scholarly journals Influence of nitrogen fertilization on abundance and diversity of plants and animals in temperate and boreal forests

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas P. Sullivan ◽  
Druscilla S. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Nitrogen Fertilization ◽  
Indirect Effects ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Forest Growth ◽  
Habitat Characteristics ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Soil Animals ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Understory Herbs

Aerial and land-based applications of nitrogen-based fertilizers to enhance forest growth makes nutrients potentially available to all trees, plants, and wildlife in a given ecosystem and, therefore, may have direct and indirect effects on wildlife and biodiversity. A scientific review of these potential effects was conducted with 106 published studies covering vascular and nonvascular plants, amphibians, birds, mammals, terrestrial invertebrates, and soil animals associated with fertilization in temperate and boreal forests, primarily in North America and Scandinavia. In terms of direct effects, amphibians and domestic mammals appear to be the most sensitive to urea used in fertilization programs. The avoidance behaviour and (or) mortality of amphibians in laboratory studies was species dependent. Ruminant animals, including wild ungulates, rapidly convert urea to ammonia and are susceptible to toxicity following ingestion of large amounts of urea. Feeding on urea pellets by small mammals or gallinaceous birds appears to be minimal as granules are unpalatable. In terms of indirect effects, the majority of responses of understory herbs to nitrogen fertilization showed an increase in abundance. Some shrubs in repeatedly fertilized stands eventually increased in abundance in long-term studies, whereas dwarf shrubs and abundance of bryophytes (mosses and terrestrial lichens) declined. In general, species richness and diversity of understory herbs and shrubs declined, or were unaffected, in fertilized stands. Response in abundance and species richness-diversity of vascular plants to a single application of nitrogen showed either an increase or no change. Repeated applications (2–5 and >5) usually resulted in declines in these responses. Relative abundance of mule deer (Odocoileus Rafinesque spp.), moose (Alces alces L.), and hares (Lepus L. spp.), and forage quantity and quality were usually increased by fertilization. Small mammal species generally showed increases or no change in abundance; decreases may be related to fertilizer-induced changes in food sources. Forest fertilization may provide winter feeding habitat for coniferous foliage-gleaning insectivorous birds in some cases. Six species of forest grouse showed no response to fertilizer treatments. Responses of soil animals to nitrogen fertilization appeared to be species- and dose-specific and are ameliorated by surrounding micro- and macro-habitat characteristics.

Lack of congruence between terrestrial and epiphytic lichen strata in boreal forests

2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-158
Author(s):  
Robert J. Smith ◽  
Sarah Jovan ◽  
Susan Will-Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Ground Layer ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Layer Versus ◽  
Epiphytic Lichen ◽  
Incremental Change ◽  
Compositional Gradients ◽  
Environmental Responses

AbstractLichens occupy diverse substrates across tremendous ranges of environmental variation. In boreal forests, lichen communities co-occur in ‘strata’ defined by terrestrial or arboreal substrates, but these strata may or may not be interchangeable as bioindicators. Do co-occurring lichen strata have similar community structures and environmental responses? Could one stratum serve as a proxy for the other? We assessed variation in species richness and community compositions between ground-layer versus epiphyte-layer lichen strata in boreal forests and peatlands of interior Alaska. Species richness was lower and more spatially structured in the ground layer than the epiphyte layer. Richness of strata was not correlated. The most compositionally unique ground-layer communities were species-poor but contained regionally rare species not common in other plots. Variation in community compositions (ordination scores) were not congruent between strata (Procrustes congruence < 0.16 on 0–1 scale); the largest departures from congruence occurred where ground layers were species-poor. The best predictors of ground-layer community compositions were hydrological and topographic, whereas epiphytes were most associated with macroclimate and tree abundances. We conclude that lichens on different substrates ‘move in different circles’: compositional gradients did not agree and the environmental gradients most important to each lichen stratum were not the same. The conditions which strongly influence one vegetation stratum may have little bearing upon another. As global changes modify habitats, an incremental change in environment may lead community trajectories to diverge among lichen strata.

scholarly journals Assessing mammal species richness and occupancy in a Northeast Asian temperate forest shared by cattle

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiawei Feng ◽  
Yifei Sun ◽  
Hailong Li ◽  
Yuqi Xiao ◽  
Dandan Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Temperate Forest ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Northeast Asian

Vegetation and climate history of Quebec’s mixed boreal forest suggests greater abundance of temperate species during the early- and mid-Holocene

Botany ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 96 (7) ◽  
pp. 437-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Émilie Larochelle ◽  
Martin Lavoie ◽  
Pierre Grondin ◽  
Pierre-Luc Couillard
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Plant Macrofossils ◽  
Habitat Characteristics ◽  
Temperate Species ◽  
White Pine ◽  
Yellow Birch ◽  
Climate History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Suitable Habitats

Today, scattered disjunct stands of two temperate species, yellow birch and white pine, are present north of their continuous distributional range in southern Quebec (Canada) at topographical locations that offer protection from severe fires. This study tested whether these species had populations more numerous and widespread millennia ago when the climate was presumably warmer. Specifically, this research involved the analyses of pollen, plant macrofossils, and charcoal fragments of two sites within the western part of Quebec’s balsam fir – paper birch bioclimatic domain: a forest humus deposit from a yellow birch stand (local scale), and a peatland (regional scale). Fossil data suggest that white pine was more abundant regionally between 7500 and 5000 cal. BP, before coming rare under subsequent cooler conditions. Likewise, yellow birch was more abundant regionally between 7700 and 1500 cal BP. Its subsequent decline and the local disappearance of white pine by ∼200 cal. BP may both be explained by the severe fires that occurred in recent centuries, as well as the rarity of suitable habitats for these species. The sustained presence of temperate species in mixed boreal forests is the result of the combined action of climate, natural disturbances and habitat characteristics.

