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Terrestrial Surface (terrestrial + surface)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Impact of past and present land-management on the C-balance of a grassland in the Swiss Alps

GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, Issue 11 2008
NELE ROGIERS
Abstract Grasslands cover about 40% of the ice-free global terrestrial surface, but their quantitative importance in global carbon exchange with the atmosphere is still highly uncertain, and thus their potential for carbon sequestration remains speculative. Here, we report on CO2 exchange of an extensively used mountain hay meadow and pasture in the Swiss pre-Alps on high-organic soils (7,45% C by mass) over a 3-year period (18 May 2002,20 September 2005), including the European summer 2003 heat-wave period. During all 3 years, the ecosystem was a net source of CO2 (116,256 g C m,2 yr,1). Harvests and grazing cows (mostly via C export in milk) further increased these C losses, which were estimated at 355 g C m,2 yr,1 during 2003 (95% confidence interval 257,454 g C m,2 yr,1). Although annual carbon losses varied considerably among years, the CO2 budget during summer 2003 was not very different from the other two summers. However, and much more importantly, the winter that followed the warm summer of 2003 observed a significantly higher carbon loss when there was snow (133±6 g C m,2) than under comparable conditions during the other two winters (73±5 and 70±4 g C m,2, respectively). The continued annual C losses can most likely be attributed to the long-term effects of drainage and peat exploitation that began 119 years ago, with the last significant drainage activities during the Second World War around 1940. The most realistic estimate based on depth profiles of ash content after combustion suggests that there is an 500,910 g C m,2 yr,1 loss associated with the decomposition of organic matter. Our results clearly suggest that putting efforts into preserving still existing carbon stocks may be more successful than attempts to increase sequestration rates in such high-organic mountain grassland soils. [source]

Explaining the global pattern of protected area coverage: relative importance of vertebrate biodiversity, human activities and agricultural suitability

JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 8 2008
Colby Loucks
Abstract Aim, Twelve per cent of the Earth's terrestrial surface is covered by protected areas, but neither these areas nor the biodiversity they contain are evenly distributed spatially. To guide future establishment of protected areas, it is important to understand the factors that have shaped the spatial arrangement of the current protected area system. We used an information-theoretic approach to assess the ability of vertebrate biodiversity measures, resource consumption and agricultural potential to explain the global coverage pattern of protected areas. Location, Global. Methods, For each of 762 World Wildlife Fund terrestrial ecoregions of the world, we measured protected area coverage, resource consumption, terrestrial vertebrate species richness, number of endemic species, number of threatened species, net primary production, elevation and topographic heterogeneity. We combined these variables into 39 a priori models to describe protected area coverage at the global scale, and for six biogeographical realms. Using the Akaike information criterion and Akaike weights, we identified the relative importance and influence of each variable in describing protected area coverage. Results, Globally, the number of endemic species was the best variable describing protected area coverage, followed by the number of threatened species. Species richness and resource consumption were of moderate importance and agricultural potential had weak support for describing protected area coverage at a global scale. Yet, the relative importance of these factors varied among biogeographical realms. Measures of vertebrate biodiversity (species richness, endemism and threatened species) were among the most important variables in all realms, except the Indo-Malayan, but had a wide range of relative importance and influence. Resource consumption was inversely related to protected area coverage across all but one realm (the Palearctic), most strongly in the Nearctic realm. Agricultural potential, despite having little support in describing protected area coverage globally, was strongly and positively related to protection in the Palearctic and Neotropical realms, as well as in the Indo-Malayan realm. The Afrotropical, Indo-Malayan and Australasian realms showed no clear, strong relationships between protected area coverage and the independent variables. Main conclusions, Globally, the existing protected area network is more strongly related to biodiversity measures than to patterns of resource consumption or agricultural potential. However, the relative importance of these factors varies widely among the world's biogeographical realms. Understanding the biases of the current protected area system may help to correct for them as future protected areas are added to the global network. [source]

Combination theory and equilibrium evaporation

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 574 2001
M. R. Raupach
Abstract This paper is an analysis of equilibrium evaporation and its role in the energy balance of a terrestrial surface, as described by combination theory. Three themes are covered: first, a brief historical review identifies multiple definitions of the concept of equilibrium evaporation. Second, these are formalized by developing the basic principles of combination theory with minimum approximation. Several measures are utilized to do this: linearization is avoided, radiative and storage coupling are incorporated systematically, and actual and linearized saturation deficits are distinguished. The formalism is used to analyse several algebraically defined states and limits for the surface energy balance. Third, the thermodynamic foundation of equilibrium evaporation is analysed by studying surface-atmosphere feedbacks in arbitrary closed and open evaporating systems. It is shown that under steady energy supply any closed evaporating system evolves towards a quasi-steady state in which the Bowen ratio takes the equilibrium value 1/,v, where ,v is the ratio of the latent- and sensible-heat contents of saturated air with temperature, evaluated at the volume-averaged temperature in the closed system. This applies whether the system is well-mixed or imperfectly mixed, and whatever the internal distribution of surface fluxes and surface and aerodynamic resistances. In contrast, open systems cannot reach such an equilibrium. This evolutionary definition of equilibrium evaporation differs from an alternative algebraic definition, the fully decoupled limit. The differences between the two definitions are identified, and the evolutionary definition is shown to be more fundamental. Thus, the correct temperature for evaluating , in determining equilibrium evaporation is the volume-averaged temperature in a closed region, which in the case of a convective boundary layer is well approximated by the mixed-layer temperature. [source]

Pan Evaporation Trends and the Terrestrial Water Balance.

GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 2 2009

Pan evaporation is just that , it is the evaporation rate of water from a small dish located at the ground-surface. Pan evaporation is a measure of the evaporative demand over terrestrial surfaces. Declines in pan evaporation have now been reported in many regions of the world. The trends vary from one pan to the next, but when averaged over many pans, they are typically in the range of ,1 to ,4 mm a,2 (mm per annum per annum). In energetic terms, a trend of ,2 mm a,2 is equivalent to ,0.16 W m,2 a,1 and over 30 years this is a change of ,4.8 W m,2. For comparison, the top-of-atmosphere forcing due to doubled CO2 is estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be ~3.7 W m,2. Hence, the magnitude of the pan evaporation trend is large. What is of even greater interest is the direction , a decline , given the well-established warming of the last 30,50 years. In this article, the first in a two part series, we describe the underlying principles in using and interpreting pan evaporation data and then summarise the reported observations from different countries. In the second article, we describe the interpretation of the trends in terms of changes in the terrestrial water balance. [source]