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Disturbance Management in Forest Ecosystems
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Disturbance Management in Forest Ecosystems

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2020) | Viewed by 15072

Special Issue Editors

Dr. José G. Borges

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Forest Research Centre, School of Agriculture, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: spatially explicit forest management scheduling; trade-off analysis between ecosystem services target values; integrating risk in forest management scheduling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Susete Marques

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Forest Research Centre, School of Agriculture, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: forest management planning; fire risk and damage; ecosystem services; multicriteria decision analysis and methods; tradeoff analysis; decision support systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Brigite Botequim

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Forest Research Centre, Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal
Interests: fire-adapted silviculture; fire behaviour modelling; trade-offs analysis in fuel management; assessment of forest ecosystem services; climate change scenarios; forest dynamics disturbances; modelling and mapping ecosystem services; optimizing forest ecosytem landscape planning; multicriteria optimization techniques
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will comprise a selection of papers reporting recent advances on decision support approaches to integrate concerns with disturbance agents (e.g., wildfires, wind and snow storms, pests, and diseases) in forest ecosystem management planning. The Special Issue aims to contribute to our understanding of disturbance agents and of how they can be addressed in management planning. In this context, we welcome manuscripts that address challenges regarding (a) the characterization of disturbance regimes, namely, under scenarios of climate change; (b) the ecology and management of disturbance agents; (c) the assessment of the impacts of disturbances on the provision of ecosystem services; (d) the integration of concerns with disturbance agents in management planning; and (e) the development of regulatory frameworks and policy analysis to address concerns about the impact of disturbance agents on forested landscapes. This Special Issue will provide a platform for the reporting of research of indicators, ecological models, disturbance agents’ simulators, planning methods, and decision support tools that may help address challenges (a) to (e). This Special Issue is sponsored by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO Unit 4.04.04—Sustainable Forest Management Scheduling). Papers submitted for publication in this Special Issue will undergo a rigorous peer review process with the aim of prompt and wide dissemination of research results and applications.

Dr. José G. Borges
Dr. Susete Marques
Dr. Brigite Botequim
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. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 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 2500 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

  • disturbances
  • wildfires
  • wind and snow storms
  • pests and diseases
  • climate change
  • forest ecosystems
  • forest management

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 2850 KiB  
Article
Discrepancies in Karst Soil Organic Carbon in Southwest China for Different Land Use Patterns: A Case Study of Guizhou Province
by Zhenming Zhang, Xianfei Huang, Yunchao Zhou, Jiachun Zhang and Xubo Zhang
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(21), 4199; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16214199 - 30 Oct 2019
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2684
Abstract
The assessment of soil organic carbon (SOC) in mountainous karst areas is very challenging, due to the high spatial heterogeneity in SOC content and soil type. To study and assess the SOC storage in mountainous karst areas, a total of 22,786 soil samples [...] Read more.
The assessment of soil organic carbon (SOC) in mountainous karst areas is very challenging, due to the high spatial heterogeneity in SOC content and soil type. To study and assess the SOC storage in mountainous karst areas, a total of 22,786 soil samples were collected from 2,854 soil profiles in Guizhou Province in Southwest China. The SOC content in the soil samples was determined by the oxidation of potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7), followed by titration with iron (II) sulfate (FeSO4). The SOC storage was assessed based on different land uses. The results suggested that the average SOC density in the top 1.00 m of soil associated with different land uses decreased in the following order: Croplands (9.58 kg m−2) > garden lands (9.07 kg m−2) > grasslands (8.07 kg m−2) > forestlands (7.35 kg m−2) > uncultivated lands (6.94 kg m−2). The SOC storage values in the 0.00–0.10 m, 0.00–0.20 m, 0.00–0.30 m and 0.00–1.00 m soil layers of Guizhou Province were 0.50, 0.87, 1.11 and 1.58 Pg, respectively. The SOC in the top 0.30 m of soil accounted for 70.25% of the total within the 0.00–1.00 m layer in Guizhou Province. It was concluded that assessing SOC storage in mountainous karst areas was more accurate when using land use rather than soil type. This result can supply a scientific reference for the accurate assessment of the SOC storage in the karst areas of southwestern China, the islands of Java, northern and central Vietnam, Indonesia, Kampot Province in Cambodia and in the general area of what used to be Yugoslavia, along with other karst areas with similar ecological backgrounds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disturbance Management in Forest Ecosystems)
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17 pages, 1798 KiB  
Article
Effects of Small Gaps on the Relationship Among Soil Properties, Topography, and Plant Species in Subtropical Rhododendron Secondary Forest, Southwest China
by Fenghua Tang, Wenxuan Quan, Chaochan Li, Xianfei Huang, Xianliang Wu, Qiaoan Yang, Yannan Pan, Tayan Xu, Chenyu Qian and Yunbing Gu
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(11), 1919; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16111919 - 30 May 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2815
Abstract
Background: The secondary forests have become the major forest type worldwide, and forest gap was also a common small disturbance in secondary forests. We aimed to analyze the effects of small gap disturbance on the plant species richness of subtropical secondary forest [...] Read more.
Background: The secondary forests have become the major forest type worldwide, and forest gap was also a common small disturbance in secondary forests. We aimed to analyze the effects of small gap disturbance on the plant species richness of subtropical secondary forest with natural regeneration barriers and examine the relationship between soil topography and plant species in a subtropical Rhododendron secondary forest of the Baili Rhododendron National Nature Reserve. Methods: The major plant species and soil topography gradient factors of the small gaps and closed canopy (control group) were analyzed using two-way ANOVA, multivariate permutational analysis of variance, nonmetric multi-dimensional scaling, random forest, canonical correspondence analysis, redundancy analysis, and a generalized linear model. Results: Small gaps had significant impact on the distribution of soil available potassium (AK), organic carbon to total phosphorus (C/P) ratio rather than slope position for soil pH and calcium (Ca) under closed canopy. Soil pH and AK followed by total phosphorus (TP) were the most important variables explaining the spatial distributions of soil properties in both habitats. Determining the spatial distribution of individual woody plant species were soil pH in small gaps, instead of lower altitude, TP, total potassium (TK) and sodium (Na) concentrations for both habitats. Moreover, Ericaceae and Fagaceae were strongly associated with pH in the small gaps. However, there was soil Na for the herbaceous plant in the closed canopy. The species richness of woody plant species in small gaps was affected significantly by pH, soil water content (SWC), and TK, instead of soil organic carbon (SOC), SWC and C/P ratio in both habitats. Conclusions: Small gaps were not always significantly improved the composition of soil nutrients, but provided a good microenvironment for plant growth, species richness of major woody plant differed between habitats. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disturbance Management in Forest Ecosystems)
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Review

