scholarly journals Vegetation and Microbes Interact to Preserve Organic Matter in Wooded Peatlands

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongjun Wang ◽  
Jianqing Tian ◽  
Huai Chen ◽  
Mengchi Ho ◽  
Rytas Vilgalys ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Microbial Composition ◽  
Ecological Traits ◽  
Carbon Decomposition ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Boreal Peatlands ◽  
Abiotic Controls ◽  
Slow Growing

AbstractPeatlands have persisted as massive carbon sinks over millennia, even during past periods of climate change. The commonly accepted theory of abiotic controls (mainly anoxia and low temperature) over carbon decomposition cannot explain how vast low-latitude wooded peatlands consistently accrete peat under warm and seasonally unsaturated conditions. Similarly, that theory cannot accurately project the decomposition rate in boreal peatlands where warming and drought have decreased Sphagnum and increased shrub expansion. Here, by comparing composition and ecological traits of microbes between Sphagnum- and shrub-dominated peatlands, we present a previously unrecognized natural course that curbs carbon loss against climate change. Slow-growing microbes decisively dominate the studied wooded peatlands, concomitant with plant-induced, high recalcitrant carbon and phenolics. The slow-growing microbes inherently metabolize organic matter slowly. However, the fast-growing microbes that dominate our Sphagnum site (most boreal peatlands as well) decomposed labile carbon >30 times faster than the slow-growing microbes. We show that the high-phenolic shrub/tree induced shifts in microbial composition may compensate for positive effects of temperature and/or drought on metabolism over time in peatlands. This biotic self-sustaining process that modulates abiotic controls on carbon cycling may help better project long-term climate-carbon feedbacks in peatlands.

scholarly journals Vegetation and microbes interact to preserve carbon in many wooded peatlands

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongjun Wang ◽  
Jianqing Tian ◽  
Huai Chen ◽  
Mengchi Ho ◽  
Rytas Vilgalys ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Composition ◽  
Ecological Traits ◽  
Low Latitude ◽  
Carbon Decomposition ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Recalcitrant Carbon ◽  
Effects Of Temperature ◽  
Abiotic Controls ◽  
Slow Growing

AbstractPeatlands have persisted as massive carbon sinks over millennia, even during past periods of climate change. The commonly accepted theory of abiotic controls (mainly anoxia and low temperature) over carbon decomposition cannot fully explain how vast low-latitude shrub/tree dominated (wooded) peatlands consistently accrete peat under warm and seasonally unsaturated conditions. Here we show, by comparing the composition and ecological traits of microbes between Sphagnum- and shrub-dominated peatlands, that slow-growing microbes decisively dominate the studied shrub-dominated peatlands, concomitant with plant-induced increases in highly recalcitrant carbon and phenolics. The slow-growing microbes metabolize organic matter thirty times slower than the fast-growing microbes that dominate our Sphagnum-dominated site. We suggest that the high-phenolic shrub/tree induced shifts in microbial composition may compensate for positive effects of temperature and/or drought on metabolism over time in peatlands. This biotic self-sustaining process that modulates abiotic controls on carbon cycling may improve projections of long-term, climate-carbon feedbacks in peatlands.

scholarly journals Vertical Differences in the Long-Term Trends and Breakpoints of NDVI and Climate Factors in Taiwan

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 4707
Author(s):  
Hui Ping Tsai ◽  
Geng-Gui Wang ◽  
Zhong-Han Zhuang
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Minimum Temperature ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Maximum Temperature ◽  
Climatic Data ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Central Regions ◽  
Long Term Trends

