The role of forest vegetation in the mitigation of the ecological imbalances resulting from climate change in the Putna-Vrancea river basin

Abstract

"Climatic changes displayed through extremes (thermic or hydric) correlated with uncontrolled anthropic interventions exercised over time on land usages are the main factors that emphasize ecological and hydric disequilibrium from the South, East part of Romania. Specific of our country, the torrential precipitation regime generates rapid floods in mountain and hill areas. Torrential and land degrading processes occur on slopes and on the main hydrographic network as a result of torrential runoffs. Their consequences extend on a larger area than the one on which they occur. This happens especially as a consequence of perturbing the hydrological regime of water courses, generating floods in downstream areas or the cogging of accumulation lakes in periods with rain redundancies. Forest protection cultures (forest vegetation) installed on degraded or overexploited agricultural lands from the hill and mountain areas represent the most efficient solution for attenuating the negative effects of climatic changes. This happens by steadily re-establishing the hydrological equilibrium, together with creating an ecological equilibrium that has positive effects on the soil and waters. This paper emphasized the results of investigations realized in 2017 concerning the characteristics of forest protection cultures created on strongly and excessively degraded lands, followed by their hydrological and anti-erosion effects in the context of extreme meteorological phenomenon. As such, the runoff coefficient had values lower than 6.5% (from the total volume of precipitations in 24 hours), while the specific erosion was under 0.24 t/ha/an. The maximum charge of alluvium (erosion) produced by rain is of over 40 mm; their frequency and intensity has increased lately.