Ecological effects of peatland drainage for forestry

1995 ◽  
Vol 3 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 286-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jukka Laine ◽  
Harri Vasander ◽  
Tapani Sallantaus
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Effects ◽  
Ground Vegetation ◽  
Climatic Warming ◽  
Tree Stand ◽  
Faunal Change ◽  
Peatland Hydrology ◽  
Northern Peatlands ◽  
Surface Peat ◽  
Forest Drainage

Production forestry in peatlands, associated with drainage, is a controversial but widely applied forestry practice, especially in northern Europe. This paper aims to provide a synthesis of the ecological effects of forest drainage. Effects of the hydrological change, brought about by drainage on the chemical and physical properties of the surface peat, microbial activity, tree stand and ground vegetation, biodiversity, and faunal change, are reviewed. Finally, the role of forestry use of northern peatlands in the global climatic warming is synthesized.Key words: biodiversity, environmental impacts, forest drainage, global change, peatland hydrology.

The role of an urban park's tree stand in shaping the enzymatic activity, glomalin content and physicochemical properties of soil

2020 ◽  
Vol 741 ◽  
pp. 140446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Lemanowicz ◽  
Samir A. Haddad ◽  
Agata Bartkowiak ◽  
Robert Lamparski ◽  
Piotr Wojewódzki
Keyword(s):  
Enzymatic Activity ◽  
Physicochemical Properties ◽  
Tree Stand ◽  
Properties Of Soil

scholarly journals Hydrology of Drained Peatland Forest: Numerical Experiment on the Role of Tree Stand Heterogeneity and Management

Forests ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leena Stenberg ◽  
Kersti Haahti ◽  
Hannu Hökkä ◽  
Samuli Launiainen ◽  
Mika Nieminen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Numerical Experiment ◽  
Stand Structure ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Stem Volume ◽  
Tree Stand ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Site Water ◽  
Stand Thinning

A prerequisite for sustainable peatland forestry is sufficiently low water table (WT) level for profitable tree production. This requires better understanding on controls and feedbacks between tree stand and its evapotranspiration, drainage network condition, climate, and WT levels. This study explores the role of spatial tree stand distribution in the spatiotemporal distribution of WT levels and site water balance. A numerical experiment was conducted by a three-dimensional (3-D) hydrological model (FLUSH) applied to a 0.5 ha peatland forest assuming (1) spatially uniform interception and transpiration, (2) interception and transpiration scaled with spatial distributions of tree crown and root biomass, and (3) the combination of spatially scaled interception and uniform transpiration. Site water balance and WT levels were simulated for two meteorologically contrasting years. Spatial variations in transpiration were found to control WT levels even in a forest with relatively low stand stem volume (<100 m3/ha). Forest management scenarios demonstrated how stand thinning and reduced drainage efficiency raised WT levels and increased the area and duration of excessively wet conditions having potentially negative economic (reduced tree growth) and environmental (e.g., methane emissions, phosphorus mobilization) consequences. In practice, silvicultural treatment manipulating spatial stand structure should be optimized to avoid emergence of wet spots.

Effect of forest drainage on the peat bulk density of pine mires in Finland

1998 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kari Minkkinen ◽  
Jukka Laine
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Bulk Density ◽  
Nutrient Status ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Tree Stand ◽  
Stand Volume ◽  
Peat Surface ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Forest Drainage ◽  
Site Types

Drainage of peatlands for forestry causes the water level to draw down, which results in subsidence of peat surface and increased peat bulk density (Db). Later on, an accelerated rate of organic matter decomposition and the pressure of the growing tree stand further compacts the peat. We measured the peat Db (0-80 cm) in 180 undrained and 209 drained (ca. 60-year-old) peatland sites representing three nutrient levels of pine fens and five macroclimatic regions from southern to northern Finland. Db was affected by climatic conditions, nutrient status, and the tree stand volume of the site. Db was significantly higher in drained than in undrained sites in all regions and site types: the mean (±SD) Db in the whole material was 82 ± 23 kg ·m-3 for the undrained sites and 133 ± 22 kg ·m-3 for the drained sites. The increase in Db was significant in all regions down to a depth of 60 cm and in southern Finland, even deeper than 80 cm. When the increase in carbon concentration was taken into consideration, the average postdrainage increase in the Db of the 0-80 cm layer equalled the amount of carbon in the 54-cm layer in average undrained peat. As the reported subsidences of peat surface in forest drainage areas in Finland are usually below this limit, the carbon storage of peat is likely to increase after drainage.

