Modeling loss of water resources after cutting out trees in the Hyrcanian forest of Iran

Document Type : Research article

Author

Ph.D. Forestry, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The crisis of water shortage and the impact of El Nino in the past few years, are the most important issues that should be considered. The aim of this study was to introduce optimal models for monitoring water reserves in the trees with respect to water cycle in Glandrood mixed-beech forests, Noor. Therefore, after sampling of disks for 2- 5 meters of trunk length of 174 individuals, wood samples with fixed dimensions were oven-dried. After weighing each tree trunk in the field and difference between the wet mass and dry biomass considering the ratio of drought index, the whole water reserves were measured. To develop the models for predicting response variable, simple, multiple linear and nonlinear regression analysis were used. The results showed that simple and linear models had no considerable accuracy to predict the response variable. In contrast, power function, exponential and curve-models predicted the response variable with the high accuracy. Power function was the best model and that was developed to predict the water reserve value with the highest accuracy. Using this equation provides possibility for predicting the loss of water resource related to water cycle after cutting out the tress from the studied forests.

Keywords


- Aboal, R.J., Arevalo, R.J. and Fernandez, A., 2005. Allometric relationships of different tree species and stand above ground biomass in the Gomeralaurel forest (Canary Islands). Flora, 200: 264-274.
- Alvarez, E., Duque, A., Saldarriaga, J., Cabrera, K., Salas, G.D.L., Valle, L.D., Lema, A., Moreno, F., Orrego, S. and Rodriguez, L., 2012. Tree above-ground biomass allometries for carbon stocks estimation in the natural forests of Colombia. Forest Ecology and Management, 267: 297-308.
- Anonymous, 2004. Improvement and silviculture of beech. Proceedings of the 7th International Beech Symposium. Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Tehran, 186p.
- Anonymous, 2008. Glandrood forest management project, District no: 3, Noor, Mazandaran (second renewal view). General Office of Natural Resources and Watershed Management of Mazandaran Province, Nowshahr, 174p (In Persian).
- Basuki, T.M., van Laake, P.E., Skidmore, A.K. and Hussin, Y.A., 2009. Allometric equations for estimating the above-ground biomass in tropical lowland Dipterocarp forests. Forest Ecology and Management, 257: 1684-1694.
- Bates, D.M. and Watts, D.G., 1988. Nonlinear Regression Analysis and its Applications. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 90p.
- Bihamta, M.R. and Chahouki, M.A., 2011. Principle of Statistic for the Natural Resources Science. University of Tehran Press, Tehran, 300p (In Persian).
- Birot, B., Garcia, C. and Palahi, M., 2011. Water for forests and people in in the Mediterranean region- A challenging balance. European Forest Institute, 174p.
- Bonan, G.B., Levis, S., Sitch, S., Vertenstein, M. and Oleson, K.W., 2003. A dynamic global vegetation model for use with climate models concepts and description of simulated vegetation dynamics. Global Change Biology, 9: 1543-1566.
- Burnham, K.P. and Anderson, D.R., 2002. Model Selection and Multimodel Inference: A Practical Information-theoretic Approach. Springer-Verlag, New York, 488p.
- Caparros, A. and Jacquemont, F., 2003. Conflicts between biodiversity and carbon sequestration programs: economic and legal implications. Ecological Economics, 46(1): 143-157.
- Chave, J., Andalo, V., Brown, S., Cairns, M.A., Chambers, J.Q., Eamus, D., Folster, H., Fromard, F., Higuchi, N., Kira, T., Lescure, J.P., Nelson, B.W., Ogawa, H., Puig, H., Riera, B. and Yamakura, T., 2005. Tree allometry and improved estimation of carbon stocks and balance in tropical forests. Oecologia, 145: 87-99.
- Djomo, A.N., Adamou, I., Joachim, S. and Gode, G., 2010. Allometric equations for biomass estimations in Cameroon and pan moist tropical equations including biomass data from Africa. Forest Ecology and Management, 260: 1873-1885.
- Dufrene, E., Davi, H., Francois, C., Maire, G.L., Dantec, V.L. and Granier, A., 2005. Modeling carbon and water cycles in a beech forest Part I: Model description and uncertainty analysis on modelled NEE. Ecological Modelling, 185: 407-436.
- Gerten, D., Schaphoff, S., Haberlandt, U., Lucht, W. and Sitch, S., 2004. Terrestrial vegetation and water balance-hydrological evaluation of a dynamic global vegetation model. Journal of Hydrology, 286: 249- 270.
- Henry, M., Besnard, A., Asante, W.A., Eshun, J., AduBredu, S., Valentini, R., Bernoux, M. and SaintAndré, L., 2010. Wood density, phytomass variations within and among trees, and allometric equations in a tropical rainforest of Africa. Forest Ecology and Management, 260: 1375-1388.
- Holtum, J.A.M. and Winter, K., 2010. Elevated [CO2] and forest vegetation: more a water issue than a carbon issue? Functional Plant Biology, 37: 694-702.
- Ju, W., Chen, J.M., Black, T.A., Barr, A.G., Maccaughey, H. and Roulet, N.T., 2006. Hydrological effects on carbon cycles of Canada’s forests and wetlands. Tellus, 58: 16-30.
- Ketterings, Q.M., Coe, R., Noordwijk, M.V., Ambagau, Y. and Palm, C.A., 2001. Reducing uncertainty in the use of allometric biomass equations for predicting above-ground tree biomass in mixed secondary forests. Forest Ecology and Management, 146: 199-209.
- Kljun, N., Black, T.A., Griffis, T.J., Barr, A.G., Gaumont-Guay, D., Morgenstern, K., McCaughey, J.H. and Nesic, Z., 2004. Net carbon exchange of three boreal forests during a drought. Proceedings of the 26th Conference on Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. Vancouver, Canada, 23-27 Aug. 2004: 4p.
- Linares, J.C. and Camarero, J.J., 2012. From pattern to process: linking intrinsic water-use efficiency to drought-induced forest decline. Global Change Biology, 18: 1000-1015.
- Marvie Mohajer, M.R., 2005. Silviculture. University of Tehran Press, Tehran, 378p (In Persian).
- Pardoe, I., 2006. Applied Regression Modeling. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., USA, 312p.
- Parsapajuh, D., 2012. Wood Technology. University of Tehran Press, Tehran, 420p (In Persian).
- Tei, S., Sugimoto, A., Yonenobu, H., Ohta, T. and Maximov, T.C., 2014. Growth and physiological responses of larch trees to climate changes deduced from tree-ring widths and C at two forest sites in eastern Siberia. Polar Science, 8: 183-195.
- Thompson, D.W., 1992. On Growth and Form. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1116p.
- Vahedi, A.A., 2014. Optimal allometric biomass equations for Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus L.) boles within the Hyrcanian forests. Iranian Journal of Forest and Poplar Research, 2: 225-236 (In Persian).
- Zhu, B., Wang, X., Fang, W., Piao, S., Shen, H., Zhao, S. and Peng, C., 2010. Altitudinal changes in carbon storage of temperate forests on Mt Changbai, northeast China. Journal of Plant Research, 123: 439-452.