Geographia Polonica (1999) vol. 72, iss. 2

Does plant cover structure in rural areas modify climate change effects?

Andrzej Kędziora, Lech Ryszkowski

Geographia Polonica (1999) vol. 72, iss. 2, pp. 65-88 | Full text

Abstract

Estimates were made of the effects on sensible and latent heat fluxes of a change in real land-use patterns to simulated simplified and mosaic agricultural landscapes. Climate change in Poland due to the enhanced greenhouse effect was assumed after Jager (1988). Land-use changes have stronger impacts on the transport of energy into the atmosphere by convection and évapotranspiration than climate change to 2050 or 2075. These results were assessed by analyses carried out at than landscape level as well as at the scale of the predicted region and the whole of Poland. The effects of global climate change can be mitigated to some extent by manipulation of the land-use pattern.

Keywords: agricultural landscape, land-use, plant cover, heat fluxes, évapotranspiration

Andrzej Kędziora, Agricultural University of Poznań Research Centre for the Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences, Bukowska 19, 60-809 Poznań, Poland
Lech Ryszkowski, Agricultural University of Poznań Research Centre for the Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences, Bukowska 19, 60-809 Poznań, Poland