Small tropical forest trees have a greater capacity to adjust carbon metabolism to long-term drought than large canopy trees

The response of small understory trees to long-term drought is vital in determining the future composition, carbon stocks and dynamics of tropical forests. Long-term drought is, however, also likely to expose understory trees to increased light availability driven by drought-induced mortality. Relatively little is known about the potential for understory trees to adjust their physiology to both decreasing water and increasing light availability. We analysed data on maximum photosynthetic capacity (J_max, V_cmax), leaf respiration (R_leaf), leaf mass per area (LMA), leaf thickness and leaf nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations from 66 small trees across 12 common genera at the world's longest running tropical rainfall exclusion experiment and compared responses to those from 61 surviving canopy trees. Small trees increased J_max, V_cmax, R_leaf and LMA (71, 29, 32, 15% respectively) in response to the drought treatment, but leaf thickness and leaf nutrient concentrations did not change. Small trees were significantly more responsive than large canopy trees to the drought treatment, suggesting greater phenotypic plasticity and resilience to prolonged drought, although differences among taxa were observed. Our results highlight that small tropical trees have greater capacity to respond to ecosystem level changes and have the potential to regenerate resilient forests following future droughts.     

酸雨胁迫下樟树林降水中无机阴离子变化特征

对城市大气降水及城市樟树林穿透水、树干茎流、地表径流中的SO2-4、NO-3、Cl-、NO-2、F-、Br-、PO3-47种水溶性无机阴离子进行了定位测定,Br-、PO3-4未检出;主要的阴离子为SO2-4、NO-3,二者占总阴离子含量比例最大,占到75.6%—89.0%,且在水文学各分量中变异系数均值都很稳定,变动幅度在0.40—0.47;在各分量中SO2-4、NO-3、Cl-、NO-2、F-含量变化较大:大气降水、树干茎流中均为SO2-4NO-3Cl-F-NO-2,穿透水为SO2-4NO-3Cl-NO-2F-,地表径流为NO-3SO2-4Cl-F-NO-2;穿透水SO2-4、NO-3、Cl-、F-、NO-2淋溶系数分别为3.83、2.61、4.18、4.32、16.06,树干茎流SO2-4、NO-3、Cl-、F-、NO-2淋溶系数分别为7.52、3.55、4.29、2.76、3.10,地表径流SO2-4、NO-3、Cl-、F-、NO-2淋溶系数分别为2.60、4.74、5.00、3.01、3.56,表明阴离子在樟树林水文学过程中均表现出不同程度的富集效应;大气降水中PH均值为4.77,SO2-4/NO-3当量比值为1.1,属于硫酸-硝酸混合型酸雨;大气降水SO2-4、NO-3、Cl-、F-与穿透水中SO2-4、NO-3、Cl-、F-对应呈显著性正相关(P0.01),大气降水NO-3与树干茎流NO-3呈显著性正相关(P0.01),地表径流中SO2-4、Cl-与穿透水、树干茎流中SO2-4、Cl-对应呈显著性正相关(P0.01),说明樟树林能够吸附大气中的酸性物,让酸性养分于自身系统内部吸收、迁移、络合,从而起到净化大气的效用;穿透水p H与地表径流NO-3、NO-2呈显著性负相关(P0.01),与地表径流SO2-4呈显著性正相关(P0.05),表明NO-3、NO-2有助于促进地表水的酸化,而SO2-4有利于缓解地表水的酸化;穿透水p H均值5.62,对酸雨起到中和作用,树干茎流p H均值4.61,有被酸化趋势,地表径流p H均值7.19,接近中性。     

黑河天涝池流域典型林分生态水文化学特征

采集了黑河天涝池流域典型林分林外雨、穿透雨、树干径流和枯透水,并检测水体pH值和12种离子(K~+、Ca~(2+)、Na~+、Mg~(2+)、NH_4~+、Cu~(2+)、Zn~(2+)、Pb~(2+)、Cd~(2+)、Cl~-、SO_4~(2-)、NO_3~3)的质量浓度。结果表明:天涝池流域大气降水pH均值为7.74,呈碱性,降水中离子绝对质量浓度较低,最高的是NO_3~-,质量浓度为1.1111 mg/L,最低的为Na~+,质量浓度为0.0108 mg/L;两种林分冠层有降低降雨pH值的作用,青海云杉林冠层对NH_4~+有升高作用,祁连圆柏林冠层对NH_4~+有降低作用,两种林冠层对NO_3~-和Cu~(2+)质量浓度有降低作用,对其它离子质量浓度均表现为升高作用;两种林分树干径流有提高穿透雨pH值的作用,与穿透雨相比,两种林分树干径流中阴离子均有升高,圆柏树干径流中所有阳离子质量浓度均有下降,云杉树干径流中Ca~(2+)、K~+、Mg~(2+)和Na~+减少,NH_4~+和Cu~(2+)增加;典型林分枯透水有提升穿透雨pH值的作用,与穿透雨相比,两种林分枯透水中阴离子质量浓度均有升高,云杉枯透水各阳离子均有降低,圆柏枯透水中Ca~(2+)、K~+和Mg~(2+)质量浓度升高,NH_4~+、Na~+和Cu~(2+)质量浓度下降;在采集的所有样本中,Pb~(2+)和Cd~(2+)均未检出,而Zn~(2+)仅在云杉树干径流中检出。