Central Amazon Floodplain Forests: Root Adaptations to Prolonged Flooding

The floodplains of Central Amazonia represent a complex system of inundated river valleys and shallow lakes along the Solimões–Amazonas river, which is subjected to an annual flood-pulse lasting up to 10 months. Such flooding reaching an amplitude of about ten meters causes dramatic changes in the bioavailability of nutrients and oxygen levels and poses extreme constraints for plant survival and reproductivity. Tree species of inundation forests in Central Amazonia had to evolve adaptive mechanisms to both desiccation of soils and partial or full submergence. To adapt to flooded conditions, some trees overcome the flood period by dormancy accompanied by defoliation and formation of annual rings in the wood. Other species maintain metabolism and retain the foliage during the flooding, representing another adaptive mechanism to low oxygen availability. This investigation focused on the root physiology and morphology of six species typical of white-water inundation areas (várzea) led to a preliminary classification of adaptive strategies of trees inhabiting forest communities in floodplains of the Amazon basin.     

Carbon and nitrogen cycling in North American boreal forests

A model of boreal forest dynamics was adapted to examine the factors controlling carbon and nitrogen cycling in the boreal forests of interior Alaska. Empirical relationships were used to simulate decomposition and nitrogen availability as a function of either substrate quality, the soil thermal regime, or their interactive effects. Test comparisons included black spruce forests growing on permafrost soils and black spruce, birch, and white spruce forests growing on permafrost-free soils. For each forest, simulated above-ground tree biomass, basal area, density, litterfall, moss biomass, and forest floor mass, turnover, thickness, and nitrogen concentration were compared to observed data. No one decay equation simulated forests entirely consistent with observed data, but over the range of upland forest types in interior Alaska, the equation that combined the effects of litter quality and the soil thermal regime simulated forests that were most consistent with observed data. For black spruce growing on permafrost soils, long-term simulated forest dynamics in the absence of fire resulted in unproductive forests with a thick forest floor and low nitrogen mineralization. Fires were an important means to interrupt this sequence and to restart forest succession.     

目标树抚育对亚热带天然次生灌丛群落结构和多样性的影响

在浙江省临安市选择典型天然次生灌丛,分别进行封禁和目标树抚育,探讨灌丛恢复为乔木林的可能性.结果表明: 4年后,与未管护(对照)相比,封禁和目标树抚育后群落平均胸径分别提高1.3和2.6倍,平均高度分别提高0.5和1.1倍;目标树抚育林木出现了对照林分没有的4.5～8.5 cm径阶和4.5～8.5 m树高阶,形成了4 m高的新林层;灌木层物种丰富度和多样性指数没有因抚育而下降;封禁管理维持了群落的树种组成,遵循原有的演替方向;目标树抚育显著改变了群落的树种组成,提高了目的树种的重要值,近期有可能恢复成为针阔混交林群落.与封禁相比,目标树抚育在优势林木胸径和高度生长、树种组成改善等方面更能达到预想的目标.在有条件经营的情况下,可以选择目标树抚育模式对天然次生灌丛进行管理,从而达到加快群落恢复演替形成乔木林的目的.     

Forest transitions in Eastern Europe and their effects on carbon budgets

Forests often rebound from deforestation following industrialization and urbanization, but for many regions our understanding of where and when forest transitions happened, and how they affected carbon budgets remains poor. One such region is Eastern Europe, where political and socio‐economic conditions changed drastically over the last three centuries, but forest trends have not yet been analyzed in detail. We present a new assessment of historical forest change in the European part of the former Soviet Union and the legacies of these changes on contemporary carbon stocks. To reconstruct forest area, we homogenized statistics at the provincial level for ad 1700–2010 to identify forest transition years and forest trends. We contrast our reconstruction with the KK11 and HYDE 3.1 land change scenarios, and use all three datasets to drive the LPJ dynamic global vegetation model to calculate carbon stock dynamics. Our results revealed that forest transitions in Eastern Europe occurred predominantly in the early 20th century, substantially later than in Western Europe. We also found marked geographic variation in forest transitions, with some areas characterized by relatively stable or continuously declining forest area. Our data suggest extensive deforestation in European Russia already prior to ad 1700, and even greater deforestation in the 18th and 19th centuries than in the KK11 and HYDE scenarios. Based on our reconstruction, cumulative carbon emissions from deforestation were greater before 1700 (60 Pg C) than thereafter (29 Pg C). Summed over our entire study area, forest transitions led to a modest uptake in carbon over recent decades, with our dataset showing the smallest effect (<5.5 Pg C) and a more heterogeneous pattern of source and sink regions. This suggests substantial sequestration potential in regrowing forests of the region, a trend that may be amplified through ongoing land abandonment, climate change, and CO₂ fertilization.     

