1
|
Yao J, Wang G, Yu R, Su J, A Y, Zhang X, Wang L, Fang Q. Investigating the regional ecological environment stability and its feedback effect on interference using a novel vegetation resilience assessment model. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 930:172728. [PMID: 38663614 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172728] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2023] [Revised: 04/22/2024] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 05/06/2024]
Abstract
Vegetation resilience is critical for understanding the dynamic feedback effect of regional ecological environment stability against interferences. Thus, based on quantify the interferences of climate dryness and vegetation water deficit affecting vegetation growth function, incorporate mechanical Hooke's law to develop a vegetation resilience assessment model by quantitatively expressing vegetation growth function maintenance ability, to reveal the ecological environment stability and its feedback effect on interferences in the study area. The essential discoveries of the study are as follows: (1) with the increase of precipitation and the improvement of afforestation on soil erosion, the interferences intensity of climate dryness and vegetation water deficit in the ecological environment decreased by 5.88 % and 4.92 % respectively, the regional vegetation growth function loss was improved, especially in the southern region; (2) the decrease of vegetation growth function loss promoted the vegetation resilience level fluctuated from class II to class IV, with the average annual vegetation resilience increased by 7.02 %, reflecting that the regional ecological environment stability increased from difficult to rapid recovery after disturbance, and the benefit was especially noticeable in the eastern and southern forested areas; (3) the contribution rates of climate dryness and vegetation water deficit to the variation of vegetation resilience caused by vegetation restoration were -1.38 % and 4.73 %, respectively, and the prominent positive feedback effect of increasing vegetation resilience with decreasing vegetation water deficit degree in forest restoration area, indicating that the vegetation water deficit greatly impacts ecological environment stability in the study area, and forest restoration constantly improves regional ecological environment stability more than grassland restoration. This research has crucial guiding implications for supporting the sustainable development of regional ecological environments.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jiping Yao
- Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of River and Lake Ecology, School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, China; Key Laboratory of Mongolian Plateau Ecology and Resource Utilization, Ministry of Education, Hohhot 010021, China
| | - Guoqiang Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Center for Geodata and Analysis, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
| | - Ruihong Yu
- Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of River and Lake Ecology, School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, China; Key Laboratory of Mongolian Plateau Ecology and Resource Utilization, Ministry of Education, Hohhot 010021, China
| | - Jie Su
- Basin Research Center for Water Pollution Control, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China.
| | - Yinglan A
- State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Center for Geodata and Analysis, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Xiaojing Zhang
- College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Libo Wang
- College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Qingqing Fang
- School of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Joseph GS, Seymour CL. Dispersal limitation and fire feedbacks maintain mesic savannas in Madagascar: Comment. Ecology 2023; 104:e4045. [PMID: 37261396 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.4045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2022] [Revised: 10/12/2022] [Accepted: 10/20/2022] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Grant S Joseph
- Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST/NRF Centre of Excellence, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Colleen L Seymour
- Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST/NRF Centre of Excellence, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- South African National Biodiversity Institute, Kirstenbosch Research Centre, Claremont, South Africa
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Phelps LN, Andela N, Gravey M, Davis DS, Kull CA, Douglass K, Lehmann CER. Madagascar's fire regimes challenge global assumptions about landscape degradation. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2022; 28:6944-6960. [PMID: 35582991 PMCID: PMC9790435 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2022] [Accepted: 03/20/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Narratives of landscape degradation are often linked to unsustainable fire use by local communities. Madagascar is a case in point: the island is considered globally exceptional, with its remarkable endemic biodiversity viewed as threatened by unsustainable anthropogenic fire. Yet, fire regimes on Madagascar have not been empirically characterised or globally contextualised. Here, we contribute a comparative approach to determining relationships between regional fire regimes and global patterns and trends, applied to Madagascar using MODIS remote sensing data (2003-2019). Rather than a global exception, we show that Madagascar's fire regimes are similar to 88% of tropical burned area with shared