scholarly journals Dwarf-shrubs dynamics in Mediterranean high mountain ecosystems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea De Toma ◽  
Marta Carboni ◽  
Manuele Bazzichetto ◽  
Marco Malavasi ◽  
Maurizio Cutini
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Environmental Heterogeneity ◽  
Temporal Trends ◽  
Shrub Encroachment ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Fine Scale ◽  
Dwarf Shrubs ◽  
The Past

AbstractQuestionVegetation in the alpine and treeline ecotone faces changes in both climate and land use. Shrub encroachment is considered an effect of these changes, but it’s still unclear how this effect is mediated by environmental heterogeneity. Our goal is to determine which environmental factors shape the fine-scale spatial distribution and temporal trends of alpine dwarf shrub.LocationThree sites in the Central Apennine, Italy.MethodsWe used a comprehensive set of environmental factors across a broad temporal span to model, at a fine-scale, both (1) the current spatial distribution and (2) the change in shrub cover over the past 60 years.ResultsOur results show that dwarf shrubs have generally increased in our study sites over the past 60 years, yet their distribution is strongly shaped by the joint influence of the fine-scale topography, productivity, land use and micro-climate. In particular, shrubs have been locally favored in areas with harsher alpine environmental constraints and stronger resource limitation. Instead, contrary to expectations, at this fine scale, warmer temperatures and the decline in grazing have not favored shrub encroachment.ConclusionDwarf shrubs appear as a stress-tolerant, pioneer vegetation that is currently distributed mainly over areas that are otherwise sparsely vegetated. It appears that shrubs exhibit poor competitive ability to invade grasslands and, though they have increased overall, they remain restricted to the least productive areas. Fine-scale environmental heterogeneity may strongly influence future responses of dwarf shrubs in changing alpine ecosystems.

scholarly journals Effects of socio-economic and environmental factors on the spatial heterogeneity of dengue fever investigated at a fine scale

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yubing Qu ◽  
Xun Shi ◽  
Yong Wang ◽  
Rendong Li ◽  
Liang Lu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Spatial Heterogeneity ◽  
Dengue Fever ◽  
Scan Statistics ◽  
Fine Scale ◽  
Road Density ◽  
Risk Area ◽  
High Risk Area ◽  
Guangzhou City

The spatial pattern of dengue fever cases is the result of complex interactions between the virus, the host and the vector, which may be affected by environmental conditions. The largest outbreak of dengue fever in Guangzhou city, China occurred in 2014 with case numbers 2.7 times the number of cumulative cases since 1978 and a significantly non-random spatial distribution. Selecting Guangzhou City as the study area, we used scan statistics to analyze the spatial heterogeneity of dengue fever and a generalized additive model to evaluate and examine the effects of socio-economic and environmental factors on spatial heterogeneity at a fine scale. The study found that the spatial distribution of dengue fever is highly heterogeneous and various factors differ in relative importance. The junction of the central districts of Guangzhou is a high-risk area with the urban village and urban-rural fringe zone formed by urbanization as important regional factors. The low gross domestic product per capita, the high population density, the high road density were perceived as risk factors. The Asian subtropical coastal area together with the socioeconomic and environmental factors were found to be the key drivers at the fine scale explaining the high spatial heterogeneity of dengue fever in Guangzhou City.

Effects of land use and fine-scale environmental heterogeneity on net ecosystem production over a temperate coniferous forest landscape

Tellus B ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 657-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID P. TURNER ◽  
MICHAEL GUZY ◽  
MICHAEL A. LEFSKY ◽  
STEVE VAN TUYL ◽  
OSBERT SUN ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Environmental Heterogeneity ◽  
Coniferous Forest ◽  
Net Ecosystem Production ◽  
Forest Landscape ◽  
Fine Scale ◽  
Ecosystem Production ◽  
Effects Of Land Use

Effects of land use and fine-scale environmental heterogeneity on net ecosystem production over a temperate coniferous forest landscape

Tellus B ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 657-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P. Turner ◽  
Michael Guzy ◽  
Michael A. Lefsky ◽  
Steve Van Tuyl ◽  
Osbert Sun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Environmental Heterogeneity ◽  
Coniferous Forest ◽  
Net Ecosystem Production ◽  
Forest Landscape ◽  
Fine Scale ◽  
Ecosystem Production ◽  
Effects Of Land Use

scholarly journals Land use is the main driver of soil organic carbon spatial distribution in a high mountain ecosystem

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmine Fusaro ◽  
Yohanna Sarria-Guzmán ◽  
Yosef A. Chávez-Romero ◽  
Marco Luna-Guido ◽  
Ligia C. Muñoz-Arenas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Organic C ◽  
Mountain Ecosystem ◽  
Soc Stock ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Soc Stocks

Background Terrestrial ecosystems play a significant role in carbon (C) storage. Human activities, such as urbanization, infrastructure, and land use change, can reduce significantly the C stored in the soil. The aim of this research was to measure the spatial variability of soil organic C (SOC) in the national park La Malinche (NPLM) in the central highlands of Mexico as an example of highland ecosystems and to determine the impact of land use change on the SOC stocks through deterministic and geostatistical geographic information system (GIS) based methods. Methods The soil was collected from different landscapes, that is, pine, fir, oak and mixed forests, natural grassland, moor and arable land, and organic C content determined. Different GIS-based deterministic (inverse distance weighting, local polynomial interpolation and radial basis function) and geostatistical interpolation techniques (ordinary kriging, cokriging and empirical Bayes kriging) were used to map the SOC stocks and other environmental variables of the top soil layer. Results All interpolation GIS-based methods described the spatial distribution of SOC of the NPLM satisfactorily. The total SOC stock of the NPLM was 2.45 Tg C with 85.3% in the forest (1.26 Tg C in the A horizon and 0.83 Tg C in the O horizon), 11.4% in the arable soil (0.23 Tg in the A horizon and only 0.05 Tg C in the O horizon) and 3.3% in the high moor (0.07 Tg C in the A horizon and <0.01 Tg C in the O horizon). The estimated total SOC stock in a preserved part of the forest in NPLM was 4.98 Tg C in 1938 and has nearly halved since then. Continuing this trend of converting all the remaining forest to arable land will decrease the total SOC stock to 0.52 Tg C. Discussion Different factors explain the large variations in SOC stocks found in this study but the change in land use (conversion of forests into agricultural lands) was the major reason for the reduction of the SOC stocks in the high mountain ecosystem of the NPLM. Large amounts of C, however, could be stored potentially in this ecosystem if the area was used more sustainable. The information derived from this study could be used to recommend strategies to reverse the SOC loss in NPLM and other high-altitude temperate forests and sequester larger quantities of C. This research can serve as a reference for the analysis of SOC distribution in similar mountain ecosystems in central part of Mexico and in other parts of the world.

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