the responses of flow regimes to forest cover changes. Both high flows (daily flows ≧ Q 5% ) and low flows (daily flows ≦ Q 95% ) were assessed. For high flows, the deforestation significantly increased the averaged magnitudes by 10.4%, increased the return periods (5-10 year) by 23.4%, advanced the averaged timings by 10.7 h and extended the averaged durations over the thresholds by 4 days. In contrast, reforestation delayed the averaged timings by 10.5 h, reduced the averaged duration by 5 days and decreased the averaged magnitude by 17.9%. Regarding low flows, the deforestation decreased the flow magnitudes by 30.1% with 30.5 day advancing in the average timings. To our surprise, however, low flows were not significantly changed by reforestation. All above results clearly demonstrate that flow regimes of both high and low flows were significantly altered by deforestation, and recovery of those alterations through reforestation may take much longer time than expected probably because of severe soil erosion and resultant loss of soil infiltration capacity after deforestation.

In forested watersheds, forest changes and climatic variability have been commonly recognized as two major drivers for streamflow variations. Previous research has separated their relative contributions but mainly focused on either deforestation and climate or reforestation and climate, but rarely with single studies on both. This study used the Meijiang watershed (6983·2 km2), situated in the upper reach of the Poyang Lake basin, as an example to quantify how climate and forest changes (both deforestation and reforestation) consecutively affect streamflow dynamics. Two methods, namely modified double‐mass curves and sensitivity‐based approach, were used in this study. Two breakpoints (years 1968 and 1985) with significant annual streamflow changes were detected, and together with the control period, they were then used to define three distinct periods: the control (1957–1967), deforestation (1968–1984) and reforestation (1985–2006) periods. Our results show that in the deforestation period, the average annual streamflow increment attributed to deforestation was 112·78 mm year−1, while the annual streamflow variation attributed to climate variability was −111·39 mm year−1. In the reforestation period, the average annual streamflow decrease caused by reforestation was −51·04 mm year−1, while the annual streamflow variation attributed to climate variability was 52·52 mm year−1. The sensitivity‐based approach also provided similar results. The positive and negative values in the streamflow changes suggest offsetting effects between forest changes and climate variability in both deforestation and reforestation periods. The similar magnitudes of streamflow changes demonstrate that the hydrological effects of forest changes can be as great as those caused by climate change. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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a b s t r a c tIn the context of global climate change, it is critical to study how different forest management practices affect forest carbon sequestration. This is especially important for forest managers and policy makers who will have to design and implement appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies. Previous research has focused on coniferous plantations with rare examination of plantations of evergreen broadleaved species. Phoebe bournei (Hemsley) Yang, as one of the represe ntative species of subtropical evergreen broadleaf forests in Asia, has a unique potential to increase forest carbon sink. In this study, field data were combined wit h the forest ecosystem management model FORECAST to estimate the impacts of different forest management strategies (combinations of planting densities from 1000 to 4000 trees ha À1 , rotation lengths from 20 to 80 years, and different harvesting intensities: stem-only, whole-tree and complete-tree) on carbon sequestration of P. bournei plantations in south-eastern China. Field and previously published data were used to calibrate the model for stand biomass pools accumulation, stand density and mortalit y, light response curves, photosynthetic efficiency, and data on soil nutrient pools, for three different site conditions. The results showed that the most suitable planting density to maximize carbon sequestrat ion in P. bournei plantations is 2000-3000 trees ha À1. Longer rotations (e.g., 80 years) are better than shorter rotations (20 or 30 years) for the long-term maintenance of site productivity, though the recommended rotation length for maximizing carbon sequestration and maintaining forest productivity is 40-60 years. As for har vesting intensity, stem-only harvest ing is the most suitable strategy to manage for carbon sequestration when maintaining long-term site produc tivity, with whole-tree and complete-tree harvesting constituting less optimal options. Our modeling exercise indicates that P. bournei plantations have great potential for carbon sequestrat ion if they are managed under sustainable and ecologically-based strategies. Given that forests are important in the global carbon cycle, it is recommended that afforestation efforts in relevant subtropical regions use appropriate broad-leaved species that can help resolve ecologica l and socio-economic challenges.