Postdoc Qi Zhang Co-Authors Two New Papers on Forest Ecosystems in India

Qi Zhang, a post-doctoral associate at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, recently co-authored two papers on mangrove conservation and on the impacts of forest fires on ecosystem productivity in India.

In the first paper, published in the journal Integrated Environment Assessment and Management, the authors identified conservation priority zones (CPZs) in the Indian Sundarbans region by estimating values for ecosystem services and ecosystem health. They found that the highest ecosystem service value (in economic terms) is provided by dense mangrove forests, and the estimated CPZs were highly consistent with existing biodiversity zones. Their findings could be a reference for decision-makers designing policies to protect the region’s ecosystem.

In the second paper, published in the journal Science of The Total Environment, the authors used remote sensing approaches to examine the impacts of forest fires on terrestrial ecosystem productivity across India. Their findings suggested that there is substantial loss in net primary productivity (NPP) in regions with very high forest fire intensity, particularly the eastern Himalayan hilly region where dense forests are highly susceptible to fires. Their approach has the potential to more accurately quantify ecosystem productivity loss due to forest fires.

Read more about Zhang’s Pardee Center research on human-environment interactions and land-use dynamics here.