Environmental Research: Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Sap flow as a function of variables within nested scales: ordinary least squares vs. spatial regression models","authors":"Khodabakhsh Zabihi, Vivek Vikram Singh, A. Trubin, I. Tomášková, M. Blaženec, P. Surový, R. Jakuš","doi":"10.1088/2752-664X/acd6ff","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-664X/acd6ff","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding scale-dependent influential drivers of sap flow variability can help managers and policymakers to allocate resources within a particular scale to improve forest health and resiliency against water-stress stimuli such as drought and insects, e.g. bark beetle infestations. We defined a daily measure of sap flow as a function of variables within nested scales of landscape, stand, and tree, using ordinary least squares (OLS), spatial lag and error regression models. Model covariates were elevation, latitude (Y-coordinate), longitude (X-coordinate), neighborhood tree density, tree diameter at breast height, and bark temperature for 40-surveyed Norway spruce (Picea abies) in the Czech Republic, Central Europe. Trees were spatially distributed within 19-established subplots across five plots, with distances ranging 2–9 km, at which variations in soil water potential and temperature were limited. The daily measure of sap flow within the regional scale allowed us to avoid the temporal and spatial variability of climate effects on sap flow. A relatively flat terrain across subplots also allowed us to control the effects of slope, aspect, and topography-related solar incidence angle on sap flow. Sap flow was strongly spatially autocorrelated, so OLS models failed to take spatial autocorrelation into account unless to some extent, depending on the spatial distribution of samples, by including latitude and/or longitude in the models. Among spatial regression models, spatial error models performed better than lag models, allowing to capture the effects of unmeasured independent variables. Sap flow variability for the most part (∼70%) was explained by the landscape-level variable of elevation followed by the stand-level variable of tree density, and the remaining part by variables related to tree characteristics; a nested down-scaling function, defined and visualized for the first time. Therefore, thinning forest stands and future plantations with optimum distances, based on the elevation gradients, may be required to counterbalance the allocation of resources, e.g. water, nutrients, and light, among trees, leading to enhance forest health and resiliency against water-stress stimuli.","PeriodicalId":367648,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research: Ecology","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133505822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Modeling seasonal vegetation phenology from hydroclimatic drivers for contrasting plant functional groups within drylands of the Southwestern USA","authors":"M. Warter, M. Singer, M. Cuthbert, D. Roberts, Kelly K. Caylor, R. Sabathier, J. Stella","doi":"10.1088/2752-664X/acb9a0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-664X/acb9a0","url":null,"abstract":"In dryland ecosystems, vegetation within different plant functional groups exhibits distinct seasonal phenologies that are affected by the prevailing hydroclimatic forcing. The seasonal variability of precipitation, atmospheric evaporative demand, and streamflow influences root-zone water availability to plants in water-limited environments. Increasing interannual variations in climate forcing of the local water balance and uncertainty regarding climate change projections have raised the potential for phenological shifts and changes to vegetation dynamics. This poses significant risks to plant functional types across large areas, especially in drylands and within riparian ecosystems. Due to the complex interactions between climate, water availability, and seasonal plant water use, the timing and amplitude of phenological responses to specific hydroclimate forcing cannot be determined a priori, thus limiting efforts to dynamically predict vegetation greenness under future climate change. Here, we analyze two decades (1994–2021) of remote sensing data (soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI)) as well as contemporaneous hydroclimate data (precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, depth to groundwater, and air temperature), to identify and quantify the key hydroclimatic controls on the timing and amplitude of seasonal greenness. We focus on key phenological events across four different plant functional groups occupying distinct locations and rooting depths in dryland SE Arizona: semi-arid grasses and shrubs, xeric riparian terrace and hydric riparian floodplain trees. We find that key phenological events such as spring and summer greenness peaks in grass and shrubs are strongly driven by contributions from antecedent spring and monsoonal precipitation, respectively. Meanwhile seasonal canopy greenness in floodplain and terrace vegetation showed strong response to groundwater depth as well as antecedent available precipitation (aaP = P − PET) throughout reaches of perennial and intermediate streamflow permanence. The timings of spring green-up and autumn senescence were driven by seasonal changes in air temperature for all plant functional groups. Based on these findings, we develop and test a simple, empirical phenology model, that predicts the timing and amplitude of greenness based on hydroclimate forcing. We demonstrate the feasibility