Sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to northwestern Saskatchewan lakes east of the Athabasca oil sands     

《Organic Geochemistry》2015

The past several decades have witnessed a significant expansion of mining activities in the Athabasca oil sands region, raising concerns about their impact on the surrounding boreal forest ecosystem. To better understand the extent to which distal sites are impacted by oil sands-derived airborne contaminants, we examine sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface sediments and dated sediment cores from Saskatchewan lakes situated ∼100–220 km east–northeast of the main area of bitumen mining activities. The concentrations and fluxes of both parent and alkylated PAHs are low and show considerable variability over the past 70–100 years. Small yet discernible increases in PAH concentrations and fluxes occurred over the past 30 years, a trend which coincides with the rapid growth in bitumen production. However, several lines of evidence point to wildfires as the principal source of PAHs to these lakes: (1) the significant co-variations in most cores between retene (1-methyl-7-isopropyl phenanthrene) and other groups of parent and alkylated PAHs, (2) the similarity in compound specific δ¹³C signatures of the parent PAHs phenanthrene and pyrene in recently deposited surficial sediments and those corresponding to time intervals considerably pre-dating the large scale development of the oil sands and (3) the discernible up-core increases in the proportion of refractory carbon (i.e., char) in Rock-Eval 6 data. The collective evidence points to softwood combustion from boreal forest fires as the principal source of retene in sediments and the general increase in forest fire activity in this region over the past several decades as the source of refractory carbon. Mining activities associated with the Athabasca oil sands are thus not considered a major source of PAHs to these lakes.  相似文献   

Legacies of 19th century land use shape contemporary forest cover     

《Global Environmental Change》2015

Historic land use can exert strong land-use legacies, i.e., long-lasting effects on ecosystems, but the importance of land-use legacies, alongside other factors, for subsequent forest-cover change is unclear. If past land use affects rates of forest disturbance and afforestation then this may constrain land use planning and land management options, and legacies of current land management may constrain future land use. Our goal was to assess if and how much land-use legacies affect contemporary forest disturbance, and the abundance of different forest types in the Carpathian region in Eastern Europe (265,000 km², encompassing parts of Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, and Czech Republic). We modeled contemporary forest disturbance (based on satellite image analysis from 1985 to 2010) as a function of historic land use (based on digitized topographic maps from 1860 and 1960). Contemporary forest disturbance was strongly related to historic land use even when controlling for environmental, accessibility and socio-political variation. Across the Carpathian region, the odds of forest disturbance were about 50% higher in areas that were not forested in 1860 (new forests) compared to areas that were forested then (old forests). The forest disturbance in new forests was particularly high in Poland (88% higher odds), Slovakia (69%) and Romania (67%) and persisted across the entire range of environmental, accessibility and socio-political variation. Reasons for the observed legacy effects may include extensive plantations outside forest ranges, predominantly spruce, poplar, and black locust, which are prone to natural disturbances. Furthermore, as plantations reach harvestable age of about 70 years for pulp and 120 year for saw-timber production, these are likely to be clear-cut, producing the observed legacy effects. Across the Carpathians, forest types shifted towards less coniferous cover in 2010 compared to the 1860s and 1960s likely due to extensive historic conifer harvest, and to recent natural disturbance events and clear-cuts of forest plantations. Our results underscore the importance of land-use legacies, and show that past land uses can greatly affect subsequent forest disturbance for centuries. Given rapid land use changes worldwide, it is important to understand how past legacies affect current management and what the impact of current land management decisions may be for future land use.  相似文献   

Conifer stomata analysis in paleoecological studies on the Loess Plateau: An example from Tianchi Lake, Liupan Mountains     

K. ZhangY. Zhao  X.L. Guo 《Journal of Arid Environments》2011,75(11):1209-1213

The identification of fossil conifer stomata was conducted from a lake sedimentary sequence on the Liupan Mountains, southwestern Loess Plateau, in order to reconstruct detailed forest history and assess the potential of using stomata as a supplement to pollen analysis to determine the local presence of conifers over the last 3200 years. The pollen has already been analyzed in our previous study. Reference conifer stomata were prepared for the fossil stomata identification and demonstrate that the conifer stomata could be identified to at least genus level. Our stomata and pollen results reveal three clear stages of the forest recession during the late Holocene: mixed conifer-deciduous forest, steppe-forest and steppe. Combined stomata and pollen results confirm the local presence of conifer trees (Abies and Pinus) in the vicinity of the Tianchi Lake. Abundant Abies trees existed during 3200-2200 cal yr BP. Then it decreased and finally demised at ca.210 cal yr BP. Pinus trees have been continuously present with very low abundance throughout the late Holocene. Application of comprehensive studies comprising both stomata and pollen analyses allowed a detailed determination of the stages of conifer trees presence in the vicinity of the Tianchi Lake. Our study suggests that the analysis of fossil stomata is a valuable methodological tool for the provision of unambiguous evidence of the past local presence of the coniferous taxa in this region.  相似文献   

