Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity Group, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 114, Building 1540, Aarhus 8000 C, Denmark.
Nat Commun. 2013;4:2474. doi: 10.1038/ncomms3474.
The Anthropocene is a geological epoch marked by major human influences on processes in the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere. One of the most dramatic features of the Anthropocene is the massive alteration of the Earth's vegetation, including forests. Here we investigate the role of topography in shaping human impacts on tree cover from local to global scales. We show that human impacts have resulted in a global tendency for tree cover to be constrained to sloped terrain and losses to be concentrated on flat terrain. This effect increases in strength with increasing human pressure and is most pronounced in countries with rapidly growing economies, limited human population stress and highly effective governments. These patterns likely reflect the relative inaccessibility of sloped topography and have important implications for conservation and modelling of future tree cover.
人类世是一个地质时代，其特点是人类对大气、生物圈、水圈和岩石圈的过程产生了重大影响。人类世最显著的特征之一是地球植被，包括森林，发生了大规模的改变。在这里，我们研究了地形在塑造人类对树木覆盖的影响方面所起的作用，这种影响从局部到全球范围都有体现。我们发现，人类的影响导致了树木覆盖范围在全球范围内局限于倾斜地形，而损失则集中在平坦地形上。这种影响随着人类压力的增加而增强，在经济增长迅速、人口压力有限和政府效率高的国家最为明显。这些模式可能反映了倾斜地形的相对难以接近性，对未来树木覆盖的保护和建模具有重要意义。
