Land | Special Issue : Feature Papers for Land–Climate Interactions Section

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20 pages, 7142 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatiotemporal Variation of Land Surface Temperature in Henan Province of China from 2003 to 2021

by Shifeng Li, Zhihao Qin, Shuhe Zhao, Maofang Gao, Shilei Li, Qianyu Liao and Wenhui Du

Land 2022, 11(7), 1104; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11071104 - 19 Jul 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2208

Land surface temperature (LST) is a key parameter closely related to various land surface processes and surface-atmosphere interactions. Analysis of spatiotemporal variation of time-series LST may provide useful information to understand eco-climatic characteristics. In this study, the spatiotemporal pattern of LST and its [...] Read more.

Land surface temperature (LST) is a key parameter closely related to various land surface processes and surface-atmosphere interactions. Analysis of spatiotemporal variation of time-series LST may provide useful information to understand eco-climatic characteristics. In this study, the spatiotemporal pattern of LST and its trend characteristics in Henan Province were examined based on MODIS LST products from 2003 to 2021. In addition, the influences of land cover types, Nighttime Light data (NTL) and Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) on LST variation were analyzed. The results indicated that: (i) The LST showed slight and rapid decreasing trend for 2004–2010 and 2018–2020, respectively, whereas an obvious increasing and slight increasing trend occurred for 2010–2013 and 2014–2018. In terms of spatial pattern, high-temperature, and sub-high-temperature were mainly distributed in the central part of the province with higher level of industrialization and urbanization at the annual, spring, summer, and daytime scales. While in fall, winter, and the nighttime, the spatial distribution of LST exhibited decreased trend from the southern part to the northern part of the province, the largest Standard Deviation (STD) was observed in summer. (ii) The interannual variation rate of LST was 0.08 °C/Y. The increasing trend mainly occurred in urban and built-up areas. At the seasonal scales, the rising rate decreased sequentially in the order of fall, winter, spring, and summer. In addition, the rising rate in the daytime was higher than that in the nighttime. (iii) LST increased along with the expansion of urban and built-up lands, except in winter. At the annual scales, 84.69% of areas with NTL data exhibited a positive correlation with LST, and NDMI in the western part with high elevation presented a significantly positive correlation to LST, while a significantly negative correlation occurred in urban and built-up areas. The cooling effect of NDMI on LST in the daytime was greater than that in the nighttime. In cropland areas, LST showed a non-significant correlation with NDMI at the annual scale, and a significantly negative correlation with NDMI in spring, summer, and fall. The influence mechanism of cropland on the variation of LST at different timescales needs to be further explored. These findings might provide some hints to understand climate change and its causes in the province. Full article

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19 pages, 13416 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Anthropogenic and Lightning Fire Incidence and Burned Area in Europe

by Jasper Dijkstra, Tracy Durrant, Jesús San-Miguel-Ayanz and Sander Veraverbeke

Land 2022, 11(5), 651; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11050651 - 28 Apr 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3132

Abstract

Fires can have an anthropogenic or natural origin. The most frequent natural fire cause is lightning. Since anthropogenic and lightning fires have different climatic and socio-economic drivers, it is important to distinguish between these different fire causes. We developed random forest models that [...] Read more.

Fires can have an anthropogenic or natural origin. The most frequent natural fire cause is lightning. Since anthropogenic and lightning fires have different climatic and socio-economic drivers, it is important to distinguish between these different fire causes. We developed random forest models that predict the fraction of anthropogenic and lightning fire incidences, and their burned area, at the level of the Nomenclature des Unités Territoriales Statistiques level 3 (NUTS3) for Europe. The models were calibrated using the centered log-ratio of fire incidence and burned area reference data from the European Forest Fire Information System. After a correlation analysis, the population density, fractional human land impact, elevation and burned area coefficient of variation—a measure of interannual variability in burned area—were selected as predictor variables in the models. After parameter tuning and running the models with several train-validate compositions, we found that the vast majority of fires and burned area in Europe has an anthropogenic cause, while lightning plays a significant role in the remote northern regions of Scandinavia. Combining our results with burned area data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, we estimated that 96.5 ± 0.9% of the burned area in Europe has an anthropogenic cause. Our spatially explicit fire cause attribution model demonstrates the spatial variability between anthropogenic and lightning fires and their burned area over Europe and could be used to improve predictive fire models by accounting for fire cause. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Land–Climate Interactions Section)

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16 pages, 3920 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analyzing Temporal Trends of Urban Evaporation Using Generalized Additive Models

by Basem Aljoumani, Jose A. Sanchez-Espigares, Björn Kluge, Gerd Wessolek and Birgit Kleinschmit

Land 2022, 11(4), 508; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11040508 - 31 Mar 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2260

Abstract

This study aimed to gain new insights into urban hydrological balance (in particular, the evaporation from paved surfaces). Hourly evaporation data were obtained simultaneously from two high-resolution weighable lysimeters. These lysimeters are covered in two pavement sealing types commonly used for sidewalks in [...] Read more.

