Hadi Kiadaliri

Majid Loghmanpour

Mohsen Elahi

Zhirair Vardanian

English

IntechOpen

Selection of our books indexed in the Book Citation Index in Web of Science™ Core Collection (BKCI)Interested in publishing with us? Contact book.department@intechopen.comNumbers displayed above are based on latest data collected. For more information visit www.intechopen.comOpen access books availableCountries delivered to Contributors from top 500 universitiesInternational  authors and editorsOur authors are among themost cited scientistsDownloadsWe are IntechOpen,the world’s leading publisher ofOpen Access booksBuilt by scientists, for scientists12.2%122,000 135MTOP 1%1544,800International Conference on Applied Life Sciences (ICALS2012)Turkey, September 10-12, 2012111ISALS© 2012 Loghmanpour et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.To Review Climate Change Effects on Basic Resources (A Case Study of These Effects on Zagros Forests)Majid Loghmanpour1, Zhirair Vardanian2, Hadi Kiadaliri3, Mohsen Elahi41 Yerevan State Agrinean University, Armenia and Expert of Forest, Range & Watershed Management Organization 2 Dept. of Yerevan State Agrinean University, Armenia 3 Science & Research Unit of Azad University, Tehran, Iran 4 Tarbiat Modares University of Noor-Mazandarn, IranAbstractHuman civilization was accompanied with the pollution, destruction of natural resources and biodiversity. The era of industrialization begins with emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere. As researchers believe average temperatures of earth has increased over 74 %. Global warming causes droughts, rising of  sea water level , penetrating saline  water into freshwater resources, melting of  polar ice, increasing of   desertification  trend  and tropical diseases  outbreak. Loss of biodiversity, reduction in forest production, changing of the border of farmlands and forests on high-latitude and wasting of semi-persistent of forest species are other consequences of the global warming. The effects of this phenomenon can be clearly seen in Zagros   forests.  According to studies done,Zagros  region  warming has lead  to  prolonged droughts period in the  region.  Besides, dusty storms and their sediments on the leaves can result in trees’ tension and therefore their physiologic weakness which at least cause trees being attacked by wood eater beetles. Using superseded energies such as sun , wind and water , protec-tion of forests and forest plantation with species having high potential of carbon sequestration as well as standardizing the transportation vehicles for economizing energy are some effective strategies recommended for reducing the global warming effects. Keywords: Global warming, carbon dioxide, biodiversity loss, deforestation1. IntroductionThe reduction of forest areas and their converting to deserts were the obvious impacts of human long settlement on the earth. This reduction was accelerated when men were living together and began to exploit the resources around him more and more. Nowadays, since this exploita-tion exceeds self- recovery of nature over the time, thus we witness more unbalanced situation than before.  (Shamekhi, 2009). Continued environmental degradation resulted in more pollution and biodiversity loss On the other hand; public awareness leads to a movement for changing 112the current critical situation of natural resources and the issue of legislation and policy making to achieve more applied management regarding natural resources. Stockholm conference con-vened in June 5th1972 in Stockholm- the capital of Sweden – and attended by 1400 representatives from 113 countries offered new initiatives for protection of the environment. (Shamekhi, 2009). Twenty years later on June 5th 1992 and in Stockholm conference anniversary, a conference titled Environment and United Nations Development   convened in Rio-de-Janeiro –Brasilia which addressed again the issue of environment protection. Simultaneously and immediately after the Rio Conference several international Conventions including the Convention of Climate Change were ratified. The convention was signed by majority of member countries participating in the conference, including Iran (Shamekhi 2009).2. Methods and ProceduresThe effects of climate change have been reviewed in this article, using library and documentary studies as well as descriptive method.  Excel software was used for analyzing the statistics and preparing diagrams.  For obtaining metrological dates in this research, height from sea level and meteorological data of all stations of western provinces were studied at first and then the station which its height was near the mean height of all stations and had most meteorological data was selected and analyzed.2.1. Forest ecosystems and their impacts on global warming: Warming will cause forests of northern hemisphere move ahead to north pole  which this phenom-enon will cause people resort to farming of  premature species and breed their animals in lands which were forests before , so changing of  border of agriculture and forest affects the conservation policies because of undesirable conditions of land. It is obviously that desirable situations of high latitudes can’t neutralize the effects of malfunction of middle latitudes.(Koochaki, Sharifi , Zand Year Burned forests(ha) The number of forest fires1985 2233 751986 8426 791987 5407 101988 611 731989 407 1161990 1133 161991 288 1461992 3923 1001993 33379 1921994 6119 1431995 1977 722Table 1. Sever forest fires of IRANInternational Conference on Applied Life Sciences (ICALS2012)Turkey, September 10-12, 2012113ISALS1998). The effects of global warming in lower  latitudes in which temperature changes is less than the higher one , these effects occur in the form of the amount of humidity and its distribution. Changing of the place of natural growth of resistant forest species and loss of semi-resistant spe-cies are other impacts of global warming on forest ecosystems which result in abnormal growth of forest plants and reduction of production of primary and secondary forest products. Sea level rising will also result in degradation of mangrove.( Nezhat, Erfanifard 2009) . Meanwhile increas-ing of land temperature will lead early spring in the region and untimed melting of ices as well as drying of forest regions. Dried forest regions also increases contingency of forest fires. As it has been showed in table No. 1, the incidence of forest fires has been increased in Iran in 1985-1995. 