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Campbell JL, Driscoll CT, Jones JA, Boose ER, Dugan HA, Groffman PM, Jackson CR, Jones JB, Juday GP, Lottig NR, Penaluna BE, Ruess RW, Suding K, Thompson JR, Zimmerman JK. Forest and Freshwater Ecosystem Responses to Climate Change and Variability at US LTER Sites. Bioscience 2022. [DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biab124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Forest and freshwater ecosystems are tightly linked and together provide important ecosystem services, but climate change is affecting their species composition, structure, and function. Research at nine US Long Term Ecological Research sites reveals complex interactions and cascading effects of climate change, some of which feed back into the climate system. Air temperature has increased at all sites, and those in the Northeast have become wetter, whereas sites in the Northwest and Alaska have become slightly drier. These changes have altered streamflow and affected ecosystem processes, including primary production, carbon storage, water and nutrient cycling, and community dynamics. At some sites, the direct effects of climate change are the dominant driver altering ecosystems, whereas at other sites indirect effects or disturbances and stressors unrelated to climate change are more important. Long-term studies are critical for understanding the impacts of climate change on forest and freshwater ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Julia A Jones
- Oregon State University , Corvallis, Oregon, United States
| | - Emery R Boose
- Harvard University , Petersham, Massachusetts, United States
| | - Hilary A Dugan
- University of Wisconsin , Madison, Wisconsin, United States
| | - Peter M Groffman
- City University of New York, and with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies , Millbrook, New York, United States
| | | | - Jeremy B Jones
- University of Alaska Fairbanks , Fairbanks, Alaska, United States
| | - Glenn P Juday
- University of Alaska Fairbanks , Fairbanks, Alaska, United States
| | - Noah R Lottig
- University of Wisconsin's Trout Lake Station , Boulder Junction, Wisconsin, United States
| | | | - Roger W Ruess
- University of Alaska Fairbanks , Fairbanks, Alaska, United States
| | | | | | - Jess K Zimmerman
- University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras , San Juan, Puerto Rico, United States
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2
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Raiho AM, Scharf HR, Roland CA, Swanson DK, Stehn SE, Hooten MB. Searching for refuge: A framework for identifying site factors conferring resistance to climate‐driven vegetation change. DIVERS DISTRIB 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/ddi.13492] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Ann M. Raiho
- Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology Colorado State University Fort Collins Colorado USA
| | - Henry R. Scharf
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics San Diego State University San Diego California USA
| | - Carl A. Roland
- Denali National Park and Preserve National Park Service Anchorage Alaska USA
| | | | - Sarah E. Stehn
- Denali National Park and Preserve National Park Service Anchorage Alaska USA
- Arctic Network National Park Service Anchorage Alaska USA
| | - Mevin B. Hooten
- Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology Colorado State University Fort Collins Colorado USA
- Department of Statistics Colorado State University Fort Collins Colorado USA
- Colorado Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit U.S. Geological Survey Fort Collins Colorado USA
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3
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Mack MC, Walker XJ, Johnstone JF, Alexander HD, Melvin AM, Jean M, Miller SN. Carbon loss from boreal forest wildfires offset by increased dominance of deciduous trees. Science 2021; 372:280-283. [DOI: 10.1126/science.abf3903] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2020] [Accepted: 03/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
In boreal forests, climate warming is shifting the wildfire disturbance regime to more frequent fires that burn more deeply into organic soils, releasing sequestered carbon to the atmosphere. To understand the destabilization of carbon storage, it is necessary to consider these effects in the context of long-term ecological change. In Alaskan boreal forests, we found that shifts in dominant plant species catalyzed by severe fire compensated for greater combustion of soil carbon over decadal time scales. Severe burning of organic soils shifted tree dominance from slow-growing black spruce to fast-growing deciduous broadleaf trees, resulting in a net increase in carbon storage by a factor of 5 over the disturbance cycle. Reduced fire activity in future deciduous-dominated boreal forests could increase the tenure of this carbon on the landscape, thereby mitigating the feedback to climate warming.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michelle C. Mack
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA
- Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
| | - Xanthe J. Walker
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA
- Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7J 5E2, Canada
| | - Jill F. Johnstone
- Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7J 5E2, Canada
- Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK 99700, USA
- School of Science, Yukon University, Whitehorse, YT Y1A 5K4, Canada
| | - Heather D. Alexander
- Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
- School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
| | - April M. Melvin
- Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
- National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, Washington, DC 20001, USA
| | - Mélanie Jean
- Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7J 5E2, Canada
- Departement de Biologie, Universite de Moncton, Moncton, NB E1A 3E9, Canada
| | - Samantha N. Miller
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA
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4
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Abbott BW, Rocha AV, Shogren A, Zarnetske JP, Iannucci F, Bowden WB, Bratsman SP, Patch L, Watts R, Fulweber R, Frei RJ, Huebner AM, Ludwig SM, Carling GT, O'Donnell JA. Tundra wildfire triggers sustained lateral nutrient loss in Alaskan Arctic. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2021; 27:1408-1430. [PMID: 33394532 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15507] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2020] [Accepted: 12/13/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Climate change is creating widespread ecosystem disturbance across the permafrost zone, including a rapid increase in the extent and severity of tundra wildfire. The expansion of this previously rare disturbance has unknown consequences for lateral nutrient flux from terrestrial to aquatic environments. Lateral loss of nutrients could reduce carbon uptake and slow recovery of already nutrient-limited tundra ecosystems. To investigate the effects of tundra wildfire on lateral nutrient export, we analyzed water chemistry in and around the 10-year-old Anaktuvuk River fire scar in northern Alaska. We collected water samples from 21 burned and 21 unburned watersheds during snowmelt, at peak growing season, and after plant senescence in 2017 and 2018. After a decade of ecosystem recovery, aboveground biomass had recovered in burned watersheds, but overall carbon and nitrogen remained ~20% lower, and the active layer remained ~10% deeper. Despite lower organic matter stocks, dissolved organic nutrients were substantially elevated in burned watersheds, with higher flow-weighted concentrations of organic carbon (25% higher), organic nitrogen (59% higher), organic phosphorus (65% higher), and organic sulfur (47% higher). Geochemical proxies indicated greater interaction with mineral soils in watersheds with surface subsidence, but optical analysis and isotopes suggested that recent plant growth, not mineral soil, was the main source of organic nutrients in burned watersheds. Burned and unburned watersheds had similar δ15 N-NO3 - , indicating that exported nitrogen was of preburn origin (i.e., not recently fixed). Lateral nitrogen flux from burned watersheds was 2- to 10-fold higher than rates of background nitrogen fixation and atmospheric deposition estimated in this area. These findings indicate that wildfire in Arctic tundra can destabilize nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur previously stored in permafrost via plant uptake and leaching. This plant-mediated nutrient loss could exacerbate terrestrial nutrient limitation after disturbance or serve as an important nutrient release mechanism during succession.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin W Abbott
- Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
| | - Adrian V Rocha
- Department of Biological Sciences & the Environmental Change Initiative, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
| | - Arial Shogren
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Jay P Zarnetske
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Frances Iannucci
- Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
- Department of Biology and Wildlife, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA
| | - William B Bowden
- Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
| | - Samuel P Bratsman
- Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
| | - Leika Patch
- Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
| | - Rachel Watts
- Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
| | - Randy Fulweber
- Toolik GIS, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA
| | - Rebecca J Frei
- Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
- Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Amanda M Huebner
- Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
| | - Sarah M Ludwig
- Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Columbia University, NY, NY, USA
| | - Gregory T Carling
- Department of Geological Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
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5
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Parkinson LV, Mulder CPH. Patterns of pollen and resource limitation of fruit production in Vaccinium uliginosum and V. vitis-idaea in Interior Alaska. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0224056. [PMID: 32813718 PMCID: PMC7446802 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2019] [Accepted: 07/21/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Many recent studies assessing fruit productivity of plants in the boreal forest focus on interannual variability across a forested region, rather than on environmental variability within the forest. Frequency and severity of wildfires in the boreal forest affect soil moisture, canopy, and community structure at the landscape level, all of which may influence overall fruit production at a site directly or indirectly. We evaluated how fruit production in two boreal shrubs, Vaccinium uliginosum (blueberry) and V. vitis-idaea (lingonberry), was explained by factors associated with resource availability (such as canopy cover and soil conditions) and pollen limitation (such as floral resources for pollinators and pollen deposition) across boreal forest sites of Interior Alaska in 2017. We classified our study sites into upland and lowland sites, which differed in elevation, soil moisture, and active layer. We found that resource and pollen limitation differed between the two species and between uplands and lowlands. Lingonberry was more pollen limited than blueberry, and plants in lowland sites were more pollen limited relative to other sites while plants in upland sites were relatively more resource limited. Additionally, canopy cover had a significant negative effect in upland sites on a ramet’s investment in reproductive tissues and leaves versus structural growth, but little effect in lowland sites. These results point to importance of including pollinator service as well as resource availability in predictions for changes in berry abundance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindsey Viann Parkinson
- Institute of Arctic Biology and Department of Biology and Wildlife, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Christa P. H. Mulder
- Institute of Arctic Biology and Department of Biology and Wildlife, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States of America
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6
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Ribeiro-Kumara C, Köster E, Aaltonen H, Köster K. How do forest fires affect soil greenhouse gas emissions in upland boreal forests? A review. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2020; 184:109328. [PMID: 32163772 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109328] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2019] [Revised: 02/25/2020] [Accepted: 02/28/2020] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Wildfires strongly regulate carbon (C) cycling and storage in boreal forests and account for almost 10% of global fire C emissions. However, the anticipated effects of climate change on fire regimes may destabilize current C-climate feedbacks and switch the systems to new stability domains. Since most of these forests are located in upland soils where permafrost is widespread, the expected climate warming and drying combined with more active fires may alter the greenhouse gas (GHG) budgets of boreal forests and trigger unprecedented changes in the global C balance. Therefore, a better understanding of the effects of fires on the various spatial and temporal patterns of GHG fluxes of different physical environments (permafrost and nonpermafrost soils) is fundamental to an understanding of the role played by fire in future climate feedbacks. While large amounts of C are released during fires, postfire GHG fluxes play an important role in boreal C budgets over the short and long term. The timescale over which the vegetation cover regenerates seems to drive the recovery of C emissions after both low- and high-severity fires, regardless of fire-induced changes in soil decomposition. In soils underlain by permafrost, fires increase the active layer depth for several years, which may alter the soil dynamics regulating soil GHG exchange. In a scenario of global warming, prolonged exposition of previously immobilized C could result in higher carbon dioxide emission during the early fire succession. However, without knowledge of the contribution of each respiration component combined with assessment of the warming and drying effects on both labile and recalcitrant soil organic matter throughout the soil profile, we cannot advance on the most relevant feedbacks involving fire and permafrost. Fires seem to have either negligible effects on methane (CH4) fluxes or a slight increase in CH4 uptake. However, permafrost thawing driven by climate or fire could turn upland boreal soils into temporary CH4 sources, depending on how fast the transition from moist to drier soils occurs. Most studies indicate a slight decrease or no significant change in postfire nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes. However, simulations have shown that the temperature sensitivity of denitrification exceeds that of soil respiration; thus, the effects of warming on soil N2O emissions may be greater than on C emissions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christine Ribeiro-Kumara
- University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences, PO Box 27, Latokartanonkaari 7, 00014, Helsinki, Finland.