This study aimed to gain new insights into urban hydrological balance (in particular, the evaporation from paved surfaces). Hourly evaporation data were obtained simultaneously from two high-resolution weighable lysimeters. These lysimeters are covered in two pavement sealing types commonly used for sidewalks in Berlin, namely cobble-stones and concrete slabs. A paired experiment in field conditions is designed to determine the mechanism by which these two types of soil sealing affect the evaporation rate under the same climatic conditions. A generalized additive model (GAM) is applied to explain how the climatic conditions interact with soil sealing and to evaluate the variation of evaporation rate according to pavement type. Moreover, taking the advantage of the fact that the experimental design is paired, the study fits a new GAM where the response variable is the difference between the evaporation rate from the two lysimeters and its explanatory variables are the climatic conditions. As a result, under the same climatic conditions, cobble-stones are more prone to increasing the evaporation rate than concrete slabs when the precipitation accumulated over 10 h, solar radiation, and wind speed increases. On the other hand, concrete slabs are more inclined to increase the evaporation rate than cobblestones when the relative humidity increases. GAM represents a robust modeling approach for comparing different sealing types in order to understand how they alter the hydrological balance. Full article

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18 pages, 19575 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Temporal and Spatial Differentiation of Cultivated Land and Its Response to Climatic Factors in Complex Geomorphic Areas—A Case Study of Sichuan Province of China

by Qing Xiang, Huan Yu, Xiaoyu Xu and Hong Huang

Land 2022, 11(2), 271; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11020271 - 10 Feb 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1986

Abstract

Analyzing the distribution characteristics and influencing factors of cultivated land in complex geomorphic areas is significant in evaluating the agricultural farming environment and formulating cultivated land protection measures. This study extracted cultivated land information based on multi-source remote sensing data, and analyzed the [...] Read more.

Analyzing the distribution characteristics and influencing factors of cultivated land in complex geomorphic areas is significant in evaluating the agricultural farming environment and formulating cultivated land protection measures. This study extracted cultivated land information based on multi-source remote sensing data, and analyzed the geomorphic differentiation of cultivated land distribution and climate response from 2000 to 2020 using the Gini coefficient, spatial autocorrelation analysis and geographic detector. The results show that cultivated land is mainly distributed in low-altitude hills and low-altitude small undulating mountains, and secondarily in low-altitude alluvial and proluvial plains and platforms. Moreover, from 2000 to 2020, the cultivated land in the high-altitude and high-altitude undulating mountains and medium and high-altitude undulating mountains in the Northwest Plateau of Sichuan showed an upward trend, while the cultivated land in the Sichuan Basin mainly increased from the north and south to the middle of the basin. In addition, the highest temperature has the strongest ability to explain the spatial heterogeneity of cultivated land. From the calculation results of the influence coefficient of a single climatic factor and the combined effect of multiple climatic factors, the main factors that affect the distribution of cultivated land are different in different geomorphological regions. Finally, it is proposed to formulate a long-term strategy for agricultural production to adapt to climate change in complex geomorphic areas in order to reduce the negative impact of environmental change on agricultural production. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Land–Climate Interactions Section)

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24 pages, 4692 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Implementing a New Rubber Plant Functional Type in the Community Land Model (CLM5) Improves Accuracy of Carbon and Water Flux Estimation

by Ashehad A. Ali, Yuanchao Fan, Marife D. Corre, Martyna M. Kotowska, Evelyn Preuss-Hassler, Andi Nur Cahyo, Fernando E. Moyano, Christian Stiegler, Alexander Röll, Ana Meijide, Alexander Olchev, Andre Ringeler, Christoph Leuschner, Rahmi Ariani, Tania June, Suria Tarigan, Holger Kreft, Dirk Hölscher, Chonggang Xu, Charles D. Koven, Katherine Dagon, Rosie A. Fisher, Edzo Veldkamp and Alexander Knohl Show full author list Hide full author list

Land 2022, 11(2), 183; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11020183 - 24 Jan 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4990

Abstract

Rubber plantations are an economically viable land-use type that occupies large swathes of land in Southeast Asia that have undergone conversion from native forest to intensive plantation forestry. Such land-use change has a strong impact on carbon, energy, and water fluxes in ecosystems, [...] Read more.

