Articles | Volume 14, issue 23
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5313-2017
© Author(s) 2017. 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-14-5313-2017
© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
29 Nov 2017
Research article |
| 29 Nov 2017
Parallel functional and stoichiometric trait shifts in South American and African forest communities with elevation
Isotope Bioscience Laboratory – ISOFYS, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
CAVElab, Computational and Applied Vegetation Ecology, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Hans Verbeeck
CAVElab, Computational and Applied Vegetation Ecology, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Miro Demol
CAVElab, Computational and Applied Vegetation Ecology, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Stijn Bruneel
CAVElab, Computational and Applied Vegetation Ecology, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Cys Taveirne
Isotope Bioscience Laboratory – ISOFYS, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Dries Van der Heyden
Isotope Bioscience Laboratory – ISOFYS, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Landry Cizungu
Faculty of Agronomy, Université Catholique de Bukavu, Avenue de la mission, BP 285, Bukavu, DR Congo
Pascal Boeckx
Isotope Bioscience Laboratory – ISOFYS, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Related authors
Antoine de Clippele, Astrid C. H. Jaeger, Simon Baumgartner, Marijn Bauters, Pascal Boeckx, Clement Botefa, Glenn Bush, Jessica Carilli, Travis W. Drake, Christian Ekamba, Gode Lompoko, Nivens Bey Mukwiele, Kristof Van Oost, Roland A. Werner, Joseph Zambo, Johan Six, and Matti Barthel
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3313, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3313, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Tropical forest soils as a large terrestrial source of carbon dioxide (CO2) contribute to the GHG budgets. Despite this, carbon flux data from forested wetlands is scarce in tropical Africa. The study presents three years of semi-continuous measurements of surface CO2 fluxes within the Congo Basin. Although no seasonal patterns were evident, our results showed a positive effect of soil temperature and soil moisture, while a quadratic relationship was observed with the water table level.
Flossie Brown, Gerd Folberth, Stephen Sitch, Paulo Artaxo, Marijn Bauters, Pascal Boeckx, Alexander W. Cheesman, Matteo Detto, Ninong Komala, Luciana Rizzo, Nestor Rojas, Ines dos Santos Vieira, Steven Turnock, Hans Verbeeck, and Alfonso Zambrano
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12537–12555, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12537-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12537-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Ozone is a pollutant that is detrimental to human and plant health. Ozone monitoring sites in the tropics are limited, so models are often used to understand ozone exposure. We use measurements from the tropics to evaluate ozone from the UK Earth system model, UKESM1. UKESM1 is able to capture the pattern of ozone in the tropics, except in southeast Asia, although it systematically overestimates it at all sites. This work highlights that UKESM1 can capture seasonal and hourly variability.
Roxanne Daelman, Marijn Bauters, Matti Barthel, Emmanuel Bulonza, Lodewijk Lefevre, José Mbifo, Johan Six, Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, Benjamin Wolf, Ralf Kiese, and Pascal Boeckx
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2346, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2346, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The increase in atmospheric concentrations of several greenhouse gasses (GHG) since 1750 is attributed to human activity, however natural ecosystems, such as tropical forests, also contribute to GHG budgets. The Congo basin hosts the second largest tropical forest and is understudied. In this study, measurements of soil GHG exchange were carried out during 16 months in a tropical forest in the Congo Basin. Overall, the soil acted as a major source for CO2 and N2O and a minor sink for CH4.
Joseph Okello, Marijn Bauters, Hans Verbeeck, Samuel Bodé, John Kasenene, Astrid Françoys, Till Engelhardt, Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, Ralf Kiese, and Pascal Boeckx
Biogeosciences, 20, 719–735, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-719-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-719-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The increase in global and regional temperatures has the potential to drive accelerated soil organic carbon losses in tropical forests. We simulated climate warming by translocating intact soil cores from higher to lower elevations. The results revealed increasing temperature sensitivity and decreasing losses of soil organic carbon with increasing elevation. Our results suggest that climate warming may trigger enhanced losses of soil organic carbon from tropical montane forests.
Flossie Brown, Gerd A. Folberth, Stephen Sitch, Susanne Bauer, Marijn Bauters, Pascal Boeckx, Alexander W. Cheesman, Makoto Deushi, Inês Dos Santos Vieira, Corinne Galy-Lacaux, James Haywood, James Keeble, Lina M. Mercado, Fiona M. O'Connor, Naga Oshima, Kostas Tsigaridis, and Hans Verbeeck
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12331–12352, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12331-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12331-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Surface ozone can decrease plant productivity and impair human health. In this study, we evaluate the change in surface ozone due to climate change over South America and Africa using Earth system models. We find that if the climate were to change according to the worst-case scenario used here, models predict that forested areas in biomass burning locations and urban populations will be at increasing risk of ozone exposure, but other areas will experience a climate benefit.
Laura Summerauer, Philipp Baumann, Leonardo Ramirez-Lopez, Matti Barthel, Marijn Bauters, Benjamin Bukombe, Mario Reichenbach, Pascal Boeckx, Elizabeth Kearsley, Kristof Van Oost, Bernard Vanlauwe, Dieudonné Chiragaga, Aimé Bisimwa Heri-Kazi, Pieter Moonen, Andrew Sila, Keith Shepherd, Basile Bazirake Mujinya, Eric Van Ranst, Geert Baert, Sebastian Doetterl, and Johan Six
SOIL, 7, 693–715, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-693-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-693-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We present a soil mid-infrared library with over 1800 samples from central Africa in order to facilitate soil analyses of this highly understudied yet critical area. Together with an existing continental library, we demonstrate a regional analysis and geographical extrapolation to predict total carbon and nitrogen. Our results show accurate predictions and highlight the value that the data contribute to existing libraries. Our library is openly available for public use and for expansion.
Sebastian Doetterl, Rodrigue K. Asifiwe, Geert Baert, Fernando Bamba, Marijn Bauters, Pascal Boeckx, Benjamin Bukombe, Georg Cadisch, Matthew Cooper, Landry N. Cizungu, Alison Hoyt, Clovis Kabaseke, Karsten Kalbitz, Laurent Kidinda, Annina Maier, Moritz Mainka, Julia Mayrock, Daniel Muhindo, Basile B. Mujinya, Serge M. Mukotanyi, Leon Nabahungu, Mario Reichenbach, Boris Rewald, Johan Six, Anna Stegmann, Laura Summerauer, Robin Unseld, Bernard Vanlauwe, Kristof Van Oost, Kris Verheyen, Cordula Vogel, Florian Wilken, and Peter Fiener
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4133–4153, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4133-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4133-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The African Tropics are hotspots of modern-day land use change and are of great relevance for the global carbon cycle. Here, we present data collected as part of the DFG-funded project TropSOC along topographic, land use, and geochemical gradients in the eastern Congo Basin and the Albertine Rift. Our database contains spatial and temporal data on soil, vegetation, environmental properties, and land management collected from 136 pristine tropical forest and cropland plots between 2017 and 2020.
Simon Baumgartner, Marijn Bauters, Matti Barthel, Travis W. Drake, Landry C. Ntaboba, Basile M. Bazirake, Johan Six, Pascal Boeckx, and Kristof Van Oost
SOIL, 7, 83–94, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-83-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-83-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We compared stable isotope signatures of soil profiles in different forest ecosystems within the Congo Basin to assess ecosystem-level differences in N cycling, and we examined the local effect of topography on the isotopic signature of soil N. Soil δ15N profiles indicated that the N cycling in in the montane forest is more closed, whereas the lowland forest and Miombo woodland experienced a more open N cycle. Topography only alters soil δ15N values in forests with high erosional forces.