2.2. Warming and increasing trend of desertification:Another important and devastating effect of global warming is increasing of the desertification process. Although  it  is difficult to specify the accurate contribution of climate change in deserti-fication , but undoubtedly its role in   intensifying  severity of desertification which taken place through  deduction  of vegetation cover and agricultural productions as well as soil degradation and  underground waters falling makes difficult the accessibility of sustainable development. (Akbari, Nasseri and AshgarTousi, 2009).3. A noticeable example of the effects of warming in Iran Increasing of the temperature in late winter and early spring in Saudi Arabia Peninsula caused to increasing of the temperature of the air near the soil surface. This situation will result in tur-bulence and wind blowing in lower layer of atmosphere and therefore dust entrance in to it( Abbassi ,RafieiEmam and Roohipour 2008).  Satellite images of Middle East reveal that Rub’Al Khali  the  vast sandy desert of the world  is the origin of  this phenomenon. Most violent sand-storms which originated from this desert pass the Persian Gulf and smash west provinces of the country. The risen dust covers the leaves  of quarks sp. and its combination with humidity arisen from transpiration of the foliages makes them as a firm material  which stick hardly to the surface of the leaves in such a way that even wind can’t remove them. Besides the sand storm phenom-enon ,rainfall reduction  and  droughts, conscious and unconscious man made degradation such as subsoil plough aiming at  dry farming  which cuts the  roots and forfeit the existent  insuffi-cient moisture of the region as well as animal grazing which prevents oaks’ regeneration are the main factors of the weakness of Zagros Forests. At present, Zagros Forests with 5500 antiquity and 5 million hectares area as the main source of the water of the country have been threatened by Wood Eater Beetles species ( Azizkhani 2010). This is because drought tension results in the increasing of   amino acid density of the plant and therefore   pests uprising. As a general, water tensions have stunts the growth of the plant and therefore they are very sensitive to pests upris-ing. Moreover,   the surface temperature of the plants under water tension usually is 2 ◦c to 4◦ c more than other plants and this itself leads to increasing of growth speed of the insects (Koochaki , Sharifi and Zand 1998). As mentioned before, flooding, water shortages, dusty storms, aging and persistency, lack of revitalization ,incomplete age pyramid are the elements of incidence of pests uprising and its intensification there to. (Azizkhani, 2010). In which, of course, climate change is the first chain of all mentioned factors of a cycle that man is the main reason himself.114Province Temperature ˚C Forests areasMean temp.till 80 decadeMean temp. in 80 decadeForest areas be-fore 70 decadeForest areas in 70 decadeLorestan 16/8 17/18 880000 585537Kohkilooyeh & Boyerahmad15/12 15/56 992000 427044Table 2. The increasing of mean temperature and reduction of forests areas in two western provinces of the country4. Conclusion • Today global warming is a world issues which its effects and a consequence affects all living creatures on the earth. • The   area of the world ‘ forests is estimated to be  about 9 / 3 billion  hectares of which over 94 million hectares have been degraded during 10 years , 90%  of this destruction  in tropical regions.Forests degradation in Iran had also similar situation.• According to studies increasing of temperature in Lorestan and Kohkilooyeh and Boy-erahmad provinces has caused the reduction in forest areas.•  As it has been shown in table No. 2   the incidence of forest fires have been also increased abnormally in the country like other regions of the world in recent years. 5. Some strategies for declining global warming:1. Minimizing the fossil fuels usage and replacing of other energies such as  solar energy, hydrogen, waves, wind and nuclear energy;2. Forest plantation and preventing the degradation of remaining forests;3. To put more taxes on fossil fuels;4. To use public transportation, standardizing the vehicles for saving energy;5. To use utensils with more efficient energy consumption;6. To absorb carbon dioxide in power stations for producing energy  which is an effective method for decreasing global warming  if  buried correctly  and don't add pollution in to the environment.6. References[1] A. Partovi. Iran’s role in global warming . Jame Jam   newspaper report,2010.[2] Gh.AbdiNejad .T0 review the effective factors on desertification and drought .JangalvaMarta’  a quarterly published newsletter.2008, 78 : 8-10.International Conference on Applied Life Sciences (ICALS2012)Turkey, September 10-12, 2012115ISALS[3] H. Ahmadi  , Surveying the effective factors on desertification. JangalvaMarta’  a quarterly published newsletter. 2004 , 62 : 66 -70.[4] H.R.Abbasi , A.RafieiEmam , and H. Roohipour .Analyzing the origin of dusts in Boushehr and Khozistan  provinces using satellite images . JangalvaMarta’  a quarterly published newsletter. 2008,78: 48-51.[5] Akbari , and  M.Naseri Ashgar Tousi  . To review the effects of climate change on desertification.JangalvaMarta’  a quarterly published newsletter. 2009, 83 : 48 – 52.[6] M.R.Ardakani .Ecology, Tehran University Press, 2004.[7] M. R,Arefipour .To review the reasons of  drought of oaks forests of Zagros. Research Institute of Forest and Range. 2009.[8] N.Rahimi.Climate Change and its Environmental Effects .Akhavan Press  center, 2004.[9] T.Shamekhi .Rules and Regulations and  Management of Natural Resources (Forests and Ranges). Tehran University Press, 2008.[10] T. Shamekh.Natural Resources  Policies . Dr. Javanshir Education Center of Natural resources, Karaj, Iran, 2008.

To Review Climate Change Effects on Basic Resources (A Case Study of these Effects on Zagros Forests)

https://www.intechopen.com/citation-pdf-url/39880

To Review Climate Change Effects on Basic Resources (A Case Study of these Effects on Zagros Forests)

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

IntechOpen