| | - Egle Köster
- University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences, PO Box 27, Latokartanonkaari 7, 00014, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Heidi Aaltonen
- University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences, PO Box 27, Latokartanonkaari 7, 00014, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Kajar Köster
- University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences, PO Box 27, Latokartanonkaari 7, 00014, Helsinki, Finland; Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research, University of Helsinki, Finland
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7
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Burn Severity and Post-Fire Land Surface Albedo Relationship in Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems. REMOTE SENSING 2019. [DOI: 10.3390/rs11192309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Our study explores the relationship between land surface albedo (LSA) changes and burn severity, checking whether the LSA is an indicator of burn severity, in a large forest fire (117.75 km2, Spain). The LSA was obtained from Landsat data. In particular, we used an immediately-after-fire scene, a year-after-fire scene and a pre-fire one. The burn severity (three levels) was assessed in 111 field plots by using the Composite Burn Index (CBI). The potentiality of remotely sensed LSA as an indicator for the burn severity was tested by a one-way analysis of variance, correlation analysis and regression models. Specifically, we considered the total shortwave, visible, and near-infrared LSA. Immediately after the fire, we observed a decrease in the LSA for all burn severity levels (up to 0.631). A small increase in the LSA was found (up to 0.0292) a year after the fire. The maximum adjusted coefficient of determination (R2adj) of the linear regression model between the immediately post-fire LSA image and the CBI values was approximately 67%. Fisher’s least significance difference test showed that two burn severity levels could be discriminated by the immediately post-fire LSA image. Our results demonstrate that the magnitude of the changes in the LSA is related to the burn severity with a statistical significance, suggesting the potentiality of immediately-after-fire remotely sensed LSA for estimating the burn severity as an alternative to other satellite-based methods. However, the persistency of these changes in time should be evaluated in future research.
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8
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Competition and Burn Severity Determine Post-Fire Sapling Recovery in a Nationally Protected Boreal Forest of China: An Analysis from Very High-Resolution Satellite Imagery. REMOTE SENSING 2019. [DOI: 10.3390/rs11060603] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Anticipating how boreal forest landscapes will change in response to changing fire regime requires disentangling the effects of various spatial controls on the recovery process of tree saplings. Spatially explicit monitoring of post-fire vegetation recovery through moderate resolution Landsat imagery is a popular technique but is filled with ambiguous information due to mixed pixel effects. On the other hand, very-high resolution (VHR) satellite imagery accurately measures crown size of tree saplings but has gained little attention and its utility for estimating leaf area index (LAI, m2/m2) and tree sapling abundance (TSA, seedlings/ha) in post-fire landscape remains untested. We compared the explanatory power of 30 m Landsat satellite imagery with 0.5-m WorldView-2 VHR imagery for LAI and TSA based on field sampling data, and subsequently mapped the distribution of LAI and TSA based on the most predictive relationships. A random forest (RF) model was applied to assess the relative importance and causal mechanisms of spatial controls on tree sapling recovery. The results showed that pixel percentage of canopy trees (PPCT) derived from VHR imagery outperform all Landsat-derived spectral indices for explaining variance of LAI (R2VHR = 0.676 vs. R2Landsat = 0.427) and TSA (R2VHR = 0.508 vs. R2Landsat = 0.499). The RF model explained an average of 55.5% (SD = 3.0%, MSE = 0.382, N = 50) of the variation of estimated LAI. Understory vegetation coverage (competition) and post-fire surviving mature trees (seed sources) were the most important spatial controls for LAI recovery, followed by burn severity (legacy effect), topographic factors (environmental filter) and nearest distance to unburned area (edge effect). These analyses allow us to conclude that in our study area, mitigating wildfire severity and size may increase forest resilience to wildfire damage. Given the easily-damaged seed banks and relatively short seed dispersal distance of coniferous trees, reasonable human help to natural recovery of coniferous forests is necessary for severe burns with a large patch size, particularly in certain areas. Our research shows the VHR WorldView-2 imagery better resolves key characteristics of forest landscapes like LAI and TSA than Landsat imagery, providing a valuable tool for land managers and researchers alike.
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9
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Ludwig SM, Alexander HD, Kielland K, Mann PJ, Natali SM, Ruess RW. Fire severity effects on soil carbon and nutrients and microbial processes in a Siberian larch forest. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2018; 24:5841-5852. [PMID: 30230664 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2017] [Revised: 08/29/2018] [Accepted: 09/07/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Fire frequency and severity are increasing in tundra and boreal regions as climate warms, which can directly affect climate feedbacks by increasing carbon (C) emissions from combustion of the large soil C pool and indirectly via changes in vegetation, permafrost thaw, hydrology, and nutrient availability. To better understand the direct and indirect effects of changing fire regimes in northern ecosystems, we examined how differences in soil burn severity (i.e., extent of soil organic matter combustion) affect soil C, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) availability and microbial processes over time. We created experimental burns of three fire severities (low, moderate, and high) in a larch forest in the northeastern Siberian Arctic and analyzed soils at 1, 8 days, and 1 year postfire. Labile dissolved C and N increased with increasing soil burn severity immediately (1 day) postfire by up to an order of magnitude, but declined significantly 1 week later; both variables were comparable or lower than unburned soils by 1 year postfire. Soil burn severity had no effect on P in the organic layer, but P increased with increasing severity in mineral soil horizons. Most extracellular enzyme activities decreased by up to 70% with increasing soil burn severity. Increasing soil burn severity reduced soil respiration 1 year postfire by 50%. However, increasing soil burn severity increased net N mineralization rates 1 year postfire, which were 10-fold higher in the highest burn severity. While fires of high severity consumed approximately five times more soil C than those of low severity, soil C pools will also be driven by indirect effects of fire on soil processes. Our data suggest that despite an initial increase in labile C and nutrients with soil burn severity, soil respiration and extracellular activities related to the turnover of organic matter were greatly reduced, which may mitigate future C losses following fire.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Heather D Alexander
