SCIENCE@home

Deforestation, forestation, and water supply

Mingfang Zhang,Xiaohua Wei

Published 2021 in Science

ABSTRACT

A systematic approach helps to illuminate the complex forest-water nexus Forests as natural reservoirs and filters can store, release, and purify water through their interactions with hydrological processes. For humans, a clean, stable, and predictable water supply is one of the most valuable ecosystem services provided by forests. Yet, globally, forests have undergone many changes driven by human activities (logging, reforestation, afforestation, agriculture, and urbanization) and natural disturbances (wildfires and insect infestations). From 2010 to 2015, tropical forests declined by 5.5 million ha year−1, whereas temperate forests expanded by 2.2 million ha year−1 (1). The effects of both deforestation and forestation (reforestation and afforestation) on water supply have generated serious concerns and debates (2, 3), particularly after recent catastrophic fires in Australia and the western United States. However, hydrological consequences of forest changes are never simple, and future research and watershed management require a systematic approach that considers key contributing factors and a broad spectrum of response variables related to hydrological services.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-14 of 14 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY

Showing 1-100 of 134 citing papers · Page 1 of 2

12
Next