Monitoring of herbivore's feeding activity in three different elevations of Mt. Jirisan National Park, a Korea long-term ecological research site

Soils at a Long Term Ecological Research site near Lake Hoare in Taylor Valley, Antarctica, were investigated during November/December 1999. The soils alongside 6 experimental plots at the research site were described, repeatedly sampled over a 17-day period, and the gravimetric water content, particle size, and conductivity determined daily. At one nearby location, the soil water content was repeatedly measured after a plot irrigation, while at another, the water content of soil adjacent to a snow patch was repeatedly measured to determine the rate of water loss during thawing of snow. Soils at 2 sites at higher elevations outside the research area were also examined for comparison.The soils at the experimental plots were generally similar but differed in stoniness, the presence of occasional silty layers, and the depth to ice-cemented ground. Water contents (gravimetric) of surface horizons were <0.5% and increased with depth through the active layer to 12% or greater in the ice-cemented permafrost. There were small variations in the water content of surface horizons over the 17-day sampling period with larger variations at depth. A few siltier horizons had higher water contents. The water content profiles and <2 mm% particle size trends were broadly similar for all the sites. Conductivities were low, except in silty horizons where values were markedly higher. At the irrigated site, water was progressively lost over the first 9 days, after which values were close to those at unirrigated sites. There was a less marked loss of water from the soil alongside the thawing snow patch but an increased loss after all snow had thawed. The higher elevation soils outside the experimental area were more weathered and had higher salinities indicating a significantly greater soil age.Small changes in water content in the surface horizons appeared to be related to changing weather conditions, whereas at greater soil depth, changes in the water content corresponded with the increasing thawing depth. The results illustrate the dynamic nature of soil moisture over short periods of time in Antarctic Cold Desert soils.

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Coral Reef Resilience in Taiwan: Lessons from Long-Term Ecological Research on the Coral Reefs of Kenting National Park (Taiwan)

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering ◽

10.3390/jmse7110388 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (11) ◽

pp. 388 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Shashank Keshavmurthy ◽

Chao-Yang Kuo ◽

Ya-Yi Huang ◽

Rodrigo Carballo-Bolaños ◽

Pei-Jei Meng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Coral Reefs ◽

National Park ◽

Seawater Temperature ◽

Ecological Research ◽

Thermal Environments ◽

Coral Reef Resilience ◽

Long Term Ecological Research ◽

Kenting National Park ◽

Over Time

Coral reefs in the Anthropocene are being subjected to unprecedented levels of stressors, including local disturbances—such as overfishing, habitat destruction, and pollution—and large-scale destruction related to the global impacts of climate change—such as typhoons and coral bleaching. Thus, the future of corals and coral reefs in any given community and coral-Symbiodiniaceae associations over time will depend on their level of resilience, from individual corals to entire ecosystems. Herein we review the environmental settings and long-term ecological research on coral reefs, based on both coral resilience and space, in Kenting National Park (KNP), Hengchun Peninsula, southern Taiwan, wherein fringing reefs have developed along the coast of both capes and a semi-closed bay, known as Nanwan, within the peninsula. These reefs are influenced by a branch of Kuroshio Current, the monsoon-induced South China Sea Surface Current, and a tide-induced upwelling that not only shapes coral communities, but also reduces the seawater temperature and creates fluctuating thermal environments which over time have favoured thermal-resistant corals, particularly those corals close to the thermal effluent of a nuclear power plant in the west Nanwan. Although living coral cover (LCC) has fluctuated through time in concordance with major typhoons and coral bleaching between 1986 and 2019, spatial heterogeneity in LCC recovery has been detected, suggesting that coral reef resilience is variable among subregions in KNP. In addition, corals exposed to progressively warmer and fluctuating thermal environments show not only a dominance of associated, thermally-tolerant Durusdinium spp. but also the ability to shuffle their symbiont communities in response to seasonal variations in seawater temperature without bleaching. We demonstrate that coral reefs in a small geographical range with unique environmental settings and ecological characteristics, such as the KNP reef, may be resilient to bleaching and deserve novel conservation efforts. Thus, this review calls for conservation efforts that use resilience-based management programs to reduce local stresses and meet the challenge of climate change.

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