- Department of Forestry, Forest and Wildlife Research Center, Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi
| | - Knut Kielland
- Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska
| | - Paul J Mann
- Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
| | | | - Roger W Ruess
- Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska
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10
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Carol Adair E, Hooper DU, Paquette A, Hungate BA. Ecosystem context illuminates conflicting roles of plant diversity in carbon storage. Ecol Lett 2018; 21:1604-1619. [DOI: 10.1111/ele.13145] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2018] [Revised: 03/08/2018] [Accepted: 07/24/2018] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- E. Carol Adair
- Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources University of Vermont Burlington VT05405 USA
| | - David U. Hooper
- Department of Biology Western Washington University Bellingham WA98225‐9160 USA
| | - Alain Paquette
- Centre for Forest Research Département des sciences biologiques Université du Québec à Montréal CP 8888, Succursale Centre‐ville Montréal QC Canada H3C 3P8
| | - Bruce A. Hungate
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society and Department of Biological Sciences Northern Arizona University Flagstaff AZ86011 USA
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11
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Shackelford N, Standish RJ, Lindo Z, Starzomski BM. The role of landscape connectivity in resistance, resilience, and recovery of multi-trophic microarthropod communities. Ecology 2018; 99:1164-1172. [PMID: 29603197 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2017] [Revised: 01/25/2018] [Accepted: 02/09/2018] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
There is a need to find generalizable mechanisms supporting ecological resilience, resistance, and recovery. One hypothesized mechanism is landscape connectivity, a habitat configuration that allows movement of biotic and abiotic resources between local patches. Whether connectivity increases all or only one of resistance, resilience, and recovery has not been teased apart, however, and has been difficult to test at large scales and for complex trophic webs. Natural microcosms offer a complex system that can be manipulated to test questions at a landscape-scale relative to the community of study. Here, we test the role of connectivity in altering resistance, resilience, and recovery to a gradient of heating disturbance in moss microcosms. To test across trophic levels, we focused on community composition as our metric of response and applied three connectivity treatments - isolation, connected to an equally disturbed patch, and connected to an undisturbed patch. We found that connectivity between equally disturbed patches boosted resistance of communities to disturbance. Additionally, recovery was linear and rapid in communities connected to undisturbed landscapes, hump shaped when connected to equally disturbed landscapes, and linear but slow in isolated communities. We did not find thresholds on the disturbance gradient at which disturbed communities exhibited zero or increasing dissimilarity to controls through time, so were unable to draw conclusions on the role of connectivity in ecological resilience. Ultimately, isolated communities exhibited increasingly variable composition and slow recovery patterns even in control communities when compared with connected treatments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nancy Shackelford
- School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, 3800 Finnerty Rd, Victoria, British Columbia, V8P 5C2, Canada.,Hakai Institute, Calvert Island, PO Box 309, Heriot Bay, British Columbia, V0P 1H0, Canada.,Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, PO Box 1700, STN CSC, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W 2Y2, Canada
| | - Rachel J Standish
- School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, Washington, 6150, Australia
| | - Zoë Lindo
- Department of Biology, Western University, 1151 Richmond St, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada
| | - Brian M Starzomski
- School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, 3800 Finnerty Rd, Victoria, British Columbia, V8P 5C2, Canada.,Hakai Institute, Calvert Island, PO Box 309, Heriot Bay, British Columbia, V0P 1H0, Canada
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12
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Potter C. Ecosystem carbon emissions from 2015 forest fires in interior Alaska. CARBON BALANCE AND MANAGEMENT 2018; 13:2. [PMID: 29330602 PMCID: PMC5768572 DOI: 10.1186/s13021-017-0090-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2017] [Accepted: 12/22/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND In the summer of 2015, hundreds of wildfires burned across the state of Alaska, and consumed more than 1.6 million ha of boreal forest and wetlands in the Yukon-Koyukuk region. Mapping of 113 large wildfires using Landsat satellite images from before and after 2015 indicated that nearly 60% of this area was burned at moderate-to-high severity levels. Field measurements near the town of Tanana on the Yukon River were carried out in July of 2017 in both unburned and 2015 burned forested areas (nearly adjacent to one-another) to visually verify locations of different Landsat burn severity classes (low, moderate, or high; LBS, MBS, HBS). RESULTS Field measurements indicated that the loss of surface organic layers in boreal ecosystem fires is a major factor determining post-fire soil temperature changes, depth of thawing, and carbon losses from the mineral topsoil layer. Measurements in forest sites showed that soil temperature profiles to 30 cm depth at burned forest sites were higher by an average of 8-10 °C compared to unburned forest sites. Sampling and laboratory analysis indicated a 65% reduction in soil carbon content and a 58% reduction in soil nitrogen content in severely burned sample sites compared to soil mineral samples from nearby unburned spruce forests. CONCLUSIONS Combined with nearly unprecedented forest areas severely burned in the Interior region of Alaska in 2015, total ecosystem fire-related losses of carbon to the atmosphere exceeded most previous estimates for the state, owing mainly to inclusion of potential "mass wasting" and decomposition in the mineral soil carbon layer in the 2 years following these forest fires.
