The Impact of Climate Change on Forest Development: A Sustainable Approach to Management Models Applied to Mediterranean-Type Climate Regions

Forest ecosystems are divided into three major groups: boreal, temperate, and tropical. These can be subdivided according to the particularities of each type due to its relative location (littoral, mountain, etc.), climatic conditions, or even geological substrate. Climate change affects each type of forest ecosystem differently. However, it seems to affect temperate forests in Mediterranean-type climate regions more intensely. These regions are located over several continents, with major impacts of increased temperature during summer and decreased precipitation during winter. This situation affects Mediterranean forest ecosystems by increasing the risk of fires, which arise more frequently and are more severe. In addition, the emergence of pests and the spread of invasive species are well-known problems affecting these ecosystems. All of these conditions contribute to losses of productivity and biodiversity. To avoid the destruction of forest resources, and since Mediterranean-type climate regions are considered climate change hot spots with increased vulnerability to disturbances, the implementation of adaptive forest management models could contribute to increasing the resilience of such forests, which could also contribute to mitigating climate change.

On the role of parent material for predictive mapping of soil properties in mountain forests

<p>Parent material is widely recognised as an important factor for soil formation. Thus, quantitative information on the lithogenetic, geochemical, and physical characteristics of the subsolum geological substrates (SSGS) are essential input parameters for digital soil mapping (DSM). Forming the interface between bedrock – the domain of geologists, and soil – the domain of soil scientists, spatial information on SSGS is however scarce. Recognising these shortcomings, a novel geochemical-physical classification system for subsolum geological substrates has been developed, in order to support DSM at a regional scale. The units of the classification system reflect the properties of the SSGS also considering multilayering structure of quaternary deposits. The basis for the classification are mineral component groups, namely dolomite, calcite, and felsic, mafic, and clay minerals. In order to test the relevance of SSGS for the prediction of spatially continuous physical and chemical soil properties, Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) were applied to the forested area of Tyrol, Austria. The plant-available water storage capacity, as a physical soil property, was predicted with r² = 0.56. The Ellenberg´s mean soil reaction indicator value for vegetation turned out to be a suitable proxy for soil pH value and was predicted with r² = 0.75. Topography and associated morphometric terrain features are formative characteristics of mountain areas and, due to its various effects on redistribution processes as well as on water and energy budget of forest sites, are considered as the most essential soil forming factors. Thus, variables derived from digital terrain models, which are available in high spatial resolution, are assumed to be one of the most important predictors for digital soil mapping. In our study we could show however, that SSGS information is the most relevant predictor for both investigated soil properties. In the plant-available water storage capacity model, the predictor variables related to SSGS account for around 76% of the variance explained. Accordingly, a special focus should be placed on the predictive relevance of parent material and the frequently unlocked potential of quantitative geological substrate information. Thus, the newly developed subsolum geological substrate information could stimulate further developments in digital soil mapping, especially in mountain environments.</p>

Deep Structure of the Lithosphere in the Central Tien Shan along the Son-Kul Magnetotelluric Sounding Profile

New results of a detailed study of the deep structure of the Central Tien Shan along the Son-Kul magnetotelluric (MT) profile crossing the Son-Kul Lake are reported. Based on the results of magnetotelluric data modeling, the regional and local geoelectric anomalies in the lithosphere are studied and their quantitative characteristics are given. Geological interpretation of the geoelectric cross-section was carried out, which supported the existing ideas about the block–hierarchical structure of the upper part of the Earth’s crust. This corresponds to the tectonophysical concepts of the sequential inserted subordination of large and smaller elements of the zone–block structure consisting of stable blocks and limiting mobile zones, which are distinguished by the high dislocation of the geological substrate. The integral pattern of the distribution and morphology of zones of high electrical conductivity in this segment of the Central Tien Shan crust may reflect discretely localized palm tree–type structures associated with the evolution of transgressive suture zones of localized deformation during the Hercynian and Alpine tectogenesis.

THE WINE ROAD IN VRANCEA COUNTY

Nowadays, G.I.S. is widely used in the traditional cultivation of vines. The vineyard cultivation in Vrancea County is a traditional activity specific to this hilly area. G.I.S. provides tools and information on how the vineyard is cultivated, depending on the environmental factors that influence it: climate, soil, geological substrate through created maps using the ArcMap 10.5 program. G.I.S. is a tool that can be used to analyse and improve vineyard management decisions, and is also a powerful tool in collection, analysis and monitoring data. This article aims to show that different spatial analysis tools used nowadays can play an important role in monitoring vine plantations and implicitly in increasing the production of grapes that will end up as obtained quality wines. To create the slope map and the solar radiation map, it was used a DEM (digital elevation model) with a resolution of 30m. With the help of the created maps, it is possible to make a spatial analysis of the resources within Vrancea County.

