Forest Management Focused on Climate Change Mitigation: The Development of Long-Term Carbon Sinks

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2022) | Viewed by 39823

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
ICAAM—Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas, Universidade de Évora, 7000-083 Évora, Portugal
Interests: forest management; sustainability; circular economy; biomass energy; rural development
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Co-Guest Editor

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Co-Guest Editor
1. ICAAM—Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas, Pólo da Mitra, Universidade de Évora, 7006-554 Évora, Portugal
2. Departamento de Fitotecnia, Pólo da Mitra, Universidade de Évora, 7002-554 Évora, Portugal
Interests: mathematical modeling of tree growth and the construction of spatially explicit growth models; development of computer applications of the mentioned growth models; development of decision support models applied to the sustainable management of forest stands
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change now appears as the biggest problem humanity has ever faced. Since the purpose of this Special Issue is not to discuss the role of humans in the development of climate change in itself, it is intended to address methodologies that act as mitigating actions of climate change and that contribute to the reduction and elimination of the impacts caused by them. Forests are admittedly a space, natural or not, that acts as a carbon sink as trees have the ability to capture and sequester atmospheric carbon in large quantities. However, it will be the forest management model that will define the carbon residence time, mainly by managing the rotation time of the forest species, creating models with the capacity to conserve, store or replace carbon levels. This Special Issue will focus on forest management models as a carbon sink regular procedure with the capacity to work as negative emissions technology (NET), on a climate change mitigation path. On the one hand, several innovative and alternative concepts could be presented, but also the topics of energy policy, circular economy, life cycle assessment, and supply chain could play a major role. Models on various temporal and geographical scales could be developed to understand the conditions of technical as well as organizational change. New methods of modeling, which can fulfil technical and physical boundary conditions and nevertheless consider economic environmental and social aspects, can be presented and developed as well.

Dr. Leonel Jorge Ribeiro Nunes
Dr. Catarina Isabel Rodrigues Meireles
Prof. Dr. Carlos José Pinto Gomes
Prof. Dr. Nuno Manuel Cabral de Almeida Ribeiro
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • climate change
  • mitigation procedures
  • carbon sinks
  • forest management

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 4472 KiB  
Article
Upscaling Gross Primary Production from Leaf to Canopy for Potato Crop (Solanum tuberosum L.)
by Fabio Ernesto Martínez-Maldonado, Angela María Castaño-Marín, Gerardo Antonio Góez-Vinasco and Fabio Ricardo Marin
Climate 2022, 10(9), 127; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli10090127 - 29 Aug 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3399
Abstract
Estimating gross primary production (GPP) is important to understand the land–atmosphere CO2 exchange for major agroecosystems. Eddy covariance (EC) measurements provide accurate and reliable information about GPP, but flux measurements are often not available. Upscaling strategies gain importance as an alternative to [...] Read more.
Estimating gross primary production (GPP) is important to understand the land–atmosphere CO2 exchange for major agroecosystems. Eddy covariance (EC) measurements provide accurate and reliable information about GPP, but flux measurements are often not available. Upscaling strategies gain importance as an alternative to the limitations of the use of the EC. Although the potato provides an important agroecosystem for worldwide carbon balance, there are currently no studies on potato GPP upscaling processes. This study reports two GPP scaling-up approaches from the detailed leaf-level characterization of gas exchange of potatoes. Multilayer and big leaf approaches were applied for extrapolating chamber and biometric measurements from leaf to canopy. Measurements of leaf area index and photosynthesis were performed from planting to the end of the canopy life cycle using an LP-80 ceptometer and an IRGA Li-Cor 6800, respectively. The results were compared to concurrent measurements of surface–atmosphere GPP from the EC measurements. Big-leaf models were able to simulate the general trend of GPP during the growth cycle, but they overestimated the GPP during the maximum LAI phase. Multilayer models correctly reproduced the behavior of potato GPP and closely predicted both: the daily magnitude and half-hourly variation in GPP when compared to EC measurements. Upscaling is a reliable alternative, but a good treatment of LAI and the photosynthetic light-response curves are decisive factors to achieve better GPP estimates. The results improved the knowledge of the biophysical control in the carbon fluxes of the potato crop. Full article
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9 pages, 549 KiB  
Article
Forest Resource Management and Its Climate-Change Mitigation Policies in Taiwan
by Wen-Tien Tsai
Climate 2021, 9(1), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli9010003 - 29 Dec 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3685
Abstract
Based on high carbon emissions in recent years (i.e., about 11 metric tons in 2018) per capita in terms of carbon dioxide equivalents, Taiwan has actively development greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction action plans. One of the action plans has been to promote afforestation [...] Read more.
Based on high carbon emissions in recent years (i.e., about 11 metric tons in 2018) per capita in terms of carbon dioxide equivalents, Taiwan has actively development greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction action plans. One of the action plans has been to promote afforestation and reforestation in non-forested lands for carbon sequestration. Thus, this paper aims to address the forest resources in Taiwan by using the latest national survey, reporting on an interactive analysis of forest carbon sequestration, GHG emissions, and climate-change mitigation policies. In this regard, the methodology is based on the official websites of forest resources, GHG emissions, and carbon sequestration from the yearbooks, national statistics, and regulations relevant to the mitigation policies in the forestry sector. It is found that Taiwan’s forest area is estimated to be 2.197 million hectares, which corresponds to a total forest stock volume of about 502.0 million cubic meters. During the period of 1990–2018, the change in total carbon sequestration did not vary much (with the exception of 2009), decreasing from 23.4 million metric tons in 1990 to 21.4 million metric tons in 2018. Compared to the total carbon dioxide emissions (i.e., 102.4 million metric tons in 1990 and 282.8 million metric tons in 2018), the contribution to GHG mitigation in the forestry sector shows a declining trend. However, biomass (i.e., wood) carbon sequestration indicates a slight increase from 20.4 million metric tons in 2010 to 20.7 million metric tons in 2018 due to the afforestation policy. Obviously, regulatory policies, based on the Forestry Act and the Greenhouse Gas Reduction & Management Act in 2015, play a vital role in mitigating GHG emissions in Taiwan. The discussion on the regulations is further addressed to highlight climate-change mitigation policies in Taiwan’s forestry sector. Full article
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24 pages, 8009 KiB  
Article
Surface Temperature Trend Estimation over 12 Sites in Guinea Using 57 Years of Ground-Based Data
by René Tato Loua, Hassan Bencherif, Nelson Bègue, Nkanyiso Mbatha, Thierry Portafaix, Alain Hauchecorne, Venkataraman Sivakumar and Zoumana Bamba
Climate 2020, 8(6), 68; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli8060068 - 31 May 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4461
Abstract
Trend-Run model was performed to estimate the trend in surface temperatures recorded at 12 sites in Guinea from 1960 to 2016 and to examine the contribution of each climate forcing. The coefficient of determination (R2) calculated varies between 0.60 and 0.90, [...] Read more.
Trend-Run model was performed to estimate the trend in surface temperatures recorded at 12 sites in Guinea from 1960 to 2016 and to examine the contribution of each climate forcing. The coefficient of determination (R2) calculated varies between 0.60 and 0.90, it provides total information about the simulation capability of the model. The decadal trend values also calculated show an upward trend (between 0.04 °C ± 0.06 °C decade−1 and 0.21 °C ± 0.06 °C decade−1). In addition, forcings’ contributions were quantified, and the annual oscillation (AO) contribution is higher for most of the stations, followed by semiannual oscillation (SAO). Among the forcings, the tropical Northern Atlantic (TNA) contribution is greater than that of the sunspot number (SSN), Niño3.4 and Atlantic Niño (AN). Moreover, the Mann-Kendall test revealed a positive significant trend for all stations except at the Macenta site. Additionally, with sequential Mann-Kendall test, trend turning points were found only for the stations of Mamou, Koundara and Macenta at different dates. The temperature anomalies depict warming episodes (1970s, 1980s, 1984 and 1990s). Since then, the temperature is consistently increasing over the country. A significant warming has been shown, which might be further investigated using these models with additional contributing factors. Full article
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Review

