Floral diversity and carbon stocks and of protected forest ecosystem: A case of UENR’s Bat Sanctuary, Sunyani, Ghana

The study assesses the functional status of the University of Energy and Natural Resources’ (UENR) bat sanctuary by examining its floral diversity and carbon stocks. Twenty-nine sampling points (plots) were randomly generated by using the ArcGIS random sampling algorithm. Using a three-nest sampling plot of 100m2, 25m2, and 1m2 quadrat, the enumeration of trees (DBH>10cm), saplings (>2cm DBH 0.05) between the 10m buffer created and the core area with respect to species diversity and carbon stocks. The study has provided valuable information on the functional status of the bat sanctuary which will help promote its conservation for sustained provision of ecosystem services.

Coupled Pacific Rim megadroughts contributed to the fall of the MingDynasty’s capital in 1644 CE

Historical documents provide evidence for regional droughts preceding the political turmoil and fall of Beijing in 1644 CE,when more than 20 million people died in northern China during the late Ming famine period.However,the role climate and environmental changes may have played in this pivotal event in Chinese history remains unclear.Here,we provide tree-ring evidence of persistent megadroughts from1576 to 1593 CE and from 1628 to 1644 CE in northern China,which coincided with exceptionally cold summers just before the fall of Beijing.Our analysis reveals that these regional hydroclimatic extremes are part of a series of megadroughts along the Pacific Rim,which not only impacted the ecology and society of monsoonal northern China,but likely also exacerbated external geopolitical and economic pressures.This finding is corroborated by last millennium reanalysis data and numerical climate model simulations revealing internally driven Pacific sea surface temperature variations and the predominance of decadal scale La Ni?a-like conditions to be responsible for precipitation decreases over northern China,as well as extensive monsoon regions in the Americas.These teleconnection patterns provide a mechanistic explanation for reoccurring drought spells during the late Ming Dynasty and the environmental framework fostering the fall of Beijing in 1644 CE,and the subsequent demise of the Ming Dynasty.

Unmanned aerial vehicles(UAV)for assessment of qualitative classification of Norway spruce in temperate forest stands

The study investigates the potential of UAV-based remote sensing technique for monitoring of Norway spruce health condition in the affected forest areas.The objectives are:(1)to test the applicability of UAV visible an near-infrared(VNIR)and geometrical data based on Z values of point dense cloud(PDC)raster to separate forest species and dead trees in the study area;(2)to explore the relationship between UAV VNIR data and individual spruce health indicators from field sampling;and(3)to explore the possibility of the qualitative classification of spruce health indicators.Analysis based on NDVI and PDC raster was successfully applied for separation of spruce and silver fir,and for identification of dead tree category.Separation between common beech and fir was distinguished by the object-oriented image analysis.NDVI was able to identify the presence of key indicators of spruce health,such as mechanical damage on stems and stem resin exudation linked to honey fungus infestation,while stem damage by peeling was identified at the significance margin.The results contributed to improving separation of coniferous(spruce and fir)tree species based on VNIR and PDC raster UAV data,and newly demonstrated the potential of NDVI for qualitative classification of spruce trees.The proposed methodology can be applicable for monitoring of spruce health condition in the local forest sites.

Ecosystem service availability in view of long-term land-use changes:a regional case study in the Czech Republic

This study aims to analyze how changes in land use influenced the delivery of ecosystem services in Cezava,a South Moravian agricultural region in the Czech Republic,in the period of 1845–2010.An observation of this period covering more than 160 years made it possible to reflect on social forces driving processes of transformation in the country.To capture the landscape multifunctionality and to indicate the environmental quality of the area under study,seven services provided in parallel by arable land,forests,and bodies of water were studied.The quantification of ecosystem services is based primarily on the transfer of values from the existing literature and on chronicle reviews and map analysis.Because looking back to the more distant past is a challenge and reliable information resources are lacking,a simple scoring method defining the functional features of the ecosystems was applied in order to evaluate the change of qualitative characteristics of the observed ecosystems.Besides that,the findings of these integrated assessments were supported by an analysis performed using landscape metrics.A comparison of service provision over the decades revealed that regulating and cultural services were significantly reduced,while provisioning services increased due to the proliferation of arable land,land consolidation,and agricultural intensification.However,a trend of improvement in the delivery of ecosystem services was introduced after 1990.Despite several uncertainties,this study demonstrates that it is possible to analyze long-term land-use trends to generate more meaningful,spatially explicit information,which can form the basis for landscape planning and ecosystem management.

