Forest ecosystem inventory and monitoring as a framework for terrestrial natural renewable resource survey programmes

ABSTRACT

The established practice of forest ecosystem inventory and monitoring is recognised as a main support for terrestrial natural renewable resource survey programmes. Inventory and monitoring programmes focused on an overall assessment of ecosystem attributes evolving into global environmental survey programmes have been devised, but implementation is still quite contradictory. The state-of-the-art is discussed here, with special reference to the European Union and Italy. Topical issues are reviewed, with selective concern to: remote sensing capability, probability sampling, forest type (habitat) classification and landscape ecology, sustainable management indicators. Benefits brought by information technology are highlighted. Its development and the implementation of approaches based on a sound “per habitat” landscape ecological perspective will bring unique benefits, thus leading to an effective integration among sector surveys aimed at global environmental inventory/monitoring.     

Contrasting evolutionary histories in Neotropical birds: Divergence across an environmental barrier in South America

Avian diversity in the Neotropics has been traditionally attributed to the effect of vicariant forces promoting speciation in allopatry. Recent studies have shown that phylogeographical patterns shared among codistributed species cannot be explained by a single vicariant event, as species responses to a common barrier depend on the biological attributes of each taxon. The open vegetation corridor (OVC) isolates Amazonia and the Andean forests from the Atlantic Forest, creating a notorious pattern of avian taxa that are disjunctly codistributed in these forests. Here, we studied and compared the evolutionary histories of Ramphotrigon megacephalum and Pipraeidea melanonota, two passerines with allopatric populations east and west of the OVC that represent different subspecies. These species differ in their biological attributes: R. megacephalum is a sedentary, forest specialist mostly confined to bamboo understorey, whereas P. melanonota is a seasonal migrant and generalist species that ranges in a variety of closed and semi‐open environments. We performed genetic and genomic analyses, complemented with the study of coloration and behavioural differentiation, to assess population divergence across the OVC. We found that the evolutionary histories of both R. megacephalum and P. melanonota have been shaped by this environmental barrier. However, these species responded in different and asynchronous manners to the establishment of the OVC and to past connections between the currently isolated South American forests, which can be mostly explained by their distinct ecologies and dispersal abilities. Our results support the fact that the biological attributes of species can make their evolutionary histories idiosyncratic.     

喀斯特槽谷区生态退化与修复专题导读

在国家重点研发计划项目——"喀斯特槽谷区土地石漠化过程及综合治理技术研发与示范(2016YFC0502300)"的支持下,经过项目组全体成员三年的共同努力,在喀斯特槽谷区生态退化与修复方面取得了一些重要进展。主要有:(1)2000—2015年槽谷区土壤侵蚀总量逐年减少,年平均侵蚀模数逐年降低,槽谷区植被覆盖明显提高;(2)拉巴豆地埂篱根土复合体不仅能有效提高喀斯特土壤的粒径大小和增强土体的抗剪/冲性能,并且能够利用大气N_2合成植物生长所需的氮肥,从而提高土壤肥力,可望实现石漠化治理中生态效应和经济效应的双赢;(3)喀斯特槽谷区隧道建设改变了地下水流场并降低了地下水位,进而降低了土壤微生物丰度和多样性,而增加了适应干旱的微生物种群,并导致土壤质量的降低;隧道建设加速了坡面产流和土壤流失,加剧了土地石漠化,从而导致生态退化;(4)随着槽谷区退化生态系统的恢复,生态系统的生态服务功能得到提升。     

基于红外相机技术对帚尾豪猪活动节律和时间分配初步观察

2012年8月至2013年7月,采用红外相机技术对广西弄岗国家级自然保护区15 hm^2森林动态监测样地及其周边区域内的帚尾豪猪(Atherurus macrourus)进行观察,采用活动强度指数分析其活动节律和时间分配,探讨月相和环境因子对其活动节律和时间分配的影响。结果表明,不同时间段内帚尾豪猪的活动强度存在极显著差异(t=4. 666,df=23,P=0. 001),活动峰值出现在20:00~21:00和05:00~06:00;夜间主要以移动(63. 2%)和觅食(23. 6%)为主。帚尾豪猪各月份间的时间分配存在极显著差异(t=8. 581,df=11,P=0. 001),旱、雨季间的时间分配存在显著差异(Z=-2. 166,P=0. 03)。各月相间帚尾豪猪出现的频次存在显著差异(χ~2=5. 00,df=1,P=0. 025),以新月期和满月期活动最为频繁,上弦月活动最少。相关性分析表明,活动强度指数与月降雨量、月最高温度及最低温度(R^2=0. 440,R^2=0. 435,R^2=0. 457)都存在显著的负相关,帚尾豪猪最适的活动温区为10℃~26℃。本研究初步掌握了帚尾豪猪在弄岗保护区的活动节律和时间分配,有助于后期理解栖息地和气候变化对其活动的影响。     