climate and vegetation characteristics, and can be considered a microcosm of most tropical fire regimes. From 2003-2019, landscape-scale fire declined across tropical grassy biomes (17%-44% excluding Madagascar), and on Madagascar at a relatively fast rate (36%-46%). Thus, high tree loss anomalies on the island (1.25-4.77× the tropical average) were not explained by any general expansion of landscape-scale fire in grassy biomes. Rather, tree loss anomalies centred in forests, and could not be explained by landscape-scale fire escaping from savannas into forests. Unexpectedly, the highest tree loss anomalies on Madagascar (4.77×) occurred in environments without landscape-scale fire, where the role of small-scale fires (<21 h [0.21 km2 ]) is unknown. While landscape-scale fire declined across tropical grassy biomes, trends in tropical forests reflected important differences among regions, indicating a need to better understand regional variation in the anthropogenic drivers of forest loss and fire risk. Our new understanding of Madagascar's fire regimes offers two lessons with global implications: first, landscape-scale fire is declining across tropical grassy biomes and does not explain high tree loss anomalies on Madagascar. Second, landscape-scale fire is not uniformly associated with tropical forest loss, indicating a need for socio-ecological context in framing new narratives of fire and ecosystem degradation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Leanne N. Phelps
- School of GeoSciencesUniversity of EdinburghEdinburghUK
- Tropical Diversity, Royal Botanic Garden EdinburghEdinburghUK
| | - Niels Andela
- School of Earth and Environmental SciencesCardiff UniversityCardiffUK
| | - Mathieu Gravey
- Institute of Earth Surface DynamicsUniversity of LausanneLausanneSwitzerland
| | - Dylan S. Davis
- Department of AnthropologyThe Pennsylvania State UniversityUniversity ParkPennsylvaniaUSA
| | - Christian A. Kull
- Institute of Geography and SustainabilityUniversity of LausanneLausanneSwitzerland
| | - Kristina Douglass
- Department of AnthropologyThe Pennsylvania State UniversityUniversity ParkPennsylvaniaUSA
- Institutes of Energy and the EnvironmentThe Pennsylvania State UniversityUniversity ParkPennsylvaniaUSA
| | - Caroline E. R. Lehmann
- School of GeoSciencesUniversity of EdinburghEdinburghUK
- Tropical Diversity, Royal Botanic Garden EdinburghEdinburghUK
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Culbertson KA, Treuer TLH, Mondragon‐Botero A, Ramiadantsoa T, Reid JL. The eco‐evolutionary history of Madagascar presents unique challenges to tropical forest restoration. Biotropica 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/btp.13124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Katherine A. Culbertson
- Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management University of California Berkeley California USA
| | | | | | - Tanjona Ramiadantsoa
- Department of Life Science University of Fianarantsoa Fianarantsoa Madagascar
- Department of Mathematics University of Fianarantsoa Fianarantsoa Madagascar
- Department of Integrative Biology University of Wisconsin‐Madison Madison Wisconsin USA
| | - J. Leighton Reid
- School of Plant and Environmental Sciences Blacksburg Virginia USA
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Joseph GS, Rakotoarivelo AR, Seymour CL. Tipping points induced by palaeo-human impacts can explain presence of savannah in Malagasy and global systems where forest is expected. Proc Biol Sci 2022; 289:20212771. [PMID: 35350853 PMCID: PMC8965410 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2771] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Models aimed at understanding C4-savannah distribution for Australia, Africa and South America support transition to forest at high mean annual precipitation (MAP), and savannah grasslands of Madagascar have recently been reported to be similarly limited. Yet, when savannah/grassland presence data are plotted against MAP for the various ecosystems across the Malagasy Central Highlands, the relationship does not hold. Furthermore, it does not always hold in other sites on other continents. Instead, in high-rainfall savannahs, palaeo-human impacts appear to have selected a fire-adapted habitat, creating tipping points that allow savannah persistence despite high rainfall, suppressing forest return. We conducted the largest systematic literature review to date for global evidence of palaeo-human impacts in savannahs, and conclude that impacts are widespread and should be incorporated into models aimed at understanding savannah persistence at elevated precipitation, particularly as more palaeodata emerges. Building on existing studies, we refine the MAP savannah relationship at higher MAP. Palaeoanthropogenic impact can help explain inconsistencies in the savannah/forest boundary at higher MAP, and points to a key role for palaeoecology in understanding systems. Including these effects presents a crucial change to our understanding of factors determining global savannah distribution, supporting a human hand in much of their formation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Grant S. Joseph
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
| | - Andrinajoro R. Rakotoarivelo
- Afro-mountain Research Unit, The University of the Free State Qwaqwa, Private Bag X13, Phuthaditjhaba 9866, Republic of South Africa,Natiora Ahy, Lot IIU57 K Bis, Ampahibe, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar
| | - Colleen L. Seymour
- FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa,South African National Biodiversity Institute, Kirstenbosch Research Centre, Private Bag X7, Claremont 7735, South Africa
| |
Collapse
|