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19 pages, 871 KiB  
Review
Perception of Climate Change Effects over Time and the Contribution of Different Areas of Knowledge to Its Understanding and Mitigation
by Leonel J. R. Nunes and Marta Ferreira Dias
Climate 2022, 10(1), 7; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli10010007 - 13 Jan 2022
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5983
Abstract
Climate change is a current subject that is attracting more and more attention, whether from academics or the public. This public attention is mainly due to the frequently published news in the media, reporting consequences caused by extreme weather events. On the other [...] Read more.
Climate change is a current subject that is attracting more and more attention, whether from academics or the public. This public attention is mainly due to the frequently published news in the media, reporting consequences caused by extreme weather events. On the other hand, scientists are looking into the origins of the phenomenon, seeking answers that will somehow help to mitigate the effects of climate change. This article presents a review of some of the different possible approaches taken on climate change, to demonstrate the need to build a multidisciplinary perspective of the problem. It is understood that only the integration of different perspectives, presented by different areas of knowledge, such as natural sciences, social and economic sciences and human sciences, will make it possible to build modeling and predictive scenarios, which realistically may represent the development of the earth system under the influence of climate change. In this way, with the support of all areas of knowledge, the creation of forecast models where all possible changes to the different variables of the earth system may be simulated will allow for the mitigation measures presented to be analyzed in advance and, thus, prioritized. This review shows that a multi and interdisciplinary approach, based on the knowledge acquired from different knowledge and science fields, presents itself as the way to solve this global and complex problem caused by climate change. Full article
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20 pages, 8499 KiB  
Review
Forest Contribution to Climate Change Mitigation: Management Oriented to Carbon Capture and Storage
by Leonel J.R. Nunes, Catarina I.R. Meireles, Carlos J. Pinto Gomes and Nuno M.C. Almeida Ribeiro
Climate 2020, 8(2), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli8020021 - 27 Jan 2020
Cited by 110 | Viewed by 20833
Abstract
Today, climate change is assumed by many researchers and scholars as a certainty and is presented as the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced. It is commonly accepted that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause that is accelerating the process. Therefore, [...] Read more.
Today, climate change is assumed by many researchers and scholars as a certainty and is presented as the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced. It is commonly accepted that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause that is accelerating the process. Therefore, it is urgent to find solutions to mitigate climate change, mainly because the intense effects have already been felt, in many cases in the form of the occurrence of extremely violent weather events. Forests are undoubtedly one of the most effective and easiest ways to provide the function of carbon sinks. However, it is essential and convenient to analyze the permanence time of this carbon in forests, because this permanence time depends directly on the forest management model used. This article aims to analyze forest management models from the perspective of carbon residence time in temperate forests, dividing the models into three types, namely carbon conservation models, carbon storage models, and carbon substitution models, according to their ability to contribute to functioning as carbon sinks, thereby contributing to the mitigation of climate change. Full article
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