Postdoctoral Project 2
PROJECT TITLE
The impact of recent climate change on the ecological productivity of forests in Romania
PROJECT ACRONYM
CLIMFOREST
PROJECT CODE
PN-III-P1-1.1-PD-2019-0064
FUNDING SOURCE
The Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding
RESEARCH PROJECT DESCRIPTION (ABSTRACT)
Forests are among the world’s most important terrestrial ecological systems, considering the wide range of ecosystem functions, goods and services they provide for the environment and humanity. However, these ecological attributes of forests have been intensely disrupted in numerous regions worldwide under the pressure of climate change and anthropogenic activities. Climate change has become an increasingly apparent threat to these ecosystems, also in Romania, considering the recent changes in climatic conditions recorded in our country, which were confirmed by many specialized studies. Given the lack of interdisciplinary research in this respect, this study aims to conduct the first-ever analysis of the potential effects of climate change on forest productivity countrywide. The approach, based on the analysis of complex geospatial data, aims to test the hypothesis of climate change impact on forest productivity, an ecological feature that is essential to maintaining the forests’ health and ecosystem services. Therefore, the project will use various national data, classified as climatic (values of temperature, precipitation, evapotranspiration etc.) and satellite (Landsat images, from which representative ecometric data will be extracted for forest vegetation density, biomass and net primary productivity) data. The two categories of necessary data will be purchased for the 1987–2016 period and will be processed using complex geostatistical techniques (trends, linear regressions, bootstrapping etc.), which were selected so as to capture climate and ecological changes in Romania, as well as statistical causality relationships between climate and forest productivity over the past three decades. The results of this study will be useful primarily for the various governmental strategies focusing on protecting these terrestrial ecosystems, fighting climate change or mitigating the effects of climate change in Romania.
THE PROJECT’S OBJECTIVES
• Acquisition of interannual climatic and satellite data in Romania for the 1987–2016 period, necessary to test the hypothesis of the recent climate change impact on forest productivity countrywide;
• Geostatistical processing of trends in forest vegetation density in Romania, in relation to the trends of the main climatic parameters over the past three decades;
• Geostatistical processing of trends in forest biomass in Romania, in relation to the trends of the main climatic parameters over the past three decades;
• Geostatistical processing of trends in net primary productivity of forests in Romania, in relation to the trends of the main climatic parameters over the past three decades;
• Raising awareness on the necessity of interdisciplinary scientific investigations of this important ecoclimatic issue in Romania’s scientific/political spheres by disseminating the study’s results.
PROJECT MANAGER AND HOST INSTITUTION
Name and surname: Prăvălie Remus
E-mail address: pravalie_remus@yahoo.com
Institution name: University of Bucharest
Institution address: Sos. Panduri, 90–92, 050663, 5th District, Bucharest, Romania
PROJECT MENTOR
Prof. Dr. Bandoc Georgeta
SCIENTIFIC DELIVRABLES (2020-2022)
Articles directly related to the project theme:
- Prăvălie R., Sîrodoev I., Nita I.A., Patriche C., Dumitrașcu M., Roșca B., Tişcovschi A., Bandoc G., Săvulescu I., Mănoiu V., Birsan M.V., 2022. NDVI-based ecological dynamics of forest vegetation and its relationship to climate change in Romania during 1987–2018. Ecological Indicators (in press), Impact Factor 5, Relative Influence Score 1.7, Article Influence Score 1.
Articles indirectly related to the project theme:
- Prăvălie R., 2021. Exploring the multiple land degradation pathways across the planet. Earth Science Reviews 220, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2021.103689, Impact factor 12.4, Relative Influence Score 5.1, Article Influence Score 3.8;
- Prăvălie R., Nita I.A., Patriche C., Niculiță M., Birsan M.V., Roșca B., Bandoc G., 2021. Global changes in soil organic carbon and implications for land degradation neutrality and climate stability. Environmental Research 201, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.111580, Impact factor 6.5, Relative Influence Score 2.1, Article Influence Score 1.3.
International conferences directly or indirectly related to the project theme:
- Prăvălie R., 2020. Forest perturbations across the planet. A major pathway of global land degradation. International Conference “Dimitrie Cantemir”, 40th Edition, October 24, Iași, Romania;
- Prăvălie R., Bandoc G., 2020. Spatio-temporal trends in land susceptibility to degradation in Romania due to climate change, vegetation degradation and anthropogenic pressures. International Conference “Present Environment and Sustainable Development”, 15th Edition, November 21, Iaşi, Romania;
- Prăvălie R., Bandoc G., 2021. Analysis of forest ecological changes in Romania based on detecting recent trends in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. “9th Annual International Conference on Ecology, Ecosystems and Climate Change”, 12–15 July, Athens, Greece;
- Prăvălie R., 2021. Recent impact of climate change on forest productivity in Romania. “27th International Conference on “Agriculture, Biological and Environmental Sciences” (MABES-21)”, August 11–13, Barcelona, Spain;
- Prăvălie R., Bandoc G., 2021. Detecting land-atmosphere carbon fluxes at global scale after 2001. The 2nd International Conference “Geographical Sciences and Future of Earth”, November 12, Bucharest, Romania.