This study explored the long-term trends and breakpoints of vegetation, rainfall, and temperature in Taiwan from overall and regional perspectives in terms of vertical differences from 1982 to 2012. With time-series Advanced Very-High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data and Taiwan Climate Change Estimate and Information Platform (TCCIP) gridded monthly climatic data, their vertical dynamics were investigated by employing the Breaks for Additive Seasonal and Trend (BFAST) algorithm, Pearson’s correlation analysis, and the Durbin–Watson test. The vertical differences in NDVI values presented three breakpoints and a consistent trend from positive (1982 to 1989) to negative at varied rates, and then gradually increased after 2000. In addition, a positive rainfall trend was discovered. Average and maximum temperature had similar increasing trends, while minimum temperature showed variations, especially at higher altitudes. In terms of regional variations, the vegetation growth was stable in the north but worse in the central region. Higher elevations revealed larger variations in the NDVI and temperature datasets. NDVI, along with average and minimum temperature, showed their largest changes earlier in higher altitude areas. Specifically, the increasing minimum temperature direction was more prominent in the mid-to-high-altitude areas in the eastern and central regions. Seasonal variations were observed for each region. The difference between the dry and wet seasons is becoming larger, with the smallest difference in the northern region and the largest difference in the southern region. Taiwan’s NDVI and climatic factors have a significant negative correlation (p < 0.05), but the maximum and minimum temperatures have significant positive effects at low altitudes below 500 m. The northern and central regions reveal similar responses, while the south and east display different feedbacks. The results illuminate climate change evidence from assessment of the long-term dynamics of vegetation and climatic factors, providing valuable references for establishing correspondent climate-adaptive strategies in Taiwan.

scholarly journals Multi-Temporal Variabilities of Evapotranspiration Rates and Their Associations with Climate Change and Vegetation Greening in the Gan River Basin, China

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meng Bai ◽  
Bing Shen ◽  
Xiaoyu Song ◽  
Shuhong Mo ◽  
Lingmei Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Long Term Evolution ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Term Evolution

Understanding the spatial-temporal dynamics of evapotranspiration in relation to climate change and human activities is crucial for the sustainability of water resources and ecosystem security, especially in regions strongly influenced by human impact. In this study, a process-based evapotranspiration (ET) model in conjunction with the Global Land Surface Satellite (GLASS) LAI dataset was used to characterize the spatial-temporal pattern of evapotranspiration from 1982 to 2016 over the Gan River basin (GRB), the largest sub-basin of the Poyang Lake catchment, China. The results showed that the actual annual ET (ETa) weakly increased with an annual trend of 0.88 mm year−2 from 1982 to 2016 over the GRB, along with a slight decline in annual potential ET (ETp). On an ecosystem scale; however, only the evergreen broadleaved forest and cropland presented a positive ETa trend, while the rest of the ecosystems demonstrated negative trends of ETa. Both correlation analysis and sensitivity analysis revealed a close relationship between ETa inter-annual variability and energy availability. Attribution analysis illustrated that contributions of climate change and vegetation greening on the ETa trend were −0.48 mm year−2 and 1.36 mm year−2, respectively. Climate change had a negative impact on the ETa trend over the GRB. However, the negative effects have been offset by the positive effects of vegetation greening, which mainly resulted from the large-scale revegetation in forestland and agricultural practices in cropland. It is concluded that large-scale afforestation and agricultural management were the main drivers of the long-term evolution of water consumption over the GRB. This study can improve our understanding of the interactive effects of climate change and human activities on the long-term evolution of water cycles.

scholarly journals Changes in physical properties of sandy soil after long-term compost treatment

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
József Tibor Aranyos ◽  
Attila Tomócsik ◽  
Marianna Makádi ◽  
József Mészáros ◽  
Lajos Blaskó
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Sewage Sludge ◽  
Sandy Soil ◽  
Soil Layer ◽  
Organic Matter Content ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Matter Content ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Compost Application

Abstract Studying the long-term effect of composted sewage sludge application on chemical, physical and biological properties of soil, an experiment was established in 2003 at the Research Institute of Nyíregyháza in Hungary. The applied compost was prepared from sewage sludge (40%), straw (25%), bentonite (5%) and rhyolite (30%). The compost was ploughed into the 0-25 cm soil layer every 3rd year in the following amounts: 0, 9, 18 and 27 Mg ha−1 of dry matter. As expected, the compost application improved the structure of sandy soil, which is related with an increase in the organic matter content of soil. The infiltration into soil was improved significantly, reducing the water erosion under simulated high intensity rainfall. The soil compaction level was reduced in the first year after compost re-treatment. In accordance with the decrease in bulk density, the air permeability of soil increased tendentially. However, in the second year the positive effects of compost application were observed only in the plots treated with the highest compost dose because of quick degradation of the organic matter. According to the results, the sewage sludge compost seems to be an effective soil improving material for acidic sandy soils, but the beneficial effect of application lasts only for two years.