A Holocene sequence of vegetation change at Lake Eteza, coastal KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Palynological and sedimentological data from a core extracted from Lake Eteza shed new light on the Holocene vegetation and climate history in KwaZulu-Natal and can be linked to regional and global climate change. A 2072 cm core with nineteen radiocarbon dates and chronological extrapolation to the bottom of the sequence suggests that sedimentation started ca. 10 200 cal yrs BP. Between ca. 10 200 and 6800 cal yrs BP pollen indicators point to a change from intermediately humid conditions to comparatively drier grassy environments. This is in good agreement with Sea Surface Temperature (SST) fluctuations from a core in the Mozambique Channel which influence precipitation in coastal KwaZulu-Natal, and the beginning of the Holocene Thermal Maximum ca. 10 500 cal yrs BP. The lower section of the core corresponds to gradually increasing Holocene sea levels along the coast and development of freshwater or estuarine conditions at Lake Eteza. The middle Holocene (ca. 6800-3600 cal yrs BP), when the sea level reached its highest stand and SST peak, indicate humid climatic conditions that favoured an increase of forest trees, e.g. Podocarpus, and undergrowth plants like Issoglossa. As a consequence of higher precipitation and increase of the water table, conditions were favourable for the spread of mangrove, swamp and possibly riverine forest. During the late Holocene after ca. 3600 cal yrs BP a decrease of Podocarpus and other trees as well as an increase of Chenopodiaceae/Amaranthaceae, grasses and Phoenix coincide with a return to lower sea levels and drier conditions. The decrease of all trees including Phoenix at ca. 700 cal yrs BP, accompanied by rapid sedimentation rates, possibly reflect forest clearing and upland erosion induced by activities of Iron Age settlers. A dry period at the globally recognized onset of the Little Ice Age might have contributed to these changes. Late Iron Age settlers have probably already introduced Zea mays, which was detected in the profile since ca. 210 BP. The appearance of neophytes like Pinus, Casuarina and pollen of Ambrosia-type in the youngest sediments indicates increased disturbance of European settlements and land use since ca. 100 cal yrs BP.     

季节性冻融期间亚高山森林凋落物的质量损失及元素释放

季节性冻融期间的凋落物分解对季节性冻土区的森林生态系统过程可能具有重要的影响,但已有的研究报道很少.因此,采用凋落物分解袋法研究了岷江冷杉 (Abies faxoniana Rehder & E. H. Wilson)林和白桦(Betula platyphylla Sukaczev)林凋落叶的分解.一个季节性冻融期间,冷杉林和白桦林凋落物的质量损失率分别为(19.4 ±2.0)%和(21.5±3.5)%,约为1a中凋落物分解的64.5%和65.6%,表明季节性冻融对亚高山森林凋落物分解影响显著.冷杉凋落物中C、N、P、K、Ca和Mg的释放率为(15.0±1.0)%、(34.1±3.6)%、(17.0±0.9)%、(22.8±5.9)%、(20.1±0.1)%和(36.3±2.1)%,白桦凋落物中C、N、P、K、Ca和Mg的释放率为(20.7±0.1)%、(29.4±3.4) %、(15.7±1.3)%、(16.8±5.1)%、(21.3±1.8)%和(20.5±2 8)%.结合叶凋落物产量可以推断,冷杉林凋落物在一个季节性冻融期间释放到土壤的N、P、K、Ca、Mg为(10.17±1.14) kg · hm-2、(0.68±0.08) kg · hm-2、(4.08±0.46) kg · hm-2、(0.46±0.05) kg · hm-2、(0.09±0.01) kg · hm-2,白桦林为(5.61±1 12) kg · hm-2、(0.34±0.07) kg · hm-2、(1.21±0.24) kg · hm-2、(0.300±0.059) kg · hm-2、(0.051±0.010) kg · hm-2,这对于春季亚高山森林植物生长具有重要的生态学意义.     

