THE RISK OF
CLIMATE CHANGES ON ROMANIAN FORESTS
UNDER THE IMPACT OF RAINFALLS
OCTAVIA BOGDAN, MARIA COȘCONEA
Abstract. - The risk of climate changes on romanian forests under the impact of rainfalls. The risk of climate change on forests in Romania under the impact of precipitation. This paper is a continuation of studies published in the previous magazine Risks and Disasters, editor V. Sorocovschi, which treated the risk of climate change on forests induced by air temperature in Romania. This time, using the same methodology (Bogdan, Coconea, 2013) demonstrated that rainfall-induced climate changes, due to global warming, exert a risk to vegetation in general and forests in particular, but of a regional nature (tablel 1) . This is due to a complex of geographical factors (position, orographic barrier role, topoclimatic discontinuity alternating positive and negative forms of relief etc.) and meteorological factors (enhancing or reducing atmospheric air circulation). The decennial analysis by floors of vegetation during 1961-2010 (table 3a-3h) indicates that under conditions of increasing air temperature are likely to take place, both a decrease in precipitations (as in decades 3-4), as well as an increase, like in the last decade, 2001-2010, which was at the hottest. The cause lies in the intensification of heat stroke, the evaporation, thermal convection (especially in the hottest months of the year), which increases cloudiness and precipitation implicitly. The feedback reaction of forest ecosystems to climate change leads to the following conclusions: under the conditions of decreasing rainfall, the water storage in the soil lowers, the soil dryness increase eakens trees and increases resistance to wind-blown trees phenomenon, so that the forest loses its climate equilibrium role under increased rainfall, frequency of rain showers accompanied by hail and storms, there are foliaceous system destruction, intense erosion processes (leading to CO2 release from soil to the atmosphere) and thunderstorms (which will generate increased forest fires and pollution), whereas global warming is more intense below 500m altitude, where pollution is higher, a surplus of water is assumed, but also with regional character. Expansion of forested areas under the National Strategy for Sustainable Development will create conditions for the climate system to be able to regenerate naturally.
Key words: climate changes, atmospheric precipitations, forest ecosystems, Carpathians, Romania, feed-back reaction