Dynamics of Land-Use/Cover Change under a Changing Climate

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2016) | Viewed by 30175

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Guest Editor
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352, USA
Interests: land–atmosphere interactions; surface water hydrology; ecosystem modeling; regional climate modeling
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

About 30–50% of the global land surface has already been altered by land-use and land cover changes (LULCC), which are driven by the need to sustain the increase in human population with food, fiber, building materials, and energy. LULCC affects climate through two pathways. Biophysically, LULCC modifies physical land surface properties, such as albedo and roughness length, which have direct impacts on boundary layer dynamics, and on the exchanges of water  and energy fluxes between land and atmosphere at the regional scale. Biogeochemically, LULCC alters the atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) composition and consequently affects the climate on a global scale. Nevertheless, due to LULCC's relatively smaller impacts on other global forcings, the importance of LULCC on climate has not been thoroughly assessed in previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments. As the scope of climate science research expands beyond those concerning globally radiative forcing, it becomes critical to understand the role LULCC plays in perturbing the regional and global climate, and in turn, LULCC's impacts, at all scales, on water supply and demand, ecosystem, agriculture, and land-atmosphere interactions.

This Special Issue is looking for papers that examine the various aspects related to land-use/cover changes on climate, at all scales. Modeling and observational studies on the role of LULCC in regulating regional and global climate, as well as the impact of LULCC on the hydrological, ecological, and biogeochemical aspects of the Earth system, in the context of climate, are all welcome.

Dr. Maoyi Huang
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Land-use/cover changes
  • Biogenic and anthropogenic emissions
  • Land-atmosphere interactions
  • Irrigation/Agriculture
  • Urbanization
  • Deforestation/afforestation
  • Climate mitigation/adaptation

