The Effects of Deforestation: its Role on Climate Change and Impact on Ecosystems

About this Research Topic

Background

There is a consensus that the increase in the greenhouse gas (GHG) atmospheric levels is mainly caused by the burning of fossil fuels and changes in land use, such as deforestation. These and other human activities are responsible for ongoing climate change, and the alert for these changes has promoted several lines of research within the climate sciences to debate and create an understanding of the GHG cycle and how humans would be influencing this cycle. A practical way of mitigating the climate change effects would be to increase vegetation cover in land areas, both through the replanting of large forest cover to capture atmospheric CO2 and through the effect of forests on the hydrological cycle. In this way, it would be more economically advantageous to preserve forests than to devastate them for logging or agricultural projects with an immediate return. However, the current forecasts on global warming, particularly for tropical forests, are not good; global warming is expected to increase temperatures and extreme events in these areas, which will result in a drier climate, and reduce the resilience of these forests. River levels will be greatly reduced, and the air is likely to become drier during dry periods, which will increase the risk of fires. Allied to this, the advance of the agricultural frontier, if maintained at current levels in 2021, will likely reduce forest cover to 53% in 2050. The number of studies on the response of flora and fauna species to climate change in these environments is still low. Emerging research indicates that with an increase of 2 °C to 3 °C in the average temperature, a large number of trees could disappear by the end of this century. This research topic aims to bring together different works on forest areas, with an emphasis on the impacts of extreme weather events. This includes events such as ENSO and environmental controls of the exchange of water and gases between forest and atmosphere, as well as the modeling of surface physical processes and their prognosis for the future, with emphasis on strategies of adaptation. There is a range of projects studying these environments globally, and we intend to gather these findings to increase subsidies for the discussion on climate change mitigations.

Anthropogenic climate change is occurring at great speed and intensity and is directly linked to biosphere-atmosphere interactions. These changes affect ecosystems through changes in the average conditions of meteorological variables, in the variables of water and carbon exchange, among other eco-physiological parameters. Combined with other associated changes, such as the increase in ocean acidification and atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, they bring together a vast potential field of research and discoveries on the effects of these changes on the landscape and biodiversity at the local and regional levels. It is necessary to understand the ecological dynamics of these climate impacts, identify critical points of vulnerability and resilience, and identify management interventions that can help the biosphere’s resilience to climate change, considering that ecosystems themselves can also help in mitigating and adapting to climate change because many areas still operate as an important CO2 sink.

Several studies have already demonstrated the importance of tropical forests in the context of
the planet's climate regulation, due to the controls on the exchange of water, energy, carbon,
and other gases with the atmosphere. Despite these studies, there is still a great degree of
uncertainty about many processes that occur in these environments and the possible climate
change feedbacks, given the diversity of physiognomies, landscapes and other biophysical
aspects that can differentiate the atmospheric patterns from one place to another within the
Biome itself.   Humans, by action or inaction can either mitigate or exacerbate the impacts of
climate disruption on forests.    There is also a great deal of uncertainty about  how societies and
economies will respond to extreme weather and in turn alter forest change and resilience. To
reduce these uncertainties, more in situ measurements are necessary (as micrometeorology
towers) to better understand the particularities of each environment, validate models of
biosphere-atmosphere interaction, remote sensing products, and for several other purposes. In
addition, certain forest physiognomies do not occur only on the same continent, but in several
other places around the globe and their particularities regarding biogeophysical patterns need to
be understood.  Finally, the role of government policy and different communities in responding
to climate extremes warrants investigation; for example, will policies for reducing wildfire risk
carry with them any unintended consequences for other features of forest dynamics?   To what
extent can a viable carbon market effectively reduce deforestation?

We welcome submissions covering, but not limited to, the following themes:

• In-situ measurements over natural environments (forests, croplands, floodplains…etc.)
• Modelling using data measurements over natural environments
• Long-term series about atmospheric data in forests
• Public policy models for the preservation of tropical forests including carbon markets
• Carbon cycle, adaptation strategies, and climate change perspectives on forests
• Remote sensing validation and monitoring of climate variables in forest areas
• Do climate stresses in other ecosystems (cropland, lakes) cause human reactions that in turn influence the exploitation of forests?
• How are indigenous communities impacted by extreme climate events, and deforestation?

Keywords: Greenhouse gases, Forest biophysics, Eddy Covariance, Adaptation strategies, indigenous communities, Human action, Human inaction, Human reactions

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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