Forest Hydrology under Climate Change

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Hydrology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 August 2024 | Viewed by 4632

Special Issue Editors

Ecology and Nature Conservation Institute, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Interests: forest hydrology; forest ecology; plant water uptake; isotopic hydrology; climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Ecology and Nature Conservation Institute, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Interests: forest ecology; stable isotope ecology; forest hydrology; restoration of degraded ecosystems; biodiversity
College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Interests: isotopic hydrology; ecohydrology; landscape patterns and ecological processes; stable isotope in ecology
Agricultural Science and Engineering School, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng 252059, China
Interests: forest ecology; isotopic hydrology; plant–water relationship; forest management; forest hydrology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forest hydrology could potentially exert a critical role in regulating forest structure, function and ecosystem services. Under global climate change, forest hydrological processes have shifted and, subsequently, reduced the stability of forest ecosystems. Hence, exploring the response of forest hydrology to climate change is essential for forest management. Despite its importance, many related issues remain unclear thus far, for example, questions concerning how climate change alters forest evapotranspiration, plant water use patterns, the water cycle in ecosystems, etc. Therefore, the scope of this Special Issue is to collect recent findings from different regions tackling issues related to forest hydrology under climate change using various methods.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Throughfall process;
  • Stem flow process;
  • Interaction between groundwater and surface water;
  • Plant water uptake;
  • Soil water migration;
  • Forest evapotranspiration;
  • Ecohydrological separation and connectivity.

Dr. Beibei Zhang
Prof. Dr. Qing Xu
Dr. Jian Wang
Dr. Ting Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ecohydrology
  • water consumption
  • climate change
  • tree hydraulics
  • hydrological model
  • isotopic hydrology