基于地形梯度的岩溶槽谷区土地利用空间格局分析

揭示当前多因素驱动机制下岩溶槽谷区典型地貌单元在地形梯度上土地利用分布的一般规律与差异性特征具有重要意义。以2017年landsat TM高清影像和30 m×30 m DEM（Digital Elevation Model）为数据源,并结合实地调查,通过地形位分布指数、土地利用多样性指数、土地利用程度指数及土地利用相对合理性指数指标计算,探讨岩溶槽谷区地形梯度的土地利用类型空间分布共同特征与差异。结果表明：（1）岩溶槽谷区土地利用类型呈现山坡（高地形位）-槽坝（低地形位）两种分布格局特色存在,且土地利用类型在地形梯度上主要以低、中、高3种地形位组合模式;（2）土地利用类型在地形梯度上呈现梯度效应,表现出各自分布特征与差异;（3）岩溶槽谷区土地利用多样性、土地利用程度和土地利用合理性在地形梯度上分布格局既存在一些共同性特征,又存在各自差异性;（4）地形梯度土地利用特征差异性是受自然因素、社会经济因素、政策因素共同作用的结果。     

Wildfire refugia in forests: Severe fire weather and drought mute the influence of topography and fuel age

Wildfire refugia (unburnt patches within large wildfires) are important for the persistence of fire‐sensitive species across forested landscapes globally. A key challenge is to identify the factors that determine the distribution of fire refugia across space and time. In particular, determining the relative influence of climatic and landscape factors is important in order to understand likely changes in the distribution of wildfire refugia under future climates. Here, we examine the relative effect of weather (i.e. fire weather, drought severity) and landscape features (i.e. topography, fuel age, vegetation type) on the occurrence of fire refugia across 26 large wildfires in south‐eastern Australia. Fire weather and drought severity were the primary drivers of the occurrence of fire refugia, moderating the effect of landscape attributes. Unburnt patches rarely occurred under ‘severe’ fire weather, irrespective of drought severity, topography, fuels or vegetation community. The influence of drought severity and landscape factors played out most strongly under ‘moderate’ fire weather. In mesic forests, fire refugia were linked to variables that affect fuel moisture, whereby the occurrence of unburnt patches decreased with increasing drought conditions and were associated with more mesic topographic locations (i.e. gullies, pole‐facing aspects) and vegetation communities (i.e. closed‐forest). In dry forest, the occurrence of refugia was responsive to fuel age, being associated with recently burnt areas (<5 years since fire). Overall, these results show that increased severity of fire weather and increased drought conditions, both predicted under future climate scenarios, are likely to lead to a reduction of wildfire refugia across forests of southern Australia. Protection of topographic areas able to provide long‐term fire refugia will be an important step towards maintaining the ecological integrity of forests under future climate change.     

Fixing a snag in carbon emissions estimates from wildfires

Wildfire is an essential earth‐system process, impacting ecosystem processes and the carbon cycle. Forest fires are becoming more frequent and severe, yet gaps exist in the modeling of fire on vegetation and carbon dynamics. Strategies for reducing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from wildfires include increasing tree harvest, largely based on the public assumption that fires burn live forests to the ground, despite observations indicating that less than 5% of mature tree biomass is actually consumed. This misconception is also reflected though excessive combustion of live trees in models. Here, we show that regional emissions estimates using widely implemented combustion coefficients are 59%–83% higher than emissions based on field observations. Using unique field datasets from before and after wildfires and an improved ecosystem model, we provide strong evidence that these large overestimates can be reduced by using realistic biomass combustion factors and by accurately quantifying biomass in standing dead trees that decompose over decades to centuries after fire (“snags”). Most model development focuses on area burned; our results reveal that accurately representing combustion is also essential for quantifying fire impacts on ecosystems. Using our improvements, we find that western US forest fires have emitted 851 ± 228 Tg CO₂ (~half of alternative estimates) over the last 17 years, which is minor compared to 16,200 Tg CO₂ from fossil fuels across the region.