Exceptions to bed-controlled ice sheet flow and retreat from glaciated continental margins worldwide

Projections of ice sheet behavior hinge on how ice flow velocity evolves and the extent to which marine-based grounding lines are stable. Ice flow and grounding line retreat are variably governed by the coupling between the ice and underlying terrain. We ask to what degree catchment-scale bed characteristics determine ice flow and retreat, drawing on paleo-ice sheet landform imprints from 99 sites on continental shelves worldwide. We find that topographic setting has broadly steered ice flow and that the bed slope favors particular styles of retreat. However, we find exceptions to accepted “rules” of behavior: Regional topographic highs are not always an impediment to fast ice flow, retreat may proceed in a controlled, steady manner on reverse slopes and, unexpectedly, the occurrence of ice streaming is not favored on a particular geological substrate. Furthermore, once grounding line retreat is under way, readvance is rarely observed regardless of regional bed characteristics.

The role of the geologic substrate on Tillandsia recurvata infestation and the development of forest decaying on a semiarid oak forest

The Geodiversity involves substrate characteristics such as degree of fractured rock, fracture depth, soil depth, parental rock, soil texture, etc., that affect the hidrology of substrates and subsequently the availability of water for plants. Here we examined the importance of the geological substrate, as a factor that triggers the incidence of forest decline. We demonstrated that characteristics of the geological substrate related to the limitation of water availability enhances Tillandsia recurvata (Tire) infestation and eventually causes loss of vigor in oak trees. Using electrical resistivity tomography (geophysical methods) and stable isotope techniques (δ18O / δ16O), we showed that substrates dominated by regolith and rocks imposed greater conditions of drought to an oak forest stand than a substrate with a more granulated material. Trees in this forest stand presented greater densities of Tire, a plant considered as epiphyte. However, under the observed conditions of high infestation, Tire apparently exhibited a change from epiphytic to parasitic plant as it acquired water from oak. This study identified that the structural composition of the substrate (i.e. geodiversity) is a factor accelerating the processes of decay and likely forest mortality related to the effects of drought and the infestation by pests and diseases.

Development of soil in heterogeneous landscapes of a high alpine catchment in the Central European Alps

<p>In high mountain environments with harsh weather conditions, soil development and its limitations strongly depend on topography and morphodynamics, both leading to heterogeneous landscape patterns of different geological substrate, vegetation, (micro)relief, and (micro)climate. In addition, as glaciers currently are retreating disproportionately strong, a large area is exposed to initial soil development, enabling to study time related issues of soil formation.</p><p>These mosaic-like patterns are particularly intensified within the high-alpine and nival zone, due to the dominating influence of cryospheric elements, such as ice (e.g. retreating glaciers), snow (e.g. snowbeds; shallow self-deepening sinks with snow accumulation at altitudes above 2500 m a.s.l.), and frost (e.g. causing solifluction, controlling physical weathering, changing permafrost dynamics, increasing the probability mass movements and sediment transport). The high-alpine environment with its site diversity therefore represents a perfect study area to analyze soil-vegetation-interactions at various microsites within a single catchment.</p><p>To study the influence of time, the glacier foreland of Zufall- and Fürkeleferner (Martelltal, South Tyrol) was found to be excellent for an interdisciplinary chronosequence study. Large amounts of historical maps, aerial orthophotos, and remote sensing data are available, enabling reconstructed glacier retreat with a high spatial and temporal accuracy. Study sites of different soil age were chosen for the analysis of various soil and vegetation parameters. The influence of temperature and soil water availability were determined by installing temperature and soil matric potential data loggers.</p><p>Furthermore, to study soil development as a function of geological substrate, microrelief, altitude, slope, and microclimate, an additional transect along an altitudinal gradient (Martelltal, South Tyrol, within the maximum extent of Egesen) was sampled and analyzed regarding central soil properties, vegetation, and microclimate. Directly bordering to those sites, heterogeneous and morphodynamically active microsites were investigated. These special sites were characterized by different morphological features, in particularly: soil sinks of different genesis, hilltops, and scree-dominated sites with initial soil development after primary plant succession.</p><p>As expected, we found clear trends of soil development with changing altitude and/or time. However, the small-scaled special sites differed distinctly from the reference sites regarding basic soil properties such as soil pH or soil organic matter content, and also remarkably in plant-available NH4-N, microbial activity, and microbial biomass. This was especially true where the water regime was strongly affected by the microrelief.</p><p>The observed distinct changes in soil properties within small scales of sometimes only several meters help to better understand and predict soil formation and diversity as well as soil-plant-interactions in high alpine environments of the European Alps.</p>

Physical-mathematical modeling of multiyear dynamics of water-balance and snow-reserve components in Ob-Irtysh river basin

The possibility of use of the previously developed calculation technique of the North Rivers flow hydraulic records for the Ob River, the largest river in Russia by basin area, flowing under severe conditions in West Siberia was examined. The calculation technique is based on the model of heat and moisture exchange of the geological substrate with the Earth’s atmosphere, the Soil-Water–Atmosphere–Plants (SWAP) model, in conjunction with information support based on global databases of geological-substrate parameters and information obtained from observational data collected by weather stations within the Ob River basin. Uncertainty of the Ob River flow was assessed. Additionally, the ability of the SWAP model to reproduce multiyear dynamics from average values of snow reserves in the Ob-Irtysh basin was examined.