Articles | Volume 11, issue 23
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-6827-2014
© Author(s) 2014. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-6827-2014
© Author(s) 2014. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
08 Dec 2014
Research article |
| 08 Dec 2014
Local spatial structure of forest biomass and its consequences for remote sensing of carbon stocks
M. Réjou-Méchain
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité Biologique, UMR5174 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 31062 Toulouse, France
H. C. Muller-Landau
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado Postal 0843-03092 Balboa, Ancon, Panama
M. Detto
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado Postal 0843-03092 Balboa, Ancon, Panama
S. C. Thomas
University of Toronto, Faculty of Forestry, Toronto, Canada
T. Le Toan
Centre d'Etudes Spatiales de la Biosphère, UMR5126 CNRS, CNES, Université Paul Sabatier, IRD, 31401 Toulouse, France
S. S. Saatchi
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA
J. S. Barreto-Silva
Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas SINCHI, Avenida Vásquez Cobo entre calles 15 y 16, Leticia, Amazonas, Colombia
N. A. Bourg
Conservation Ecology Center Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute National Zoological Park 1500 Remount Rd., Front Royal, VA 22630, USA
S. Bunyavejchewin
National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, Research Office, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900, Thailand
N. Butt
ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, 4072, Australia
Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK
W. Y. Brockelman
Ecology Lab, Bioresources Technology Unit, 113 Science Park, Paholyothin Road, Khlong 1, Khlongluang, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand
M. Cao
Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
D. Cárdenas
Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas SINCHI, Calle 20 No. 5 -44. Bogotá, Colombia
J.-M. Chiang
Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, Taichung 40704, Taiwan
G. B. Chuyong
Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, University of Buea, PO Box 63, Buea, Cameroon
K. Clay
Department of Biology, Indiana University, Jordan Hall, 1001 East Third Street, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
R. Condit
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado Postal 0843-03092 Balboa, Ancon, Panama
H. S. Dattaraja
Center for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
S. J. Davies
Center for Tropical Forest Science, Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, DC 20012, USA
A. Duque
Departamento de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medellín. Calle 59A No 63-20, Medellín, Colombia
S. Esufali
Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
C. Ewango
Centre de Formation et de Recherche en Conservation Forestière (CEFRECOF), Wildlife Conservation Society, Kinshasa, DR Congo
R. H. S. Fernando
Royal Botanical Garden, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
C. D. Fletcher
Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), 52109 Kepong, Selangor, Malaysia
I. A. U. N. Gunatilleke
Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Z. Hao
State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110164, China
K. E. Harms
Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
T. B. Hart
Project TL2, Kinshasa, DR Congo
B. Hérault
Cirad, UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane (EcoFoG), Campus Agronomique, BP701, 97310 Kourou, French Guiana
R. W. Howe
Department of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Green Bay, WI 54311, USA
S. P. Hubbell
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado Postal 0843-03092 Balboa, Ancon, Panama
D. J. Johnson
Department of Biology, Indiana University, Jordan Hall, 1001 East Third Street, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
D. Kenfack
CTFS-Arnold Arboretum Office, Harvard University, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
A. J. Larson
Department of Forest Management, College of Forestry and Conservation, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, USA
L. Lin
Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
Y. Lin
Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, Taichung 40704, Taiwan
J. A. Lutz
Wildland Resources Department, Utah State University, 5230 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-5230, USA
J.-R. Makana
Wildlife Conservation Society – DRC Program, Kinshasa, DR Congo
Y. Malhi
Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK
T. R. Marthews
Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK
R. W. McEwan
Department of Biology, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH 45469-2320, USA
S. M. McMahon
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute {&} Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, Maryland, USA
W. J. McShea
Conservation Ecology Center Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute National Zoological Park 1500 Remount Rd., Front Royal, VA 22630, USA
R. Muscarella
Department of Ecology, Evolution {&} Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
A. Nathalang
Ecology Lab, Bioresources Technology Unit, 113 Science Park, Paholyothin Road, Khlong 1, Khlongluang, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand
N. S. M. Noor
Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), 52109 Kepong, Selangor, Malaysia
C. J. Nytch
Department of Environmental Science, University of Puerto Rico, Box 70377, Rio Piedras, San Juan, 00936-8377, Puerto Rico
A. A. Oliveira
Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, 04582050 São Paulo, Brazil
R. P. Phillips
Department of Biology, Indiana University, Jordan Hall, 1001 East Third Street, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
N. Pongpattananurak
Department of Conservation, Faculty of Forestry, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand
R. Punchi-Manage
Department of Ecosystem Modelling, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
R. Salim
Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), 52109 Kepong, Selangor, Malaysia
J. Schurman
University of Toronto, Faculty of Forestry, Toronto, Canada
R. Sukumar
Center for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
H. S. Suresh
Center for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
U. Suwanvecho
Ecology Lab, Bioresources Technology Unit, 113 Science Park, Paholyothin Road, Khlong 1, Khlongluang, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand
D. W. Thomas
Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
J. Thompson
Department of Environmental Science, University of Puerto Rico, Box 70377, Rio Piedras, San Juan, 00936-8377, Puerto Rico
Centre for Ecology {&} Hydrology, Edinburgh, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland EH26 0QB, UK
M. Uríarte
Department of Ecology, Evolution {&} Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
R. Valencia
Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Apartado 17-01-2184, Quito, Ecuador
A. Vicentini
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia – Manaus, AM, Brazil
A. T. Wolf
Department of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Green Bay, WI 54311, USA
S. Yap
Institute of Biology University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines
Z. Yuan
State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110164, China
C. E. Zartman
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia – Manaus, AM, Brazil
J. K. Zimmerman
Department of Environmental Science, University of Puerto Rico, Box 70377, Rio Piedras, San Juan, 00936-8377, Puerto Rico
J. Chave
Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité Biologique, UMR5174 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 31062 Toulouse, France
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Our study contributed to improving the understanding of temporal variation and climate correlates of canopy disturbances mainly caused by treefalls and branchfalls. We used a unique dataset of 5 years of approximately monthly drone-acquired RGB (red–green–blue) imagery for 50 ha of mature tropical forest on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. We found that canopy disturbance rates were highly temporally variable, were higher in the wet season, and were related to extreme rainfall events.
Rafael Poyatos, Víctor Granda, Víctor Flo, Mark A. Adams, Balázs Adorján, David Aguadé, Marcos P. M. Aidar, Scott Allen, M. Susana Alvarado-Barrientos, Kristina J. Anderson-Teixeira, Luiza Maria Aparecido, M. Altaf Arain, Ismael Aranda, Heidi Asbjornsen, Robert Baxter, Eric Beamesderfer, Z. Carter Berry, Daniel Berveiller, Bethany Blakely, Johnny Boggs, Gil Bohrer, Paul V. Bolstad, Damien Bonal, Rosvel Bracho, Patricia Brito, Jason Brodeur, Fernando Casanoves, Jérôme Chave, Hui Chen, Cesar Cisneros, Kenneth Clark, Edoardo Cremonese, Hongzhong Dang, Jorge S. David, Teresa S. David, Nicolas Delpierre, Ankur R. Desai, Frederic C. Do, Michal Dohnal, Jean-Christophe Domec, Sebinasi Dzikiti, Colin Edgar, Rebekka Eichstaedt, Tarek S. El-Madany, Jan Elbers, Cleiton B. Eller, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Brent Ewers, Patrick Fonti, Alicia Forner, David I. Forrester, Helber C. Freitas, Marta Galvagno, Omar Garcia-Tejera, Chandra Prasad Ghimire, Teresa E. Gimeno, John Grace, André Granier, Anne Griebel, Yan Guangyu, Mark B. Gush, Paul J. Hanson, Niles J. Hasselquist, Ingo Heinrich, Virginia Hernandez-Santana, Valentine Herrmann, Teemu Hölttä, Friso Holwerda, James Irvine, Supat Isarangkool Na Ayutthaya, Paul G. Jarvis, Hubert Jochheim, Carlos A. Joly, Julia Kaplick, Hyun Seok Kim, Leif Klemedtsson, Heather Kropp, Fredrik Lagergren, Patrick Lane, Petra Lang, Andrei Lapenas, Víctor Lechuga, Minsu Lee, Christoph Leuschner, Jean-Marc Limousin, Juan Carlos Linares, Maj-Lena Linderson, Anders Lindroth, Pilar Llorens, Álvaro López-Bernal, Michael M. Loranty, Dietmar Lüttschwager, Cate Macinnis-Ng, Isabelle Maréchaux, Timothy A. Martin, Ashley Matheny, Nate McDowell, Sean McMahon, Patrick Meir, Ilona Mészáros, Mirco Migliavacca, Patrick Mitchell, Meelis Mölder, Leonardo Montagnani, Georgianne W. Moore, Ryogo Nakada, Furong Niu, Rachael H. Nolan, Richard Norby, Kimberly Novick, Walter Oberhuber, Nikolaus Obojes, A. Christopher Oishi, Rafael S. Oliveira, Ram Oren, Jean-Marc Ourcival, Teemu Paljakka, Oscar Perez-Priego, Pablo L. Peri, Richard L. Peters, Sebastian Pfautsch, William T. Pockman, Yakir Preisler, Katherine Rascher, George Robinson, Humberto Rocha, Alain Rocheteau, Alexander Röll, Bruno H. P. Rosado, Lucy Rowland, Alexey V. Rubtsov, Santiago Sabaté, Yann Salmon, Roberto L. Salomón, Elisenda Sánchez-Costa, Karina V. R. Schäfer, Bernhard Schuldt, Alexandr Shashkin, Clément Stahl, Marko Stojanović, Juan Carlos Suárez, Ge Sun, Justyna Szatniewska, Fyodor Tatarinov, Miroslav Tesař, Frank M. Thomas, Pantana Tor-ngern, Josef Urban, Fernando Valladares, Christiaan van der Tol, Ilja van Meerveld, Andrej Varlagin, Holm Voigt, Jeffrey Warren, Christiane Werner, Willy Werner, Gerhard Wieser, Lisa Wingate, Stan Wullschleger, Koong Yi, Roman Zweifel, Kathy Steppe, Maurizio Mencuccini, and Jordi Martínez-Vilalta
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 2607–2649, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-2607-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-2607-2021, 2021
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Transpiration is a key component of global water balance, but it is poorly constrained from available observations. We present SAPFLUXNET, the first global database of tree-level transpiration from sap flow measurements, containing 202 datasets and covering a wide range of ecological conditions. SAPFLUXNET and its accompanying R software package
sapfluxnetrwill facilitate new data syntheses on the ecological factors driving water use and drought responses of trees and forests.
Anna B. Harper, Karina E. Williams, Patrick C. McGuire, Maria Carolina Duran Rojas, Debbie Hemming, Anne Verhoef, Chris Huntingford, Lucy Rowland, Toby Marthews, Cleiton Breder Eller, Camilla Mathison, Rodolfo L. B. Nobrega, Nicola Gedney, Pier Luigi Vidale, Fred Otu-Larbi, Divya Pandey, Sebastien Garrigues, Azin Wright, Darren Slevin, Martin G. De Kauwe, Eleanor Blyth, Jonas Ardö, Andrew Black, Damien Bonal, Nina Buchmann, Benoit Burban, Kathrin Fuchs, Agnès de Grandcourt, Ivan Mammarella, Lutz Merbold, Leonardo Montagnani, Yann Nouvellon, Natalia Restrepo-Coupe, and Georg Wohlfahrt
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 3269–3294, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3269-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3269-2021, 2021
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We evaluated 10 representations of soil moisture stress in the JULES land surface model against site observations of GPP and latent heat flux. Increasing the soil depth and plant access to deep soil moisture improved many aspects of the simulations, and we recommend these settings in future work using JULES. In addition, using soil matric potential presents the opportunity to include parameters specific to plant functional type to further improve modeled fluxes.
Simon J. Dadson, Eleanor Blyth, Douglas Clark, Helen Davies, Richard Ellis, Huw Lewis, Toby Marthews, and Ponnambalan Rameshwaran
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-60, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-60, 2021
Manuscript not accepted for further review
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Flood prediction helps national and regional planning and real-time flood response. In this study we apply and test a new way to make wide area predictions of flooding which can be combined with weather forecasting and climate models to give faster predictions of flooded areas. By simplifying the detailed floodplain topography we can keep track of the fraction of land flooded for hazard mapping purposes. When tested this approach accurately reproduces benchmark datasets for England.
A. Anthony Bloom, Kevin W. Bowman, Junjie Liu, Alexandra G. Konings, John R. Worden, Nicholas C. Parazoo, Victoria Meyer, John T. Reager, Helen M. Worden, Zhe Jiang, Gregory R. Quetin, T. Luke Smallman, Jean-François Exbrayat, Yi Yin, Sassan S. Saatchi, Mathew Williams, and David S. Schimel
Biogeosciences, 17, 6393–6422, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-6393-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-6393-2020, 2020
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We use a model of the 2001–2015 tropical land carbon cycle, with satellite measurements of land and atmospheric carbon, to disentangle lagged and concurrent effects (due to past and concurrent meteorological events, respectively) on annual land–atmosphere carbon exchanges. The variability of lagged effects explains most 2001–2015 inter-annual carbon flux variations. We conclude that concurrent and lagged effects need to be accurately resolved to better predict the world's land carbon sink.
Ashley E. Van Beusekom, Grizelle González, Sarah Stankavich, Jess K. Zimmerman, and Alonso Ramírez
Biogeosciences, 17, 3149–3163, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-3149-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-3149-2020, 2020
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This study looks at forest abiotic responses to canopy openness and debris deposition that follow a hurricane. We find that recovery to full canopy may take over half a decade and that recovery of humidity, soil moisture, and leaf saturation under the canopy is not monotonic and may temporarily look recovered before the response is over. Furthermore, we find that satellite data show a quicker recovery than field data, necessitating caution when looking at responses to hurricanes with satellites.
Charles D. Koven, Ryan G. Knox, Rosie A. Fisher, Jeffrey Q. Chambers, Bradley O. Christoffersen, Stuart J. Davies, Matteo Detto, Michael C. Dietze, Boris Faybishenko, Jennifer Holm, Maoyi Huang, Marlies Kovenock, Lara M. Kueppers, Gregory Lemieux, Elias Massoud, Nathan G. McDowell, Helene C. Muller-Landau, Jessica F. Needham, Richard J. Norby, Thomas Powell, Alistair Rogers, Shawn P. Serbin, Jacquelyn K. Shuman, Abigail L. S. Swann, Charuleka Varadharajan, Anthony P. Walker, S. Joseph Wright, and Chonggang Xu
Biogeosciences, 17, 3017–3044, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-3017-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-3017-2020, 2020
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Tropical forests play a crucial role in governing climate feedbacks, and are incredibly diverse ecosystems, yet most Earth system models do not take into account the diversity of plant traits in these forests and how this diversity may govern feedbacks. We present an approach to represent diverse competing plant types within Earth system models, test this approach at a tropical forest site, and explore how the representation of disturbance and competition governs traits of the forest community.
Kurt C. Solander, Brent D. Newman, Alessandro Carioca de Araujo, Holly R. Barnard, Z. Carter Berry, Damien Bonal, Mario Bretfeld, Benoit Burban, Luiz Antonio Candido, Rolando Célleri, Jeffery Q. Chambers, Bradley O. Christoffersen, Matteo Detto, Wouter A. Dorigo, Brent E. Ewers, Savio José Filgueiras Ferreira, Alexander Knohl, L. Ruby Leung, Nate G. McDowell, Gretchen R. Miller, Maria Terezinha Ferreira Monteiro, Georgianne W. Moore, Robinson Negron-Juarez, Scott R. Saleska, Christian Stiegler, Javier Tomasella, and Chonggang Xu
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 2303–2322, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-2303-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-2303-2020, 2020
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We evaluate the soil moisture response in the humid tropics to El Niño during the three most recent super El Niño events. Our estimates are compared to in situ soil moisture estimates that span five continents. We find the strongest and most consistent soil moisture decreases in the Amazon and maritime southeastern Asia, while the most consistent increases occur over eastern Africa. Our results can be used to improve estimates of soil moisture in tropical ecohydrology models at multiple scales.
Nidhi Jha, Nitin Kumar Tripathi, Wirong Chanthorn, Warren Brockelman, Anuttara Nathalang, Raphaël Pélissier, Siriruk Pimmasarn, Pierre Ploton, Nophea Sasaki, Salvatore G. P. Virdis, and Maxime Réjou-Méchain
Biogeosciences, 17, 121–134, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-121-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-121-2020, 2020
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Carbon stocks and dynamics are both uncertain in tropical forests, especially in Asia. We here quantify the carbon stock and recovery rate of a Thai landscape using airborne lidar and four decades of Landsat data. We show that the landscape has a high carbon stock despite its disturbance history and that secondary forests are accumulating carbon at high rate. Our study shows the potential synergy of remote sensing and field data to characterize the carbon dynamics of tropical forests.
Toby R. Marthews, Eleanor M. Blyth, Alberto Martínez-de la Torre, and Ted I. E. Veldkamp
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 75–92, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-75-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-75-2020, 2020
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Climate change impact modellers can only act on predictions of the occurrence of an extreme event in the Earth system if they know the uncertainty in that prediction and how uncertainty is attributable to different model components. Using eartH2Observe data, we quantify the balance between different sources of uncertainty in global evapotranspiration and runoff, making a crucial contribution to understanding the spatial distribution of water resources allocation deficiencies.
Sophie Flack-Prain, Patrick Meir, Yadvinder Malhi, Thomas Luke Smallman, and Mathew Williams
Biogeosciences, 16, 4463–4484, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-4463-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-4463-2019, 2019
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Across the Amazon rainforest, trees take in carbon through photosynthesis. However, photosynthesis across the basin is threatened by predicted shifts in rainfall patterns. To unpick how changes in rainfall affect photosynthesis, we use a model which combines climate data with our knowledge of photosynthesis and other plant processes. We find that stomatal constraints are less important, and instead shifts in leaf surface area and leaf properties drive changes in photosynthesis with rainfall.
Mohammad Abdul Halim, Han Y. H. Chen, and Sean C. Thomas
Biogeosciences, 16, 4357–4375, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-4357-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-4357-2019, 2019
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Using field data collected over 4 years across a range of stand ages, we investigated how seasonal surface albedo in boreal forest varies with stand age, stand structure, and composition. Our results indicate that successional change in species composition is a key driver of age–related patterns in albedo, with hardwood species associated with higher albedo. The patterns described have important implications for both climate modeling and
climate–smartboreal forest management.
Isabel Martínez Cano, Helene C. Muller-Landau, S. Joseph Wright, Stephanie A. Bohlman, and Stephen W. Pacala
Biogeosciences, 16, 847–862, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-847-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-847-2019, 2019
Tommaso Jucker, Gregory P. Asner, Michele Dalponte, Philip G. Brodrick, Christopher D. Philipson, Nicholas R. Vaughn, Yit Arn Teh, Craig Brelsford, David F. R. P. Burslem, Nicolas J. Deere, Robert M. Ewers, Jakub Kvasnica, Simon L. Lewis, Yadvinder Malhi, Sol Milne, Reuben Nilus, Marion Pfeifer, Oliver L. Phillips, Lan Qie, Nathan Renneboog, Glen Reynolds, Terhi Riutta, Matthew J. Struebig, Martin Svátek, Edgar C. Turner, and David A. Coomes
Biogeosciences, 15, 3811–3830, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-3811-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-3811-2018, 2018
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Efforts to protect tropical forests hinge on recognizing the ecosystem services they provide, including their ability to store carbon. Airborne laser scanning (ALS) captures information on the 3-D structure of forests, allowing carbon stocks to be mapped. By combining ALS with data from 173 field plots on the island of Borneo, we develop a simple yet general model for estimating forest carbon stocks from the air. Our model underpins ongoing efforts to restore Borneo's unique tropical forests.
Victoria Meyer, Sassan Saatchi, David B. Clark, Michael Keller, Grégoire Vincent, António Ferraz, Fernando Espírito-Santo, Marcus V. N. d'Oliveira, Dahlia Kaki, and Jérôme Chave
Biogeosciences, 15, 3377–3390, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-3377-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-3377-2018, 2018
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This study shows how a simple lidar-derived metric measuring the area covered by large trees (> 27 m) can explain biomass variations across the Neotropics. The importance of this metric is in its relevance to the structural and ecological characteristics of large trees and their unique contribution in determining the biomass of forests. Our results point toward simplified ground data collection and potential algorithms for future space missions focusing on biomass estimation.
Huw W. Lewis, Juan Manuel Castillo Sanchez, Jennifer Graham, Andrew Saulter, Jorge Bornemann, Alex Arnold, Joachim Fallmann, Chris Harris, David Pearson, Steven Ramsdale, Alberto Martínez-de la Torre, Lucy Bricheno, Eleanor Blyth, Victoria A. Bell, Helen Davies, Toby R. Marthews, Clare O'Neill, Heather Rumbold, Enda O'Dea, Ashley Brereton, Karen Guihou, Adrian Hines, Momme Butenschon, Simon J. Dadson, Tamzin Palmer, Jason Holt, Nick Reynard, Martin Best, John Edwards, and John Siddorn
Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 1–42, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1-2018, 2018
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In the real world the atmosphere, oceans and land surface are closely interconnected, and yet prediction systems tend to treat them in isolation. Those feedbacks are often illustrated in natural hazards, such as when strong winds lead to large waves and coastal damage, or when prolonged rainfall leads to saturated ground and high flowing rivers. For the first time, we have attempted to represent some of the feedbacks between sky, sea and land within a high-resolution forecast system for the UK.
Wei Li, Philippe Ciais, Shushi Peng, Chao Yue, Yilong Wang, Martin Thurner, Sassan S. Saatchi, Almut Arneth, Valerio Avitabile, Nuno Carvalhais, Anna B. Harper, Etsushi Kato, Charles Koven, Yi Y. Liu, Julia E.M.S. Nabel, Yude Pan, Julia Pongratz, Benjamin Poulter, Thomas A. M. Pugh, Maurizio Santoro, Stephen Sitch, Benjamin D. Stocker, Nicolas Viovy, Andy Wiltshire, Rasoul Yousefpour, and Sönke Zaehle
Biogeosciences, 14, 5053–5067, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5053-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5053-2017, 2017
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We used several observation-based biomass datasets to constrain the historical land-use change carbon emissions simulated by models. Compared to the range of the original modeled emissions (from 94 to 273 Pg C), the observationally constrained global cumulative emission estimate is 155 ± 50 Pg C (1σ Gaussian error) from 1901 to 2012. Our approach can also be applied to evaluate the LULCC impact of land-based climate mitigation policies.
Fabien H. Wagner, Bruno Hérault, Damien Bonal, Clément Stahl, Liana O. Anderson, Timothy R. Baker, Gabriel Sebastian Becker, Hans Beeckman, Danilo Boanerges Souza, Paulo Cesar Botosso, David M. J. S. Bowman, Achim Bräuning, Benjamin Brede, Foster Irving Brown, Jesus Julio Camarero, Plínio Barbosa Camargo, Fernanda C. G. Cardoso, Fabrício Alvim Carvalho, Wendeson Castro, Rubens Koloski Chagas, Jérome Chave, Emmanuel N. Chidumayo, Deborah A. Clark, Flavia Regina Capellotto Costa, Camille Couralet, Paulo Henrique da Silva Mauricio, Helmut Dalitz, Vinicius Resende de Castro, Jaçanan Eloisa de Freitas Milani, Edilson Consuelo de Oliveira, Luciano de Souza Arruda, Jean-Louis Devineau, David M. Drew, Oliver Dünisch, Giselda Durigan, Elisha Elifuraha, Marcio Fedele, Ligia Ferreira Fedele, Afonso Figueiredo Filho, César Augusto Guimarães Finger, Augusto César Franco, João Lima Freitas Júnior, Franklin Galvão, Aster Gebrekirstos, Robert Gliniars, Paulo Maurício Lima de Alencastro Graça, Anthony D. Griffiths, James Grogan, Kaiyu Guan, Jürgen Homeier, Maria Raquel Kanieski, Lip Khoon Kho, Jennifer Koenig, Sintia Valerio Kohler, Julia Krepkowski, José Pires Lemos-Filho, Diana Lieberman, Milton Eugene Lieberman, Claudio Sergio Lisi, Tomaz Longhi Santos, José Luis López Ayala, Eduardo Eijji Maeda, Yadvinder Malhi, Vivian R. B. Maria, Marcia C. M. Marques, Renato Marques, Hector Maza Chamba, Lawrence Mbwambo, Karina Liana Lisboa Melgaço, Hooz Angela Mendivelso, Brett P. Murphy, Joseph J. O'Brien, Steven F. Oberbauer, Naoki Okada, Raphaël Pélissier, Lynda D. Prior, Fidel Alejandro Roig, Michael Ross, Davi Rodrigo Rossatto, Vivien Rossi, Lucy Rowland, Ervan Rutishauser, Hellen Santana, Mark Schulze, Diogo Selhorst, Williamar Rodrigues Silva, Marcos Silveira, Susanne Spannl, Michael D. Swaine, José Julio Toledo, Marcos Miranda Toledo, Marisol Toledo, Takeshi Toma, Mario Tomazello Filho, Juan Ignacio Valdez Hernández, Jan Verbesselt, Simone Aparecida Vieira, Grégoire Vincent, Carolina Volkmer de Castilho, Franziska Volland, Martin Worbes, Magda Lea Bolzan Zanon, and Luiz E. O. C. Aragão
Biogeosciences, 13, 2537–2562, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-2537-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-2537-2016, 2016
Pierre Ploton, Nicolas Barbier, Stéphane Takoudjou Momo, Maxime Réjou-Méchain, Faustin Boyemba Bosela, Georges Chuyong, Gilles Dauby, Vincent Droissart, Adeline Fayolle, Rosa Calisto Goodman, Matieu Henry, Narcisse Guy Kamdem, John Katembo Mukirania, David Kenfack, Moses Libalah, Alfred Ngomanda, Vivien Rossi, Bonaventure Sonké, Nicolas Texier, Duncan Thomas, Donatien Zebaze, Pierre Couteron, Uta Berger, and Raphaël Pélissier
Biogeosciences, 13, 1571–1585, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-1571-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-1571-2016, 2016
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Monitoring forest carbon stocks requires understanding how resources allocation within trees varies across tree size, species and environmental conditions. Using data on tree dimensions and mass, we show that the average tree shape varies along ontogeny, with large canopy trees having a greater proportion of carbon in their crowns (up to 50 %). This variation pattern generates important bias in carbon predictions at both tree and stand levels, which can be corrected using simple crown metrics.
K. E. Clark, A. J. West, R. G. Hilton, G. P. Asner, C. A. Quesada, M. R. Silman, S. S. Saatchi, W. Farfan-Rios, R. E. Martin, A. B. Horwath, K. Halladay, M. New, and Y. Malhi
Earth Surf. Dynam., 4, 47–70, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-4-47-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-4-47-2016, 2016
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The key findings of this paper are that landslides in the eastern Andes of Peru in the Kosñipata Valley rapidly turn over the landscape in ~1320 years, with a rate of 0.076% yr-1. Additionally, landslides were concentrated at lower elevations, due to an intense storm in 2010 accounting for ~1/4 of the total landslide area over the 25-year remote sensing study. Valley-wide carbon stocks were determined, and we estimate that 26 tC km-2 yr-1 of soil and biomass are stripped by landslides.
L. Rowland, A. Harper, B. O. Christoffersen, D. R. Galbraith, H. M. A. Imbuzeiro, T. L. Powell, C. Doughty, N. M. Levine, Y. Malhi, S. R. Saleska, P. R. Moorcroft, P. Meir, and M. Williams
Geosci. Model Dev., 8, 1097–1110, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1097-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1097-2015, 2015
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This study evaluates the capability of five vegetation models to simulate the response of forest productivity to changes in temperature and drought, using data collected from an Amazonian forest. This study concludes that model consistencies in the responses of net canopy carbon production to temperature and precipitation change were the result of inconsistently modelled leaf-scale process responses and substantial variation in modelled leaf area responses.
T. R. Marthews, S. J. Dadson, B. Lehner, S. Abele, and N. Gedney
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 91–104, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-91-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-91-2015, 2015
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Modelling land surface water flow is of critical importance in the context of climate change predictions. Many approaches are based on the popular hydrology model TOPMODEL, and the most important parameter of this model is the well-known topographic index. Here we present new, higher-resolution parameter maps of the topographic index, which are ideal for land surface modelling applications and show important improvements on the previous standard maps from HYDRO1k.
K. E. Clark, M. A. Torres, A. J. West, R. G. Hilton, M. New, A. B. Horwath, J. B. Fisher, J. M. Rapp, A. Robles Caceres, and Y. Malhi
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 5377–5397, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-5377-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-5377-2014, 2014
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This paper presents measurements of the balance of water inputs and outputs over 1 year for a river basin in the Andes of Peru. Our results show that the annual water budget is balanced within a few percent uncertainty; that is to say, the amount of water entering the basin was the same as the amount leaving, providing important information for understanding the water cycle. We also show that seasonal storage of water is important in sustaining the flow of water during the dry season.
N. M. Fyllas, E. Gloor, L. M. Mercado, S. Sitch, C. A. Quesada, T. F. Domingues, D. R. Galbraith, A. Torre-Lezama, E. Vilanova, H. Ramírez-Angulo, N. Higuchi, D. A. Neill, M. Silveira, L. Ferreira, G. A. Aymard C., Y. Malhi, O. L. Phillips, and J. Lloyd
Geosci. Model Dev., 7, 1251–1269, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-7-1251-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-7-1251-2014, 2014
Q. Molto, B. Hérault, J.-J. Boreux, M. Daullet, A. Rousteau, and V. Rossi
Biogeosciences, 11, 3121–3130, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-3121-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-3121-2014, 2014
T. R. Marthews, C. A. Quesada, D. R. Galbraith, Y. Malhi, C. E. Mullins, M. G. Hodnett, and I. Dharssi
Geosci. Model Dev., 7, 711–723, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-7-711-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-7-711-2014, 2014
G. Feng, X. C. Mi, P. K. Bøcher, L. F. Mao, B. Sandel, M. Cao, W. H. Ye, Z. Q. Hao, H. D. Gong, Y. T. Zhang, X. H. Zhao, G. Z. Jin, K. P. Ma, and J.-C. Svenning
Biogeosciences, 11, 1361–1370, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-1361-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-1361-2014, 2014
G. P. Asner, C. B. Anderson, R. E. Martin, D. E. Knapp, R. Tupayachi, F. Sinca, and Y. Malhi
Biogeosciences, 11, 843–856, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-843-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-843-2014, 2014
R. Valentini, A. Arneth, A. Bombelli, S. Castaldi, R. Cazzolla Gatti, F. Chevallier, P. Ciais, E. Grieco, J. Hartmann, M. Henry, R. A. Houghton, M. Jung, W. L. Kutsch, Y. Malhi, E. Mayorga, L. Merbold, G. Murray-Tortarolo, D. Papale, P. Peylin, B. Poulter, P. A. Raymond, M. Santini, S. Sitch, G. Vaglio Laurin, G. R. van der Werf, C. A. Williams, and R. J. Scholes
Biogeosciences, 11, 381–407, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-381-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-381-2014, 2014
F. Wagner, V. Rossi, C. Stahl, D. Bonal, and B. Hérault
Biogeosciences, 10, 7307–7321, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-7307-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-7307-2013, 2013
V. Meyer, S. S. Saatchi, J. Chave, J. W. Dalling, S. Bohlman, G. A. Fricker, C. Robinson, M. Neumann, and S. Hubbell
Biogeosciences, 10, 5421–5438, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-5421-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-5421-2013, 2013
J. M. Wang, J. G. Murphy, J. A. Geddes, C. L. Winsborough, N. Basiliko, and S. C. Thomas
Biogeosciences, 10, 4371–4382, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-4371-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-4371-2013, 2013
A. D. A. Castanho, M. T. Coe, M. H. Costa, Y. Malhi, D. Galbraith, and C. A. Quesada
Biogeosciences, 10, 2255–2272, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-2255-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-2255-2013, 2013
J. E. Drake, B. A. Darby, M.-A. Giasson, M. A. Kramer, R. P. Phillips, and A. C. Finzi
Biogeosciences, 10, 821–838, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-821-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-821-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function: Terrestrial
Measuring and modeling waterlogging tolerance to predict the future for threatened lowland ash forests
Reviews and syntheses: Current perspectives on biosphere research 2024–2025 – eight findings from ecology, sociology, and economics
Role of air–soil temperature in the leaf area index (LAI) course and role of height–diameter at breast height (DBH) in the maximum LAI during foliation of Platanus orientalis L. in an urban–rural greenway system
Ecosystem leaf area, gross primary production, and evapotranspiration responses to wildfire in the Columbia River basin
Optimal set of leaf and aboveground tree elements for predicting forest functioning
Water usage of old-growth oak at elevated CO2 in the FACE (Free-Air CO2 Enrichment) of climate change
Elephant megacarcasses increase local nutrient pools in African savanna soils and plants
Narrowing down dune establishment drivers on the beach
Combined effects of topography, soil moisture, and snow cover regimes on growth responses of grasslands in a low- mountain range (Vosges, France)
Assessing the effect of forest management on above-ground carbon stock by remote sensing
Soil smoldering in temperate forests: a neglected contributor to fire carbon emissions revealed by atmospheric mixing ratios
Enhancing environmental models with a new downscaling method for global radiation in complex terrain
On the predictability of turbulent fluxes from land: PLUMBER2 MIP experimental description and preliminary results
The fungal collaboration gradient drives root trait distribution and ecosystem processes in a tropical montane forest
Crowd-sourced trait data can be used to delimit global biomes
Biomass yield potential, feedstock quality, and nutrient removal of perennial buffer strips under continuous zero fertilizer application
Leaf habit drives leaf nutrient resorption globally alongside nutrient availability and climate
Soil and Biomass Carbon Storage is Much Higher in Central American than Andean Montane Forests
Linking geomorphological processes and wildlife microhabitat selection: nesting birds select refuges generated by permafrost degradation in the Arctic
Distinguishing mature and immature trees allows estimating forest carbon uptake from stand structure
“Blooming” of litter-mixing effects: the role of flower and leaf litter interactions on decomposition in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems
Evaluating state-of-the-art process-based and data-driven models in simulating CO2 fluxes and their relationship with climate in western European temperate forests
From simple labels to semantic image segmentation: leveraging citizen science plant photographs for tree species mapping in drone imagery
Plant functional traits modulate the effects of soil acidification on above- and belowground biomass
Regional effects and local climate jointly shape the global distribution of sexual systems in woody flowering plants
Ideas and perspectives: Sensing energy and matter fluxes in a biota-dominated Patagonian landscape through environmental seismology – introducing the Pumalín Critical Zone Observatory
Comparison of carbon and water fluxes and the drivers of ecosystem water use efficiency in a temperate rainforest and a peatland in southern South America
Kilometre-scale simulations over Fennoscandia reveal a large loss of tundra due to climate warming
Microclimate mapping using novel radiative transfer modelling
Root distributions predict shrub–steppe responses to precipitation intensity
Thermophilisation of Afromontane forest stands demonstrated in an elevation gradient experiment
Above-treeline ecosystems facing drought: lessons from the 2022 European summer heat wave
Canopy gaps and associated losses of biomass – combining UAV imagery and field data in a central Amazon forest
Ideas and perspectives: Beyond model evaluation – combining experiments and models to advance terrestrial ecosystem science
Primary succession and its driving variables – a sphere-spanning approach applied in proglacial areas in the upper Martell Valley (Eastern Italian Alps)
Contemporary biodiversity pattern is affected by climate change at multiple temporal scales in steppes on the Mongolian Plateau
Quantifying vegetation indices using terrestrial laser scanning: methodological complexities and ecological insights from a Mediterranean forest
Revisiting and attributing the global controls over terrestrial ecosystem functions of climate and plant traits at FLUXNET sites via causal graphical models
Dynamics of short-term ecosystem carbon fluxes induced by precipitation events in a semiarid grassland
Throughfall exclusion and fertilization effects on tropical dry forest tree plantations, a large-scale experiment
Tectonic controls on the ecosystem of the Mara River basin, East Africa, from geomorphological and spectral index analysis
Spruce bark beetles (Ips typographus) cause up to 700 times higher bark BVOC emission rates compared to healthy Norway spruce (Picea abies)
Technical note: Novel estimates of the leaf relative uptake rate of carbonyl sulfide from optimality theory
Observed water and light limitation across global ecosystems
A question of scale: modeling biomass, gain and mortality distributions of a tropical forest
Seed traits and phylogeny explain plants' geographic distribution
Effect of the presence of plateau pikas on the ecosystem services of alpine meadows
Allometric equations and wood density parameters for estimating aboveground and woody debris biomass in Cajander larch (Larix cajanderi) forests of northeast Siberia
Strong influence of trees outside forest in regulating microclimate of intensively modified Afromontane landscapes
Excess radiation exacerbates drought stress impacts on canopy conductance along aridity gradients
Eric J. Gustafson, Dustin R. Bronson, Marcella A. Windmuller-Campione, Robert A. Slesak, and Deahn M. Donner
Biogeosciences, 22, 2499–2515, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2499-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2499-2025, 2025
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Black ash forests provide many ecological and tribal cultural benefits but may soon be killed by invasive insects. Black ash trees maintain forests on very wet sites by removing enough water to allow other species to survive. We combined results from physical experiments and a simulation model to project the ecological outcome of strategies to replace ash with species not killed by the insect. We found that this should work if ways can be found to ensure that planted trees survive to maturity.
Friedrich J. Bohn, Ana Bastos, Romina Martin, Anja Rammig, Niak Sian Koh, Giles B. Sioen, Bram Buscher, Louise Carver, Fabrice DeClerck, Moritz Drupp, Robert Fletcher, Matthew Forrest, Alexandros Gasparatos, Alex Godoy-Faúndez, Gregor Hagedorn, Martin C. Hänsel, Jessica Hetzer, Thomas Hickler, Cornelia B. Krug, Stasja Koot, Xiuzhen Li, Amy Luers, Shelby Matevich, H. Damon Matthews, Ina C. Meier, Mirco Migliavacca, Awaz Mohamed, Sungmin O, David Obura, Ben Orlove, Rene Orth, Laura Pereira, Markus Reichstein, Lerato Thakholi, Peter H. Verburg, and Yuki Yoshida
Biogeosciences, 22, 2425–2460, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2425-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2425-2025, 2025
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An interdisciplinary collaboration of 36 international researchers from 35 institutions highlights recent findings in biosphere research. Within eight themes, they discuss issues arising from climate change and other anthropogenic stressors and highlight the co-benefits of nature-based solutions and ecosystem services. Based on an analysis of these eight topics, we have synthesized four overarching insights.
Melih Öztürk, Turgay Biricik, and Rıdvan Koruyan
Biogeosciences, 22, 2351–2362, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2351-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2351-2025, 2025
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Oriental plane leaf area index (LAI) values changed with a definite pattern compatible with phenological periods. Air–soil temperatures were significantly definitive regarding the course of mean LAIs, particularly during foliation. Tree height and diameter at breast height (DBH) were not correlated with point-based maximum LAIs. Point-based mean LAIs increased from 0.80 to 2.76 m2 m−2 during foliation. Mean tree height and DBH for point-based canopies ranged between 17.0–26.7 m and 26.5–38.2 cm, respectively.
Mingjie Shi, Nate McDowell, Huilin Huang, Faria Zahura, Lingcheng Li, and Xingyuan Chen
Biogeosciences, 22, 2225–2238, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2225-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2225-2025, 2025
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Using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data products, we quantitatively estimate the resistance and resilience of ecosystem functions to wildfires that occurred in the Columbia River basin in 2015. The carbon state exhibits lower resistance and resilience than the ecosystem fluxes. The random forest feature importance analysis indicates that burn severity plays a minor role in the resilience of grassland and a relatively major role in the resilience of forest and savanna.
Écio Souza Diniz, Eladio Rodríguez-Penedo, Roger Grau-Andrés, Jordi Vayreda, and Marcos Fernández-Martínez
Biogeosciences, 22, 2115–2132, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2115-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2115-2025, 2025
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In this study, we found that the accumulation of nutrients (e.g., carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium) in leaves is an important factor in explaining tree growth in forest ecosystems. This result provides evidence for forest growth studies aimed at forest conservation and restoration to better direct their resources to data collection and measurement. Collecting data on nutrient stocks in tree leaves can also provide valuable information to broaden our understanding of forest functioning.
Susan E. Quick, Giulio Curioni, Nicholas J. Harper, Stefan Krause, and A. Robert MacKenzie
Biogeosciences, 22, 1557–1581, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1557-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1557-2025, 2025
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To study the effects of rising CO2 levels on water usage of old-growth temperate oak forest, we monitored trees in an open-air elevated CO2 experiment for 5 years. We found 4 %–16 % leaf-on season reduction in daylight water usage for ~35% increase in atmospheric CO2. July-only reduction varied more widely. Tree water usage depended on tree size, i.e. stem size and projected canopy area, across all treatments. Experimental infrastructure increased the water usage of the trees in leaf-on season.
Courtney G. Reed, Michelle L. Budny, Johan T. du Toit, Ryan Helcoski, Joshua P. Schimel, Izak P. J. Smit, Tercia Strydom, Aimee Tallian, Dave I. Thompson, Helga van Coller, Nathan P. Lemoine, and Deron E. Burkepile
Biogeosciences, 22, 1583–1596, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1583-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1583-2025, 2025
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We seek to understand the ecological legacies of elephants after death. We sampled soil and leaves at elephant carcass sites in South Africa and found that elephant carcasses release nutrients into soil, which plants take up and make available for consumption by herbivores. This research reveals a key way that elephants contribute to nutrient cycling in savannas after death. It also highlights an important process that may be lost in areas where elephant populations are in decline.
Jan-Markus Homberger, Sasja van Rosmalen, Michel Riksen, and Juul Limpens
Biogeosciences, 22, 1301–1320, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1301-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1301-2025, 2025
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Understanding what determines the establishment of dune-building vegetation could help to better predict coastal dune initiation and development. We monitored the establishment of dune-building grasses and dune initiation in a large field experiment. Our results show that dune initiation takes place during peaks in dune-building grass establishment, which depend on favorable environmental conditions. Our findings can potentially be integrated into beach restoration and management strategies.
Pierre-Alexis Herrault, Albin Ullmann, and Damien Ertlen
Biogeosciences, 22, 705–724, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-705-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-705-2025, 2025
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Mountain grasslands are impacted by climate change and need to adapt. Low-mountain grasslands are poorly understood compared to high-mountain massifs. Thanks to satellite archives, we found that grasslands occurring in the Vosges Mountains (France) exhibited stable productivity or tended to decrease in specific regions of the massif, with a reverse signal observed in high-mountain massifs. We also noted a high responsiveness in their growth strategy to soil moisture, snow regime, and topography.
Sofie Van Winckel, Jonas Simons, Stef Lhermitte, and Bart Muys
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4094, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4094, 2025
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Insights on management's impact on forest carbon stocks are crucial for sustainable forest management practices. However, accurately monitoring carbon stocks remains a technological challenge. This study estimates above-ground carbon stock in managed and unmanaged forests using passive optical, SAR, and LiDAR remote sensing data. Results show promising potential in using multiple remote sensing predictors and publicly available high-resolution data for mapping forest carbon stocks.
Lilian Vallet, Charbel Abdallah, Thomas Lauvaux, Lilian Joly, Michel Ramonet, Philippe Ciais, Morgan Lopez, Irène Xueref-Remy, and Florent Mouillot
Biogeosciences, 22, 213–242, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-213-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-213-2025, 2025
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The 2022 fire season had a huge impact on European temperate forest, with several large fires exhibiting prolonged soil combustion reported. We analyzed CO and CO2 concentration recorded at nearby atmospheric towers, revealing intense smoldering combustion. We refined a fire emission model to incorporate this process. We estimated 7.95 Mteq CO2 fire emission, twice the global estimate. Fires contributed to 1.97 % of France's annual carbon footprint, reducing forest carbon sink by 30 % this year.
Arsène Druel, Julien Ruffault, Hendrik Davi, André Chanzy, Olivier Marloie, Miquel De Cáceres, Albert Olioso, Florent Mouillot, Christophe François, Kamel Soudani, and Nicolas K. Martin-StPaul
Biogeosciences, 22, 1–18, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1-2025, 2025
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Accurate radiation data are essential for understanding ecosystem functions and dynamics. Traditional large-scale data lack the precision needed for complex terrain. This study introduces a new model, which accounts for sub-daily direct and diffuse radiation effects caused by terrain features, to enhance the radiation data resolution using elevation maps. Tested on a mountainous area, this method significantly improved radiation estimates, benefiting predictions of forest functions.
Gab Abramowitz, Anna Ukkola, Sanaa Hobeichi, Jon Cranko Page, Mathew Lipson, Martin G. De Kauwe, Samuel Green, Claire Brenner, Jonathan Frame, Grey Nearing, Martyn Clark, Martin Best, Peter Anthoni, Gabriele Arduini, Souhail Boussetta, Silvia Caldararu, Kyeungwoo Cho, Matthias Cuntz, David Fairbairn, Craig R. Ferguson, Hyungjun Kim, Yeonjoo Kim, Jürgen Knauer, David Lawrence, Xiangzhong Luo, Sergey Malyshev, Tomoko Nitta, Jerome Ogee, Keith Oleson, Catherine Ottlé, Phillipe Peylin, Patricia de Rosnay, Heather Rumbold, Bob Su, Nicolas Vuichard, Anthony P. Walker, Xiaoni Wang-Faivre, Yunfei Wang, and Yijian Zeng
Biogeosciences, 21, 5517–5538, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-5517-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-5517-2024, 2024
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This paper evaluates land models – computer-based models that simulate ecosystem dynamics; land carbon, water, and energy cycles; and the role of land in the climate system. It uses machine learning and AI approaches to show that, despite the complexity of land models, they do not perform nearly as well as they could given the amount of information they are provided with about the prediction problem.
Mateus Dantas de Paula, Tatiana Reichert, Laynara Lugli, Erica McGale, Kerstin Pierick, João Paulo Darela-Filho, Liam Langan, Jürgen Homeier, Anja Rammig, and Thomas Hickler
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3259, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3259, 2024
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This study explores how plant roots, with different forms and functions, rely on fungal partnerships for nutrient uptake. This relationship was integrated into a vegetation model and was tested in a tropical forest in Ecuador. The model accurately predicted root traits and showed that without fungi, biomass decreased by up to 80 %. The findings highlight the critical role of fungi in ecosystem processes and suggest that root-fungal interactions should be considered in vegetation models.
Simon Scheiter, Sophie Wolf, and Teja Kattenborn
Biogeosciences, 21, 4909–4926, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-4909-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-4909-2024, 2024
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Biomes are widely used to map vegetation patterns at large spatial scales and to assess impacts of climate change, yet there is no consensus on a generally valid biome classification scheme. We used crowd-sourced species distribution data and trait data to assess whether trait information is suitable for delimiting biomes. Although the trait data were heterogeneous and had large gaps with respect to the spatial distribution, we found that a global trait-based biome classification was possible.
Cheng-Hsien Lin, Colleen Zumpf, Chunhwa Jang, Thomas Voigt, Guanglong Tian, Olawale Oladeji, Albert Cox, Rehnuma Mehzabin, and DoKyoung Lee
Biogeosciences, 21, 4765–4784, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-4765-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-4765-2024, 2024
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Riparian areas are subject to environmental issues (nutrient leaching) associated with low productivity. Perennial grasses can improve ecosystem services from riparian zones while producing forage/bioenergy feedstock biomass as potential income for farmers. The forage-type buffer can be an ideal short-term candidate due to its great efficiency of nutrient scavenging; the bioenergy-type buffer showed better sustainability than the forage buffer and a continuous yield supply potential.
Gabriela Sophia, Silvia Caldararu, Benjamin David Stocker, and Sönke Zaehle
Biogeosciences, 21, 4169–4193, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-4169-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-4169-2024, 2024
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Through an extensive global dataset of leaf nutrient resorption and a multifactorial analysis, we show that the majority of spatial variation in nutrient resorption may be driven by leaf habit and type, with thicker, longer-lived leaves having lower resorption efficiencies. Climate, soil fertility and soil-related factors emerge as strong drivers with an additional effect on its role. These results are essential for comprehending plant nutrient status, plant productivity and nutrient cycling.
Cecilia M. Prada, Katherine D. Heineman, Maria J. Pardo, Camille Piponiot, and James W. Dalling
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2738, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2738, 2024
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The influence of elevation and soil nutrient availability on carbon stocks has not been evaluated for ectomycorrhizal forests in the tropics. In western Panama we calculated C pools in ten plots in an elevational gradient varying in relative abundance of EM-trees. We found exceptionally high aboveground soil C in high elevation EM-forest, in contrast to arbuscular mycorrhizal-dominated Andean forests.
Madeleine-Zoé Corbeil-Robitaille, Éliane Duchesne, Daniel Fortier, Christophe Kinnard, and Joël Bêty
Biogeosciences, 21, 3401–3423, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-3401-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-3401-2024, 2024
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In the Arctic tundra, climate change is transforming the landscape, and this may impact wildlife. We focus on three nesting bird species and the islets they select as refuges from their main predator, the Arctic fox. A geomorphological process, ice-wedge polygon degradation, was found to play a key role in creating these refuges. This process is likely to affect predator–prey dynamics in the Arctic tundra, highlighting the connections between nature's physical and ecological systems.
Samuel M. Fischer, Xugao Wang, and Andreas Huth
Biogeosciences, 21, 3305–3319, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-3305-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-3305-2024, 2024
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Understanding the drivers of forest productivity is key for accurately assessing forests’ role in the global carbon cycle. Yet, despite significant research effort, it is not fully understood how the productivity of a forest can be deduced from its stand structure. We suggest tackling this problem by identifying the share and structure of immature trees within forests and show that this approach could significantly improve estimates of forests’ net productivity and carbon uptake.
Mery Ingrid Guimarães de Alencar, Rafael D. Guariento, Bertrand Guenet, Luciana S. Carneiro, Eduardo L. Voigt, and Adriano Caliman
Biogeosciences, 21, 3165–3182, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-3165-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-3165-2024, 2024
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Flowers are ephemeral organs for reproduction, and their litter is functionally different from leaf litter. Flowers can affect decomposition and interact with leaf litter, influencing decomposition non-additively. We show that mixing flower and leaf litter from the Tabebuia aurea tree creates reciprocal synergistic effects on decomposition in both terrestrial and aquatic environments. We highlight that flower litter input can generate biogeochemical hotspots in terrestrial ecosystems.
Gaïa Michel, Julien Crétat, Olivier Mathieu, Mathieu Thévenot, Andrey Dara, Robert Granat, Zhendong Wu, Clément Bonnefoy-Claudet, Julianne Capelle, Jean Cacot, and John S. Kimball
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1758, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1758, 2024
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This study questions the usefulness of state-ot-the-art models to characterize the temporal variability of atmosphere-ecosystem CO2 exchanges in western European forests. Their mean annual cycle and annual budget are better captured by statistical than physical models, while their interannual variability and long-term trend are better captured by models forced by climate variability. Accounting for both forest stands and climate variability is thus key for properly assessing CO2 fluxes.
Salim Soltani, Olga Ferlian, Nico Eisenhauer, Hannes Feilhauer, and Teja Kattenborn
Biogeosciences, 21, 2909–2935, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2909-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2909-2024, 2024
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In this research, we developed a novel method using citizen science data as alternative training data for computer vision models to map plant species in unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV) images. We use citizen science plant photographs to train models and apply them to UAV images. We tested our approach on UAV images of a test site with 10 different tree species, yielding accurate results. This research shows the potential of citizen science data to advance our ability to monitor plant species.
Xue Feng, Ruzhen Wang, Tianpeng Li, Jiangping Cai, Heyong Liu, Hui Li, and Yong Jiang
Biogeosciences, 21, 2641–2653, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2641-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2641-2024, 2024
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Plant functional traits have been considered as reflecting adaptations to environmental variations, indirectly affecting ecosystem productivity. How soil acidification affects above- and belowground biomass by altering leaf and root traits remains poorly understood. We found divergent trait responses driven by soil environmental conditions in two dominant species, resulting in a decrease in aboveground biomass and an increase in belowground biomass.
Minhua Zhang, Xiaoqing Hu, and Fangliang He
Biogeosciences, 21, 2133–2142, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2133-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2133-2024, 2024
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Plant sexual systems are important to understanding the evolution and maintenance of plant diversity. We quantified region effects on their proportions while incorporating local climate factors and evolutionary history. We found regional processes and climate effects both play important roles in shaping the geographic distribution of sexual systems, providing a baseline for predicting future changes in forest communities in the context of global change.
Christian H. Mohr, Michael Dietze, Violeta Tolorza, Erwin Gonzalez, Benjamin Sotomayor, Andres Iroume, Sten Gilfert, and Frieder Tautz
Biogeosciences, 21, 1583–1599, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1583-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1583-2024, 2024
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Coastal temperate rainforests, among Earth’s carbon richest biomes, are systematically underrepresented in the global network of critical zone observatories (CZOs). Introducing here a first CZO in the heart of the Patagonian rainforest, Chile, we investigate carbon sink functioning, biota-driven landscape evolution, fluxes of matter and energy, and disturbance regimes. We invite the community to join us in cross-disciplinary collaboration to advance science in this particular environment.
Jorge F. Perez-Quezada, David Trejo, Javier Lopatin, David Aguilera, Bruce Osborne, Mauricio Galleguillos, Luca Zattera, Juan L. Celis-Diez, and Juan J. Armesto
Biogeosciences, 21, 1371–1389, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1371-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1371-2024, 2024
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For 8 years we sampled a temperate rainforest and a peatland in Chile to estimate their efficiency to capture carbon per unit of water lost. The efficiency is more related to the water lost than to the carbon captured and is mainly driven by evaporation instead of transpiration. This is the first report from southern South America and highlights that ecosystems might behave differently in this area, likely explained by the high annual precipitation (~ 2100 mm) and light-limited conditions.
Fredrik Lagergren, Robert G. Björk, Camilla Andersson, Danijel Belušić, Mats P. Björkman, Erik Kjellström, Petter Lind, David Lindstedt, Tinja Olenius, Håkan Pleijel, Gunhild Rosqvist, and Paul A. Miller
Biogeosciences, 21, 1093–1116, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1093-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1093-2024, 2024
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The Fennoscandian boreal and mountain regions harbour a wide range of ecosystems sensitive to climate change. A new, highly resolved high-emission climate scenario enabled modelling of the vegetation development in this region at high resolution for the 21st century. The results show dramatic south to north and low- to high-altitude shifts of vegetation zones, especially for the open tundra environments, which will have large implications for nature conservation, reindeer husbandry and forestry.
Florian Zellweger, Eric Sulmoni, Johanna T. Malle, Andri Baltensweiler, Tobias Jonas, Niklaus E. Zimmermann, Christian Ginzler, Dirk Nikolaus Karger, Pieter De Frenne, David Frey, and Clare Webster
Biogeosciences, 21, 605–623, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-605-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-605-2024, 2024
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The microclimatic conditions experienced by organisms living close to the ground are not well represented in currently used climate datasets derived from weather stations. Therefore, we measured and mapped ground microclimate temperatures at 10 m spatial resolution across Switzerland using a novel radiation model. Our results reveal a high variability in microclimates across different habitats and will help to better understand climate and land use impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems.
Andrew Kulmatiski, Martin C. Holdrege, Cristina Chirvasă, and Karen H. Beard
Biogeosciences, 21, 131–143, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-131-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-131-2024, 2024
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Warmer air and larger precipitation events are changing the way water moves through the soil and into plants. Here we show that detailed descriptions of root distributions can predict plant growth responses to changing precipitation patterns. Shrubs and forbs increased growth, while grasses showed no response to increased precipitation intensity, and these responses were predicted by plant rooting distributions.
Bonaventure Ntirugulirwa, Etienne Zibera, Nkuba Epaphrodite, Aloysie Manishimwe, Donat Nsabimana, Johan Uddling, and Göran Wallin
Biogeosciences, 20, 5125–5149, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-5125-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-5125-2023, 2023
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Twenty tropical tree species native to Africa were planted along an elevation gradient (1100 m, 5.4 °C difference). We found that early-successional (ES) species, especially from lower elevations, grew faster at warmer sites, while several of the late-successional (LS) species, especially from higher elevations, did not respond or grew slower. Moreover, a warmer climate increased tree mortality in LS species, but not much in ES species.
Philippe Choler
Biogeosciences, 20, 4259–4272, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-4259-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-4259-2023, 2023
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The year 2022 was unique in that the summer heat wave and drought led to a widespread reduction in vegetation growth at high elevation in the European Alps. This impact was unprecedented in the southwestern, warm, and dry part of the Alps. Over the last 2 decades, water has become a co-dominant control of vegetation activity in areas that were, so far, primarily controlled by temperature, and the growth of mountain grasslands has become increasingly sensitive to moisture availability.
Adriana Simonetti, Raquel Fernandes Araujo, Carlos Henrique Souza Celes, Flávia Ranara da Silva e Silva, Joaquim dos Santos, Niro Higuchi, Susan Trumbore, and Daniel Magnabosco Marra
Biogeosciences, 20, 3651–3666, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-3651-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-3651-2023, 2023
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We combined 2 years of monthly drone-acquired RGB (red–green–blue) imagery with field surveys in a central Amazon forest. Our results indicate that small gaps associated with branch fall were the most frequent. Biomass losses were partially controlled by gap area, with branch fall and snapping contributing the least and greatest relative values, respectively. Our study highlights the potential of drone images for monitoring canopy dynamics in dense tropical forests.
Silvia Caldararu, Victor Rolo, Benjamin D. Stocker, Teresa E. Gimeno, and Richard Nair
Biogeosciences, 20, 3637–3649, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-3637-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-3637-2023, 2023
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Ecosystem manipulative experiments are large experiments in real ecosystems. They include processes such as species interactions and weather that would be omitted in more controlled settings. They offer a high level of realism but are underused in combination with vegetation models used to predict the response of ecosystems to global change. We propose a workflow using models and ecosystem experiments together, taking advantage of the benefits of both tools for Earth system understanding.
Katharina Ramskogler, Bettina Knoflach, Bernhard Elsner, Brigitta Erschbamer, Florian Haas, Tobias Heckmann, Florentin Hofmeister, Livia Piermattei, Camillo Ressl, Svenja Trautmann, Michael H. Wimmer, Clemens Geitner, Johann Stötter, and Erich Tasser
Biogeosciences, 20, 2919–2939, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2919-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2919-2023, 2023
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Primary succession in proglacial areas depends on complex driving forces. To concretise the complex effects and interaction processes, 39 known explanatory variables assigned to seven spheres were analysed via principal component analysis and generalised additive models. Key results show that in addition to time- and elevation-dependent factors, also disturbances alter vegetation development. The results are useful for debates on vegetation development in a warming climate.
Zijing Li, Zhiyong Li, Xuze Tong, Lei Dong, Ying Zheng, Jinghui Zhang, Bailing Miao, Lixin Wang, Liqing Zhao, Lu Wen, Guodong Han, Frank Yonghong Li, and Cunzhu Liang
Biogeosciences, 20, 2869–2882, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2869-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2869-2023, 2023
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We used random forest models and structural equation models to assess the relative importance of the present climate and paleoclimate as determinants of diversity and aboveground biomass. Results showed that paleoclimate changes and modern climate jointly determined contemporary biodiversity patterns, while community biomass was mainly affected by modern climate. These findings suggest that contemporary biodiversity patterns may be affected by processes at divergent temporal scales.
William Rupert Moore Flynn, Harry Jon Foord Owen, Stuart William David Grieve, and Emily Rebecca Lines
Biogeosciences, 20, 2769–2784, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2769-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2769-2023, 2023
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Quantifying vegetation indices is crucial for ecosystem monitoring and modelling. Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has potential to accurately measure vegetation indices, but multiple methods exist, with little consensus on best practice. We compare three methods and extract wood-to-plant ratio, a metric used to correct for wood in leaf indices. We show corrective metrics vary with tree structure and variation among methods, highlighting the value of TLS data and importance of rigorous testing.
Haiyang Shi, Geping Luo, Olaf Hellwich, Alishir Kurban, Philippe De Maeyer, and Tim Van de Voorde
Biogeosciences, 20, 2727–2741, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2727-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2727-2023, 2023
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In studies on the relationship between ecosystem functions and climate and plant traits, previously used data-driven methods such as multiple regression and random forest may be inadequate for representing causality due to limitations such as covariance between variables. Based on FLUXNET site data, we used a causal graphical model to revisit the control of climate and vegetation traits over ecosystem functions.
Josué Delgado-Balbuena, Henry W. Loescher, Carlos A. Aguirre-Gutiérrez, Teresa Alfaro-Reyna, Luis F. Pineda-Martínez, Rodrigo Vargas, and Tulio Arredondo
Biogeosciences, 20, 2369–2385, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2369-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2369-2023, 2023
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In the semiarid grassland, an increase in soil moisture at shallow depths instantly enhances carbon release through respiration. In contrast, deeper soil water controls plant carbon uptake but with a delay of several days. Previous soil conditions, biological activity, and the size and timing of precipitation are factors that determine the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere. Thus, future changes in precipitation patterns could convert ecosystems from carbon sinks to carbon sources.
German Vargas Gutiérrez, Daniel Pérez-Aviles, Nanette Raczka, Damaris Pereira-Arias, Julián Tijerín-Triviño, L. David Pereira-Arias, David Medvigy, Bonnie G. Waring, Ember Morrisey, Edward Brzostek, and Jennifer S. Powers
Biogeosciences, 20, 2143–2160, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2143-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2143-2023, 2023
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To study whether nutrient availability controls tropical dry forest responses to reductions in soil moisture, we established the first troughfall exclusion experiment in a tropical dry forest plantation system crossed with a fertilization scheme. We found that the effects of fertilization on net primary productivity are larger than the effects of a ~15 % reduction in soil moisture, although in many cases we observed an interaction between drought and nutrient additions, suggesting colimitation.
Alina Lucia Ludat and Simon Kübler
Biogeosciences, 20, 1991–2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1991-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1991-2023, 2023
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Satellite-based analysis illustrates the impact of geological processes for the stability of the ecosystem in the Mara River basin (Kenya/Tanzania). Newly detected fault activity influences the course of river networks and modifies erosion–deposition patterns. Tectonic surface features and variations in rock chemistry lead to localized enhancement of clay and soil moisture values and seasonally stabilised vegetation growth patterns in this climatically vulnerable region.
Erica Jaakkola, Antje Gärtner, Anna Maria Jönsson, Karl Ljung, Per-Ola Olsson, and Thomas Holst
Biogeosciences, 20, 803–826, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-803-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-803-2023, 2023
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Increased spruce bark beetle outbreaks were recently seen in Sweden. When Norway spruce trees are attacked, they increase their production of VOCs, attempting to kill the beetles. We provide new insights into how the Norway spruce act when infested and found the emitted volatiles to increase up to 700 times and saw a change in compound blend. We estimate that the 2020 bark beetle outbreak in Sweden could have increased the total monoterpene emissions from the forest by more than 10 %.
Georg Wohlfahrt, Albin Hammerle, Felix M. Spielmann, Florian Kitz, and Chuixiang Yi
Biogeosciences, 20, 589–596, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-589-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-589-2023, 2023
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The trace gas carbonyl sulfide (COS), which is taken up by plant leaves in a process very similar to photosynthesis, is thought to be a promising proxy for the gross uptake of carbon dioxide by plants. Here we propose a new framework for estimating a key metric to that end, the so-called leaf relative uptake rate. The values we deduce by applying principles of plant optimality are considerably lower than published values and may help reduce the uncertainty of the global COS budget.
François Jonard, Andrew F. Feldman, Daniel J. Short Gianotti, and Dara Entekhabi
Biogeosciences, 19, 5575–5590, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-5575-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-5575-2022, 2022
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We investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of light and water limitation in plant function at the ecosystem scale. Using satellite observations, we characterize the nonlinear relationships between sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) and water and light availability. This study highlights that soil moisture limitations on SIF are found primarily in drier environments, while light limitations are found in intermediately wet regions.
Nikolai Knapp, Sabine Attinger, and Andreas Huth
Biogeosciences, 19, 4929–4944, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4929-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4929-2022, 2022
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The biomass of forests is determined by forest growth and mortality. These quantities can be estimated with different methods such as inventories, remote sensing and modeling. These methods are usually being applied at different spatial scales. The scales influence the obtained frequency distributions of biomass, growth and mortality. This study suggests how to transfer between scales, when using forest models of different complexity for a tropical forest.
Kai Chen, Kevin S. Burgess, Fangliang He, Xiang-Yun Yang, Lian-Ming Gao, and De-Zhu Li
Biogeosciences, 19, 4801–4810, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4801-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4801-2022, 2022
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Why does plants' distributional range size vary enormously? This study provides evidence that seed mass, intraspecific seed mass variation, seed dispersal mode and phylogeny contribute to explaining species distribution variation on a geographic scale. Our study clearly shows the importance of including seed life-history traits in modeling and predicting the impact of climate change on species distribution of seed plants.
Ying Ying Chen, Huan Yang, Gen Sheng Bao, Xiao Pan Pang, and Zheng Gang Guo
Biogeosciences, 19, 4521–4532, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4521-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4521-2022, 2022
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Investigating the effect of the presence of plateau pikas on ecosystem services of alpine meadows is helpful to understand the role of the presence of small mammalian herbivores in grasslands. The results of this study showed that the presence of plateau pikas led to higher biodiversity conservation, soil nitrogen and phosphorus maintenance, and carbon sequestration of alpine meadows, whereas it led to lower forage available to livestock and water conservation of alpine meadows.
Clement Jean Frédéric Delcourt and Sander Veraverbeke
Biogeosciences, 19, 4499–4520, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4499-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4499-2022, 2022
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This study provides new equations that can be used to estimate aboveground tree biomass in larch-dominated forests of northeast Siberia. Applying these equations to 53 forest stands in the Republic of Sakha (Russia) resulted in significantly larger biomass stocks than when using existing equations. The data presented in this work can help refine biomass estimates in Siberian boreal forests. This is essential to assess changes in boreal vegetation and carbon dynamics.
Iris Johanna Aalto, Eduardo Eiji Maeda, Janne Heiskanen, Eljas Kullervo Aalto, and Petri Kauko Emil Pellikka
Biogeosciences, 19, 4227–4247, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4227-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4227-2022, 2022
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Tree canopies are strong moderators of understory climatic conditions. In tropical areas, trees cool down the microclimates. Using remote sensing and field measurements we show how even intermediate canopy cover and agroforestry trees contributed to buffering the hottest temperatures in Kenya. The cooling effect was the greatest during hot days and in lowland areas, where the ambient temperatures were high. Adopting agroforestry practices in the area could assist in mitigating climate change.
Jing Wang and Xuefa Wen
Biogeosciences, 19, 4197–4208, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4197-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4197-2022, 2022
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Excess radiation and low temperatures exacerbate drought impacts on canopy conductance (Gs) among transects. The primary determinant of drought stress on Gs was soil moisture on the Loess Plateau (LP) and the Mongolian Plateau (MP), whereas it was the vapor pressure deficit on the Tibetan Plateau (TP). Radiation exhibited a negative effect on Gs via drought stress within transects, while temperature had negative effects on stomatal conductance on the TP but no effect on the LP and MP.
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Short summary
Forest carbon mapping may greatly reduce uncertainties in the global carbon budget. Accuracy of such maps depends however on the quality of field measurements. Using 30 large forest plots, we found large local spatial variability in biomass. When field calibration plots are smaller than the remote sensing pixels, this high local spatial variability results in an underestimation of the variance in biomass.
Forest carbon mapping may greatly reduce uncertainties in the global carbon budget. Accuracy of...
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