Agriculture is multi-functional, producing economic goods including food, feed, fibre, and fuel, as well as providing several intangible or non-tradable services to society free of cost. Non-tradable services, unlike economic goods, remain unpriced; as a result, farmers are not compensated monetarily for the benefits of the several non-tradable services they …
Warming occurs particularly fast in the Arctic and exerts profound effects on arctic ecosystems. Sea ice-associated ecosystems are projected to decline but reduced arctic sea ice cover also increases the solar radiation reaching the coastal seafloors with the potential for expansion of vegetated habitats, i.e. kelp forests and seagrass meadows. …
Advance biochar production technique, hydrothermal carbonization (HTC, wet pyrolysis) offers an option to tap the benefits of biomass residues of food industry characterized by high moisture and low calorific value. HTC is more energy efficient due to its low temperature operationsand higher biochar recovery rates (up to 90%).
Biomass combustion is considered to be carbon neutral, but intensive biomass harvesting may negatively impact carbon stocks in forest soil and vegetation, which can offset the benefits of substituting fossil fuels with biomass. Here we evaluated conventional stem-only harvesting, whole-tree harvesting (WTH), and WTH excluding needles in terms of timber …
Carbon sequestration has been suggested as a means to help mitigate the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Silvipastoral systems can better sequester carbon in soil and biomass and help to improve soil conditions. In the present study, carbon sequestration was quanitified both in biomass and soil.
Mangroves are among the most threatened and rapidly vanishing natural environments worldwide. They provide a wide range of ecosystem services and have recently become known for their exceptional capacity to store carbon. Research shows that mangrove conservation may be a low-cost means of reducing CO 2 emissions. Accordingly, there is …
Phosphorus (P) is one of the most important limiting nutrients for the growth of oceanic phytoplankton and terrestrial ecosystems, which in turn contributes to CO2 sequestration. The solid-phase speciation of P will influence its solubility and hence its availability to such ecosystems. This study reports on the results of X-ray …
Global change is impacting forests worldwide, threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services including climate regulation. Understanding how forests respond is critical to forest conservation and climate protection. This review describes an international network of 59 long-term forest dynamics research sites (CTFS-ForestGEO) useful for characterizing forest responses to global change. Within very …
This document summarizes the wealth of announcements on forests at the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit, including the New York Declaration on Forests, its associated voluntary Action Agenda, and a large number of supportive concrete action announcements. The New York Declaration on Forests is a non-legally binding political declaration that grew …
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage could be used to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, its credibility as a climate change mitigation option is unproven and its widespread deployment in climate stabilization scenarios might become a dangerous distraction.
There is a need for new satellite remote sensing methods for monitoring tropical forest carbon stocks. Advanced RADAR instruments on board satellites can contribute with novel methods. RADARs can see through clouds, and furthermore, by applying stereo RADAR imaging we can measure forest height and its changes. Such height changes …
This paper assesses the scale of the potential co-benefits for residents of developing countries of protecting forest ecosystems in order to mitigate climate change. The objective is to improve understanding among development practitioners of the ways in which services provided by forest ecosystems can also make important contributions to achieving …
‘Forests in a Changing Climate: Sourcebook for REDD+’ is designed to give an overview of the key topics related to forests and climate change, under the overarching and evolving REDD+ narrative. The purpose is to facilitate the integration of this new knowledge domain into multi-disciplinary University programmes. The sourcebook provides …
The debate on ecological and climatic benefits of planted forests at the sensitive dry edge of the closed forest belt (i.e. at the 'xeric limits') is still unresolved. Forests sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide, accumulate biomass, control water erosion and dust storms, reduce river sedimentation, and mitigate small floods. However, planting …
Thermokarst lakes formed across vast regions of Siberia and Alaska during the last deglaciation and are thought to be a net source of atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide during the Holocene epoch. However, the same thermokarst lakes can also sequester carbon, and it remains uncertain whether carbon uptake by thermokarst …
This interim 2014 report by the Deep Decarbonization Pathway Project (DDPP) summarizes preliminary findings of the pathways developed by the DDPP Country Research Teams with the objective of achieving emission reductions consistent with limiting global warming to less than 2°C. The DDPP is a knowledge network comprising 15 Country Research …
We often hear that planting trees can help cool the environment. This may work not only at a household level, but also on the planetary scale-large scale afforestation has been advanced by the United Nations as a means of mitigating global climate change. At the garden level, trees provide shade …
Agroforestry provides a living for at least 1.2 billion people—approximately a sixth of humanity —and nearly all of us use and consume some of the goods and services it provides. The coffee you had for breakfast, the chocolate you’ll have after dinner, the rubber in your bicycle tyres: there’s a …
The timing of phenological events exerts a strong control over ecosystem function and leads to multiple feedbacks to the climate system. Phenology is inherently sensitive to temperature (although the exact sensitivity is disputed) and recent warming is reported to have led to earlier spring, later autumn and increased vegetation activity. …
Soil buried deep underground that formed on Earth's surface thousounds of years ago has been found to be rich in carbon. The subsurface features of vanished landscapes add a new dimension to our planet's carbon cycle. And continued activities by humans could unleash more of this carbon into the atmosphere, …
The environment department of the Shivaji University has launched an ambitious project to collect all the details all the trees on its 852-acre campus, which is considered as lungs of the city. The project involves counting of trees, scientific details and their carbon dioxide sequestration capacity. During the last decade, …
