Interactions of Forests, Climate, Water Resources, and Humans in a Changing Environment: Research Needs

Abstract

The aim of the special issue "Interactions of Forests, Climate, Water Resources, and Humans in a Changing Environment" is to present case studies on the influences of natural and human disturbances on forest water resources under a changing climate. Studies in this collection of six papers cover a wide range of geographic regions from Australia to Nigeria with spatial research scale spanning from a tree leaf, to a segment of forest road, and large basins with mixed land uses. These studies clearly show the strong interactions among forests, global climate change, water quantity and quality, and human activities at multiple scales. Understanding the underlying processes of response of natural ecosystems and society to global climate change is essential for developing actionable science-based climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies and methodologies. Future research should focus on feedbacks among forests, climate, water, and disturbances, and interactions of ecohydrologic systems, economics and policies using an integrated approach.

Nutrient Fluxes in Rainfall, Throughfall, and Stemflow in Pinus densata Natural Forest of Tibetan Plateau

“…As it is well‐known, human civilizations originate from forests and water . In today's society, the relationship between forests and water has become a hot issue.…”

An assessment of perceptions, sources and uses of water among six African communities in the North West Province of South Africa

“…This phenomenon has been studied from a number of perspectives (see Hu et al, 2004;Paris, 2011), such as the sustainability of water use (Weiskel et al 2007;Zhang and Brown, 2005), the relationship between environmental and water conservation attitudes and domestic water end use (Willis et al, 2011), and the impact that humans have on ground water (Caschetto et al, 2014;Sun and Segura, 2013). Other researchers focused on the opportunities and threats to the availability of good quality water (Adams et al, 2006) and the health risks it may pose to humans (Zamxaka et al, 2004).…”

Development of an Integrated DB Management System for GIS-Based Client/Server Data Sharing in Climate and Environment Fields

“…It is also expected that the DB system will bring the effects in saving time and cost by avoiding the overlapping generation of data in the areas of integrated climate-environment research. Lee et al, 2010;Park et al, 2012;Shin et al, 2012;Sun and Segura, 2013 …”