TY - JOUR
T1 - Quantifying deforestation and forest degradation with thermal response
AU - Lin, Wei Hua
AU - Chen, Yajun
AU - Song, Qinghai
AU - Fu, Peili
AU - Cleverly, James R
AU - Magliulo, Vincenzo
AU - Law, Beverly Elizabeth
AU - Gough, Christopher M.
AU - Hörtnagl, Lukas
AU - Di Gennaro, Filippo
AU - Matteucci, Giorgio
AU - Montagnani, Leonardo
AU - Duce, Pierpaolo
AU - Shao, Changliang
AU - Kato, Tomomichi
AU - Bonal, Damien
AU - Paul-Limoges, Eugénie
AU - Beringer, Jason
AU - Grace, John R.
AU - Fan, Zexin
PY - 2017/12/31
Y1 - 2017/12/31
N2 - Deforestation and forest degradation cause the deterioration of resources and ecosystem services. However, there are still no operational indicators to measure forest status, especially for forest degradation. In the present study, we analysed the thermal response number (TRN, calculated by daily total net radiation divided by daily temperature range) of 163 sites including mature forest, disturbed forest, planted forest, shrubland, grassland, savanna vegetation and cropland. TRN generally increased with latitude, however the regression of TRN against latitude differed among vegetation types. Mature forests are superior as thermal buffers, and had significantly higher TRN than disturbed and planted forests. There was a clear boundary between TRN of forest and non-forest vegetation (i.e. grassland and savanna) with the exception of shrubland, whose TRN overlapped with that of forest vegetation. We propose to use the TRN of local mature forest as the optimal TRN (TRNopt). A forest with lower than 75% of TRNopt was identified as subjected to significant disturbance, and forests with 66% of TRNopt was the threshold for deforestation within the absolute latitude from 30° to 55°. Our results emphasized the irreplaceable thermal buffer capacity of mature forest. TRN can be used for early warning of deforestation and degradation risk. It is therefore a valuable tool in the effort to protect forests and prevent deforestation.
AB - Deforestation and forest degradation cause the deterioration of resources and ecosystem services. However, there are still no operational indicators to measure forest status, especially for forest degradation. In the present study, we analysed the thermal response number (TRN, calculated by daily total net radiation divided by daily temperature range) of 163 sites including mature forest, disturbed forest, planted forest, shrubland, grassland, savanna vegetation and cropland. TRN generally increased with latitude, however the regression of TRN against latitude differed among vegetation types. Mature forests are superior as thermal buffers, and had significantly higher TRN than disturbed and planted forests. There was a clear boundary between TRN of forest and non-forest vegetation (i.e. grassland and savanna) with the exception of shrubland, whose TRN overlapped with that of forest vegetation. We propose to use the TRN of local mature forest as the optimal TRN (TRNopt). A forest with lower than 75% of TRNopt was identified as subjected to significant disturbance, and forests with 66% of TRNopt was the threshold for deforestation within the absolute latitude from 30° to 55°. Our results emphasized the irreplaceable thermal buffer capacity of mature forest. TRN can be used for early warning of deforestation and degradation risk. It is therefore a valuable tool in the effort to protect forests and prevent deforestation.
KW - Disturbance
KW - Reforestation
KW - Succession
KW - Surface temperature
KW - Temperature stability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85024505130&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.07.062
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.07.062
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85024505130
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 607-608
SP - 1286
EP - 1292
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
ER -