of the model by exploring simple, plausible climate change scenarios, which may inform our understanding of phenological shifts in dryland plant communities and may ultimately improve our predictive capability of investigating and predicting climate-phenology interactions in the future.","PeriodicalId":367648,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research: Ecology","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116352232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Does renewable energy consumption reduce energy ecological footprint: evidence from China","authors":"Yu Nan, Renjin Sun, He Mei, Sun Yue, Liang Yuliang","doi":"10.1088/2752-664X/aca76c","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-664X/aca76c","url":null,"abstract":"The modern economic growth paradigm relies heavily on natural endowments. Renewable energy as a permanent energy source has the potential to reduce the ecological footprint (EF). We adopt the Vector Autoregressive model to examine the impact of renewable energy consumption on the energy EF and use the quantile regression method to test the heterogeneity and asymmetry between energy EF and photovoltaic, wind energy, and biomass energy. The results show that renewable energy has a long-term negative impact on the EF, and for every 1% increase in renewable energy consumption, the energy EF will decrease by 2.91%. The contribution of renewable energy consumption to reducing the EF is 1.34% on average. There is no two-way Granger causality between renewable energy consumption and energy EF. The reduction effect of wind energy consumption on the energy EF varies the most, followed by biomass energy and photovoltaic. In addition, under different energy EF distribution conditions, the impact of photovoltaic or wind energy or biomass energy consumption on the energy EF is different.","PeriodicalId":367648,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research: Ecology","volume":"118 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116301692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluation of isoprene light response curves for bryophyte-dominated ecosystems and implications for atmospheric composition","authors":"B. Langford, J. Cash, M. Vieno, M. Heal, J. Drewer, Matthew R. Jones, S. Leeson, I. Simmons, C. Braban, E. Nemitz","doi":"10.1088/2752-664X/aca2ad","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-664X/aca2ad","url":null,"abstract":"Isoprene is emitted from numerous plant species in response to light and temperature and parameterisations of these relationships, based on observations from a few vascular plant species, have been shown to be broadly applicable to many different vegetation types. Here, we investigate their performance when applied to an ecosystem dominated by bryophytes. Over a six-week period, emissions of isoprene were measured above a Scottish peat bog. The light response derived on the basis of both canopy-scale flux and whole-plant enclosure measurements, deviated from the classical response, showing no sign of saturation within the observed range. We attribute this response to the canopy architecture of moss hummocks, which may attenuate light differently compared to a grass canopy. Both existing big-leaf and canopy-level emission algorithms, developed for vascular plants but commonly used for moorland vegetation, failed to replicate the observed fluxes, overestimating at low light intensities (<1000 μmol m−2 s−1 photosynthetically active radiation) and underestimating during daytime clear sky conditions. The light response was optimised for bryophyte-dominated ecosystems using measured fluxes and incorporated into the EMEP4UK chemical transport model and applied exclusively to moorland. The revised parameterisation resulted in a small reduction in the average annual isoprene emissions in the northern latitudes (5%), but peak isoprene emissions and concentrations increased by up to a factor of two. Yet, no significant change in average or maximum surface ozone concentrations was observed, reflecting that the northern latitudes are in a chemical regime that is strongly NOx limited, in part due to the spatial segregation with the urban sources of NO x . We conclude that, the anticipated increase in isoprene emissions from the northern latitudes in response to climate change is unlikely to contribute towards ozone-related air quality issues, as long as NO x pollution does not increase. However, the non-saturating light response may be equally applicable to non-vascular plants elsewhere, including in the tropics.","PeriodicalId":367648,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research: Ecology","volume":"90 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125523853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tidal influence on dissolved CO2 at Sapelo Island, Georgia, USA","authors":"Jess Turner, A. Desai, J. Blackstock, Dontrece Smith","doi":"10.1088/2752-664X/aca0f4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-664X/aca0f4","url":null,"abstract":"Measuring carbon (C) loss through different pathways is essential for understanding the net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2) in tidal wetlands, especially in a reality where wetland mitigation and protecting coastlines from rapid sea-level rise is a growing priority. Tracking C loss can help reveal where an ecosystem is storing the most C, but it can also help scientists understand near- and long-term impacts of wetland restoration on climate. A recently developed partial pressure of dissolved CO2 platform was tested in a subtropical salt marsh with