Rubber plantations are an economically viable land-use type that occupies large swathes of land in Southeast Asia that have undergone conversion from native forest to intensive plantation forestry. Such land-use change has a strong impact on carbon, energy, and water fluxes in ecosystems, and uncertainties exist in the modeling of future land-use change impacts on these fluxes due to the scarcity of measured data and poor representation of key biogeochemical processes. In this current modeling effort, we utilized the Community Land Model Version 5 (CLM5) to simulate a rubber plant functional type (PFT) by comparing the baseline parameter values of tropical evergreen PFT and tropical deciduous PFT with a newly developed rubber PFT (focused on the parameterization and modification of phenology and allocation processes) based on site-level observations of a rubber clone in Indonesia. We found that the baseline tropical evergreen and baseline tropical deciduous functions and parameterizations in CLM5 poorly simulate the leaf area index, carbon dynamics, and water fluxes of rubber plantations. The newly developed rubber PFT and parametrizations (CLM-rubber) showed that daylength could be used as a universal trigger for defoliation and refoliation of rubber plantations. CLM-rubber was able to predict seasonal patterns of latex yield reasonably well, despite highly variable tapping periods across Southeast Asia. Further, model comparisons indicated that CLM-rubber can simulate carbon and energy fluxes similar to the existing rubber model simulations available in the literature. Our modeling results indicate that CLM-rubber can be applied in Southeast Asia to examine variations in carbon and water fluxes for rubber plantations and assess how rubber-related land-use changes in the tropics feedback to climate through carbon and water cycling. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Land–Climate Interactions Section)

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15 pages, 2622 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Land Use Increases the Correlation between Tree Cover and Biomass Carbon Stocks in the Global Tropics

by Manan Bhan, Simone Gingrich, Sarah Matej, Steffen Fritz and Karl-Heinz Erb

Land 2021, 10(11), 1217; https://doi.org/10.3390/land10111217 - 10 Nov 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2417

Abstract

Tree cover (TC) and biomass carbon stocks (CS) are key parameters for characterizing vegetation and are indispensable for assessing the role of terrestrial ecosystems in the global climate system. Land use, through land cover change and land management, affects both parameters. In this [...] Read more.

Tree cover (TC) and biomass carbon stocks (CS) are key parameters for characterizing vegetation and are indispensable for assessing the role of terrestrial ecosystems in the global climate system. Land use, through land cover change and land management, affects both parameters. In this study, we quantify the empirical relationship between TC and CS and demonstrate the impacts of land use by combining spatially explicit estimates of TC and CS in actual and potential vegetation (i.e., in the hypothetical absence of land use) across the global tropics (~23.4° N to 23.4° S). We find that land use strongly alters both TC and CS, with stronger effects on CS than on TC across tropical biomes, especially in tropical moist forests. In comparison to the TC-CS correlation observed in the potential vegetation (biome-level R based on tropical ecozones = 0.56–0.90), land use strongly increases this correlation (biome-level R based on tropical ecozones = 0.87–0.94) in the actual vegetation. Increased correlations are not only the effects of land cover change. We additionally identify land management impacts in closed forests, which cause CS reductions. Our large-scale assessment of the TC-CS relationship can inform upcoming remote sensing efforts to map ecosystem structure in high spatio-temporal detail and highlights the need for an explicit focus on land management impacts in the tropics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Land–Climate Interactions Section)

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18 pages, 4194 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Influence of Natural and Anthropogenic Forcing on Water and Energy Balance and on Photosynthesis

by Jaeyoung Song, Sungbo Shim, Ji-Sun Kim, Jae-Hee Lee, Young-Hwa Byun and Yeon-Hee Kim

Land 2021, 10(11), 1151; https://doi.org/10.3390/land10111151 - 29 Oct 2021

Viewed by 2102

Abstract

Land surface processes are rarely studied in Detection and Attribution Model Inter-comparison Project (DAMIP) experiments on climate change. We analyzed a CMIP6 DAMIP historical experiment by using multi-linear regression (MLRM) and analysis of variance methods. We focused on energy and water budgets, including [...] Read more.