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13
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Larjavaara M, Berninger F, Palviainen M, Prokushkin A, Wallenius T. Post-fire carbon and nitrogen accumulation and succession in Central Siberia. Sci Rep 2017; 7:12776. [PMID: 28986589 PMCID: PMC5630608 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-13039-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2017] [Accepted: 09/15/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Improved understanding of carbon (C) accumulation after a boreal fire enables more accurate quantification of the C implications caused by potential fire regime shifts. We coupled results from a fire history study with biomass and soil sampling in a remote and little-studied region that represents a vast area of boreal taiga. We used an inventory approach based on predefined plot locations, thus avoiding problems potentially causing bias related to the standard chronosequence approach. The disadvantage of our inventory approach is that more plots are needed to expose trends. Because of this we could not expose clear trends, despite laborious sampling. We found some support for increasing C and nitrogen (N) stored in living trees and dead wood with increasing time since the previous fire or time since the previous stand-replacing fire. Surprisingly, we did not gain support for the well-established paradigm on successional patterns, beginning with angiosperms and leading, if fires are absent, to dominance of Picea. Despite the lack of clear trends in our data, we encourage fire historians and ecosystem scientists to join forces and use even larger data sets to study C accumulation since fire in the complex Eurasian boreal landscapes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Markku Larjavaara
- VITRI, Viikki Tropical Resources Institute, Department of Forest Sciences, PO Box 27, 00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
| | - Frank Berninger
- Department of Silviculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang A&F University, Lin'an, Zhejiang, China.,Department of Forest Sciences, PO Box 27, 00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Marjo Palviainen
- Department of Forest Sciences, PO Box 27, 00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Anatoly Prokushkin
- V.N. Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS, Akademgorodok 50/28, Krasnoyarsk, 660036, Russia
| | - Tuomo Wallenius
- Department of Forest Sciences, PO Box 27, 00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
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Combining Multi-Source Remotely Sensed Data and a Process-Based Model for Forest Aboveground Biomass Updating. SENSORS 2017; 17:s17092062. [PMID: 28885556 PMCID: PMC5620501 DOI: 10.3390/s17092062] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2017] [Revised: 08/31/2017] [Accepted: 09/05/2017] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
Abstract
Monitoring and understanding the spatio-temporal variations of forest aboveground biomass (AGB) is a key basis to quantitatively assess the carbon sequestration capacity of a forest ecosystem. To map and update forest AGB in the Greater Khingan Mountains (GKM) of China, this work proposes a physical-based approach. Based on the baseline forest AGB from Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) images in 2008, we dynamically updated the annual forest AGB from 2009 to 2012 by adding the annual AGB increment (ABI) obtained from the simulated daily and annual net primary productivity (NPP) using the Boreal Ecosystem Productivity Simulator (BEPS) model. The 2012 result was validated by both field- and aerial laser scanning (ALS)-based AGBs. The predicted forest AGB for 2012 estimated from the process-based model can explain 31% (n = 35, p < 0.05, RMSE = 2.20 kg/m2) and 85% (n = 100, p < 0.01, RMSE = 1.71 kg/m2) of variation in field- and ALS-based forest AGBs, respectively. However, due to the saturation of optical remote sensing-based spectral signals and contribution of understory vegetation, the BEPS-based AGB tended to underestimate/overestimate the AGB for dense/sparse forests. Generally, our results showed that the remotely sensed forest AGB estimates could serve as the initial carbon pool to parameterize the process-based model for NPP simulation, and the combination of the baseline forest AGB and BEPS model could effectively update the spatiotemporal distribution of forest AGB.
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Wang Z, Erb AM, Schaaf CB, Sun Q, Liu Y, Yang Y, Shuai Y, Casey KA, Román MO. Early spring post-fire snow albedo dynamics in high latitude boreal forests using Landsat-8 OLI data. REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT 2016; 185:71-83. [PMID: 29769751 PMCID: PMC5952213 DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2016.02.059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Taking advantage of the improved radiometric resolution of Landsat-8 OLI which, unlike previous Landsat sensors, does not saturate over snow, the progress of fire recovery progress at the landscape scale (< 100m) is examined. High quality Landsat-8 albedo retrievals can now capture the true reflective and layered character of snow cover over a full range of land surface conditions and vegetation densities. This new capability particularly improves the assessment of post-fire vegetation dynamics across low- to high- burn severity gradients in Arctic and boreal regions in the early spring, when the albedos during recovery show the greatest variation. We use 30 m resolution Landsat-8 surface reflectances with concurrent coarser resolution (500m) MODIS high quality full inversion surface Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Functions (BRDF) products to produce higher resolution values of surface albedo. The high resolution full expression shortwave blue sky albedo product performs well with an overall RMSE of 0.0267 between tower and satellite measures under both snow-free and snow-covered conditions. While the importance of post-fire albedo recovery can be discerned from the MODIS albedo product at regional and global scales, our study addresses the particular importance of early spring post-fire albedo recovery at the landscape scale by considering the significant spatial heterogeneity of burn severity, and the impact of snow on the early spring albedo of various vegetation recovery types. We found that variations in early spring albedo within a single MODIS gridded pixel can be larger than 0.6. Since the frequency and severity of wildfires in Arctic and boreal systems is expected to increase in the coming decades, the dynamics of albedo in response to these rapid surface changes will increasingly impact the energy balance and contribute to other climate processes and physical feedback mechanisms. Surface radiation products derived from Landsat-8 data will thus play an important role in characterizing the carbon cycle and ecosystem processes of high latitude systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhuosen Wang
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
- School for the Environment, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA
- NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
| | - Angela M. Erb
- School for the Environment, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Crystal B. Schaaf
- School for the Environment, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Qingsong Sun
- School for the Environment, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Yan Liu
- School for the Environment, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Yun Yang
- United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, MD, USA
| | - Yanmin Shuai
- School for the Environment, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Kimberly A. Casey
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
- Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
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Alexander HD, Mack MC. A Canopy Shift in Interior Alaskan Boreal Forests: Consequences for Above- and Belowground Carbon and Nitrogen Pools during Post-fire Succession. Ecosystems 2015. [DOI: 10.1007/s10021-015-9920-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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17
