scholarly journals Precipitation legacy effects on dryland ecosystem carbon fluxes: direction, magnitude and biogeochemical carryovers

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 425-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Shen ◽  
G. D. Jenerette ◽  
D. Hui ◽  
R. L. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Ecosystem Respiration ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Legacy Effects ◽  
Previous Period ◽  
Legacy Effect ◽  
Ecosystem Production ◽  
Legacy Impacts ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The precipitation legacy effect, defined as the impact of historical precipitation (PPT) on extant ecosystem dynamics, has been recognized as an important driver in shaping the temporal variability of dryland aboveground net primary production (ANPP) and soil respiration. How the PPT legacy influences whole ecosystem-level carbon (C) fluxes has rarely been quantitatively assessed, particularly at longer temporal scales. We parameterized a process-based ecosystem model to a semiarid savanna ecosystem in the southwestern USA, calibrated and evaluated the model performance based on 7 years of eddy-covariance measurements, and conducted two sets of simulation experiments to assess interdecadal and interannual PPT legacy effects over a 30-year simulation period. The results showed that decreasing the previous period/year PPT (dry legacy) always increased subsequent net ecosystem production (NEP) whereas increasing the previous period/year PPT (wet legacy) decreased NEP. The simulated dry-legacy impacts mostly increased subsequent gross ecosystem production (GEP) and reduced ecosystem respiration (Re), but the wet legacy mostly reduced GEP and increased Re. Although the direction and magnitude of GEP and Re responses to the simulated dry and wet legacies were influenced by both the previous and current PPT conditions, the NEP responses were predominantly determined by the previous PPT characteristics including rainfall amount, seasonality and event size distribution. Larger PPT difference between periods/years resulted in larger legacy impacts, with dry legacies fostering more C sequestration and wet legacies more C release. The carryover of soil N between periods/years was mainly responsible for the GEP responses, while the carryovers of plant biomass, litter and soil organic matter were mainly responsible for the Re responses. These simulation results suggest that previous PPT conditions can exert substantial legacy impacts on current ecosystem C balance, which should be taken into account while assessing the response of dryland ecosystem C dynamics to future PPT regime changes.

scholarly journals Precipitation legacy effects on dryland ecosystem carbon fluxes: direction, magnitude and biogeochemical carryovers

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 9613-9650 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Shen ◽  
G. D. Jenerette ◽  
D. Hui ◽  
R. L. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Ecosystem Respiration ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Legacy Effects ◽  
Previous Period ◽  
Legacy Effect ◽  
Ecosystem Production ◽  
Legacy Impacts ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The precipitation legacy effect, defined as the impact of historical precipitation (PPT) on extant ecosystem dynamics, has been recognized as an important driver in shaping the temporal variability of dryland aboveground primary production (ANPP) and soil respiration. How the PPT legacy influences whole ecosystem-level carbon (C) fluxes has rarely been quantitatively assessed, particularly at longer temporal scales. We parameterized a process-based ecosystem model to a semiarid savanna ecosystem in southwestern US, calibrated and evaluated the model performance based on 7 years of eddy covariance measurements, and conducted two sets of simulation experiments to assess interdecadal and interannual scale PPT legacy effects over a 30 year simulation period. The results showed that decreasing the previous period/year PPT (dry legacy) always imposed positive impacts on net ecosystem production (NEP) whereas increasing the previous period/year PPT (wet legacy) had negative impacts on NEP. The simulated dry legacy impacts were mostly positive on gross ecosystem production (GEP) and negative on ecosystem respiration (Re) but the wet legacy impacts were mostly negative on GEP and positive on Re. Although the direction and magnitude of GEP and Re responses to the simulated dry and wet legacies were influenced by both the previous and current PPT conditions, the NEP responses were predominantly determined by the previous PPT characteristics including rainfall amount, seasonality and event size distribution. Larger PPT difference between periods/years resulted in larger legacy impacts, with dry legacies fostering more C sequestration and wet legacies more C release. By analyzing the resource pool (C, N, and H2O) responses to the simulated dry and wet legacies, we found that the carryover of soil N between periods/years was mainly responsible for the GEP responses while the carryovers of plant biomass, litter and soil organic matter were mainly responsible for the Re responses. These simulation results suggest that previous PPT conditions can exert substantial legacy impacts on current ecosystem C balance, which should be taken into account while assessing the response of dryland ecosystem C dynamics to future PPT regime changes.

scholarly journals North American boreal forests are a large carbon source due to wildfires from 1986 to 2016

