Carbon mitigation in the peri urban forest of Xanthi, Greece: a GIS mapping application
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(2020) 5:35
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Carbon mitigation in the peri urban forest of Xanthi, Greece: a GIS mapping application F. Doukalianou1 · K. Kitikidou2 · K. Radoglou2 · E. Milios2 · M. Orfanoudakis2 · A. Lagomarsino3 Received: 16 November 2019 / Accepted: 26 May 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract The global average surface temperature is determined by the energy balance of the Earth, which is affected by, among other factors, gases that can absorb or reflect either solar radiation or the radiation from the Earth’s surface. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere absorb radiation emitted from the Earth’s surface and re-emit that radiation back towards the surface, increasing the Earth’s surface temperature. In this work, the medium-term effects of three forest thinning interventions on GHG emissions from forest soil and on litterfall biomass were studied. The studied area was a peri-urban forest in Greece. Two years after the thinning interventions, the thinning was found to have significantly affected the CO2 flux from the soil, although the impact of the thinning was weak. Litterfall was also significantly decreased two years after the thinning interventions. Litterfall was reduced at all thinned sites, with the greatest reduction observed at the most intensely thinned sites. Generating carbon pool maps in a GIS environment allowed the GHG distribution and litterfall biomass to be easily visualized. Such mapping may prove useful to local policy makers when they are planning appropriate sustainable actions aimed at climate-change mitigation. Keywords Climate change mitigation · Conifer forest · Geographic information system (GIS) · Greenhouse gases (GHGs)
Introduction The average temperature of the Earth’s surface is rising due to the greenhouse effect, which is caused by so-called greenhouse gases (GHGs) that absorb radiation emitted from the Earth’s surface and then re-emit the radiation back towards the surface, increasing the surface temperature (Thomas et al. 2016). CO2, CH4, and N 2O are the three most important GHGs released into the atmosphere; together they contribute about 80% of all GHG emissions (Ciais et al. 2014).
Communicated by Konstantinos Moustakas, Guest Editor. * K. Kitikidou [email protected] 1
Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace, Xanthi Forest Service, Xanthi, Greece
2
Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH), Xanthi, Greece
3
Council for Agriculture Research and Economics (CREA), Rome, Italy
Anthropogenic GHG emissions have increased rapidly since the Industrial Revolution due to the increasing use of fossil fuels as sources of energy as well as changes in land use (McKinley et al. 2011; Ciais et al. 2014). The increase in anthropogenic (and therefore total) GHG emissions has led to a rise in the global mean temperature, which has contributed significantly to climate change (Nieder and Benbi 2008). Each year, forests absorb about 30% of the CO2 gen
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