Land surface processes are rarely studied in Detection and Attribution Model Inter-comparison Project (DAMIP) experiments on climate change. We analyzed a CMIP6 DAMIP historical experiment by using multi-linear regression (MLRM) and analysis of variance methods. We focused on energy and water budgets, including gross primary productivity (GPP). In MLRM, we estimated each forcing’s contribution and identified the role of natural forcing, which is usually ignored. Contributions of the forcing factors varied by region, and high-ranked variables such as net radiation could receive multiple influences. Greenhouse gases (GHG) accelerated energy and water cycles over the global land surface, including evapotranspiration, runoff, GPP, and water-use efficiency. Aerosol (AER) forcing displayed the opposite characteristics, and natural forcing accounted for short-term changes. A long-term analysis of total soil moisture and water budget indicated that as the AER increases, the available water on the global land increases continuously. In the recent past, an increase in net radiation (i.e., a lowered AER) reduced surface moisture and hastened surface water cycle (GHG effect). The results imply that aerosol emission and its counterbalance to GHG are essential to most land surface processes. The exception to this is GPP, which was overdominated by GHG effects. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Land–Climate Interactions Section)

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16 pages, 2888 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Observed Methane Uptake and Emissions at the Ecosystem Scale and Environmental Controls in a Subtropical Forest

by Hui Wang, Hong Li, Zhihao Liu, Jianhua Lv, Xinzhang Song, Quan Li, Hong Jiang and Changhui Peng

Land 2021, 10(9), 975; https://doi.org/10.3390/land10090975 - 16 Sep 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2953

Abstract

Methane (CH₄) is one of the three most important greenhouse gases. To date, observations of ecosystem-scale methane (CH₄) fluxes in forests are currently lacking in the global CH₄ budget. The environmental factors controlling CH₄ flux dynamics remain [...] Read more.

Methane (CH₄) is one of the three most important greenhouse gases. To date, observations of ecosystem-scale methane (CH₄) fluxes in forests are currently lacking in the global CH₄ budget. The environmental factors controlling CH₄ flux dynamics remain poorly understood at the ecosystem scale. In this study, we used a state-of-the-art eddy covariance technique to continuously measure the CH₄ flux from 2016 to 2018 in a subtropical forest of Zhejiang Province in China, quantify the annual CH₄ budget and investigate its control factors. We found that the total annual CH₄ budget was 1.15 ± 0.28~4.79 ± 0.49 g CH₄ m⁻² year⁻¹ for 2017–2018. The daily CH₄ flux reached an emission peak of 0.145 g m⁻² d⁻¹ during winter and an uptake peak of −0.142 g m⁻² d⁻¹ in summer. During the whole study period, the studied forest region acted as a CH₄ source (78.65%) during winter and a sink (21.35%) in summer. Soil temperature had a negative relationship (p < 0.01; R² = 0.344) with CH₄ flux but had a positive relationship with soil moisture (p < 0.01; R² = 0.348). Our results showed that soil temperature and moisture were the most important factors controlling the ecosystem-scale CH₄ flux dynamics of subtropical forests in the Tianmu Mountain Nature Reserve in Zhejiang Province, China. Subtropical forest ecosystems in China acted as a net source of methane emissions from 2016 to 2018, providing positive feedback to global climate warming. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Land–Climate Interactions Section)

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22 pages, 4903 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Stream Temperature and Environment Relationships in a Semiarid Riparian Corridor

by Nicole Durfee, Carlos G. Ochoa and Gerrad Jones

Land 2021, 10(5), 519; https://doi.org/10.3390/land10050519 - 13 May 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3981

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between stream temperature and environmental variables in a semiarid riparian corridor in northcentral Oregon, USA. The relationships between riparian vegetation cover, subsurface flow temperature, and stream temperature were characterized along an 800 m reach. Multiple stream temperature sensors [...] Read more.