scholarly journals Sensitivity of managed boreal forests in Finland to climate change, with implications for adaptive management

2007 ◽  
Vol 363 (1501) ◽  
pp. 2339-2349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seppo Kellomäki ◽  
Heli Peltola ◽  
Tuula Nuutinen ◽  
Kari T Korhonen ◽  
Harri Strandman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Norway Spruce ◽  
Scots Pine ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Forest Growth ◽  
Forest Land ◽  
Forest Zone ◽  
The North ◽  
Northern Forests ◽  
Climate Change Model

This study investigated the sensitivity of managed boreal forests to climate change, with consequent needs to adapt the management to climate change. Model simulations representing the Finnish territory between 60 and 70° N showed that climate change may substantially change the dynamics of managed boreal forests in northern Europe. This is especially probable at the northern and southern edges of this forest zone. In the north, forest growth may increase, but the special features of northern forests may be diminished. In the south, climate change may create a suboptimal environment for Norway spruce. Dominance of Scots pine may increase on less fertile sites currently occupied by Norway spruce. Birches may compete with Scots pine even in these sites and the dominance of birches may increase. These changes may reduce the total forest growth locally but, over the whole of Finland, total forest growth may increase by 44%, with an increase of 82% in the potential cutting drain. The choice of appropriate species and reduced rotation length may sustain the productivity of forest land under climate change.

scholarly journals Evaluating the Performance of a Forest Succession Model to Predict the Long-Term Dynamics of Tree Species in Mixed Boreal Forests Using Historical Data in Northern Ontario, Canada

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1181
Author(s):  
Guy R. Larocque ◽  
F. Wayne Bell
Keyword(s):  
Populus Tremuloides ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Forest Succession ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Abies Balsamea ◽  
Forest Growth ◽  
Northern Ontario ◽  
Phase Dynamics

Environmental concerns and economic pressures on forest ecosystems have led to the development of sustainable forest management practices. As a consequence, forest managers must evaluate the long-term effects of their management decisions on potential forest successional pathways. As changes in forest ecosystems occur very slowly, simulation models are logical and efficient tools to predict the patterns of forest growth and succession. However, as models are an imperfect representation of reality, it is desirable to evaluate them with historical long-term forest data. Using remeasured tree and stand data from three data sets from two ecoregions in northern Ontario, the succession gap model ZELIG-CFS was evaluated for mixed boreal forests composed of black spruce (Picea mariana [Mill.] B.S.P.), balsam fir (Abies balsamea [L.] Mill.), jack pine (Pinus banksiana L.), white spruce (Picea glauca [Moench] Voss), trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.), white birch (Betula papyrifera Marsh.), northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.), American larch (Larix laricina [Du Roi] K. Koch), and balsam poplar (Populus balsamefera L.). The comparison of observed and predicted basal areas and stand densities indicated that ZELIG-CFS predicted the dynamics of most species consistently for periods varying between 5 and 57 simulation years. The patterns of forest succession observed in this study support gap phase dynamics at the plot scale and shade-tolerance complementarity hypotheses at the regional scale.

scholarly journals Large mammal species richness and late Quaternary precipitation change in south-western Australia

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 760-769 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Tyler Faith ◽  
Joe Dortch ◽  
Chelsea Jones ◽  
James Shulmeister ◽  
Kenny J. Travouillon
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Precipitation Change ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Large Mammal

Managing yards for mammals: Mammal species richness peaks in the suburbs

2022 ◽  
Vol 220 ◽  
pp. 104337
Author(s):  
Aaron M. Grade ◽  
Paige S. Warren ◽  
Susannah B. Lerman
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Mammal Species

Metagenomic profiling of gut microbiota in urban and rural rats: A comparative study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafig GURBANOV ◽  
Uygar KABAOĞLU ◽  
Tuba YAĞCI
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Bacterial Species ◽  
Rattus Rattus ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Laboratory Rats ◽  
Food Variety ◽  
Wild Rats

Abstract Mammals have a symbiotic relationship with various microorganisms called microbiota throughout their lives. These microorganisms are known to affect the host's physiology, health, and even mental balance. In the harbor of the densest and most diverse microorganisms in mammals, the curved structure of the intestines and their rich nutrient content are effective. The development of the gut microbiota is regulated by a complex interaction between host and environmental factors, including diet and lifestyle. Herein, it is aimed to elucidate the changes in the gut microbiota of rats living in urban and rural habitats. All taxonomic changes in the gut microbiota of wild rats belonging to Rattus rattus species caught from urban and rural areas of Western Anatolian (Bilecik province) were examined comparatively by 16S rRNA next-generation sequencing technique. Laboratory rats were used as a control group for comparison. Thus, 2000 different bacterial species were identified in gut microbiota. According to the Shannon and Simpsons values ​​calculated, laboratory rats showed the highest species diversity. When the similarities of microbiota profiles were compared with the principal coordinate analysis (PcoA), bacterial populations showed variability among different habitats. The comparison of species richness between the groups with the species rarefaction technique revealed higher species richness in all wild rats, especially in the rural habitat, compared to laboratory rats. Food sources were determined as the most important factor contributing to species richness and diversity. While the increased food variety boosted species richness, species diversity was increased due to the diminished food variety.

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