Normalized algorithm for mapping and dating forest disturbances and regrowth for the United States     

Liming He  Jing M. Chen  Shaoliang Zhang  Gustavo Gomez  Yude Pan  Kevin McCullough  Richard Birdsey  Jeffrey G. Masek 《International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation》2011

Forest disturbances such as harvesting, wildfire and insect infestation are critical ecosystem processes affecting the carbon cycle. Because carbon dynamics are related to time since disturbance, forest stand age that can be used as a surrogate for major clear-cut/fire disturbance information has recently been recognized as an important input to forest carbon cycle models for improving prediction accuracy. In this study, forest disturbances in the USA for the period of ∼1990–2000 were mapped using 400+ pairs of re-sampled Landsat TM/ETM scenes in 500m resolution, which were provided by the Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System project. The detected disturbances were then separated into two five-year age groups, facilitated by Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data, which was used to calculate the area of forest regeneration for each county in the USA.  相似文献   

3D modeling of light interception in heterogeneous forest canopies using ground-based LiDAR data     

Dimitry Van der Zande  Jan Stuckens  Willem W. Verstraeten  Simone Mereu  Bart Muys  Pol Coppin 《International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation》2011

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The pitfalls and potential of debt-for-nature swaps: A US-Indonesian case study   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Danny Cassimon  Martin Prowse  Dennis Essers   《Global Environmental Change》2011,21(1):93-102

The vital role of forests in limiting the likelihood of dangerous climate change has precipitated renewed interest in debt-for-nature swaps. This article uses evidence on past debt-for-nature deals and similar debt mechanisms to assess a recent second wave of such swaps. It outlines five typical shortcomings of this form of financial transaction: that they often fail to deliver additional resources to the debtor country and/or debtor government budget; often fail to deliver more resources for conservation/climate purposes; often have a negligible effect on overall debt burdens (and, as such, do not generate more ‘indirect’ benefits); and are often in conflict with principles of alignment with government policy and alignment with government systems (these two last shortcomings being important elements within the new aid delivery paradigm). Our analysis is applied to a recent debt-for-nature swap between the United States and Indonesia. We show that this case, which we consider a litmus test for current swap practice, performs unevenly across the five shortcomings. First, although the US-Indonesian swap does increase available resources to Indonesia at the country level, it does not generate extra budgetary room for the Indonesian government. Second, the extent to which the resources provided by the swap are additional to other donor support and reserved domestic budget lines for conservation goals is unclear. Third, the swap is too insignificant to create indirect (positive) economic effects. Regarding alignment issues, fourth, the swap is very much in line with current national policy, but, fifth, appears at odds with the new aid delivery paradigm's insistence on system alignment. We argue that if a second generation of debt-for-nature swaps is to be pursued then they need to avoid the common pitfalls associated with this form of finance. Moreover, there is a need to debate broader ways of linking debt service repayments to climate mitigation and adaptation.  相似文献   

Inequalities, institutions, and forest commons   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Krister AnderssonArun Agrawal 《Global Environmental Change》2011,21(3):866-875

This paper contributes to a growing literature on the commons that examines the relationship between inequality and commons outcomes. Our analysis of evidence on forest commons outcomes in 228 cases from South Asia (India and Nepal), East Africa (Kenya and Uganda) and Latin America (Mexico and Bolivia) suggests that local governance and collective action matter in shaping how socioeconomic inequalities affect forest conditions. In particular, we find that both inter-group and intra-group economic inequalities have consistently negative effects on forest outcomes, but that effectively functioning local institutions for collective action dampen the negative effect of inter-group inequality on forest outcomes.  相似文献   

Assessing the utility WorldView-2 imagery for tree species mapping in South African subtropical humid forest and the conservation implications: Dukuduku forest patch as case study     

