Ecosphere最新文献

{"title":"Negative effects of forest harvest on coastal tailed frog (Ascaphus truei) emerge after a decade-long experiment","authors":"Aimee P. McIntyre,&nbsp;Reed Ojala-Barbour,&nbsp;Jay E. Jones,&nbsp;Andrew J. Kroll,&nbsp;Eric M. Lund,&nbsp;Timothy Quinn,&nbsp;William J. Ehinger,&nbsp;Stephanie M. Estrella,&nbsp;Dave E. Schuett-Hames,&nbsp;Marc P. Hayes","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70281","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70281","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Perennial, low-order headwater streams provide critical ecosystem functions, including habitat for specialized aquatic species. Anthropogenic disturbances can degrade biological and physical conditions in headwater streams, with potentially corresponding negative effects on stream biodiversity. Headwater streams comprise most of the stream length in forested watersheds in the Pacific Northwest, the United States, including those that are globally important sources of wood biomass. To conserve stream biota, water quality, and related public resources, riparian buffers are retained as a management tool expected to ameliorate effects of anthropogenic disturbances, including timber harvests. From 2006 to 2015, we used a replicated Before-After Control-Impact (BACI) experiment to evaluate how coastal tailed frog (<i>Ascaphus truei</i>) density varied in three alternative riparian buffer configurations (continuous buffer, patchy buffer, and clearcut riparian area) and unharvested reference basins, in western Washington, the United States. We used count data to estimate tailed frog density for three years pre-harvest, the first two years post-harvest, and years seven and eight post-harvest. We compared relative change in density for each buffer configuration between pre- and post-harvest after controlling for temporal changes in the reference. We found no evidence of a decline in tailed frog density in the first two years post-harvest but saw evidence of substantial declines in larval and post-metamorphic coastal tailed frog densities in years seven and eight post-harvest. Specifically, we estimated a 65%, 93%, and 84% decline in average larval tailed frog density in basins with a continuous buffer, patchy buffer, and clearcut riparian area, respectively. We estimated 71% and 97% declines in post-metamorphic tailed frog densities in the continuous and patchy buffers. Because evidence of tailed frog declines became apparent only after eight years post-harvest, our results underscore the need for longer term studies to address lag effects in population responses to human land use and to understand how effectiveness of conservation practices can vary spatially and temporally.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70281","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144598454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Severity outweighs pyrodiversity in shaping avian and bat species distributions following an oak woodland megafire","authors":"Kendall L. Calhoun,&nbsp;Zachary L. Steel,&nbsp;Phoebe Parker-Shames,&nbsp;Haylee Oyler,&nbsp;Justin S. Brashares","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70263","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70263","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Anthropogenic pressures have altered fire regimes across the western United States. These altered fire regimes, and the megafires they often produce, threaten ecologically and economically critical ecosystems and biodiversity across this region. Oak woodland savannas may be particularly sensitive to altered fire regimes, but there remains a significant gap in our understanding of how different characteristics of wildfire impact these ecosystems and the wildlife species that reside within them. In this study, we used an occupancy modeling framework to investigate how fire severity and pyrodiversity, the diversity of severity patches, impact the distributions of bird and bat species assemblages following a major wildfire in northern California. We used acoustic monitors deployed across the Hopland Research and Extension Center following the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire and compared how patterns of fire severity and pyrodiversity influence habitat preferences across a diverse community of woodland bird and bat species. We found that fire enhances habitat use and increases occupancy for several species and species groups across both taxonomic groups. Specifically, low-to-moderate severity fire increased occupancy for several species and species groups. Pyrodiversity had smaller, negligible effects on species distributions relative to fire severity. Fires that reproduce the natural heterogeneity of oak woodland landscapes are likely key to sustaining high biodiversity across oak woodland ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70263","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144598577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Floodplain land use gradients have a stronger effect on soil microbial enzyme activity than spatiotemporal variability","authors":"Rachael Harman-Denhoed,&nbsp;Mary-Cathrine Leewis,&nbsp;Hannah P. Lieberman,&nbsp;Grace McDougall-Vick,&nbsp;Cynthia M. Kallenbach","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70334","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70334","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Climate change is leading to flood events with higher frequency and longer duration. Changes in seasonal flooding that affect water saturation of soils can impact soil microbial extracellular enzyme activity (EEA) that mediates nutrient and carbon cycling. Understanding controls on soil functional potential in floodplain ecosystems helps identify optimal land use practices in these biodiverse ecosystems often under threat from land use intensification. Here, we assess some of the abiotic controls on soil microbial EEA within a floodplain and determine how sensitive the relationship between EEA and land use is across spatial scales and time. We collected soils across land use gradients within the Lake Saint Pierre floodplain, a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in Québec, and the largest freshwater floodplain in