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Ecological Principles for Vegetation Establishment and Maintenance
Published in R.P.C. Morgan, R.J. Rickson, Slope Stabilization and Erosion Control, 2003
Boreal climates are typified by extensive evergreen coniferous forests growing on podzolized soils. In North America and Eastern Asia there are a relatively large number of species represented, while in the European forests spruce and pine predominate. Spruce tends to be concentrated on wetter soils and is thus relatively shallow rooting, while pine is more common on drier ground and tends to root more deeply. The degree of layering within the vegetation, within the forest types, depends both on the local density of the canopy and the fertility of the soil.
A comparative study of long-time series of global-scale albedo products
Published in International Journal of Digital Earth, 2023
Li Mengyao, Liu Qiang, Qu Ying
Albedo is defined as the ratio of the reflected solar radiation to the incident solar radiation (Dickinson 1983), which is an uncertain factor in the earth-air system. It plays an important role in the study of global or regional climate change (Knorr and Chnitzler 2001; Valero and Charlson 2008; Zhang et al. 2010). On the global scale, as global temperatures rise, ice and sea ice at high latitudes melt massively, resulting in lower albedo and more solar radiation absorption on the surface, which, in turn, exacerbates temperature rises, creating a feedback process that has attracted much attention (Ingram, Wilson, and Mitchell 1989; Curry and Schramm 1995; Winton 2008). Deforestation causes changes in surface albedo, evapotranspiration, and surface roughness, thereby triggering two opposing types of forcing mechanisms, radiative forcing and non-radiative forcing, with a net cooling effect on the earth (Bala et al. 2007; Davin and De Noblet-Ducoudré 2010). At a regional scale, the expansion of biofuels causes regional climate change by changing surface parameters such as albedo (Loarie et al. 2011), with boreal forests generating positive climate forcing through albedo and mitigating regional warming (Bonan 2008). Therefore, using the relevant data to record the spatial and temporal changes of albedo is helpful to better study the environment and climate change.
The future of global land change monitoring
Published in International Journal of Digital Earth, 2023
Satellite monitoring of land cover continues to advance our understanding of the impacts and tradeoffs of land change on the Earth system and human society. Because different land cover types function differently in modulating the exchanges of energy, gas and water between the atmosphere and the biosphere, changes in land cover can cause profound impacts on global biogeochemical cycles (Vitousek et al. 1997). Recent analysis of satellite-based forest cover loss and biomass data suggested that deforestation emissions, which are already the 2nd largest carbon emission source, are still rising in the twenty-first century (Feng et al. 2022). Improved global land cover change data has led to renewed recognition of the role of land cover change in regulating soil respiration, which is the largest flux of carbon from the terrestrial ecosystems to the atmosphere. Huang et al. (2020) reported an overall increasing trend in annual soil respiration based on MODIS data and demonstrated that while climate change played a dominant role in regulating soil respiration changes in the tropics, land cover change played a more important role in temperate and boreal regions.
Castle Roy: Investigating Medieval Cultural Landscapes, Buildings and Materials in Badenoch, Abernethy and Mar
Published in International Journal of Architectural Heritage, 2020
Richard Oram (2003, 56) has highlighted charter evidence to suggest that Invernochty and Migvie were the principal administrative centres of the Province of Mar from an early period, and argues convincingly that the retention of the upland zone within which these comital sites were situated by Morgrund’s kindred (after the earldom was divided during a successional dispute in the early 13th century) reflects the relative importance of non-arable pasture to the wider Scottish economy in this period. As a result, like Abernethy, the earldom ruled by James’ younger brother Duncan is also characterised by Pinus-Betula woodland, with the ecotone between this upland boreal biome and the deciduous lowlands situated down river to the east of the Migvie caput (cf. Durno 1957; O’ Sullivan 1975). Importantly for our present discussion, however, both of these purportedly early comital sites at Migvie and Invernochty are also associated with motte castles.