an apparatus that raised and lowered sensor housing with the tide. Additional low-cost water quality sensors were installed nearby for measuring turbidity and salinity. Here, we evaluated how well this floating sensor platform along with 28 d of biogeochemical data from a tidal salt marsh could detect C import and export from tidal effects. This work provides a pathway to low-cost, routine in-situ C exchange measurements which serve the needs of environmental managers, researchers, and others interested in better estimating wetland C storage and transport.","PeriodicalId":367648,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research: Ecology","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132029445","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Conservation genetics of montane willow populations in Scotland—limited natural recovery despite long-distance gene flow and high genetic diversity","authors":"A. Finger, S. Rao, N. Cowie, T. MacDonell, A. Beck, B. Denny","doi":"10.1088/2752-664X/ac9682","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-664X/ac9682","url":null,"abstract":"Plant species around the world are negatively affected by habitat fragmentation and climate change. Montane willow populations in the UK have declined primarily due to grazing, as well as climate change and muirburn in certain areas. Only small, isolated populations remain, scattered across steep ledges where shrubs escape most grazing animals. We explored the genetic effects of habitat fragmentation on gene flow and genetic diversity in the largest remaining patches in the UK, which lie in Scotland, for two now restricted and rare montane willow species—Salix myrsinites and Salix lapponum. Using ten microsatellite loci and an almost complete genetic inventory in the central Cairngorms area (S. myrsinites n = 186, S. lapponum n = 91) we showed that genetic diversity (heterozygosity and allelic richness) is relatively high in both species, particularly high for the decaploid S. myrsinites, and clonal reproduction low. Historic gene flow between populations could be demonstrated. Significant inbreeding was detected in both species and observed seed set and numbers of juveniles in the field are low, possibly indicating signs of inbreeding depression. Both species have extremely low numbers of individuals at each site, with many being smaller than ten, and in some cases combined with skewed sex-ratios (mainly female biased). This will likely cause more severe reproductive failures in the next generations unless population numbers are increased. Reinforcing populations of both species under low grazing pressure with new, unrelated individuals, as well as creating new stepping-stone populations will be necessary to help the recovery of these species. Results from this study will inform restoration work in Scotland aiming to create continuous woodland habitats from pinewoods at lower altitudes through to higher altitude downy birch woodlands merging with montane willows.","PeriodicalId":367648,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research: Ecology","volume":"75 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127408273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Keystone structures maintain forest function for Canada lynx after large-scale spruce beetle outbreak","authors":"J. Squires, Jacob S. Ivan, Kelsey E Paolini, L. Olson, Gavin M. Jones, Joseph D. Holbrook","doi":"10.1088/2752-664X/ac8eb7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-664X/ac8eb7","url":null,"abstract":"Central to species conservation in an era of increased disturbance from climate change is understanding the primary mechanisms that facilitate how forest-dependent species respond to changes in forest structure and composition. Here, we leveraged a natural experiment to investigate how changed forest structure and function pre-spruce-beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis) and post-beetle disturbance influenced the regional distribution of Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) at their southern range periphery. We compared the distribution of Canada lynx that were reintroduced into Colorado, USA from 1999–2006 to the current (2015–2017) distribution following a spatial large-scale spruce beetle outbreak from 2007 to 2016. Canada lynx did not substantially alter their distribution following the wide-spread alteration of forest structure and composition following the insect outbreak. We used the Bhattacharyya’s affinity metric to document that core (50% isopleth) and overall population ranges (95% isopleth) overlapped significantly at 50% and 77% respectively. In addition, areas of low and high relative use remained similar after the bark beetle outbreak and mapped onto one another in nearly a 1:1 fashion (Spearman rank correlation = 0.92, p < 0.01). The low impact of forest change on distribution was due to the keystone habitat elements (high horizontal forest cover, snowshoe hares) that remained functional. Thus, our results highlight that conservation scientists should increase their focus to understand the underlying mechanisms that impact wildlife distributions as climate-related disturbances becomes ever more amplified.","PeriodicalId":367648,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research: Ecology","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117143668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Photochemical reactions and the self-depuration of sunlit freshwaters","authors":"D. Vione","doi":"10.1088/2752-664X/ac8eb8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-664X/ac8eb8","url":null,"abstract":"Reactions