eastern Canada. Land uses included conventional and conservation agriculture, new and established managed perennial grasslands, and natural grasslands and forests. Within each land use, soils were sampled at three time periods, at three elevations representing different exposures to flood, and at four regions around the lake's shoreline to capture temporal and spatial variability. We found that EEAs declined with increasing land use intensity as expected, primarily associated with soil moisture and soil organic carbon. Notably, perennial agriculture practices had EEAs and nutrient and carbon concentrations falling between those under the annual agricultural and natural sites and could be an appropriate compromise to converting conventional agricultural practices back to natural areas. We also found that the gradient of decreasing EEA with increasing land use intensity was largely conserved across spatial scales and time. The exception for this conserved enzyme–land use relationship was in lower elevation soils, located close to the lakeshore that experience the highest flood frequency. In these locations, the land use characteristics that otherwise supported higher EEA seem to be overridden, as we did not observe any relationship between EEA and land use. Our results suggest that the influence of land use on supporting microbial nutrient and carbon cycling is largely stronger than the inherent spatial and temporal variation within a heterogeneous and biodiverse ecosystem like floodplains, highlighting the importance of land use management across scales.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70334","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144589834","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Snow refugia: Managing temperate forest canopies to maintain winter conditions","authors":"Melissa A. Pastore,&nbsp;Sarah J. Nelson,&nbsp;Elizabeth A. Burakowski,&nbsp;Alexandra R. Contosta,&nbsp;Anthony W. D'Amato,&nbsp;Sarah Garlick,&nbsp;Edward Lindsey,&nbsp;David A. Lutz,&nbsp;Toni Lyn Morelli,&nbsp;Alexej P. K. Sirén,&nbsp;Grace A. Smith,&nbsp;Aaron Weiskittel","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70302","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70302","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Climate change is reducing snowpack across temperate regions with negative consequences for human and natural systems. Because forest canopies create microclimates that preserve snowpack, managing forests to support snow refugia—defined here as areas that remain relatively buffered from contemporary climate change over time that sustain snow quality, quantity, and/or timing appropriate to the landscape—could reduce climate change impacts on snow cover, sustaining the benefits of snow. We review the current understanding of how forest canopies affect snow, finding that while closed-conifer forests and snow interactions have been extensively studied in western North America, there are knowledge gaps for deciduous and mixed forests with dormant season leaf loss. We propose that there is an optimal, intermediate zone along a gradient of dormant season canopy cover (DSCC; the proportion of the ground area covered by the canopy during the dormant season), where peak snowpack depth and the potential for snow refugia will be greatest because the canopy-mediated effects of snowpack sheltering (which can preserve snowpack) outweigh those of snowfall interception (which can limit snowpack). As an initial test of our hypothesis, we leveraged snowpack measurements in the northeastern United States spanning the DSCC gradient (low, &lt;25% DSCC; medium, 25%–50% DSCC; and high, &gt;50% DSCC), including from 2 sites in Old Town, Maine; 12 sites in Acadia National Park, Maine; and 30 sites in the northern White Mountains of New Hampshire. Medium DSCC forests (typically mature mixed coniferous–deciduous forests) exhibited the deepest peak snowpacks, likely due to reduced snowfall interception compared to high DSCC forests and reduced snowpack loss compared to low DSCC forests. Many snow accumulation or snowpack studies focus on the contrast between coniferous and open sites, but our results indicate a need for enhanced focus on mixed canopy sites that could serve as snow refugia. Measurements of snowpack depth and timing across a wider range of forest canopies would advance understanding of canopy–snow interactions, expand the monitoring of changing winters, and support management of forests and snow-dependent species in the face of climate change.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70302","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144598576","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of severe weather on shorebirds: Evidence of disrupted refueling and delayed departure on southbound migration","authors":"Sophia M. Fraser,&nbsp;Devin R. de Zwaan,&nbsp;Hilary A. R. Mann,&nbsp;Julie Paquet,&nbsp;Diana J. Hamilton","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70329","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70329","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Severe weather events are more frequently impacting wildlife, especially in climate-sensitive ecosystems like coastal habitats. A particularly vulnerable stage for migratory species is juvenile movement between natal and non-breeding habitats. Globally, coastal habitats represent critical stopover or staging sites during postbreeding migration for many shorebird species. At these sites, individuals must accumulate necessary energy stores (i.e., fats and proteins) to fuel what are often long-distance, over-water flights to reach their final destination. Inexperienced juvenile shorebirds in unfamiliar habitats may be particularly susceptible to extreme weather events that alter habitat structure and resource availability, with potential implications for refueling efficiency and migration success. However, few studies have addressed the effects of extreme weather at staging sites, limiting our understanding of the capacity of birds to respond to or recover from acute disturbances. We used a before–after framework to investigate how Hurricane Fiona affected the staging behavior of juvenile semipalmated plovers (<i>Charadrius semipalmatus</i>) in Atlantic Canada during southbound migration. We combined morphometric analyses, automated radiotelemetry tracking, and invertebrate sampling to assess storm effects on relative fuel load, bivalve prey availability, and length of stay in the region. Birds captured poststorm lost an estimated 78% of their relative fuel load compared to prestorm birds, coinciding with an estimated 70% decline in bivalve availability. Individuals who experienced the storm approximately doubled their length of stay. Given that juvenile shorebirds undertake southbound migration later in the season than adults, we predict juveniles will be impacted disproportionately by late-season tropical storm patterns, with potentially substantial impacts on shorebird populations. We emphasize the need for a greater research focus on extreme weather during vulnerable life-history stages, like migration, for a broader understanding of how species will respond to increasingly intense storm events.