Paula Alejandra Lamprea Pineda, Marijn Bauters, Hans Verbeeck, Selene Baez, Matti Barthel, Samuel Bodé, and Pascal Boeckx
Biogeosciences, 18, 413–421, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-413-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-413-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Tropical forest soils are an important source and sink of greenhouse gases (GHGs) with tropical montane forests having been poorly studied. In this pilot study, we explored soil fluxes of CO2, CH4, and N2O in an Ecuadorian neotropical montane forest, where a net consumption of N2O at higher altitudes was observed. Our results highlight the importance of short-term variations in N2O and provide arguments and insights for future, more detailed studies on GHG fluxes from montane forest soils.
Simon Baumgartner, Matti Barthel, Travis William Drake, Marijn Bauters, Isaac Ahanamungu Makelele, John Kalume Mugula, Laura Summerauer, Nora Gallarotti, Landry Cizungu Ntaboba, Kristof Van Oost, Pascal Boeckx, Sebastian Doetterl, Roland Anton Werner, and Johan Six
Biogeosciences, 17, 6207–6218, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-6207-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-6207-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Soil respiration is an important carbon flux and key process determining the net ecosystem production of terrestrial ecosystems. The Congo Basin lacks studies quantifying carbon fluxes. We measured soil CO2 fluxes from different forest types in the Congo Basin and were able to show that, even though soil CO2 fluxes are similarly high in lowland and montane forests, the drivers were different: soil moisture in montane forests and C availability in the lowland forests.
Astrid Françoys, Orly Mendoza, Junwei Hu, Pascal Boeckx, Wim Cornelis, Stefaan De Neve, and Steven Sleutel
SOIL, 11, 121–140, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-11-121-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-11-121-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
To assess the impact of the groundwater table (GWT) depth on soil moisture and C mineralization, we designed a laboratory setup using 200 cm undisturbed soil columns. Surprisingly, the moisture increase induced by a shallower GWT did not result in enhanced C mineralization. We presume this upward capillary moisture effect was offset by increased C mineralization upon rewetting, particularly noticeable in drier soils when capillary rise affected the topsoil to a lesser extent due to a deeper GWT.
Antoine de Clippele, Astrid C. H. Jaeger, Simon Baumgartner, Marijn Bauters, Pascal Boeckx, Clement Botefa, Glenn Bush, Jessica Carilli, Travis W. Drake, Christian Ekamba, Gode Lompoko, Nivens Bey Mukwiele, Kristof Van Oost, Roland A. Werner, Joseph Zambo, Johan Six, and Matti Barthel
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3313, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3313, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Tropical forest soils as a large terrestrial source of carbon dioxide (CO2) contribute to the GHG budgets. Despite this, carbon flux data from forested wetlands is scarce in tropical Africa. The study presents three years of semi-continuous measurements of surface CO2 fluxes within the Congo Basin. Although no seasonal patterns were evident, our results showed a positive effect of soil temperature and soil moisture, while a quadratic relationship was observed with the water table level.
Flossie Brown, Gerd Folberth, Stephen Sitch, Paulo Artaxo, Marijn Bauters, Pascal Boeckx, Alexander W. Cheesman, Matteo Detto, Ninong Komala, Luciana Rizzo, Nestor Rojas, Ines dos Santos Vieira, Steven Turnock, Hans Verbeeck, and Alfonso Zambrano
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12537–12555, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12537-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12537-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Ozone is a pollutant that is detrimental to human and plant health. Ozone monitoring sites in the tropics are limited, so models are often used to understand ozone exposure. We use measurements from the tropics to evaluate ozone from the UK Earth system model, UKESM1. UKESM1 is able to capture the pattern of ozone in the tropics, except in southeast Asia, although it systematically overestimates it at all sites. This work highlights that UKESM1 can capture seasonal and hourly variability.
Roxanne Daelman, Marijn Bauters, Matti Barthel, Emmanuel Bulonza, Lodewijk Lefevre, José Mbifo, Johan Six, Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, Benjamin Wolf, Ralf Kiese, and Pascal Boeckx
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2346, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2346, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The increase in atmospheric concentrations of several greenhouse gasses (GHG) since 1750 is attributed to human activity, however natural ecosystems, such as tropical forests, also contribute to GHG budgets. The Congo basin hosts the second largest tropical forest and is understudied. In this study, measurements of soil GHG exchange were carried out during 16 months in a tropical forest in the Congo Basin. Overall, the soil acted as a major source for CO2 and N2O and a minor sink for CH4.
Tao Chen, Félicien Meunier, Marc Peaucelle, Guoping Tang, Ye Yuan, and Hans Verbeeck
Biogeosciences, 21, 2253–2272, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2253-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2253-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Chinese subtropical forest ecosystems are an extremely important component of global forest ecosystems and hence crucial for the global carbon cycle and regional climate change. However, there is still great uncertainty in the relationship between subtropical forest carbon sequestration and its drivers. We provide first quantitative estimates of the individual and interactive effects of different drivers on the gross primary productivity changes of various subtropical forest types in China.
Joseph Okello, Marijn Bauters, Hans Verbeeck, Samuel Bodé, John Kasenene, Astrid Françoys, Till Engelhardt, Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, Ralf Kiese, and Pascal Boeckx
Biogeosciences, 20, 719–735, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-719-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-719-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The increase in global and regional temperatures has the potential to drive accelerated soil organic carbon losses in tropical forests. We simulated climate warming by translocating intact soil cores from higher to lower elevations. The results revealed increasing temperature sensitivity and decreasing losses of soil organic carbon with increasing elevation. Our results suggest that climate warming may trigger enhanced losses of soil organic carbon from tropical montane forests.
Félicien Meunier, Wim Verbruggen, Hans Verbeeck, and Marc Peaucelle
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 7573–7591, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7573-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7573-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Drought stress occurs in plants when water supply (i.e. root water uptake) is lower than the water demand (i.e. atmospheric demand). It is strongly related to soil properties and expected to increase in intensity and frequency in the tropics due to climate change. In this study, we show that contrary to the expectations, state-of-the-art terrestrial biosphere models are mostly insensitive to soil texture and hence probably inadequate to reproduce in silico the plant water status in drying soils.
Flossie Brown, Gerd A. Folberth, Stephen Sitch, Susanne Bauer, Marijn Bauters, Pascal Boeckx, Alexander W. Cheesman, Makoto Deushi, Inês Dos Santos Vieira, Corinne Galy-Lacaux, James Haywood, James Keeble, Lina M. Mercado, Fiona M. O'Connor, Naga Oshima, Kostas Tsigaridis, and Hans Verbeeck
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12331–12352, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12331-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12331-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Surface ozone can decrease plant productivity and impair human health. In this study, we evaluate the change in surface ozone due to climate change over South America and Africa using Earth system models. We find that if the climate were to change according to the worst-case scenario used here, models predict that forested areas in biomass burning locations and urban populations will be at increasing risk of ozone exposure, but other areas will experience a climate benefit.
Félicien Meunier, Sruthi M. Krishna Moorthy, Marc Peaucelle, Kim Calders, Louise Terryn, Wim Verbruggen, Chang Liu, Ninni Saarinen, Niall Origo, Joanne Nightingale, Mathias Disney, Yadvinder Malhi, and Hans Verbeeck
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 4783–4803, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-4783-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-4783-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We integrated state-of-the-art observations of the structure of the vegetation in a temperate forest to constrain a vegetation model that aims to reproduce such an ecosystem in silico. We showed that the use of this information helps to constrain the model structure, its critical parameters, as well as its initial state. This research confirms the critical importance of the representation of the vegetation structure in vegetation models and proposes a method to overcome this challenge.
