Assessing the effects of post‐pine beetle forest litter on snow albedo

The effect of forest litter on snow surface albedo has been subject to limited study, mainly in the hardwood‐dominated forests of the northeastern United States. Given the recent pine beetle infestation in Western North America and associated increases in litter production, this study examines the effects of forest litter on snow surface albedo in the coniferous forests of south‐central British Columbia. Measured changes in canopy transmittance provide an indication of canopy loss or total litterfall over the winter of 2007–2008. Relationships between percent litter cover, an index of albedo, snow depth, and snow ablation during the 2008 melt season are compared between a mature, young, and clearcut coniferous stand. Results indicate a strong feedback effect between canopy loss and subsequent enhanced shortwave transmittance, and litter accumulation on the snow surface from that canopy loss. However, this relationship is confounded by other variables concurrently affecting albedo. While results suggest that a relatively small percent litter cover can have a significant effect on albedo and ablation, further research is underway to extract the litter signal from that of other factors affecting albedo, particularly snow depth. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Canopy rainfall storage capacity as affected by sub‐alpine grassland degradation in the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau,China

Grassland degradation resulting from global climate change, overgrazing, and rodent damage is expected to influence the magnitude of canopy hydrological fluxes because of reduced vegetation biomass and changed species composition. The objectives of this study were to estimate herbaceous canopy rainfall storage capacity (S) along three different stages of sub‐alpine grassland degradation (non‐degraded, lightly degraded and moderately degraded) in the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, China, and relate changes in S to canopy properties. An artificial wetting method and the water budget balance method, using rain simulations, were used for estimating S. Grassland degradation significantly reduced S. In non‐degraded, lightly degraded and moderately degraded grasslands, S estimated using the artificial wetting method were 0.612 ± 0.08 mm, 0.289 ± 0.04 mm, and 0.217 ± 0.01 mm, respectively; S estimated using the water budget balance method were 0.979 ± 0.32 mm, 0.493 ± 0.13 mm, and 0.419 ± 0.09 mm, respectively. These changes could be explained by accompanying changes in above‐ground biomass and leaf area index, as well as changes in species composition. Species‐specific rainfall storage capacity varied by a factor of 2.7 among the investigated species, with graminoids having the lowest values. Leaf area index was more correlated to S than was canopy coverage. Converting fresh weight of non‐leaf tissues into effective leaf area of the corresponding species and then introducing a coefficient of leaf area according to the specific storage capacity of leaves improved the linear relationship between S and leaf area index. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

In situ experimental study of reed leaf decomposition along a full salinity gradient

An experimental study on Phragmites australis leaf litter decomposition was conducted in the estuarine environment, Ria de Aveiro, Western Portugal, using the leaf-bag technique, with fine- (1 mm) and coarse-mesh (5 mm) bags. The leaf bags were placed in the field sites at day 0, covering a complete salinity gradient, and replicates were collected over time, at days 3 (leaching), 7, 15, 30 and 60. The biomass loss through the leaching phase, about 20% of the initial leaf mass, was independent of both the salinity and the bag mesh size. The biomass decay pattern along the salinity gradient varied through time and presented strong similarities between the two mesh sizes, with the remaining biomass always lower in the 5 mm mesh-size bags. At days 7 and 15, the lowest remaining biomass was observed at the head of the estuary, the preferential distribution area of P. australis. At day 30, the remaining biomass was higher in the marine area and diminished under a direct relationship with salinity, reaching the lowest value in the freshwater environment, with values ranging from 66% to 44% of the initial weight in 5 mm bags, and from 79% to 51% in 1 mm bags. The largest heterogeneity in the remaining biomass among the study areas positioned along the salinity gradient was found close to days 30 (5 mm) and 40 (1 mm). The overall results indicate that the relationship between leaf decay rate and salinity depends on the decay time considered (k₁₅, k₃₀ or k₆₀) and, for the later stages (k₆₀), also on the leaf-bag mesh size. This implies that the use of leaf litter decay rates as a functional indicator in transitional waters will need to take into consideration the factor location in the salinity gradient and leaf litter stage at which the decay rate is determined. The differences between the decay rates with the mesh size acted mainly at the level of the absolute k value and not at the level of the pattern along the salinity gradient. Even so, the data obtained at the mouth of the estuary, in the area closest to a fully marine environment, indicated that after the initial biomass loss through leaching, P. australis decayed either very slowly, in the 5 mm, or not at all, in the 1 mm mesh bags.     