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Hudspith VA, Belcher CM, Kelly R, Hu FS. Charcoal reflectance reveals early holocene boreal deciduous forests burned at high intensities. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0120835. [PMID: 25853712 PMCID: PMC4390342 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2014] [Accepted: 12/30/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Wildfire size, frequency, and severity are increasing in the Alaskan boreal forest in response to climate warming. One of the potential impacts of this changing fire regime is the alteration of successional trajectories, from black spruce to mixed stands dominated by aspen, a vegetation composition not experienced since the early Holocene. Such changes in vegetation composition may consequently alter the intensity of fires, influencing fire feedbacks to the ecosystem. Paleorecords document past wildfire-vegetation dynamics and as such, are imperative for our understanding of how these ecosystems will respond to future climate warming. For the first time, we have used reflectance measurements of macroscopic charcoal particles (>180μm) from an Alaskan lake-sediment record to estimate ancient charring temperatures (termed pyrolysis intensity). We demonstrate that pyrolysis intensity increased markedly from an interval of birch tundra 11 ky ago (mean 1.52%Ro; 485°C), to the expansion of trees on the landscape ~10.5 ky ago, remaining high to the present (mean 3.54%Ro; 640°C) irrespective of stand composition. Despite differing flammabilities and adaptations to fire, the highest pyrolysis intensities derive from two intervals with distinct vegetation compositions. 1) the expansion of mixed aspen and spruce woodland at 10 cal. kyr BP, and 2) the establishment of black spruce, and the modern boreal forest at 4 cal. kyr BP. Based on our analysis, we infer that predicted expansion of deciduous trees into the boreal forest in the future could lead to high intensity, but low severity fires, potentially moderating future climate-fire feedbacks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victoria A. Hudspith
- Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Claire M. Belcher
- PalaeoFire Lab, Department of Geography, Hatherly Laboratories, University of Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom
| | - Ryan Kelly
- Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Feng Sheng Hu
- Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
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Zhang Y, Liang S. Changes in forest biomass and linkage to climate and forest disturbances over Northeastern China. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2014; 20:2596-2606. [PMID: 24687944 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12588] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2013] [Revised: 02/19/2014] [Accepted: 02/27/2014] [Indexed: 06/03/2023]
Abstract
The forests of northeastern China store nearly half of the country's total biomass carbon stocks. In this study, we investigated the changes in forest biomass by using satellite observations and found that a significant increase in forest biomass took place between 2001 and 2010. To determine the possible reasons for this change, several statistical methods were used to analyze the correlations between forest biomass dynamics and forest disturbances (i.e. fires, insect damage, logging, and afforestation and reforestation), climatic factors, and forest development. Results showed that forest development was the most important contributor to the increasing trend of forest biomass from 2001 to 2010, and climate controls were the secondary important factor. Among the four types of forest disturbance considered in this study, forest recovery from fires, and afforestation and reforestation during the past few decades played an important role in short-term biomass dynamics. This study provided observational evidence and valuable information for the relationships between forest biomass and climate as well as forest disturbances.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuzhen Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
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19
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Liu Z, Yang J. Quantifying ecological drivers of ecosystem productivity of the early-successional borealLarix gmeliniiforest. Ecosphere 2014. [DOI: 10.1890/es13-00372.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
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20
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Fan Z, Jastrow JD, Liang C, Matamala R, Miller RM. Priming effects in boreal black spruce forest soils: quantitative evaluation and sensitivity analysis. PLoS One 2013; 8:e77880. [PMID: 24205010 PMCID: PMC3813770 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0077880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2013] [Accepted: 09/05/2013] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Laboratory studies show that introduction of fresh and easily decomposable organic carbon (OC) into soil-water systems can stimulate the decomposition of soil OC (SOC) via priming effects in temperate forests, shrublands, grasslands, and agro-ecosystems. However, priming effects are still not well understood in the field setting for temperate ecosystems and virtually nothing is known about priming effects (e.g., existence, frequency, and magnitude) in boreal ecosystems. In this study, a coupled dissolved OC (DOC) transport and microbial biomass dynamics model was developed to simultaneously simulate co-occurring hydrological, physical, and biological processes and their interactions in soil pore-water systems. The developed model was then used to examine the importance of priming effects in two black spruce forest soils, with and without underlying permafrost. Our simulations showed that priming effects were strongly controlled by the frequency and intensity of DOC input, with greater priming effects associated with greater DOC inputs. Sensitivity analyses indicated that priming effects were most sensitive to variations in the quality of SOC, followed by variations in microbial biomass dynamics (i.e., microbial death and maintenance respiration), highlighting the urgent need to better discern these key parameters in future experiments and to consider these dynamics in existing ecosystem models. Water movement carries DOC to deep soil layers that have high SOC stocks in boreal soils. Thus, greater priming effects were predicted for the site with favorable water movement than for the site with limited water flow, suggesting that priming effects might be accelerated for sites where permafrost degradation leads to the formation of dry thermokarst.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhaosheng Fan
- Biosciences Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Julie D. Jastrow
- Biosciences Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Chao Liang
- Biosciences Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Roser Matamala
- Biosciences Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Raymond Michael Miller
- Biosciences Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois, United States of America
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21
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22
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Parks SA, Miller C, Nelson CR, Holden ZA. Previous Fires Moderate Burn Severity of Subsequent Wildland Fires in Two Large Western US Wilderness Areas. Ecosystems 2013. [DOI: 10.1007/s10021-013-9704-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 103] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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23
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McGuire KL, Allison SD, Fierer N, Treseder KK. Ectomycorrhizal-dominated boreal and tropical forests have distinct fungal communities, but analogous spatial patterns across soil horizons. PLoS One 2013; 8:e68278. [PMID: 23874569 PMCID: PMC3706605 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0068278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2012] [Accepted: 05/31/2013] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Fungi regulate key nutrient cycling processes in many forest ecosystems, but their diversity and distribution within and across ecosystems are poorly understood. Here, we examine the spatial distribution of fungi across a boreal and tropical ecosystem, focusing on ectomycorrhizal fungi. We analyzed fungal community composition across litter (organic horizons) and underlying soil horizons (0-20 cm) using 454 pyrosequencing and clone library sequencing. In both forests, we found significant clustering of fungal communities by site and soil horizons with analogous patterns detected by both sequencing technologies. Free-living saprotrophic fungi dominated the recently-shed leaf litter and ectomycorrhizal fungi dominated the underlying soil horizons. This vertical pattern of fungal segregation has also been found in temperate and European boreal forests, suggesting that these results apply broadly to ectomycorrhizal-dominated systems, including tropical rain forests. Since ectomycorrhizal and free-living saprotrophic fungi have different influences on soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics, information on the spatial distribution of these functional groups will improve our understanding of forest nutrient cycling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Krista L McGuire
- Department of Biology, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America.