Caroline C. Clason, Will H. Blake, Nick Selmes, Alex Taylor, Pascal Boeckx, Jessica Kitch, Stephanie C. Mills, Giovanni Baccolo, and Geoffrey E. Millward
The Cryosphere, 15, 5151–5168, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5151-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5151-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Our paper presents results of sample collection and subsequent geochemical analyses from the glaciated Isfallsglaciären catchment in Arctic Sweden. The data suggest that material found on the surface of glaciers,
cryoconite, is very efficient at accumulating products of nuclear fallout transported in the atmosphere following events such as the Chernobyl disaster. We investigate how this compares with samples in the downstream environment and consider potential environmental implications.
Laura Summerauer, Philipp Baumann, Leonardo Ramirez-Lopez, Matti Barthel, Marijn Bauters, Benjamin Bukombe, Mario Reichenbach, Pascal Boeckx, Elizabeth Kearsley, Kristof Van Oost, Bernard Vanlauwe, Dieudonné Chiragaga, Aimé Bisimwa Heri-Kazi, Pieter Moonen, Andrew Sila, Keith Shepherd, Basile Bazirake Mujinya, Eric Van Ranst, Geert Baert, Sebastian Doetterl, and Johan Six
SOIL, 7, 693–715, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-693-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-693-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We present a soil mid-infrared library with over 1800 samples from central Africa in order to facilitate soil analyses of this highly understudied yet critical area. Together with an existing continental library, we demonstrate a regional analysis and geographical extrapolation to predict total carbon and nitrogen. Our results show accurate predictions and highlight the value that the data contribute to existing libraries. Our library is openly available for public use and for expansion.
Heleen Deroo, Masuda Akter, Samuel Bodé, Orly Mendoza, Haichao Li, Pascal Boeckx, and Steven Sleutel
Biogeosciences, 18, 5035–5051, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5035-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5035-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We assessed if and how incorporation of exogenous organic carbon (OC) such as straw could affect decomposition of native soil organic carbon (SOC) under different irrigation regimes. Addition of exogenous OC promoted dissolution of native SOC, partly because of increased Fe reduction, leading to more net release of Fe-bound SOC. Yet, there was no proportionate priming of SOC-derived DOC mineralisation. Water-saving irrigation can retard both priming of SOC dissolution and mineralisation.
Sebastian Doetterl, Rodrigue K. Asifiwe, Geert Baert, Fernando Bamba, Marijn Bauters, Pascal Boeckx, Benjamin Bukombe, Georg Cadisch, Matthew Cooper, Landry N. Cizungu, Alison Hoyt, Clovis Kabaseke, Karsten Kalbitz, Laurent Kidinda, Annina Maier, Moritz Mainka, Julia Mayrock, Daniel Muhindo, Basile B. Mujinya, Serge M. Mukotanyi, Leon Nabahungu, Mario Reichenbach, Boris Rewald, Johan Six, Anna Stegmann, Laura Summerauer, Robin Unseld, Bernard Vanlauwe, Kristof Van Oost, Kris Verheyen, Cordula Vogel, Florian Wilken, and Peter Fiener
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4133–4153, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4133-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4133-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The African Tropics are hotspots of modern-day land use change and are of great relevance for the global carbon cycle. Here, we present data collected as part of the DFG-funded project TropSOC along topographic, land use, and geochemical gradients in the eastern Congo Basin and the Albertine Rift. Our database contains spatial and temporal data on soil, vegetation, environmental properties, and land management collected from 136 pristine tropical forest and cropland plots between 2017 and 2020.
Maurizio Santoro, Oliver Cartus, Nuno Carvalhais, Danaë M. A. Rozendaal, Valerio Avitabile, Arnan Araza, Sytze de Bruin, Martin Herold, Shaun Quegan, Pedro Rodríguez-Veiga, Heiko Balzter, João Carreiras, Dmitry Schepaschenko, Mikhail Korets, Masanobu Shimada, Takuya Itoh, Álvaro Moreno Martínez, Jura Cavlovic, Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, Polyanna da Conceição Bispo, Nasheta Dewnath, Nicolas Labrière, Jingjing Liang, Jeremy Lindsell, Edward T. A. Mitchard, Alexandra Morel, Ana Maria Pacheco Pascagaza, Casey M. Ryan, Ferry Slik, Gaia Vaglio Laurin, Hans Verbeeck, Arief Wijaya, and Simon Willcock
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 3927–3950, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3927-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3927-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Forests play a crucial role in Earth’s carbon cycle. To understand the carbon cycle better, we generated a global dataset of forest above-ground biomass, i.e. carbon stocks, from satellite data of 2010. This dataset provides a comprehensive and detailed portrait of the distribution of carbon in forests, although for dense forests in the tropics values are somewhat underestimated. This dataset will have a considerable impact on climate, carbon, and socio-economic modelling schemes.
Simon Baumgartner, Marijn Bauters, Matti Barthel, Travis W. Drake, Landry C. Ntaboba, Basile M. Bazirake, Johan Six, Pascal Boeckx, and Kristof Van Oost
SOIL, 7, 83–94, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-83-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-83-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We compared stable isotope signatures of soil profiles in different forest ecosystems within the Congo Basin to assess ecosystem-level differences in N cycling, and we examined the local effect of topography on the isotopic signature of soil N. Soil δ15N profiles indicated that the N cycling in in the montane forest is more closed, whereas the lowland forest and Miombo woodland experienced a more open N cycle. Topography only alters soil δ15N values in forests with high erosional forces.
Paula Alejandra Lamprea Pineda, Marijn Bauters, Hans Verbeeck, Selene Baez, Matti Barthel, Samuel Bodé, and Pascal Boeckx
Biogeosciences, 18, 413–421, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-413-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-413-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Tropical forest soils are an important source and sink of greenhouse gases (GHGs) with tropical montane forests having been poorly studied. In this pilot study, we explored soil fluxes of CO2, CH4, and N2O in an Ecuadorian neotropical montane forest, where a net consumption of N2O at higher altitudes was observed. Our results highlight the importance of short-term variations in N2O and provide arguments and insights for future, more detailed studies on GHG fluxes from montane forest soils.
Wim Verbruggen, Guy Schurgers, Stéphanie Horion, Jonas Ardö, Paulo N. Bernardino, Bernard Cappelaere, Jérôme Demarty, Rasmus Fensholt, Laurent Kergoat, Thomas Sibret, Torbern Tagesson, and Hans Verbeeck
Biogeosciences, 18, 77–93, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-77-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-77-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
A large part of Earth's land surface is covered by dryland ecosystems, which are subject to climate extremes that are projected to increase under future climate scenarios. By using a mathematical vegetation model, we studied the impact of single years of extreme rainfall on the vegetation in the Sahel. We found a contrasting response of grasses and trees to these extremes, strongly dependent on the way precipitation is spread over the rainy season, as well as a long-term impact on CO2 uptake.
Simon Baumgartner, Matti Barthel, Travis William Drake, Marijn Bauters, Isaac Ahanamungu Makelele, John Kalume Mugula, Laura Summerauer, Nora Gallarotti, Landry Cizungu Ntaboba, Kristof Van Oost, Pascal Boeckx, Sebastian Doetterl, Roland Anton Werner, and Johan Six
Biogeosciences, 17, 6207–6218, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-6207-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-6207-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Soil respiration is an important carbon flux and key process determining the net ecosystem production of terrestrial ecosystems. The Congo Basin lacks studies quantifying carbon fluxes. We measured soil CO2 fluxes from different forest types in the Congo Basin and were able to show that, even though soil CO2 fluxes are similarly high in lowland and montane forests, the drivers were different: soil moisture in montane forests and C availability in the lowland forests.
