Impacts of Climate Change and Human Disturbances on Carbon Cycling and Greenhouse Gas Emission in Ecosystems

A special issue of Climate (ISSN 2225-1154).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2025 | Viewed by 6487

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Science and the Environment, Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Corner Brook, NL, Canada
Interests: impacts of climate change and human disturbance on carbon cycling; greenhouse gas emissions in northern peatlands
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Human activities and greenhouse gas emissions that feed back into the climate have been greatly impacted by global climate change. Changes in C cycling are brought about by a combination of a warmer climate and intensified human activities, which are reflected in the changes in ecosystem functions and processes. Additionally, there have been major human perturbations to ecosystems, which may alter how much the climate influences ecological processes. Through their significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which are affected by climate change and human disturbances, ecosystems have the potential to change from their current "climate cooling" function to a "climate warming" function. Understanding the relationships between human activities, urban environments, and urban climates is difficult, however, due to the intricate temporal and spatial variability of these factors. Therefore, significant uncertainties exist regarding how climate change and human disturbances (for example, urbanization, intensified agricultural development, afforestation and defrostation, and other human activities) affect carbon cycling and greenhouse gas emissions and the feedback between ecosystem processes and climate change and human disturbances.

This upcoming Special Issue will focus on recent research developments that have improved our knowledge of carbon cycling, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate–human interactions, and will help us to create better adaptations for preserving the stability and function of ecosystems in terms of the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. This Special Issue welcomes both original and review/synthesis research papers. The potential topics of this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Human–climate interactions;
  • The effects of urban human activity on the local/regional climate and ecosystem functions and processes;
  • Carbon and other element cycling, and greenhouse gas emissions;
  • The reactions of biological and ecological processes to climate change and human disturbances;
  • The interactions of vegetation and hydrology with climate change and human disturbances;
  • The responses of biogeochemistry to climate change and human disturbances;
  • The responses of microbial communities and functions to climate change and human disturbances.

Prof. Dr. Jianghua Wu
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • climate change
  • human disturbances
  • carbon cycling
  • elemental cycling
  • greenhouse gas emissions
  • microbial communities
  • biological processes
  • biogeochemical processes

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 1581 KiB  
Article
Statistical Analysis and Modeling of the CO2 Series Emitted by Thirty European Countries
by Alina Bărbulescu
Climate 2024, 12(3), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli12030034 - 29 Feb 2024
Viewed by 2332
Abstract
In recent decades, an increase in the earth’s atmospheric temperature has been noticed due to the augmentation of the volume of gases with the greenhouse effect (GHG) released into the atmosphere. To reduce this effect, the European Union’s directives indicate the action directions [...] Read more.
In recent decades, an increase in the earth’s atmospheric temperature has been noticed due to the augmentation of the volume of gases with the greenhouse effect (GHG) released into the atmosphere. To reduce this effect, the European Union’s directives indicate the action directions for reducing these emissions, among which carbon dioxide (CO2) recorded the highest amount. In this context, the article analyzes the CO2 series reported in 1990–2021 by 30 European countries. The Kruskal-Wallis test rejected the hypothesis that the series comes from the same underlying distribution. The Anderson-Darling test rejected the normality hypothesis for seven series out of thirty, and Sen’s procedure found a decreasing trend slope only for 17 series. ARIMA models have been built for all individual series. Grouping the series (by the k-means and hierarchical clustering) provided the base for building the Regional series (RegS), which describes the CO2 pollution evolution over Europe. The advantage of this approach is to provide the synthetic image of the regional evolution of the CO2 emission volume (mt), incorporating information from 30 series (one for each country) in only one—RegS. It is also shown that selecting the number of clusters involved in building RegS and assessing their stability is essential for the model’s goodness of fit. Full article
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12 pages, 1866 KiB  
Article
Emission and Reduction of Air Pollutants from Charcoal-Making Process in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta
by Pham Van Toan, Lavane Kim, Nguyen Truong Thanh, Huynh Long Toan, Le Anh Tuan, Huynh Vuong Thu Minh and Pankaj Kumar
Climate 2023, 11(7), 149; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli11070149 - 14 Jul 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3486
Abstract
Charcoal is a fuelwood commonly used for domestic purposes on the household scale in Africa and Southeast Asia. Earnings from charcoal production contribute to the income of local inhabitants in rural areas. Unfortunately, airborne emissions from the traditional charcoal-making process affect both human [...] Read more.
Charcoal is a fuelwood commonly used for domestic purposes on the household scale in Africa and Southeast Asia. Earnings from charcoal production contribute to the income of local inhabitants in rural areas. Unfortunately, airborne emissions from the traditional charcoal-making process affect both human health and the ambient environment. A series of studies were performed at a charcoal-making village in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD) to assess: (i) air pollutant emissions from the traditional charcoal-making process; (ii) the impacts on human well-being and the environment of traditional charcoal production; (iii) the loading of carbon dioxide from a charcoal-making kiln; and (iv) the efficiency in reducing contaminants of an air pollution-controlling method developed at a charcoal-making kiln. Study results revealed that the traditional charcoal-making method causes a substantial loss of carbon from fuelwood materials and emits the products of incomplete combustion. These contaminants negatively impact human well-being and the environment. Carbon dioxide and incomplete combustion substances emitted from the charcoal-making kiln are potential causes of the global warming phenomenon. The installation of an air pollution-controlling system at the charcoal-making kiln is recommended as an urgent solution before alternatives would be found to control the impacts of charcoal production. Full article
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