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

The inclusion of forests as potential biological sinks in the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1997 has attracted international attention and again has put scientific and political focus on the world's forests, regarding their state and development. The international discus sion induced by the Kyoto Protocol has clearly shown that not only the tropical rain forests are endangered by man's activities, but also that the forest ecosystems of boreal, temperate, mediterranean and subtropical regions have been drastically modified. Deforestation on a large scale, burning, over-exploitation, and the degra dation of the biological diversity are well-known symptoms in forests all over the world. This negative development happens in spite of the already existing knowledge of the benefits of forests on global energy and water regimes, the biogeochemical cycling of carbon and other elements as well as on the biological and cultural diversity. The reasons why man does not take care of forests properly are manifold and complex and there is no easy solution how to change the existing negative trends. One reason that makes it so difficult to assess the impacts of human activity on the future development of forests is the large time scale in which forests react, ranging from decades to centuries.
This open access book not only describes the challenges of climate disruption, but also presents solutions. The challenges described include air pollution, climate change, extreme weather, and related health impacts that range from heat stress, vector-borne diseases, food and water insecurity and chronic diseases to malnutrition and mental well-being. The influence of humans on climate change has been established through extensive published evidence and reports. However, the connections between climate change, the health of the planet and the impact on human health have not received the same level of attention. Therefore, the global focus on the public health impacts of climate change is a relatively recent area of interest. This focus is timely since scientists have concluded that changes in climate have led to new weather extremes such as floods, storms, heat waves, droughts and fires, in turn leading to more than 600,000 deaths and the displacement of nearly 4 billion people in the last 20 years. Previous work on the health impacts of climate change was limited mostly to epidemiologic approaches and outcomes and focused less on multidisciplinary, multi-faceted collaborations between physical scientists, public health researchers and policy makers. Further, there was little attention paid to faith-based and ethical approaches to the problem. The solutions and actions we explore in this book engage diverse sectors of civil society, faith leadership, and political leadership, all oriented by ethics, advocacy, and policy with a special focus on poor and vulnerable populations. The book highlights areas we think will resonate broadly with the public, faith leaders, researchers and students across disciplines including the humanities, and policy makers.
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
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.
Over recent decades, climate changes, especially revealed through alteration in rainfall patterns, with apparent intensification of the dry season, have been documented throughout Latin America. At the same time, this region of the globe has displayed strong economic growth along with profound changes in land use and emission of air pollutants. Long-term studies have shown that functional groups of plants from tropical and sub-tropical rainforests and savannas, the largest and most diverse biomes in the region, present different sensitivities to climate change, increasing CO2 and atmospheric deposition of nitrogen, for example, resulting in evident changes in community structure and dynamics. In general, these factors have led to a reduction in plant diversity. Ozone, though less studied in the region, has been monitored in the major urban centres, and its relation to land use change, as through biomass burning, has become evident. The main results of plant responses to pollutants and climate change are presented.
We analyse options to adapt forest and agricultural ecosystems to the adverse consequences of climatic change. We provide an overview of global change as it relates to the forest and agriculture sectors and conclude that forests should be analysed and their management optimised, together with their neighbouring agricultural ecosystems, if we are to be successful in meeting the challenges of future land-use conflicts. These challenges include balancing the need to satisfy increasing food and resource demands (provisioning services) while still providing indispensable regulating services such as climate and water protection. For the forestry sector, we identify various options to adapt ecosystems to climatic change, such as appropriate choice of tree species, mixed and uneven-aged forests, thinnings and adapted rotation length. We see, however, great potential in comprehensive land-use portfolios containing mixed, and thus diversified, alternatives—with patches of croplands, pastures and forests—to achieve a more sustainable intensification of land-use concepts. Such concepts would reduce the vulnerability of land-use systems to the effects of climatic change. Natural forests, whose continued existence must be secured by conservation payments, are a necessary component used to store carbon, to protect the water balance and to preserve biodiversity. In future, comprehensive land-use models are necessary to make demonstrable and to optimise the ecological and economic consequences of various land-use concepts.
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.
Tropical forests are an undervalued asset in meeting the greatest global challenges of our time—averting climate change and promoting development. Despite their importance, tropical forests and their ecosystems are being destroyed at a high and even increasing rate in most forest-rich countries. The good news is that the science, economics, and politics are aligned to support a major international effort over the next five years to reverse tropical deforestation. Why Forests? Why Now? synthesizes the latest evidence on the importance of tropical forests in a way that is accessible to anyone interested in climate change and development and to readers already familiar with the problem of deforestation. It makes the case to decisionmakers in rich countries that rewarding developing countries for protecting their forests is urgent, affordable, and achievable.
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.