39 research outputs found

    New uses for old tools : Reviving Holdridge Life Zones in soil carbon persistence research

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    Growing evidence suggests that climate classification facilitates the identification of zones that either agree or disagree with processes explaining soil organic carbon (SOC) persistence. Already forty years ago, Post et al. (1982) posited that the strict temperature and precipitation-based classification defining the Holdridge Life Zones (HLZ) provides a descriptive tool to guide our understanding of the heterogeneous distribution of global SOC stocks. Here we argue that this classification has the potential for describing SOC persistence by linking top-down and bottom-up approaches from different scales, which allows selection of individual regional relevancies necessary to manage and track the fate of our largest terrestrial carbon (C) reservoir. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science published by Wiley-VCH Gmb

    Describing complex interactions of social-ecological systems for tipping point assessments: an analytical framework

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    Humans play an interconnecting role in social-ecological systems (SES), they are part of these systems and act as agents of their destruction and regulation. This study aims to provide an analytical framework, which combines the concept of SES with the concept of tipping dynamics. As a result, we propose an analytical framework describing relevant dynamics and feedbacks within SES based on two matrixes: the “tipping matrix” and the “cross-impact matrix.” We take the Southwestern Amazon as an example for tropical regions at large and apply the proposed analytical framework to identify key underlying sub-systems within the study region: the soil ecosystem, the household livelihood system, the regional social system, and the regional climate system, which are interconnected through a network of feedbacks. We consider these sub-systems as tipping elements (TE), which when put under stress, can cross a tipping point (TP), resulting in a qualitative and potentially irreversible change of the respective TE. By systematically assessing linkages and feedbacks within and between TEs, our proposed analytical framework can provide an entry point for empirically assessing tipping point dynamics such as “tipping cascades,” which means that the crossing of a TP in one TE may force the tipping of another TE. Policy implications: The proposed joint description of the structure and dynamics within and across SES in respect to characteristics of tipping point dynamics promotes a better understanding of human-nature interactions and critical linkages within regional SES that may be used for effectively informing and directing empirical tipping point assessments, monitoring or intervention purposes. Thereby, the framework can inform policy-making for enhancing the resilience of regional SES

    Describing complex interactions of social-ecological systems for tipping point assessments: an analytical framework

    Get PDF
    Humans play an interconnecting role in social-ecological systems (SES), they are part of these systems and act as agents of their destruction and regulation. This study aims to provide an analytical framework, which combines the concept of SES with the concept of tipping dynamics. As a result, we propose an analytical framework describing relevant dynamics and feedbacks within SES based on two matrixes: the “tipping matrix” and the “cross-impact matrix.” We take the Southwestern Amazon as an example for tropical regions at large and apply the proposed analytical framework to identify key underlying sub-systems within the study region: the soil ecosystem, the household livelihood system, the regional social system, and the regional climate system, which are interconnected through a network of feedbacks. We consider these sub-systems as tipping elements (TE), which when put under stress, can cross a tipping point (TP), resulting in a qualitative and potentially irreversible change of the respective TE. By systematically assessing linkages and feedbacks within and between TEs, our proposed analytical framework can provide an entry point for empirically assessing tipping point dynamics such as “tipping cascades,” which means that the crossing of a TP in one TE may force the tipping of another TE. Policy implications: The proposed joint description of the structure and dynamics within and across SES in respect to characteristics of tipping point dynamics promotes a better understanding of human-nature interactions and critical linkages within regional SES that may be used for effectively informing and directing empirical tipping point assessments, monitoring or intervention purposes. Thereby, the framework can inform policy-making for enhancing the resilience of regional SES

    Describing complex interactions of social-ecological systems for tipping point assessments: an analytical framework

    Get PDF
    Humans play an interconnecting role in social-ecological systems (SES), they are part of these systems and act as agents of their destruction and regulation. This study aims to provide an analytical framework, which combines the concept of SES with the concept of tipping dynamics. As a result, we propose an analytical framework describing relevant dynamics and feedbacks within SES based on two matrixes: the “tipping matrix” and the “cross-impact matrix.” We take the Southwestern Amazon as an example for tropical regions at large and apply the proposed analytical framework to identify key underlying sub-systems within the study region: the soil ecosystem, the household livelihood system, the regional social system, and the regional climate system, which are interconnected through a network of feedbacks. We consider these sub-systems as tipping elements (TE), which when put under stress, can cross a tipping point (TP), resulting in a qualitative and potentially irreversible change of the respective TE. By systematically assessing linkages and feedbacks within and between TEs, our proposed analytical framework can provide an entry point for empirically assessing tipping point dynamics such as “tipping cascades,” which means that the crossing of a TP in one TE may force the tipping of another TE. Policy implications: The proposed joint description of the structure and dynamics within and across SES in respect to characteristics of tipping point dynamics promotes a better understanding of human-nature interactions and critical linkages within regional SES that may be used for effectively informing and directing empirical tipping point assessments, monitoring or intervention purposes. Thereby, the framework can inform policy-making for enhancing the resilience of regional SES

    Black Forest soilssources and sinks of CH4 and N2O

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    A regionally disaggregated inventory of nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural soils in Germany – a GIS-based empirical approach

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    Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas, which has to be included in national inventories because it is contributing to global warming. It primarily originates from agriculturally managed soils. These represent area sources, which are much more difficult to account for than point sources, such as power plants or industrial sources. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change provides a default emission factor but also the plea for more sophisticated ways of calculating N2O emissions from agricultural land use, in particular from industrialized nations. To fulfill this plea, already some approaches developed for use in Germany and elsewhere, which are more process based to a certain degree, have been published. However, these predominately require a high information input for model runs and site-specific calibration. In the present paper, we demonstrate the advantage of an empirical approach. This contribution introduces an approach for estimating N2O emissions in a regionally disaggregated manner by calculating emission factors based on 86 empirical measurements of N2O fluxes. These emission factors are calculated separately for distinct regions of Germany based on climate characteristics (precipitation and days of frost) and soil aeration. By combining these calculated emission factors with datasets on land use, nitrogen input, climate characteristics and soil, the N2O emission fluxes for Germany are estimated in a spatially disaggregated manner at the county (Landkreis) level, only accounting for agricultural land use and excluding forest and urban areas. This approach yields an emission estimate of 53.38 Gg N2O-N. For comparison purposes, this contribution also estimates N2O emissions using a spatially disaggregated version of the IPCC guidelines to determine emissions for the national greenhouse gas inventories, which results in an estimated emission of 35.70 Gg N2O-N for Germany. The results of these emission estimates suggest that the N2O emissions from agricultural land use are underestimated in the official national greenhouse gas inventory if the simple, single-emission-factor based method is used
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