Small Terrestrial Rodents in Disturbed and Old-Growth Montane Oak Forest in Costa Rica

Exploring the Influence of Seasonal Cropland Abandonment on Evapotranspiration and Water Resources in the Humid Lowland Region, Southern China

“…These results were consistent to the case of low belt of Swiss Alps (Van den Bergh, 2017), where the increased ET caused by grassland abandonment reduced the catchment runoff by 18–74 mm. However, the fallow period increased groundwater recharge by 48 mm beneath bare ground relative to the originally grassland in Mississippi River Basin, USA (Zhang & Schilling, 2006).…”

“…The ET by WLs and DSCs (regarded as both effects) minus the ET by the atmometers (regarded as climatic effect) was considered the vegetation effect. Van den Bergh (2017) compared the abandoned grassland (unclipped vegetation) with a grazed grassland (clipped vegetation) in the Swiss Alps and found that grassland abandonment increased ET (water consumption) by 3%–37% due to increased biomass in the absence of grazing by sheep. Perennial abandoned lands commonly experience vegetation succession (García‐Ruiz & Lana‐Renault, 2011), and these areas are gradually covered by grasses, shrubs, and trees.…”

“…This concurrent experiment but in different locations brings several uncertainties because of differences in soil properties, microclimate, topography, and groundwater table associated with location, thus greatly affecting the ET rate. In addition, this method requires the deployment of multiple expensive instruments (e.g., eddy covariance equipment and lysimetric) in each location (Van den Bergh, 2017), requiring large amounts of fund to set up, operationalize, and maintain. Alternately, asynchronous ET observations from one experimental site, which is designed into different land cover types in sequence, can be compared.…”

Mapping current and potential future distributions of the oak tree (Quercus aegilops) in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq

“…Being the dominant species, the trunk diameter, height, and crown width of the tree may reach 1 m, 20 m, and 7 m, respectively (Shahbaz 2010; Younis and Hassan 2019). Q. aegilops, apart from its ecological importance (e.g., as shelter and food for mammals and birds), also has economic and cultural importance-for example, as firewood, charcoal, timber, building material, and fodder for livestock (Chapman 1950;Mosa 2016;Nasser 1984;Nixon 2006;Van den Bergh and Kappelle 2006). Oak forests, specifically Q. aegilops, like the rest of the natural resources, have been degrading due to several factors by shifting cultivation and land use/land cover changes, population increase, civil war, and inadequate forest management policy (Nasser 1984).…”