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A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Biosphere/Hydrosphere/Land–Atmosphere Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2021) | Viewed by 28689

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Prof. Dr. Wan-Yu Liu

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Guest Editor

Department of Forestry, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung City 40227, Taiwan
Interests: forest recreation; forest valuation; sustainable tourism; environmental and resource economics; and climate change and forest carbon sequestration analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Alvaro Enríquez-de-Salamanca

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Guest Editor

Department of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid/National University of Distance Education, Av. Séneca, 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: environmental assessment; environmental restoration; climate change mitigation; climate change adaptation; forestry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past decade, a growing number of studies have been focusing on the relationship among forest, environment, and climate, especially on the ecological system. In recent years, environmental datasets have allowed for evaluation of the effects of space, weather, and atmospheric conditions on the forest environment. Apart from this, deep investigation of the relation between different climatic conditions and the function of different forests provides the elementary basics for proper management. This enables new knowledge about the effects of forests on climate and environment.

The aim of this Special Issue is to showcase the new results of associations between the weather, climate, and various aspects of the forest environment. The main topics of this issue include (1) the impact of weather factors and climatic conditions on forests; (2) the associations among weather, climate, and forests; (3) the complex effects of environmental phenomena (e.g., air temperature, atmospheric pressure, seasonality, air quality, air pollution, and teleconnection pattern) on forest management and valuation; (4) the beneficial effects of the forests on environment and atmospheric conditions; and (5) analysis of the economics of forest management and policy assessment under a climate change trend.

We look forward to your submissions that will be considered for publication in this Special Issue. All manuscripts will be sent to anonymous reviewers as part of the standard peer review procedure of Atmosphere.

Prof. Dr. Wan-Yu Liu
Dr. Alvaro Enríquez-de-Salamanca
Guest Editors

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Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

climate change
weather condition
meteorological information
air quality
carbon sequestration
forest
ecology
environment economics

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Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 4492 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Selected Meteorological Variables on Full Flowering of Some Forest Herbs in the Western Carpathians

by Martin Kubov, Branislav Schieber and Rastislav Janík

Atmosphere 2022, 13(2), 195; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13020195 - 25 Jan 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2308

Abstract

At present, temperate forest ecosystems are endangered by both abiotic and biotic factors. The effects of abiotic components, e.g., meteorological variables, are constantly studied. However, the detailed mechanisms affecting the phenology of plants are still unknown. Two meteorological variables (air temperature and cumulative precipitation) were analysed for the period from 1995 to 2020 in order to determine which factor which has a more significant effect on onset of the full-flowering (FF) phenophase. A set of nine forest herbs, representing different phenological groups from the viewpoint of flowering, was examined (early spring: Petasites albus and Pulmonaria officinalis; mid-spring: Carex pilosa and Dentaria bulbifera; late spring: Fragaria visa and Galium odoratum; early summer: Veronica officinalis; mid-summer: Mycelis muralis; and late summer: Campanula trachelium). Temperature-sum requirements and temporal trends in the onset of FF were also studied. The research conducted at the Ecological Experimental Station in the Kremnické vrchy Mountains (central Slovakia) at an altitude of 500 m asl. Our results show that the air temperature correlated more significantly with the date of onset of FF (r > 0.6, p < 0.001) than with precipitation. On average, the air-temperature sums, calculated for the threshold temperatures of 0 °C and 5 °C, increased from 142.9 °C (Petasites albus) to 1732.9 °C (Campanula trachelium) and from 223.4 °C (Petasites albus) to 1820.8 °C (Campanula trachelium), respectively. Temporal trends in the onset of FF over the last 26 years confirm shifts to earlier dates for most species (excepting early spring Petasites albus). In spring flowering species, shifts ranged from 2 days (0.07 day/year) for Pulmonaria officinalis to 8 days (0.30 day/year) for Carex pilosa. As for summer species, the onset of flowering shifted more significantly to earlier dates—from 7 days (0.27 day/year) for Campanula trachelium to 12 days (0.46 day/year) for Veronica officinalis. The observed trends were statistically significant (p < 0.05) for five examined species (Carex pilosa, Dentaria bulbifera, Fragaria vesca, Veronica officinalis and Mycelis muralis). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Forest Environment)

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16 pages, 1027 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigating the Climate-Growth Response of Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in Northern Poland

by Nella Waszak, Iain Robertson, Radosław Puchałka, Rajmund Przybylak, Aleksandra Pospieszyńska and Marcin Koprowski

Atmosphere 2021, 12(12), 1690; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12121690 - 16 Dec 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2958

