Pathogen induced disturbance and succession in temperate forests: Evidence from a 100-year data set in southern Sweden

Major tree species are declining in many temperate forests due to changing disturbance regimes, including invasive pests and pathogens. We examined the interaction of secondary succession and Dutch elm disease in the Swedish temperate forest reserve Dalby Söderskog, based on five tree surveys made between 1909 and 2011. The forest is characterized by the coexistence of four major European tree species: wych elm (Ulmus glabra), European ash (Fraxinus excelsior), European beech (Fagus sylvatica) and pedunculate oak (Quercus robur). After protection of the forest in 1918, lack of disturbance mainly favoured elm, while the oak population declined due to mortality of old oaks and lack of regeneration. Dutch elm disease has caused high and continuous elm mortality since 1988. As a result, increased light availability at the forest floor favoured abundant regeneration of ash, beech, and lately also oak. The recent arrival of an invasive fungal pathogen causing ash dieback may once again change the course of succession. Open space emerging from loss of elm and ash in forest reserves may be used by reserve managers to favour oak regeneration and biodiversity of semi-open woodlands once lost during succession to closed forest. We conclude that winners and losers change places as an effect of invasive pathogens, resulting in unexpected successions and both losses and gains in valuable ecological niches and habitat structures in temperate broadleaf forests.     

First report of Fusarium euwallaceae on avocado trees in Palestine

Abstract

A new die back symptoms in many avocado orchards had been reported in Palestine. The disease is associated with the Ambrosia beetle Euwallacea fornicatus. Stem samples from infected avocado trees with obvious symptoms were collected from different regions in Palestine. Stem cuttings and dissected adult and galleries of the insect were placed on potato dextrose agar media and incubated for 5–7?days at 25?°C. PCR amplification using EF1/2 specific primers was performed to identify the isolated fungus. The resulting PCR products were sequenced. BLASTn search showed 99% similarity with Fusarium euwallaceae (Accession Nos. JX891785.1, JQ723763.1, JQ723762.1 and JQ723761.1). The isolated fungus was identified as F. euwallaceae (Genbank accession no. MK054177).     

Effects of large-scale Amazon forest degradation on climate and air quality through fluxes of carbon dioxide, water, energy, mineral dust and isoprene

Loss of large areas of Amazonian forest, through either direct human impact or climate change, could exert a number of influences on the regional and global climates. In the Met Office Hadley Centre coupled climate-carbon cycle model, a severe drying of this region initiates forest loss that exerts a number of feedbacks on global and regional climates, which magnify the drying and the forest degradation. This paper provides an overview of the multiple feedback process in the Hadley Centre model and discusses the implications of the results for the case of direct human-induced deforestation. It also examines additional potential effects of forest loss through changes in the emissions of mineral dust and biogenic volatile organic compounds. The implications of ecosystem-climate feedbacks for climate change mitigation and adaptation policies are also discussed.     

基于稳定同位素和热扩散技术的张北杨树水分关系差异

利用稳定氢同位素和热扩散技术研究张北防护林杨树的水分来源和蒸腾耗水,分析确定未退化与退化杨树的水分关系差异.结果表明:在生长季节中退化杨树主要利用0～30 cm土壤水分,未退化杨树主要利用30～80 cm土壤水分,两者的水分来源不同.旱季时,未退化杨树利用深层土壤水分和地下水的比例明显高于退化杨树.雨季中,杨树对0～30 cm土壤水分的利用比例增加,退化杨树增加幅度明显高于未退化杨树,对30～180 cm土壤水分的利用比例均减少.未退化杨树的液流速率大于退化杨树,不同天气中液流速率表现出相似的变化趋势,但未退化杨树液流的启动时间比退化杨树早.相关分析表明,未退化和退化杨树液流速率与土壤温度、风速、太阳辐射、相对湿度、空气温度均呈极显著的相关关系.退化杨树液流速率与土壤温度和空气相对湿度呈极显著负相关,与其他因素呈显著正相关,而未退化杨树仅与空气相对湿度呈极显著负相关,与其他因素均呈显著正相关关系,表明退化和未退化杨树蒸腾耗水易受环境条件的影响.退化杨树液流日累计量明显小于未退化杨树,表明其蒸腾耗水量较少;退化杨树水分来源浅,蒸腾耗水的减少并不能阻止林分退化.     