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 3682 KiB  
Article
Do Mature Quercus aliena Primarily Use Deep Soil Water?
by Ranran Ren, Beibei Zhang, Qing Xu, Deqiang Gao, Wenbin Xu, Haijun Zuo, Ying Zhang and Ke Diao
Forests 2024, 15(3), 402; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15030402 - 20 Feb 2024
Viewed by 490
Abstract
Seasonal drought events induced by climate change have exacerbated the water deficit in trees. This is particularly pronounced in mature trees with considerable heights and extensive branches, where the long water transport distance leads to a reduction in hydraulic transportation efficiency. Therefore, investigating [...] Read more.
Seasonal drought events induced by climate change have exacerbated the water deficit in trees. This is particularly pronounced in mature trees with considerable heights and extensive branches, where the long water transport distance leads to a reduction in hydraulic transportation efficiency. Therefore, investigating the water uptake patterns of mature trees is essential to enhance their growth and resilience to climate change. However, previous studies have predominantly focused on trees aged 10–60 years, with limited research on the water uptake patterns of trees over 60 years old. In this study, we employed hydrogen and oxygen stable isotopes coupled with the MixSIAR model to determine the water uptake patterns of mature Quercus aliena var. acuteserrata (40–60 years, 60–90 years, 120–150 years, >150 years) during the growing seasons of 2021 and 2022 in Baotianman Nature Reserve, Henan Province, China. Additionally, we utilized a random forest model to quantify the relative contributions of vegetation (fine root biomass) and soil properties (soil moisture, bulk density, total porosity, field capacity, and soil texture) to the water uptake patterns of Q. aliena. Our findings demonstrate that most mature Q. aliena predominantly extracted deep soil water (60–100 cm) in the early growing season, but shifted towards utilizing shallow soil water (0–40 cm) in the late growing season. The water uptake pattern of mature Q. aliena was primarily regulated by soil moisture. These results reveal that mature Q. aliena trees exhibit a flexible water use strategy, enabling them to cope with seasonal drought by altering the soil depth from which they extract water. In the future, in the process of the cultivation and conservation of mature oak trees, surface soil irrigation can be increased to prevent tree mortality resulting from water deficit during drought conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Hydrology under Climate Change)
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17 pages, 4112 KiB  
Article
Assessment of the Potential of Indirect Measurement for Sap Flow Using Environmental Factors and Artificial Intelligence Approach: A Case Study of Magnolia denudata in Shanghai Urban Green Spaces
by Biao Zhang, Dongmei Zhang, Zhongke Feng, Lang Zhang, Mingjuan Zhang, Renjie Fu and Zhichao Wang
Forests 2023, 14(9), 1768; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14091768 - 31 Aug 2023
Viewed by 894
Abstract
The measurement of plant sap flow has long been a traditional method for quantifying transpiration. However, conventional direct measurement methods are often costly and complex, thereby limiting the widespread application of tree sap flow monitoring techniques. The concept of a Virtual Measurement Instrument [...] Read more.
The measurement of plant sap flow has long been a traditional method for quantifying transpiration. However, conventional direct measurement methods are often costly and complex, thereby limiting the widespread application of tree sap flow monitoring techniques. The concept of a Virtual Measurement Instrument (VMI) has emerged in response to this challenge by combining simple instruments with Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to indirectly assess specific measurement objects. This study proposes a tree sap flow estimation method based on environmental factors and AI algorithms. Through the acquisition of environmental factor data and the integration of AI algorithms, we successfully achieved indirect measurement of tree sap flow. Accounting for the time lag response of the flow to environmental factors, we constructed the Magnolia denudata sap flow estimation model using the K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Random Forest (RF), Backpropagation Neural Network (BPNN), and Long Short-Term Memory network (LSTM) algorithms. The research results showed that the LSTM model demonstrated greater reliability in predicting sap flow velocity, with R2 of 0.957, MAE of 0.189, MSE of 0.059, and RMSE of 0.243. The validation of the target tree yielded an R2 of 0.821 and an error rate of only 4.89% when applying the model. In summary, this sap flow estimation method based on environmental factors and AI provides new insights and has practical value in the field of tree sap flow monitoring. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Hydrology under Climate Change)
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29 pages, 16263 KiB  
Article
Hydrological Coupling and Decoupling of Hydric Hemiboreal Forest Sites Inferred from Soil Water Models and Tree-Ring Chronology
by Andis Kalvāns and Iluta Dauškane
Forests 2023, 14(9), 1734; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14091734 - 27 Aug 2023
Viewed by 1089
Abstract
The soil water regime often controls whether an ecosystem is a source of greenhouse gases such as CO2 or CH4 or is, instead, a carbon sink. The soil water regime of wetland forests is complicated by ecosystem feedback and landscape scale [...] Read more.
The soil water regime often controls whether an ecosystem is a source of greenhouse gases such as CO2 or CH4 or is, instead, a carbon sink. The soil water regime of wetland forests is complicated by ecosystem feedback and landscape scale interactions. An in-depth understanding of these processes is needed to optimize the management of such ecosystems to balance timber production, carbon sequestration and biodiversity preservation. To investigate the soil water regime of non-riparian wetland forests, we set up a physically based Hydrus-1D soil water model for two hydric black alder Alnus glutinosa sites in a lowland hemiboreal setting informed by field observations of the soil water. Further, to gain ecohydrological insights, we explored the correlations between modeled long-term soil water parameters and local dendrochronology. We found that, at the clay soil site, the simulated root water uptake had a significant correlation (up to 0.55) with the residual tree-ring chronology. However, in the sandy soil site, the meteorological conditions—air temperature and precipitation—were better predictors for tree radial growth (correlation up to 0.42). In addition, we observed a trend towards dryer conditions during the modeling period, which might enhance the growing conditions for the considered forest stands due to a reduction in soil waterlogging. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Hydrology under Climate Change)
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16 pages, 3917 KiB  
Article
Temporal Evolution of Vapor Pressure Deficit Observed in Six Locations of Different Brazilian Ecosystems and Its Relationship with Micrometeorological Variables
by Rafael da Silva Palácios, Sérgio Roberto de Paulo, Iramaia Jorge Cabral de Paulo, Francisco de Almeida Lobo, Daniela de Oliveira Maionchi, Haline Josefa Araujo da Silva, Ian Maxime Cordeiro Barros da Silva, João Basso Marques, Marcelo Sacardi Biudes, Higo José Dalmagro, Thiago Rangel Rodrigues and Leone Francisco Amorim Curado
Forests 2023, 14(8), 1543; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14081543 - 28 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 808
Abstract
In this study, data collected from 2000 to 2019 on vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and its relationship with micrometeorological variables (fire occurrences, aerosol concentration, temperature, and carbon flux) were analyzed in six locations situated in different Brazilian ecosystems: Rio [...] Read more.
In this study, data collected from 2000 to 2019 on vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and its relationship with micrometeorological variables (fire occurrences, aerosol concentration, temperature, and carbon flux) were analyzed in six locations situated in different Brazilian ecosystems: Rio Branco, AC; Manaus, AM; Alta Floresta, MT (within the Amazon Rainforest); Baia das Pedras, MT (Pantanal); Fazenda Miranda, MT (Cerrado); and Petrolina, PE (northeastern semiarid region). Temporal series analysis of VPD was conducted by determining the principal component of singular spectrum analysis (SSA) for this variable in all locations. It was observed that the main component of SSA for VPD is sensitive to local land-use changes, while no evidence of large-scale influences related to global climate change was observed. A strong coupling between VPD values and local maximum temperature with monthly fire occurrence and logarithmic aerosol concentration profiles was also observed. The results of the study are discussed in the context of the ecosystems’ carbon sequestration capacity. The combined results of the study indicate a scenario in which local land-use changes can compromise the capacity of Brazilian ecosystems to absorb carbon. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Hydrology under Climate Change)
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15 pages, 2179 KiB  
Article
Impact of Repurposing Forest Land on Erosion and Sediment Production—Case Study: Krupanj Municipality—Serbia
by Ljubiša Bezbradica, Boško Josimović and Saša Milijić
Forests 2023, 14(6), 1127; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14061127 - 30 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 824
Abstract
Erosion is one of the main causes of soil degradation and sediment production. The amount of eroded material that reaches rivers and lakes depends on the terrain but also on the climatic and hydrological characteristics of the basin, as well as the applied [...] Read more.
Erosion is one of the main causes of soil degradation and sediment production. The amount of eroded material that reaches rivers and lakes depends on the terrain but also on the climatic and hydrological characteristics of the basin, as well as the applied land management method. The intensity of sediment production is in direct correlation with the land use type. Repurposing forest land as mining, urban and infrastructural development areas, etc., significantly affects sediment production. Shrinking of forests and unplanned agricultural production are just some of the factors that intensify erosion processes and increase the amount of eroded material, also triggering climate change and the onset of prolonged dry and rainy periods, which increase the risk of erosion in sloping terrain and intense sediment production. The paper presents the correlation between the change in the forest land use method, on the one hand, and soil erosion and sediment production, on the other, by analysing segments of river basins in the territory of the Serbian Municipality of Krupanj. The modelling of sediment production was based on data collected from the experimental territories. The method of erosion potential, data analysis, and procession in GIS surrounding were used for calculating sediment production in the experimental areas. The greatest loss of soil was perceived in the terrain with little or no vegetation on steep slopes covered with material prone to water erosion. The smallest production of sediment was noted in the terrain with vital forest vegetation. The results received point to the heterogeneous estimates of land loss, enabling the modelling of sediment production in wider basin areas and the analysis of the impacts of different land management factors on the erosion processes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Hydrology under Climate Change)
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