Carbon mitigation potential of different forest ecosystems under climate change and various managements in Italy

This study reviews carbon stocks and carbon dynamics in diferent types of forest land in Italy:ordinary managed forests,forest plantations,old growth forests,and trees outside forests.Forest management,combined with global environmental changes,increases the capacity of carbon uptake of ordinary managed forests.Forest plantations,particularly the ones subject to short-rotation forestry systems,potentially have high soil carbon accumulation,especially in agricultural lands.Old growth forests,recently discovered as a carbon sink,cover a significant surface area in Italy.Moreover,the trees outside forests may represent a sensible carbon stock,especially in the context of urban environments.Our study points out the management actions that can be implemented in Italy to increase the carbon stocks of different forest ecosystems,such as increasing the mean annual increment in managed forests,enhancement of the national network of old growth forests,and expansion of forest plantations in suitable areas.These aspects have important implications after the recent recognition of the Land Use,Land Use Change and Forestry sector in the EU target within the 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework.

Ecosystem management in transition in Central and Eastern Europe: the need for a vision

It is well established that in current human-dominated world,environmental change is closely coupled with socio-economic factors,and this is reflected in conceptual frameworks of important policies(Díaz et al.2015).Humans are adversely affecting biodiversity and climate change on a planetary scale(Rockström et al.2009).Anthropogenic transformation of ecosystems has been driven by rapid social and economic changes,manifested by direct drivers such as land use change and climate change(Nelson et al.2006).Central and Eastern Europe(CEE)has been a rap-idly transitioning region in terms of economic growth and political changes.Following the collapse of former Eastern Bloc and revolutions in several CEE countries after 1989,CEE countries have been undergoing political and economic transformation toward democracy and free market.Continuous accession to the European Union also brought in changes of political environment and ecosystem management possibilities and outcomes.Profound socioeconomic changes have influenced environmental condition and ecosystem management in this region,with changing pres-sures on biodiversity and ecosystem services.Environmental changes in Central and Eastern Europe have been closely linked especially to agricultural policy.For example,inorganic fertilizer use in several CEE countries dropped in a single year to 25%of its former level after the collapse of socialism.This,in turn,had an enormous impact on farmland biodiversity(Stoate et al.2009).

Global wood anatomical perspective on the onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) in the mid-6th century CE

Linked to major volcanic eruptions around 536 and 540 CE, the onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age has been described as the coldest period of the past two millennia. The exact timing and spatial extent of this exceptional cold phase are, however, still under debate because of the limited resolution and geographical distribution of the available proxy archives. Here, we use 106 wood anatomical thin sections from 23forest sites and 20 tree species in both hemispheres to search for cell-level fingerprints of ephemeral summer cooling between 530 and 550 CE. After cross-dating and double-staining, we identified 89Blue Rings(lack of cell wall lignification), nine Frost Rings(cell deformation and collapse), and 93Light Rings(reduced cell wall thickening) in the Northern Hemisphere. Our network reveals evidence for the strongest temperature depression between mid-July and early-August 536 CE across North America and Eurasia, whereas more localised cold spells occurred in the summers of 532, 540–43, and548 CE. The lack of anatomical signatures in the austral trees suggests limited incursion of stratospheric volcanic aerosol into the Southern Hemisphere extra-tropics, that any forcing was mitigated by atmosphere-ocean dynamical responses and/or concentrated outside the growing season, or a combination of factors. Our findings demonstrate the advantage of wood anatomical investigations over traditional dendrochronological measurements, provide a benchmark for Earth system models, support cross-disciplinary studies into the entanglements of climate and history, and question the relevance of global climate averages.