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70329","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144589943","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ensembled evaluations of habitat suitability for prioritizing lesser prairie-chicken conservation","authors":"Morgan J. Solomon,&nbsp;Kent A. Fricke,&nbsp;Carter Kruse,&nbsp;Lance B. McNew","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70321","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70321","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Populations of lesser prairie-chickens (<i>Tympanuchus pallidicinctus</i>, hereafter “prairie-chickens”) in the Mixed-Grass Prairie Ecoregion of the southern Great Plains have been projected to go extinct in the next 100 years unless targeted conservation efforts are implemented to increase the size and connectivity of subpopulations through either translocation or habitat restoration. To expand on current conservation efforts, we used ensemble approaches to identify potential habitat and assist managers in accurately prescribing management actions for prairie-chicken conservation. We developed lek-based relative habitat suitability models within the Mixed-Grass Prairie Ecoregion using both resource selection function and Random Forest classification trees and calculated ensembled predictions of relative habitat suitability across all models. Next, we conducted a least-cost path analysis to identify potential corridors connecting potentially suitable, unoccupied habitat to current subpopulations. Ensembled predictions identified 4575 km² of potential prairie-chicken habitat both occupied and unoccupied. We identified three contiguous areas of potentially suitable and unoccupied habitat (28–74 km²) that could potentially harbor a self-sustaining population. Ensembled predictions can be used to strategically implement restoration projects to enhance the quality and connectivity of habitat within and adjacent to the species' current distribution. Least-cost path analyses revealed a low degree of connectivity between areas of occupied and unoccupied habitat, highlighting the importance of implementing habitat improvement projects to increase connectivity for prairie-chicken persistence. Our results provide information that professionals may use to prioritize conservation delivery for prairie-chickens in the Mixed-Grass Prairie Ecoregion.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70321","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144581924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unintended indirect effects limit elk productivity from supplemental feeding in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem","authors":"Brian S. Dugovich,&nbsp;Emma M. Tomaszewski,&nbsp;Eric K. Cole,&nbsp;Sarah R. Dewey,&nbsp;Daniel R. MacNulty,&nbsp;Brandon M. Scurlock,&nbsp;Daniel R. Stahler,&nbsp;Paul C. Cross","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70320","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70320","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The widespread practice of supplemental feeding, a bottom-up forcing of resource availability, is intended to improve wildlife population health and survival. However, supplemental feeding could trigger indirect effects by altering predation rates and disease dynamics. We investigated the effects of feeding on three key elk (<i>Cervus canadensis</i>) population productivity metrics (calf:cow ratios, annual change in elk density, and harvestable surplus) across 13 regions in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) over 26 years. Incorporating previous population size, climate, predator, and harvest data in a Bayesian regression framework revealed new insights about elk productivity metrics in the GYE. Supplemental feeding was associated with increased calf:cow ratios (4.9%) but was not substantially related to changes in elk density and harvestable surplus, which are both management targets. Notably, the feeding effect on calf:cow ratios appeared to be offset by increased wolf (<i>Canis lupus</i>) and grizzly bear (<i>Ursus arctos horribilis</i>) predation. We hypothesize that increased elk productivity resulting from supplemental feeding is primarily transferred to predator and pathogen trophic levels in this system with limited observed effects on elk abundance and harvestable surplus. Anthropogenic food resources may have unintended indirect consequences on other trophic levels that potentially limit the direct impacts of feeding.