The majority of the area contaminated by the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant accident is covered by forest. To facilitate effective countermeasure strategies to mitigate forest contamination, we simulated the spatio-temporal dynamics of radiocesium deposited into Japanese forest ecosystems in 2011 using a model that was developed after the Chernobyl accident in 1986. The simulation revea...

In the taiga-tundra ecotone (TTE), site-dependent forest structure characteristics can influence the subtle and heterogeneous structural changes that occur across the broad circumpolar extent. Such changes may be related to ecotone form, described by the horizontal and vertical patterns of forest structure (e.g., tree cover, density and height) within TTE 10 forest patches, driven by local site...

Tropical deforestation is leading not only to losses of biodiversity but also to regional losses of vegetation productivity. However, in many areas the deforestation process is usually accompanied by a fast forest regeneration that produces a mosaic of forest patches in different successional stages. These successional stages have different productivities owing primarily to differences in speci...

Land cover (LC) and land use (LU) dynamics induced by human and natural processes play a major role in global as well as regional patterns of landscapes influencing biodiversity, hydrology, ecology and climate. Changes in LC features resulting in forest fragmentations have posed direct threats to biodiversity, endangering the sustainability of ecological goods and services. Habitat fragmentatio...

Predictions of forest succession, diversity and function require an understanding of how species differ in their growth, allocation patterns and susceptibility to mortality. These processes in turn are affected by allometric constraints and the physiological state of the tree, both of which are coupled to the tree's labile carbon status. Ultimately, insight into the hidden labile pools and the ...

It is crucial for effective water resource management in a watershed that the relationship between land use changes and baseflow. This study quantifies the influence of land use changes on the baseflow dynamics using a hydrological model and partial least-squares (PLS) regression in the Upper Du Watershed (8961 km2), China. Our study suggests that forest can be a major factor with a negative im...

Efforts to increase forest cover in the developing world will only succeed if the root causes of deforestation are addressed. Researchers designing reforestation initiatives tend to emphasize macro-level drivers of deforestation, about which they have extensive data and knowledge. On the other hand, local people have contextually based knowledge of forest cover dynamics in their region—about wh...

During the last two centuries, social perception of forest roles has suffered deep changes. New environmental roles, i.e. CO2 storage and biodiversity, have been added to erosion control and watershed regulation. These changes require new knowledge and tools to develop a new understanding of forest dynamics. Some come from studies on past vegetation responses to climate changes. I recall here s...

Forest fire evolution plays an important role in the decision-making of controlling the forest fire. This paper aims to simulate the dynamics of the forest fire spread using a cellular automaton approach. Having analyzed the characteristics and evolution of forest fires, a simulation model for the forest fire evolution based on the energy accumulation and release is proposed. And, taking Austra...