induced by sunlight (direct photolysis and indirect photochemistry) are important ecosystem services that aid freshwater bodies in removing contaminants, although they may also exacerbate pollution in some cases. Without photoinduced reactions, pollution problems would be considerably worse overall. The photochemical reaction rates depend on seasonality, depth, water chemistry (which also significantly affects the reaction pathways), and pollutant photoreactivity. Photochemical reactions are also deeply impacted by less studied factors, including hydrology, water dynamics, and precipitation regimes, which are key to understanding the main impacts of climate change on surface-water photochemistry. Climate change is expected in many cases to both exacerbate freshwater pollution, and enhance photochemical decontamination. Therefore, photochemical knowledge will be essential to understand the future evolution of freshwater environments.","PeriodicalId":367648,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research: Ecology","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125131946","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Global forests are influenced by the legacies of past inter-annual temperature variability","authors":"Winslow D. Hansen, N. Schwartz, A. P. Williams, Katharina Albrich, L. Kueppers, A. Rammig, C. Reyer, A. Staver, R. Seidl","doi":"10.1088/2752-664x/ac6e4a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-664x/ac6e4a","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Inter-annual climate variability (hereafter climate variability) is increasing in many forested regions due to climate change. This variability could have larger near-term impacts on forests than decadal shifts in mean climate, but how forests will respond remains poorly resolved, particularly at broad scales. Individual trees, and even forest communities, often have traits and ecological strategies—the legacies of exposure to past variable conditions—that confer tolerance to subsequent climate variability. However, whether local legacies also shape global forest responses is unknown. Our objective was to assess how past and current climate variability influences global forest productivity. We hypothesized that forests exposed to large climate variability in the past would better tolerate current climate variability than forests for which past climate was relatively stable. We used historical (1950–1969) and contemporary (2000–2019) temperature, precipitation, and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and the remotely sensed enhanced vegetation index (EVI) to quantify how historical and contemporary climate variability relate to patterns of contemporary forest productivity. Consistent with our hypothesis, forests exposed to large temperature variability in the past were more tolerant of contemporary temperature variability than forests where past temperatures were less variable. Forests were 19-fold times less sensitive to contemporary temperature variability where historical inter-annual temperature variability was 0.66 °C (two standard deviations) greater than the global average historical temperature variability. We also found that larger increases in temperature variability between the two study periods often eroded the tolerance conferred by the legacy effects of historical temperature variability. However, the hypothesis was not supported in the case of precipitation and VPD variability, potentially due to physiological tradeoffs inherent in how trees cope with dry conditions. We conclude that the sensitivity of forest productivity to imminent increases in temperature variability may be partially predictable based on the legacies of past conditions.","PeriodicalId":367648,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research: Ecology","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129164160","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Introducing ‘Environmental Research: Ecology’—a new journal devoted to addressing global challenges at the interface of environmental and ecological science, biodiversity and conservation","authors":"S. Goetz","doi":"10.1088/2752-664x/ac85f1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-664x/ac85f1","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 \u0000 Environmental Research: Ecology is a new open-access journal focused on addressing important global challenges at the interface of environmental science, large scale ecology, biodiversity and conservation in a way that bridges scientific progress and assessment with efforts relating to impacts of global change, vulnerability, resilience, mitigation and adaptation in the broadest sense. While there are many journals addressing various aspects of ecology, those focused on macroscale changes across ecosystems, biomes and at continental to global scale geographies are far fewer. Because ecosystems across the globe are undergoing enormous changes brought about by human-induced transformations and associated feedbacks to and alteration of the climate system, it is more important than ever that a forum exists for addressing these issues in a fully Open Access publishing venue. Environmental Research: Ecology provides that platform and is supported by an Editorial Board of high profile ecologists covering a broad range of disciplines and geographies.","PeriodicalId":367648,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Research: Ecology","volume":"138 ","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133784268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}