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70320","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144589493","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Biotic interactions and stream network position affect body size of aquatic vertebrates across watersheds","authors":"Brooke E. Penaluna,&nbsp;Sherri L. Johnson,&nbsp;Amanda M. M. Pollock,&nbsp;Ivan Arismendi,&nbsp;Dana R. Warren","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70299","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70299","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The body size of aquatic vertebrates is declining across populations and ecosystems worldwide owing to warmer water temperature and changing streamflow. In freshwaters, the effects of stream network position and density-dependent factors on body size are less understood. We used an extensive dataset spanning 41 stream sites over 7 years to evaluate how density-dependent and density-independent factors influence the size of two top predators in small watersheds, Coastal Cutthroat Trout <i>Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii</i> and Coastal Giant Salamanders <i>Dicamptodon tenebrosus</i>. We tested three hypotheses of body-size variation for trout and salamanders, including intraspecific density dependence, interspecific density dependence, and resource availability, using empirical observations in hierarchical linear mixed models in a model-selection framework. In our best-supported models, the strongest predictors of size were conspecific negative density dependence, as expected, suggesting greater intraspecific interactions probably owing to conspecific individuals having similar requirements. We reveal a biogeographic pattern in which body size peaks in middle stream-network positions and plateaus or declines at lower and upper locations, proposing that stream network position also plays a role in determining body size in small watersheds. Salamander density also has a quadratic effect on adult trout size, with salamanders having a greater overall effect on the body size of both species than trout, suggesting that salamanders might be more dominant than trout in some interactions. Collectively, we found that biotic interactions, mainly conspecific but also interspecific, and stream-network position affect trout and salamander body sizes in small watersheds.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70299","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144482095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond predator and prey: First evidence of an association between ocelot and opossum individuals","authors":"Ettore Camerlenghi,&nbsp;Dumas Gálvez,&nbsp;Christopher Ketola,&nbsp;Angelo Piga,&nbsp;Nadine Holmes,&nbsp;José Luis Mena,&nbsp;Mathias W. Tobler,&nbsp;Fortunato Rayan,&nbsp;Isabel Damas-Moreira","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70322","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70322","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Interspecific associations can provide various benefits, including reducing predation risk, sharing information, or acquiring food. Studying these associations is key to understanding the drivers and mechanisms underlying non-kin cooperation. Here, we present the first evidence of single individuals of ocelot (<i>Leopardus pardalis</i>) and common opossum (<i>Didelphis marsupialis</i>) associating and moving together in the rainforest. This association, unknown until now, was captured in four independent events, through camera-trap videos and photographs taken across different times and locations, suggesting a consistent pattern among different individuals. Additionally, we experimentally show that opossums are significantly more attracted to ocelot scent cues, on which they often rub their bodies, compared to control and puma scents. Both the ocelot and the common opossum are nocturnal, solitary species that share territories and can overlap diets; yet, ocelots can also prey on opossums. This puzzling association might emerge because both species could benefit from each other's presence, potentially improving foraging efficiency or safety. Such a newly discovered association offers insight into the complex dynamics of interspecific associations in tropical ecosystems. Future research investigating its prevalence and benefits will deepen our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary conditions driving this behaviour.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70322","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144367525","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Using a plant hydraulic model to design more resilient rehabilitated landscapes in arid ecosystems","authors":"Jean V. Wilkening,&nbsp;Sebastian C. Lamoureux,&nbsp;Erik J. Veneklaas,&nbsp;Sally E. Thompson","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70313","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ecs2.70313","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Mining is a major driver of dryland disturbance and degradation, and there is a growing need for effective and resilient methods for restoration of former mine sites. An important restoration goal is preventing water from accessing mine waste, thus avoiding mobilization and transport of contaminants. Evapotranspiration (ET) covers are soil covers where vegetation manages the water balance to minimize leakage into underlying waste, with potential co-benefits of restoring ecological function and fixing carbon. However, cover designs often overlook potentially complex interactions between plant physiology and physical design parameters (cover depth, soil properties, etc.) that affect plant water fluxes, particularly in water-limited environments. To better understand how physiologically mediated dynamics impact cover performance, we develop an ET cover model that mechanistically describes plant-environment interactions through a plant hydraulics framework. We use the model to determine how soil cover depth, a fundamental design parameter, interacts with physiology to impact leakage, plant stress/mortality, and carbon sequestration. The model is parameterized using data from a prior study of plant water relations in engineered cover systems of varying depths. When run under historical rainfall trajectories, the model shows that significant plant water stress was ubiquitous across cover depths and was most frequent in shallower covers, where it was accompanied by higher leakage and lower net carbon assimilation. Precipitation variation had an important role in driving outcomes, and hydraulic impairment of vegetation played a role in higher leakage and lower net carbon assimilation. Design approaches that account for plant physiological processes have the potential to yield more effective and resilient systems, and we present a framework for incorporating these critical feedbacks into the design process.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70313","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144339195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}