Quantifying resilience of multiple ecosystem services and biodiversity in a temperate forest landscape

Resilience is increasingly being considered as a new paradigm of forest management among scientists, practitioners, and policymakers. However, metrics of resilience to environmental change are lacking. Faced with novel disturbances, forests may be able to sustain existing ecosystem services and biodiversity by exhibiting resilience, or alternatively these attributes may undergo either a linear or nonlinear decline. Here we provide a novel quantitative approach for assessing forest resilience that focuses on three components of resilience, namely resistance, recovery, and net change, using a spatially explicit model of forest dynamics. Under the pulse set scenarios, we explored the resilience of nine ecosystem services and four biodiversity measures following a one‐off disturbance applied to an increasing percentage of forest area. Under the pulse + press set scenarios, the six disturbance intensities explored during the pulse set were followed by a continuous disturbance. We detected thresholds in net change under pulse + press scenarios for the majority of the ecosystem services and biodiversity measures, which started to decline sharply when disturbance affected >40% of the landscape. Thresholds in net change were not observed under the pulse scenarios, with the exception of timber volume and ground flora species richness. Thresholds were most pronounced for aboveground biomass, timber volume with respect to the ecosystem services, and ectomycorrhizal fungi and ground flora species richness with respect to the biodiversity measures. Synthesis and applications. The approach presented here illustrates how the multidimensionality of stability research in ecology can be addressed and how forest resilience can be estimated in practice. Managers should adopt specific management actions to support each of the three components of resilience separately, as these may respond differently to disturbance. In addition, management interventions aiming to deliver resilience should incorporate an assessment of both pulse and press disturbances to ensure detection of threshold responses to disturbance, so that appropriate management interventions can be identified.     

Communities of fungal endophytes in leaves of Fraxinus ornus are highly diverse

Communities of endophytic fungi in leaves of Manna ash (Fraxinus ornus) were examined to both the north and south of the Alps, i.e. within and beyond the native range of this tree species. Almost all leaves examined had been colonized by endophytic fungi. One hundred and two morphotypes were found, and 62 of them were identified to genus or species level using ITS sequencing and micromorphology. Venturia orni was most frequent and occurred in almost one third (32%) of the 1536 examined leaf segments. It was five times more abundant than Colletotrichum acutatum, the second most frequent endophyte. Other frequently isolated endophytes include Paraconiothyrium sp. 1, Mycosphaerella aurantia, Septoria cretae, Botryosphaeria dothidea and Boeremia exigua. The ash dieback pathogen was not isolated. The endophyte communities differed between the north and south of the Alps and the individual tree types had a distinct influence within sites.     

Effects of fire and drought in a tropical eucalypt savanna colonized by rain forest

Aim This study documents the effects of multiple fires and drought on the woody structure of a north Australian savanna never grazed by domestic stock. Location The study was conducted in a 500 ha pocket of Eucalyptus‐dominated savanna surrounded by a late Quaternary lava flow. The flow is known as the Great Basalt Wall, located c. 50 km northeast of Charters Towers in semi‐arid north‐eastern Australia. This region was exposed to the largest 5‐year rainfall deficit on record between 1992 and 1996. Methods All individual woody plants were tagged within a 1.56 ha plot. Species were segregated into their habitat affinities (rain forest, ecotone, savanna) and regeneration strategy (resprouter, seeder). The survivorship of plants within these categories was analysed in relation to fire intensity from the first fire, and to each of four fires lit between 1996 and 2001. Results Before the first fire, the plot contained thirty‐one tree species including twenty‐one typical of the surrounding dry rain forest. These rain forest species were represented by small individuals and constituted <1% of the total basal area of woody plants. The basal area of savanna trees was 7.5 m² ha^?1 at the commencement of monitoring, although 31% had recently died and others had major crown damage. Further death of the drought debilitated savanna trees was substantial during the first year of monitoring and the basal area of live savanna trees declined to 1.1 m² ha^?1 after 5 years. Most species from both rain forest and savanna were classified as resprouters and are capable of regenerating from underground organs after fire. Species without this ability (rain forest seeders and ecotone seeders) were mostly eliminated after the first two consecutive fires. Among resprouters, survivorship declined as fire intensity increased and this was more pronounced for rain forest than for savanna species. Repeated burning produced a cumulative effect of decreasing survivorship for rain forest resprouters relative to savanna resprouters. Main conclusions The study provides evidence that savanna and rain forest trees differ in fire susceptibility and that recurrent fire can explain the restricted distribution of rain forest in the seasonally arid Australian tropics. The time of death of the savanna trees is consistent with the regional pattern after severe drought, and highlights the importance of medium term climate cycles for the population dynamics of savanna tree species and structure of Australian savannas.     

咸淡交替灌溉对克隆植物大米草生长繁殖和生物量分配的影响

通过温室模拟控制实验,研究了咸淡交替灌溉处理对外来克隆植物大米草(Spartina anglica)形态性状、克隆生长、生物量积累及分配格局的影响。实验共设6种浇灌处理:单一淡水灌溉(D)、单一咸水浇灌(X)、淡咸交替灌溉(DX)、咸淡交替灌溉(XD)、淡咸淡交替灌溉(DXD)和咸淡咸交替灌溉(XDX)。结果表明:DX处理条件下,大米草株高、叶片数及根长均达到最高;克隆数最多,且显著高于X、DXD和XDX处理;芽数及根状茎总长均显著大于XDX处理;在DX和D处理下,地上生物量、根系生物量、地下生物量和总生物量均显著高于其它处理。这表明作为滨海盐沼植物,大米草种群比较适应淡咸水交替环境,单一的咸水,以及过度的咸淡转换均不利于大米草的生长繁殖与生物量积累,而淡咸水交替过程的失序可能是引起我国大米草种群衰退的重要原因。