scholarly journals Role of Nutrient-Enriched Biochar as a Soil Amendment during Maize Growth: Exploring Practical Alternatives to Recycle Agricultural Residuals and to Reduce Chemical Fertilizer Demand

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Kizito ◽  
Hongzhen Luo ◽  
Jiaxin Lu ◽  
Hamidou Bah ◽  
Renjie Dong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Quality ◽  
Biomass Yield ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Chemical Fertilizer ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
And Control ◽  
Fertilizer Demand

Recycling and value-added utilization of agricultural residues through combining technologies such as anaerobic digestion and pyrolysis could double the recoverable energy, close the nutrient recycle loop, and ensure cleaner agricultural production. This study assessed the beneficial application of biochar to soil to recycle digestate nutrients, improve soil quality, and reduce conventional chemical fertilizer. The addition of digestate-enriched biochar improved soil quality as it provided higher soil organic matter (232%–514%) and macronutrients (110%–230%) as opposed to the unenriched biochar and control treatments. Maize grown in soil amended with digestate-enriched biochar showed a significantly higher biomass yield compared to the control and non-enriched biochar treatments but was slightly lower than yields from chemical fertilizer treatments. The slightly lower yield (20%–25%) achieved from digestate-enriched biochar was attributed to slower mineralization and release of the adsorbed nutrients in the short term. However, digestate-enriched biochar could in the long term become more beneficial in sustaining soil fertility through maintaining high soil organic matter and the gradual release of micronutrients compared to conventional chemical fertilizer. Positive effects on soil micronutrients, macronutrients, organic matter, and biomass yield indicates that enriched biochar could partly replace chemical fertilizers and promote organic farming in a circular economy concept.

scholarly journals Investigating Climate Change and Reproduction: Experimental Tools from Evolutionary Biology

Biology ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera M. Grazer ◽  
Oliver Y. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Reproductive Traits ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Reproductive Consequences ◽  
Conflict Research

It is now generally acknowledged that climate change has wide-ranging biological consequences, potentially leading to impacts on biodiversity. Environmental factors can have diverse and often strong effects on reproduction, with obvious ramifications for population fitness. Nevertheless, reproductive traits are often neglected in conservation considerations. Focusing on animals, recent progress in sexual selection and sexual conflict research suggests that reproductive costs may pose an underestimated hurdle during rapid climate change, potentially lowering adaptive potential and increasing extinction risk of certain populations. Nevertheless, regime shifts may have both negative and positive effects on reproduction, so it is important to acquire detailed experimental data. We hence present an overview of the literature reporting short-term reproductive consequences of exposure to different environmental factors. From the enormous diversity of findings, we conclude that climate change research could benefit greatly from more coordinated efforts incorporating evolutionary approaches in order to obtain cross-comparable data on how individual and population reproductive fitness respond in the long term. Therefore, we propose ideas and methods concerning future efforts dealing with reproductive consequences of climate change, in particular by highlighting the advantages of multi-generational experimental evolution experiments.

scholarly journals Potential impacts of climate change on soil properties

2018 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Gelybó ◽  
E. Tóth ◽  
C. Farkas ◽  
Á. Horel ◽  
I. Kása ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Precipitation Amount ◽  
Organic Matter Content ◽  
Matter Content ◽  
Parent Material ◽  
Transport Processes ◽  
Anthropogenic Activity