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

1736 KiB  
Article
Evaluating Vegetation Growing Season Changes in Northeastern China by Using GIMMS LAI3g Data
by Xiliang Ni, Jianfeng Xie, Yuke Zhou, Xizhang Gao and Lin Ding
Climate 2017, 5(2), 37; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli5020037 - 22 May 2017
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5095
Abstract
Accurate understanding and detecting of vegetation growth change is essential for providing suitable management strategies for ecosystems. Several studies using satellite based vegetation indices have demonstrated changes of vegetation growth and phenology. Temperature is considered a major determinant of vegetation phenology. To accurately [...] Read more.
Accurate understanding and detecting of vegetation growth change is essential for providing suitable management strategies for ecosystems. Several studies using satellite based vegetation indices have demonstrated changes of vegetation growth and phenology. Temperature is considered a major determinant of vegetation phenology. To accurately detect the response of vegetation to climate variations, this study investigated the vegetation phenology in the northeast (NE) region of China by using in-situ temperature observations and satellite-based leaf area index estimates (LAI3g) for the period 1982–2011. Firstly, a spatial distribution of the averaged phenology over the 30 years was obtained. This distribution showed that a tendency for an early start of the growing season (SoS) and late end of the growing season (EoS) was observed towards of the southeastern part of NE China, with the late SoS and early EoS occurring at higher latitudes. Secondly, the temperature-based and satellite-based phenological trends were analyzed. Then the significant advanced trend (SAT), significant delayed trend (SDT), and nonsignificant trend (NT) of SOS and EOS in NE region of China were detected by using the Mann-Kendall trend test approach. Finally, changes in phenological trends were investigated by using the temperature-based and satellite-based phenology method. A comparison of the phenological trend shows that there are some significant advanced trends of SOS and significant delayed trends of EOS in the NE region of China over 30 years. The results of this study can provide important support of the view that a lengthening of growing season duration occurred at the northern high latitudes in recent decades. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics of Land-Use/Cover Change under a Changing Climate)
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2988 KiB  
Article
Climatic Variability and Land Use Change in Kamala Watershed, Sindhuli District, Nepal
by Muna Neupane and Subodh Dhakal
Climate 2017, 5(1), 11; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli5010011 - 18 Feb 2017
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 10082
Abstract
This study focuses on the land use change and climatic variability assessment around Kamala watershed, Sindhuli district, Nepal. The study area covers two municipalities and eight Village Development Committees (VDCs). In this paper, land use change and the climatic variability are examined. The [...] Read more.
This study focuses on the land use change and climatic variability assessment around Kamala watershed, Sindhuli district, Nepal. The study area covers two municipalities and eight Village Development Committees (VDCs). In this paper, land use change and the climatic variability are examined. The study was focused on analyzing the changes in land use area within the period of 1995 to 2014 and how the climatic data have evolved in different meteorological stations around the watershed. The topographic maps, Google Earth images and ArcGIS 10.1 for four successive years, 1995, 2005, 2010, and 2014 were used to prepare the land use map. The trend analysis of temperature and precipitation data was conducted using Mann Kendall trend analysis and Sen’s slope method using R (3.1.2 version) software. It was found that from 1995 to 2014, the forest area, river terrace, pond, and landslide area decreased while the cropland, settlement, and orchard area increased. The temperature and precipitation trend analysis shows variability in annual, maximum, and seasonal rainfall at different stations. The maximum and minimum temperature increased in all the respective stations, but the changes are statistically insignificant. The Sen’s slope for annual rainfall at ten different stations varied between −38.9 to 4.8 mm per year. Land use change and climatic variability have been analyzed; however, further study is required to establish any relation between climatic variability and land use change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics of Land-Use/Cover Change under a Changing Climate)
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3915 KiB  
Article
Spatio-Temporal Extension and Spatial Analyses of Dengue from Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Swat during 2010–2014
by Nadeem Fareed, Abdul Ghaffar and Tahir S. Malik
Climate 2016, 4(2), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli4020023 - 18 Apr 2016
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 8773
Abstract
Climate change and Land-Use Land-Cover change (LULC) has significantly displaced the local rainfall patterns and weather conditions in Pakistan. This has resulted in a different climate-related problem, particularly vector borne diseases. Dengue transmission has emerged as one of the most devastating and life [...] Read more.
Climate change and Land-Use Land-Cover change (LULC) has significantly displaced the local rainfall patterns and weather conditions in Pakistan. This has resulted in a different climate-related problem, particularly vector borne diseases. Dengue transmission has emerged as one of the most devastating and life threatening disease in Pakistan, causing hundreds of deaths since its first outbreak. This study is designed to understand and analyze the disease patterns across two distinct study regions, using Geographic Information System (GIS), Satellite Remote Sensing (RS) along with climate and socio-economic and demographics datasets. The datasets have been analyzed by using GIS statistical analysis techniques. As a result, maps, tables and graphs have been plotted to estimate the most significant parameters. These parameters have been assigned a contribution weight value to prepare a model and Threat Index Map (TIM) for the study areas. Finally, the model has been tested and verified against existing datasets for both study areas. This model can be used as a disease Early Warning System (EWS). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics of Land-Use/Cover Change under a Changing Climate)
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3534 KiB  
Article
Greenhouse Gas Induced Changes in the Seasonal Cycle of the Amazon Basin in Coupled Climate-Vegetation Regional Model
by Flavio Justino, Frode Stordal, Edward K. Vizy, Kerry H. Cook and Marcos P. S. Pereira
Climate 2016, 4(1), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli4010003 - 4 Jan 2016
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5452
Abstract
Previous work suggests that changes in seasonality could lead to a 70% reduction in the extent of the Amazon rainforest. The primary cause of the dieback of the rainforest is a lengthening of the dry season due to a weakening of the large-scale [...] Read more.
Previous work suggests that changes in seasonality could lead to a 70% reduction in the extent of the Amazon rainforest. The primary cause of the dieback of the rainforest is a lengthening of the dry season due to a weakening of the large-scale tropical circulation. Here we examine these changes in the seasonal cycle. Under present day conditions the Amazon climate is characterized by a zonal separation of the dominance of the annual and semi-annual seasonal cycles. This behavior is strongly modified under greenhouse warming conditions, with the annual cycle becoming dominant throughout the Amazon basin, increasing differences between the dry and wet seasons. In particular, there are substantial changes in the annual cycle of temperature due to the increase in the temperature of the warmest month, but the lengthening of the dry season is believed to be particularly important for vegetation-climate feedbacks. Harmonic analysis performed to regional climate model simulations yields results that differ from the global climate model that it is forced from, with the regional model being more sensitive to changes in the seasonal cycle. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics of Land-Use/Cover Change under a Changing Climate)
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