森林生态系统土壤CO2释放随海拔梯度的变化及其影响因子

联合国气候框架公约的签署提升了人们对全球变暖、碳循环的关注。土壤CO₂释放作为土壤-大气CO₂交换的主要途径之一,成为了各国生态学家研究的重点内容。通过对1800~2155m海拔梯度上森林生态系统土壤CO₂释放进行研究,揭示了较小空间尺度上土壤CO₂释放的变化规律及其控制机制。在研究区域内,随着海拔梯度的增加,森林土壤CO₂释放由(1.94±006) μmol m^-2 s^-1逐渐增加至(2.22±0.07) μ mol m^-2 s^-1。土壤温度、土壤水分、土壤有机碳（SOC）、全N、全P与土壤CO₂释放呈显著正相关（n=14, P<0.05）;土壤容重与土壤CO₂释放速率呈显著负相关（n=14,P<0.05）;土壤pH对土壤CO₂释放影响不显著。作为一个复杂的生态学过程,环境因子及其交互作用对土壤CO₂释放产生影响,为了减少因子共线性影响,逐步降低因子维数,采用主成分分析（PCA）揭示了土壤温度、土壤水分、SOC、全N、全P、容重6个因子的联合作用,其累积贡献率达到了57％以上;进一步运用逐步回归分析方法,探讨了影响土壤CO₂释放沿海拔梯度分布的主导因子,结果表明土壤水分是研究区域森林生态系统土壤CO₂释放沿海拔梯度变化的主导因子。     

Changes in nitrogen cycling and retention processes in soils under spruce forests along a nitrogen enrichment gradient in Germany

A network of long-term monitoring sites on nitrogen (N) input and output of forests across Germany showed that a number of Germany's forests are subject to or are experiencing N saturation and that spruce (Picea abies) stands have high risk. Our study was aimed at (1) quantifying the changes in gross rates of microbial N cycling and retention processes in forest soils along an N enrichment gradient and (2) relating the changes in soil N dynamics to N losses. We selected spruce sites representing an N enrichment gradient (indicated by leaching : throughfall N ratios) ranging from 0.04–0.13 (low N),≤0.26 (intermediate N enrichment) to≥0.42 (highly N enriched). To our knowledge, our study is the first to report on mechanistic changes in gross rates of soil N cycling and abiotic NO₃⁻ retention under ambient N enrichment gradient. Gross N mineralization, NH₄⁺ immobilization, gross nitrification, and NO₃⁻ immobilization rates increased up to intermediate N enrichment level and somewhat decreased at highly N-enriched condition. The turnover rates of NH₄⁺ and microbial N pools increased while the turnover rates of the NO₃⁻ pool decreased across the N enrichment gradient. Abiotic immobilization of NH₄⁺ did not differ across sites and was lower than that of NO₃⁻. Abiotic NO₃⁻ immobilization decreased across the N enrichment gradient. Microbial assimilation and turnover appeared to contribute largely to the retention of NH₄⁺. The increasing NO₃⁻ deposition and decreasing turnover rates of the NO₃⁻ pool, combined with decreasing abiotic NO₃⁻ retention, possibly contributed to increasing NO₃⁻ leaching and gaseous emissions across the N enrichment gradient. The empirical relationships of changes in microbial N cycling across the N enrichment gradient may be integrated in models used to predict responses of forest ecosystems (e.g. spruce) to increasing N deposition.