Forest Influences on Climate and Water Resources at the Landscape to Regional Scale

Abstract

Although it is well known that climate controls the distribution, productivity and functioning of vegetation on earth, our knowledge about the role of forests in regulating regional climate and water resources is lacking. The studies on climate-forests feedbacks have received increasing attention from the climate change and ecohydrology research communities. The goal of this study is to provide an in-depth examination of forest-climate-water interactions by synthesizing recent scientific literature on the influences of forests on climate and water resources from watershed to regional scale. The synthesis paper provides a review of the state of art of our understanding of the mechanisms of interactions of forests and climate and water resources at the landscape and regional scale. The paper presents two case studies that examine the influences of forests on microclimate, watershed hydrology, and regional climate and water resources at a small watershed to region scale using literature from the Coweeta Hydrological Laboratory in the southeast U.S. and a simulation study on the North China Shelter Belt Project. Future research gaps were identified in terms of integrated Earth System modeling to guide forest management for global change mitigation and adaptation.

Detection of the Coupling between Vegetation Leaf Area and Climate in a Multifunctional Watershed, Northwestern China

“…Study results have important environmental implications for mountainous basins in China and elsewhere with a similar environment such as the Eurasia highlands [3]. Our findings provide additional information on the effectiveness of the recent massive afforestation and ecological restoration campaigns in this region.…”

“…Minimizing and mitigating the negative impacts from climate change and human disturbances and maintaining ecosystem sustainability requires an integrated watershed management approach that involves careful basin planning [1,3], landscape design [96], and grazing management [83,97]. Future studies should focus on understanding the biophysical processes that affect LAI of ecosystems in a complex terrain.…”

“…Accurate detection and quantification of vegetation dynamics and drivers of climatic and anthropogenic change is fundamental for our understanding of the global atmosphere-biosphere interactions [3][4][5][6], and is a prerequisite for the development of strategies for the sustainable management of ecosystems [7]. This is especially critical in dry areas where arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid dominate and where climate change and human interactions are believed to have the most impacts on watershed ecosystem functions [1,3].…”

A restauração de ecossistemas e a produção de água

“…Algumas estratégias podem contribuir para a solução do problema: 1) diminuir o consumo da água; 2) melhorar a eficiência do uso da água; 3) otimizar o compartilhamento dos recursos disponíveis (Mekonnen & Hoekstra 2016), e 4) controlar as perdas evaporativas na bacia hidrográfica, de forma a aumentar o volume do recurso hídrico explorável. Todavia, ainda que o consumo possa ser racionalizado, a tendência global é de aumento progressivo da demanda (Postel 1998, Vörösmarty et al 2000Coates et al 2012) e muitas das ações que objetivam a melhoria da eficiência do uso e o compartilhamento solidário da água esbarram em dificuldades técnicas, biológicas e sociais (Postel 1998, 2000, Jackson et al 2001, Falkenmark 2003, 2013, Poff et al 2003, Falkenmark & Rockstrom 2008, Gordon et al 2010, Connor & Stoddard 2012, Hoekstra 2014. Controlar as perdas evaporativas na bacia, por outro lado, tem sido a solução proposta para aproveitar melhor a água da chuva (Rockstrom et al 1999) e, com isso, obter acréscimo da água que pode ser efetivamente utilizada em uma bacia hidrográfica.…”

“…A correta compreensão dos processos hidrológicos e de sua relação com a vegetação depende de estudos multidisciplinares e da tradução do conhecimento para a sociedade como um todo e, em especial, para formuladores de políticas públicas (Poff et al 2003, Falkenmark 2003, 2013, Gordon et al 2010, Falkenmark et al 2014. Buscando facilitar essa compreensão, reunimos, neste artigo, os conhecimentos existentes sobre as relações entre a cobertura vegetal e a produção de água, provenientes de estudos já realizados, e construímos nossa argumentação relativa aos benefícios que se pode esperar da restauração de ecossistemas em relação à produção de água em bacias hidrográficas em nível local.…”