Hannes P. T. De Deurwaerder, Marco D. Visser, Matteo Detto, Pascal Boeckx, Félicien Meunier, Kathrin Kuehnhammer, Ruth-Kristina Magh, John D. Marshall, Lixin Wang, Liangju Zhao, and Hans Verbeeck
Biogeosciences, 17, 4853–4870, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-4853-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-4853-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
The depths at which plants take up water is challenging to observe directly. To do so, scientists have relied on measuring the isotopic composition of xylem water as this provides information on the water’s source. Our work shows that this isotopic composition changes throughout the day, which complicates the interpretation of the water’s source and has been currently overlooked. We build a model to help understand the origin of these composition changes and their consequences for science.
Long Ho, Ruben Jerves-Cobo, Matti Barthel, Johan Six, Samuel Bode, Pascal Boeckx, and Peter Goethals
Biogeosciences Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2020-311, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2020-311, 2020
Revised manuscript not accepted
Short summary
Short summary
Rivers are being polluted by human activities, especially in urban areas. We studied the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from an urban river system. The results showed a clear trend between water quality and GHG emissions in which the more polluted the sites were, the higher were their emissions. When river water quality worsened, its contribution to global warming can go up by 10 times. Urban rivers emitted 4-times more than of the amount of GHGs compared to rivers in natural sites.
Marco Pfeiffer, José Padarian, Rodrigo Osorio, Nelson Bustamante, Guillermo Federico Olmedo, Mario Guevara, Felipe Aburto, Francisco Albornoz, Monica Antilén, Elías Araya, Eduardo Arellano, Maialen Barret, Juan Barrera, Pascal Boeckx, Margarita Briceño, Sally Bunning, Lea Cabrol, Manuel Casanova, Pablo Cornejo, Fabio Corradini, Gustavo Curaqueo, Sebastian Doetterl, Paola Duran, Mauricio Escudey, Angelina Espinoza, Samuel Francke, Juan Pablo Fuentes, Marcel Fuentes, Gonzalo Gajardo, Rafael García, Audrey Gallaud, Mauricio Galleguillos, Andrés Gomez, Marcela Hidalgo, Jorge Ivelic-Sáez, Lwando Mashalaba, Francisco Matus, Francisco Meza, Maria de la Luz Mora, Jorge Mora, Cristina Muñoz, Pablo Norambuena, Carolina Olivera, Carlos Ovalle, Marcelo Panichini, Aníbal Pauchard, Jorge F. Pérez-Quezada, Sergio Radic, José Ramirez, Nicolás Riveras, Germán Ruiz, Osvaldo Salazar, Iván Salgado, Oscar Seguel, Maria Sepúlveda, Carlos Sierra, Yasna Tapia, Francisco Tapia, Balfredo Toledo, José Miguel Torrico, Susana Valle, Ronald Vargas, Michael Wolff, and Erick Zagal
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 457–468, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-457-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-457-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
The CHLSOC database is the biggest soil organic carbon (SOC) database that has been compiled for Chile yet, comprising 13 612 data points. This database is the product of the compilation of numerous sources including unpublished and difficult-to-access data, allowing us to fill numerous spatial gaps where no SOC estimates were publicly available before. The values of SOC compiled in CHLSOC have a wide range, reflecting the variety of ecosystems that exists in Chile.
Anja Rammig, Jens Heinke, Florian Hofhansl, Hans Verbeeck, Timothy R. Baker, Bradley Christoffersen, Philippe Ciais, Hannes De Deurwaerder, Katrin Fleischer, David Galbraith, Matthieu Guimberteau, Andreas Huth, Michelle Johnson, Bart Krujit, Fanny Langerwisch, Patrick Meir, Phillip Papastefanou, Gilvan Sampaio, Kirsten Thonicke, Celso von Randow, Christian Zang, and Edna Rödig
Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 5203–5215, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-5203-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-5203-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We propose a generic approach for a pixel-to-point comparison applicable for evaluation of models and remote-sensing products. We provide statistical measures accounting for the uncertainty in ecosystem variables. We demonstrate our approach by comparing simulated values of aboveground biomass, woody productivity and residence time of woody biomass from four dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) with measured inventory data from permanent plots in the Amazon rainforest.
Natalie Orlowski, Lutz Breuer, Nicolas Angeli, Pascal Boeckx, Christophe Brumbt, Craig S. Cook, Maren Dubbert, Jens Dyckmans, Barbora Gallagher, Benjamin Gralher, Barbara Herbstritt, Pedro Hervé-Fernández, Christophe Hissler, Paul Koeniger, Arnaud Legout, Chandelle Joan Macdonald, Carlos Oyarzún, Regine Redelstein, Christof Seidler, Rolf Siegwolf, Christine Stumpp, Simon Thomsen, Markus Weiler, Christiane Werner, and Jeffrey J. McDonnell
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 3619–3637, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3619-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-3619-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
To extract water from soils for isotopic analysis, cryogenic water extraction is the most widely used removal technique. This work presents results from a worldwide laboratory intercomparison test of cryogenic extraction systems. Our results showed large differences in retrieved isotopic signatures among participating laboratories linked to interactions between soil type and properties, system setup, extraction efficiency, extraction system leaks, and each lab’s internal accuracy.
Dane Dickinson, Samuel Bodé, and Pascal Boeckx
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 4507–4519, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4507-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4507-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
Cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) is an increasingly popular technology for isotope analysis of trace gases. However, most commercial CRDS instruments are designed for continuous gas sampling and cannot reliably measure small discrete samples. We present a novel technical adaptation that allows routine analysis of 50 mL syringed samples on an isotopic-CO2 CRDS unit. Our method offers excellent accuracy and precision, fast sample throughput, and is easily implemented in other CRDS instruments.
Matthieu Guimberteau, Philippe Ciais, Agnès Ducharne, Juan Pablo Boisier, Ana Paula Dutra Aguiar, Hester Biemans, Hannes De Deurwaerder, David Galbraith, Bart Kruijt, Fanny Langerwisch, German Poveda, Anja Rammig, Daniel Andres Rodriguez, Graciela Tejada, Kirsten Thonicke, Celso Von Randow, Rita C. S. Von Randow, Ke Zhang, and Hans Verbeeck
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 1455–1475, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-1455-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-1455-2017, 2017
Lien De Wispelaere, Samuel Bodé, Pedro Hervé-Fernández, Andreas Hemp, Dirk Verschuren, and Pascal Boeckx
Biogeosciences, 14, 73–88, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-73-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-73-2017, 2017
Louise C. Andresen, Anna-Karin Björsne, Samuel Bodé, Leif Klemedtsson, Pascal Boeckx, and Tobias Rütting
SOIL, 2, 433–442, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-433-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-433-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
In soil the constant transport of nitrogen (N) containing compounds from soil organic matter and debris out into the soil water, is controlled by soil microbes and enzymes that literally cut down polymers (such as proteins) into single amino acids (AA), hereafter microbes consume AAs and excrete ammonium back to the soil. We developed a method for analysing N turnover and flow of organic N, based on parallel 15N tracing experiments. The numerical model gives robust and simultaneous quantification.
