Soil water availability effects on the distribution of 20 tree species in western North America

2014 ◽  
Vol 313 ◽  
pp. 144-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Mathys ◽  
Nicholas C. Coops ◽  
Richard H. Waring
Climate ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Proietti ◽  
Alessandro Anav ◽  
Marcello Vitale ◽  
Silvano Fares ◽  
Maria Francesca Fornasier ◽  
...  

Rising temperature, drought and more-frequent extreme climatic events have been predicted for the next decades in many regions around the globe. In this framework, soil water availability plays a pivotal role in affecting vegetation productivity, especially in arid or semi-arid environments. However, direct measurements of soil moisture are scarce, and modeling estimations are still subject to biases. Further investigation on the effect of soil moisture on plant productivity is required. This study aims at analyzing spatio-temporal variations of a modified temperature vegetation wetness index (mTVWI), a proxy of soil moisture, and evaluating its effect on gross primary production (GPP) in forests. The study was carried out in Europe on 19 representative tree species during the 2000–2010 time period. Results outline a north–south gradient of mTVWI with minimum values (low soil water availability) in Southern Europe and maximum values (high soil water availability) in Northeastern Europe. A low soil water availability negatively affected GPP from 20 to 80%, as a function of site location, tree species, and weather conditions. Such a wetness index improves our understanding of water stress impacts, which is crucial for predicting the response of forest carbon cycling to drought and aridity.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Yuan Gong ◽  
Christina L. Staudhammer ◽  
Susanne Wiesner ◽  
Gregory Starr ◽  
Yinlong Zhang

Understanding plant phenological change is of great concern in the context of global climate change. Phenological models can aid in understanding and predicting growing season changes and can be parameterized with gross primary production (GPP) estimated using the eddy covariance (EC) technique. This study used nine years of EC-derived GPP data from three mature subtropical longleaf pine forests in the southeastern United States with differing soil water holding capacity in combination with site-specific micrometeorological data to parameterize a photosynthesis-based phenological model. We evaluated how weather conditions and prescribed fire led to variation in the ecosystem phenological processes. The results suggest that soil water availability had an effect on phenology, and greater soil water availability was associated with a longer growing season (LOS). We also observed that prescribed fire, a common forest management activity in the region, had a limited impact on phenological processes. Dormant season fire had no significant effect on phenological processes by site, but we observed differences in the start of the growing season (SOS) between fire and non-fire years. Fire delayed SOS by 10 d ± 5 d (SE), and this effect was greater with higher soil water availability, extending SOS by 18 d on average. Fire was also associated with increased sensitivity of spring phenology to radiation and air temperature. We found that interannual climate change and periodic weather anomalies (flood, short-term drought, and long-term drought), controlled annual ecosystem phenological processes more than prescribed fire. When water availability increased following short-term summer drought, the growing season was extended. With future climate change, subtropical areas of the Southeastern US are expected to experience more frequent short-term droughts, which could shorten the region’s growing season and lead to a reduction in the longleaf pine ecosystem’s carbon sequestration capacity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 257 ◽  
pp. 107147
Author(s):  
Sai-Yong Zhu ◽  
Zheng-Guo Cheng ◽  
Tao Tian ◽  
Dong-Shan Gong ◽  
Guang-Chao Lv ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
pp. 129716
Author(s):  
Gustavo Galo Marcheafave ◽  
Cláudia Domiciano Tormena ◽  
Amelia Elena Terrile ◽  
Carlos Alberto Rossi Salamanca-Neto ◽  
Elen Romão Sartori ◽  
...  

2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (7) ◽  
pp. 1405-1411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leandro Coelho de Araujo ◽  
Patrícia Menezes Santos ◽  
Fernando Campos Mendonça ◽  
Gerson Barreto Mourão

Agriculture ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Camila Thaiana Rueda da Silva ◽  
Edna Maria Bonfim-Silva ◽  
Tonny José de Araújo da Silva ◽  
Everton Alves Rodrigues Pinheiro ◽  
Jefferson Vieira José ◽  
...  

Brazil is one of the world’s largest producers of beef cattle and dairy products, which requires high forage yield to attend grass-fed animals’ demand. Among the grass species adopted in the forage production system in Brazil, the Brachiaria genus stands out. This genus comprises nearly 85% of all planted forage area. In general, forage production systems in Brazil are essentially rainfed, and thus susceptible to seasonal soil water stresses. Selecting the suitable Brachiaria cultivar for lands susceptible to periodic waterlogging and dry spells is crucial to enhance forage yield, and consequently, to reduce the environmental footprint of the livestock sector. In this research, we investigated the performance of three recent commercial Brachiaria brizantha cultivars (Piatã, BRS Paiaguás, and MG13 Braúna) extensively adopted in Brazil’s grazing systems subjected to different ranges of soil water potential. For three cutting periods, yield related-variables (e.g., plant height, leaf area, dry biomass, and water use efficiency) were measured. Our results point to the existence of a low drought-resistant trait among cultivars, indicating the need for releasing better-adapted cultivars to cope with reduced soil water availability. All cultivars achieved higher performance at soil water pressure head between −15 kPa and −25 kPa; and in general, the cultivar. Piatã showed slightly superior results to most of the treatments.


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