The interactive climate and vegetation along the Pole-Equator belts simulated by a global coupled model

The interaction between climate and vegetation along four Pole-Equator-Pole （PEP） belts were explored using a global two-way coupled model, AVIM-GOALS, which links the ecophysiological processes at the land surface with the general circulation model （GCM）. The PEP belts are important in linking the climate change with the variation of sea and land, including terrestrial ecosystems. Previous PEP belts studies have mainly focused on the paleoclimate variation and its reconstruction. This study analyzes and discusses the interaction between modern climate and vegetation represented by leaf area index （LAI） and net primary production （NPP）. The results show that the simulated LAI variation, corresponding to the observed LAI variation, agrees with the peak-valley variation of precipitation in these belts. The annual mean NPP simulated by the coupled model is also consistent with PIK NPP data in its overall variation trend along the four belts, which is a good example to promote global ecological studies by coupling the climate and vegetation models. A large discrepancy between the simulated and estimated LAI emerges to the south of 15°N along PEP 3 and to the south of 18°S in PEP 1S, and the discrepancy for the simulated NPP and PIK data in the two regions is relatively smaller in contrast to the LAI difference. Precipitation is a key factor affecting vegetation variation, and the overall trend of LAI and NPP corresponds more obviously to precipitation variation than temperature change along most parts of these PEP belts.     

地表覆盖分类数据对区域森林叶面积指数反演的影响

以江西省吉安市为研究区,将5种全球地表覆盖分类数据(包括美国地质调查局(USGS)、马里兰大学(UMD)和波士顿大学(BU)生成的3套数据和欧洲生成的2套数据)以及由TM影像生成的区域地表覆盖分类数据,分别与MODIS1km反射率资料结合,利用基于4尺度几何光学模型的LAI反演方法生成研究区的LAI。在1km和4km两种尺度上将反演的LAI与TM资料生成的LAI进行比较,评价地表覆盖分类数据对LAI反演结果的影响。结果表明,TM和欧洲太空局的GLOBCOVER地表覆盖分类数据用于反演LAI的结果较好,在1km尺度上,反演的LAI与统计模型估算的TMLAI相关的R2分别为0.44和0.40,在4km尺度上的R2分别为0.57和0.54;其次为波士顿大学的MODIS地表覆盖分类数据,据其反演的LAI与TMLAI相关的R2在1km和4km尺度上分别为0.38和0.51;而马里兰大学的UMD和欧洲的GLC2000地表覆盖分类数据会导致反演的LAI存在较大误差,据其反演的LAI与TMLAI之间的一致性较差,在1km和4km两种尺度上平均偏低20%左右;LAI的反演结果对聚集度系数具有强的敏感性。该研究表明,为了提高区域/全球LAI反演精度,需要有高质量的地表覆盖分类数据。     

科尔沁沙地沙质草地与固定沙丘植物群落结构对极端干旱的响应

为了探究沙地植物群落结构特征对极端干旱的响应,通过野外模拟试验开展了极端干旱(生长季减雨60％与干旱60 d)对沙质草地和固定沙丘植物群落丰富度、地上生物量和叶性状等群落结构特征影响的研究.结果表明:(1)生境变化对植物群落地上生物量和叶干物质含量(LDMC)具有显著影响(P＜0.05),草地地上生物量和LDMC显著高...     

海南常见红树植物叶片脂肪酸组成

脂肪酸的组成分析对认识红树植物脂肪酸资源、红树林生态系统内部的营养关系、食物网的结构,以及红树植物对生境的适应等具有重要参考价值。本研究分析了海南岛铁炉港和清澜港两个港湾的红海榄(Rhizophora stylosa)、杯萼海桑(Sonneratia alba)、木果楝(Xylocarpus granatum)、角果木(Ceriops tagal)、榄李(Lumnitzera racemosa)、木榄(Bruguiera gymnorrhiza)和正红树(Rhizophora apiculata)等7种不同红树植物叶片中脂肪酸的组成及含量。在样品中共检测出25种脂肪酸,其中月桂酸、棕榈酸和肉豆蔻酸等8种存在于所有样品中。样品中含量最高的饱和脂肪酸均为棕榈酸(占比44.32%),其次为硬脂酸(占比7.74%),不饱和脂肪酸含量较高的有油酸(占比7.61%)、亚油酸(占比9.81%)和二十碳烯酸(占比12.16%)。植物样品的脂肪酸不饱和指数为0.24～1.13。除木果楝和清澜港采集的木榄样品外,其余样品种的不饱和脂肪酸含量均低于饱和脂肪酸。铁炉港的红海榄、杯萼海桑、角果木和榄李4种植物叶...     