E. Joetzjer, C. Delire, H. Douville, P. Ciais, B. Decharme, D. Carrer, H. Verbeeck, M. De Weirdt, and D. Bonal
Geosci. Model Dev., 8, 1709–1727, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1709-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1709-2015, 2015
L. C. Andresen, S. Bode, A. Tietema, P. Boeckx, and T. Rütting
SOIL, 1, 341–349, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-341-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-341-2015, 2015
J. W. van Groenigen, D. Huygens, P. Boeckx, Th. W. Kuyper, I. M. Lubbers, T. Rütting, and P. M. Groffman
SOIL, 1, 235–256, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-235-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-235-2015, 2015
S. Doetterl, J.-T. Cornelis, J. Six, S. Bodé, S. Opfergelt, P. Boeckx, and K. Van Oost
Biogeosciences, 12, 1357–1371, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-1357-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-1357-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
We link the mineralogy of soils affected by erosion and deposition to the distribution of soil carbon fractions, their turnover and microbial activity. We show that the weathering status of soils and their history are controlling the stabilization of carbon with minerals. After burial, aggregated C is preserved more efficiently while non-aggregated C can be released and younger C re-sequestered more easily. Weathering changes the effectiveness of stabilization mechanism limiting this C sink.
D. Xue, P. Boeckx, and Z. Wang
Biogeosciences, 11, 5957–5967, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-5957-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-5957-2014, 2014
J. B. Fisher, M. Sikka, W. C. Oechel, D. N. Huntzinger, J. R. Melton, C. D. Koven, A. Ahlström, M. A. Arain, I. Baker, J. M. Chen, P. Ciais, C. Davidson, M. Dietze, B. El-Masri, D. Hayes, C. Huntingford, A. K. Jain, P. E. Levy, M. R. Lomas, B. Poulter, D. Price, A. K. Sahoo, K. Schaefer, H. Tian, E. Tomelleri, H. Verbeeck, N. Viovy, R. Wania, N. Zeng, and C. E. Miller
Biogeosciences, 11, 4271–4288, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-4271-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-4271-2014, 2014
M. Guimberteau, A. Ducharne, P. Ciais, J. P. Boisier, S. Peng, M. De Weirdt, and H. Verbeeck
Geosci. Model Dev., 7, 1115–1136, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-7-1115-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-7-1115-2014, 2014
P. C. Stoy, M. C. Dietze, A. D. Richardson, R. Vargas, A. G. Barr, R. S. Anderson, M. A. Arain, I. T. Baker, T. A. Black, J. M. Chen, R. B. Cook, C. M. Gough, R. F. Grant, D. Y. Hollinger, R. C. Izaurralde, C. J. Kucharik, P. Lafleur, B. E. Law, S. Liu, E. Lokupitiya, Y. Luo, J. W. Munger, C. Peng, B. Poulter, D. T. Price, D. M. Ricciuto, W. J. Riley, A. K. Sahoo, K. Schaefer, C. R. Schwalm, H. Tian, H. Verbeeck, and E. Weng
Biogeosciences, 10, 6893–6909, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-6893-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-6893-2013, 2013
R. M. Rees, J. Augustin, G. Alberti, B. C. Ball, P. Boeckx, A. Cantarel, S. Castaldi, N. Chirinda, B. Chojnicki, M. Giebels, H. Gordon, B. Grosz, L. Horvath, R. Juszczak, Å. Kasimir Klemedtsson, L. Klemedtsson, S. Medinets, A. Machon, F. Mapanda, J. Nyamangara, J. E. Olesen, D. S. Reay, L. Sanchez, A. Sanz Cobena, K. A. Smith, A. Sowerby, M. Sommer, J. F. Soussana, M. Stenberg, C. F. E. Topp, O. van Cleemput, A. Vallejo, C. A. Watson, and M. Wuta
Biogeosciences, 10, 2671–2682, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-2671-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-2671-2013, 2013
N. Gharahi Ghehi, C. Werner, K. Hufkens, R. Kiese, E. Van Ranst, D. Nsabimana, G. Wallin, L. Klemedtsson, K. Butterbach-Bahl, and P. Boeckx
Biogeosciences Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/bgd-10-1483-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/bgd-10-1483-2013, 2013
Revised manuscript not accepted
Related subject area
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function: Terrestrial
Combined effects of topography, soil moisture, and snow cover regimes on growth responses of grasslands in a low- mountain range (Vosges, France)
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
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
Optimal set of leaf and whole-tree elements for predicting forest functioning
Dune establishment drivers on the beach: narrowing down the window of opportunity
Ecosystem leaf area, gross primary production, and evapotranspiration responses to wildfire in the Columbia River Basin
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
From simple labels to semantic image segmentation: leveraging citizen science plant photographs for tree species mapping in drone imagery
Elephant megacarcasses increase local nutrient pools in African savanna soils and plants
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
Water usage of old growth oak at elevated CO2 in the FACE of climate change
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
Dispersal of bacteria and stimulation of permafrost decomposition by Collembola
Modeling the effects of alternative crop–livestock management scenarios on important ecosystem services for smallholder farming from a landscape perspective
Contrasting strategies of nutrient demand and use between savanna and forest ecosystems in a neotropical transition zone
Monitoring post-fire recovery of various vegetation biomes using multi-wavelength satellite remote sensing
Updated estimation of forest biomass carbon pools in China, 1977–2018
Estimating dry biomass and plant nitrogen concentration in pre-Alpine grasslands with low-cost UAS-borne multispectral data – a comparison of sensors, algorithms, and predictor sets
Fire in lichen-rich subarctic tundra changes carbon and nitrogen cycling between ecosystem compartments but has minor effects on stocks
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
Ecio Souza Diniz, Eladio Rodríguez-Penedo, Roger Grau-Andrés, Jordi Vayreda, and Marcos Fernández-Martínez
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2572, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2572, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
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.
Jan-Markus Homberger, Sasja van Rosmalen, Michel Riksen, and Juul Limpens
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1944, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1944, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Understanding what determines 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.
Mingjie Shi, Nate McDowell, Huilin Huang, Faria Zahura, Lingcheng Li, and Xingyuan Chen
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.22541/au.171053013.30286044/v2, https://doi.org/10.22541/au.171053013.30286044/v2, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
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. 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, while it has a relatively major role in the resilience of forest and savanna.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
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
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1514, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1514, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We seek to understand the ecological legacies of elephants after they die. We sampled elephant carcasses in South Africa and found that they release nutrients into soil, which then enter plants and are available for consumption by other herbivores. This research reveals a key way that these elephants contribute to nutrient cycling on the savanna after death. It also highlights an important process that may be lost on savannas in areas where elephant populations are in decline.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
Susan Elizabeth Quick, Giulio Curioni, Nicholas J. Harper, Stefan Krause, and Angus Rob MacKenzie
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1522, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1522, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
To study the effects of rising carbon dioxide levels on water usage of old growth temperate oak forest, we monitored trees in an open-air elevated CO2 experiment for five years. We found no significant changes in water usage for ~34 % increase in atmospheric CO2. Stresses under this experiment may take longer to show their effect. Tree water usage depends on tree size, i.e. stem size and the canopy area, across all treatments. Experimental infrastructure changed the water demand of the trees.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
Sylvain Monteux, Janine Mariën, and Eveline J. Krab
Biogeosciences, 19, 4089–4105, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4089-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4089-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Quantifying the feedback from the decomposition of thawing permafrost soils is crucial to establish adequate climate warming mitigation scenarios. Past efforts have focused on abiotic and to some extent microbial drivers of decomposition but not biotic drivers such as soil fauna. We added soil fauna (Collembola Folsomia candida) to permafrost, which introduced bacterial taxa without affecting bacterial communities as a whole but increased CO2 production (+12 %), presumably due to priming.
