Quantifying deforestation and forest degradation with thermal response

Wei Hua Lin, Yajun Chen, Qinghai Song, Peili Fu, James R Cleverly, Vincenzo Magliulo, Beverly Elizabeth Law, Christopher M. Gough, Lukas Hörtnagl, Filippo Di Gennaro, Giorgio Matteucci, Leonardo Montagnani, Pierpaolo Duce, Changliang Shao, Tomomichi Kato, Damien Bonal, Eugénie Paul-Limoges, Jason Beringer, John R. Grace, Zexin Fan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1286-1292
Number of pages7
JournalScience of the Total Environment
Volume607-608
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Dec 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Disturbance
  • Reforestation
  • Succession
  • Surface temperature
  • Temperature stability

Cite this