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bailu Zhao ◽  
Qianlai Zhuang ◽  
Narasinha Shurpali ◽  
Kajar Köster ◽  
Frank Berninger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Net Ecosystem Production ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Fire Disturbance ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Fire Emissions ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystem Model ◽  
C Balance ◽  
Ecosystem Production ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Wildfires are a major disturbance to forest carbon (C) balance through both immediate combustion emissions and post-fire ecosystem dynamics. Here we use a process-based biogeochemistry model, the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM), to simulate C budget in Alaska and Canada during 1986-2016, as impacted by fire disturbances. We extracted the data of difference Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) for fires from Landsat TM/ETM imagery and estimated the proportion of vegetation and soil C combustion. We observed that the region is a C source of 2.74 Pg C during the 31-year period. The observed C loss, 57.1 Tg C yr-1, was attributed to fire emissions, overwhelming the net ecosystem production (1.9 Tg C yr-1) in the region. Our simulated during-fire emissions for Alaska and Canada are within the range of field measurements and other model estimates. As burn severity increases, combustion emission tended to switch from vegetation origin towards soil origin. Burn severity regulates post-fire C dynamics. Low severity fires increase soil temperature and decrease soil moisture and thus, enhance soil respiration. However, the opposite trend was found under moderate or high burn severity. The proportion of post-fire soil emission in total emissions increased with burn severity. Net nitrogen mineralization gradually recovered after fire, enhancing net primary production. Net ecosystem production recovered fast under higher burn severities. The impact of fire disturbance on the C balance of northern ecosystems and the associated uncertainties can be better characterized with long-term, prior, during- and post-disturbance data across the geospatial spectrum. Our findings suggest that the regional source of carbon to the atmosphere will persist if the observed forest wildfire occurrence and severity continues into the future.

scholarly journals North American Boreal Forests Are a Large Carbon Source Due to Wildfires From 1986 to 2016

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bailu Zhao ◽  
Qianlai Zhuang ◽  
Narasinha Shurpali ◽  
Kajar Köster ◽  
Frank Berninger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Net Ecosystem Production ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Fire Disturbance ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Fire Emissions ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystem Model ◽  
C Balance ◽  
Ecosystem Production ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Wildfires are a major disturbance to forest carbon (C) balance through both immediate combustion emissions and post-fire ecosystem dynamics. Here we use a process-based biogeochemistry model, the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM), to simulate C budget in Alaska and Canada during 1986-2016, as impacted by fire disturbances. We extracted the data of difference Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) for fires from Landsat TM/ETM imagery and estimated the proportion of vegetation and soil C combustion. We observed that the region is a C source of 2.74 Pg C during the 31-year period. The observed C loss, 57.1 Tg C yr-1, was attributed to fire emissions, overwhelming the net ecosystem production (1.9 Tg C yr-1) in the region. Our simulated during-fire emissions for Alaska and Canada are within the range of field measurements and other model estimates. As burn severity increases, combustion emission tended to switch from vegetation origin towards soil origin. When dNBR is below 300, fires increase soil temperature and decrease soil moisture and thus, enhance soil respiration. However, the opposite trend was found under moderate or high burn severity. The proportion of post-fire soil emission in total emissions increased with burn severity. Net nitrogen mineralization gradually recovered after fire, enhancing net primary production. Net ecosystem production recovered fast under higher burn severities. The impact of fire disturbance on the C balance of northern ecosystems and the associated uncertainties can be better characterized with long-term, prior, during- and post-disturbance data across the geospatial spectrum. Our findings suggest that the regional source of carbon to the atmosphere will persist if the observed forest wildfire occurrence and severity continues into the future.

scholarly journals North American boreal forests are a large carbon source due to wildfires from 1986 to 2016

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bailu Zhao ◽  
Qianlai Zhuang ◽  
Narasinha Shurpali ◽  
Kajar Köster ◽  
Frank Berninger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Respiration ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Net Ecosystem Production ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Fire Emissions ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystem Model ◽  
C Balance ◽  
Ecosystem Production ◽  
The Impact