Abstract

Research Highlights: This study used a 99-year time-series of daily climatic data to determine the climate-growth relationship for Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) growing in Northern Poland. The use of daily climatic data improved the calculated climatic response of the trees. Background and Objectives: It was hypothesised that daily temperature and precipitation data would more precisely identify climate–growth relationships than monthly data. We compared our results to a previous study conducted in the 1990s that utilised monthly precipitation and temperature data. Materials and Methods: The chronology construction and data analyses were performed using CooRecorder, CDendro and R packages (dplR, treeclim, dendrotools). Forty-nine cores from 31 trees were included in the final chronology. Results: The precipitation and temperature of March had the strongest influence upon ring-widths. Despite a statistically significant correlation between monthly temperature and ring-widths, reduction of error (RE) and coefficient of efficiency (CE) statistics confirmed that daily data better describe the effect of climate on tree rings width than monthly data. Conclusions: At this site, the growing season of Scots pine has changed with the observed association with precipitation now starting as early as February–March and extending to June–July. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Forest Environment)

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10 pages, 2302 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Compositional Spatio-Temporal PM_2.5 Modelling in Wildfires

by Joseph Sánchez-Balseca and Agustií Pérez-Foguet

Atmosphere 2021, 12(10), 1309; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12101309 - 7 Oct 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2214

Abstract

Wildfires are natural ecological processes that generate high levels of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) that are dispersed into the atmosphere. PM_2.5 could be a potential health problem due to its size. Having adequate numerical models to predict the spatial and temporal distribution of PM_2.5 helps to mitigate the impact on human health. The compositional data approach is widely used in the environmental sciences and concentration analyses (parts of a whole). This numerical approach in the modelling process avoids one common statistical problem: the spurious correlation. PM_2.5 is a part of the atmospheric composition. In this way, this study developed an hourly spatio-temporal PM_2.5 model based on the dynamic linear modelling framework (DLM) with a compositional approach. The results of the model are extended using a Gaussian–Mattern field. The modelling of PM_2.5 using a compositional approach presented adequate quality model indices (NSE = 0.82, RMSE = 0.23, and a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.91); however, the correlation range showed a slightly lower value than the conventional/traditional approach. The proposed method could be used in spatial prediction in places without monitoring stations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Forest Environment)

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15 pages, 2501 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Carbon-Negative Policies by Reusing Waste Wood as Material and Energy Resources for Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Taiwan

by Wen-Tien Tsai

Atmosphere 2021, 12(9), 1220; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12091220 - 17 Sep 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3135

Abstract

Carbon-negative policies for mitigating the emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG) from the energy sector are becoming more urgent and important. Therefore, the environmental policies and regulatory promotion for reusing waste wood as a carbon-negative resource in Taiwan were discussed in this work, which focused on mitigating the emissions of GHG from the energy industries and the manufacturing and construction industries. Considering the official GHG inventory report, the trend analysis of GHG emissions from the energy and the manufacturing and construction industries was addressed first. In addition, this study placed emphasis on the environmental policies and regulatory measures for the material and energy resources from waste wood according to the promulgation of the relevant acts. It was found that the total GHG emissions from the energy and the manufacturing and construction industries accounted for over 80% of net GHG emissions in 2018. In review of the resource recycling and circular economy, lignocellulose-based (or bamboo-based) char, ecological building material, and wood-to-biofuel pathways (e.g., solid recovered fuel) were discussed in this work because they have been promoted by the central competent authorities of the Council of Agriculture (COA), the Ministry of Interior (MOI), and the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), respectively. In order to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Taiwan, carbon-negative policies for reusing waste wood as material and energy resources will play an important role in the mitigation of GHG emissions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Forest Environment)

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34 pages, 14302 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cluster and Redundancy Analyses of Taiwan Upstream Watersheds Based on Monthly 30 Years AVHRR NDVI3g Data

by Hui Ping Tsai and Wei-Ying Wong

Atmosphere 2021, 12(9), 1206; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12091206 - 16 Sep 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2335