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13 pages, 338 KiB  
Review
Ecological and Health Effects of Lubricant Oils Emitted into the Environment
by Paulina Nowak, Karolina Kucharska and Marian Kamiński
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(16), 3002; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16163002 - 20 Aug 2019
Cited by 120 | Viewed by 8938
Abstract
Lubricating oils used in machines with an open cutting system, such as a saw or harvester, are applied in forest areas, gardening, in the household, and in urban greenery. During the operation of the device with an open cutting system, the lubricating oil [...] Read more.
Lubricating oils used in machines with an open cutting system, such as a saw or harvester, are applied in forest areas, gardening, in the household, and in urban greenery. During the operation of the device with an open cutting system, the lubricating oil is emitted into the environment. Therefore, the use of an oil base and refining additives of petroleum origin in the content of lubricants is associated with a negative impact on health and the environment. The current legal regulations concerning lubricants applicable in the European Union (EU) assess the degree of biodegradability. Legislation permits the use of biodegradable oils at 60% for a period of 28 days. This means that, in practice, lubricating oil considered to be biodegradable can contain up to 50% of the so-called petroleum oil base. The paper aims to draw public attention to the need to reduce the toxicity and harmful effects, due to their composition, of lubricating oils emitted into the environment on health. The authors discuss the impact of petroleum oil lubricants on soils, groundwater, vegetation, and animals, and the impact of petroleum-origin oil mist on health. An overview of test methods for the biodegradability of lubricating oils is presented, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 301 A–F, 310, and 302 A–D tests, as well as their standard equivalents. The current legal regulations regarding the use and control of lubricating oils emitted into the environment are discussed. Legal provisions are divided according to their area of application. Key issues regarding the biodegradability and toxicity of petroleum fractions in lubricating oils are also addressed. It is concluded that lubricating oils, emitted or potentially emitted into the environment, should contain only biodegradable ingredients in order to eliminate the negative impact on both the environment and health. Total biodegradability should be confirmed by widely applied tests. Therefore, a need to develop and implement low-cost and simple control procedures for each type of lubricating oil, ensuring the possibility of an indisputable conclusion about the presence and total absence of petroleum-derived components in oil, as well as the content of natural ingredients, occurs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disturbance Management in Forest Ecosystems)
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