Hardwick Stephen R, Toumi Ralf, Pfeifer Marion, Turner Edgar C, Nilus Reuben, Ewers Robert M
Department of Physics, Imperial College London, Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BB, United Kingdom.
Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Buckhurst Road, Ascot SL5 7PY, Berkshire, United Kingdom.
Agric For Meteorol. 2015 Feb 15;201:187-195. doi: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2014.11.010.
Land use change is a major threat to biodiversity. One mechanism by which land use change influences biodiversity and ecological processes is through changes in the local climate. Here, the relationships between leaf area index and five climate variables - air temperature, relative humidity, vapour pressure deficit, specific humidity and soil temperature - are investigated across a range of land use types in Borneo, including primary tropical forest, logged forest and oil palm plantation. Strong correlations with the leaf area index are found for the mean daily maximum air and soil temperatures, the mean daily maximum vapour pressure deficit and the mean daily minimum relative humidity. Air beneath canopies with high leaf area index is cooler and has higher relative humidity during the day. Forest microclimate is also found to be less variable for sites with higher leaf area indices. Primary forest is found to be up to 2.5 °C cooler than logged forest and up to 6.5 °C cooler than oil palm plantations. Our results indicate that leaf area index is a useful parameter for predicting the effects of vegetation upon microclimate, which could be used to make small scale climate predictions based on remotely sensed data.
土地利用变化是生物多样性面临的主要威胁。土地利用变化影响生物多样性和生态过程的一种机制是通过当地气候的变化。在此，我们研究了婆罗洲一系列土地利用类型（包括原始热带森林、采伐森林和油棕种植园）中叶面积指数与五个气候变量——气温、相对湿度、水汽压亏缺、比湿和土壤温度之间的关系。我们发现，日平均最高气温和土壤温度、日平均最大水汽压亏缺以及日平均最低相对湿度与叶面积指数之间存在强相关性。叶面积指数较高的树冠层下方的空气在白天更凉爽，相对湿度也更高。我们还发现，叶面积指数较高的地点森林小气候的变化较小。研究发现，原始森林比采伐森林凉爽多达2.5摄氏度，比油棕种植园凉爽多达6.5摄氏度。我们的结果表明，叶面积指数是预测植被对小气候影响的一个有用参数，可用于基于遥感数据进行小规模气候预测。