Abstract

The study uses 30 years of the third generation of Advanced Very-High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) NDVI3g monthly data from 1982 to 2012 to identify the natural clusters and important driving factors of the upstream watersheds in Taiwan through hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and redundancy analysis (RDA), respectively. Subsequently, as a result of HCA, six clusters were identified based on the 30 years of monthly NDVI data, delineating unique NDVI characteristics of the upstream watersheds. Additionally, based on the RDA results, environmental factors, including precipitation, temperature, slope, and aspect, can explain approximately 52% of the NDVI variance over the entire time series. Among environmental factors, nine factors were identified significantly through RDA analysis for explaining NDVI variance: average slope, temperature, flat slope, northeast-facing slope, rainfall, east-facing slope, southeast-facing slope, west-facing slope, and northwest-facing slope, which reflect an intimate connection between climatic and orthographic factors with vegetation. Furthermore, the rainfall and temperature represent different variations in all scenarios and seasons. With consideration of the characteristics of the clusters and significant environmental factors, corresponding climate change adaptation strategies are proposed for each cluster under climate change scenarios. Thus, the results provide insight to assess the natural clustering of the upstream watersheds in Taiwan, benefitting future sustainable watershed management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Forest Environment)

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24 pages, 1900 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Forest Management and Adaptation Strategies in Response to Climate Change by the Taiwanese Public

by Wan-Yu Liu, Chien-Chen Wu and Shih-Yu Simon Wang

Atmosphere 2021, 12(8), 1056; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12081056 - 17 Aug 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2826

Abstract

Forests account for 60% of lands in Taiwan. Climate change impacts forests in many aspects and is increasingly likely to undermine the ability of forests to provide basic ecosystem services. To help reduce the impact of climate change on Taiwan’s forests, people must be made aware of the relationship between climate change and forests. Based on questionnaires collected from 17 cities in Taiwan, this study applied spatial analysis to assess the respondents’ understanding of climate change and adaptation strategies for forest management. A total of 650 questionnaires were distributed and 488 valid ones were collected. The results show that (1) Most respondents believe that climate change is true and more than half of the respondents have experienced extreme weather events, especially extreme rainfall; (2) Most respondents believe that climate change will affect Taiwan’s forests with the majority recognizing the increasing impact of extreme events being the primary cause, followed by changes in the composition of tree species and the deterioration of forest adaptability due to climate change; (3) Most respondents expressed that forest management should be adjusted for climate change and called for measures being taken to establish mixed forests as well as monitoring forest damage; (4) In order to address the difficulties faced by forest owners on the impact of climate change, the majority of respondents felt that the government should raise forest owners’ understanding on climate change and adaptation policies, while the subsidy incentives must also be adjusted. The results of this study show that the respondents do realize the importance of climate change and forest management so much so their awareness in this matter led to their support for forest adaptation measures and policies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Forest Environment)

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15 pages, 690 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Economic Assessment of Meteorological Information Services for Aquaculture in Taiwan

by Hen-I Lin, Je-Liang Liou, Ting-Huai Chang, Hao-Yang Liu, Fang-I Wen, Po-Ting Liu and Ding-Fong Chiu

Atmosphere 2021, 12(7), 822; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12070822 - 27 Jun 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2287

Abstract

The main purpose of this research was to evaluate and analyze the economic value of the meteorological information services (MIS) provided by the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) when applied to aquaculture in Taiwan. In this research, a contingent valuation method (CVM) was used to inquire about the subjective rating given to the CWB’s meteorological information services based on the responses to a national level questionnaire distributed among aquaculture farmers. The subjective rating revealed how the aquaculture farmers rated the accuracy of the MIS provided by the CWB and how they recognized the impact of the MIS on their aquaculture output. On this basis, this research determined the economic value brought about by the application of the meteorological information services. In order to understand the main factors affecting the respondents’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the MIS, this research also conducted an empirical estimation of the bid function. The results indicated that the main factors affecting the WTP were found to include the respondents’ subjective rating of the meteorological information services (including the accuracy rating and the effect rating), traditional social and economic background variables such as income and education level, as well as fish species. In addition, through testing the estimation of the bid function, it was also found that the survey sample used in this research had a significant starting point bias effect, which needed to be corrected using econometric methods. According to the empirical results, the median willingness-to-pay (WTP) of aquaculture farmers in Taiwan was 3544 New Taiwan Dollars (NTD)/person/year and the total economic value at the national level ranged from 157 million to 209 million NTD per year. Since the MIS service users have often lacked sufficient knowledge and ability to interpret the weather forecasts, how to strengthen the capabilities of service users in using MIS through the promotion of training programs and improve the value of the MIS may be an important policy insight. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Forest Environment)

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11 pages, 1268 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Carbon versus Timber Economy in Mediterranean Forests

by Álvaro Enríquez-de-Salamanca

Atmosphere 2021, 12(6), 746; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12060746 - 9 Jun 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2827