AbstractWildfires are a major disturbance to forest carbon (C) balance through both immediate combustion emissions and post-fire ecosystem dynamics. Here we used a process-based biogeochemistry model, the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM), to simulate C budget in Alaska and Canada during 1986–2016, as impacted by fire disturbances. We extracted the data of difference Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) for fires from Landsat TM/ETM imagery and estimated the proportion of vegetation and soil C combustion. We observed that the region was a C source of 2.74 Pg C during the 31-year period. The observed C loss, 57.1 Tg C year−1, was attributed to fire emissions, overwhelming the net ecosystem production (1.9 Tg C year−1) in the region. Our simulated direct emissions for Alaska and Canada are within the range of field measurements and other model estimates. As burn severity increased, combustion emission tended to switch from vegetation origin towards soil origin. When dNBR is below 300, fires increase soil temperature and decrease soil moisture and thus, enhance soil respiration. However, the post-fire soil respiration decreases for moderate or high burn severity. The proportion of post-fire soil emission in total emissions increased with burn severity. Net nitrogen mineralization gradually recovered after fire, enhancing net primary production. Net ecosystem production recovered fast under higher burn severities. The impact of fire disturbance on the C balance of northern ecosystems and the associated uncertainties can be better characterized with long-term, prior-, during- and post-disturbance data across the geospatial spectrum. Our findings suggest that the regional source of carbon to the atmosphere will persist if the observed forest wildfire occurrence and severity continues into the future.

scholarly journals Carbon Exchange and Accumulation in an Orinoco High Plains Native Savanna Ecosystem as Measured by Eddy Covariance

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis A. Morales-Rincon ◽  
Andrea J. Hernandez ◽  
Nubia S. Rodriguez-Hernandez ◽  
Rodrigo Jimenez
Keyword(s):  
Eddy Covariance ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Carbon Sink ◽  
Ecosystem Respiration ◽  
High Plains ◽  
First Year ◽  
Drought Duration ◽  
C Cycle ◽  
The Impact

Savanna ecosystems cover ∼20% of the total land surface and account for ∼30% of the terrestrial global net primary production. They are also highly sensitive to climate change, since their carbon (C) sink capacity may decline under rising temperatures and irregular rainfall. These responses, which will define the future climate role of the savanna ecosystems, are currently not well understood. The Colombian Orinoco River basin (“Llanos”) natural savannas are being rapidly converted to agriculture. The impact of this transformation on C fluxes and accumulation is not clear. It is thus urgent to understand the Llanos natural savanna ecosystem services, including their C cycle and underlying mechanisms. Here we report and analyze 2 years of measurements of carbon dioxide fluxes from a naturally-restored (secondary) Llanos High Plains savanna ecosystem, using eddy covariance. Meteorological conditions, particularly rainfall, were quite variable during the measurement period. During the first year of measurements, the savanna was a weak carbon source (35 gC m−2), while during the second year, the system was a comparatively strong carbon sink (−273 gC m−2), despite receiving less rainfall than during the first year. As expected, the savanna net ecosystem exchange (NEE) was highly dependent on global solar radiation, soil water content, and ecosystem respiration. We found that after ∼10 days of nominal drought, i.e., with less than ∼5 mm/day of precipitation, the NEE became highly dependent on drought duration. The ecosystem reached a critical condition of low photosynthetic activity after ∼60 days of nominal drought. Based on these findings, we developed and applied a simple standard meteorology-based model that properly reproduced the observations. Our results indicate that a shift to a climate with similar total precipitation but split into extreme dry and wet seasons might eventually suppress the savanna C uptake capacity.

Ecosystem Function and Dynamics

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Post
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Function ◽  
Primary Productivity ◽  
Net Primary Productivity ◽  
Ecosystem Respiration ◽  
Net Ecosystem Production ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Ecosystem Production

This chapter focuses on the distinction between ecosystem function and ecosystem dynamics. Ecosystem function refers to the manner in which the ecosystem of interest works, and interactions among its component parts and fluxes, including biotic and abiotic compartments. Meanwhile, ecosystem dynamics refers to variation in ecosystem function through time in response to perturbations that are continuous or stochastic in nature, or in relation to changes in ecosystem components. Therefore, the study of ecosystem dynamics derives from an understanding of ecosystem function, and this, in turn, depends critically on successful identification of the important drivers within the ecosystem. Inevitably, a discussion of ecosystem function and dynamics boils down to the factors that influence and contribute to variation in net ecosystem production—the result of net primary productivity and ecosystem respiration.

scholarly journals Impact of Atmospheric Optical Properties on Net Ecosystem Productivity of Peatland in Poland

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2124
Author(s):  
Kamila M. Harenda ◽  
Mateusz Samson ◽  
Radosław Juszczak ◽  
Krzysztof M. Markowicz ◽  
Iwona S. Stachlewska ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Optical Properties ◽  
Diffuse Radiation ◽  
Co2 Uptake ◽  
High Carbon ◽  
Atmospheric Scattering ◽  
Net Productivity ◽  
Diffusion Index ◽  
Ecosystem Production ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Global Carbon

