Juan A. Blanco

Universidad Publica De Navarra Spain

Dr. Blanco is an Associate Professor at the Public University of Navarre. His work is focused on the development and evaluation of ecological models to simulate the influences of management, climate and other ecological factors on tree growth. He is currently collaborating with research teams from Canada, Taiwan, USA, Spain, Cuba, and China in using ecological models to explore the effects of climate change, atmospheric pollution and alternative forest practices in natural and planted forest in boreal, temperate and tropical forests. His research has been applied in mining to optimize reclamation plans, in forestry to assess the potential for carbon sequestration and by government agencies to define local guidelines for long-term sustainable forest management. Among other topics related to forest ecology, Dr. Blanco has studied the influence of climate variations on tree growth and estimated the possible ecological consequences of climate change in forest ecosystems. He has also co-authored the first book dedicated exclusively to the use of hybrid ecological models in forest management, entitled 'Forecasting Forest Futures” (Earthscan, London), edited three books on Climate Change effects, mitigation and adaptation (InTech, Rijeka), and three more on Forest Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Tropical Forests (InTech, Rijeka).

Juan A. Blanco

5books edited

5chapters authored

Latest work with IntechOpen by Juan A. Blanco

Large regions of the planet have been transformed from their natural composition into different human-made landscapes (farmlands, forest plantations, pastures, etc.). Such process, called land use change, is one of the major components of the current global change, which has brought the planet into a new geological era: the Anthropocene. Land use change is particularly important in tropical forests, as this ecosystem type is still heavily affected by deforestation for timber extraction, agricultural land creation of urban expansion. Changing land use has important implications for the services that tropical forests provide: production of goods such as timber, food or water; regulation of process such as nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, local weather or climate extremes; generating the framework for economic and cultural activity, etc. Therefore, keeping ecosystem services when changing the use of the tropical lands is a major challenge in tropical regions. This brief book, by showcasing different research work done in tropical countries, provides a first introduction on this topic, discussing issues such as biodiversity loss, changes in local weather or nutrient cycling patterns, and economic activities around tropical forests, and tools to detect and quantify the importance of land use change.

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