Carbon sinks and sources in China's forests during 1901-2001

This paper reports the annual carbon (C) balance of China's forests during 1901-2001 estimated using the Integrated Terrestrial Ecosystem C-budget model (InTEC). Annual carbon source and sink distributions are simulated for the same period using various spatial datasets including land cover and leaf area index (LAI) obtained from remote sensing, soil texture, climate, forest age, and nitrogen deposition. During 1901-1949, China's forests were a source of 21.0+/-7.8 Tg C yr(-1) due to disturbances (human activities). Its size increased to 122.3+/-25.3 Tg C yr(-1) during 1950-1987 due to intensified human activities in the late 1950s, early 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. The forests became large sinks of 176.7+/-44.8 Tg C yr(-1) during 1988-2001, owing to large-scale plantation and forest regrowth in previously disturbed areas as well as growth stimulation by nondisturbance factors such as climatic warming, atmospheric CO(2) fertilization, and N deposition. From 1901 to 2001, China's forests were a small carbon source of 3.32 Pg C, about 32.9+/-22.3 Tg C yr(-1). The overall C balance in biomass from InTEC generally agrees with previous results derived from forest inventories of China's forests. InTEC results also include C stock variation in soils and are therefore more comprehensive than previous results. The uncertainty in InTEC results is still large, but it can be reduced if a detailed forest age map becomes available.     

Radiocaesium accumulation in stemwood: integrated approach at the scale of forest stands for contaminated Scots pine in Belarus

Twenty years after the Chernobyl accident, root uptake from the surface layers of contaminated forest soils plays a major role in radiocaesium ((137)Cs) transfer to the trees and accumulation in perennial compartments, including stemwood. Trustworthy long-term predictions (modelling) of stemwood contamination with (137)Cs should accordingly be based on a reliable picture of this source-sink relationship. Considering the complexity of the processes involved in (137)Cs cycling in forest stands, elementary ratios like transfer factors (TF) were shown to be not very relevant for that purpose. At the tree level, alternatives like the wood immobilisation potential (WIP) have therefore been proposed in order to quantify the current net (137)Cs accumulation in stemwood. Our objective was here to compare WIP values determined for a series of contaminated forest stands in Belarus with the corresponding pools of (137)Cs available in the soil for root uptake. The comparison reveals that both indices are quite proportional, whatever the forest ecosystem features. This corroborates the relevancy of WIP as an indicator of the current (137)Cs root uptake by the trees, which could accordingly help to improve the existing models of (137)Cs cycling and the long-term management of contaminated forest ecosystems.     

An integrated approach to modeling resource utilization for rural communities in developing countries

Resource consumption in developing countries has been the focus of a considerable amount of research. What has been understudied however, has been the feedback affects of resource consumption on resource availability to both households and communities. Heavy reliance on natural resources and intensive smallholder agriculture common to many rural communities in developing countries has forced people to fulfill short-term needs to the detriment of long-term ecological and livelihood sustainability. This paper introduces a conceptual framework to examine how individuals and households fulfill daily caloric needs and the aggregate effects on resource availability and consumption. Data were collected from a large number of published case studies of rural land-use dynamics, growth and yield models, and human livelihoods were reviewed from scientific journals, reports published by NGOs, and government reports. Using inputs defined by the user, the model tracks annual fuelwood and agricultural land use based on meeting individual energy demands. A case-study-based analysis was patterned after smallholder agriculturalists at the family and community level. Three scenarios are presented in this paper using data from Uganda to illustrate the application of this model.     

Implementing Participatory Decision Making in Forest Planning

Forest policy decisions are often a source of debate, conflict, and tension in many countries. The debate over forest land-use decisions often hinges on disagreements about societal values related to forest resource use. Disagreements on social value positions are fought out repeatedly at local, regional, national, and international levels at an enormous social cost. Forest policy problems have some inherent characteristics that make them more difficult to deal with. On the one hand, forest policy decisions involve uncertainty, long time scales, and complex natural systems and processes. On the other hand, such decisions encompass social, political, and cultural systems that are evolving in response to forces such as globalization. Until recently, forest policy was heavily influenced by the scientific community and various economic models of optimal resource use. However, growing environmental awareness and acceptance of participatory democracy models in policy formulation have forced the public authorities to introduce new participatory mechanisms to manage forest resources. Most often, the efforts to include the public in policy formulation can be described using the lower rungs of Arnstein’s public participation typology. This paper presents an approach that incorporates stakeholder preferences into forest land-use policy using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). An illustrative case of regional forest-policy formulation in Australia is used to demonstrate the approach. It is contended that applying the AHP in the policy process could considerably enhance the transparency of participatory process and public acceptance of policy decisions.     

杉木人工林生态系统可燃物空间分布规律研究

在国家野外科学观测研究站-会同生态站的集水区中设置固定标准地,利用标准地和生物量调查数据,对杉木人工林的可燃物负荷量空间分布规律进行了研究,结果表明:杉木人工林生态系统的自然整枝能力较差,细小可燃物的空间分布均匀,易燃可燃物连续性好;含水率以近地面的最小;11年生的杉木人工林生态系统的枯死枝叶的总负荷量高达0.198 t.hm-2,分布于0～1.5 m的空间层中,这种均匀的空间分布规律为树冠火的发生创造了条件,从而加大了杉木人工林生态系统的火险性.建议在杉木人工林生态系统的经营过程中,要加强人工整枝,改变可燃物的空间分布;减少易燃可燃物的数量,降低森林的燃烧性;对于枯死枝叶可采取人工和计划烧除的措施进行清理.     

基于火点辐射能量的2017—2021年广西秸秆露天燃烧排放时空分析

基于2017—2021年MODIS、VIIRS和Himawari-8等多套卫星的火点辐射能量(FRE)和云量反演数据,使用更高分辨率的火点替代相邻位置低分辨率火点的融合方法,利用晴空的火点分布数据对被云遮蔽的区域进行补偿,核算得到了2 km高分辨率的广西秸秆露天燃烧排放数据,并针对2017—2021年的广西秸秆露天燃烧排放量展开精细的时空分布研究。结果表明:2017—2021年广西秸秆露天燃烧的CO、NO_x、SO₂、NH₃、VOCs、PM₁₀和PM_2.5的年排放量均值分别为12.91万、0.78万、0.16万、0.17万、2.77万、2.26万、2.21万t,排放高值区域分布在广西中部及西南部。秸秆露天燃烧排放的主要时间集中在冬、春季节(10月至次年3月),时值晚稻收割期和甘蔗榨季,占全年排放量的60%以上。广西秸秆露天燃烧PM_2.5年均排放量是全广西PM_2.5人为源年排放量的8.74%,通过逐日排放贡献分析发现,秸秆露天燃烧具有短期排放量较大的特点,2017—2021年,在1—2月有34 d出现秸秆露天燃烧导致PM_2.5排放量超过人为源排放量50%的情况。