《International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation》2015

Indigenous forest biome in South Africa is highly fragmented into patches of various sizes (most patches < 1 km²). The utilization of timber and non-timber resources by poor rural communities living around protected forest patches produce subtle changes in the forest canopy which can be hardly detected on a timely manner using traditional field surveys. The aims of this study were to assess: (i) the utility of very high resolution (VHR) remote sensing imagery (WorldView-2, 0.5–2 m spatial resolution) for mapping tree species and canopy gaps in one of the protected subtropical coastal forests in South Africa (the Dukuduku forest patch (ca.3200 ha) located in the province of KwaZulu-Natal) and (ii) the implications of the map products to forest conservation. Three dominant canopy tree species namely, Albizia adianthifolia, Strychnos spp. and Acacia spp., and canopy gap types including bushes (grass/shrubby), bare soil and burnt patches were accurately mapped (overall accuracy = 89.3 ± 2.1%) using WorldView-2 image and support vector machine classifier. The maps revealed subtle forest disturbances such as bush encroachment and edge effects resulting from forest fragmentation by roads and a power-line. In two stakeholders’ workshops organised to assess the implications of the map products to conservation, participants generally agreed amongst others implications that the VHR maps provide valuable information that could be used for implementing and monitoring the effects of rehabilitation measures. The use of VHR imagery is recommended for timely inventorying and monitoring of the small and fragile patches of subtropical forests in Southern Africa.  相似文献   

Sentinel-2卫星落叶松林龄信息反演   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

唐少飞  田庆久  徐凯健  徐念旭  岳继博 《遥感学报》2020,24(12):1511-1524

林龄结构信息能够有效反映区域森林群落不同生长阶段的固碳能力，对于评估森林生态系统的健康状况具有重要意义。本研究以中国温带典型优势树种落叶松林为研究对象，分别选择其芽萌动期、展叶期和落叶期时段的Sentinel-2影像，采用多元线性回归（MLR）、随机森林（RF）、支持向量机回归（SVR）、前馈反向传播神经网络（BP）以及多元自适应回归样条（MARS）等5种方法依次构建落叶松林龄反演模型。通过相关性分析首先确定最佳遥感反演物候期，并在此基础上根据相关性差异筛选出5个最优特征变量用于模型反演，分别为冠层含水量（CWC），归一化水体指数（NDWI），叶面积指数（LAI），光合有效辐射吸收率（FAPAR）和植被覆盖度（FVC）。研究结果表明，展叶期为落叶松林最佳遥感反演物候期。除植被衰减指数（PSRI）以及落叶期的NDVI、RVI外，落叶松林龄与各指标之间均呈负相关关系，其中与冠层含水量（CWC）的相关性最高，pearson相关系数达到-0.74（p<0.01）。此外，不同模型反演结果表明，随机森林模型（RF）为最佳落叶松林龄估测模型，其平均决定系数R²和平均均方根误差RMSE分别为0.89和2.91 a；多元线性回归模型（MLR）的林龄估测结果最差，其平均决定系数R²和平均均方根误差RMSE仅为0.57和5.69 a，非线性模型能更好的解释林龄与建模变量之间的关系。  相似文献   

Erodibility of low‐compaction steep‐sloped reclaimed surface mine lands in the southern Appalachian region,USA          下载免费PDF全文

Siavash Hoomehr  John S. Schwartz  Daniel Yoder  Eric C. Drumm  Wesley Wright 《水文研究》2015,29(3):321-338

The use of loose spoils on steep slopes for surface coal mining reclamation sites has been promoted by the US Department of Interior, Office of Surface Mining for the establishment of native forest, as prescribed by the Forest Reclamation Approach (FRA). Although low‐compaction spoils improve tree survival and growth, erodibility on steep slopes was suspected to increase. This study quantified a combined K_C factor (combining the effects of the soil erodibility K factor and cover management C) for low compaction, steep‐sloped (>20°) reclaimed mine lands in the Appalachian region, USA. The combined K_C factor was used because standard Unit Plot conditions required to separate these factors, per Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) experimental protocols, were not followed explicitly. Three active coal mining sites in the Appalachian region of East Tennessee, each containing four replicate field plots, were monitored for rainfall and sediment yields during a 14‐month period beginning June 2009. Average cumulative erosivity for the study sites during the monitoring period was measured as 5248.9 MJ·mm·ha^?1·h^?1. The K_C ranged between 0.001 and 0.05 t·ha·h·ha^?1·MJ^?1·mm^?1, with the highest values occurring immediately following reclamation site construction as rills developed (June – August 2009). The K_C for two study sites with about an 18–20 mm spoil D₈₄ were above 0.01 t·ha·h·ha^?1·MJ^?1·mm^?1 during rill development, and below 0.003 t·ha·h·ha^?1·MJ^?1·mm^?1 after August 2009 for the post‐rill development period. The K_C values for one site with a 40 mm spoil D₈₄ were never above 0.008 t·ha·h·ha^?1·MJ^?1·mm^?1 and also on average were lower, being more similar to the other two sites after the rill development period. Based on an initial K_C factor (K_e) measured during the first few storm events, the average C factor (C_e) was estimated as 0.58 for the rill development period and 0.13 for the post‐rill development period. It appears that larger size fractions of spoils influence K_C and C_e factors on low‐compaction steep slopes reclamation sites. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献