Forest Management Challenges for Sustaining Water Resources in the Anthropocene

Sun, Ge; Vose, James M.

doi:10.3390/f7030068

Cited by 46 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 93 publications

(107 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Our knowledge of ecohydrology is incomplete due to the complex nature of human-dominated ecosystems, which are constantly evolving in the Anthropocene (Sun and Vose 2016). Linking ecohydrological processes (e.g., energy, water, carbon, nutrient cycling) (Sun et al 2011a;Wilcox et al 2003a) to ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration, water quality improvement, biodiversity conservation, regulation of water and nutrient cycles, urban heat island mitigation) (Sun et al 2011b) is critical to properly quantifying ecosystem functions (Vose et al 2011) and services (Brauman et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fresh water availability and supply are increasingly unreliable due to pollution of air, soil, and water; depletion of groundwater; shrinking snowpack and glaciers; sea level rise; and increased climate variability and change (Vorosmarty 2002;Vorosmarty et al 2000). Increasing demands on ecosystem services such as clean water (Caldwell et al 2012), fiber, bioenergy (Sun and Vose 2016), and recreational use of wildlands stress natural ecosystems and contribute directly to the decline of watershed hydrological services (Brauman et al 2007;Vorosmarty 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Ecohydrological processes and ecosystem services in the Anthropocene: a review

2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The framework for ecosystem services has been increasingly used in integrated watershed ecosystem management practices that involve scientists, engineers, managers, and policy makers. The objective of this review is to explore the intimate connections between ecohydrological processes and water-related ecosystem services in human-dominated ecosystems in the Anthropocene. We synthesize current literature to illustrate the importance of understanding the ecohydrological processes for accurately quantifying ecosystem services under different environmental and socioeconomic settings and scales. Our synthesis focuses on managed ecosystems that are dominated by humans and explores how ecological processes affect the tradeoffs and synergies of multiple ecosystem services. We identify research gaps in studying ecological processes mainly including energy, carbon, water, and nutrient balances to better assess and quantify ecosystem services that are critical for sustaining natural resources for future generations. To better assess ecosystem services, future ecohydrological studies need to better account for the scaling effects of natural and anthropogenic stressors exerted on evapotranspiration and other water supply and demand processes. Future studies should focus on the bidirectional interactions between hydrological functions and services and human actions to solve real world problems such as water shortages, ecological degradation, and climate change adaptation. Review

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecohydrological processes and ecosystem services in the Anthropocene: a review

2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Therefore, intensive management practices were widely applied to promote productivity, especially after 1990 (Fox et al, 2004(Fox et al, , 2007Stanturf et al, 2003). Generally, management intensity among regions is greatest in the South and lowest in the Northeast (Escalante Fernandez et al, 2002).…”

Section: Plantation Management Practices and Their Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Chen

Pan

Hayes

et al. 2017

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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 km 2 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., CO 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O) 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.

show abstract

“…This is hindered if papers merely equate the Anthropocene to Òthe last several decadesÓ (e.g. Lugo, 2015;Sun and Vose, 2016) or to increasing complexity in the effects of global climate change (e.g. Allen et al, 2015).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The prospect of global environmental relativities after an Anthropocene tipping point

Grainger

2017

Forest Policy and Economics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While there is vigorous debate on whether the Anthropocene epoch began in 1800, as originally proposed, less attention has been paid to the transition from Stage 2 of the existing three stage chronology, in which carbon dioxide emissions accelerated after 1945, to Stage 3, in which after 2015 acceleration is expected to reach criticality, and the Earth System is predicted to pass through an irreversible "tipping point" to a warmer state, unless this is averted by a new planetary stewardship. This paper critically evaluates this chronology and finds (a) that there is insufficient evidence for an imminent irreversible tipping point, and (b) that the international community established a new planetary stewardship in 1992 when it agreed on new conventions on climate change and biodiversity in response to three decades of warnings about global environmental problems. The paper proposes an alternative framework for conceptualizing the transition between Stages 2 and 3 of the Anthropocene. This generates the hypothesis that after the actual carbon dioxide concentration of the atmosphere has exceeded a critical threshold level, some biophysical processes will change at rates proportional to the difference between the carbon dioxide concentration of the atmosphere and the threshold level, and to the rate of climate change. Evidence is presented which suggests that this new reversible tipping point could have been passed before 1980, when enhanced forest growth was first observed in mature forests in Amazonia. Modelling simulations suggest that this temporal relativity effect could soon be joined by a spatio-temporal relativity effect, as species become committed to extinction and/or form new species assemblages in the 21st Century when climate zones shift. Since this new tipping point is reversible there is still time for planetary stewardship to become more effective and minimize the harmful effects of climate change.

show abstract

Forest Management Challenges for Sustaining Water Resources in the Anthropocene

Cited by 46 publications

References 93 publications

Ecohydrological processes and ecosystem services in the Anthropocene: a review

Ecohydrological processes and ecosystem services in the Anthropocene: a review

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

The prospect of global environmental relativities after an Anthropocene tipping point

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About