scholarly journals Autumn destabilization of deep porewater CO2 store in a northern peatland driven by turbulent diffusion

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Campeau ◽  
D. Vachon ◽  
K. Bishop ◽  
M. B. Nilsson ◽  
M. B. Wallin
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Turbulent Diffusion ◽  
Thermal Stratification ◽  
Vertical Diffusion ◽  
Rapid Diffusion ◽  
Northern Peatlands ◽  
Stable Feature

AbstractThe deep porewater of northern peatlands stores large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2). This store is viewed as a stable feature in the peatland CO2 cycle. Here, we report large and rapid fluctuations in deep porewater CO2 concentration recurring every autumn over four consecutive years in a boreal peatland. Estimates of the vertical diffusion of heat indicate that CO2 diffusion occurs at the turbulent rather than molecular rate. The weakening of porewater thermal stratification in autumn likely increases turbulent diffusion, thus fostering a rapid diffusion of deeper porewater CO2 towards the surface where net losses occur. This phenomenon periodically decreases the peat porewater CO2 store by between 29 and 90 g C m−2 throughout autumn, which is comparable to the peatland’s annual C-sink. Our results establish the need to consider the role of turbulent diffusion in regularly destabilizing the CO2 store in peat porewater.

scholarly journals Response of seafloor ecosystems to abrupt global climate change

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (15) ◽  
pp. 4684-4689 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Moffitt ◽  
Tessa M. Hill ◽  
Peter D. Roopnarine ◽  
James P. Kennett
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Climatic Warming ◽  
Marine Communities ◽  
Bacterial Mats ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Sulfur Oxidizing ◽  
The Last Glacial

Anthropogenic climate change is predicted to decrease oceanic oxygen (O2) concentrations, with potentially significant effects on marine ecosystems. Geologically recent episodes of abrupt climatic warming provide opportunities to assess the effects of changing oxygenation on marine communities. Thus far, this knowledge has been largely restricted to investigations using Foraminifera, with little being known about ecosystem-scale responses to abrupt, climate-forced deoxygenation. We here present high-resolution records based on the first comprehensive quantitative analysis, to our knowledge, of changes in marine metazoans (Mollusca, Echinodermata, Arthropoda, and Annelida; >5,400 fossils and trace fossils) in response to the global warming associated with the last glacial to interglacial episode. The molluscan archive is dominated by extremophile taxa, including those containing endosymbiotic sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (Lucinoma aequizonatum) and those that graze on filamentous sulfur-oxidizing benthic bacterial mats (Alia permodesta). This record, from 16,100 to 3,400 y ago, demonstrates that seafloor invertebrate communities are subject to major turnover in response to relatively minor inferred changes in oxygenation (>1.5 to <0.5 mL⋅L−1 [O2]) associated with abrupt (<100 y) warming of the eastern Pacific. The biotic turnover and recovery events within the record expand known rates of marine biological recovery by an order of magnitude, from <100 to >1,000 y, and illustrate the crucial role of climate and oceanographic change in driving long-term successional changes in ocean ecosystems.

Natural mortality, growth parameters, and environmental temperature in fishes revisited

2007 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Griffiths ◽  
Chris Harrod
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Temperature ◽  
Growth Parameters ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Ecological Effects ◽  
Path Model ◽  
Lower Mortality ◽  
Natural Mortality ◽  
Reef Habitat ◽  
Morphological Defences

Pauly (1980. J. Cons. Int. Explor. Mer, 39: 175–192) showed that natural mortality rates in fish could be predicted from body growth parameters and environmental temperature but found no evidence for ecological or taxonomic influences. Using an updated database and techniques that avoid some of the earlier analytical problems, we confirm Pauly's conclusion that mortality is correlated with growth and temperature. A path model supports the role of ecological effects on mortality. A phylogenetic effect is also apparent: perciform fishes occupy warmer environments than other species, but in the predator-rich reef habitat they suffer much lower mortality rates. Species that are cryptic or hide in burrows or have morphological defences against predators show the lowest mortality rates.

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