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Abiotic disturbances and their influence on forest health







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    The influence of over-mature, degraded Nothofagus forests with strong anthropic disturbance on the quality of an andisol and Its gradual recovery with silvopasture in southwestern South America
    XV World Forestry Congress, 2-6 May 2022
    2022
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    The increasing demand for timber and non-timber products from native forests in Chile and the cattle grazing has augmented the rate of degradation of these ecosystems. This process results in the need to know which of the dynamic variables are involved in its regulation. Soil quality indicators like soil organic carbon (SOC), soil microbial respiration (SMR), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), potential net N mineralization (N-min), and nitrification (N-NO), soil aggregates, and light fraction (LF), were evaluated at two different depths of the soil in Nothofagus obliqua (deciduous) and mixed N. dombeyi - N. obliqua (evergreen-deciduous) forests, where a 30- ha silvopastoral trial was established, after this evaluation, in early 2016. The SOC, SMR, MBC, N-min and N-NO were significantly higher in the N. obliqua forest than the mixed forest, 8%, 17%, 17%, 40%, 20%, respectively (p<0.05). The dry weight in soil fractions did not present differences between forest types. C and N contents in the LF (labile, un-decomposed organic matter of plant origin) were higher in the deciduous forest, 9% and 20%, respectively (p<0.05). Our results suggest that soil quality was favored by the quality of organic matter in the site dominated by deciduous species, which translates into more favorable conditions for the activity of microorganisms, nitrogen dynamic, and C and N content in the light faction. The intrinsic characteristics of the plant residues associated with higher rates of decomposition, can stimulate the activity of the biota and especially the soil microorganisms, which would lead to higher values of the different indicators evaluated. This novel silvopastoral system will likely help restore the most degraded sites through improvement of the soil quality. This kind of information allows obtaining knowledge of the forest areas and their sustainability, mainly for the planning of long-term, durable silvopastoral practices. Keywords: Forest degradation, Nothofagus obliqua, N. dombeyi, silvopastoral systems, Temperate Forest, Volcanic soil ID:3484562
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    Meeting
    Near East and North Africa Forests and Climate Change: Climate Induced Forest Disturbances, Building Resilience and Boosting Implementation of Countries Nationally Determined Contributions (N)DCs FO:NEFRC/2021/3
    25th Session for the Near East Forestry and Range Commission
    2021
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    The Near East and North Africa (NENA) region is dry, hot and scarce in water and arable land resources, with arid, semi-arid to desert conditions and limited tree cover. Yet the 74.7 million hectares of forest and other wooded land, together with rangelands, produce a range of goods and ecosystem services that are essential to rural livelihoods. The region is extremely vulnerable to climate change through heat and drought, and national adaptation priorities focus on crops, forests and water resources. This document describes key challenges related to forests and climate change in the region, and how FAO is working with Members to address them. These include: • Forest and wildland fires, and FAO support for the NENA Regional Forest Wildland Fire Network (NENFIRE) • Forest pests and diseases, and support for the Near East Network on Forest Health and Invasive Species (NENFHIS) • Capacity needs for tracking climate change mitigation and adaptation progress, and support through the FAO/GEF project “Building global capacity to increase transparency in the forest sector” Tackling these interlinked challenges related to climate change is a prerequisite for strengthening the resilience of the forest ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.
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    Implications of forest definition for quantifying disturbance regime characteristics in Mediterranean forests
    XV World Forestry Congress, 2-6 May 2022
    2022
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    In the context of climate change and the increasing incidence of extreme events, global-scale assessments of forest disturbance regimes are needed to monitor changes, inform decision-making and adjust management and planning. But estimations of disturbance regime parameters can be strongly influenced by the criteria used for defining what constitutes a forest. Forests in Mediterranean regions are subject to increasingly higher pressure from climate change and anthropogenic factors. These pressures take the form of slow and diffuse degradation processes, such as drought-induced mortality and competition with shrubs, but also sudden stand- replacing disturbances, such as fire. Many Mediterranean forests, composed of widely spaced trees, are at the lower limit of the 10% canopy cover threshold set by the FAO for defining forests, while others are highly fragmented and mixed with a bushy matrix, qualifying them as other wooded lands. We thus expect assessments of forest disturbance regimes in the Mediterranean region to be particularly sensitive to the thresholds chosen. We assess the uncertainty linked to using different forest definitions for calculating disturbance rotation periods for the 40 ecoregions composing the Mediterranean biome. Using Google Earth Engine and remotely sensed data between 2000-2015, we apply different criteria for calculating the extent of forests and the areas disturbed within them, accounting for forest type, minimum size, canopy density and land use change. We identify the ecoregions with the disturbance rotation periods that are the most sensitive to these different definitions and compare the overall uncertainty with other major forest biomes. We conclude by discussing the importance of identifying harmonized definitions that can best support the sustainable management of Mediterranean forests, as well as opportunities for making consistent and accurate global baselines that can help improve projections of climate change impacts. Keywords: Forests, Disturbances, Remote Sensing, Planning, Climate Change ID: 3622233

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