Mirjam Pfeiffer, Munir P. Hoffmann, Simon Scheiter, William Nelson, Johannes Isselstein, Kingsley Ayisi, Jude J. Odhiambo, and Reimund Rötter
Biogeosciences, 19, 3935–3958, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3935-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3935-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Smallholder farmers face challenges due to poor land management and climate change. We linked the APSIM crop model and the aDGVM2 vegetation model to investigate integrated management options that enhance ecosystem functions and services. Sustainable intensification moderately increased yields. Crop residue grazing reduced feed gaps but not for dry-to-wet season transitions. Measures to improve soil water and nutrient status are recommended. Landscape-level ecosystem management is essential.
Marina Corrêa Scalon, Imma Oliveras Menor, Renata Freitag, Karine S. Peixoto, Sami W. Rifai, Beatriz Schwantes Marimon, Ben Hur Marimon Junior, and Yadvinder Malhi
Biogeosciences, 19, 3649–3661, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3649-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3649-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We investigated dynamic nutrient flow and demand in a typical savanna and a transition forest to understand how similar soils and the same climate dominated by savanna vegetation can also support forest-like formations. Savanna relied on nutrient resorption from wood, and nutrient demand was equally partitioned between leaves, wood and fine roots. Transition forest relied on resorption from the canopy biomass and nutrient demand was predominantly driven by leaves.
Emma Bousquet, Arnaud Mialon, Nemesio Rodriguez-Fernandez, Stéphane Mermoz, and Yann Kerr
Biogeosciences, 19, 3317–3336, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3317-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3317-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Pre- and post-fire values of four climate variables and four vegetation variables were analysed at the global scale, in order to observe (i) the general fire likelihood factors and (ii) the vegetation recovery trends over various biomes. The main result of this study is that L-band vegetation optical depth (L-VOD) is the most impacted vegetation variable and takes the longest to recover over dense forests. L-VOD could then be useful for post-fire vegetation recovery studies.
Chen Yang, Yue Shi, Wenjuan Sun, Jiangling Zhu, Chengjun Ji, Yuhao Feng, Suhui Ma, Zhaodi Guo, and Jingyun Fang
Biogeosciences, 19, 2989–2999, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2989-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2989-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Quantifying China's forest biomass C pool is important in understanding C cycling in forests. However, most of studies on forest biomass C pool were limited to the period of 2004–2008. Here, we used a biomass expansion factor method to estimate C pool from 1977 to 2018. The results suggest that afforestation practices, forest growth, and environmental changes were the main drivers of increased C sink. Thus, this study provided an essential basis for achieving China's C neutrality target.
Anne Schucknecht, Bumsuk Seo, Alexander Krämer, Sarah Asam, Clement Atzberger, and Ralf Kiese
Biogeosciences, 19, 2699–2727, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2699-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2699-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Actual maps of grassland traits could improve local farm management and support environmental assessments. We developed, assessed, and applied models to estimate dry biomass and plant nitrogen (N) concentration in pre-Alpine grasslands with drone-based multispectral data and canopy height information. Our results indicate that machine learning algorithms are able to estimate both parameters but reach a better level of performance for biomass.
Ramona J. Heim, Andrey Yurtaev, Anna Bucharova, Wieland Heim, Valeriya Kutskir, Klaus-Holger Knorr, Christian Lampei, Alexandr Pechkin, Dora Schilling, Farid Sulkarnaev, and Norbert Hölzel
Biogeosciences, 19, 2729–2740, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2729-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-2729-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Fires will probably increase in Arctic regions due to climate change. Yet, the long-term effects of tundra fires on carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stocks and cycling are still unclear. We investigated the long-term fire effects on C and N stocks and cycling in soil and aboveground living biomass.
We found that tundra fires did not affect total C and N stocks because a major part of the stocks was located belowground in soils which were largely unaltered by fire.
Cited articles
Asner, G. P. and Martin, R. E.: Convergent elevation trends in canopy chemical traits of tropical forests, Glob. Change Biol., 22, 2216–2227, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13164, 2016.
Asner, G. P., Martin, R. E., Tupayachi, R., Anderson, C. B., Sinca, F., Carranza-Jimenez, L., and Martinez, P.: Amazonian functional diversity from forest canopy chemical assembly, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 111, 5604–5609, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1401181111, 2014.
Asner, G. P., Anderson, C. B., Martin, R. E., Tupayachi, R., Knapp, D. E., and Sinca, F.: Landscape biogeochemistry reflected in shifting distributions of chemical traits in the Amazon forest canopy, Nat. Geosci., 8, 567–573, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2443, 2015.
Asner, G. P., Knapp, D. E., Anderson, C. B., Martin, R. E., and Vaughn, N.: Large-scale climatic and geophysical controls on the leaf economics spectrum, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 4043–4051, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1604863113, 2016a.
Asner, G. P., Martin, R. E., Anderson, C. B., Kryston, K., Vaughn, N., Knapp, D. E., Bentley, L. P., Shenkin, A., Salinas, N., Sinca, F., Tupayachi, R., Sandra, D., Huaypar, K. Q., Pillco, M. M., Delis, F., Alvarez, C., Malhi, Y., Quispe Huaypar, K., Montoya Pillco, M., Ccori Álvarez, F. D., Díaz, S., Enquist, B., Malhi, Y., Sandra, D., Huaypar, K. Q., Pillco, M. M., Delis, F., Alvarez, C., and Malhi, Y.: Scale dependence of canopy trait distributions along a tropical forest elevation gradient, New Phytol., 214, 973–988, https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.14068, 2016b.
Averill, C. and Finzi, A.: Increasing plant use of organic nitrogen with elevation is reflected in nitrogen uptake rates and ecosystem δ15N, Ecology, 92, 883–91, https://doi.org/10.1890/10-0746.1, 2011.
Banin, L., Feldpausch, T. R., Phillips, O. L., Baker, T. R., Lloyd, J., Affum-Baffoe, K., Arets, E. J. M. M., Berry, N. J., Bradford, M., Brienen, R. J. W., Davies, S., Drescher, M., Higuchi, N., Hilbert, D. W., Hladik, A., Iida, Y., Salim, K. A., Kassim, A. R., King, D. A., Lopez-Gonzalez, G., Metcalfe, D., Nilus, R., Peh, K. S.-H., Reitsma, J. M., Sonké, B., Taedoumg, H., Tan, S., White, L., Wöll, H., and Lewis, S. L.: What controls tropical forest architecture? Testing environmental, structural and floristic drivers, Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr., 21, 1179–1190, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2012.00778.x, 2012.
Bates, D., Sarkar, D., Bates, M. D., and Matrix, L.: The lme4 Package, October, 2, 1–6, https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01, 2007.
Brookshire, E. N. J., Hedin, L. O., Newbold, J. D., Sigman, D. M., and Jackson, J. K.: Sustained losses of bioavailable nitrogen from montane tropical forests, Nat. Geosci., 5, 123–126, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1372, 2012.
Chave, J., Réjou-Méchain, M., Burquez, A., Chidumayo, E., Colgan, M. S., Delitti, W. B. C., Duque, A., Eid, T., Fearnside, P. M., Goodman, R. C., Henry, M., Martinez-Yrizar, A., Mugasha, W. A., Muller-Landau, H. C., Mencuccini, M., Nelson, B. W., Ngomanda, A., Nogueira, E. M., Ortiz-Malavassi, E., Pélissier, R., Ploton, P., Ryan, C. M., Saldarriaga, J. G., and Vieilledent, G.: Improved allometric models to estimate the aboveground biomass of tropical trees, Glob. Change Biol., 20, 3177–3190, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12629, 2014.