Peatlands play an important role in the global carbon cycle due to the high carbon storage in the substrate. Ecosystem production depends, for example, on the solar energy amount that reaches the vegetation, however the diffuse component of this flux can substantially increase ecosystem net productivity. This phenomenon is observed in different ecosystems, but the study of the atmosphere optical properties on peatland production is lacking. In this paper, the presented methodology allowed us to disentangle the diffuse radiation impact on the net ecosystem production (NEP) of Rzecin peatland, Poland. It allowed us to assess the impact of the atmospheric scattering process determined by the aerosol presence in the air mass. An application of atmospheric radiation transfer (ART) and ecosystem production (EP) models showed that the increase of aerosol optical thickness from 0.09 to 0.17 caused NEP to rise by 3.4–5.7%. An increase of the diffusion index (DI) by 0.1 resulted in an NEP increase of 6.1–42.3%, while a DI decrease of 0.1 determined an NEP reduction of −49.0 to −10.5%. These results show that low peatland vegetation responds to changes in light scattering. This phenomenon should be taken into account when calculating the global CO2 uptake estimation of such ecosystems.

Can repeated soil amendment with biogas digestates increase soil suppressiveness toward non-specific soil-borne pathogens in agricultural lands?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
L. M. Manici ◽  
F. Caputo ◽  
G. A. Cappelli ◽  
E. Ceotto
Keyword(s):  
Plant Growth ◽  
Biomass Production ◽  
Soil Amendment ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Amended Soils ◽  
Soil Suppressiveness ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Soil Borne Pathogens ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Plant Biomass Production

Abstract Soil suppressiveness which is the natural ability of soil to support optimal plant growth and health is the resultant of multiple soil microbial components; which implies many difficulties when estimating this soil condition. Microbial benefits for plant health from repeated digestate applications were assessed in three experimental sites surrounding anaerobic biogas plants in an intensively cultivated area of northern Italy. A 2-yr trial was performed in 2017 and 2018 by performing an in-pot plant growth assay, using soil samples taken from two fields for each experimental site, of which one had been repeatedly amended with anaerobic biogas digestate and the other had not. These fields were similar in management and crop sequences (maize was the recurrent crop) for the last 10 yr. Plant growth response in the bioassay was expressed as plant biomass production, root colonization frequency by soil-borne fungi were estimated to evaluate the impact of soil-borne pathogens on plant growth, abundance of Pseudomonas and actinomycetes populations in rhizosphere were estimated as beneficial soil microbial indicators. Repeated soil amendment with digestate increased significantly soil capacity to support plant biomass production as compared to unamended control in both the years. Findings supported evidence that this increase was principally attributable to a higher natural ability of digestate-amended soils to reduce root infection by saprophytic soil-borne pathogens whose inoculum was increased by the recurrent maize cultivation. Pseudomonas and actinomycetes were always more abundant in digestate-amended soils suggesting that both these large bacterial groups were involved in the increase of their natural capacity to control soil-borne pathogens (soil suppressiveness).

scholarly journals Lianas reduce carbon accumulation and storage in tropical forests

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (43) ◽  
pp. 13267-13271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geertje M. F. van der Heijden ◽  
Jennifer S. Powers ◽  
Stefan A. Schnitzer
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Carbon Dynamics ◽  
Carbon Accumulation ◽  
Carbon Uptake ◽  
Woody Vines ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Agent Of Change ◽  
The Impact

Tropical forests store vast quantities of carbon, account for one-third of the carbon fixed by photosynthesis, and are a major sink in the global carbon cycle. Recent evidence suggests that competition between lianas (woody vines) and trees may reduce forest-wide carbon uptake; however, estimates of the impact of lianas on carbon dynamics of tropical forests are crucially lacking. Here we used a large-scale liana removal experiment and found that, at 3 y after liana removal, lianas reduced net above-ground carbon uptake (growth and recruitment minus mortality) by ∼76% per year, mostly by reducing tree growth. The loss of carbon uptake due to liana-induced mortality was four times greater in the control plots in which lianas were present, but high variation among plots prevented a significant difference among the treatments. Lianas altered how aboveground carbon was stored. In forests where lianas were present, the partitioning of forest aboveground net primary production was dominated by leaves (53.2%, compared with 39.2% in liana-free forests) at the expense of woody stems (from 28.9%, compared with 43.9%), resulting in a more rapid return of fixed carbon to the atmosphere. After 3 y of experimental liana removal, our results clearly demonstrate large differences in carbon cycling between forests with and without lianas. Combined with the recently reported increases in liana abundance, these results indicate that lianas are an important and increasing agent of change in the carbon dynamics of tropical forests.

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