Effects of long-term experimental night-time warming and drought on photosynthesis, <Emphasis Type="Italic">F</Emphasis>v/<Emphasis Type="Italic">F</Emphasis>m and stomatal conductance in the dominant species of a Mediterranean shrubland

We conducted a night-time warming and drought field experiment for 7 years (1999–2005) in a Mediterranean shrubland. We focused on the two dominant shrub species, Erica multiflora L. and Globularia alypum L. and the tree Pinus halepensis L. and the final years to study the effects of the experimental night-time warming and drought on Fv/Fm, photosynthesis, and stomatal conductance. Warming treatment increased mean air temperature and mean soil temperature through the years by an average of 0.7 and 0.9°C respectively, and drought treatment reduced soil moisture through the years by an average of 19%. Warming tended to increase photosynthetic rates in E. multiflora, G. alypum and P. halepensis mostly in the cold seasons, when plants were more limited by temperature, as shown by the lowest values of Fv/Fm being detected in winter in the three studied species. A negative effect of warming was only detected for E. multiflora in summer 2003. Drought treatment generated different responses of net photosynthetic rates depending on the species, season and year. Stomatal conductance showed the same pattern as photosynthesis for the three studied species, displaying seasonal and inter-annual variability, although with an overall negative effect of drought for P. halepensis. Photosynthetic rates decreased significantly in the dry winter 2005 and spring 2005 in comparison to the same seasons of 2003 and 2004. There were positive correlations between the photosynthetic rates in different seasons for E. multiflora, G. alypum and P. halepensis and the soil moisture of the week prior to measurements. The great variation in the photosynthetic rates was thus explained in a significant part by soil moisture levels. The lowest Fv/Fm values usually corresponded with lowest stomatal conductances suggesting that drought stress could be associated to stress by low temperatures in winter.     

Postlogging Succession and Habitat Usage of Shrubland Birds

ABSTRACT In the first decades after logging, the vegetation structure of harvested areas changes rapidly due to succession. For shrubland birds, many of which specialize on regeneration of specific ages, the changing vegetation structure makes determining how much habitat is available for individual species difficult. We conducted a meta-analysis to determine how populations of shrubland birds in the eastern United States and Canada respond to succession in the first 20 years after timber harvest. Based on those results, we used the area under the abundance-time regression curves to estimate the proportion of regenerating forest actually used by each bird species. Of the 28 species for which we had sufficient data, 14 showed significant changes in abundance over time. For 6 species, abundance was highest immediately after logging and decreased thereafter. Abundances of 7 other species were initially low, peaked roughly 10 years after harvest, and declined thereafter. Based on these results, shrubland birds would be expected to occupy a mean of just 53% (SD = 17%) of regenerating forests up to 20 years old. Thus, current estimates of habitat availability for shrubland birds may be too high by a factor of 2. Our findings also suggest that managed openings should be maintained on longer rotations than are currently used, providing habitat for birds that prefer older regeneration.     

Distribution of biomass in relation to environments in shrublands of temperate China

Aims Shrubland is one of the most widely distributed vegetation types in northern China. Previous studies on pattern and dynamics of plant biomass have been focused on forest and grassland ecosystems, while relevant knowledge on shrubland ecosystems is lacking. It is important to include shrublands in northern China to improve the accuracy in estimating the terrestrial ecosystem biomass in China.
Methods Based on investigations and samplings from 433 shrubland sites, we explored the distribution and allocation patterns of biomass in relation to climatic and soil nutrient factors of shrublands of temperate China.
Important findings The average shrubland biomass density in northern China is 12.5 t·hm^-2. It decreases significantly from temperate deciduous shrubland in northeast to desert shrubland in northwest. The average biomass density of temperate deciduous shrubland, alpine shrubland, and desert shrubland is 14.4, 28.8, and 5.0 t·hm^-2, respectively. Within temperate deciduous shrublands, plant biomass is lower in North China than in Northeast China. The average aboveground and belowground biomass density of shrub layer is 4.5 and 5.4 t·hm^-2, respectively; while that of grass layer is 0.8 and 1.8 t·hm^-2, respectively. Environmental factors affect biomass allocation across different plant organs. The belowground-aboveground biomass ratio of shrub exhibits no significant changes with environmental variables. The leaf-stem ratio increases with annual precipitation, and leaf biomass is low in arid region.     