Abstract

Forests produce goods and services, but the forest economy is based on goods, with market price, more than on services. Under Mediterranean climate conditions forests have low timber production, being frequently financially loss-making, despite the environmental services provided, such as carbon sequestration. Timber production and carbon sequestration are compatible, and a proper valuation of both can allow for a more balanced management. The aim of this paper is to assess financially a scenario based on maximizing carbon sequestration versus another based on maximizing timber harvesting in a Mediterranean forest. To do that, timber stock, growth and harvesting, and carbon sequestration have been calculated. Applying market prices for timber and CO₂ both scenarios have been assessed, carrying out a sensitivity analysis. Maximising carbon sequestration was more profitable in the vast majority of combinations; timber harvesting was only more profitable if CO₂ prices fell below 30% and timber price increases more than 20%; timber price rise is possible, but a collapse in CO₂ price is not probable. The real barrier is that while timber is as a commodity with market price, carbon sequestration is not. The challenge for the future is to pay for carbon sequestration, mobilising resources from polluting sectors to forests. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Forest Environment)

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13 pages, 695 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dust Capturing Capacity of Woody Plants in Clean Air Zones throughout Taiwan

by Yi-Chung Wang and Bixia Chen

Atmosphere 2021, 12(6), 696; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12060696 - 29 May 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3808

Abstract

To exploit the ability of vegetation to capture particulate matter (dust) from the air and improve air quality, 546 clean air zones (CAZs) consisting of various types of urban green space have been established in Taiwan. This study systematically assessed the pollutant filtering efficiency of tree species planted in these green spaces. This research aims to provide quantitative data on individual trees’ dust retention functions for future green space planning in urban areas. Field surveys were conducted in 98 CAZs throughout Taiwan. The vegetation composition of approximately 14,000 woody trees, consisting of 210 species, was surveyed. The vegetation surveyed showed that the dominant species in many CAZs in southern Taiwan were introduced species. The dust capturing capacity of the tree species was found to be positively correlated with leaf size. However, the amount of dust retention was affected mainly by the surface structure and morphological characteristics of the leaves, such as a rough, hairy surface. Among the tree species, Spathodea campanulata, Pterocarpus indicus, and Delonix regia exhibited the best dust capture and retention capacity in southern Taiwan, and Ficus macrocarpa, Alstonia scholaris, and Melia azedarach were the most desirable dust retention species. The results suggest that native evergreen species are suitable for dust retention in urban green spaces. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Forest Environment)

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17 pages, 5559 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Value of a Decrease in Temperature by One Degree Celsius of the Regional Microclimate—The Cooling Effect of the Paddy Field

by Ya-Wen Chiueh, Chih-Hung Tan and Hsiang-Yi Hsu

Atmosphere 2021, 12(3), 353; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12030353 - 8 Mar 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2383

Abstract

In the face of climate change, extreme climates are becoming more frequent. There were severe droughts in Taiwan in 2020, 2014–2015, and 2002. In these years, the paddy fields were kept fallow to save water and transfer agricultural water to non-agricultural use. On the other hand, with global warming, the existence of paddy fields may be one of the natural solutions to regional temperature mitigation. This study used remote sensing to quantify the difference in temperature between paddy fields and urban areas. The result of overall surface temperature deductive analysis revealed that the temperature in the whole Taoyuan research area was 1.2 °C higher in 2002 than in 2003 because of fallowing of the paddy field, while in the Hsinchu research area, it was 1.5 °C higher in 2002 than in 2003, due to the same reason described above. In terms of the difference in land use, for the Hsinchu research area, the surface temperature deductive result showed that the average paddy field temperature in 2002 was 22.3 °C (sample area average), which was 7.7 °C lower than that of the building and road point and 4.3 °C lower than that of the bare land point. The average paddy field temperature in 2003 was 19.2 °C (sample area average), which was 10.1 °C lower than that of the building and road point and 8.3 °C lower than that of the bare land point. Then this study evaluated the economic valuation of the paddy field cooling effect using the contingent valuation method. Through the paddy field cooling effect and in the face of worsening extreme global climate, the willingness to pay (WTP) of the respondents in Taiwan for a decrease of 1 °C with regard to the regional microclimate was evaluated. It was found that people in Taiwan are willing to pay an extra 8.89 USD/per kg rice/year for the paddy for a decrease in temperature by 1 °C in the regional microclimate due to the paddy field. Furthermore, this study applied the benefits transfer method to evaluate the value of a decrease of 1 °C in the regional microclimate in Taiwan. The value of a decrease of 1 °C in the regional microclimate in Taiwan is 9,693,144,279 USD/year. In this regard, the economic value of 1 °C must not be underestimated. In conclusion, more caution is needed while making decisions to change the land use of paddy fields to other land uses. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Forest Environment)

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