海草凋落叶的溶解有机物的释放及其生物地球化学意义

Dissolved organic matter(DOM) represents a significant source of nutrients that supports the microbial-based food web in seagrass ecosystems. However, there is little information on how the various fractions of DOM from seagrass leaves contributed to the coastal biogeochemical cycles. To address this gap, we carried out a 30-day laboratory chamber experiment on tropical seagrasses Thalassia hemprichii and Enhalus acoroides. After 30 days of incubation, on average 22% carbon(C), 70% nitrogen(N) and 38% phosphorus(P) of these two species of seagrass leaf litter was released. The average leached dissolved organic carbon(DOC), dissolved organic nitrogen(DON) and dissolved organic phosphorus(DOP) of these two species of seagrass leaf litter accounted for 55%, 95% and 65% of the total C, N and P lost, respectively. In the absence of microbes, about 75% of the total amount of DOC, monosaccharides(MCHO), DON and DOP were quickly released via leaching from both seagrass species in the first 9 days. Subsequently, little DOM was released during the remainder of the experiment. The leaching rates of DOC, DON and DOP were approximately 110, 40 and 0.70 μmol/(g·d). Leaching rates of DOM were attributed to the nonstructural carbohydrates and other labile organic matter within the seagrass leaf. Thalassia hemprichii leached more DOC, DOP and MCHO than E. acoroides. In contrast, E. acoroides leached higher concentrations of DON than T. hemprichii, with the overall leachate also having a higher DON: DOP ratio. These results indicate that there is an overall higher amount of DOM leachate from T. hemprichii than that of E. acoroides that is available to the seagrass ecosystem. According to the logarithmic model for DOM release and the in situ leaf litter production(the Xincun Bay, South China Sea), the seagrass leaf litter of these two seagrass species could release approximately 4×10~3 mol/d DOC, 1.4×10~3 mol/d DON and 25 mol/d DOP into the seawater. In addition to providing readily available nutrients for the microbial food web, the remaining particulate organic matter(POM)from the litter would also enter microbial remineralization processes. What is not remineralized from either DOM or POM fractions has potential to contribute to the permanent carbon stocks.     

中国西南广西英罗湾红树林近130年来演化指标——沉积物中的红树叶片亚化石

Located in the intertidal zone of the tropical and subtropical coasts, mangrove forests are an important ecosystem in the global carbon cycle and serve as a protector of local seashores. Under the double impacts of climate change,especially sea-level rise, and human activity, mangrove forests around the world have faced degradation, against which the reconstruction of the historical development of mangrove forests using an effective indicator has been regarded as a necessary strategy for designing a predictable model. As the primary product of mangrove forest, it is reasonable that the content of leaf fragments of mangrove(CLFM) buried in sediments in the form of sub-fossils potentially has the same indicative function for the development of mangrove forests as that of widely-used mangrove pollen. In this study, the leaf fragments of mangrove in two sediment cores(YLW02 and YLW03) drilled in the Yingluo Bay in Guangxi, Southwest China were picked out and weighted for calculation of CLFM, which was used as an indicator of mangrove development after examination of parallelism and a statistical correlation of the CLFM with the concentration of mangrove pollen. The results clearly show that the vertical distribution of the CLFM for the core taken from the landward margin of mangrove forests(YLW03) only parallels that of the local mangrove species(Rhizophora. stylosa) with a significantly positive correlation(R=0.56, P=0.05), while the vertical distribution of the CLFM for the core taken from the interface between seaward margin of mangrove forest and the trunk of tidal creeks of the bay(YLW02) parallels the summed concentration of mangrove pollen(SCMP) with a more positive correlation than that of YLW03(R=0.85, P=0.01), indicating that the trunk outlet of tidal creeks must have been the site where mangrove production gathered from the overall forest rather than from local production. The variations in the CLFM of both cores indicate that overall the mangrove forests in the Yingluo Bay have increasingly flourished over the last 130 years except for the interval of 1940–1950 AD in response to an increase in air temperature and decrease in rainfall, which would have resulted in an increase in seawater salinity;while the coupled extreme increases in air temperature and in rainfall in summer, which would have resulted in extreme decreases in seawater salinity, would be responsible for the relative degradation of mangrove forests in the interval of 1940–1950 AD.     

Dynamic factor analysis of long-term growth trends of the intertidal seagrass Thalassia hemprichii in southern Taiwan

We examined environmental factors which are most responsible for the 8-year temporal dynamics of the intertidal seagrass Thalassia hemprichii in southern Taiwan. A dynamic factor analysis (DFA), a dimension-reduction technique, was applied to identify common trends in a multivariate time series and the relationships between this series and interacting environmental variables. The results of dynamic factor models (DFMs) showed that the leaf growth rate of the seagrass was mainly influenced by salinity (Sal), tidal range (TR), turbidity (K), and a common trend representing an unexplained variability in the observed time series. Sal was the primary variable that explained the temporal dynamics of the leaf growth rate compared to TR and K. K and TR had larger influences on the leaf growth rate in low- than in high-elevation beds. In addition to K, TR, and Sal, UV-B radiation (UV-B), sediment depth (SD), and a common trend accounted for long-term temporal variations of the above-ground biomass. Thus, K, TR, Sal, UV-B, and SD are the predominant environmental variables that described temporal growth variations of the intertidal seagrass T. hemprichii in southern Taiwan. In addition to environmental variables, human activities may be contributing to negative impacts on the seagrass beds; this human interference may have been responsible for the unexplained common trend in the DFMs. Due to successfully applying the DFA to analyze complicated ecological and environmental data in this study, important environmental variables and impacts of human activities along the coast should be taken into account when managing a coastal environment for the conservation of intertidal seagrass beds.