Species reordering,not changes in richness,drives long‐term dynamics in grassland communities

Determining how ecological communities will respond to global environmental change remains a challenging research problem. Recent meta‐analyses concluded that most communities are undergoing compositional change despite no net change in local species richness. We explored how species richness and composition of co‐occurring plant, grasshopper, breeding bird and small mammal communities in arid and mesic grasslands changed in response to increasing aridity and fire frequency. In the arid system, grassland and shrubland plant and breeding bird communities were undergoing directional change, whereas grasshopper and small mammal communities were stable. In the mesic system, all communities were undergoing directional change regardless of fire frequency. Despite directional change in composition in some communities, species richness of all communities did not change because compositional change resulted more from reordering of species abundances than turnover in species composition. Thus, species reordering, not changes in richness, explains long‐term dynamics in these grass and shrub dominated communities.     

洞庭湖流域中上游地区景观格局变化及其驱动力

基于GIS、RS技术,对1980—2000年洞庭湖流域中上游地区景观格局的时空变化特征进行了研究,并分析了该区景观演变的驱动因素.结果表明：1980—2000年,研究区不同景观类型间的面积变化差异较大,其中,面积变化显著的景观类型从大到小依次为有林地、山地水田和疏林地;景观面积的变化主要发生在山地区和丘陵区,且由东往西呈减少趋势,即湘水流域的景观面积变化最大,然后依次为资水流域、沅水流域和澧水流域.1980—1995年,各类景观的斑块形状大多呈现简单和规则化趋势,1995年后其复杂程度逐步增加.农村人口对自然生态系统的压力、流域发展对自然资源的依赖程度、为维持自然生态系统功能进行的投入以及农业产业政策调整是研究区景观格局变化的最主要驱动力.     

Error in the inference of fire history from grasstrees

Abstract A method for constructing fire histories has recently been proposed for fire‐prone southern Australia based on the pattern of coloured bands in the remnant leaf‐bases on stems of grasstrees (Xanthorrhoea species; Xanthorrhoeaceae). In the absence of alternative high‐resolution techniques extending into the premodern period, this method has been utilized to construct fire histories for forest, woodland and shrubland ecosystems, principally in south‐western Australia. However, the technique has not been validated against known fire histories spanning more than one fire interval. Here we compare fire records from 100 grasstrees with a 30‐year record (1973–2002) of fire data derived from satellite imagery in a region of sandplain shrubland vegetation near Eneabba in south‐western Australia. Fires occurred in eight of the 30 years of the satellite record, with sampled grasstrees burning between zero and four times. The grasstree and satellite records agreed in terms of the overall incidence of fires experienced over the 30‐year period, with the grasstree record matching the satellite record significantly better than chance. However, comparison of the grasstree and satellite records found substantial error in the rate of both false positives and false negatives. Grasstrees failed to identify fire in 83% of fire occurrences identified by the satellite record, down to 53% if an error of ±2 years in the attribution of year of fire was allowed. A similar proportion of grasstree fire incidents were not matched in the satellite record (false positives). The rate of false positives increased with time before present, suggesting a temporal bias in the grasstree record. It is clear that the grasstree record does reflect fire history to a degree, but that it contains at least as many false as true fire records and may tend towards over‐reporting the incidence of fire in the past.     

Carbon and nitrogen limitations of soil microbial biomass in desert ecosystems

Microbial biomass nitrogen was measured in unamended (dry) and wetted soils in ten shrubland and grassland communities of the Chihuahuan desert, southern New Mexico, by the fumigation-extraction method. Microbial biomass-N in dry soils was undetectable. Average microbial biomass-N in wetted soils among all plant communities was 15.3 μg g^-1 soil. Highest values were found in the communities with the lowest topographic positions, and the minimum values were detected in the spaces between shrubs. Microbial biomass was positively and significantly correlated to soil organic carbon and extractable nitrogen (NH₄ ⁺ + NO₃ ^-). In a stepwise multiple regression, organic carbon and extractable nitrogen accounted for 40.9 and 5.6%, respectively, of the variance in microbial biomass-N among all the samples. Among communities, the soil microbial biomass was affected by the ratio of carbon to extractable nitrogen. Our results suggest a succession in the control of microbial biomass from nitrogen to carbon when the ratio of carbon to nitrogen decreases during desertification.