Climate change is expected to have a vigorous impact on soils and ecosystems due to elevated temperature and changes in precipitation (amount and frequency), thereby altering biogeochemical and hydrological cycles. Several phenomena associated with climate change and anthropogenic activity affect soils indirectly via ecosystem functioning (such as higher atmospheric CO2 concentration and N deposition). Continuous interactions between climate and soils determine the transformation and transport processes. Long-term gradual changes in abiotic environmental factors alter naturally occurring soil forming processes by modifying the soil water regime, mineral composition evolution, and the rate of organic matter formation and degradation. The resulting physical and chemical soil properties play a fundamental role in the productivity and environmental quality of cultivated land, so it is crucial to evaluate the potential outcomes of climate change and soil interactions. This paper attempts to review the underlying long-term processes influenced by different aspects of climate change. When considering major soil forming factors (climate, parent material, living organisms, topography), especially climate, we put special attention to soil physical properties (soil structure and texture, and consequential changes in soil hydrothermal regime), soil chemical properties (e.g. cation exchange capacity, soil organic matter content as influenced by changes in environmental conditions) and soil degradation as a result of longterm soil physicochemical transformations. The temperate region, specifically the Carpathian Basin as a heterogeneous territory consisting of different climatic and soil zones from continental to mountainous, is used as an example to present potential changes and to assess the effect of climate change on soils. The altered physicochemical and biological properties of soils require accentuated scientific attention, particularly with respect to significant feedback processes to climate and soil services such as food security.

scholarly journals Long-term acclimation to elevated p CO 2 alters carbon metabolism and reduces growth in the Antarctic diatom Nitzschia lecointei

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1815) ◽  
pp. 20151513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Torstensson ◽  
Mikael Hedblom ◽  
My Mattsdotter Björk ◽  
Melissa Chierici ◽  
Angela Wulff
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Ocean Acidification ◽  
Carbon Metabolism ◽  
Physiological Responses ◽  
Bacterial Productivity ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Slow Growing

Increasing atmospheric CO 2 levels are driving changes in the seawater carbonate system, resulting in higher p CO 2 and reduced pH (ocean acidification). Many studies on marine organisms have focused on short-term physiological responses to increased p CO 2 , and few on slow-growing polar organisms with a relative low adaptation potential. In order to recognize the consequences of climate change in biological systems, acclimation and adaptation to new environments are crucial to address. In this study, physiological responses to long-term acclimation (194 days, approx. 60 asexual generations) of three p CO 2 levels (280, 390 and 960 µatm) were investigated in the psychrophilic sea ice diatom Nitzschia lecointei . After 147 days, a small reduction in growth was detected at 960 µatm p CO 2 . Previous short-term experiments have failed to detect altered growth in N. lecointei at high p CO 2 , which illustrates the importance of experimental duration in studies of climate change. In addition, carbon metabolism was significantly affected by the long-term treatments, resulting in higher cellular release of dissolved organic carbon (DOC). In turn, the release of labile organic carbon stimulated bacterial productivity in this system. We conclude that long-term acclimation to ocean acidification is important for N. lecointei and that carbon overconsumption and DOC exudation may increase in a high-CO 2 world.

scholarly journals Arctic Archaeology and Climate Change

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 279-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean P.A. Desjardins ◽  
Peter D. Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Long Term Culture ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Human Scale ◽  
Arctic Archaeology ◽  
The 1960S

An enduring debate in the field of Arctic archaeology has been the extent to which climate change impacted cultural developments in the past. Long-term culture change across the circumpolar Arctic was often highly dynamic, with episodes of rapid migration, regional abandonment, and—in some cases—the disappearance or wholesale replacement of entire cultural traditions. By the 1960s, researchers were exploring the possibility that warming episodes had positive effects on cold-adapted premodern peoples in the Arctic by ( a) reducing the extent of sea ice, ( b) expanding the size and range of marine mammal populations, and ( c) opening new waterways and hunting areas for marine-adapted human groups. Although monocausal climatic arguments for change are now regarded as overly simplistic, the growing threat of contemporary Arctic warming to Indigenous livelihoods has given wider relevance to research into long-term culture–climate interactions. With their capacity to examine deeper cultural responses to climate change, archaeologists are in a unique position to generate human-scale climate adaptation insights that may inform future planning and mitigation efforts. The exceptionally well-preserved cultural and paleo-ecological sequences of the Arctic make it one of the best-suited regions on Earth to address such problems. Ironically, while archaeologists employ an exciting and highly promising new generation of methods and approaches to examine long-term fragility and resilience in Arctic social-ecological systems, many of these frozen paleo-societal archives are fast disappearing due to anthropogenic warming.

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