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24
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Are Mosses Required to Accurately Predict Upland Black Spruce Forest Soil Carbon in National-Scale Forest C Accounting Models? Ecosystems 2013. [DOI: 10.1007/s10021-013-9668-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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25
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Hollingsworth TN, Johnstone JF, Bernhardt EL, Chapin FS. Fire severity filters regeneration traits to shape community assembly in Alaska's boreal forest. PLoS One 2013; 8:e56033. [PMID: 23418503 PMCID: PMC3572144 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 78] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2012] [Accepted: 01/04/2013] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Disturbance can both initiate and shape patterns of secondary succession by affecting processes of community assembly. Thus, understanding assembly rules is a key element of predicting ecological responses to changing disturbance regimes. We measured the composition and trait characteristics of plant communities early after widespread wildfires in Alaska to assess how variations in disturbance characteristics influenced the relative success of different plant regeneration strategies. We compared patterns of post-fire community composition and abundance of regeneration traits across a range of fire severities within a single pre-fire forest type– black spruce forests of Interior Alaska. Patterns of community composition, as captured by multivariate ordination with nonmetric multidimensional scaling, were primarily related to gradients in fire severity (biomass combustion and residual vegetation) and secondarily to gradients in soil pH and regional climate. This pattern was apparent in both the full dataset (n = 87 sites) and for a reduced subset of sites (n = 49) that minimized the correlation between site moisture and fire severity. Changes in community composition across the fire-severity gradient in Alaska were strongly correlated to variations in plant regeneration strategy and rooting depth. The tight coupling of fire severity with regeneration traits and vegetation composition after fire supports the hypothesis that disturbance characteristics influence patterns of community assembly by affecting the relative success of different regeneration strategies. This study further demonstrated that variations in disturbance characteristics can dominate over environmental constraints in determining early patterns of community assembly. By affecting the success of regeneration traits, changes in fire regime directly shape the outcomes of community assembly, and thus may override the effects of slower environmental change on boreal forest composition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Teresa N Hollingsworth
- USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States of America.
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26
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Estimating Basal Area of Spruce and Fir in Post-fire Residual Stands in Central Siberia Using Quickbird, Feature Selection, and Random Forests. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2013. [DOI: 10.1016/j.procs.2013.05.410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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27
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Whiteside MD, Digman MA, Gratton E, Treseder KK. Organic nitrogen uptake by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in a boreal forest. SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY 2012; 55:10.1016/j.soilbio.2012.06.001. [PMID: 24371363 PMCID: PMC3871874 DOI: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2012.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
The breakdown of organic nitrogen in soil is a potential rate-limiting step in nitrogen cycling. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are root symbionts that might improve the ability of plants to compete for organic nitrogen products against other decomposer microbes. However, AM uptake of organic nitrogen, especially in natural systems, has traditionally been difficult to test. We developed a novel quantitative nanotechnological technique to determine in situ that organic nitrogen uptake by AM fungi can occur to a greater extent than has previously been assumed. Specifically, we found that AM fungi acquired recalcitrant and labile forms of organic nitrogen. Moreover, N enrichment of soil reduced plot-scale uptake of these compounds. Since most plants host AM fungi, AM use of organic nitrogen could widely influence plant productivity, especially where N availability is relatively low.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew D. Whiteside
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, 321 Steinhaus, Irvine, CA 92697-2525, USA
| | - Michelle A. Digman
- Laboratory for Fluorescent Dynamics, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-2525, USA
| | - Enrico Gratton
- Laboratory for Fluorescent Dynamics, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-2525, USA
| | - Kathleen K. Treseder
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, 321 Steinhaus, Irvine, CA 92697-2525, USA
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Turetsky MR, Bond-Lamberty B, Euskirchen E, Talbot J, Frolking S, McGuire AD, Tuittila ES. The resilience and functional role of moss in boreal and arctic ecosystems. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2012; 196:49-67. [PMID: 22924403 DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2012.04254.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 142] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Mosses in northern ecosystems are ubiquitous components of plant communities, and strongly influence nutrient, carbon and water cycling. We use literature review, synthesis and model simulations to explore the role of mosses in ecological stability and resilience. Moss community responses to disturbance showed all possible responses (increases, decreases, no change) within most disturbance categories. Simulations from two process-based models suggest that northern ecosystems would need to experience extreme perturbation before mosses were eliminated. But simulations with two other models suggest that loss of moss will reduce soil carbon accumulation primarily by influencing decomposition rates and soil nitrogen availability. It seems clear that mosses need to be incorporated into models as one or more plant functional types, but more empirical work is needed to determine how to best aggregate species. We highlight several issues that have not been adequately explored in moss communities, such as functional redundancy and singularity, relationships between response and effect traits, and parameter vs conceptual uncertainty in models. Mosses play an important role in several ecosystem processes that play out over centuries - permafrost formation and thaw, peat accumulation, development of microtopography - and there is a need for studies that increase our understanding of slow, long-term dynamical processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- M R Turetsky
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph ON N1G 1G2, Canada
| | - B Bond-Lamberty
- Joint Global Change Research Institute, DOE Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 5825 University Research Ct, College Park, MD, USA
| | - E Euskirchen
- University of Alaska Fairbanks, Institute of Arctic Biology, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA
| | - J Talbot
- Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, and Department of Earth Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA
- Département de Géographie, Université de Montréal, Montréal QC H2V 2B8, Canada
| | - S Frolking
- Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, and Department of Earth Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA
| | - A D McGuire
- US Geological Survey, Alaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA
| | - E-S Tuittila
- School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, PO Box 111, FIN-80101 Joensuu, Finland
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Holden SR, Gutierrez A, Treseder KK. Changes in Soil Fungal Communities, Extracellular Enzyme Activities, and Litter Decomposition Across a Fire Chronosequence in Alaskan Boreal Forests. Ecosystems 2012. [DOI: 10.1007/s10021-012-9594-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 117] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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30
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Alexander HD, Mack MC, Goetz S, Beck PSA, Belshe EF. Implications of increased deciduous cover on stand structure and aboveground carbon pools of Alaskan boreal forests. Ecosphere 2012. [DOI: 10.1890/es11-00364.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
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31
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Jin Y, Randerson JT, Goetz SJ, Beck PSA, Loranty MM, Goulden ML. The influence of burn severity on postfire vegetation recovery and albedo change during early succession in North American boreal forests. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2012. [DOI: 10.1029/2011jg001886] [Citation(s) in RCA: 92] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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Harden JW, Manies KL, O'Donnell J, Johnson K, Frolking S, Fan Z. Spatiotemporal analysis of black spruce forest soils and implications for the fate of C. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2012. [DOI: 10.1029/2011jg001826] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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Grosse G, Harden J, Turetsky M, McGuire AD, Camill P, Tarnocai C, Frolking S, Schuur EAG, Jorgenson T, Marchenko S, Romanovsky V, Wickland KP, French N, Waldrop M, Bourgeau-Chavez L, Striegl RG. Vulnerability of high-latitude soil organic carbon in North America to disturbance. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2011. [DOI: 10.1029/2010jg001507] [Citation(s) in RCA: 305] [Impact Index Per Article: 23.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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Haslem A, Kelly LT, Nimmo DG, Watson SJ, Kenny SA, Taylor RS, Avitabile SC, Callister KE, Spence-Bailey LM, Clarke MF, Bennett AF. Habitat or fuel? Implications of long-term, post-fire dynamics for the development of key resources for fauna and fire. J Appl Ecol 2010. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2010.01906.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 145] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Yi S, McGuire AD, Kasischke E, Harden J, Manies K, Mack M, Turetsky M. A dynamic organic soil biogeochemical model for simulating the effects of wildfire on soil environmental conditions and carbon dynamics of black spruce forests. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2010. [DOI: 10.1029/2010jg001302] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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Boby LA, Schuur EAG, Mack MC, Verbyla D, Johnstone JF. Quantifying fire severity, carbon, and nitrogen emissions in Alaska's boreal forest. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2010; 20:1633-47. [PMID: 20945764 DOI: 10.1890/08-2295.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
The boreal region stores a large proportion of the world's terrestrial carbon (C) and is subject to high-intensity, stand-replacing wildfires that release C and nitrogen (N) stored in biomass and soils through combustion. While severity and extent of fires drives overall emissions, methods for accurately estimating fire severity are poorly tested in this unique region where organic soil combustion is responsible for a large proportion of total emissions. We tested a method using adventitious roots on black spruce trees (Picea mariana) in combination with canopy allometry to reconstruct prefire organic soil layers and canopy biomass in boreal black spruce forests of Alaska (USA), thus providing a basis for more accurately quantifying fire severity levels. We calibrated this adventitious-root-height method in unburned spruce stands and then tested it by comparing our biomass and soils estimates reconstructed in burned stands with actual prefire stand measurements. We applied this approach to 38 black spruce stands burned in 2004 in Alaska, where we measured organic soil and stand characteristics and estimated the amount of soil and canopy biomass, as well as C and N pools, consumed by fire. These high-intensity quantitative estimates of severity were significantly correlated to a semiquantitative visual rapid assessment tool, the composite burn index (CBI). This index has proved useful for assessing fire severity in forests in the western United States but has not yet been widely tested in the boreal forest. From our study, we conclude that using postfire measurements of adventitious roots on black spruce trees in combination with soils and tree data can be used to reconstruct prefire organic soil depths and biomass pools, providing accurate estimates of fire severity and emissions. Furthermore, using our quantitative reconstruction we show that CBI is a reasonably good predictor of biomass and soil C loss at these sites, and it shows promise for rapidly estimating fire severity across a wide range of boreal black spruce forest types, especially where the use of high-intensity measurements may be limited by cost and time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leslie A Boby
- School of Natural Resources, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA
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Goetz SJ, Sun M, Baccini A, Beck PSA. Synergistic use of spaceborne lidar and optical imagery for assessing forest disturbance: An Alaska case study. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2010. [DOI: 10.1029/2008jg000898] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- S. J. Goetz
- Woods Hole Research Center; Falmouth Massachusetts USA
| | - M. Sun
- Woods Hole Research Center; Falmouth Massachusetts USA
| | - A. Baccini
- Woods Hole Research Center; Falmouth Massachusetts USA
| | - P. S. A. Beck
- Woods Hole Research Center; Falmouth Massachusetts USA
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Kane ES, Vogel JG. Patterns of Total Ecosystem Carbon Storage with Changes in Soil Temperature in Boreal Black Spruce Forests. Ecosystems 2009. [DOI: 10.1007/s10021-008-9225-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Fan Z, Neff JC, Harden JW, Wickland KP. Boreal soil carbon dynamics under a changing climate: A model inversion approach. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2008. [DOI: 10.1029/2008jg000723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Zhaosheng Fan
- Geological Sciences Department; University of Colorado; Boulder Colorado USA
| | - Jason C. Neff
- Geological Sciences Department; University of Colorado; Boulder Colorado USA
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Plant Community Composition as a Predictor of Regional Soil Carbon Storage in Alaskan Boreal Black Spruce Ecosystems. Ecosystems 2008. [DOI: 10.1007/s10021-008-9147-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Liu H, Randerson JT. Interannual variability of surface energy exchange depends on stand age in a boreal forest fire chronosequence. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2008. [DOI: 10.1029/2007jg000483] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Heping Liu
- Department of Physics, Atmospheric Sciences, and Geoscience; Jackson State University; Jackson Mississippi USA
| | - James T. Randerson
- Department of Earth System Science; University of California; Irvine California USA
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