This study examined the relationship between stream temperature and environmental variables in a semiarid riparian corridor in northcentral Oregon, USA. The relationships between riparian vegetation cover, subsurface flow temperature, and stream temperature were characterized along an 800 m reach. Multiple stream temperature sensors were located along the reach, in open and closed canopy areas, with riparian vegetation cover ranging from 4% to 95%. A support vector regression (SVR) model was developed to assess the relationship between environmental characteristics and stream temperature at the larger valley scale. At the reach scale, results show that air temperature was highly correlated with stream temperature (Pearson’s r = 0.97), and no significant (p < 0.05) differences in stream temperature levels were found among sensor locations, irrespective of percent vegetation cover. Channel subsurface temperature levels from an intermittent flow tributary were generally cooler than those in the perennial stream in the summer and warmer during winter months, indicating that the tributary may have a localized moderating effect on stream temperature. At the valley scale, results from the SVR model showed that air temperature, followed by streamflow, was the strongest variable influencing stream temperature. Also, riparian area land cover showed little effect on stream temperature along the entire riparian corridor. This research indicates that air temperature, subsurface flow, and streamflow are important variables affecting the stream temperature variability observed in the study area. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Land–Climate Interactions Section)

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14 pages, 1569 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Vulnerability of the Permafrost Landscapes in the Eastern Chukotka Coastal Plains to Human Impact and Climate Change

by Alexey Maslakov, Larisa Zotova, Nina Komova, Mikhail Grishchenko, Dmitry Zamolodchikov and Gennady Zelensky

Land 2021, 10(5), 445; https://doi.org/10.3390/land10050445 - 22 Apr 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2716

Abstract

Permafrost landscapes are particularly susceptible to the observed climate change due to the presence of ice in the ground. This paper presents the results of the mapping and assessment of landscapes and their vulnerability to potential human impact and further climate change in [...] Read more.

Permafrost landscapes are particularly susceptible to the observed climate change due to the presence of ice in the ground. This paper presents the results of the mapping and assessment of landscapes and their vulnerability to potential human impact and further climate change in the remote region of Eastern Chukotka. The combination of field studies and remote sensing data analysis allowed us to identify the distribution of landscapes within the study polygon, reveal the factors determining their stability, and classify them by vulnerability to the external impacts using a hazard index, H. In total, 33 landscapes characterized by unique combinations of vegetation cover, soil type, relief, and ground composition were detected within the 172 km² study polygon. The most stable landscapes of the study polygon occupy 31.7% of the polygon area; they are the slopes and tops of mountains covered with stony-lichen tundra, alpine meadows, and the leveled summit areas of the fourth glacial-marine terrace. The most unstable areas cover 19.2% of the study area and are represented by depressions, drainage hollows, waterlogged areas, and places of caterpillar vehicle passage within the terraces and water-glacial plain. The methods of assessment and mapping of the landscape vulnerability presented in this study are quite flexible and can be adapted to other permafrost regions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Land–Climate Interactions Section)

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11 pages, 2257 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Urbanization Significantly Affects Pan-Evaporation Trends in Large River Basins of China Mainland

by Chenchen Ren, Guoyu Ren, Panfeng Zhang, Suonam Kealdrup Tysa and Yun Qin

Land 2021, 10(4), 407; https://doi.org/10.3390/land10040407 - 13 Apr 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2246

Abstract

The causes of the pan-evaporation decline have been debated, and few researches have been carried out on the possible effect of local land use and land cover change on the regional pan-observation data series. In this paper, the urbanization effect on the estimate [...] Read more.

The causes of the pan-evaporation decline have been debated, and few researches have been carried out on the possible effect of local land use and land cover change on the regional pan-observation data series. In this paper, the urbanization effect on the estimate of pan-evaporation trends over 1961–2017 was examined for the data series of 331 urban stations, applying a previously developed dataset of the reference stations, in seven large river basins of the China mainland. The trends of pan-evaporation difference series (transformed to anomaly percentage) between urban stations and reference stations were negative and statistically significant in all of the basins, indicating that urbanization significantly reduced the pan-evaporation. The urbanization-induced trend in the whole study region was −2.54%/decade for the urban stations. Except for the Yellow River Basin and the upper Yangtze River Basin, the urbanization effects in the other five large river basins of the country are all significant, with the mid and low reaches of the Yangtze River and the Songhua River registering the largest urbanization effects of −4.08%/decade and −4.06%/decade, respectively. Since the trends of regional average series for reference stations across half of the river basins are not statistically significant, the urbanization effect is a dominant factor for the observed decline in pan-evaporation. This finding would deepen our understanding of the regional and basin-wide change in pan-evaporation observed over the last decades. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers for Land–Climate Interactions Section)

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