Corlett, R. T. and Primack, R. B.: Tropical rainforests and the need for cross-continental comparisons, Trends Ecol. Evol., 21, 104–110, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2005.12.002, 2006.
Coûteaux, M. M., Sarmiento, L., Bottner, P., Acevedo, D., and Thiéry, J. M.: Decomposition of standard plant material along an altitudinal transect (65–3968 m) in the tropical Andes, Soil Biol. Biochem., 34, 69–78, 2002.
Craine, J. M., Elmore, A. J., Aidar, M. P. M., Bustamante, M., Dawson, T. E., Hobbie, E. A., Kahmen, A., Mack, M. C., Mclauchlan, K. K., Michelsen, A., Nardoto, G. B., and Pardo, L. H.: Global patterns of foliar nitrogen isotopes and their relationships with climate, mycorrhizal fungi, foliar nutrient concentrations, and nitrogen availability, New Phytol., 183, 980–992, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.02917.x, 2009.
Craine, J. M., Brookshire, E. N. J., Cramer, M. D., Hasselquist, N. J., Koba, K., Marin-spiotta, E., and Wang, L.: Ecological interpretations of nitrogen isotope ratios of terrestrial plants and soils, Plant Soil, 396, 1–26, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-015-2542-1, 2015.
Evans, J. R.: Photosynthesis and nitrogen relationships in leaves of C3 plants, Oecologia, 78, 9–19, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00377192, 1989.
Fernandez-Martinez, M., Vicca, S., Janssens, I. A., Sardans, J., Luyssaert, S., Campioli, M., Iii, F. S. C., Ciais, P., Malhi, Y., Obersteiner, M., Papale, D., Piao, S. L., and Reichstein, M.: Nutrient availability as the key regulator of global forest carbon balance, Nature Climate Change, 4, 471–476, https://doi.org/10.1038/NCLIMATE2177, 2014.
Fick, S. E. and Hijmans, R. J.: WorldClim 2: new 1-km spatial resolution climate surfaces for global land areas, Int. J. Climatol., 37, 4302–4315, https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.5086, 2017.
Fisher, J. B., Malhi, Y., Torres, I. C., Metcalfe, D. B., van de Weg, M. J., Meir, P., Silva-Espejo, J. E., Huasco, W. H., and Daniel, T.: Nutrient limitation in rainforests and cloud forests along a 3,000-m elevation gradient in the Peruvian Andes, Oecologia, 172, 889–902, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2522-6, 2013.
Galloway, J. N., Townsend, A. R., Erisman, J. W., Bekunda, M., Cai, Z., Freney, J. R., Martinelli, L. A., Seitzinger, S. P., and Sutton, M. A.: Transformation of the Nitrogen Cycle?: Recent Trends, Questions, and Potential Solutions, Science, 320, 889–893, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1136674, 2008.
Hietz, P., Turner, B. L., Wanek, W., Richter, A., Nock, C. A., and Wright, S. J.: Long-Term Change in the Nitrogen Cycle of Tropical Forests, Science, 334, 664–666, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1211979, 2011.
Hobbie, E. A. and Ouimette, A. P.: Controls of nitrogen isotope patterns in soil profiles, Biogeochemistry, 95, 355–371, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-009-9328-6, 2009.
Hobbie, E. A., Jumpponen, A., Trappe, J., Jumpponen, Æ. A., and Trappe, Æ. J.: Foliar and fungal 15N : 14N ratios reflect development of mycorrhizae and nitrogen supply during primary succession: Testing analytical models, Oecologia, 146, 258–268, 2005.
Högberg, P.: 15N natural abundance in soil – plant systems, New Phytol. Phytol., 137, 179–203, https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1469-8137.1997.00808.x, 1997.
Houlton, B. Z., Sigman, D. M., and Hedin, L. O.: Isotopic evidence for large gaseous nitrogen losses from tropical rainforests, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 103, 8745–50, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0510185103, 2006.
Huygens, D., Boeckx, P., Templer, P., Paulino, L., Van Cleemput, O., Oyarzún, C., Müller, C., and Godoy, R.: Mechanisms for retention of bioavailable nitrogen in volcanic rainforest soils, Nat. Geosci., 1, 543–548, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo252, 2008.
Kahmen, A., Wanek, W., and Buchmann, N.: Foliar δ15N values characterize soil N cycling and reflect nitrate or ammonium preference of plants along a temperate grassland gradient, Oecologia, 156, 861–870, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-008-1028-8, 2008.
Kitayama, K. and Aiba, S.: Ecosystem structure and productivity of tropical rain forests along altitudinal gradients with contrasting soil phosphorus pools on Mount Kinabalu, Borneo, J. Ecol., 90, 37–51, https://doi.org/10.1046/j.0022-0477.2001.00634.x, 2002.
Körner, C.: The use of "altitude" in ecological research, Trends Ecol. Evol., 22, 569–74, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2007.09.006, 2007.
Kuznetsova, A., Brockhoff, P. B., and Christensen, R. H. B.: lmerTest: Tests for random and fixed effects for linear mixed effect models (lmer objects of lme4 package), R Packag. version, R package version 2.0-6, available at: http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=lmerTest (last access: August 2017), 2014.
Lewis, S. L., Sonké, B., Sunderland, T., Begne, S. K., Lopez-gonzalez, G., Heijden, G. Van Der, Phillips, O. L., Affum-baffoe, K., Baker, T. R., Banin, L., Bastin, J.-F., Beeckman, H., Boeckx, P., Bogaert, J., Cannière, C. De, Clark, C. J., Collins, M., Djagbletey, G., Djuikouo, M. N., Doucet, J.-L., Ewango, C., Fauset, S., Feldpausch, T. R., Ernest, G., Gillet, J.-F., Hamilton, A. C., Harris, D. J., Hart, T. B., Haulleville, T. De, Hladik, A., Hufkens, K., Huygens, D., Jeanmart, P., Jeffery, K. J., Kearsley, E., Leal, M. E., Lloyd, J., Lovett, J. C., Makana, J.-R., Malhi, Y., Andrew, R., Ojo, L., Peh, K. S., Pickavance, G., Poulsen, J. R., Reitsma, J. M., Sheil, D., Simo, M., Steppe, K., Taedoumg, H. E., Talbot, J., James, R. D., Taylor, D., Thomas, S. C., Toirambe, B., Verbeeck, H., Vleminckx, J., Lee, J., White, L. J. T., Willcock, S., Woell, H., and Zemagho, L.: Above-ground biomass and structure of 260 African tropical forests, Philos. T. Roy. Soc. B, 368, 20120295, https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2012.0295, 2013.
Malhi, Y., Phillips, O. L., Lloyd, J., Baker, T., Wright, J., Almeida, S., Arroyo, L., Frederiksen, T., Grace, J., Higuchi, N., Killeen, T., Laurance, W. F., Leaño, C., Lewis, S., Meir, P., Monteagudo, A., Neill, D., Núñez Vargas, P., Panfil, S. N., Patiño, S., Pitman, N., Quesada, C. A., Rudas-Ll., A., Salomão, R., Saleska, S., Silva, N., Silveira, M., Sombroek, W. G., Valencia, R., Vásquez Martínez, R., Vieira, I. C. G., and Vinceti, B.: An international network to monitor the structure, composition and dynamics of Amazonian forests (RAINFOR), J. Veg. Sci., 13, 439, https://doi.org/10.1658/1100-9233(2002)013[0439:AINTMT]2.0.CO;2, 2002.
