Download Free Climate Change Air Pollution And Global Challenges Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Climate Change Air Pollution And Global Challenges and write the review.

There are significant pressures from climate change and air pollution that forests currently face. This book aims to increase understanding of the state and potential of forest ecosystems to mitigate and adapt to climate change in a polluted environment. It reconciles process-oriented research, long-term monitoring and applied modeling through comprehensive forest ecosystem research. Furthermore, it introduces "forest super sites for research for integrating soil, plant and atmospheric sciences and monitoring. It also provides mechanistic and policy-oriented modeling with scientifically sound risk indications regarding atmospheric changes and ecosystem services. Identifies current knowledge gaps and emerging research needs Highlights novel methodologies and integrated research concepts Assesses ecological meaning of investigations and prioritizing research need
This chapter outlines the aims and scope of the book. An introduction is given to the current status of knowledge which is presented on the topic of the book. Arguments are presented for writing the book, in view of continued, long-term and process-based research needed for mitigating ecological and socio-economic risks to forests under global change. The book will conclude on suggestions for decision making and reasons for continued funding of related research.
Conclusions from the individual chapters are integrated into a synopsis, covering achievements and perspectives, and linking challenges for natural and social sciences, provisioning ecosystem services (ESs) under environmental change. The required research and policy making are facilitated by novel understanding of ecosystem functioning and internal factorial interactions with the atmosphere. A basis is provided through methodological progress for establishing forest research ‘supersites’ within global research networks, possessing capacities for creating generic mechanistic knowledge of ecological relevance. On such grounds, provisioning versus regulating ESs must accommodate diversification in the joint production of agricultural and forestry goods, backed by integrative bioeconomic land-use modelling. Advancement requires forest ecosystem-level unification of air pollution and climate change research while strengthening communication between experimentalists, monitoring experts, modellers, policy makers and stakeholders towards tool development for reliable risk assessment. A critical and appreciative view of forest functions and services is demanded in relation to the (post-)Kyoto debate.
The air pollution and greenhouse gas emission problem has been exacerbated in India due to large population increase and rapid economic growth. The Indo-Gangetic Plains of Northern India, one of the most fertile regions of the world, has become one of the most polluted regions. The region has emerged as a ‘hot spot’ for air pollution, especially ozone (O3), threatening food-grain production. The air quality data show large parts of India suffering from high pollution load. Unfortunately, O3 monitoring is still in its infancy. There are reports of O3-caused yield and biomass losses in crops ranging between 10% and 51%, offsetting a significant portion of the Gross Domestic Productivity growth rate. There are no O3 experiments conducted with Indian tree species, but the crop losses suggest that O3 may have a deleterious impact also in long-lived trees in the Indian area. There is a critical need to study how O3will impact trees and forest ecosystems.
A review of the current status of air pollution and climate change (CC) in the United States from a perspective of their impacts on forest ecosystems is provided. Ambient ozone (O3) and nitrogen (N) deposition have important and widespread ecological impacts in U.S. forests. Effects of sulphurous (S) air pollutants and other trace pollutants have significant ecological importance only at much smaller geographic scales. Complex interactive effects of air pollution and CC for selected future CC scenarios are reviewed. In addition, simulations of past, present, and future hydrologic, nutrient, and growth changes caused by interactive effects of air pollution and CC are described for two U.S. forest ecosystems. Impacts of O3, N deposition, and CC on growth and hydrology of mixed conifer forests in the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California were projected with the DayCent model. Effects of N deposition, CO2 fertilization, N deposition, and CC on northern hardwood forests at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire were simulated with the PnET-BGC model. Projected changes in these forests can influence the provision of ecosystem services such as C sequestration and water supply. The extent of these effects will vary depending on the future intensity and extent of CC, air pollutant emission levels, the distribution of air pollution, and other factors such as drought, pest outbreaks, fire, etc. Our chapter ends with research and management recommendations intended to increase our ability to cope with uncertainties related to the future interactive effects of multiple air pollutants, atmospheric deposition, CC, and other biotic and abiotic stressors.
Global Climate Change presents both practical and theoretical aspects of global climate change from across geological periods. It addresses holistic issues related to climate change and its contribution in triggering the temperature increase with a multitude of impacts on natural processes. As a result, it helps to identify the gaps between policies that have been put in place and the continuously increasing emissions. The challenges presented include habitability, biodiversity, natural resources, and human health. It is organized into information on the past, present, and future of climate change to lead to a more complete understanding and therefore effective solutions. Placing an emphasis on recent climate change research, Global Climate Change helps to bring researchers and graduate students in climate science, environmental science, and sustainability up to date on the science of climate change so far and presents a baseline for how to move into the future effectively. Addresses the variety of challenges associated with climate change, along with possible solutions Includes suggestions for future research on climate change Covers climate change holistically, including global and regional scales, ecosystems, agriculture, energy, and sustainability Presents both practical and theoretical research, including coverage of climate change over various geological periods
Forests provide many supporting, regulating and cultural services. Extensive environmental changes have resulted in a substantial loss or degradation of forest ecosystem services (ES). Unclear interactions of climate-change phenomena make it difficult to estimate forest ES. Research on interactive effects of climate change and air pollution has become a central issue in forest science during the past decade. Climate change in interaction with air pollution brings novel combinations of severity and timing of multiple stresses, which may significantly affect many forest ES. The aims of the present chapter are to identify basic concepts of evaluating ES with a focus on forest ES, to provide physiological and ecological bases for their evaluation, and to discuss the interactive effects of climate change and air pollution on forest ES based on selected tree physiological functions. Climate regulation mediated by deforestation-induced changes in the hydrological cycle is discussed. Adaptive governance and communication to the public promotes sustainable forest–multi-stakeholder collaboration. A case study is presented evaluating selected ES in a forest–agricultural landscape in the Czech Republic on the basis of monitored energy, water and material flows estimation. From this study, it is apparent that future research must include multi-factorial anthropogenic and natural interactions of climatic changes and air pollution in conjunction with sustainable forest ES provisions. Sustainable forest management is an essential tool for reducing the vulnerability of forests to environmental change.
Untangling the complex effects that different air pollution and climate change factors cause to forest ecosystems is challenging. Supersites, that is, comprehensive measurement sites where research and monitoring of the whole soil–plant–atmosphere system can be carried out, are suggested as a refinement of the current monitoring and research efforts in Europe. This chapter identifies and discusses key measurements to be carried out at such supersites, with a focus on four topical subjects: the carbon, nitrogen, ozone and water budgets. This kind of holistic approach is vital to a realistic translation of the ongoing changes in climate and air quality into research on the impacts on forest ecosystems. Such an integrated effort requires a considerable use of resources at highly instrumented measurement sites and can only be achieved by building on existing infrastructures.
Climate change is expected to affect the exchange of gases between forest ecosystems and the atmosphere. In this review, we focus on a few related topics, including the emission of greenhouse gases from the forest floor, and vegetation fires and their impact on air quality and soil CO2 efflux. In particular, we summarise the current state of knowledge on O3 deposition in forest ecosystems, both for stomatal uptake and non-stomatal sinks. Based on such summaries, we discuss interactions between forests, atmospheric composition and climate, and finally outline directions for multi- and interdisciplinary research required for mechanistically understanding such interrelationships.