Malhi, Y., Silman, M., Salinas, N., Bush, M., Meir, P., and Saatchi, S.: Introduction: Elevation gradients in the tropics: Laboratories for ecosystem ecology and global change research, Glob. Change Biol., 16, 3171–3175, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02323.x, 2010.
Malhi, Y., Girardin, C. A. J., Goldsmith, G. R., Doughty, C. E., Salinas, N., Metcalfe, D. B., Huaraca Huasco, W., Silva-Espejo, J. E., del Aguilla-Pasquell, J., Farfan Amizquita, F., Aragao, L. E. O. C., Guerrieri, R., Ishida, F. Y., Bahar, N. H. A., Farfan-Rios, W., Phillips, O. L., Meir, P., and Silman, M.: The variation of productivity and its allocation along a tropical elevation gradient: A whole carbon budget perspective, New Phytol., 214, 1019–1032, https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.14189, 2016.
Marrs, R. H. H., Proctor, J., Heaney, A., and Mountford, M. D. D.: Changes in Soil Nitrogen-Mineralization and Nitrification Along an Altitudinal Transect in Tropical Rain Forest in Costa Rica, J. Ecol., 76, 466–482, https://doi.org/10.2307/2260606, 1988.
Martinelli, L. A., Piccolo, M. C., Townsend, A. R., Vitousek, P. M., Cuevas, E., McDowell, W., Robertson, G. P., Santos, O. C., and Treseder, K.: Nitrogen stable isotopic composition of leaves and soil: Tropical versus temperate forests, Biogeochemistry, 46, 45–65, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01007573, 1999.
Mayor, J. R., Wright, S. J., Schuur, E. A. G., Brooks, M. E., and Turner, B. L.: Stable nitrogen isotope patterns of trees and soils altered by long-term nitrogen and phosphorus addition to a lowland tropical rainforest, Biogeochemistry, 119, 293–306, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-014-9966-1, 2014.
Menge, D. N. L., Troy Baisden, W., Richardson, S. J., Peltzer, D. A., and Barbour, M. M.: Declining foliar and litter δ15N diverge from soil, epiphyte and input δ15N along a 120 000 yr temperate rainforest chronosequence, New Phytol., 190, 941–52, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03640.x, 2011.
Midgley, J. J., Van Wyk, G. R., and Everard, D. A.: Leaf attributes of South African forest species, Afr. J. Ecol., 33, 160–168, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2028.1995.tb00791.x, 1995.
Nakagawa, S. and Schielzeth, H.: A general and simple method for obtaining R2 from generalized linear mixed-effects models, edited by: O'Hara, R. B., Methods Ecol. Evol., 4, 133–142, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-210x.2012.00261.x, 2013.
Phillips, O., Baker, T., Feldpausch, T., and Brienen, R.: RAINFOR field manual for plot establishment and remeasurement, available at: http://www.rainfor.org/upload/ManualsEnglish/RAINFOR_field_manual_version_June_2009_ENG.pdf (last access: November 2017), 2009.
Poorter, H., Poorter, H., Niinemets, Ü., Poorter, L., Wright, I. J., and Villar, R.: Causes and consequences of variation in leaf mass per area (LMA): a meta-analysis, New Phytol., 182, 565–588, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.02830.x, 2009.
R Development Core Team: R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria, 2014.
Reich, P. B., Walters, M. B., Ellsworth, D. S., Columbia, N. B., George, P., and Columbia, B.: From tropics to tundra: global convergence in plant functioning, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 94, 13730–13734, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.94.25.13730, 1997.
Reich, P. B., Oleksyn, J., and Wright, I. J.: Leaf phosphorus influences the photosynthesis-nitrogen relation: A cross-biome analysis of 314 species, Oecologia, 160, 207–212, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1291-3, 2009.
Rütting, T., Cizungu, L. N., Roobroeck, D., Bauters, M., Huygens, D., and Boeckx, P.: Leaky nitrogen cycle in pristine African montane Rainforest soil, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 29, 962–973, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GB005144, 2014.
Ryan, J., Estefan, G., and Rashid, A.: Soil and Plant Analysis Laboratory Manual, 2nd Edn., ICARDA, Aleppo, Syria, Syria, 2001.
Schielzeth, H. and Nakagawa, S.: Nested by design: Model fitting and interpretation in a mixed model era, Methods Ecol. Evol., 4, 14–24, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-210x.2012.00251.x, 2013.
Schneider, C. A., Rasband, W. S., and Eliceiri, K. W.: NIH Image to ImageJ: 25 years of image analysis, Nat. Methods, 9, 671–675, https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2089, 2012.
Slik, J. W. F., Arroyo-Rodríguez, V., Aiba, S., et al.: An estimate of the nmber of tropical tree species, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 112, 7472–7477, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1512611112, 2015.
Soethe, N., Lehmann, J., and Engels, C.: Nutrient availability at different altitudes in a tropical montane forest in Ecuador, J. Trop. Ecol., 24, 397–406, https://doi.org/10.1017/S026646740800504X, 2008.
Sundqvist, M. K., Sanders, N. J., and Wardle, D. A.: Community and Ecosystem Responses to Elevational Gradients: Processes, Mechanisms, and Insights for Global Change, Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst., 44, 261–280, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110512-135750, 2013.
Tanner, A. E. V. J., Vitousek, P. M., and Cuevas, E.: Experimental Investigation of Nutrient Limitation of Forest Growth on Wet Tropical Mountains, Ecology, 79, 10–22, 1998.
Townsend, A. R., Asner, G. P., and Cleveland, C. C.: The biogeochemical heterogeneity of tropical forests, Trends Ecol. Evol., 23, 424–431, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2008.04.009, 2008.
Vicca, S., Luyssaert, S., Peñuelas, J., Campioli, M., Chapin, F. S., Ciais, P., Heinemeyer, A., Högberg, P., Kutsch, W. L., Law, B. E., Malhi, Y., Papale, D., Piao, S. L., Reichstein, M., Schulze, E. D., and Janssens, I. A.: Fertile forests produce biomass more efficiently, Ecol. Lett., 15, 520–526, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01775.x, 2012.
Vitousek, P. M., Shearer, G., and Kohl, D. H.: Foliar 15N natural abundance in Hawaiian rainforest: patterns and possible mechanisms, Oecologia, 78, 383–388, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00379113, 1989.
Van de Weg, M. J., Meir, P., Grace, J., Atkin, O. K., van de Weg, M. J., Meir, P., Grace, J., and Atkin, O. K.: Altitudinal variation in leaf mass per unit area, leaf tissue density and foliar nitrogen and phosphorus content along an Amazon-Andes gradient in Peru, Plant Ecol. Divers., 2, 243–254, https://doi.org/10.1080/17550870903518045, 2009.
Wright, I. J., Reich, P. B., Westoby, M., Ackerly, D. D., Baruch, Z., Bongers, F., Cavender-bares, J., Chapin, T., Cornelissen, J. H. C., Diemer, M., Flexas, J., Garnier, E., Groom, P. K., and Gulias, J.: The worldwide leaf economics spectrum, Nature, 12, 821–827, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02403, 2004.
Short summary
We assessed community-weighted functional canopy traits and indicative δ15N shifts along two new altitudinal transects in the tropical forest biome of both South America and Africa. We found that the functional forest composition and δ15N response along both transects was parallel, with a species shift towards more nitrogen-conservative species at higher elevations.
We assessed community-weighted functional canopy traits and indicative δ15N shifts along two...
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint