BIOGEOGRAPHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF SOME PLANT SPECIES FROM A TROPICAL MONTANE RAIN FOREST IN SOUTHERN YUNNAN

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

ZHU Hua

2004-01-01

A pristine montane rain forest was recently discovered from Mengsong of Xishuangbanna in the southern Yunnan.It attracts botanists that many primitive plant taxa across various life forms were co-existed in the montane rain forest.In order to know the biogeography of the montane rain forest,distribution patterns of some species of biogeographical importance from the montane forest were enumerated and their biogeographical implications were discussed with geological explanation.It was concluded that the montane rain forest in the southern Yunnan has strong affinity to montane rain forests in Sumatra or Southeast Asia in broad sense.It was tentatively suggested that Sumatra could be once connected to Myanmar and drifted away due to northward movement of continental Asia by bumping of India plate.

Tropical Montane Cloud Forests: Hydrometeorological variability in three neighbouring catchments with different forest cover

Science.gov (United States)

Ramírez, Beatriz H.; Teuling, Adriaan J.; Ganzeveld, Laurens; Hegger, Zita; Leemans, Rik

2017-09-01

Mountain areas are characterized by a large heterogeneity in hydrological and meteorological conditions. This heterogeneity is currently poorly represented by gauging networks and by the coarse scale of global and regional climate and hydrological models. Tropical Montane Cloud Forests (TMCFs) are found in a narrow elevation range and are characterized by persistent fog. Their water balance depends on local and upwind temperatures and moisture, therefore, changes in these parameters will alter TMCF hydrology. Until recently the hydrological functioning of TMCFs was mainly studied in coastal regions, while continental TMCFs were largely ignored. This study contributes to fill this gap by focusing on a TMCF which is located on the northern eastern Andes at an elevation of 1550-2300 m asl, in the Orinoco river basin highlands. In this study, we describe the spatial and seasonal meteorological variability, analyse the corresponding catchment hydrological response to different land cover, and perform a sensitivity analysis on uncertainties related to rainfall interpolation, catchment area estimation and streamflow measurements. Hydro-meteorological measurements, including hourly solar radiation, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, precipitation, soil moisture and streamflow, were collected from June 2013 to May 2014 at three gauged neighbouring catchments with contrasting TMCF/grassland cover and less than 250 m elevation difference. We found wetter and less seasonally contrasting conditions at higher elevations, indicating a positive relation between elevation and fog or rainfall persistence. This pattern is similar to that of other eastern Andean TMCFs, however, the study site had higher wet season rainfall and lower dry season rainfall suggesting that upwind contrasts in land cover and moisture can influence the meteorological conditions at eastern Andean TMCFs. Contrasting streamflow dynamics between the studied catchments reflect the overall system response

The Role of African Dust Particles on Cloud Chemistry and Microphysics in a Tropical Montane Cloud Forest in the Caribbean

Science.gov (United States)

Torres-Delgado, E.; Valle-Diaz, C. J.; Baumgardner, D.; McDowell, W. H.; Gonzalez, G.; Mayol-Bracero, O. L.

2015-12-01

Huge amounts of African dust travels thousands of kilometers from the Sahara and Sahel regions to the Caribbean, northern South America and southern North America. However, not much is understood about how the aging process that takes place during transport changes dust properties, and how it affects cloud's composition and microphysics. In order to improve our understanding of the role of long-range transported African dust (LRTAD) in cloud formation processes we had field campaigns measuring dust physical and chemical properties in summers of 2013, 2014 and 2015, as part of the Puerto Rico African Dust and Cloud Study (PRADACS), and of the Luquillo Critical Zone Observatory (LCZO). Measurements were performed at the tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) of Pico del Este (PE, 1051 masl) and at the nature reserve of Cabezas de San Juan (CSJ, 60 masl). In both ground stations we monitored meteorological parameters (e.g., temperature, wind speed, wind direction). At CSJ, we measured light absorption and scattering at three wavelengths (467, 528 and 652 nm). At PE we collected cloud and rainwater for chemical analyses and monitored cloud microphysical properties (e.g., liquid water content, droplet size distribution, droplet number concentration, effective diameter and median volume diameter). Summer 2015 was the first attempt to characterize microphysical properties of the summer period (June to August) at PE, where dust is in its higher concentrations of the year. Samples were classified using data from models and satellites together with CSJ measurements as low or high dust influenced. Soluble ions, insoluble trace metals, pH, conductivity, total and dissolved organic carbon and total and dissolved nitrogen were measured for cloud and rainwater. Enrichment factor analysis was used to determine sea and crustal contribution of species by sample, as well as the neutralization factor and fractional acidity. Some preliminary results show cloud water conductivity for low

Structure and floristic similarities of upper montane forests in Serra Fina mountain range, southeastern Brazil

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Leonardo Dias Meireles

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The upper montane forests in the southern and southeastern regions of Brazil have an unusual and discontinuous geographic distribution at the top of the Atlantic coastal mountain ranges. To describe the floristic composition and structure of the Atlantic Forest near its upper altitudinal limit in southeastern Brazil, 30 plots with 10 × 10 m were installed in three forest sites between 2,200 and 2,300 m.a.s.l. at Serra Fina. The floristic composition and phytosociological structure of this forest were compared with other montane and upper montane forests. In total, 704 individuals were included, belonging to 24 species, 15 families, and 19 genera. Myrsinaceae, Myrtaceae, Symplocaceae, and Cunoniaceae were the most important families, and Myrsine gardneriana, Myrceugenia alpigena, Weinmannia humilis, and Symplocos corymboclados were the most important species. The three forest sites revealed differences in the abundance of species, density, canopy height, and number of stems per individual. The upper montane forests showed structural similarities, such as lower richness, diversity, and effective number of species, and they tended to have higher total densities and total dominance per hectare to montane forests. The most important species in these upper montane forests belong to Austral-Antartic genera or neotropical and pantropical genera that are typical of montane areas. The high number of species shared by these forests suggests past connections between the vegetation in southern Brazilian high-altitude areas.

Clusia nubium (Clusiaceae): a new species from cloud-forests of southwestern Ecuador

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gustafsson, Mats; Borchsenius, Finn

2016-01-01

Clusia nubium from southwestern Ecuador is described as a species new to science. It grows as a hemiepiphyte in lower montane cloud forest. The species belongs to Clusia sect. Retinostemon, a largely Andean group characterized by male flowers with a resin-secreting synandrium of completely fused...

Rain chemistry and cloud composition and microphysics in a Caribbean tropical montane cloud forest under the influence of African dust

Science.gov (United States)

Torres-Delgado, Elvis; Valle-Diaz, Carlos J.; Baumgardner, Darrel; McDowell, William H.; González, Grizelle; Mayol-Bracero, Olga L.

2015-04-01

It is known that huge amounts of mineral dust travels thousands of kilometers from the Sahara and Sahel regions in Africa over the Atlantic Ocean reaching the Caribbean, northern South America and southern North America; however, not much is understood about how the aging process that takes place during transport changes dust properties, and how the presence of this dust affects cloud's composition and microphysics. This African dust reaches the Caribbean region mostly in the summer time. In order to improve our understanding of the role of long-range transported African dust (LRTAD) in cloud formation processes in a tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) in the Caribbean region we had field campaigns measuring dust physical and chemical properties in summer 2013, as part of the Puerto Rico African Dust and Cloud Study (PRADACS), and in summer 2014, as a part of the Luquillo Critical Zone Observatory (LCZO) and in collaboration with the Saharan Aerosol Long-Range Transport and Aerosol-Cloud-Interaction Experiment (SALTRACE). Measurements were performed at the TMCF of Pico del Este (PE, 1051 masl) and at the nature reserve of Cabezas de San Juan (CSJ, 60 masl). In both stations we monitored meteorological parameters (e.g., temperature, wind speed, wind direction). At CSJ, we measured light absorption and scattering at three wavelengths (467, 528 and 652 nm). At PE we collected cloud and rainwater and monitored cloud microphysical properties (e.g., liquid water content, droplet size distribution, droplet number concentration, effective diameter and median volume diameter). Data from aerosol models, satellites, and back-trajectories were used together with CSJ measurements to classify air masses and samples collected at PE in the presence or absence of dust. Soluble ions, insoluble trace metals, pH and conductivity were measured for cloud and rainwater. Preliminary results for summer 2013 showed that in the presence of LRTAD (1) the average conductivity of cloud water

Combined community ecology and floristics, a synthetic study on the upper montane evergreen broad-leaved forests in Yunnan, southwestern China

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Hua Zhu; Yong Chai; Shisun Zhou; Lichun Yan; Jipu Shi; Guoping Yang

2016-01-01

The upper montane evergreen broad-leaved forest in Yunnan occurs mainly in the zone of persistent cloud and has a discontinuous, island-like, distribution. It is diverse, rich in endemic species, and likely to be sensitive to climate change. Six 1-ha sampling plots were established across the main distribution area of the upper montane evergreen broad-leaved forest in Yunnan. All trees with d.b.h.>1 cm in each plot were identified. Patterns of seed plant distributions were quantified at the specific, generic and family levels. The forests are dominated by the families Fagaceae, Lauraceae, Theaceae and Magnoliaceae, but are very diverse with only a few species shared between sites. Floristic similarities at the family and generic level were high, but they were low at the specific level, with species complementarity between plots. Diversity varied greatly among sites, with greater species richness and more rare species in western Yunnan than central Yunnan. The flora is dominated by tropical biogeographical elements, mainly the pantropic and the tropical Asian distributions at the family and genus levels. In contrast, at the species level, the flora is dominated by the southwest or the southeast China distributions, including Yunnan endemics. This suggests that the flora of the upper montane forest in Yunnan could have a tropical floristic origin, and has adapted to cooler temperatures with the uplift of the Himalayas. Due to great sensitivity to climate, high endemism and species complementarity, as well as the discontinuous, island-like, distribution patterns of the upper montane forest in Yunnan, the regional conservation of the forest is especially needed.

A Comparison of the Pitfall Trap, Winkler Extractor and Berlese Funnel for Sampling Ground-Dwelling Arthropods in Tropical Montane Cloud Forests

Science.gov (United States)

Sabu, Thomas K.; Shiju, Raj T.; Vinod, KV.; Nithya, S.

2011-01-01

Little is known about the ground-dwelling arthropod diversity in tropical montane cloud forests (TMCF). Due to unique habitat conditions in TMCFs with continuously wet substrates and a waterlogged forest floor along with the innate biases of the pitfall trap, Berlese funnel and Winkler extractor are certain to make it difficult to choose the most appropriate method to sample the ground-dwelling arthropods in TMCFs. Among the three methods, the Winkler extractor was the most efficient method for quantitative data and pitfall trapping for qualitative data for most groups. Inclusion of floatation method as a complementary method along with the Winkler extractor would enable a comprehensive quantitative survey of ground-dwelling arthropods. Pitfall trapping is essential for both quantitative and qualitative sampling of Diplopoda, Opiliones, Orthoptera, and Diptera. The Winkler extractor was the best quantitative method for Psocoptera, Araneae, Isopoda, and Formicidae; and the Berlese funnel was best for Collembola and Chilopoda. For larval forms of different insect orders and the Acari, all the three methods were equally effective. PMID:21529148

Quantitative Measures of Immersion in Cloud and the Biogeography of Cloud Forests

Science.gov (United States)

Lawton, R. O.; Nair, U. S.; Ray, D.; Regmi, A.; Pounds, J. A.; Welch, R. M.

2010-01-01

Sites described as tropical montane cloud forests differ greatly, in part because observers tend to differ in their opinion as to what constitutes frequent and prolonged immersion in cloud. This definitional difficulty interferes with hydrologic analyses, assessments of environmental impacts on ecosystems, and biogeographical analyses of cloud forest communities and species. Quantitative measurements of cloud immersion can be obtained on site, but the observations are necessarily spatially limited, although well-placed observers can examine 10 50 km of a mountain range under rainless conditions. Regional analyses, however, require observations at a broader scale. This chapter discusses remote sensing and modeling approaches that can provide quantitative measures of the spatiotemporal patterns of cloud cover and cloud immersion in tropical mountain ranges. These approaches integrate remote sensing tools of various spatial resolutions and frequencies of observation, digital elevation models, regional atmospheric models, and ground-based observations to provide measures of cloud cover, cloud base height, and the intersection of cloud and terrain. This combined approach was applied to the Monteverde region of northern Costa Rica to illustrate how the proportion of time the forest is immersed in cloud may vary spatially and temporally. The observed spatial variation was largely due to patterns of airflow over the mountains. The temporal variation reflected the diurnal rise and fall of the orographic cloud base, which was influenced in turn by synoptic weather conditions, the seasonal movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and the north-easterly trade winds. Knowledge of the proportion of the time that sites are immersed in clouds should facilitate ecological comparisons and biogeographical analyses, as well as land use planning and hydrologic assessments in areas where intensive on-site work is not feasible.

The montane forest associated amphibian species of the Taita Hills ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The montane forest associated amphibian species of the Taita Hills, Kenya. ... They are surrounded by the dry Tsavo plains. ... The biodiversity importance of the Taita Hills lies with the number of endemics per unit of area of remaining forest, ...

Fog in a marginal agricultural area surrounded by montane Andean cloud forest during El Niño climate

Science.gov (United States)

García-Santos, G.

2010-07-01

The aim of the present study was to evaluate temporal variations of water inputs, rainfall and fog (cloud water), and its contribution to the water balance in a marginal agricultural area of potato surrounded by tropical montane cloud forest in Colombia. Fog in the air boundary layer was estimated using a cylindrical fog collector. Liquid water content of fog events were evaluated before and during natural climate event of El Niño. Our study shows the temporal variation of these two water inputs in both daily and monthly cycles on Boyacá at 2900 m a.s.l. Rainfall was the most frequently observed atmospheric phenomenon, being present on average 62% of the days per year, whereas fog was 45% of the time. Reflected on the lower frequency, annual amount of fog was 11% of precipitation. However during the anomalous dry climate of El Niño, total amount of rainfall was negligible and the few fog events were the only water source for plant growth. Estimated water crop requirements were higher than the water inputs. The survival of the crops was explained by meteorological conditions during dew and fog events. High relative humidity might have eased the plant’s water stress by decreasing transpiration and temperature in leaves and soil, affecting the water balance and the heat exchange between the atmosphere-land interfaces in the marginal agricultural areas during exceptional dry climate.

Effects of tropical montane forest disturbance on epiphytic macrolichens

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benítez, Ángel; Prieto, María; González, Yadira; Aragón, Gregorio

2012-01-01

The high diversity of epiphytes typical of undisturbed montane tropical forests has been negatively affected by continuous deforestation and forest conversion to secondary vegetation. Macrolichens are an important component of these epiphytes. Because their physiology is strongly coupled to humidity and solar radiation, we hypothesized that microclimatic changes derived from forest clearing and logging can affect the diversity of these poikilohydric organisms. In southern Ecuador, we examined three types of forests according to a disturbance gradient (primary forests, secondary forests, and monospecific forests of Alnus acuminata) for the presence/absence and coverage of epiphytic macrolichens that we identified on 240 trees. We found that total richness tended to decrease when the range of the disturbance increased. The impoverishment was particularly drastic for “shade-adapted lichens”, while the richness of “heliophytic lichens” increased in the drier conditions of secondary growth. Epiphytic composition also differed significantly among the three types of forests, and the similarity decreased when the range of the disturbance was greater. We concluded that a span of 40 years of recovery by secondary vegetation was not enough to regenerate the diversity of epiphytic macrolichens that was lost due to forest disturbances. -- Highlights: ► Tropical montane forest disturbance drastically reduced macrolichen diversity. ► Species loss was most severe for the “shade-adapted lichens” because high radiation is harmful to them. ► In secondary forests lichen diversity of native forests was not regenerated. ► The protection of remnants of primary tropical forest might help to preserve a diverse community of epiphytic macrolichens.

Foggy days and dry nights determine crown-level water balance in a seasonal tropical Montane cloud forest.

Science.gov (United States)

Gotsch, Sybil G; Asbjornsen, Heidi; Holwerda, Friso; Goldsmith, Gregory R; Weintraub, Alexis E; Dawson, Todd E

2014-01-01

The ecophysiology of tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) trees is influenced by crown-level microclimate factors including regular mist/fog water inputs, and large variations in evaporative demand, which in turn can significantly impact water balance. We investigated the effect of such microclimatic factors on canopy ecophysiology and branch-level water balance in the dry season of a seasonal TMCF in Veracruz, Mexico, by quantifying both water inputs (via foliar uptake, FU) and outputs (day- and night-time transpiration, NT). Measurements of sap flow, stomatal conductance, leaf water potential and pressure-volume relations were obtained in Quercus lanceifolia, a canopy-dominant tree species. Our results indicate that FU occurred 34% of the time and led to the recovery of 9% (24 ± 9.1 L) of all the dry-season water transpired from individual branches. Capacity for FU was independently verified for seven additional common tree species. NT accounted for approximately 17% (46 L) of dry-season water loss. There was a strong correlation between FU and the duration of leaf wetness events (fog and/or rain), as well as between NT and the night-time vapour pressure deficit. Our results show the clear importance of fog and NT for the canopy water relations of Q. lanceifolia. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Unveiling the Hidden Bat Diversity of a Neotropical Montane Forest.

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Gloriana Chaverri

Full Text Available Mountain environments, characterized by high levels of endemism, are at risk of experiencing significant biodiversity loss due to current trends in global warming. While many acknowledge their importance and vulnerability, these ecosystems still remain poorly studied, particularly for taxa that are difficult to sample such as bats. Aiming to estimate the amount of cryptic diversity among bats of a Neotropical montane cloud forest in Talamanca Range-south-east Central America-, we performed a 15-night sampling campaign, which resulted in 90 captured bats belonging to 8 species. We sequenced their mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI and screened their inter- and intraspecific genetic variation. Phylogenetic relations with conspecifics and closely related species from other geographic regions were established using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian inference methods, as well as median-joining haplotype networks. Mitochondrial lineages highly divergent from hitherto characterized populations (> 9% COI dissimilarity were found in Myotis oxyotus and Hylonycteris underwoodi. Sturnira burtonlimi and M. keaysi also showed distinct mitochondrial structure with sibling species and/or populations. These results suggest that mountains in the region hold a high degree of endemicity potential that has previously been ignored in bats. They also warn of the high extinction risk montane bats may be facing due to climatic change, particularly in isolated mountain systems like Talamanca Range.

Effects of tropical montane forest disturbance on epiphytic macrolichens

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Benitez, Angel [Instituto de Ecologia, Herbario HUTPL, Universidad Tecnica Particular de Loja, San Cayetano s/n, Loja (Ecuador); Prieto, Maria, E-mail: maria.prieto@urjc.es [Area de Biodiversidad y Conservacion, ESCET, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Mostoles, E-28933, Madrid (Spain); Gonzalez, Yadira [Instituto de Ecologia, Herbario HUTPL, Universidad Tecnica Particular de Loja, San Cayetano s/n, Loja (Ecuador); Aragon, Gregorio [Area de Biodiversidad y Conservacion, ESCET, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Mostoles, E-28933, Madrid (Spain)

2012-12-15

The high diversity of epiphytes typical of undisturbed montane tropical forests has been negatively affected by continuous deforestation and forest conversion to secondary vegetation. Macrolichens are an important component of these epiphytes. Because their physiology is strongly coupled to humidity and solar radiation, we hypothesized that microclimatic changes derived from forest clearing and logging can affect the diversity of these poikilohydric organisms. In southern Ecuador, we examined three types of forests according to a disturbance gradient (primary forests, secondary forests, and monospecific forests of Alnus acuminata) for the presence/absence and coverage of epiphytic macrolichens that we identified on 240 trees. We found that total richness tended to decrease when the range of the disturbance increased. The impoverishment was particularly drastic for 'shade-adapted lichens', while the richness of 'heliophytic lichens' increased in the drier conditions of secondary growth. Epiphytic composition also differed significantly among the three types of forests, and the similarity decreased when the range of the disturbance was greater. We concluded that a span of 40 years of recovery by secondary vegetation was not enough to regenerate the diversity of epiphytic macrolichens that was lost due to forest disturbances. -- Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Tropical montane forest disturbance drastically reduced macrolichen diversity. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Species loss was most severe for the 'shade-adapted lichens' because high radiation is harmful to them. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer In secondary forests lichen diversity of native forests was not regenerated. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The protection of remnants of primary tropical forest might help to preserve a diverse community of epiphytic macrolichens.

Rainfall, fog and throughfall dynamics in a sub-tropical ridge-top cloud forest, National Park of Garajonay (La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

García-Santos, G.; Bruijnzeel, L.A.

2011-01-01

Mixed tree-heath/beech forest is a type of subtropical montane cloud forest found on wind- and fog-exposed ridges in the Canary Islands. With a dry season of 5 months and an annual precipitation of 600-700 mm, the extra water inputs through fog interception assume particular importance in this

Species turnover in tropical montane forest avifauna links to climatic correlates

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Chi-Feng Tsai

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We examined avifauna richness and composition in Taiwan’s tropical montane forests, and compared to historical records dated 22 years ago. A richness attrition of 44 species caused a discrepancy of 30.2%, and an estimated yearly turnover of 2.2%. More resident species that were narrower or lower in elevation distribution, insectivores/omnivores, small to medium-sized, forest/open-field dwelling, and canopy/ground foragers, vanished; whereas piscivores, carnivores, riparian- and shrub-dwellers, ground and mid-layer foragers, and migrants suffered by higher proportions. Occurrence frequencies of persistent species remained constant but varied among ecological groups, indicating an increased homogeneity for smaller-sized insectivores/omnivores dwelling in the forest canopy, shrub, or understory. While the overall annual temperature slightly increased, a relatively stable mean temperature was replaced by an ascending trend from the mid-1990s until 2002, followed by a cooling down. Mean maximum temperatures increased but minimums decreased gradually over years, resulting in increasing temperature differences up to over 16 °C. This accompanied an increase of extreme typhoons affecting Taiwan or directly striking these montane forests during the last decade. These results, given no direct human disturbances were noted, suggest a link between the species turnover and recent climate change, and convey warning signs of conservation concerns for tropical montane assemblages.

The carbon fluxes in different successional stages: modelling the dynamics of tropical montane forests in South Ecuador

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Sebastian Paulick

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Background Tropical forests play an important role in the global carbon (C cycle. However, tropical montane forests have been studied less than tropical lowland forests, and their role in carbon storage is not well understood. Montane forests are highly endangered due to logging, land-use and climate change. Our objective was to analyse how the carbon balance changes during forest succession. Methods In this study, we used a method to estimate local carbon balances that combined forest inventory data with process-based forest models. We utilised such a forest model to study the carbon balance of a tropical montane forest in South Ecuador, comparing two topographical slope positions (ravines and lower slopes vs upper slopes and ridges. Results The simulation results showed that the forest acts as a carbon sink with a maximum net ecosystem exchange (NEE of 9.3 Mg C∙(ha∙yr−1 during its early successional stage (0–100 years. In the late successional stage, the simulated NEE fluctuated around zero and had a variation of 0.77 Mg C∙(ha∙yr –1. The simulated variability of the NEE was within the range of the field data. We discovered several forest attributes (e.g., basal area or the relative amount of pioneer trees that can serve as predictors for NEE for young forest stands (0–100 years but not for those in the late successional stage (500–1,000 years. In case of young forest stands these correlations are high, especially between stand basal area and NEE. Conclusion In this study, we used an Ecuadorian study site as an example of how to successfully link a forest model with forest inventory data, for estimating stem-diameter distributions, biomass and aboveground net primary productivity. To conclude, this study shows that process-based forest models can be used to investigate the carbon balance of tropical montane forests. With this model it is possible to find hidden relationships between forest attributes and forest carbon fluxes

Characteristics of fog and fogwater fluxes in a Puerto Rican elfin cloud

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Eugster, W.; Burkard, R.; Holwerda, F.; Scatena, F.N.; Bruijnzeel, L.A.

2006-01-01

The Luquillo Mountains of northeastern Puerto Rico harbours important fractions of tropical montane cloud forests. Although it is well known that the frequent occurrence of dense fog is a common climatic characteristic of cloud forests around the world, it is poorly understood how fog processes

Historical, observed, and modeled wildfire severity in montane forests of the Colorado Front Range.

Science.gov (United States)

Sherriff, Rosemary L; Platt, Rutherford V; Veblen, Thomas T; Schoennagel, Tania L; Gartner, Meredith H

2014-01-01

Large recent fires in the western U.S. have contributed to a perception that fire exclusion has caused an unprecedented occurrence of uncharacteristically severe fires, particularly in lower elevation dry pine forests. In the absence of long-term fire severity records, it is unknown how short-term trends compare to fire severity prior to 20th century fire exclusion. This study compares historical (i.e. pre-1920) fire severity with observed modern fire severity and modeled potential fire behavior across 564,413 ha of montane forests of the Colorado Front Range. We used forest structure and tree-ring fire history to characterize fire severity at 232 sites and then modeled historical fire-severity across the entire study area using biophysical variables. Eighteen (7.8%) sites were characterized by low-severity fires and 214 (92.2%) by mixed-severity fires (i.e. including moderate- or high-severity fires). Difference in area of historical versus observed low-severity fire within nine recent (post-1999) large fire perimeters was greatest in lower montane forests. Only 16% of the study area recorded a shift from historical low severity to a higher potential for crown fire today. An historical fire regime of more frequent and low-severity fires at low elevations (historically and continue to be so today. Thinning treatments at higher elevations of the montane zone will not return the fire regime to an historic low-severity regime, and are of questionable effectiveness in preventing severe wildfires. Based on present-day fuels, predicted fire behavior under extreme fire weather continues to indicate a mixed-severity fire regime throughout most of the montane forest zone. Recent large wildfires in the Front Range are not fundamentally different from similar events that occurred historically under extreme weather conditions.

Geographic, environmental and biotic sources of variation in the nutrient relations of tropical montane forests

Science.gov (United States)

James W. Dalling; Katherine Heineman; Grizelle Gonzalez; Rebecca Ostertag

2016-01-01

Tropicalmontane forests (TMF) are associated with a widely observed suite of characteristics encompassing forest structure, plant traits and biogeochemistry.With respect to nutrient relations, montane forests are characterized by slow decomposition of organic matter, high investment in below-ground biomass and poor litter quality, relative to tropical lowland forests....

Diversity and habitat differentiation of mosses and liverworts in the cloud forest of. Monteverde, Costa Rica

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Gradstein S. Rob

2001-07-01

Full Text Available An inventory of the understory and canopy of 4 ha oflower montane cloud forest at Monteverde, Costa Rica, yielded 190 bryophyte species: 133 hepatics, 56 mosses and 1 homwort. Thick branches of the lower canopy were by far the richest habitat in terms of number of species (99, trunks from 1m upwards had 65 species, lianas, shrubs, saplings, or living leaves in the understory had about 36-46 species each, and 16 species were found on rotten logs. The figures are illustrative of the great diversification of microhabitats of bryophytes in a tropical montane cloud forest. About 36% ofthe species, including more than half ofthe corticolous ones, occurred exclusively in the canopy. It appeared thatthe percentage ofbryophyte species restricted to the canopy may be the same in lowland and montane rain forests, in spite of the great differences in species abundance and composition in the two kinds of forest.  Ciento noventa especies de briofitas (133 hepáticas, 56 musgos, 1 antocerote fueron encontradas en un inventario hecho en 4 hectáreas del sotobosque y el dosel en el bosque nublado (1500 m de Monteverde, Costa Rica. Las ramas gruesas del dosel fueron la porción más rica en termino de numero de especies (99, en troncos había 65 especies, lianas, arbustos, árboles juveniles o hojas vivas en el sotobosque tenían entre 36-46 especies cada una, y 16 especies fueron encontradas en troncos en descomposición. Las cifras ilustran la gran diversidad de microhabitats de briofitas en el bosque nublado. Cerca de 36% de las especies, incluyendo mas de la mitad de los corticolos, se presentaron exclusivamente en el dosel. Parece que el porcentaje de especies de briofitas restringidas al dosel podría ser el mismo en bosques de tierras bajas y en bosques nublados, a pesar de la gran diferencia en abundancia y composición taxonómica de las briofitas en las dos clases de bosque.

Snowpack, fire, and forest disturbance: interactions affect montane invasions by non-native shrubs.

Science.gov (United States)

Stevens, Jens T; Latimer, Andrew M

2015-06-01

Montane regions worldwide have experienced relatively low plant invasion rates, a trend attributed to increased climatic severity, low rates of disturbance, and reduced propagule pressure relative to lowlands. Manipulative experiments at elevations above the invasive range of non-native species can clarify the relative contributions of these mechanisms to montane invasion resistance, yet such experiments are rare. Furthermore, global climate change and land use changes are expected to cause decreases in snowpack and increases in disturbance by fire and forest thinning in montane forests. We examined the importance of these factors in limiting montane invasions using a field transplant experiment above the invasive range of two non-native lowland shrubs, Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) and Spanish broom (Spartium junceum), in the rain-snow transition zone of the Sierra Nevada of California. We tested the effects of canopy closure, prescribed fire, and winter snow depth on demographic transitions of each species. Establishment of both species was most likely at intermediate levels of canopy disturbance, but at this intermediate canopy level, snow depth had negative effects on winter survival of seedlings. We used matrix population models to show that an 86% reduction in winter snowfall would cause a 2.8-fold increase in population growth rates in Scotch broom and a 3.5-fold increase in Spanish broom. Fall prescribed fire increased germination rates, but decreased overall population growth rates by reducing plant survival. However, at longer fire return intervals, population recovery between fires is likely to keep growth rates high, especially under low snowpack conditions. Many treatment combinations had positive growth rates despite being above the current invasive range, indicating that propagule pressure, disturbance, and climate can all strongly affect plant invasions in montane regions. We conclude that projected reductions in winter snowpack and increases in

Habitat preferences of birds in a montane forest mosaic in the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Endemic species are most closely dependent on continuous forest cover. However, some montane species did not show any clear habitat associations and thus can be viewed as local habitat generalists. This study shows that many restricted-range species (including endangered endemics) are able to live in fragmented ...

Carbon budget of Nyungwe Tropical Montane Rain Forest in Central Africa

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Nyirambangutse, B.; Zibera, E.; Uwizeye, F. K.; Hansson, L.; Nsabimana, D.; Pleijel, H.; Uddling, J.; Wallin, G.

2015-12-01

African tropical rainforests host rich biodiversity and play many roles at different scales such as local, regional and global, in the functioning of the earth system. Despite that the African tropical forests are the world's second largest, it has been neglected in terms of understanding the storage and fluxes of carbon and other nutrients. The question of whether this biome is a net sink or source of atmospheric CO2 is still not answered, and little is known concerning the climate change response. Tropical montane forests are even more poorly sampled compared with their importance. Deeper understanding of these ecosystems is required to provide insights on how they might react under global change. To answer questions related to these issues for African tropical montane forests, 15 permanent 0.5 ha plots were established in 2011 in Nyungwe tropical montane rainforest gazetted as a National Park to protect its extensive floral and faunal diversity. The plots are arranged along an east-westerly transect and includes both primary and secondary forest communities. The study is connected to the global ecosystem monitoring network (GEM, http://gem.tropicalforests.ox.ac.uk/). The aim is to characterize spatial and temporal heterogeneity of carbon and nutrient dynamics processes. The role of microclimate, topography, human disturbances, and plant species to the variability of these pools and processes will be explored. We compare stocks and fluxes of carbon and nutrients of the secondary and primary forest communities. The carbon stock are determined by an inventory of height and diameter at breast height (dbh) of all trees with a dbh above 5 cm, wood density, biomass of understory vegetation, leaf area index, standing and fallen dead wood, fine root biomass and organic content of various soil layers (litter, organic and mineral soil down to 45 cm depth). The carbon fluxes are determined by measurements of photosynthesis and respiration of leaves, above and below ground

The role of frugivorous birds and bats in the colonization of cloud forest plant species in burned areas in western Mexico

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Rost, J.

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The extension of montane cloud forests in western Mexico is threatened by several disturbances that limit their extension. In this study we aim to assess the contribution of birds and bats in the dispersal and colonization of cloud–forest plants in contiguous surface–burned pine forests. We sampled seed rain and sapling establishment over one year in two surface–burned sites, which differed in the size of their closest cloud forest patch. A total of 17 plant species were found, most of which were late–successional trees, shrubs and climbers. Distance influenced the seed rain of only one dispersed taxon (Solanum sp. and had no effect on the sapling distribution of this or other plants. In turn, marked differences were found between sites, with more seeds dispersed and higher sapling density in the site that was next to the larger cloud forest patch. The role of long–distance dispersers and the existence of seed banks before fire could explain the little importance of distance from seed source on seed dispersal and sapling distribution. Nevertheless, dispersal by birds and bats before or after fire facilitates the regeneration and conservation of cloud forests in disturbed areas formerly occupied by other habitats.

Influences of climate on fire regimes in montane forests of north-western Mexico

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Carl N. Skinner; Jack H. Burk; Michael G. Barbour; Ernesto Franco-Vizcaino; Scott L. Stephens

2008-01-01

Aim To identify the influence of interannual and interdecadal climate variation on the occurrence and extent of fires in montane conifer forests of north-western Mexico. Location This study was conducted in Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi Grev. & Balf.)- dominated mixed-conifer...

Long-term fragmentation effects on the distribution and dynamics of canopy gaps in a tropical montane forest

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Nicholas R. Vaughn; Gregory P. Asner; Christian P. Giardina

2015-01-01

Fragmentation alters forest canopy structure through various mechanisms, which in turn drive subsequent changes to biogeochemical processes and biological diversity. Using repeated airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) mappings, we investigated the size distribution and dynamics of forest canopy gaps across a topical montane forest landscape in Hawaii naturally...

Phytossociology of wood community in Seasonal Dry Montane Forest in Paraiba, Brazil

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Maria do Carmo Learth Cunha

2013-06-01

Full Text Available The Pico do Jabre Seasonally Dry Montane Forest in Paraiba state, Brazil, the highest regional elevation, 1197 m, distant 360 km the sea was assessed aiming to survey its phytosociology and woody structure. In 36 systematic sampling plots, 10x50m, individuals, Dbh > 4.8cm, had their diameters and height measured. Botanical samples were collected during five years and vouchers were deposited at the Paraiba Federal University Herbaria (JPB. It was found 2050 trees distributed in 64 species of 51 genera of 31 families, which accounted for 1138 ind.ha-1 and 22.45 m2.ha -1. Diversity and equability were assessed as H' = 3.17 nats.ind-1 and J' = 0.76 similar to some others regional seasonally dry montane forest communities. Malpighiaceae, Myrtaceae, Erythroxylaceae, Vochysiaceae, Celastraceae, Rutaceae, Sapindaceae e Fabaceae-Faboideae stood out and summed 66.72% of the total VI. Byrsonima nitidifolia, Eugenia ligustrina, Calisthene microphylla, Maytenus distichophylla and Erythroxylum mucronatum species accounted for 120.79 (40.3% of the total VI. B. nitidifolia ecological dominance is firstly reported in the Brazilian northeast region.

[Distribution characteristics of heavy metals along an elevation gradient of montane forest].

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Wan, Jia-rong; Nie, Ming; Zou, Qin; Hu, Shao-chang; Chen, Jia-kuan

2011-12-01

In the present paper, the concentrations of fourteen heavy metals (Fe, Al, Ti, Cu, Cr, Mn, V, Zn, Ni, Co, Pb, Se, Cd and As) were determined by ICP-AES and atomic absorption spectroscopy along an elevation gradient of montane forest. The results show that the elevation gradient had significant effects on the concentrations of Fe, Al, Ti, V, Pb and As. And the concentrations of Cu, Cr, Mn, Zn, Ni, Co, Se and Cd were not significantly affected by the elevation gradient. Because the studying area is red soil, the elevation gradient had significant effects on the concentrations of Fe, Al and Ti which are characteristic heavy metals of red soil, suggesting that the red soil at different elevations has different intensities of weathering desilication and bioaccumulation. Other heavy metals have different relationships with the elevation gradient, such as the concentrations of Cr, Zn and Cd were high at relatively high elevation and Pb and As were high at relatively low elevation. These results suggest that the different elevations of montane forest soils were polluted by differently types of heavy metals.

Instream wood loads in montane forest streams of the Colorado Front Range, USA

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Jackson, Karen J.; Wohl, Ellen

2015-04-01

Although several studies examine instream wood loads and associated geomorphic effects in streams of subalpine forests in the U.S. Southern Rocky Mountains, little is known of instream wood loads in lower elevation, montane forests of the region. We compare instream wood loads and geomorphic effects between streams draining montane forest stands of differing age (old growth versus younger) and disturbance history (healthy versus infested by mountain pine beetles). We examined forest stand characteristics, instream wood load, channel geometry, pool volume, and sediment storage in 33 pool-riffle or plane-bed stream reaches with objectives of determining whether (i) instream wood and geomorphic effects differed significantly among old-growth, younger, healthy, and beetle-infested forest stands and (ii) wood loads correlated with valley and channel characteristics. Wood loads were standardized to drainage area, stream gradient, reach length, bankfull width, and floodplain area. Streams flowing through old-growth forests had significantly larger wood loads and logjam volumes (pairwise t-tests), as well as logjam frequencies (Kruskal-Wallis test), residual pool volume, and fine sediment storage around wood than streams flowing through younger forests. Wood loads in streams draining beetle-infested forest did not differ significantly from those in healthy forest stands, but best subset regression models indicated that elevation, stand age, and beetle infestation were the best predictors of wood loads in channels and on floodplains, suggesting that beetle infestation is affecting instream wood characteristics. Wood loads are larger than values from subalpine streams in the same region and jams are larger and more closely spaced. We interpret these differences to reflect greater wood piece mobility in subalpine zone streams. Stand age appears to exert the dominant influence on instream wood characteristics within pool-riffle streams in the study area rather than beetle

Birds, Montane forest, State of Rio de Janeiro, Southeastern Brazil

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Foster, A.

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Field surveys in montane Atlantic forest of Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, provided a list of 82 bird species in four sitesvisited. Our protocol relied on standardized use of mist nets and observations. The birds recorded include 40 Atlanticforest endemics, three globally and two nationally Vulnerable species, and two regionally Endangered species. Data onspecies elevation are included and discussed. This work enhances baseline knowledge of these species to assist futurestudies in these poorly understood, but biologically important areas.

Topographic and spatial controls of palm species distributions in a montane rain forest, southern Ecuador

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svenning, J.-C.; Harlev, D.; Sørensen, M.M.

2009-01-01

The northern Andes harbour a flora that is as species-rich or even richer than the 18-times larger lowland Amazon basin. Gaining an understanding of how the high species richness of the Andean region is generated and maintained is therefore of particular interest. Environmental sorting due......). Mantel tests and indicator species analysis showed that both topography and spatial location imposed strong controls on palm species distributions at the study site. Our results suggest that species distributions in the studied montane forest landscape were partly determined by the species' habitat...... distributions at the study site. Other factors must also be involved, notably wind-exposure and hydrology, as discussed for lowland palm communities. Our results show that to understand plant community assembly in the tropical montane forests of the Andes it is too simple to focus just on environmental sorting...

Leaf litter decomposition rates increase with rising mean annual temperature in Hawaiian tropical montane wet forests

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Lori D. Bothwell

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Decomposing litter in forest ecosystems supplies nutrients to plants, carbon to heterotrophic soil microorganisms and is a large source of CO2 to the atmosphere. Despite its essential role in carbon and nutrient cycling, the temperature sensitivity of leaf litter decay in tropical forest ecosystems remains poorly resolved, especially in tropical montane wet forests where the warming trend may be amplified compared to tropical wet forests at lower elevations. We quantified leaf litter decomposition rates along a highly constrained 5.2 °C mean annual temperature (MAT gradient in tropical montane wet forests on the Island of Hawaii. Dominant vegetation, substrate type and age, soil moisture, and disturbance history are all nearly constant across this gradient, allowing us to isolate the effect of rising MAT on leaf litter decomposition and nutrient release. Leaf litter decomposition rates were a positive linear function of MAT, causing the residence time of leaf litter on the forest floor to decline by ∼31 days for each 1 °C increase in MAT. Our estimate of the Q10 temperature coefficient for leaf litter decomposition was 2.17, within the commonly reported range for heterotrophic organic matter decomposition (1.5–2.5 across a broad range of ecosystems. The percentage of leaf litter nitrogen (N remaining after six months declined linearly with increasing MAT from ∼88% of initial N at the coolest site to ∼74% at the warmest site. The lack of net N immobilization during all three litter collection periods at all MAT plots indicates that N was not limiting to leaf litter decomposition, regardless of temperature. These results suggest that leaf litter decay in tropical montane wet forests may be more sensitive to rising MAT than in tropical lowland wet forests, and that increased rates of N release from decomposing litter could delay or prevent progressive N limitation to net primary productivity with climate warming.

Culvert flow in small drainages in montane tropical forests: observations from the Luquillo Experimental Forest of Puerto Rico.

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F. N. Scatena

1990-01-01

This paper describe the hydraulics of unsubmerged flow for 5 culverts in the Luiquillo Esperimental Forest of Puerto Rico. A General equation based on empirical data is presented to estimate culvert discharge during unsubmerged conditions. Large culverts are needed in humid tropical montane areas than in humid temperatute watersheds and are usually appropriate only...

Water relations and gas exchange of fan bryophytes and their adaptations to microhabitats in an Asian subtropical montane cloud forest.

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Song, Liang; Zhang, Yong-Jiang; Chen, Xi; Li, Su; Lu, Hua-Zheng; Wu, Chuan-Sheng; Tan, Zheng-Hong; Liu, Wen-Yao; Shi, Xian-Meng

2015-07-01

Fan life forms are bryophytes with shoots rising from vertical substratum that branch repeatedly in the horizontal plane to form flattened photosynthetic surfaces, which are well suited for intercepting water from moving air. However, detailed water relations, gas exchange characteristics of fan bryophytes and their adaptations to particular microhabitats remain poorly understood. In this study, we measured and analyzed microclimatic data, as well as water release curves, pressure-volume relationships and photosynthetic water and light response curves for three common fan bryophytes in an Asian subtropical montane cloud forest (SMCF). Results demonstrate high relative humidity but low light levels and temperatures in the understory, and a strong effect of fog on water availability for bryophytes in the SMCF. The facts that fan bryophytes in dry air lose most of their free water within 1 h, and a strong dependence of net photosynthesis rates on water content, imply that the transition from a hydrated, photosynthetically active state to a dry, inactive state is rapid. In addition, fan bryophytes developed relatively high cell wall elasticity and the osmoregulatory capacity to tolerate desiccation. These fan bryophytes had low light saturation and compensation point of photosynthesis, indicating shade tolerance. It is likely that fan bryophytes can flourish on tree trunks in the SMCF because of substantial annual precipitation, average relative humidity, and frequent and persistent fog, which can provide continual water sources for them to intercept. Nevertheless, the low water retention capacity and strong dependence of net photosynthesis on water content of fan bryophytes indicate a high risk of unbalanced carbon budget if the frequency and severity of drought increase in the future as predicted.

Fagus dominance in Chinese montane forests : natural regeneration of Fagus lucida and Fagus hayatae var. pashanica

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cao, K.F.

1995-01-01

Fagus species are important components of certain mesic temperate forests in the Northern Hemisphere. Of eleven Fagus species distinguished, five are found in China. Chinese beeches are restricted to the mountains of southern China. In the montane

Influence of hiking trails on montane birds

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William V. Deluca; David I. King

2014-01-01

Montane forests contribute significantly to regional biodiversity. Long-term monitoring data, often located along hiking trails, suggests that several indicator species of this ecosystem have declined in recent decades. Declining montane bird populations have been attributed to anthropogenic stressors such as climate change and atmospheric deposition. Several studies...

Do Reductions in Dry Season Transpiration Allow Shallow Soil Water Uptake to Persist in a Tropical Lower Montane Cloud Forest?

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Munoz Villers, L. E.; Holwerda, F.; Alvarado-Barrientos, M. S.; Goldsmith, G. R.; Geissert Kientz, D. R.; González Martínez, T. M.; Dawson, T. E.

2016-12-01

Tropical montane cloud forests (TMCF) are ecosystems particularly sensitive to climate change; however, the effects of warmer and drier conditions on TMCF water cycling remain poorly understood. To investigate the plant functional response to reduced water availability, we conducted a study during the mid to late dry season (2014) in the lower limit (1,325 m asl) of the TMCF belt (1200-2500 m asl) in central Veracruz, Mexico. The temporal variation of transpiration rates of dominant upper canopy and mid-story tree species, depth of water uptake, as well as tree water sources were examined using micrometeorological, sapflow and soil moisture measurements, in combination with data on stable isotope (δ18O and δ2H) composition of rain, tree xylem, soil (bulk and low suction-lysimeter) and stream water. The sapflow data suggest that crown conductances decreased as temperature and vapor pressure deficit increased, and soil moisture decreased from the mid to late dry season. Across all samplings (January 21, April 12 and 26), upper canopy species (Quercus spp.) showed more depleted (negative) isotope values compared to mid-story trees (Carpinus tropicalis). Overall, we found that the evaporated soil water pool was the main source for the trees. Furthermore, our MixSIAR Bayesian mixing model results showed that the depth of tree water uptake changed over the course of the dry season. Unexpectedly, a shift in water uptake from deeper (60-120 cm depth) to shallower soil water (0-30 cm) sources was observed, coinciding with the decreases in transpiration rates towards the end of the dry season. A larger reduction in deep soil water contributions was observed for upper canopy trees (from 70±14 to 22±15%) than for mid-story species (from 10±13 to 7±10%). The use of shallow soil water by trees during the dry season seems consistent with the greater root biomass and higher macronutrient concentrations found in the first 10 cm of the soil profiles. These findings are an

Agaricomycetes in low land and montane Atlantic Rain Forest in Northeast Brazil

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Tatiana Gibertoni

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The Atlantic Rain Forest represents a group of extra-amazonic forests, among which the coastal and montane (“brejos de altitude” are the most common in Northeast Brazil. Between 2011 and 2013, 110 field trips were performed in nine reserves in the domain of the Atlantic Rain Forest. Two thousand two hundred sixty three Agaricomycetes were collected and represented 271 species, among which several new species to science, new occurrences to the continent, country, region, biome and States were found. Besides recently collected material, 309 exsiccates of Agaricomycetes deposited in the Herbarium URM were revised and represented 38 species, among which several new occurrences to the region and States. The results indicate the importance of the constant inventories and also of revisions of material deposited in herbaria as tools to improve the knowledge about the Brazilian micota.

Complex Spatial Structure in a Population of Didymopanax pittieri, A Tree of Wind-Exposed Lower Montane Rain Forest

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Lawton, Robert M.; Lawton, Robert O.

2010-01-01

Didymopanax pittieri is a common shade-intolerant tree colonizing treefall gaps in the elfin forests on windswept ridgecrests in the lower montane rain forests of the Cordillera de Tilarain, Costa Rica. All D. pittieri taller than > 0.5 m in a 5.2-ha elfin forested portion of a gridded study watershed in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve were located, mapped, and measured. This local population of D. pittieri is spatially inhomogeneous, in that density increases with increasing wind exposure; D. pittieri are more abundant near ridge crests than lower on windward slopes. The important and ubiquitous phenomenon of spatial inhomogeneity in population density is addressed and corrected for in spatial analyses by the application of the inhomogeneous version of Ripley's K. The spatial patterns of four size classes of D. pittieri ( 20 cm dbh) were investigated. Within the large-scale trend in density driven by wind exposure, D. pittieri saplings are clumped at the scale of treefall gaps and at the scale of patches of aggregated gaps. D. pittieri 5-10 cm dbh are randomly distributed, apparently due to competitive thinning of sapling clumps during the early stages of gap-phase regeneration. D. pittieri larger than 10 cm dbh are overdispersed at a scale larger than that of patches of gaps. Natural disturbance can influence the distribution of shade intolerant tree populations at several different spatial scales, and can have discordant effects at different life history stages.

Assessment of variations in taxonomic diversity, forest structure, and aboveground biomass using remote sensing along an altitudinal gradient in tropical montane forest of Costa Rica

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Robinson, C. M.; Saatchi, S. S.; Clark, D.; Fricker, G. A.; Wolf, J.; Gillespie, T. W.; Rovzar, C. M.; Andelman, S.

2012-12-01

This research sought to understand how alpha and beta diversity of plants vary and relate to the three-dimensional vegetation structure and aboveground biomass along environmental gradients in the tropical montane forests of Braulio Carrillo National Park in Costa Rica. There is growing evidence that ecosystem structure plays an important role in defining patterns of species diversity and along with abiotic factors (climate and edaphic) control the phenotypic and functional variations across landscapes. It is well documented that strong subdivisions at local and regional scales are found mainly on geologic or climate gradients. These general determinants of biodiversity are best demonstrated in regions with natural gradients such as tropical montane forests. Altitudinal gradients provide a landscape scale changes through variations in topography, climate, and edaphic conditions on which we tested several theoretical and biological hypotheses regarding drivers of biodiversity. The study was performed by using forest inventory and botanical data from nine 1-ha plots ranging from 100 m to 2800 m above sea level and remote sensing data from airborne lidar and radar sensors to quantify variations in forest structure. In this study we report on the effectiveness of relating patterns of tree taxonomic alpha diversity to three-dimensional structure of a tropical montane forest using lidar and radar observations of forest structure and biomass. We assessed alpha and beta diversity at the species, genus, and family levels utilizing datasets provided by the Terrestrial Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network. Through the comparison to active remote sensing imagery, our results show that there is a strong relationship between forest 3D-structure, and alpha and beta diversity controlled by variations in abiotic factors along the altitudinal gradient. Using spatial analysis with the aid of remote sensing data, we find distinct patterns along the environmental gradients

Dawn chorus variation in East-Asian tropical montane forest birds and its ecological and morphological correlates

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chen, W.-M.; Lee, Y.-F.; Tsai, C.-F.; Yao, C.-T.; Chen, Y.-H.; Li, S.-H.; Kuo, Y.-M.

2015-01-01

Many birds in breeding seasons engage in vigorous dawn singing that often turns to a prominent chorus. We examined dawn chorus variation of avian assemblages in a tropical montane forest in Taiwan and tested the hypothesis that onset sequence is affected by eye sizes, foraging heights, and diet of

Seed-deposition and recruitment patterns of Clusia species in a disturbed tropical montane forest in Bolivia

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Saavedra, Francisco; Hensen, Isabell; Apaza Quevedo, Amira; Neuschulz, Eike Lena; Schleuning, Matthias

2017-11-01

Spatial patterns of seed dispersal and recruitment of fleshy-fruited plants in tropical forests are supposed to be driven by the activity of animal seed dispersers, but the spatial patterns of seed dispersal, seedlings and saplings have rarely been analyzed simultaneously. We studied seed deposition and recruitment patterns of three Clusia species in a tropical montane forest of the Bolivian Andes and tested whether these patterns changed between habitat types (forest edge vs. forest interior), distance to the fruiting tree and consecutive recruitment stages of the seedlings. We recorded the number of seeds deposited in seed traps to assess the local seed-deposition pattern and the abundance and distribution of seedlings and saplings to evaluate the spatial pattern of recruitment. More seeds were removed and deposited at the forest edge than in the interior. The number of deposited seeds decreased with distance from the fruiting tree and was spatially clustered in both habitat types. The density of 1-yr-old seedlings and saplings was higher at forest edges, whereas the density of 2-yr-old seedlings was similar in both habitat types. While seedlings were almost randomly distributed, seeds and saplings were spatially clustered in both habitat types. Our findings demonstrate systematic changes in spatial patterns of recruits across the plant regeneration cycle and suggest that the differential effects of biotic and abiotic factors determine plant recruitment at the edges and in the interior of tropical montane forests. These differences in the spatial distribution of individuals across recruitment stages may have strong effects on plant community dynamics and influence plant species coexistence in disturbed tropical forests.

Long-term changes in structure and composition following hurricanes in a primary lower montane rain forest in Puerto Rico

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P.L. Weaver

2013-01-01

Ridges within the lower montane rain forests (sensu Beard) of the Caribbean Basin are dominated by Dacryodes excelsa, a tree species known as tabonuco in Puerto Rico and gommier in the Lesser Antilles. Periodially, hurricanes traverse the islands causing changes in structure, species composition, and dynamics of forests. The chronology of post-hurricane vegetation...

Direct damage to vegetation caused by acid rain and polluted cloud: definition of critical levels for forest trees.

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Cape, J N

1993-01-01

The concept of critical levels was developed in order to define short-term and long-term average concentrations of gaseous pollutants above which plants may be damaged. Although the usual way in which pollutants in precipitation (wet deposition) influence vegetation is by affecting soil processes, plant foliage exposed to fog and cloud, which often contain much greater concentrations of pollutant ions than rain, may be damaged directly. The idea of a critical level has been extended to define concentrations of pollutants in wet deposition above which direct damage to plants is likely. Concentrations of acidity and sulphate measured in mountain and coastal cloud are summarised. Vegetation at risk of injury is identified as montane forest growing close to the cloud base, where ion concentrations are highest. The direct effects of acidic precipitation on trees are reviewed, based on experimental exposure of plants to simulated acidic rain, fog or mist. Although most experiments have reported results in terms of pH (H(+) concentration), the accompanying anion is important, with sulphate being more damaging than nitrate. Both conifers and broadleaved tree seedlings showing subtle changes in the structural characteristics of leaf surfaces after exposure to mist or rain at or about pH 3.5, or sulphate concentration of 150 micromol litre(-1). Visible lesions on leaf surfaces occur at around pH 3 (500 micromol litre(-1) sulphate), broadleaved species tending to be more sensitive than conifers. Effects on photosynthesis and water relations, and interactions with other stresses (e.g. frost), have usually been observed only for treatments which have also caused visible injury to the leaf surface. Few experiments on the direct effects of polluted cloud have been conducted under field conditions with mature trees, which unlike seedlings in controlled conditions, may suffer a growth reduction in the absence of visible injury. Although leaching of cations (Ca(2+), Mg(2+), K(+)) is

The effect of climate and soil conditions on tree species turnover in a Tropical Montane Cloud Forest in Costa Rica

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Achim Häger

2010-12-01

Full Text Available On a global level, Tropical Montane Cloud Forests constitute important centers of vascular plant diversity. Tree species turnover along environmental gradients plays an important role in larger scale diversity patterns in tropical mountains. This study aims to estimate the magnitude of beta diversity across the Tilarán mountain range in North-Western Costa Rica, and to elucidate the impact of climate and soil conditions on tree species turnover at a local scale. Seven climate stations measuring rainfall, horizontal precipitation (clouds and wind-driven rain and temperatures were installed along a 2.5km transect ranging from 1 200m.a.s.l. on the Atlantic to 1 200m.a.s.l. on the Pacific slope. The ridge top climate station was located at 1 500m.a.s.l. Climate data were recorded from March through December 2003. Additionally, seven 0.05ha plots were established. On all plots soil moisture was monitored for one year, furthermore soil type and soil chemistry were assessed. Woody plants with a diameter at breast height (dbh ≥5cm were identified to species. Species’ distributions were explored by feeding pairwise Sørensen measures between plots into a Principal Component Analysis. Relationships between floristic similarity and environmental variables were analyzed using Mantel tests. Pronounced gradients in horizontal precipitation, temperatures and soil conditions were found across the transect. In total, 483 woody plants were identified, belonging to 132 species. Environmental gradients were paralleled by tree species turnover; the plots could be divided in three distinctive floristic units which reflected different topographic positions on the transect (lower slopes, mid slopes and ridge. Most notably there was a complete species turnover between the ridge and the lower Pacific slope. Floristic similarity was negatively correlated with differences in elevation, horizontal precipitation, temperatures and soil conditions between plots. It is

Height-diameter allometry and above ground biomass in tropical montane forests: Insights from the Albertine Rift in Africa.

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Imani, Gérard; Boyemba, Faustin; Lewis, Simon; Nabahungu, Nsharwasi Léon; Calders, Kim; Zapfack, Louis; Riera, Bernard; Balegamire, Clarisse; Cuni-Sanchez, Aida

2017-01-01

Tropical montane forests provide an important natural laboratory to test ecological theory. While it is well-known that some aspects of forest structure change with altitude, little is known on the effects of altitude on above ground biomass (AGB), particularly with regard to changing height-diameter allometry. To address this we investigate (1) the effects of altitude on height-diameter allometry, (2) how different height-diameter allometric models affect above ground biomass estimates; and (3) how other forest structural, taxonomic and environmental attributes affect above ground biomass using 30 permanent sample plots (1-ha; all trees ≥ 10 cm diameter measured) established between 1250 and 2600 m asl in Kahuzi Biega National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Forest structure and species composition differed with increasing altitude, with four forest types identified. Different height-diameter allometric models performed better with the different forest types, as trees got smaller with increasing altitude. Above ground biomass ranged from 168 to 290 Mg ha-1, but there were no significant differences in AGB between forests types, as tree size decreased but stem density increased with increasing altitude. Forest structure had greater effects on above ground biomass than forest diversity. Soil attributes (K and acidity, pH) also significantly affected above ground biomass. Results show how forest structural, taxonomic and environmental attributes affect above ground biomass in African tropical montane forests. They particularly highlight that the use of regional height-diameter models introduces significant biases in above ground biomass estimates, and that different height-diameter models might be preferred for different forest types, and these should be considered in future studies.

Tropical Andean Forests Are Highly Susceptible to Nutrient Inputs—Rapid Effects of Experimental N and P Addition to an Ecuadorian Montane Forest

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Homeier, Jürgen; Hertel, Dietrich; Camenzind, Tessa; Cumbicus, Nixon L.; Maraun, Mark; Martinson, Guntars O.; Poma, L. Nohemy; Rillig, Matthias C.; Sandmann, Dorothee; Scheu, Stefan; Veldkamp, Edzo; Wilcke, Wolfgang; Wullaert, Hans; Leuschner, Christoph

2012-01-01

Tropical regions are facing increasing atmospheric inputs of nutrients, which will have unknown consequences for the structure and functioning of these systems. Here, we show that Neotropical montane rainforests respond rapidly to moderate additions of N (50 kg ha−1 yr−1) and P (10 kg ha−1 yr−1). Monitoring of nutrient fluxes demonstrated that the majority of added nutrients remained in the system, in either soil or vegetation. N and P additions led to not only an increase in foliar N and P concentrations, but also altered soil microbial biomass, standing fine root biomass, stem growth, and litterfall. The different effects suggest that trees are primarily limited by P, whereas some processes—notably aboveground productivity—are limited by both N and P. Highly variable and partly contrasting responses of different tree species suggest marked changes in species composition and diversity of these forests by nutrient inputs in the long term. The unexpectedly fast response of the ecosystem to moderate nutrient additions suggests high vulnerability of tropical montane forests to the expected increase in nutrient inputs. PMID:23071734

Comparison of carbon uptake estimates from forest inventory and Eddy-Covariance for a montane rainforest in central Sulawesi

Science.gov (United States)

Heimsch, Florian; Kreilein, Heiner; Rauf, Abdul; Knohl, Alexander

2016-04-01

Rainforests in general and montane rainforests in particular have rarely been studied over longer time periods. We aim to provide baseline information of a montane tropical forest's carbon uptake over time in order to quantify possible losses through land-use change. Thus we conducted a re-inventory of 22 10-year old forest inventory plots, giving us a rare opportunity to quantify carbon uptake over such a long time period by traditional methods. We discuss shortfalls of such techniques and why our estimate of 1.5 Mg/ha/a should be considered as the lower boundary and not the mean carbon uptake per year. At the same location as the inventory, CO2 fluxes were measured with the Eddy-Covariance technique. Measurements were conducted at 48m height with an LI 7500 open-path infrared gas analyser. We will compare carbon uptake estimates from these measurements to those of the more conventional inventory method and discuss, which factors are probably responsible for differences.

Mapping the Distribution of Cloud Forests Using MODIS Imagery

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Douglas, M. W.; Mejia, J.; Murillo, J.; Orozco, R.

2007-05-01

Tropical cloud forests - those forests that are frequently immersed in clouds or otherwise very humid, are extremely difficult to map from the ground, and are not easily distinguished in satellite imagery from other forest types, but they have a very different flora and fauna than lowland rainforest. Cloud forests, although found in many parts of the tropics, have a very restricted vertical extent and thus are also restricted horizontally. As a result, they are subject to both human disturbance (coffee growing for example) and the effects of possible climate change. Motivated by a desire to seek meteorological explanations for the distribution of cloud forests, we have begun to map cloudiness using MODIS Terra and Aqua visible imagery. This imagery, at ~1030 LT and 1330 LT, is an approximation for mid-day cloudiness. In tropical regions the amount of mid-day cloudiness strongly controls the shortwave radiation and thus the potential for evaporation (and aridity). We have mapped cloudiness using a simple algorithm that distinguishes between the cloud-free background brightness and the generally more reflective clouds to separate clouds from the underlying background. A major advantage of MODIS imagery over many other sources of satellite imagery is its high spatial resolution (~250m). This, coupled with precisely navigated images, means that detailed maps of cloudiness can be produced. The cloudiness maps can then be related to the underlying topography to further refine the location of the cloud forests. An advantage of this technique is that we are mapping the potential cloud forest, based on cloudiness, rather than the actual cloud forest, which are commonly based on forest estimates from satellite and digital elevation data. We do not derive precipitation, only estimates of daytime cloudiness. Although only a few years of MODIS imagery has been used in our studies, we will show that this is sufficient to describe the climatology of cloudiness with acceptable

Nutrient cycling and nutrient losses in Andean montane forests from Antioquia, Colombia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Londono Alvarez, Adriana; Montoya Gomez, Diana Cristina; Leon Pelaez, Juan Diego; Gonzalez Hernandez, Maria Isabel

2007-01-01

Gravitational flow and its chemical composition were measured in montane oak forests (Quercus humboldtii), in pine (Pinus patula) and cypress (Cupressus lusitanica) plantations in Piedras Blancas, Antioquia (Colombia), over two years. Zero tension lysimeters were used at different depth soil levels, the highest gravitational flow value at highest depth (50-80 cm) was obtained in cypress plot (492-7 mm), followed by pine (14,2 mm) and oak forest (2,0 mm). A similar behavior was encountered for nutrient losses, following the same pattern as gravitational flow. thus, for oak, pine and cypress, nutrient losses were respective/y: ca: 0,004, 0,084 and 2,270 kg ha -1 Y 1 ; P 0,008, 0,052 and 1,234 kg ha -1 Y 1 , mg: 0,004, 0,022 and 0,667 kg ha -1 y 1. K losses were 0,08 and 7,092 kg ha -1 Y 1 for oak forest and cypress plantation respectively. Nutrient losses followed the next order for each type of forest: oak: K ≥ P ≥Ca≥Mg, pine: Ca≥Fe≥P>Mg≥Zn≥Mn and cypress: K≥Mn≥Ca≥P≥Fe≥Zn≥Mg

Ranging behavior of eastern hoolock gibbon (Hoolock leuconedys) in a northern montane forest in Gaoligongshan, Yunnan, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Dao; Fei, Han-Lan; Yuan, Sheng-Dong; Sun, Wen-Mo; Ni, Qing-Yong; Cui, Liang-Wei; Fan, Peng-Fei

2014-04-01

Generally, food abundance and distribution exert important influence on primate ranging behavior. Hoolock gibbons (genus Hoolock) live in lowland and montane forests in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and China. All information about hoolock gibbons comes from studies on western hoolock gibbons (Hoolock hoolock) living in lowland forest. Between August 2010 and September 2011, we studied the ranging behavior of one habituated group of eastern hoolock gibbon (H. leuconedys) living in a seasonal montane forest in Gaoligongshan, Yunnan, China. Results show that the study group did not increase foraging effort, calculated in this study as the daily path length, when fruit was less available. Instead, the gibbons fed more on leaves and decreased traveling to conserve energy. They relied heavily on a single food species in most study months which was patchily distributed within their total (14-month) home range, and during most months they used only a small portion of their total home range. In order to find enough food, the group shifted its monthly home range according to the seasonal availability of food species. To satisfy their annual food requirements, they occupied a total home range of 93 ha. The absence of neighboring groups of gibbons and the presence of tsaoko cardamom (Amomum tsaoko) plantations may also have influenced the ranging behavior of the group. Further long-term studies of neighboring groups living in intact forests are required to assess these effects.

Long-Term Vegetation Dynamics in a Megadiverse Hotspot: The Ice-Age Record of a Pre-montane Forest of Central Ecuador

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Encarni Montoya

2018-02-01

obtained from Laguna Pindo support Colinvaux’s hypothesis that glacial cooling resulted in a reshuffling of taxa in the region but did not lead to a loss of the forest structure. Wide tolerances of the plant species occurring to glacial temperature range and cloud formation have been suggested to explain Pindo forest stability. This scenario is radically different than the present situation, so vulnerability of the tropical pre-montane forest is highlighted to be increased in the next decades.

Influence of Microclimate on Semi-Arid Montane Conifer Forest Sapflux Velocity in Complex Terrain

Science.gov (United States)

Thirouin, K. R.; Barnard, D. M.; Barnard, H. R.

2016-12-01

Microclimate variation in complex terrain is key to our understanding of large-scale climate change effects on montane ecosystems. Modern climate models forecast that semi-arid montane ecosystems in the western United States are to experience increases in temperature, number of extreme drought events, and decreases in annual snowpack, all of which will potentially influence ecosystem water, carbon, and energy balances. In this study, we developed response curves that describe the relationships between stem sapflux velocity, air temperature (Tair), incoming solar radiation (SWin), soil temperature (Tsoil), and soil moisture content (VWC) in sites of Pinus contorta and Pinus ponderosa distributed along an elevation and aspect gradient in the montane zone of the Central Rocky Mountains, Colorado, USA. Among sites we found sapflux velocity to be significantly correlated with all four environmental factors (p physiological differences, the highest elevation south-facing P. contorta site behaved similarly to the south-facing P. ponderosa, suggesting that environmental drivers may dominate the response. In response to Tair, peak sapflux velocity occurred at 12-13 degrees C at all sites except the mid-slope north-facing P. contorta site, which also had the lowest Tsoil. The responses of stem sapflux velocity to climate drivers indicate that forest transpiration is regulated by microclimate gradients across small spatial scales in complex terrain, which need to be characterized in order to understand broader ecosystem dynamics and the role that large-scale climate change will play in these systems.

Fagaceae tree species allocate higher fraction of nitrogen to photosynthetic apparatus than Leguminosae in Jianfengling tropical montane rain forest, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Jingchao; Cheng, Ruimei; Shi, Zuomin; Xu, Gexi; Liu, Shirong; Centritto, Mauro

2018-01-01

Variation in photosynthetic-nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE) is generally affected by several factors such as leaf nitrogen allocation and leaf diffusional conductances to CO2, although it is still unclear which factors significantly affect PNUE in tropical montane rain forest trees. In this study, comparison of PNUE, photosynthetic capacity, leaf nitrogen allocation, and diffusional conductances to CO2 between five Fagaceae tree species and five Leguminosae tree species were analyzed in Jianfengling tropical montane rain forest, Hainan Island, China. The result showed that PNUE of Fagaceae was significantly higher than that of Leguminosae (+35.5%), attributed to lower leaf nitrogen content per area (Narea, -29.4%). The difference in nitrogen allocation was the main biochemical factor that influenced interspecific variation in PNUE of these tree species. Fagaceae species allocated a higher fraction of leaf nitrogen to the photosynthetic apparatus (PP, +43.8%), especially to Rubisco (PR, +50.0%) and bioenergetics (PB +33.3%) in comparison with Leguminosae species. Leaf mass per area (LMA) of Leguminosae species was lower than that of Fagaceae species (-15.4%). While there was no significant difference shown for mesophyll conductance (gm), Fagaceae tree species may have greater chloroplast to total leaf surface area ratios and that offset the action of thicker cell walls on gm. Furthermore, weak negative relationship between nitrogen allocation in cell walls and in Rubisco was found for Castanopsis hystrix, Cyclobalanopsis phanera and Cy. patelliformis, which might imply that nitrogen in the leaves was insufficient for both Rubisco and cell walls. In summary, our study concluded that higher PNUE might contribute to the dominance of most Fagaceae tree species in Jianfengling tropical montane rain forest.

Fagaceae tree species allocate higher fraction of nitrogen to photosynthetic apparatus than Leguminosae in Jianfengling tropical montane rain forest, China

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Ruimei; Shi, Zuomin; Xu, Gexi; Liu, Shirong; Centritto, Mauro

2018-01-01

Variation in photosynthetic-nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE) is generally affected by several factors such as leaf nitrogen allocation and leaf diffusional conductances to CO2, although it is still unclear which factors significantly affect PNUE in tropical montane rain forest trees. In this study, comparison of PNUE, photosynthetic capacity, leaf nitrogen allocation, and diffusional conductances to CO2 between five Fagaceae tree species and five Leguminosae tree species were analyzed in Jianfengling tropical montane rain forest, Hainan Island, China. The result showed that PNUE of Fagaceae was significantly higher than that of Leguminosae (+35.5%), attributed to lower leaf nitrogen content per area (Narea, –29.4%). The difference in nitrogen allocation was the main biochemical factor that influenced interspecific variation in PNUE of these tree species. Fagaceae species allocated a higher fraction of leaf nitrogen to the photosynthetic apparatus (PP, +43.8%), especially to Rubisco (PR, +50.0%) and bioenergetics (PB +33.3%) in comparison with Leguminosae species. Leaf mass per area (LMA) of Leguminosae species was lower than that of Fagaceae species (-15.4%). While there was no significant difference shown for mesophyll conductance (gm), Fagaceae tree species may have greater chloroplast to total leaf surface area ratios and that offset the action of thicker cell walls on gm. Furthermore, weak negative relationship between nitrogen allocation in cell walls and in Rubisco was found for Castanopsis hystrix, Cyclobalanopsis phanera and Cy. patelliformis, which might imply that nitrogen in the leaves was insufficient for both Rubisco and cell walls. In summary, our study concluded that higher PNUE might contribute to the dominance of most Fagaceae tree species in Jianfengling tropical montane rain forest. PMID:29390007

Three new species of Pristimantis (Lissamphibia, Anura from montane forests of the Cordillera Yanachaga in Central Peru

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William E. Duellman

2007-12-01

Full Text Available We describe three additional new species of Pristimantis from the Cordillera Yanachaga, a part of the Andes in central Peru. Analyses of DNA sequences of the mitochondrial rRNA genes show that onespecies is a close relative of P. bipunctatus (P. conspicillatus Group, another is a close relative of P. stictogaster (P. peruvianus Group, and the third is related to several species in the P. unistrigatus Group. The first two species are morphologically similar to their closest relatives but occur at lower elevations. Twenty-nine species of Pristimantis and Phrynopus are known from the vicinity of the Cordillera Yanachaga. The number of species, especially of Pristimantis, is high in the humid montane forestin comparison with other sites in humid montane forests in Peru, but the number is lower than on the western slopes of the Andes in Ecuador.

Forest vegetation of Xishuangbanna, south China

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Zhu Hua

2006-01-01

Xishuangbanna of southern Yunnan is biogeographically located at a transitional zone from tropical southeast (SE) Asia to subtropical east Asia and is at the junction of the Indian and Burmese plates of Gondwana and the Eurasian plate of Laurasia. The region, though surprisingly far from the equator and at a relatively high altitude, has a rich tropical flora and a typical tropical rain forest in the lowland areas. Based on physiognomic and ecological characteristics, floristic composition and habitats combined, the primary vegetation in Xishuangbanna can be organized into four main vegetation types: tropical rain forest, tropical seasonal moist forest, tropical montane evergreen broad-leaved forest and tropical monsoon forest. The tropical rain forest can be classified into two subtypes, i.e. a tropical seasonal rain forest in the lowlands and a tropical montane rain forest at higher elevations. The tropical seasonal rain forest has almost the same forest profile and physiognomic characteristics as equatorial lowland rain forests and is a type of truly tropical rain forest. Because of conspicuous similarity on ecological and floristic characteristics, the tropical rain forest in Xishuangbanna is a type of tropical Asian rain forest. However, since the tropical rain forest of Xishuangbanna occurs at the northern edge of tropical SE Asia, it differs from typical lowland rain forests in equatorial areas in having some deciduous trees in the canopy layer, fewer megaphanerophytes and epiphytes but more abundant lianas and more plants with microphyll. It is a type of semi-evergreen rain forest at the northern edge of the tropical zone. The tropical montane rain forest occurs at wet montane habitats and is similar to the lower montane rain forest in equatorial Asia in floristic composition and physiognomy. It is a type of lower montane rain forests within the broader category of tropical rain forests. The tropical seasonal moist forest occurs on middle and upper

Morphology and ecology of sibon snakes (Squamata: Dipsadidae) from two forests in Central America

OpenAIRE

Todd R. Lewis; Rowland K. Griffin; Paul B. C. Grant; Alex Figueroa; Julie M. Ray; Kirsty E. Graham; Gabriel David

2013-01-01

Physical measurements, abundance, and ecological observations were recorded for Sibon annulatus,S. argus, S. longifrens, and S. nebulatus at two Neotropical habitats: a lowland swamp forest in Costa Rica and a montane cloud forest in Panama. Fourty-four and 58 adult snakes were recorded from Costa Rica and Panama, respectively. Differences in morphology and body condition showed minimal significant differences among species from both geographical locations. Observations of feeding, reproducti...

Surface runoff fluxes of nutrients in montane forests in Piedras Blancas region, Antioquia (Colombia)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruiz Suescun, Oscar Andres; Acosta Jaramillo, Juan Jose; Leon Pelaez, Juan Diego

2005-01-01

In natural montane oak forests (Quercus humboldtii Bonpl.), pine (Pinus patula Schltdl and cham.) and cypress (Cupressus lusitanica Mill.) plantations in the region of Piedras Blancas, Antioquia, surface runoff flows (SRF) were measured over 16 months. Runoff was measured using 2 m wide x 10 m long runoff bounded plots, collector tanks and a volumetric counter system. Nutrient flows for the oak forest, pine and cypress plantations were, respectively: P total (0,51, 0,08 and 0,42 kg ha-y), Ca (0,13, 0,21 and 1,27 kg ha- y); Mg (0,07, 0,07 and 0,34 kg ha-y); K (0,89, 0,71 and 2,60 kg ha-y); Fe (0,04, 0,04 and 0,47 kg ha-y) and Mn (0,01, 0,01 and 0,08 kg ha-y)

Classification of Snowfall Events and Their Effect on Canopy Interception Efficiency in a Temperate Montane Forest.

Science.gov (United States)

Roth, T. R.; Nolin, A. W.

2015-12-01

Forest canopies intercept as much as 60% of snowfall in maritime environments, while processes of sublimation and melt can reduce the amount of snow transferred from the canopy to the ground. This research examines canopy interception efficiency (CIE) as a function of forest and event-scale snowfall characteristics. We use a 4-year dataset of continuous meteorological measurements and monthly snow surveys from the Forest Elevation Snow Transect (ForEST) network that has forested and open sites at three elevations spanning the rain-snow transition zone to the upper seasonal snow zone. Over 150 individual storms were classified by forest and storm type characteristics (e.g. forest density, vegetation type, air temperature, snowfall amount, storm duration, wind speed, and storm direction). The between-site comparisons showed that, as expected, CIE was highest for the lower elevation (warmer) sites with higher forest density compared with the higher elevation sites where storm temperatures were colder, trees were smaller and forests were less dense. Within-site comparisons based on storm type show that this classification system can be used to predict CIE.Our results suggest that the coupling of forest type and storm type information can improve estimates of canopy interception. Understanding the effects of temperature and storm type in temperate montane forests is also valuable for future estimates of canopy interception under a warming climate.

Elevational Distribution of Adult Trees and Seedlings in a Tropical Montane Transect, Southwest China

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Xiaoyang Song

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Montane habitats are characterized by high variation of environmental factors within small geographic ranges, which offers opportunities to explore how forest assemblages respond to changes in environmental conditions. Understanding the distributional transition of adult trees and seedlings will provide insight into the fate of forest biodiversity in response to future climate change. We investigated the elevational distribution of 156 species of adult trees and 152 species of seedlings in a tropical montane forest in Xishuangbanna, southwest China. Adult trees and seedlings were surveyed within 5 replicate plots established at each of 4 elevational bands (800, 1000, 1200, and 1400 m above sea level. We found that species richness of both adult trees and seedlings changed with elevation, showing a notable decline in diversity values from 1000 to 1200 m. Tree species composition also demonstrated distinct differences between 1000 and 1200 m, marking the division between tropical seasonal rain forest (800 and 1000 m and tropical montane evergreen broad-leaved forest (1200 and 1400 m. The results suggested that soil moisture and temperature regimes were associated with elevational distribution of tree species in this region. We also observed that seedlings from certain species found at high elevations were also distributed in low-elevation zones, but no seedlings of species from low elevations were distributed in high-elevation zones. The increase in temperature and droughts predicted for this region may result in the contraction of tropical seasonal rain forest at lower elevations and a downhill shift of higher tropical montane tree species.

Forest structure, stand composition, and climate-growth response in montane forests of Jiuzhaigou National Nature Reserve, China.

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Mark W Schwartz

Full Text Available Montane forests of western China provide an opportunity to establish baseline studies for climate change. The region is being impacted by climate change, air pollution, and significant human impacts from tourism. We analyzed forest stand structure and climate-growth relationships from Jiuzhaigou National Nature Reserve in northwestern Sichuan province, along the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau. We conducted a survey to characterize forest stand diversity and structure in plots occurring between 2050 and 3350 m in elevation. We also evaluated seedling and sapling recruitment and tree-ring data from four conifer species to assess: 1 whether the forest appears in transition toward increased hardwood composition; 2 if conifers appear stressed by recent climate change relative to hardwoods; and 3 how growth of four dominant species responds to recent climate. Our study is complicated by clear evidence of 20(th century timber extraction. Focusing on regions lacking evidence of logging, we found a diverse suite of conifers (Pinus, Abies, Juniperus, Picea, and Larix strongly dominate the forest overstory. We found population size structures for most conifer tree species to be consistent with self-replacement and not providing evidence of shifting composition toward hardwoods. Climate-growth analyses indicate increased growth with cool temperatures in summer and fall. Warmer temperatures during the growing season could negatively impact conifer growth, indicating possible seasonal climate water deficit as a constraint on growth. In contrast, however, we found little relationship to seasonal precipitation. Projected warming does not yet have a discernible signal on trends in tree growth rates, but slower growth with warmer growing season climates suggests reduced potential future forest growth.

Structure and Regeneration Status of Gedo Dry Evergreen Montane ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study was conducted on Gedo Dry Evergreen Montane Forest in West Shewa Zone of Oromia National Regional State, 182-196 km west of Addis Ababa (Finfinne). The objective of the study was to determine structure and regeneration status of Gedo Forest. All trees and shrubs with Diameter at Breast Height (DBH) ...

Diversity of the ground-dwelling ant fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of a moist, Montane forest of the semi-arid Brazilian "Nordeste".

Science.gov (United States)

Hites, N L; Mourão, M A N; Araújo, F O; Melo, M V C; de Biseau, J C; Quinet, Y

2005-01-01

Although the so called "green islands" of the semi-arid Brazilian "Nordeste" are economically, socially, and ecologically important. relatively little is known about their biodiversity. We present the results of the first survey of the ground-dwelling ant fauna of a secondary forest in the Serra de Baturité (4 degrees 05'-4 degrees 40' S / 38 degrees 30'-39 degrees 10' W), among the biggest of the moist, montane forests of the state of Ceará, Brazil. From February to March 2001, samples were taken every 50 m along twelve 200 m transects, each separated from the others by at least 50 m and cut on either side of a recreational trail. Where possible, two transects were cut from the same starting point on the trail, one on either side. At each sample site two methods were used, as recommended in the ALL. protocol: a pitfall trap and the treatment of 1 m2 of leaf litter with the Winkler extractor. The myrmecofauna of the Serra de Baturité is quite diverse: individuals from 72 species, 23 genera, and six subfamilies were collected. The observed patterns of specific richness show the same tendencies noted in other tropical regions, particularly the frequency of capture distribution with many rare and few abundant species. Differences with the Atlantic and Amazonian forests were also observed, especially the relative importance of the Ponerinac and Formicinae subfamilies, indicating a possible influence of the surrounding "caatinga" (savanna-like ecosystem) on the myrmecofauna of the moist, montane forest.

Simulating forest productivity along a neotropical elevational transect: temperature variation and carbon use efficiency

Science.gov (United States)

Marthews, T.; Malhi, Y.; Girardin, C.; Silva-Espejo, J.; Aragão, L.; Metcalfe, D.; Rapp, J.; Mercado, L.; Fisher, R.; Galbraith, D.; Fisher, J.; Salinas-Revilla, N.; Friend, A.; Restrepo-Coupe, N.; Williams, R.

2012-04-01

A better understanding of the mechanisms controlling the magnitude and sign of carbon components in tropical forest ecosystems is important for reliable estimation of this important regional component of the global carbon cycle. We used the JULES vegetation model to simulate all components of the carbon balance at six sites along an Andes-Amazon transect across Peru and Brazil and compared the results to published field measurements. In the upper montane zone the model predicted a vegetation dieback, indicating a need for better parameterisation of cloud forest vegetation. In the lower montane and lowland zones simulated ecosystem productivity and respiration were predicted with reasonable accuracy, although not always within the error bounds of the observations. Model-predicted carbon use efficiency in this transect surprisingly did not increase with elevation, but remained close to the 'temperate' value 0.5. This may be explained by elevational changes in the balance between growth and maintenance respiration within the forest canopy, as controlled by both temperature- and pressure-mediated processes.

Structure of the epiphyte community in a tropical montane forest in SW China.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Mingxu; Geekiyanage, Nalaka; Xu, Jianchu; Khin, Myo Myo; Nurdiana, Dian Ridwan; Paudel, Ekananda; Harrison, Rhett Daniel

2015-01-01

Vascular epiphytes are an understudied and particularly important component of tropical forest ecosystems. However, owing to the difficulties of access, little is known about the properties of epiphyte-host tree communities and the factors structuring them, especially in Asia. We investigated factors structuring the vascular epiphyte-host community and its network properties in a tropical montane forest in Xishuangbanna, SW China. Vascular epiphytes were surveyed in six plots located in mature forests. Six host and four micro-site environmental factors were investigated. Epiphyte diversity was strongly correlated with host size (DBH, diameter at breast height), while within hosts the highest epiphyte diversity was in the middle canopy and epiphyte diversity was significantly higher in sites with canopy soil or a moss mat than on bare bark. DBH, elevation and stem height explained 22% of the total variation in the epiphyte species assemblage among hosts, and DBH was the most important factor which alone explained 6% of the variation. Within hosts, 51% of the variation in epiphyte assemblage composition was explained by canopy position and substrate, and the most important single factor was substrate which accounted for 16% of the variation. Analysis of network properties indicated that the epiphyte host community was highly nested, with a low level of epiphyte specialization, and an almost even interaction strength between epiphytes and host trees. Together, these results indicate that large trees harbor a substantial proportion of the epiphyte community in this forest.

Structure of the epiphyte community in a tropical montane forest in SW China.

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Mingxu Zhao

Full Text Available Vascular epiphytes are an understudied and particularly important component of tropical forest ecosystems. However, owing to the difficulties of access, little is known about the properties of epiphyte-host tree communities and the factors structuring them, especially in Asia. We investigated factors structuring the vascular epiphyte-host community and its network properties in a tropical montane forest in Xishuangbanna, SW China. Vascular epiphytes were surveyed in six plots located in mature forests. Six host and four micro-site environmental factors were investigated. Epiphyte diversity was strongly correlated with host size (DBH, diameter at breast height, while within hosts the highest epiphyte diversity was in the middle canopy and epiphyte diversity was significantly higher in sites with canopy soil or a moss mat than on bare bark. DBH, elevation and stem height explained 22% of the total variation in the epiphyte species assemblage among hosts, and DBH was the most important factor which alone explained 6% of the variation. Within hosts, 51% of the variation in epiphyte assemblage composition was explained by canopy position and substrate, and the most important single factor was substrate which accounted for 16% of the variation. Analysis of network properties indicated that the epiphyte host community was highly nested, with a low level of epiphyte specialization, and an almost even interaction strength between epiphytes and host trees. Together, these results indicate that large trees harbor a substantial proportion of the epiphyte community in this forest.

Cloud water interception and canopy water balance in the Hawaiian Islands: preliminary results and emerging patterns

Science.gov (United States)

Tseng, H.; Giambelluca, T. W.; DeLay, J. K.; Nullet, M.

2017-12-01

Steep climate gradients and diverse ecosystems make the Hawaiian Islands an ideal laboratory for ecohydrological experiments. Researchers are able to control physical and ecological variables, which is difficult for most environmental studies, by selecting sites along these gradients. Tropical montane forests, especially those situated in the cloud zone, are known to improve recharge and sustain baseflow. This is probably the result of frequent and persistent fog characteristic to these systems. During fog events, evapotranspiration is suppressed due to high humidity and reduced solar radiation. Moreover, cloud water interception by the forest canopy can produce fog drip and contribute significantly to the local water budget. Because the interception process is a complex interaction between the atmosphere and the vegetation, the effects of the meteorological conditions and canopy characteristics are equally important and sometimes hard to separate. This study aims to examine patterns in cloud water interception and canopy water balance across five tropical montane forest sites on three of the main islands of Hawaii. The sites cover a range of elevations between 1100- 2114 m, annual rainfall between 1155-3375 mm, and different dominant plant species with canopy heights ranging from 1.5 m to 30 m. We investigate the effect of climatic factors by comparing passive fog gauge measurements and other meteorological variables, then examine the differences in canopy water balance by comparing throughfall and stemflow measurements at these sites. While this study is ongoing, we present the first few months of field observations and the results of preliminary analyses. This study will improve understanding of how large-scale climate and vegetation factors interact to control cloud water interception and will inform ongoing watershed management. This is particularly important for oceanic islands such as Hawaii because they rely on precipitation entirely for water supply and

Morphology and ecology of sibon snakes (Squamata: Dipsadidae from two forests in Central America

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Todd R. Lewis

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Physical measurements, abundance, and ecological observations were recorded for Sibon annulatus,S. argus, S. longifrens, and S. nebulatus at two Neotropical habitats: a lowland swamp forest in Costa Rica and a montane cloud forest in Panama. Fourty-four and 58 adult snakes were recorded from Costa Rica and Panama, respectively. Differences in morphology and body condition showed minimal significant differences among species from both geographical locations. Observations of feeding, reproduction, abundance, distribution and a new size record for S. annulatus are discussed.

Contribution of Soil Fauna to Foliar Litter-Mass Loss in Winter in an Ecotone between Dry Valley and Montane Forest in the Upper Reaches of the Minjiang River.

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Yan; Yang, Wanqin; Li, Jun; Wang, Bin; Zhang, Chuan; Yue, Kai; Wu, Fuzhong

2015-01-01

Litter decomposition during winter can provide essential nutrients for plant growth in the subsequent growing season, which plays important role in preventing the expansion of dry areas and maintaining the stability of ecotone ecosystems. However, limited information is currently available on the contributions of soil fauna to litter decomposition during winter in such ecosystems. Therefore, a field experiment that included litterbags with two different mesh sizes (0.04 mm and 3 mm) was conducted to investigate the contribution of soil fauna to the loss of foliar litter mass in winter from November 2013 to April 2014 along the upper reaches of the Minjiang River. Two litter types of the dominant species were selected in each ecosystem: cypress (Cupressus chengiana) and oak (Quercus baronii) in ecotone; cypress (Cupressus chengiana) and clovershrub (Campylotropis macrocarpa) in dry valley; and fir (Abies faxoniana) and birch (Betula albosinensis) in montane forest. Over one winter incubation, foliar litter lost 6.0%-16.1%, 11.4%-26.0%, and 6.4%-8.5% of initial mass in the ecotone, dry valley and montane forest, respectively. Soil fauna showed obvious contributions to the loss of foliar litter mass in all of the ecosystems. The highest contribution (48.5%-56.8%) was observed in the ecotone, and the lowest contribution (0.4%-25.8%) was observed in the montane forest. Compared with other winter periods, thawing period exhibited higher soil fauna contributions to litter mass loss in ecotone and dry valley, but both thawing period and freezing period displayed higher soil fauna contributions in montane forest. Statistical analysis demonstrated that the contribution of soil fauna was significantly correlated with temperature and soil moisture during the winter-long incubation. These results suggest that temperature might be the primary control factor in foliar litter decomposition, but more active soil fauna in the ecotone could contribute more in litter decomposition and

Contribution of Soil Fauna to Foliar Litter-Mass Loss in Winter in an Ecotone between Dry Valley and Montane Forest in the Upper Reaches of the Minjiang River.

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Yan Peng

Full Text Available Litter decomposition during winter can provide essential nutrients for plant growth in the subsequent growing season, which plays important role in preventing the expansion of dry areas and maintaining the stability of ecotone ecosystems. However, limited information is currently available on the contributions of soil fauna to litter decomposition during winter in such ecosystems. Therefore, a field experiment that included litterbags with two different mesh sizes (0.04 mm and 3 mm was conducted to investigate the contribution of soil fauna to the loss of foliar litter mass in winter from November 2013 to April 2014 along the upper reaches of the Minjiang River. Two litter types of the dominant species were selected in each ecosystem: cypress (Cupressus chengiana and oak (Quercus baronii in ecotone; cypress (Cupressus chengiana and clovershrub (Campylotropis macrocarpa in dry valley; and fir (Abies faxoniana and birch (Betula albosinensis in montane forest. Over one winter incubation, foliar litter lost 6.0%-16.1%, 11.4%-26.0%, and 6.4%-8.5% of initial mass in the ecotone, dry valley and montane forest, respectively. Soil fauna showed obvious contributions to the loss of foliar litter mass in all of the ecosystems. The highest contribution (48.5%-56.8% was observed in the ecotone, and the lowest contribution (0.4%-25.8% was observed in the montane forest. Compared with other winter periods, thawing period exhibited higher soil fauna contributions to litter mass loss in ecotone and dry valley, but both thawing period and freezing period displayed higher soil fauna contributions in montane forest. Statistical analysis demonstrated that the contribution of soil fauna was significantly correlated with temperature and soil moisture during the winter-long incubation. These results suggest that temperature might be the primary control factor in foliar litter decomposition, but more active soil fauna in the ecotone could contribute more in litter

Dynamics of leaf litter humidity, depth and quantity: two restoration strategies failed to mimic ground microhabitat conditions of a low montane and premontane forest in Costa Rica

OpenAIRE

Zaidett Barrientos

2012-01-01

Little is known about how restoration strategies affect aspects like leaf litter’s quantity, depth and humidity. I analyzed leaf litter’s quantity, depth and humidity yearly patterns in a primary tropical lower montane wet forest and two restored areas: a 15 year old secondary forest (unassisted restoration) and a 40 year old Cupressus lusitanica plantation (natural understory). The three habitats are located in the Río Macho Forest Reserve, Costa Rica. Twenty litter samples were ...

A stand-replacing fire history in upper montane forests of the southern Rocky Mountains

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Margolis, E.Q.; Swetnam, T.W.; Allen, Craig D.

2007-01-01

Dendroecological techniques were applied to reconstruct stand-replacing fire history in upper montane forests in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Fourteen stand-replacing fires were dated to 8 unique fire years (1842–1901) using four lines of evidence at each of 12 sites within the upper Rio Grande Basin. The four lines of evidence were (i) quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) inner-ring dates, (ii) fire-killed conifer bark-ring dates, (iii) tree-ring width changes or other morphological indicators of injury, and (iv) fire scars. The annual precision of dating allowed the identification of synchronous stand-replacing fire years among the sites, and co-occurrence with regional surface fire events previously reconstructed from a network of fire scar collections in lower elevation pine forests across the southwestern United States. Nearly all of the synchronous stand-replacing and surface fire years coincided with severe droughts, because climate variability created regional conditions where stand-replacing fires and surface fires burned across ecosystems. Reconstructed stand-replacing fires that predate substantial Anglo-American settlement in this region provide direct evidence that stand-replacing fires were a feature of high-elevation forests before extensive and intensive land-use practices (e.g., logging, railroad, and mining) began in the late 19th century.

Medicinal and Environmental Indicator Species of Utricularia from Montane Forest of Peninsular Malaysia

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Haron, Noorma Wati; Chew, Ming Yee

2012-01-01

The carnivorous Utricularia (Lentibulariaceae) is a small herb of multifarious wet habitats worldwide. Eleven of the 14 Peninsular Malaysian species range into the mountains. Distribution, disturbance adaptability and collection frequency were used to formulate their commonness category. Common (U. aurea, U. bifida, and U. minutissima) and fairly common (U. gibba and U. uliginosa) species are mostly lowland plants that ascend to open montane microhabitats, while the fairly common (U. striatula), narrow-range (U. caerulea pink form and U. involvens), rare (U. furcellata and U. scandens), and endemic (U. vitellina) species are restricted to mountainous sites. Common species that colonise dystrophic to oligotrophic man-made sites in late succession could serve as predictors for general health and recovery of wet habitats. Rarer species are often locally abundant, their niches situated around pristine forest edges. When in decline, they indicate the beginning of problems affecting the forest. Utricularia is reportedly nutritious, mildly astringent, and diuretic. Preadapted to nutrient-poor, waterlogged soils, U. bifida is suitable as an alternative for small-scale herb cultivation on low pH, wet poor soils usually deemed not suitable for any crops. PMID:22619629

Balligratus, new genus of wingless ground beetles from equatorial Andean montane forest (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Lachnophorini).

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Moret, Pierre; Ortuño, Vicente M

2017-04-27

A new carabid beetle genus, Balligratus gen. nov., belonging to the tribe Lachnophorini, is described. It is geographically restricted to the equatorial Andes, and ecologically linked to the montane pluvial forest ecosystem, at elevations ranging from 1,200 to 3,600 m. As other carabid lineages that have radiated in such environments, Balligratus gen. nov. is a wingless clade, characterized by the loss of flight wings associated with metathoracic reduction, constriction of the elytral base, and reduced eye size. This evolution is unique among Lachnophorini. Four new species are described, all of them from Ecuador: Balligratus brevis sp. nov., Balligratus globosus sp. nov., Balligratus gracilis sp. nov. and Balligratus humerangulus sp. nov.

A comparison of point counts with a new acoustic sampling method: a case study of a bird community from the montane forests of Mount Cameroon

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Sedláček, O.; Vokurková, J.; Ferenc, M.; Djomo Nana, E.; Albrecht, Tomáš; Hořák, D.

2015-01-01

Roč. 86, č. 3 (2015), s. 213-220 ISSN 0030-6525 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP505/11/1617 Institutional support: RVO:68081766 Keywords : abundance * automatic recording units * montane forest * point count * species richness * species turnover Subject RIV: EG - Zoology Impact factor: 0.418, year: 2015

A comparison of alpha and beta diversity patterns of ferns, bryophytes and macrolichens in tropical montane forests of southern Ecuador

OpenAIRE

Mandl, N A; Lehnert, M; Kessler, M; Gradstein, S R

2010-01-01

We present a first comparison of patterns of alpha and beta diversity of ferns, mosses, liverworts and macrolichens in neotropical montane rainforests, and explore the question whether specific taxa may be used as surrogates for others. In three localities in southern Ecuador, we surveyed terrestrial and epiphytic species assemblages in ridge and slope forests in 28 plots of 400 m² each. The epiphytic habitat was significantly richer in ferns, liverworts, and macrolichens than the terrestrial...

Ecological transition in Arizona's subalpine and montane grasslands

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Michael R. White

2000-01-01

Important components of Southwest forest ecosystem are subalpine and montane grassland communities, Grassland communities provide habitat diversity for wildlife, forage for domestic livestock and wildlife, and contribute to the visual quality of an area. The objectives of this research were to determine if: 1) vegetation attributes and soil-surface cover variables of...

Impact of fire in two old-growth montane longleaf pine stands

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John S. Kush; John C. Gilbert; Crystal Lupo; Na Zhou; Becky Barlow

2013-01-01

The structure of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) forests of the Southeastern United States Coastal Plains has been the focus of numerous studies. By comparison, the forests in the mountains of Alabama and Georgia are not well understood. Less than 1 percent of longleaf pine stands found in the montane portion of longleaf’s range are considered...

Contribution of forest floor fractions to carbon storage and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Forest floor carbon stocks, which include different components of litter, hemic and sapric materials, have not been empirically quantified in tropical montane forest, although they influence soil carbon (C) pools. To date, the contribution of arbuscular mycorrhizae in C sequestration potentials in tropical montane forests have ...

Analysis of the temporal variation of the structure of a montane forest with historical of fire

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Fernando Bonillo Fernandes

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to evaluate the structural dynamic rates of an shrubs-tree component of a seasonal semideciduous upper montane forest, in Mantiqueira Mountain between 2002 and 2008. We calculated the rates of dynamic according to the number of surviving, dead individuals and recruits, as well as the rates of dynamic for gain and loss of basal area. We verified the spatial differences among the rates along the vegetation gradient parallel to ground elevation. We also studied the correlations between the rates and biotic (initial numbers of trees and initial basal area and abiotic parameters (altimetric quota. We verified that recruitment was higher than mortality, and the gain of basal area was higher than the loses. This result suggests that the forest is expanding, with gain in number of individuals and in basal area. Normally, this result characterizes forests in recuperation after some disturbance. The community sectors (basis, middle and top of hillside didn’t show any differences in terms of dynamic rates. In general, there were few significant correlations between biotic and abiotic parameters and the dynamic rates. The increase of density and basal area, the similarity of dynamic rates among the sectors and the low correlation between parameters and the dynamic of forest’s structure point out that the forest burning occurred in 90’s could be, nowadays, interfering directly in dynamic rates of forest.

Islands in the Sky: Ecophysiological Cloud-Vegetation Linkages in Southern Appalachian Mountain Cloud Forests

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Reinhardt, K.; Emanuel, R. E.; Johnson, D. M.

2013-12-01

Mountain cloud forest (MCF) ecosystems are characterized by a high frequency of cloud fog, with vegetation enshrouded in fog. The altitudinal boundaries of cloud-fog zones co-occur with conspicuous, sharp vegetation ecotones between MCF- and non-MCF-vegetation. This suggests linkages between cloud-fog and vegetation physiology and ecosystem functioning. However, very few studies have provided a mechanistic explanation for the sharp changes in vegetation communities, or how (if) cloud-fog and vegetation are linked. We investigated ecophysiological linkages between clouds and trees in Southern Appalachian spruce-fir MCF. These refugial forests occur in only six mountain-top, sky-island populations, and are immersed in clouds on up to 80% of all growing season days. Our fundamental research questions was: How are cloud-fog and cloud-forest trees linked? We measured microclimate and physiology of canopy tree species across a range of sky conditions (cloud immersed, partly cloudy, sunny). Measurements included: 1) sunlight intensity and spectral quality; 2) carbon gain and photosynthetic capacity at leaf (gas exchange) and ecosystem (eddy covariance) scales; and 3) relative limitations to carbon gain (biochemical, stomatal, hydraulic). RESULTS: 1) Midday sunlight intensity ranged from very dark (2500 μmol m-2 s-1), and was highly variable on minute-to-minute timescales whenever clouds were present in the sky. Clouds and cloud-fog increased the proportion of blue-light wavelengths 5-15% compared to sunny conditions, and altered blue:red and red:far red ratios, both of which have been shown to strongly affect stomatal functioning. 2) Cloud-fog resulted in ~50% decreased carbon gain at leaf and ecosystem scales, due to sunlight levels below photosynthetic light-saturation-points. However, greenhouse studies and light-response-curve analyses demonstrated that MCF tree species have low light-compensation points (can photosynthesize even at low light levels), and maximum

Impacts of participatory forest management on species composition and forest structure in Ethiopia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yietagesu, Aklilu Ameha; Meilby, Henrik; Feyisa, Gudina Legese

2016-01-01

The present study assesses the impacts of decentralized forest management on forest conditions in Ethiopian Montane forests. We compared observed densities of different tree species and size categories in forests managed by local forest user groups (FUGs) and the government. We used forest...

Forest structure in low diversity tropical forests: a study of Hawaiian wet and dry forests

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R. Ostertag; F. Inman-Narahari; S. Cordell; C.P. Giardina; L. Sack

2014-01-01

The potential influence of diversity on ecosystem structure and function remains a topic of significant debate, especially for tropical forests where diversity can range widely. We used Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) methodology to establish forest dynamics plots in montane wet forest and lowland dry forest on Hawai‘i Island. We compared the species...

Forest structure in low-diversity tropical forests: a study of Hawaiian wet and dry forests.

Science.gov (United States)

Ostertag, Rebecca; Inman-Narahari, Faith; Cordell, Susan; Giardina, Christian P; Sack, Lawren

2014-01-01

The potential influence of diversity on ecosystem structure and function remains a topic of significant debate, especially for tropical forests where diversity can range widely. We used Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) methodology to establish forest dynamics plots in montane wet forest and lowland dry forest on Hawai'i Island. We compared the species diversity, tree density, basal area, biomass, and size class distributions between the two forest types. We then examined these variables across tropical forests within the CTFS network. Consistent with other island forests, the Hawai'i forests were characterized by low species richness and very high relative dominance. The two Hawai'i forests were floristically distinct, yet similar in species richness (15 vs. 21 species) and stem density (3078 vs. 3486/ha). While these forests were selected for their low invasive species cover relative to surrounding forests, both forests averaged 5->50% invasive species cover; ongoing removal will be necessary to reduce or prevent competitive impacts, especially from woody species. The montane wet forest had much larger trees, resulting in eightfold higher basal area and above-ground biomass. Across the CTFS network, the Hawaiian montane wet forest was similar to other tropical forests with respect to diameter distributions, density, and aboveground biomass, while the Hawai'i lowland dry forest was similar in density to tropical forests with much higher diversity. These findings suggest that forest structural variables can be similar across tropical forests independently of species richness. The inclusion of low-diversity Pacific Island forests in the CTFS network provides an ∼80-fold range in species richness (15-1182 species), six-fold variation in mean annual rainfall (835-5272 mm yr(-1)) and 1.8-fold variation in mean annual temperature (16.0-28.4°C). Thus, the Hawaiian forest plots expand the global forest plot network to enable testing of ecological theory for

Forest structure in low-diversity tropical forests: a study of Hawaiian wet and dry forests.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rebecca Ostertag

Full Text Available The potential influence of diversity on ecosystem structure and function remains a topic of significant debate, especially for tropical forests where diversity can range widely. We used Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS methodology to establish forest dynamics plots in montane wet forest and lowland dry forest on Hawai'i Island. We compared the species diversity, tree density, basal area, biomass, and size class distributions between the two forest types. We then examined these variables across tropical forests within the CTFS network. Consistent with other island forests, the Hawai'i forests were characterized by low species richness and very high relative dominance. The two Hawai'i forests were floristically distinct, yet similar in species richness (15 vs. 21 species and stem density (3078 vs. 3486/ha. While these forests were selected for their low invasive species cover relative to surrounding forests, both forests averaged 5->50% invasive species cover; ongoing removal will be necessary to reduce or prevent competitive impacts, especially from woody species. The montane wet forest had much larger trees, resulting in eightfold higher basal area and above-ground biomass. Across the CTFS network, the Hawaiian montane wet forest was similar to other tropical forests with respect to diameter distributions, density, and aboveground biomass, while the Hawai'i lowland dry forest was similar in density to tropical forests with much higher diversity. These findings suggest that forest structural variables can be similar across tropical forests independently of species richness. The inclusion of low-diversity Pacific Island forests in the CTFS network provides an ∼80-fold range in species richness (15-1182 species, six-fold variation in mean annual rainfall (835-5272 mm yr(-1 and 1.8-fold variation in mean annual temperature (16.0-28.4°C. Thus, the Hawaiian forest plots expand the global forest plot network to enable testing of ecological

Home range and diet of feral cats in Hawaii forests

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Smucker, T.D.; Lindsey, G.D.; Mosher, S.M.

2000-01-01

Feral cat Felis catus home range in a Hawaiian montane wet forest and their diet in three habitats - montane wet forest, subalpine dry forest, and lowland dry forest - were determined to provide baseline ecological data and to assess potential impacts to native terrestrial fauna. Seven cats (three males and four females) were captured in 624 trap nights. Mean weight of adult cats was 2.85 ?? 0.27 (SE) Kg for males and 1.87 ?? 0.03 kg for females. Mean diumal home range using the adaptive kernel method was 5.74 ?? 2.73 km2 for three males and 2.23 ?? 0.44 km2 for two females. Daytime locations were always within the montane wet forest with the borders on one or more sides of the home ranges of all cats defined by open grassland pastures. Rodents comprised the majority of the cat diets in all three habitats, with the frequencies of occurence between 0.88 and 0.91. Bird remains were a regular component of the diet of cats, with montane wet forest having the highest frequency of occurence (0.68), followed by subalpine dry forest (0.53), and lowland dry forest (0.21).

Assessment of the impact of anthropic activities on carbon storage in soils of high montane ecosystems in Colombia

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Orlando Zúñiga-Escobar

2013-04-01

Full Text Available The organic carbon in the soil was quantified to assess the impact of anthropic activities on montane ecosystems in Colombia in Chingaza Parque Nacional Natural (PNN and Los Nevados Parque Nacional Natural (PNN . For the development of the soil samples, a detailed in situ description of the edaphological profile of four ecosystems of paramo and high Andean forest areas, of both disturbed and undisturbed zones, was taken as the base. The calculation of the amount of total carbon stored by the soil profile shows that, in Colombia, undisturbed high montane ecosystems (520.9 t ha-1 in paramos and 323.6 t ha-1 in high Andean forests of Chingaza PNN , and 373.0 t ha-1 in paramos and 254.6 t ha-1 in high Andean forests of Los Nevados PNN currently have more carbon than disturbed ecosystems (135.1 t ha-1 in paramos and 141.5 t ha-1 in high Andean forests of Chingaza PNN , and 356.3 t ha-1 in paramos and 217.1 t ha-1 in high Andean forests of Los Nevados PNN . It is clear that the disturbance of high montane ecosystems decreases the amount of carbon in the soil, a situation that is more concerning in Chingaza PNN where the difference between the disturbed and undisturbed ecosystems is much more marked than in Los Nevados PNN

Rising Mean Annual Temperature Increases Carbon Flux and Alters Partitioning, but Does Not Change Ecosystem Carbon Storage in Hawaiian Tropical Montane Wet Forest

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Litton, C. M.; Giardina, C. P.; Selmants, P.

2014-12-01

Terrestrial ecosystem carbon (C) storage exceeds that in the atmosphere by a factor of four, and represents a dynamic balance among C input, allocation, and loss. This balance is likely being altered by climate change, but the response of terrestrial C cycling to warming remains poorly quantified, particularly in tropical forests which play a disproportionately large role in the global C cycle. Over the past five years, we have quantified above- and belowground C pools and fluxes in nine permanent plots spanning a 5.2°C mean annual temperature (MAT) gradient (13-18.2°C) in Hawaiian tropical montane wet forest. This elevation gradient is unique in that substrate type and age, soil type, soil water balance, canopy vegetation, and disturbance history are constant, allowing us to isolate the impact of long-term, whole ecosystem warming on C input, allocation, loss and storage. Across the gradient, soil respiration, litterfall, litter decomposition, total belowground C flux, aboveground net primary productivity, and estimates of gross primary production (GPP) all increase linearly and positively with MAT. Carbon partitioning is dynamic, shifting from below- to aboveground with warming, likely in response to a warming-induced increase in the cycling and availability of soil nutrients. In contrast to observed patterns in C flux, live biomass C, soil C, and total ecosystem C pools remained remarkably constant with MAT. There was also no difference in soil bacterial taxon richness, phylogenetic diversity, or community composition with MAT. Taken together these results indicate that in tropical montane wet forests, increased temperatures in the absence of water limitation or disturbance will accelerate C cycling, will not alter ecosystem C storage, and will shift the products of photosynthesis from below- to aboveground. These results agree with an increasing number of studies, and collectively provide a unique insight into anticipated warming-induced changes in tropical

Tropical montane forest conversion affects spatial and temporal nitrogen dynamics in Kenyan headwater catchment

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Jacobs, Suzanne; Weeser, Björn; Breuer, Lutz; Butterbach-Bahl, Klaus; Guzha, Alphonce; Rufino, Mariana

2017-04-01

Deforestation and land use change (LUC) are often stated as major contributors to changes in water quality, although other catchment characteristics such as topography, geology and climate can also play a role. Understanding how stream water chemistry is affected by LUC is essential for sustainable water management and land use planning. However, there is often a lack of reliable data, especially in less studied regions such as East Africa. This study focuses on three sub-catchments (27-36 km2) with different land use types (natural forest, smallholder agriculture and tea/tree plantations) nested in a 1023 km2 headwater catchment in the Mau Forest Complex, Kenya's largest closed-canopy indigenous tropical montane forest. In the past decades approx. 25% of the natural forest was lost due to land use change. We studied seasonal, diurnal and spatial patterns of total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), nitrate (NO3-N) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) using a combination of high-resolution in-situ measurements, bi-weekly stream water samples and spatial sampling campaigns. Multiple linear regression analysis of the spatial data indicates that land use shows a strong influence on TDN and nitrate, while DON is more influenced by precipitation. Highest TDN and nitrate concentrations are found in tea plantations, followed by smallholder agriculture and natural forest. This ranking does not change throughout the year, though concentrations of TDN and nitrate are respectively 27.6 and 25.4% lower in all catchments during the dry season. Maximum Overlap Discrete Wavelet Transform (MODWT) analysis of the high resolution nitrate data revealed a seasonal effect on diurnal patterns in the natural forest catchment, where the daily peak shifts from early morning in the wet season to mid-afternoon in the dry season. The smallholder and tea catchment do not exhibit clear diurnal patterns. The results suggest that land use affects dissolved nitrogen concentrations, leading to higher N

Topographic and Bioclimatic Determinants of the Occurrence of Forest and Grassland in Tropical Montane Forest-Grassland Mosaics of the Western Ghats, India.

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Arundhati Das

Full Text Available The objective of this analysis was to identify topographic and bioclimatic factors that predict occurrence of forest and grassland patches within tropical montane forest-grassland mosaics. We further investigated whether interactions between topography and bioclimate are important in determining vegetation pattern, and assessed the role of spatial scale in determining the relative importance of specific topographic features. Finally, we assessed the role of elevation in determining the relative importance of diverse explanatory factors. The study area consists of the central and southern regions of the Western Ghats of Southern India, a global biodiversity hotspot. Random forests were used to assess prediction accuracy and predictor importance. Conditional inference classification trees were used to interpret predictor effects and examine potential interactions between predictors. GLMs were used to confirm predictor importance and assess the strength of interaction terms. Overall, topographic and bioclimatic predictors classified vegetation pattern with approximately 70% accuracy. Prediction accuracy was higher for grassland than forest, and for mosaics at higher elevations. Elevation was the most important predictor, with mosaics above 2000 m dominated largely by grassland. Relative topographic position measured at a local scale (within a 300 m neighbourhood was another important predictor of vegetation pattern. In high elevation mosaics, northness and concave land surface curvature were important predictors of forest occurrence. Important bioclimatic predictors were: dry quarter precipitation, annual temperature range and the interaction between the two. The results indicate complex interactions between topography and bioclimate and among topographic variables. Elevation and topography have a strong influence on vegetation pattern in these mosaics. There were marked regional differences in the roles of various topographic and bioclimatic

Topographic and Bioclimatic Determinants of the Occurrence of Forest and Grassland in Tropical Montane Forest-Grassland Mosaics of the Western Ghats, India.

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Das, Arundhati; Nagendra, Harini; Anand, Madhur; Bunyan, Milind

2015-01-01

The objective of this analysis was to identify topographic and bioclimatic factors that predict occurrence of forest and grassland patches within tropical montane forest-grassland mosaics. We further investigated whether interactions between topography and bioclimate are important in determining vegetation pattern, and assessed the role of spatial scale in determining the relative importance of specific topographic features. Finally, we assessed the role of elevation in determining the relative importance of diverse explanatory factors. The study area consists of the central and southern regions of the Western Ghats of Southern India, a global biodiversity hotspot. Random forests were used to assess prediction accuracy and predictor importance. Conditional inference classification trees were used to interpret predictor effects and examine potential interactions between predictors. GLMs were used to confirm predictor importance and assess the strength of interaction terms. Overall, topographic and bioclimatic predictors classified vegetation pattern with approximately 70% accuracy. Prediction accuracy was higher for grassland than forest, and for mosaics at higher elevations. Elevation was the most important predictor, with mosaics above 2000 m dominated largely by grassland. Relative topographic position measured at a local scale (within a 300 m neighbourhood) was another important predictor of vegetation pattern. In high elevation mosaics, northness and concave land surface curvature were important predictors of forest occurrence. Important bioclimatic predictors were: dry quarter precipitation, annual temperature range and the interaction between the two. The results indicate complex interactions between topography and bioclimate and among topographic variables. Elevation and topography have a strong influence on vegetation pattern in these mosaics. There were marked regional differences in the roles of various topographic and bioclimatic predictors across the

Avifauna del bosque mesófilo de montaña del noreste de Hidalgo, México Avifauna of the tropical montane cloud forest of northeastern Hidalgo, Mexico

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Miguel Angel Martínez-Morales

2007-06-01

Full Text Available Este trabajo presenta los resultados de un inventario avifaunístico realizado de 1997 a 1999 en fragmentos de bosque mesófilo de montaña del noreste de Hidalgo, México. Se registraron 41 familias y 181 especies de aves mediante observaciones visuales y auditivas en 2 057 puntos de conteo, lo que representó el 98% de las especies esperadas en el área de estudio, para el período y método de muestreo utilizado. Se detectaron 16 especies restringidas al bosque mesófilo, 11 endémicas de México y 3 de distribución restringida. Adicionalmente, con base en la legislación mexicana vigente, 28 de las especies registradas están incluidas dentro de alguna categoría de riesgo de conservación. Esta comunidad de aves estuvo dominada por especies de aves pequeñas, raras (poco abundantes y residentes. Es probable que las más vulnerables de sufrir extinciones locales sean las especies raras y restringidas al bosque mesófilo, donde están incluidas las 3 especies de distribución restringida (Dendrortyx barbatus, Glaucidium sanchezi y Cyanolyca nana. La avifauna del bosque mesófilo de esta región incluye al 40% de la avifauna estatal, lo que destaca la relevancia de este tipo de vegetación y una urgente necesidad de establecer estrategias de manejo para su conservación.This study shows the results of bird census carried out from 1997 to 1999 in cloud forest fragments of northeastern Hidalgo, Mexico. Forty-one bird families and 181 species were recorded through visual and acoustic detections in 2 057 point counts. This represents 98% of the expected species richness for the sampling period and method used. Sixteen species restricted to the cloud forest were detected, 11 Mexican endemic species, and 3 restricted-range species were recorded. Additionally, 28 species are included within some category of conservation concern according to the present Mexican legislation. This bird community was dominated by small, rare (low in abundance, and

Transfer of 137Cs from soil to plants in a wet montane forest in subtropical Taiwan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chih-Yu Chiu

1999-01-01

The distribution of 137 Cs in an undisturbed, multistoried, subtropical wet montane forest ecosystem surrounding Yuanyang Lake (lake surface level ca. 1670 m, in northeastern Taiwan), was investigated. The mossy forest here represents a currently-rare perhumid temperate environment in subtropical region. The radioactivity concentration of 137 Cs was determined by γ-spectroscopy with a Ge(Li) detector. Although the soil is extremely acidic (pH 3.3 to 3.6) and the rainfall is high, 137 Cs is evidently retained in the organic layer. The radioactivity concentration of 137 Cs in surface soil ranges from 28 to 71 Bq x kg -1 . The concentrations of 137 Cs in the ground moss layer and litter were much lower than that in the soil organic layer; this suggests that 137 Cs detected is not from the newly deposited radioactive fallout. The radioactivity concentration and transfer factor (TF) of 137 Cs varied with plant species. Shrubs and ferns have higher values than a coniferous tree (Taiwan cedar). The TF in this ecosystem is as high as 0.21 to 1.88. The high values of TF is attributed to the abundance of the organic matter in the forest soils. The rapid recycling of 137 Cs through the soil-plant system of this undisturbed multistoried ecosystem suggests the existence of an internal cycling that help the accumulation of 137 Cs in this ecosystem. (author)

Deposition of mercury in forests across a montane elevation gradient: Elevational and seasonal patterns in methylmercury inputs and production

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Gerson, Jacqueline R.; Driscoll, Charles T.; Demers, Jason D.; Sauer, Amy K.; Blackwell, Bradley D.; Montesdeoca, Mario R.; Shanley, James B.; Ross, Donald S.

2017-08-01

Global mercury contamination largely results from direct primary atmospheric and secondary legacy emissions, which can be deposited to ecosystems, converted to methylmercury, and bioaccumulated along food chains. We examined organic horizon soil samples collected across an elevational gradient on Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondack region of New York State, USA to determine spatial patterns in methylmercury concentrations across a forested montane landscape. We found that soil methylmercury concentrations were highest in the midelevation coniferous zone (0.39 ± 0.07 ng/g) compared to the higher elevation alpine zone (0.28 ± 0.04 ng/g) and particularly the lower elevation deciduous zone (0.17 ± 0.02 ng/g), while the percent of total mercury as methylmercury in soils decreased with elevation. We also found a seasonal pattern in soil methylmercury concentrations, with peak methylmercury values occurring in July. Given elevational patterns in temperature and bioavailable total mercury (derived from mineralization of soil organic matter), soil methylmercury concentrations appear to be driven by soil processing of ionic Hg, as opposed to atmospheric deposition of methylmercury. These methylmercury results are consistent with spatial patterns of mercury concentrations in songbird species observed from other studies, suggesting that future declines in mercury emissions could be important for reducing exposure of mercury to montane avian species.

Integrating effects of species composition and soil properties to predict shifts in montane forest carbon-water relations.

Science.gov (United States)

Maxwell, Toby M; Silva, Lucas C R; Horwath, William R

2018-05-01

This study was designed to address a major source of uncertainty pertaining to coupled carbon-water cycles in montane forest ecosystems. The Sierra Nevada of California was used as a model system to investigate connections between the physiological performance of trees and landscape patterns of forest carbon and water use. The intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE)-an index of CO 2 fixed per unit of potential water lost via transpiration-of nine dominant species was determined in replicated transects along an ∼1,500-m elevation gradient, spanning a broad range of climatic conditions and soils derived from three different parent materials. Stable isotope ratios of carbon and oxygen measured at the leaf level were combined with field-based and remotely sensed metrics of stand productivity, revealing that variation in iWUE depends primarily on leaf traits (∼24% of the variability), followed by stand productivity (∼16% of the variability), climatic regime (∼13% of the variability), and soil development (∼12% of the variability). Significant interactions between species composition and soil properties proved useful to predict changes in forest carbon-water relations. On the basis of observed shifts in tree species composition, ongoing since the 1950s and intensified in recent years, an increase in water loss through transpiration (ranging from 10 to 60% depending on parent material) is now expected in mixed conifer forests throughout the region. Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

A Variable Impacts Measurement in Random Forest for Mobile Cloud Computing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jae-Hee Hur

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Recently, the importance of mobile cloud computing has increased. Mobile devices can collect personal data from various sensors within a shorter period of time and sensor-based data consists of valuable information from users. Advanced computation power and data analysis technology based on cloud computing provide an opportunity to classify massive sensor data into given labels. Random forest algorithm is known as black box model which is hardly able to interpret the hidden process inside. In this paper, we propose a method that analyzes the variable impact in random forest algorithm to clarify which variable affects classification accuracy the most. We apply Shapley Value with random forest to analyze the variable impact. Under the assumption that every variable cooperates as players in the cooperative game situation, Shapley Value fairly distributes the payoff of variables. Our proposed method calculates the relative contributions of the variables within its classification process. In this paper, we analyze the influence of variables and list the priority of variables that affect classification accuracy result. Our proposed method proves its suitability for data interpretation in black box model like a random forest so that the algorithm is applicable in mobile cloud computing environment.

Application of a Hybrid Forest Growth Model to Evaluate Climate Change Impacts on Productivity, Nutrient Cycling and Mortality in a Montane Forest Ecosystem.

Science.gov (United States)

Seely, Brad; Welham, Clive; Scoullar, Kim

2015-01-01

Climate change introduces considerable uncertainty in forest management planning and outcomes, potentially undermining efforts at achieving sustainable practices. Here, we describe the development and application of the FORECAST Climate model. Constructed using a hybrid simulation approach, the model includes an explicit representation of the effect of temperature and moisture availability on tree growth and survival, litter decomposition, and nutrient cycling. The model also includes a representation of the impact of increasing atmospheric CO2 on water use efficiency, but no direct CO2 fertilization effect. FORECAST Climate was evaluated for its ability to reproduce the effects of historical climate on Douglas-fir and lodgepole pine growth in a montane forest in southern British Columbia, Canada, as measured using tree ring analysis. The model was subsequently used to project the long-term impacts of alternative future climate change scenarios on forest productivity in young and established stands. There was a close association between predicted sapwood production and measured tree ring chronologies, providing confidence that model is able to predict the relative impact of annual climate variability on tree productivity. Simulations of future climate change suggest a modest increase in productivity in young stands of both species related to an increase in growing season length. In contrast, results showed a negative impact on stemwood biomass production (particularly in the case of lodgepole pine) for established stands due to increased moisture stress mortality.

Root hydraulic vulnerability regulation of whole-plant conductance along hillslope gradients within subalpine and montane forests

Science.gov (United States)

Beverly, D.; Speckman, H. N.; Ewers, B. E.

2017-12-01

Ecosystem-scale models often rely on root vulnerability or whole-plant conductance for simulating seasonal evapotranspiration declines via constraints of water uptake and vegetation mortality. Further, many of these ecosystem models rely on single, unvarying, hydraulic parameter estimates for modeling large areas. Ring-porous species have shown seasonal variability in root vulnerability (percent loss of conductivity; PLC) and whole-plant conductance (Kw) but simulations of coniferous forest typically rely on point measurements. This assumption for coniferous forest is not likely true because of seasonal variability caused by phenology and environmental stresses and the potential for cavitation fatigue is not considered. Moreover, many of these dynamics have only been considered for stems even though roots are often the most vulnerable segments of the pathway for conifers. We hypothesized that seasonally dynamic whole-plant conductance along hillslope gradients in coniferous forests are regulated by cavitation fatigue within the roots resulting in seasonal increases in vulnerability. To test the hypothesis, a subalpine mixed forest (3000 m.a.s.l) and montane forest (2550 m.a.s.l.) were monitored between 2015-2017 to quantify PLC and Kw along the hillslope gradients of 300 m and 50 m, respectively. Forest plots were instrumented with 35 Granier-type sapflow sensors. Seasonal sampling campaigns occurred to quantify PLC through centrifuge techniques and Kw through Darcy's law approximations with pre-dawn and diurnal leaf water potentials. Downslope roots exhibit a 33% decrease in maximal conductivity corresponding to the approximately 50% decrease in whole-plant conductance suggesting seasonal soil dry-down limitations within the downslope stands. Upslope stands had no to little change in root vulnerability or decrease in whole-plant conductance as soil water limitations occur immediately following snowmelt, thus limiting hydraulic conductance throughout the growing

Sequential fragmentation of Pleistocene forests in an East Africa biodiversity hotspot: chameleons as a model to track forest history.

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G John Measey

Full Text Available The Eastern Arc Mountains (EAM is an example of naturally fragmented tropical forests, which contain one of the highest known concentrations of endemic plants and vertebrates. Numerous paleo-climatic studies have not provided direct evidence for ancient presence of Pleistocene forests, particularly in the regions in which savannah presently occurs. Knowledge of the last period when forests connected EAM would provide a sound basis for hypothesis testing of vicariance and dispersal models of speciation. Dated phylogenies have revealed complex patterns throughout EAM, so we investigated divergence times of forest fauna on four montane isolates in close proximity to determine whether forest break-up was most likely to have been simultaneous or sequential, using population genetics of a forest restricted arboreal chameleon, Kinyongia boehmei.We used mitochondrial and nuclear genetic sequence data and mutation rates from a fossil-calibrated phylogeny to estimate divergence times between montane isolates using a coalescent approach. We found that chameleons on all mountains are most likely to have diverged sequentially within the Pleistocene from 0.93-0.59 Ma (95% HPD 0.22-1.84 Ma. In addition, post-hoc tests on chameleons on the largest montane isolate suggest a population expansion ∼182 Ka.Sequential divergence is most likely to have occurred after the last of three wet periods within the arid Plio-Pleistocene era, but was not correlated with inter-montane distance. We speculate that forest connection persisted due to riparian corridors regardless of proximity, highlighting their importance in the region's historic dispersal events. The population expansion coincides with nearby volcanic activity, which may also explain the relative paucity of the Taita's endemic fauna. Our study shows that forest chameleons are an apposite group to track forest fragmentation, with the inference that forest extended between some EAM during the Pleistocene 1

Influences of previous wildfires on change, resistance, and resilience to reburning in a montane southwestern landscape

Science.gov (United States)

Jonathan D. Coop; Lisa Holsinger; Sarah McClernan; Sean A. Parks

2015-01-01

Land use legacies and climate have altered fire regimes across montane forests of much of the southwestern US (Allen and others 2002), and several recent wildfires have been extremely large and severe (Dennison and others 2014). Large openings resulting from high-severity fire in former ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and mixed conifer forests may be persistent given...

How might Australian rainforest cloud interception respond to climate change?

Science.gov (United States)

Wallace, Jim; McJannet, Dave

2013-02-01

SummaryThe lower and upper montane rainforests in northern Queensland receive significant amounts of cloud interception that affect both in situ canopy wetness and downstream runoff. Cloud interception contributes 5-30% of the annual water input to the canopy and this increases to 40-70% of the monthly water input during the dry season. This occult water is therefore an important input to the canopy, sustaining the epiphytes, mosses and other species that depend on wet canopy conditions. The potential effect of climate change on cloud interception was examined using the relationship between cloud interception and cloud frequency derived from measurements made at four different rainforest locations. Any given change in cloud frequency produces a greater change in cloud interception and this 'amplification' increases from 1.1 to 1.7 as cloud frequency increases from 5% to 70%. This means that any changes in cloud frequency will have the greatest relative effects at the higher altitude sites where cloud interception is greatest. As cloud frequency is also a major factor affecting canopy wetness, any given change in cloud frequency will therefore have a greater impact on canopy wetness at the higher altitude sites. These changes in wetness duration will augment those due to changes in rainfall and may have important implications for the fauna and flora that depend on wet canopy conditions. We also found that the Australian rainforests may be more efficient (by ˜50% on average) in intercepting cloud water than American coniferous forests, which may be due to differences in canopy structure and exposure at the different sites.

Estimating seasonal variations in cloud droplet number concentration over the boreal forest from satellite observations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Janssen, R.; Ganzeveld, L.N.; Kabat, P.; Kulmala, M.; Nieminen, T.; Roebeling, R.A.

2011-01-01

Seasonal variations in cloud droplet number concentration (NCD) in low-level stratiform clouds over the boreal forest are estimated from MODIS observations of cloud optical and microphysical properties, using a sub-adiabatic cloud model to interpret vertical profiles of cloud properties. An

Deposition of mercury in forests across a montane elevation gradient: Elevational and seasonal patterns in methylmercury inputs and production

Science.gov (United States)

Gerson, Jacqueline R.; Driscoll, Charles T.; Demers, Jason D.; Sauer, Amy K.; Blackwell, Bradley D.; Montesdeoca, Mario R.; Shanley, James B.; Ross, Donald S.

2017-01-01

Global mercury contamination largely results from direct primary atmospheric and secondary legacy emissions, which can be deposited to ecosystems, converted to methylmercury, and bioaccumulated along food chains. We examined organic horizon soil samples collected across an elevational gradient on Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondack region of New York State, USA to determine spatial patterns in methylmercury concentrations across a forested montane landscape. We found that soil methylmercury concentrations were highest in the midelevation coniferous zone (0.39 ± 0.07 ng/g) compared to the higher elevation alpine zone (0.28 ± 0.04 ng/g) and particularly the lower elevation deciduous zone (0.17 ± 0.02 ng/g), while the percent of total mercury as methylmercury in soils decreased with elevation. We also found a seasonal pattern in soil methylmercury concentrations, with peak methylmercury values occurring in July. Given elevational patterns in temperature and bioavailable total mercury (derived from mineralization of soil organic matter), soil methylmercury concentrations appear to be driven by soil processing of ionic Hg, as opposed to atmospheric deposition of methylmercury. These methylmercury results are consistent with spatial patterns of mercury concentrations in songbird species observed from other studies, suggesting that future declines in mercury emissions could be important for reducing exposure of mercury to montane avian species.

Acceleration and novelty: community restoration speeds recovery and transforms species composition in Andean cloud forest.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Sarah Jane; Rhemtulla, Jeanine M

2016-01-01

Community-based tropical forest restoration projects, often promoted as a win-win solution for local communities and the environment, have increased dramatically in number in the past decade. Many such projects are underway in Andean cloud forests, which, given their extremely high biodiversity and history of extensive clearing, are understudied. This study investigates the efficacy of community-based tree-planting projects to accelerate cloud forest recovery, as compared to unassisted natural regeneration. This study takes place in northwest Andean Ecuador, where the majority of the original, highly diverse cloud forests have been cleared, in five communities that initiated tree-planting projects to restore forests in 2003. In 2011, we identified tree species along transects in planted forests (n = 5), naturally regenerating forests (n = 5), and primary forests (n = 5). We also surveyed 120 households about their restoration methods, tree preferences, and forest uses. We found that tree diversity was higher in planted than in unplanted secondary forest, but both were less diverse than primary forests. Ordination analysis showed that all three forests had distinct species compositions, although planted forests shared more species with primary forests than did unplanted forests. Planted forests also contained more animal-dispersed species in both the planted canopy and in the unplanted, regenerating understory than unplanted forests, and contained the highest proportion of species with use value for local people. While restoring forest increased biodiversity and accelerated forest recovery, restored forests may also represent novel ecosystems that are distinct from the region's previous ecosystems and, given their usefulness to people, are likely to be more common in the future.

Introducing two Random Forest based methods for cloud detection in remote sensing images

Science.gov (United States)

Ghasemian, Nafiseh; Akhoondzadeh, Mehdi

2018-07-01

Cloud detection is a necessary phase in satellite images processing to retrieve the atmospheric and lithospheric parameters. Currently, some cloud detection methods based on Random Forest (RF) model have been proposed but they do not consider both spectral and textural characteristics of the image. Furthermore, they have not been tested in the presence of snow/ice. In this paper, we introduce two RF based algorithms, Feature Level Fusion Random Forest (FLFRF) and Decision Level Fusion Random Forest (DLFRF) to incorporate visible, infrared (IR) and thermal spectral and textural features (FLFRF) including Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) and Robust Extended Local Binary Pattern (RELBP_CI) or visible, IR and thermal classifiers (DLFRF) for highly accurate cloud detection on remote sensing images. FLFRF first fuses visible, IR and thermal features. Thereafter, it uses the RF model to classify pixels to cloud, snow/ice and background or thick cloud, thin cloud and background. DLFRF considers visible, IR and thermal features (both spectral and textural) separately and inserts each set of features to RF model. Then, it holds vote matrix of each run of the model. Finally, it fuses the classifiers using the majority vote method. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms, 10 Terra MODIS and 15 Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS images with different spatial resolutions are used in this paper. Quantitative analyses are based on manually selected ground truth data. Results show that after adding RELBP_CI to input feature set cloud detection accuracy improves. Also, the average cloud kappa values of FLFRF and DLFRF on MODIS images (1 and 0.99) are higher than other machine learning methods, Linear Discriminate Analysis (LDA), Classification And Regression Tree (CART), K Nearest Neighbor (KNN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) (0.96). The average snow/ice kappa values of FLFRF and DLFRF on MODIS images (1 and 0.85) are higher than other traditional methods. The

Application of a Hybrid Forest Growth Model to Evaluate Climate Change Impacts on Productivity, Nutrient Cycling and Mortality in a Montane Forest Ecosystem.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brad Seely

Full Text Available Climate change introduces considerable uncertainty in forest management planning and outcomes, potentially undermining efforts at achieving sustainable practices. Here, we describe the development and application of the FORECAST Climate model. Constructed using a hybrid simulation approach, the model includes an explicit representation of the effect of temperature and moisture availability on tree growth and survival, litter decomposition, and nutrient cycling. The model also includes a representation of the impact of increasing atmospheric CO2 on water use efficiency, but no direct CO2 fertilization effect. FORECAST Climate was evaluated for its ability to reproduce the effects of historical climate on Douglas-fir and lodgepole pine growth in a montane forest in southern British Columbia, Canada, as measured using tree ring analysis. The model was subsequently used to project the long-term impacts of alternative future climate change scenarios on forest productivity in young and established stands. There was a close association between predicted sapwood production and measured tree ring chronologies, providing confidence that model is able to predict the relative impact of annual climate variability on tree productivity. Simulations of future climate change suggest a modest increase in productivity in young stands of both species related to an increase in growing season length. In contrast, results showed a negative impact on stemwood biomass production (particularly in the case of lodgepole pine for established stands due to increased moisture stress mortality.

Elevational Ranges of Montane Birds and Deforestation in the Western Andes of Colombia.

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Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela

Full Text Available Deforestation causes habitat loss, fragmentation, degradation, and can ultimately cause extinction of the remnant species. Tropical montane birds face these threats with the added natural vulnerability of narrower elevational ranges and higher specialization than lowland species. Recent studies assess the impact of present and future global climate change on species' ranges, but only a few of these evaluate the potentially confounding effect of lowland deforestation on species elevational distributions. In the Western Andes of Colombia, an important biodiversity hotspot, we evaluated the effects of deforestation on the elevational ranges of montane birds along altitudinal transects. Using point counts and mist-nets, we surveyed six altitudinal transects spanning 2200 to 2800 m. Three transects were forested from 2200 to 2800 m, and three were partially deforested with forest cover only above 2400 m. We compared abundance-weighted mean elevation, minimum elevation, and elevational range width. In addition to analysing the effect of deforestation on 134 species, we tested its impact within trophic guilds and habitat preference groups. Abundance-weighted mean and minimum elevations were not significantly different between forested and partially deforested transects. Range width was marginally different: as expected, ranges were larger in forested transects. Species in different trophic guilds and habitat preference categories showed different trends. These results suggest that deforestation may affect species' elevational ranges, even within the forest that remains. Climate change will likely exacerbate harmful impacts of deforestation on species' elevational distributions. Future conservation strategies need to account for this by protecting connected forest tracts across a wide range of elevations.

Elevational Ranges of Montane Birds and Deforestation in the Western Andes of Colombia.

Science.gov (United States)

Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia; Pimm, Stuart L

2015-01-01

Deforestation causes habitat loss, fragmentation, degradation, and can ultimately cause extinction of the remnant species. Tropical montane birds face these threats with the added natural vulnerability of narrower elevational ranges and higher specialization than lowland species. Recent studies assess the impact of present and future global climate change on species' ranges, but only a few of these evaluate the potentially confounding effect of lowland deforestation on species elevational distributions. In the Western Andes of Colombia, an important biodiversity hotspot, we evaluated the effects of deforestation on the elevational ranges of montane birds along altitudinal transects. Using point counts and mist-nets, we surveyed six altitudinal transects spanning 2200 to 2800 m. Three transects were forested from 2200 to 2800 m, and three were partially deforested with forest cover only above 2400 m. We compared abundance-weighted mean elevation, minimum elevation, and elevational range width. In addition to analysing the effect of deforestation on 134 species, we tested its impact within trophic guilds and habitat preference groups. Abundance-weighted mean and minimum elevations were not significantly different between forested and partially deforested transects. Range width was marginally different: as expected, ranges were larger in forested transects. Species in different trophic guilds and habitat preference categories showed different trends. These results suggest that deforestation may affect species' elevational ranges, even within the forest that remains. Climate change will likely exacerbate harmful impacts of deforestation on species' elevational distributions. Future conservation strategies need to account for this by protecting connected forest tracts across a wide range of elevations.

Estrutura arbórea da Floresta Ombrófila Densa Altomontana de serras do Sul do Brasil Tree component structure of tropical upper montane rain forests in Southern Brazil

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Maurício Bergamini Scheer

2011-12-01

Full Text Available O presente trabalho teve os objetivos de agrupar informações sobre a estrutura arbórea da floresta altomontana da Serra do Mar paranaense e de compará-las com as de florestas altomontanas de outras serras do Sul e Sudeste do Brasil. Foram realizados levantamentos fitossociológicos em diversas montanhas de quatro importantes serras (ou subserras do Paraná. Nas quatro subserras foram amostrados 2294 indivíduos (PAP > 10 cm pertencentes a 28 famílias, 43 gêneros e 78 espécies. Foi observada maior riqueza de espécies na amostragem da Serra Gigante (41 espécies, seguida pelas serras da Prata (37, da Igreja (34 e do Ibitiraquire (26. A altura média obtida para os indivíduos foi de 4,8 m, o PAP médio de 22,9 cm, a densidade média de 4779 ind/ha, a área basal média de 33,5 m²/ha e o índice de diversidade de Shannon total de 2,68 nat/ind. Agrupando informações de estudos realizados em outras subserras paranaenses, totalizando 11 levantamentos e 204 parcelas (10200 m², obteve-se uma matriz com 75 espécies determinadas, onde as cinco com maior porcentagem de importância estrutural foram Ilex microdonta, Siphoneugena reitzii, Drimys angustifolia, Ocotea porosa e Ilex chamaedrifolia. Os trechos amostrados na Serra do Mar do Paraná, apresentaram menor riqueza e diversidade que os da Serra da Mantiqueira (MG e maior que os dos Aparados da Serra Geral (SC. Tais diferenças, possivelmente, estão relacionadas às influências antrópicas, das distâncias geográficas, dos diferentes centros de endemismo, dos entornos tropicais ou subtropicais dominantes, das feições geomorfológicas, entre outros fatores.The aims of this study were: (1 to group information about the tree structure of the upper montane rain forest of Serra do Mar in the state of Paraná (PR, Southern Brazil; and (2 to compare this information with available data from other mountain ranges in Southern and Southeastern Brazil. In the four mountain ranges studied, 2294

Vegetation-zonation patterns across a temperate mountain cloud forest ecotone are not explained by variation in hydraulic functioning or water relations.

Science.gov (United States)

Berry, Z Carter; Johnson, Daniel M; Reinhardt, Keith

2015-09-01

Many studies have demonstrated linkages between the occurrence of fog and ecophysiological functioning in cloud forests, but few have investigated hydraulic functioning as a determining factor that explains sharp changes in vegetation. The objective of this study was to compare the plant water status during cloud-immersed and non-immersed conditions and hydraulic vulnerability in branches and roots of species across a temperate, mountain fog ecotone. Because cloud forests are often dark, cool and very moist, we expected cloud forest species to have less drought-tolerant characteristics (i.e., lower Pe and P50-the pressures required to induce a 12 and 50% loss in hydraulic conductivity, respectively) relative to non-cloud forest species in adjacent (lower elevation) forests. Additionally, due to the ability of cloud forest species to absorb cloud-fog water, we predicted greater improvements in hydraulic functioning during fog in cloud forest species relative to non-cloud forest species. Across the cloud forest ecotone, most species measured were very resistant to losses in conductivity with branch P50 values from -4.5 to -6.0 MPa, hydraulic safety margins (Ψmin - P50) >1.5 MPa and low calculated hydraulic conductivity losses. Roots had greater vulnerabilities, with P50 values ranging from -1.4 to -2.5 MPa, leading to greater predicted losses in conductivity (∼20%). Calculated values suggested strong losses of midday leaf hydraulic conductance in three of the four species, supporting the hydraulic segmentation hypothesis. In both cloud forest and hardwood species, Ψs were greater on foggy days than sunny days, demonstrating the importance of fog periods to plant water balance across fog regimes. Thus, frequent fog did not result in systemic changes in hydraulic functioning or vulnerability to embolism across our temperate cloud forest ecotone. Finally, roots functioned with lower hydraulic conductivity than branches, suggesting that they may serve as more

Disturbance Alters the Relative Importance of Topographic and Biogeochemical Controls on Microbial Activity in Temperate Montane Forests

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Rebecca A. Lybrand

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Fire and pathogen-induced tree mortality are the two dominant forms of disturbance in Western U.S. montane forests. We investigated the consequences of both disturbance types on the controls of microbial activity in soils from 56 plots across a topographic gradient one year after the 2012 High Park wildfire in Colorado. Topsoil biogeochemistry, soil CO2 efflux, potential exoenzyme activities, and microbial biomass were quantified in plots that experienced fire disturbance, beetle disturbance, or both fire and beetle disturbance, and in plots where there was no recent evidence of disturbance. Soil CO2 efflux, N-, and P-degrading exoenzyme activities in undisturbed plots were positively correlated with soil moisture, estimated from a topographic wetness index; coefficient of determinations ranged from 0.5 to 0.65. Conversely, the same estimates of microbial activities from fire-disturbed and beetle-disturbed soils showed little correspondence to topographically inferred wetness, but demonstrated mostly negative relationships with soil pH (fire only and mostly positive relationships with DOC/TDN (dissolved organic carbon/total dissolved nitrogen ratios for both disturbance types. The coefficient of determination for regressions of microbial activity with soil pH and DOC/TDN reached 0.8 and 0.63 in fire- and beetle-disturbed forests, respectively. Drivers of soil microbial activity change as a function of disturbance type, suggesting simple mathematical models are insufficient in capturing the impact of disturbance in forests.

Historical reconstruction of climatic and elevation preferences and the evolution of cloud forest-adapted tree ferns in Mesoamerica

OpenAIRE

Sosa, Victoria; Ornelas, Juan Francisco; Ram?rez-Barahona, Santiago; G?ndara, Etelvina

2016-01-01

Background Cloud forests, characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover and fragmented distribution, are one of the most threatened habitats, especially in the Neotropics. Tree ferns are among the most conspicuous elements in these forests, and ferns are restricted to regions in which minimum temperatures rarely drop below freezing and rainfall is high and evenly distributed around the year. Current phylogeographic data suggest that some of the cloud forest-adapted...

Impacts of cloud immersion on microclimate, photosynthesis and water relations of fraser fir in a temperate mountain cloud forest

Science.gov (United States)

Keith Reinhardt; William K. Smith

2010-01-01

The red spruce-Fraser fir ecosystem (Picea rubens Sarg.-Abies fraseri [Pursh] Poir.) of the southern Appalachian mountains is a temperate zone cloud forest immersed in clouds for 30 to 40 percent of a typical summer day, and experiencing immersion on about 65 percent of all days annually. We compared the microclimate,...

Methods for registration laser scanner point clouds in forest stands

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bienert, A.; Pech, K.; Maas, H.-G.

2011-01-01

Laser scanning is a fast and efficient 3-D measurement technique to capture surface points describing the geometry of a complex object in an accurate and reliable way. Besides airborne laser scanning, terrestrial laser scanning finds growing interest for forestry applications. These two different recording platforms show large differences in resolution, recording area and scan viewing direction. Using both datasets for a combined point cloud analysis may yield advantages because of their largely complementary information. In this paper, methods will be presented to automatically register airborne and terrestrial laser scanner point clouds of a forest stand. In a first step, tree detection is performed in both datasets in an automatic manner. In a second step, corresponding tree positions are determined using RANSAC. Finally, the geometric transformation is performed, divided in a coarse and fine registration. After a coarse registration, the fine registration is done in an iterative manner (ICP) using the point clouds itself. The methods are tested and validated with a dataset of a forest stand. The presented registration results provide accuracies which fulfill the forestry requirements [de

Interactive Trunk Extraction from Forest Point Cloud

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. Mizoguchi

2014-06-01

Full Text Available For forest management or monitoring, it is required to constantly measure several parameters of each tree, such as height, diameter at breast height, and trunk volume. Terrestrial laser scanner has been used for this purpose instead of human workers to reduce time and cost for the measurement. In order to use point cloud captured by terrestrial laser scanner in the above applications, it is an important step to extract all trees or their trunks separately. For this purpose, we propose an interactive system in which a user can intuitively and efficiently extract each trunk by a simple editing on the distance image created from the point cloud. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed system from various experiments.

Effects of model choice and forest structure on inventory-based estimations of Puerto Rican forest biomass

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas J. Brandeis; Maria Del Rocio; Suarez Rozo

2005-01-01

Total aboveground live tree biomass in Puerto Rican lower montane wet, subtropical wet, subtropical moist and subtropical dry forests was estimated using data from two forest inventories and published regression equations. Multiple potentially-applicable published biomass models existed for some forested life zones, and their estimates tended to diverge with increasing...

Recovery of goat·damaged vegetation in an insular tropical montane forest

Science.gov (United States)

Paul G. Scowcroft; Robert. Hobdy

1987-01-01

The feral goat (Capra hircus) is an alien herbivore that has wreaked havoc in island ecosystems, including the dry, rugged, and relatively inaccessible montane koa parkland on the islands of Maui and Hawai'i. The objective of the present work was to evaluate the ability of koa parkland on Maui to recover naturally from browsing damage if...

Effect of Tree-to-Shrub Type Conversion in Lower Montane Forests of the Sierra Nevada (USA) on Streamflow.

Science.gov (United States)

Bart, Ryan R; Tague, Christina L; Moritz, Max A

2016-01-01

Higher global temperatures and increased levels of disturbance are contributing to greater tree mortality in many forest ecosystems. These same drivers can also limit forest regeneration, leading to vegetation type conversion. For the Sierra Nevada of California, little is known about how type conversion may affect streamflow, a critical source of water supply for urban, agriculture and environmental purposes. In this paper, we examined the effects of tree-to-shrub type conversion, in combination with climate change, on streamflow in two lower montane forest watersheds in the Sierra Nevada. A spatially distributed ecohydrologic model was used to simulate changes in streamflow, evaporation, and transpiration following type conversion, with an explicit focus on the role of vegetation size and aspect. Model results indicated that streamflow may show negligible change or small decreases following type conversion when the difference between tree and shrub leaf areas is small, partly due to the higher stomatal conductivity and the deep rooting depth of shrubs. In contrast, streamflow may increase when post-conversion shrubs have a small leaf area relative to trees. Model estimates also suggested that vegetation change could have a greater impact on streamflow magnitude than the direct hydrologic impacts of increased temperatures. Temperature increases, however, may have a greater impact on streamflow timing. Tree-to-shrub type conversion increased streamflow only marginally during dry years (annual precipitation importance of accounting for changes in vegetation communities to accurately characterize future hydrologic regimes for the Sierra Nevada.

Impacts of disturbance initiated by road construction in a subtropical cloud forest in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico

Science.gov (United States)

Lydia P. Olander; F.N Scatena; Whendee L. Silver

1998-01-01

The impacts of road construction and the spread of exotic vegetation, which are common threats to upper elevation tropical forests, were evaluated in the subtropical cloud forests of Puerto Rico. The vegetation, soil and microclimate of 6-month-old road®lls, 35-year-old road®lls and mature forest with and without grass understories were compared. Recent road®lls had...

Jewel scarabs (Chrysina sp.) in Honduras: key species for cloud forest conservation monitoring?

Science.gov (United States)

Jocque, M; Vanhove, M P M; Creedy, T J; Burdekin, O; Nuñez-Miño, J M; Casteels, J

2013-01-01

Jewel scarabs, beetles in the genus Chrysina Kirby (Coleoptera: Rutelinae: Scarabaeidae), receive their name from the bright, often gold, green elytra that reflect light like a precious stone. Jewel scarabs are commonly observed at light traps in Mesoamerican cloud forests, and their association with mountain forests makes them potentially interesting candidates for cloud forest conservation monitoring. The absence of survey protocols and identification tools, and the little ecological information available are barriers. In the present study, collection of Chrysina species assembled during biodiversity surveys by Operation Wallacea in Cusuco National Park (CNP), Honduras, were studied. The aim of this overview is to provide an easy to use identification tool for in the field, hopefully stimulating data collection on these beetles. Based on the data associated with the collection localities, elevation distribution of the species in the park was analyzed. The limited data points available were complemented with potential distribution areas generated with distribution models based on climate and elevation data. This study is aimed at initializing the development of a survey protocol for Chrysina species that can be used in cloud forest conservation monitoring throughout Central America. A list of Chrysina species recorded from Honduras so far is provided. The six identified and one unidentified species recorded from CNP are easy to identify in the field based on color and straightforward morphological characteristics. Literature research revealed ten species currently recorded from Honduras. This low species richness in comparison with surrounding Central American countries indicates the poor knowledge of this genus in Honduras. Chrysina species richness in CNP increases with elevation, thereby making the genus one of a few groups of organisms where this correlation is observed, and rendering it a suitable invertebrate representative for cloud forest habitats in

Quantifying and Modelling the Effect of Cloud Shadows on the Surface Irradiance at Tropical and Midlatitude Forests

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Kivalov, Sergey N.; Fitzjarrald, David R.

2018-02-01

Cloud shadows lead to alternating light and dark periods at the surface, with the most abrupt changes occurring in the presence of low-level forced cumulus clouds. We examine multiyear irradiance time series observed at a research tower in a midlatitude mixed deciduous forest (Harvard Forest, Massachusetts, USA: 42.53{°}N, 72.17{°}W) and one made at a similar tower in a tropical rain forest (Tapajós National Forest, Pará, Brazil: 2.86{°}S, 54.96{°}W). We link the durations of these periods statistically to conventional meteorological reports of sky type and cloud height at the two forests and present a method to synthesize the surface irradiance time series from sky-type information. Four classes of events describing distinct sequential irradiance changes at the transition from cloud shadow and direct sunlight are identified: sharp-to-sharp, slow-to-slow, sharp-to-slow, and slow-to-sharp. Lognormal and the Weibull statistical distributions distinguish among cloudy-sky types. Observers' qualitative reports of `scattered' and `broken' clouds are quantitatively distinguished by a threshold value of the ratio of mean clear to cloudy period durations. Generated synthetic time series based on these statistics adequately simulate the temporal "radiative forcing" linked to sky type. Our results offer a quantitative way to connect the conventional meteorological sky type to the time series of irradiance experienced at the surface.

Nutrient addition modifies phosphatase activities along an altitudinal gradient in a tropical montane forest in Southern Ecuador

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Karla eDietrich

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Atmospheric nutrient deposition and climate change are expected to endanger the diversity of tropical forest ecosystems. Nitrogen (N deposition might influence nutrient fluxes beyond the N cycle by a concomitant increased demand for other nutritional elements such as phosphorus (P. Organisms might respond to the increased P demand by enhanced activity of enzymes involved in releasing inorganic P from organic matter (OM. Our aims were to assess the effect of i climate shifts (approximated by an altitudinal gradient, and ii nutrient addition (N, P, N+P on phosphatase activity (PA in organic layer and mineral soil of a tropical montane rainforest in Southern Ecuador. A nutrient manipulation experiment (NUMEX was set up along an altitudinal gradient (1000, 2000, and 3000 m a.s.l.. We determined PA and inorganic and total P concentrations. PA at 1000 m was significantly lower (mean ± standard error: 48 ± 20 µmol p-NP g-1 dm h-1 as compared to 2000 m and 3000 m (119 ± 11 and 137 ± 19, respectively. One explanation might be that very rapid decomposition of OM at 1000 m results in very thin organic layers reducing the stabilization of enzymes and thus, resulting in leaching loss of enzymes under the humid tropical climate. We found no effect of N addition on PA neither in the organic layer nor in mineral soil, probably because of the low nutrient addition rates that showed ambiguous results so far on productivity measures as a proxy for P demand. In the organic layers of P and N+P treatments, we found decreased PA and increased concentrations of inorganic P. This indicates that the surplus of inorganic P reduced the biosynthesis of phosphatase enzymes. PA in megadiverse montane rainforests is likely to be unaffected by increased atmospheric N deposition but reduced upon atmospheric P deposition.

Episodic Canopy Structural Transformations and Biological Invasion in a Hawaiian Forest

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Christopher S. Balzotti

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The remaining native forests on the Hawaiian Islands have been recognized as threatened by changing climate, increasing insect outbreak, new deadly pathogens, and growing populations of canopy structure-altering invasive species. The objective of this study was to assess long-term, net changes to upper canopy structure in sub-montane forests on the eastern slope of Mauna Kea volcano, Hawai‘i, in the context of continuing climate events, insect outbreaks, and biological invasion. We used high-resolution multi-temporal Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR data to quantify near-decadal net changes in forest canopy height and gap distributions at a critical transition between alien invaded lowland and native sub-montane forest at the end of a recent drought and host-specific insect (Scotorythra paludicola outbreak. We found that sub-montane forests have experienced a net loss in average canopy height, and therefore structure and aboveground carbon stock. Additionally, where invasive alien tree species co-dominate with native trees, the upper canopy structure became more homogeneous. Tracking the loss of forest canopy height and spatial variation with airborne LiDAR is a cost-effective way to monitor forest canopy health, and to track and quantify ecological impacts of invasive species through space and time.

Inferred effects of cloud deposition on forest floor nutrient cycling and microbial properties along a short elevation gradient

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lavoie, M.; Bradley, R.L.

2003-01-01

Higher cloud cover significantly decreases forest floor pH, decrease exchangeable cations, modifies mineral-N speciation and increases physiological stress within microbial communities. - Cloud water deposition often increases with elevation, and it is widely accepted that this cloud water increases acid loading to upland forest ecosystems. A study was undertaken in south-eastern Quebec to determine if a 250 m elevation gradient (i.e. 420-665 m), along a uniform sugar-maple stand on the slope of Mount Orford, corresponded to a pH gradient in the forest floor and to predictable changes in soil nutrient availability and microbial properties. Precipitation data from a nearby study, and a photographic survey, provided presumptive evidence that this elevation gradient corresponded to a strong gradient in cloud water deposition. Forest floor temperature did not differ significantly across elevations. Forest floor moisture content was significantly higher, whereas pH and exchangeable Ca and Mg were significantly lower, at the higher elevations. Average seasonal net nitrification rates, determined by long-term laboratory incubations, did not differ significantly across elevations, whereas average seasonal net ammonification rates were significantly higher at higher elevations. Basal respiration rates and microbial biomass did not differ significantly across elevations, but metabolic quotient was significantly higher at higher elevations indicating possible environmental stress on forest floor microbial communities due to cloud water deposition. Anaerobic N mineralisation rates were significantly higher at higher elevations suggesting that N-limited microbial communities frequently exposed to cloud cover can be important short-term sinks for atmospheric N, thereby contributing to increase the active-N fraction of forest floors. We conclude that, where no significant changes in vegetation or temperature occur, elevation gradients can still be used to understand the spatial

Effect of Tree-to-Shrub Type Conversion in Lower Montane Forests of the Sierra Nevada (USA on Streamflow.

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Ryan R Bart

Full Text Available Higher global temperatures and increased levels of disturbance are contributing to greater tree mortality in many forest ecosystems. These same drivers can also limit forest regeneration, leading to vegetation type conversion. For the Sierra Nevada of California, little is known about how type conversion may affect streamflow, a critical source of water supply for urban, agriculture and environmental purposes. In this paper, we examined the effects of tree-to-shrub type conversion, in combination with climate change, on streamflow in two lower montane forest watersheds in the Sierra Nevada. A spatially distributed ecohydrologic model was used to simulate changes in streamflow, evaporation, and transpiration following type conversion, with an explicit focus on the role of vegetation size and aspect. Model results indicated that streamflow may show negligible change or small decreases following type conversion when the difference between tree and shrub leaf areas is small, partly due to the higher stomatal conductivity and the deep rooting depth of shrubs. In contrast, streamflow may increase when post-conversion shrubs have a small leaf area relative to trees. Model estimates also suggested that vegetation change could have a greater impact on streamflow magnitude than the direct hydrologic impacts of increased temperatures. Temperature increases, however, may have a greater impact on streamflow timing. Tree-to-shrub type conversion increased streamflow only marginally during dry years (annual precipitation < 800 mm, with most streamflow change observed during wetter years. These modeling results underscore the importance of accounting for changes in vegetation communities to accurately characterize future hydrologic regimes for the Sierra Nevada.

Effect of Tree-to-Shrub Type Conversion in Lower Montane Forests of the Sierra Nevada (USA) on Streamflow

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Tague, Christina L.; Moritz, Max A.

2016-01-01

Higher global temperatures and increased levels of disturbance are contributing to greater tree mortality in many forest ecosystems. These same drivers can also limit forest regeneration, leading to vegetation type conversion. For the Sierra Nevada of California, little is known about how type conversion may affect streamflow, a critical source of water supply for urban, agriculture and environmental purposes. In this paper, we examined the effects of tree-to-shrub type conversion, in combination with climate change, on streamflow in two lower montane forest watersheds in the Sierra Nevada. A spatially distributed ecohydrologic model was used to simulate changes in streamflow, evaporation, and transpiration following type conversion, with an explicit focus on the role of vegetation size and aspect. Model results indicated that streamflow may show negligible change or small decreases following type conversion when the difference between tree and shrub leaf areas is small, partly due to the higher stomatal conductivity and the deep rooting depth of shrubs. In contrast, streamflow may increase when post-conversion shrubs have a small leaf area relative to trees. Model estimates also suggested that vegetation change could have a greater impact on streamflow magnitude than the direct hydrologic impacts of increased temperatures. Temperature increases, however, may have a greater impact on streamflow timing. Tree-to-shrub type conversion increased streamflow only marginally during dry years (annual precipitation < 800 mm), with most streamflow change observed during wetter years. These modeling results underscore the importance of accounting for changes in vegetation communities to accurately characterize future hydrologic regimes for the Sierra Nevada. PMID:27575592

Potential Distribution of Mountain Cloud Forest in Michoacán, Mexico: Prioritization for Conservation in the Context of Landscape Connectivity.

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Correa Ayram, Camilo A; Mendoza, Manuel E; Etter, Andrés; Pérez Salicrup, Diego R

2017-07-01

Landscape connectivity is essential in biodiversity conservation because of its ability to reduce the effect of habitat fragmentation; furthermore is a key property in adapting to climate change. Potential distribution models and landscape connectivity studies have increased with regard to their utility to prioritizing areas for conservation. The objective of this study was to model the potential distribution of Mountain cloud forests in the Transversal Volcanic System, Michoacán and to analyze the role of these areas in maintaining landscape connectivity. Potential distribution was modeled for the Mountain cloud forests based on the maximum entropy approach using 95 occurrence points and 17 ecological variables at 30 m spatial resolution. Potential connectivity was then evaluated by using a probability of connectivity index based on graph theory. The percentage of variation (dPCk) was used to identify the individual contribution of each potential area of Mountain cloud forests in overall connectivity. The different ways in which the potential areas of Mountain cloud forests can contribute to connectivity were evaluated by using the three fractions derived from dPCk (dPCintrak, dPCfluxk, and dPCconnectork). We determined that 37,567 ha of the TVSMich are optimal for the presence of Mountain cloud forests. The contribution of said area in the maintenance of connectivity was low. The conservation of Mountain cloud forests is indispensable, however, in providing or receiving dispersal flows through TVSMich because of its role as a connector element between another habitat types. The knowledge of the potential capacity of Mountain cloud forests to promote structural and functional landscape connectivity is key in the prioritization of conservation areas.

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Savannization of Tropical Montane Cloud Forests in the Bamenda Highlands,. Cameroon. Emmanuel N. ... that pyrogenic and anthropogenic influences have contributed to the origin and maintenance of the. Bamenda .... moist cool climate.

Effects of Increased Nitrogen Availability on C and N Cycles in Tropical Forests: A Meta-Analysis

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2015-01-01

Atmospheric N deposition is predicted to increase four times over its current status in tropical forests by 2030. Our ability to understand the effects of N enrichment on C and N cycles is being challenged by the large heterogeneity of the tropical forest biome. The specific response will depend on the forest’s nutrient status; however, few studies of N addition appear to incorporate the nutrient status in tropical forests, possibly due to difficulties in explaining how this status is maintained. We used a meta-analysis to explore the consequences of the N enrichment on C and N cycles in tropical montane and lowland forests. We tracked changes in aboveground and belowground plant C and N and in mineral soil in response to N addition. We found an increasing trend of plant biomass in montane forests, but not in lowland forests, as well as a greater increase in NO emission in montane forest compared with lowland forest. The N2O and NO emission increase in both forest; however, the N2O increase in lowland forest was significantly even at first time N addition. The NO emission increase showed be greater at first term compared with long term N addition. Moreover, the increase in total soil N, ammonium, microbial N, and dissolved N concentration under N enrichment indicates a rich N status of lowland forests. The available evidence of N addition experiments shows that the lowland forest is richer in N than montane forests. Finally, the greater increase in N leaching and N gas emission highlights the importance of study the N deposition effect on the global climate change. PMID:26633681

A new species of Phrynopus (Amphibia, Anura, Craugastoridae from upper montane forests and high Andean grasslands of the Pui Pui Protected Forest in central Peru

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Edgar Lehr

2017-11-01

Full Text Available We describe a new species of Phrynopus from the upper montane forests and high Andean grasslands (puna of the Pui Pui Protected Forest and its close surroundings (Región Junín, central Peru and compare it morphologically and genetically with other species of Phrynopus. Phrynopus inti sp. n. is known from four localities outside and two localities inside the Pui Pui Protected Forest between 3350 and 3890 m a.s.l. Studied specimens of the new species are characterized by a snout-vent length of 27.2–35.2 mm in males (n = 6, and 40.4 mm in a single female, by having the skin on dorsum and flanks smooth with scattered tubercles, venter smooth, by lacking a tympanum, and males without vocal slits and nuptial pads. In life, the dorsum is pale grayish brown with or without dark brown blotches, or dorsum blackish brown with small yellow flecks, throat, chest and venter are pale grayish brown with salmon mottling, groin is pale grayish brown with salmon colored flecks, and the iris is golden orange with fine dark brown reticulations. The new species is morphologically most similar to Phrynopus kauneorum and P. juninensis. For the latter we describe the coloration in life for a specimen obtained at the type locality. A molecular phylogenetic analysis based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences inferred that the new species is most closely related to Phrynopus kauneorum, P. miroslawae, P. tautzorum, and an undescribed species distributed at high elevation in Región Pasco, central Peru.

A new species of Phrynopus (Amphibia, Anura, Craugastoridae) from upper montane forests and high Andean grasslands of the Pui Pui Protected Forest in central Peru.

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Lehr, Edgar; von May, Rudolf; Moravec, Jiří; Cusi, Juan Carlos

2017-01-01

We describe a new species of Phrynopus from the upper montane forests and high Andean grasslands (puna) of the Pui Pui Protected Forest and its close surroundings (Región Junín, central Peru) and compare it morphologically and genetically with other species of Phrynopus . Phrynopus inti sp. n. is known from four localities outside and two localities inside the Pui Pui Protected Forest between 3350 and 3890 m a.s.l. Studied specimens of the new species are characterized by a snout-vent length of 27.2-35.2 mm in males (n = 6), and 40.4 mm in a single female, by having the skin on dorsum and flanks smooth with scattered tubercles, venter smooth, by lacking a tympanum, and males without vocal slits and nuptial pads. In life, the dorsum is pale grayish brown with or without dark brown blotches, or dorsum blackish brown with small yellow flecks, throat, chest and venter are pale grayish brown with salmon mottling, groin is pale grayish brown with salmon colored flecks, and the iris is golden orange with fine dark brown reticulations. The new species is morphologically most similar to Phrynopus kauneorum and P. juninensis . For the latter we describe the coloration in life for a specimen obtained at the type locality. A molecular phylogenetic analysis based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences inferred that the new species is most closely related to Phrynopus kauneorum , P. miroslawae , P. tautzorum , and an undescribed species distributed at high elevation in Región Pasco, central Peru.

Desirable forest structures for a restored Front Range

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Yvette L. Dickinson; Rob Addington; Greg Aplet; Mike Babler; Mike Battaglia; Peter Brown; Tony Cheng; Casey Cooley; Dick Edwards; Jonas Feinstein; Paula Fornwalt; Hal Gibbs; Megan Matonis; Kristen Pelz; Claudia Regan

2014-01-01

As part of the federal Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program administered by the US Forest Service, the Colorado Front Range Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project (FR-CFLRP, a collaborative effort of the Front Range Roundtable1 and the US Forest Service) is required to define desired conditions for lower montane ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa...

77 FR 8895 - Public Land Order No. 7788; Withdrawal of National Forest System Land for the Red Cloud...

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2012-02-15

... Land Order No. 7788; Withdrawal of National Forest System Land for the Red Cloud Campground; New Mexico... Cloud Campground within the Cibola National Forest, and to protect a capital investment in the... (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 to contact either of the above individuals during normal business hours. The...

Birds of a high-altitude cloud forest in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.

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Eisermann, Knut; Schulz, Ulrich

2005-01-01

The Northern Central American Highlands have been recognized as endemic bird area, but little is known about bird communities in Guatemalan cloud forests. From 1997 to 2001 a total of 142 bird species were recorded between 2000 and 2400 masl in cloud forest and agricultural clearings on Montaña Caquipec (Alta Verapaz, Guatemala). The bird community is described based on line transect counts within the forest. Pooling census data from undisturbed and disturbed forest, the Gray-breasted Wood-Wren (Henicorhina leucophrys) was found to be the most abundant species, followed in descending order by the Common Bush-Tanager (Chlorospingus ophthalmicus), the Paltry Tyrannulet (Zimmerius vilissimus), the Yellowish Flycatcher (Empidonax flavescens), the Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrush (Catharus frantzi), and the Amethyst-throated Hummingbird (Lampornis amethystinus). Bird communities in undisturbed and disturbed forest were found to be similar (Serensen similarity index 0.85), indicating low human impact. Of all recorded species, approximately 27% were Nearctic-Neotropical migratory birds. The most abundant one was the Wilson's Warbler (Wilsonia pusilla). The Montaña Caquipec is an important area for bird conservation, which is indicated by the presence of four species listed in the IUCN Red List (Highland Guan Penelopina nigra, Resplendent Quetzal Pharomachrus mocinno, Pink-headed Warbler Ergaticus versicolor, Golden-cheeked Warbler Dendroica chrysoparia), and 42 Mesoamerican endemics, of which 14 species are endemic to the Central American Highlands. The results presented here will be useful as baseline data for a long-term monitoring.

Diversity of the ground-dwelling ant fauna (Hymenoptera:Formicidae of a moist,montane forest of the semi-arid Brazilian "Nordeste "

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N. L Hites

2005-06-01

Full Text Available Although the so called "green islands" of the semi-arid Brazilian "Nordeste" are economically, socially, and ecologically important, relatively little is known about their biodiversity. We present the results of the first survey of the ground-dwelling ant fauna of a secondary forest in the Serra de Baturité (4° 05’ - 4° 40’ S / 38° 30’ - 39° 10’ W, among the biggest of the moist, montane forests of the state of Ceará, Brazil. From February to March 2001, samples were taken every 50 m along twelve 200 m transects, each separated from the others by at least 50 m and cut on either side of a recreational trail. Where possible, two transects were cut from the same starting point on the trail, one on either side. At each sample site two methods were used, as recommended in the ALL protocol: a pitfall trap and the treatment of 1 m² of leaf litter with the Winkler extractor. The myrmecofauna of the Serra de Baturité is quite diverse: individuals from 72 species, 23 genera, and six subfamilies were collected. The observed patterns of specific richness show the same tendencies noted in other tropical regions, particularly the frequency of capture distribution with many rare and few abundant species. Differences with the Atlantic and Amazonian forests were also observed, especially the relative importance of the Ponerinae and Formicinae subfamilies, indicating a possible influence of the surrounding "caatinga" (savanna-like ecosystem on the myrmecofauna of the moist,montane forest. Rev. Biol. Trop. 53(1-2:165-173. Epub 2005 Jun 24Se presentan los resultados del primer inventario de la mirmecofauna del suelo en un parche de bosque montano húmedo del "Nordeste" semi-árido brasileño. Aunque estos parches o "islas verdes" son importantes económica, social, y ecológicamente, se conoce relativamente poco acerca de su biodiversidad. La investigación fue llevada a cabo en un bosque secundario en la Serra de Baturité, uno de los mayores del

Cold tolerance and photosystem function in a montane red spruce population: physiological relationships with foliar carbohydrates

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P.G. Shaberg; G.R. Strimbeck; G.J. Hawley; D.H. DeHayes; J.B. Shane; P.F. Murakami; T.D. Perkins; J.R. Donnelly; B.L. Wong

2000-01-01

Red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) growing in northern montane forests of eastern North America appears to be distinctive with respect to at least two aspects of winter physiology. First, red spruce attains only a modest level of midwinter cold tolerance compared to other north temperate conifers and appears barely capable of avoiding freezing injury at...

Water dynamics in a laurel montane cloud forest in the Garajonay National Park (Canary Islands, Spain)

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García-Santos, G.; Marzol, M. V.; Aschan, G.

Field measurements from February 2003 to January 2004 in a humid (but dry in summer) crest heath wood-land (degraded laurel forest) in the National Park of Garajonay, Canary Islands (Spain), were combined to calculate water balance components. The water balance domain is at the surface of the catchment and is controlled by atmospheric processes and vegetation. This study found that annual water income (rainfall plus fog water) was 1440 mm year-1, half of which was occult (or fog) precipitation, while stand transpiration estimated from measurements of sap flow amounted, annually, to 40% of potential evapotranspiration calculated from measurements of meteorological variables. The positive role of crest laurel forests, which transpire less water than is incoming from rain and fog is emphasised.

Ecological contingency in the effects of climatic warming on forest herb communities

Science.gov (United States)

Harrison, Susan; Damschen, Ellen Ingman; Grace, James B.

2010-01-01

Downscaling from the predictions of general climate models is critical to current strategies for mitigating species loss caused by climate change. A key impediment to this downscaling is that we lack a fully developed understanding of how variation in physical, biological, or land-use characteristics mediates the effects of climate change on ecological communities within regions. We analyzed change in understory herb communities over a 60-y period (1949/1951–2007/2009) in a complex montane landscape (the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon) where mean temperatures have increased 2 °C since 1948, similar to projections for other terrestrial communities. Our 185 sites included primary and secondary-growth lower montane forests (500–1.200 m above sea level) and primary upper montane to subalpine forests (1,500–2,100 m above sea level). In lower montane forests, regardless of land-use history, we found multiple herb-community changes consistent with an effectively drier climate, including lower mean specific leaf area, lower relative cover by species of northern biogeographic affinity, and greater compositional resemblance to communities in southerly topographic positions. At higher elevations we found qualitatively different and more modest changes, including increases in herbs of northern biogeographic affinity and in forest canopy cover. Our results provide community-level validation of predicted nonlinearities in climate change effects.

A new species of Psychrophrynella (Amphibia, Anura, Craugastoridae from the humid montane forests of Cusco, eastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes

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Alessandro Catenazzi

2016-03-01

Full Text Available We describe a new species of Psychrophrynella from the humid montane forest of the Department Cusco in Peru. Specimens were collected at 2,670–3,165 m elevation in the Área de Conservación Privada Ukumari Llakta, Japumayo valley, near Comunidad Campesina de Japu, in the province of Paucartambo. The new species is readily distinguished from all other species of Psychrophrynella but P. bagrecito and P. usurpator by possessing a tubercle on the inner edge of the tarsus, and from these two species by its yellow ventral coloration on abdomen and limbs. Furthermore, the new species is like P. bagrecito and P. usurpator in having an advertisement call composed of multiple notes, whereas other species of Psychrophrynella whose calls are known have a pulsed call (P. teqta or a short, tonal call composed of a single note. The new species has a snout-vent length of 16.1–24.1 mm in males and 23.3–27.7 mm in females. Like other recently described species in the genus, this new Psychrophrynella inhabits high-elevation forests in the tropical Andes and likely has a restricted geographic distribution.

[Contribution of tropical upland forests to carbon storage in Colombia].

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Yepes, Adriana; Herrera, Johana; Phillips, Juan; Galindo, Gustavo; Granados, Edwin; Duque, Alvaro; Barbosa, Adriana; Olarte, Claudia; Cardona, María

2015-03-01

The tropical montane forests in the Colombian Andean region are located above 1500 m, and have been heavily deforested. Despite the general presumption that productivity and hence carbon stocks in these ecosystems are low, studies in this regard are scarce. This study aimed to (i) to estimate Above Ground Biomass (AGB) in forests located in the South of the Colombian Andean region, (ii) to identify the carbon storage potential of tropical montane forests dominated by the black oak Colombobalanus excelsa and to identify the relationship between AGB and altitude, and (iii) to analyze the role of tropical mountain forests in conservation mechanisms such as Payment for Environmental Services (PES) and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+). Twenty six 0.25 ha plots were randomly distributed in the forests and all trees with D > or =10 cm were measured. The results provided important elements for understanding the role of tropical montane forests as carbon sinks. The information produced can be used in subnational initiatives, which seek to mitigate or reduce the effects of deforestation through management or conservation of these ecosystems, like REDD+ or PES. The AGB and carbon stocks results obtained were similar to those reported for lowland tropical forests. These could be explained by the dominance and abundance of C. excelsa, which accounted for over 81% of AGB/carbon. The error associated with the estimates of AGB/carbon was 10.58%. We found a negative and significant relationship between AGB and altitude, but the higher AGB values were in middle altitudes (approximatly = 700-1800 m), where the environmental conditions could be favorable to their growth. The carbon storage potential of these forests was higher. However, if the historical rate of the deforestation in the study area continues, the gross emissions of CO2e to the atmosphere could turn these forests in to an important emissions source. Nowadays, it is clear that tropical

Altered dynamics of broad-leaved tree species in a Chinese subtropical montane mixed forest: the role of an anomalous extreme 2008 ice storm episode.

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Ge, Jielin; Xiong, Gaoming; Wang, Zhixian; Zhang, Mi; Zhao, Changming; Shen, Guozhen; Xu, Wenting; Xie, Zongqiang

2015-04-01

Extreme climatic events can trigger gradual or abrupt shifts in forest ecosystems via the reduction or elimination of foundation species. However, the impacts of these events on foundation species' demography and forest dynamics remain poorly understood. Here we quantified dynamics for both evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved species groups, utilizing a monitoring permanent plot in a subtropical montane mixed forest in central China from 2001 to 2010 with particular relevance to the anomalous 2008 ice storm episode. We found that both species groups showed limited floristic alterations over the study period. For each species group, size distribution of dead individuals approximated a roughly irregular and flat shape prior to the ice storm and resembled an inverse J-shaped distribution after the ice storm. Furthermore, patterns of mortality and recruitment displayed disequilibrium behaviors with mortality exceeding recruitment for both species groups following the ice storm. Deciduous broad-leaved species group accelerated overall diameter growth, but the ice storm reduced evergreen small-sized diameter growth. We concluded that evergreen broad-leaved species were more susceptible to ice storms than deciduous broad-leaved species, and ice storm events, which may become more frequent with climate change, might potentially threaten the perpetuity of evergreen-dominated broad-leaved forests in this subtropical region in the long term. These results underscore the importance of long-term monitoring that is indispensible to elucidate causal links between forest dynamics and climatic perturbations.

Flammulated Owls (Otus flammeolus) breeding in deciduous forests

Science.gov (United States)

Carl D. Marti

1997-01-01

The first studies of nesting Flammulated Owls (Otus flammeolus) established the idea that the species needs ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests for breeding. In northern Utah, Flammulated Owls nested in montane deciduous forests dominated by quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides). No pines were present but...

Historical reconstruction of climatic and elevation preferences and the evolution of cloud forest-adapted tree ferns in Mesoamerica.

Science.gov (United States)

Sosa, Victoria; Ornelas, Juan Francisco; Ramírez-Barahona, Santiago; Gándara, Etelvina

2016-01-01

Cloud forests, characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover and fragmented distribution, are one of the most threatened habitats, especially in the Neotropics. Tree ferns are among the most conspicuous elements in these forests, and ferns are restricted to regions in which minimum temperatures rarely drop below freezing and rainfall is high and evenly distributed around the year. Current phylogeographic data suggest that some of the cloud forest-adapted species remained in situ or expanded to the lowlands during glacial cycles and contracted allopatrically during the interglacials. Although the observed genetic signals of population size changes of cloud forest-adapted species including tree ferns correspond to predicted changes by Pleistocene climate change dynamics, the observed patterns of intraspecific lineage divergence showed temporal incongruence. Here we combined phylogenetic analyses, ancestral area reconstruction, and divergence time estimates with climatic and altitudinal data (environmental space) for phenotypic traits of tree fern species to make inferences about evolutionary processes in deep time. We used phylogenetic Bayesian inference and geographic and altitudinal distribution of tree ferns to investigate ancestral area and elevation and environmental preferences of Mesoamerican tree ferns. The phylogeny was then used to estimate divergence times and ask whether the ancestral area and elevation and environmental shifts were linked to climatic events and historical climatic preferences. Bayesian trees retrieved Cyathea, Alsophyla, Gymnosphaera and Sphaeropteris in monophyletic clades. Splits for species in these genera found in Mesoamerican cloud forests are recent, from the Neogene to the Quaternary, Australia was identified as the ancestral area for the clades of these genera, except for Gymnosphaera that was Mesoamerica. Climate tolerance was not divergent from hypothesized ancestors for the most significant

Historical reconstruction of climatic and elevation preferences and the evolution of cloud forest-adapted tree ferns in Mesoamerica

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victoria Sosa

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Background Cloud forests, characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover and fragmented distribution, are one of the most threatened habitats, especially in the Neotropics. Tree ferns are among the most conspicuous elements in these forests, and ferns are restricted to regions in which minimum temperatures rarely drop below freezing and rainfall is high and evenly distributed around the year. Current phylogeographic data suggest that some of the cloud forest-adapted species remained in situ or expanded to the lowlands during glacial cycles and contracted allopatrically during the interglacials. Although the observed genetic signals of population size changes of cloud forest-adapted species including tree ferns correspond to predicted changes by Pleistocene climate change dynamics, the observed patterns of intraspecific lineage divergence showed temporal incongruence. Methods Here we combined phylogenetic analyses, ancestral area reconstruction, and divergence time estimates with climatic and altitudinal data (environmental space for phenotypic traits of tree fern species to make inferences about evolutionary processes in deep time. We used phylogenetic Bayesian inference and geographic and altitudinal distribution of tree ferns to investigate ancestral area and elevation and environmental preferences of Mesoamerican tree ferns. The phylogeny was then used to estimate divergence times and ask whether the ancestral area and elevation and environmental shifts were linked to climatic events and historical climatic preferences. Results Bayesian trees retrieved Cyathea, Alsophyla, Gymnosphaera and Sphaeropteris in monophyletic clades. Splits for species in these genera found in Mesoamerican cloud forests are recent, from the Neogene to the Quaternary, Australia was identified as the ancestral area for the clades of these genera, except for Gymnosphaera that was Mesoamerica. Climate tolerance was not divergent from

Chemical Speciation of Water Soluble Ions and Metals of Cloud and Rain Water During the Puerto Rico African Dust and Clouds Study (PRADACS) Campaigns

Science.gov (United States)

Torres, E.; Valle Diaz, C. J.; Lee, T.; Collett, J. L.; Fitzgerald, E.; Cuadra-Rodriguez, L. A.; Prather, K. A.; Sánchez, M.; McDowell, W. H.; Mayol-Bracero, O. L.

2013-05-01

The underlying physico-chemical processes of dust particles interactions are poorly understood; even less understood is how aging impacts cloud properties and climate as the particles travel from Africa to the Caribbean region. Caribbean landmasses have tropical montane cloud forests (TMCFs) that are tightly coupled to the atmospheric hydrologic cycle. TMCFs are ecosystems to study the effects African Dust (AD) on cloud formation and precipitation as these are very sensitive ecosystems that respond to small changes in climate. As part of the Puerto Rico African Dust and Clouds Study (PRADACS), chemical analyses were performed on cloud and rain water samples collected at Pico del Este (PE) station in Luquillo, PR (1051 masl) during campaigns held from 2010 to 2012. At PE, two cloud collectors (i.e., single stage (Aluminum version), a 2-stage (Teflon version) Caltech Active Strand Cloudwater Collector (CASCC)), a rainwater collector, and anAerosol Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (ATOFMS) were operated. Chemical analyses performed on collected samples include pH, conductivity, ion chromatography (IC), and inductive coupled plasma (ICP). Results from these campaigns showed that on days that had air masses with the influence of AD, cloud water samples had higher conductivity and pH values on average (up to 5.7 and 180μS/cm, respectively) than those with air masses without AD influence. An increase in the concentrations of water-soluble ions like non-sea salt calcium and magnesium, and metals like magnesium, calcium and aluminum was observed and the appearance of iron was seen on ICP analyses. The ATOFMS, showed an increase on the amount of particles during AD influence with composition of aluminum, silicates, potassium, iron and titanium aerosols. The increase on the aforementioned species was constant in the three years of sampling, which give us confidence in the identification of the chemical species that are present during the influence of AD.

Successional dynamics and restoration implications of a montane coniferous forest in the central Appalachians, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas M. Schuler; Rachel J. Collins

2002-01-01

Central Appalachian montane red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) communities have been greatly reduced in extent and functional quality over the past century. This community decline has put several plant and animal species, such as the endangered Virginia northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus fuscus Shaw), at risk from habitat...

Influence of meteorological parameters on interception of cloud droplets in a coniferous forest

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kroll, G; Winkler, P [Deutscher Wetterdienst, Meteorologisches Observatorium Hamburg (Germany, F.R.)

1989-11-01

The deposition of trace substances in a high elevated coniferous forest by interception of cloud droplets depends on numerous meteorological parameters. Sensitivity studies with a deposition model show that the variation of the vertical wind profile in the stand and the capture efficiency have a large influence on the deposition flux. Different drop size distributions with equal LWC's lead to changes of only 10% in the deposition flux. A higher ion concentration in small droplets has only a small influence on the trace substance deposition. A realistic estimate of the deposition is most likely achieved by using hourly observed meteorological parameters as model input values. The deposition of trace substances into a high elevated coniferous forest by interception of cloud droplets can be as high as the deposition via rain. (orig.).

Dynamics of leaf litter humidity, depth and quantity: two restoration strategies failed to mimic ground microhabitat conditions of a low montane and premontane forest in Costa Rica

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zaidett Barrientos

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Little is known about how restoration strategies affect aspects like leaf litter’s quantity, depth and humidity. I analyzed leaf litter’s quantity, depth and humidity yearly patterns in a primary tropical lower montane wet forest and two restored areas: a 15 year old secondary forest (unassisted restoration and a 40 year old Cupressus lusitanica plantation (natural understory. The three habitats are located in the Río Macho Forest Reserve, Costa Rica. Twenty litter samples were taken every three months (April 2009-April 2010 in each habitat; humidity was measured in 439g samples (average, depth and quantity were measured in five points inside 50x50cm plots. None of the restoration strategies reproduced the primary forest leaf litter humidity, depth and quantity yearly patterns. Primary forest leaf litter humidity was higher and more stable (x=73.2, followed by secondary forest (x=63.3 and cypress plantation (x=52.9 (Kruskall-Wallis=77.93, n=232, p=0.00. In the primary (Kruskal-Wallis=31.63, n=78, p<0.001 and secondary (Kruskal-Wallis=11.79, n=75, p=0.008 forest litter accumulation was higher during April due to strong winds. In the primary forest (Kruskal-wallis=21.83, n=78, p<0.001 and the cypress plantation (Kruskal-wallis=39.99, n=80, p<0.001 leaf litter depth was shallow in October because heavy rains compacted it. Depth patterns were different from quantity patterns and described the leaf litter’s structure in different ecosystems though the year.

Biogeographic links between southern Atlantic Forest and western South America: Rediscovery, re-description, and phylogenetic relationships of two rare montane anole lizards from Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Prates, Ivan; Melo-Sampaio, Paulo Roberto; Drummond, Leandro de Oliveira; Teixeira, Mauro; Rodrigues, Miguel Trefaut; Carnaval, Ana Carolina

2017-08-01

Data on species ranges and phylogenetic relationships are key in historical biogeographical inference. In South America, our understanding of the evolutionary processes that underlie biodiversity patterns varies greatly across regions. Little is known, for instance, about the drivers of high endemism in the southern montane region of the Atlantic Rainforest. In this region, former biogeographic connections with other South American ecosystems have been invoked to explain the phylogenetic affinities of a number of endemic taxa. This may also be the case of the montane anole lizards Anolis nasofrontalis and A. pseudotigrinus, known from few specimens collected more than 40years ago. We combine new genetic data with published sequences of species in the Dactyloa clade of Anolis to investigate the phylogenetic relationships of A. nasofrontalis and A. pseudotigrinus, as well as estimate divergence times from their closest relatives. Based on newly sampled and previously overlooked specimens, we provide a taxonomic re-description of those two taxa. Our phylogenetic analysis recovered six main clades within Dactyloa, five of which were previously referred to as species series (aequatorialis, heterodermus, latifrons, punctatus, roquet). A sixth clade clustered A. nasofrontalis and A. pseudotigrinus with A. dissimilis from western Amazonia, A. calimae from the Andes, A. neblininus from the Guiana Shield, and two undescribed Andean taxa. We therefore define a sixth species series within Dactyloa: the neblininus series. Close phylogenetic relationships between highly disjunct, narrowly-distributed anoles suggest that patches of suitable habitat connected the southern Atlantic Forest to western South America during the Miocene, in agreement with the age of former connections between the central Andes and the Brazilian Shield as a result of Andean orogeny. The data also support the view of recurrent evolution (or loss) of a twig anole-like phenotype in mainland anoles, in

Camera trap survey of medium and large mammals in a montane rainforest of northern Peru

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos F. Jiménez

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Camera traps are a powerful tool for inventorying elusive and rare species and very useful to obtain ecologi- cal data for plans that involve wildlife conservation. In Peru, several surveys have been carried out in lowland Amazonia especially in the southeastern part of the country, but none in montane cloud forests or Yungas. We present the first camera trap studies produced in Peruvian Yungas at the locality of Querocoto village (Chota, Cajamarca, based on 2002 (dry season and 1264 (wet season camera traps-days (CTD. Two localities were surveyed in wet and dry season: The Pagaibamba Protection Forest and the San Lorenzo Forest. The wet season study was carried out in October and November, and the dry season in July to September of 2008. Eight mammalian species were recorded in both seasons. Some 66 (91.7% independent records were obtained in the dry season, but only six (8.3% in the wet one, suggesting a seasonality effect. The Mountain Paca Cunicu- lus taczanowskii was the most commonly photographed species, with 17.0 and 1.6 capture frequencies (dry and wet season respectively, whereas the Long-tailed weasel Mustela frenata (0.5 capture frequency in the dry season was the most rare species. Activity patterns suggest that Mountain Paca C. taczanowskii and the Andean Skunk C. chinga are nocturnal, while Spectacled Bear T. ornatus and Tayra E. barbara are diurnal in the study area. Our records of the Ocelot Leopardus pardalis and the Tayra E. barbara are among the highest altitudinal records known for each species. In addition, the Anta Tapirus pinchaque was also identified by its tracks, representing one of the first record known south of the Huancabamba Depression.

Structure, richness and composition of arboreal plants in a cloud thinning forest of Tolima (Colombia)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Campo Kurmen, Juan Manuel

2010-01-01

Structure, richness, and floristic composition of the woody elements of the selective logging forest of the Vereda Dantas, (Ibague, Tolima, Colombia), where studied in a 0.1 ha plot sampled for all individuals ≥2.5 cm dbh. the forest is characterized by scarcity of lianas and hemiepiphytic, absence of typical families of the Colombian cloud forests between 2000 and 2500 m (Araceae, Ericaceae, Myrtaceae, Meliaceae and Aquifoliaceae), and richness increment of the Sabiaceae and Euphorbiaceae. Compared to others cloud forest from the Colombian Andes and the Neotropic, it has, fewer individuals (237 individuals ≥2.5 cm dbh per 0.1 ha) and more large trees (39.7% of individuals ≥10 cm dbh per 0.1 ha). The forest has a lower woody species richness (75 species ≥2.5 cm dbh per 0.1 ha). Apparently, the effects of selective timber extraction on structure, richness, and floristic composition are decrease floristic richness and density of individuals, decrease of lianas density and richness, and more individuals of secondary species, likes: Hedyosmum goudotianum Slms-Laubach var. goudatianum, Miconia resima Naud, and Palicourea calophlebia Standl.

Quantifying Structural and Compositional Changes in Forest Cover in NW Yunnan, China

Science.gov (United States)

Hakkenberg, C.

2012-12-01

NW Yunnan, China is a region renowned for high levels of biodiversity, endemism and genetically distinct refugial plant populations. It is also a focal area for China's national reforestation efforts like the Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP), intended to control erosion in the Upper Yangtze watershed. As part of a larger project to investigate the role of reforestation programs in facilitating the emergence of increasingly species-rich forest communities on a previously degraded and depauperate land mosaic in montane SW China, this study uses a series of Landsat TM images to quantify the spatial pattern and rate of structural and compositional change in forests recovering from medium to large-scale disturbances in the area over the past 25 years. Beyond the fundamental need to assess the outcomes of one of the world's largest reforestation programs, this research offers approaches to confronting two critical methodological issues: (1) techniques for characterizing subtle changes in the nature of vegetation cover, and (2) reducing change detection uncertainty due to persistent cloud cover and shadow. To address difficulties in accurately assessing the structure and composition of vegetative regrowth, a biophysical model was parameterized with over 300 ground-truthed canopy cover assessment points to determine pattern and rate of long-term vegetation changes. To combat pervasive shadow and cloud cover, an interactive generalized additive model (GAM) model based on topographic and spatial predictors was used to overcome some of the constraints of satellite image analysis in Himalayan regions characterized by extreme topography and extensive cloud cover during the summer monsoon. The change detection is assessed for accuracy using ground-truthed observations in a variety of forest cover types and topographic positions. Results indicate effectiveness in reducing the areal extent of unclassified regions and increasing total change detection accuracy. In addition

First experimental evidence for carbon starvation at warm temperatures in epiphytic orchids of tropical cloud forests

Science.gov (United States)

Hoch, Guenter; Roemer, Helena; Fioroni, Tiffany; Olmedo, Inayat; Kahmen, Ansgar

2017-04-01

Tropical cloud forests are among the most climate sensitive ecosystems world-wide. The lack of a strong seasonality and the additional dampening of temperature fluctuations by the omnipresence of clouds and fog produce year-round constant climatic conditions. With climate change the presence of clouds and fog is, however, predicted to be reduced. The disappearance of the cooling fog cover will have dramatic consequences for air temperatures, that are predicted to increase locally well over 5 °C by the end of the 21st century. Especially the large number of endemic epiphytic orchids in tropical cloud forests that contribute substantially to the biological diversity of these ecosystems, but are typically adapted to a very narrow climate envelope, are speculated to be very sensitive to the anticipated rise in temperature. In a phytotron experiment we investigated the effect of increasing temperatures on the carbon balance (gas-exchange and the carbon reserve household) of 10 epiphytic orchid species from the genera Dracula, native to tropical, South-American cloud forests. The orchids were exposed to three temperature treatments: i) a constant temperature treatment (23°C/13°C, day/night) simulating natural conditions, ii) a slow temperature ramp of +0.75 K every 10 days, and iii) a fast temperature ramp of +1.5 K every 10 days. CO2 leaf gas-exchanges was determined every 10 days, and concentrations of low molecular weight sugars and starch were analyses from leaf samples throughout the experiment. We found that increasing temperatures had only minor effects on day-time leaf respiration, but led to a moderate increase of respiration during night-time. In contrast to the rather minor effects of higher temperatures on respiration, there was a dramatic decline of net-photosynthesis above day-time temperatures of 29°C, and a complete stop of net-carbon uptake at 33°C in all investigated species. This high sensitivity of photosynthesis to warming was independent of the

Tertiary montane origin of the Central Asian flora, evidence inferred from cpDNA sequences of Atraphaxis (Polygonaceae)

Science.gov (United States)

Ming-Li Zhang; Stewart C. Sanderson; Yan-Xia Sun; Byalt V. Vyacheslav; Xiao-Li Hao

2014-01-01

Atraphaxis has approximately 25 species and a distribution center in Central Asia. It has been previously used to hypothesize an origin from montane forest. We sampled 18 species covering three sections within the genus and sequenced five cpDNA spacers, atpB-rbcL, psbK-psbI, psbAtrnH, rbcL, and trnL-trnF. BEAST was used to reconstruct phylogenetic relationship and time...

Temporal and spatial patterns in the emigrations of the army ant Dorylus (Anomma) molestus in the montane forest of Mt Kenya

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schöning, Caspar; Njagi, Washington M.; Franks, Nigel R.

2005-01-01

1. The emigration behaviour of the army ant Dorylus (Anomma) molestus was studied in the montane forest of Mt Kenya. This species forages by massive swarm raids (mean width 10.3 m ± 4.6 m SD), which are assumed to have a strong negative impact on the densities of prey populations. 2. For non......, the emigration direction is influenced by the location of the nearest neighbour. Colonies typically emigrate directly away from their nearest neighbour. 5. Local food depletion is likely to be the ultimate cause for emigrations in this species, because emigration distance is larger than foraging range...... and colonies move away from their nearest neighbour. A small percentage of emigrations may be triggered by pangolin attacks on nests. 6. Contrary to the prediction of a recently developed mathematical model for epigaeic swarm-raiding Dorylus (Anomma) species, D. (A.) molestus colonies do not engage...

Water relations and microclimate around the upper limit of a cloud forest in Maui, Hawai'i.

Science.gov (United States)

Gotsch, Sybil G; Crausbay, Shelley D; Giambelluca, Thomas W; Weintraub, Alexis E; Longman, Ryan J; Asbjornsen, Heidi; Hotchkiss, Sara C; Dawson, Todd E

2014-07-01

The goal of this study was to determine the effects of atmospheric demand on both plant water relations and daily whole-tree water balance across the upper limit of a cloud forest at the mean base height of the trade wind inversion in the tropical trade wind belt. We measured the microclimate and water relations (sap flow, water potential, stomatal conductance, pressure-volume relations) of Metrosideros polymorpha Gaudich. var. polymorpha in three habitats bracketing the cloud forest's upper limit in Hawai'i to understand the role of water relations in determining ecotone position. The subalpine shrubland site, located 100 m above the cloud forest boundary, had the highest vapor pressure deficit, the least amount of rainfall and the highest levels of nighttime transpiration (EN) of all three sites. In the shrubland site, on average, 29% of daily whole-tree transpiration occurred at night, while on the driest day of the study 50% of total daily transpiration occurred at night. While EN occurred in the cloud forest habitat, the proportion of total daily transpiration that occurred at night was much lower (4%). The average leaf water potential (Ψleaf) was above the water potential at the turgor loss point (ΨTLP) on both sides of the ecotone due to strong stomatal regulation. While stomatal closure maintained a high Ψleaf, the minimum leaf water potential (Ψleafmin) was close to ΨTLP, indicating that drier conditions may cause drought stress in these habitats and may be an important driver of current landscape patterns in stand density. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Object-Based Coregistration of Terrestrial Photogrammetric and ALS Point Clouds in Forested Areas

Science.gov (United States)

Polewski, P.; Erickson, A.; Yao, W.; Coops, N.; Krzystek, P.; Stilla, U.

2016-06-01

Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) and terrestrial photogrammetry are methods applicable for mapping forested environments. While ground-based techniques provide valuable information about the forest understory, the measured point clouds are normally expressed in a local coordinate system, whose transformation into a georeferenced system requires additional effort. In contrast, ALS point clouds are usually georeferenced, yet the point density near the ground may be poor under dense overstory conditions. In this work, we propose to combine the strengths of the two data sources by co-registering the respective point clouds, thus enriching the georeferenced ALS point cloud with detailed understory information in a fully automatic manner. Due to markedly different sensor characteristics, coregistration methods which expect a high geometric similarity between keypoints are not suitable in this setting. Instead, our method focuses on the object (tree stem) level. We first calculate approximate stem positions in the terrestrial and ALS point clouds and construct, for each stem, a descriptor which quantifies the 2D and vertical distances to other stem centers (at ground height). Then, the similarities between all descriptor pairs from the two point clouds are calculated, and standard graph maximum matching techniques are employed to compute corresponding stem pairs (tiepoints). Finally, the tiepoint subset yielding the optimal rigid transformation between the terrestrial and ALS coordinate systems is determined. We test our method on simulated tree positions and a plot situated in the northern interior of the Coast Range in western Oregon, USA, using ALS data (76 x 121 m2) and a photogrammetric point cloud (33 x 35 m2) derived from terrestrial photographs taken with a handheld camera. Results on both simulated and real data show that the proposed stem descriptors are discriminative enough to derive good correspondences. Specifically, for the real plot data, 24

Species association in tropical montane rain forest at two successional stages in Diaoluo Mountain, Hainan

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Fude LIU; Wenjin WANG; Ming ZHANG; Jianwei ZHENG; Zhongsheng WANG; Shiting ZHANG; Wenjie YANG; Shuqing AN

2008-01-01

Species association is one of the basic concepts in community succession. There are different viewpoints on how species interaction changes with the progress of succession. In order to assess these relationships, we examined species associations in the tropical montane rain forest at early and late successional stages in Diaoluo Mountain, Hainan Island. Based on data from a 2 × 2 contingency table of species presence or absence, statist-ical methods including analysis of species association and χ2 tests were applied. The results show that: 1) an overall positive association was present among tree species in the communities during the two successional stages and were statistically significant at the late stage. The number of species pairs with positive and negative associations decreased throughout the process of succession, while the number with null associations was greatly increased. The same trend existed among the dominant and compan-ion species. The results indicate that the communities are developing towards a stable stage where the woody species coexist in harmony. 2) In the early-established and later invading species, all positive associations were not signifi-cant. Compared with positive and null associations, fewer negative associations were found. This implies that these species are inclined to coexist independently through por-tioning of resources. 3) Among the later invading species, positive associations were significant and no negative associations were found which suggest that these species have similar adaptive ability in the habitat and occupied overlapping niches in the community.

Small mammals from the Chelemhá Cloud Forest Reserve, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala

Science.gov (United States)

Matson, Jason O.; Ordóñez-Garza, Nicté; Woodman, Neal; Bulmer, Walter; Eckerlin, Ralph P.; Hanson, J. Delton

2014-01-01

We surveyed the small mammals of remnant mixed hardwood-coniferous cloud forest at elevations ranging from 2,100–2,300 m in the Chelemhá Cloud Forest Reserve, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Removal-trapping using a combination of live traps, snap traps, and pitfall traps for 6 days in January 2007 resulted in 175 captures of 15 species of marsupials, shrews, and rodents. This diversity of small mammals is the highest that we have recorded from a single locality of the 10 visited during eight field seasons in the highlands of Guatemala. Based on captures, the most abundant species in the community of small mammals is Peromyscus grandis (n = 50), followed by Handleyomys rhabdops (n = 27), Heteromys desmarestianus(n = 18), Reithrodontomys mexicanus (n = 17), Handleyomys saturatior (n = 16), Sorex veraepacis (n = 15), and Scotinomys teguina (n = 13). The remaining eight species were represented by one to five individuals.

The arboreal component of a dry forest in Northeastern Brazil

OpenAIRE

Rodal,M. J. N.; Nascimento,L. M.

2006-01-01

The dry forests of northeastern Brazil are found near the coastal zone and on low, isolated mountains inland amid semi-arid vegetation. The floristic composition of these dry montane forests, as well as their relationship to humid forests (Atlantic forest sensu stricto) and to the deciduous thorn woodlands (Caatinga sensu stricto) of the Brazilian northeast are not yet well known. This paper sought to determine if the arboreal plants in a dry forest growing on a low mountain in the semi-arid ...

Large-scale patterns of turnover and Basal area change in Andean forests.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Selene Báez

Full Text Available General patterns of forest dynamics and productivity in the Andes Mountains are poorly characterized. Here we present the first large-scale study of Andean forest dynamics using a set of 63 permanent forest plots assembled over the past two decades. In the North-Central Andes tree turnover (mortality and recruitment and tree growth declined with increasing elevation and decreasing temperature. In addition, basal area increased in Lower Montane Moist Forests but did not change in Higher Montane Humid Forests. However, at higher elevations the lack of net basal area change and excess of mortality over recruitment suggests negative environmental impacts. In North-Western Argentina, forest dynamics appear to be influenced by land use history in addition to environmental variation. Taken together, our results indicate that combinations of abiotic and biotic factors that vary across elevation gradients are important determinants of tree turnover and productivity in the Andes. More extensive and longer-term monitoring and analyses of forest dynamics in permanent plots will be necessary to understand how demographic processes and woody biomass are responding to changing environmental conditions along elevation gradients through this century.

Increases in mean annual temperature do not alter soil bacterial community structure in tropical montane wet forests

Science.gov (United States)

Paul C. Selmants; Karen L. Adair; Creighton M. Litton; Christian P. Giardina; Egbert Schwartz

2016-01-01

Soil bacteria play a key role in regulating terrestrial biogeochemical cycling and greenhouse gas fluxes across the soil-atmosphere continuum. Despite their importance to ecosystem functioning, we lack a general understanding of how bacterial communities respond to climate change, especially in relatively understudied ecosystems like tropical montane wet...

A new montane species of Philautus (Amphibia: Anura: Rhacophoridae) from western Sarawak, Malaysia, Borneo.

Science.gov (United States)

Dehling, J Maximilian; Dehling, Matthias

2013-01-01

A new species of Philautus is described from western Sarawak. The new species was collected in lower montane forest in two national parks in Sarawak and recorded from another park. It differs from its congeners by a unique combination of morphological characters, including a long, acuminate snout, long legs, and comparatively extensive toe webbing. The advertisement call of the new species differs from all calls of other species that have been analyzed so far. Comparison of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene sequence corroborates its distinct specific status.

The dynamic history of the upper forest line ecotone in the northern Andes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hooghiemstra, H.; Berrio, J.C.; Groot, M.H.M.; Bogotá-A, R.G.; Moscol Olivera, M.; González-Carranza, Z.; Myster, R.W.

2012-01-01

In the Andean cordilleras very conspicuous ecotones can be found. The transition from continuous upper montane forest to treeless herbaceous vegetation, regionally known as "páramo" (Cleef 1981; Luteyn 1999) is known as the "upper forest line" (UFL) or "timber line" (Holtmeier 2009). Above the UFL

[Comparison of heavy metal elements between natural and plantation forests in a subtropical Montane forest].

Science.gov (United States)

Nie, Ming; Wan, Jia-Rong; Chen, Xiao-Feng; Wang, Li; Li, Bo; Chen, Jia-Kuan

2011-11-01

Heavy metals as one of major pollutants is harmful to the health of forest ecosystems. In the present paper, the concentrations of thirteen heavy metals (Fe, Al, Ti, Cr, Cu, Mn, V, Zn, Ni, Co, Pb, Se and Cd) were compared between natural and plantation forests in the Mt. Lushan by ICP-AES and atomic absorption spectroscopy. The results suggest that the soil of natural forest had higher concentrations of Fe, Al, Ti, Cu, Mn, V, Zn, Ni, Co, Pb, Se, and Cd than the plantation forest except for Cr. The soil of natural forest had a higher level of heavy metals than that of the plantation forest as a whole. This might be due to that the natural forest has longer age than the plantation forest, and fixed soil heavy metals take a longer period of time than the plantation forest.

Organo-mineral interactions promote greater soil organic carbon stability under aspen in semi-arid montane forests in Utah

Science.gov (United States)

Van Miegroet, H.; Roman Dobarco, M.

2014-12-01

Forest species influence soil organic carbon (SOC) storage through litter input, which in interaction with soil microclimate, texture and mineralogy, lead to different SOC stabilization and storage patterns. We sampled mineral soil (0-15 cm) across the ecotone between aspen (Populus tremuloides) and mixed conifers stands (Abies lasiocarpa and Pseudotsuga menziesii) in semi-arid montane forests from Utah, to investigate the influence of vegetation vs. site characteristics on SOC stabilization, storage and chemistry. SOC was divided into light fraction (LF), mineral-associated SOC in the silt and clay fraction (MoM), and a dense subfraction > 53 μm (SMoM) using wet sieving and electrostatic attraction. SOC decomposability and solubility was derived from long term laboratory incubations and hot water extractions (HWE). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to study differences in chemical functional groups in LF and MoM. Vegetation cover did not affect SOC storage (47.0 ± 16.5 Mg C ha-1), SOC decomposability (cumulative CO2-C release of 93.2 ± 65.4 g C g-1 C), or SOC solubility (9.8 ± 7.2 mg C g-1 C), but MoM content increased with presence of aspen [pure aspen (31.2 ± 15.1 Mg C ha-1) > mixed (25.7 ± 8.8 Mg C ha-1) > conifer (22.8 ± 9.0 Mg C ha-1)]. Organo-mineral complexes reduced biological availability of SOC, indicated by the negative correlation between silt+clay (%) and decomposable SOC per gram of C (r = -0.48, p = 0.001) or soluble SOC (r = -0.59, p plant or microbial origin. FTIR spectra clustered by sites with similar parent material rather than by vegetation cover. This suggests that initial differences in litter chemistry between aspen and conifers converged into similar MoM chemistry within sites.

Productivity and diversity of morel mushrooms in healthy, burned, and insect damaged forests of northeastern Oregon.

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David Pilz; Nancy S. Weber; M. Carol Carter; Catherine G. Parks; Randy. Molina

2004-01-01

Large commercial crops of morels are harvested annually from montane coniferous forests of the Northwestern United States. Although some morels fruit annually in nondisturbed forests, others fruit copiously in areas experiencing fire, insect infestations, tree mortality, and soil disturbance. Many forest managers currently use thinning and prescribed fire to re-create...

Retention of available P in acid soils of tropical and subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

CHEN Jianhui; ZOU Xiaoming; YANG Xiaodong

2007-01-01

Precipitation of mineral phosphate is often recognized as a factor of limiting the availability of P in acidic soils of tropical and subtropical forests.For this paper,we studied the extractable P pools and their transformation rates in soils of a tropical evergreen forest at Xishuangbanna and a subtropical montane wet forest at the Ailao Mountains in order to understand the biogeochemical processes regulating P availability in acidic soils.The two forests differ in forest humus layer;it is deep in the Ailao forest while little is present in the Xishuangbanna forest.The extractable P pools by resin and sodium-bicarbonate decreased when soil organic carbon content was reduced.The lowest levels of extractable P pools occurred in the surface (0-10 era) mineral soils of the Xishuangbanna forest.However,microbial P in the mineral soil of the Xishuangbauna forest was twice that in the Ailao forest.Potential rates of microbial P immobilization were greater than those of organic P mineralization in mineral soils for both forests.We suggest that microbial P immobilization plays an essential role in avoiding mineral P precipitation and retaining available P of plant in tropical acidic soils,whereas both floor mass accumulation and microbial P immobilization function benefit retaining plant available P in subtropical montane wet forests.

Effects of competition and facilitation on species assemblage in two types of tropical cloud forest.

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Wenxing Long

Full Text Available Competition and facilitation between tree individuals are two kinds of non-random processes influencing the structure and functioning of forest communities, but how these two plant-plant interactions change along gradient of resources or environments remains very much a matter of debate. We developed a null model to test the size-distance regression, and assessed the effects of competition and facilitation (including interspecific interactions, intraspecific interactions and overall species interactions on each adult tree species assemblage [diameter at breast height (dbh ≥5 cm] across two types of tropical cloud forest with different environmental and resource regimes. The null model test revealed that 17% to 27% tree species had positive dbh-distance correlations while 11% to 19% tree species showed negative dbh-distance correlations within these two forest types, indicating that both competition and facilitation processes existed during the community assembly. The importance of competition for heterospecific species, and the intensity of competition for both heterospecific and overall species increased from high to low resources for all the shared species spanning the two forests. The importance of facilitation for conspecific and overall species, as well as that the intensity of facilitation for both heterospecific and conspecific species increased with increasing low air temperature stress for all the shared species spanning the two forests. Our results show that both competition and facilitation processes simultaneously affect parts of species assemblage in the tropical cloud forests. Moreover, the fact that nearly 50% species assemblage is not detected with our approaches suggest that tree species in these tropical forest systems are assembled with multiple ecological processes, and that there is a need to explore the processes other than the two biotic interactions in further researches.

Isotopic values of the Amazon headwaters in Peru: comparison of the wet upper Río Madre de Dios watershed with the dry Urubamba-Apurimac river system.

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Lambs, L; Horwath, A; Otto, T; Julien, F; Antoine, P-O

2012-04-15

The Amazon River is a huge network of long tributaries, and little is known about the headwaters. Here we present a study of one wet tropical Amazon forest side, and one dry and cold Atiplano plateau, originating from the same cordillera. The aim is to see how this difference affects the water characteristics. Different kind of water (spring, lake, river, rainfall) were sampled to determine their stable isotopes ratios (oxygen 18/16 and hydrogen 2/1) by continuous flow isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). These ratios coupled with chemical analysis enabled us to determine the origin of the water, the evaporation process and the water recycling over the Amazon plain forest and montane cloud forest. Our study shows that the water flowing in the upper Madre de Dios basin comes mainly from the foothill humid forest, with a characteristic water recycling process signature, and not from higher glacier melt. On the contrary, the water flowing in the Altiplano Rivers is mainly from glacier melts, with a high evaporation process. This snow and glacier are fed mainly by Atlantic moisture which transits over the large Amazon forest. The Atlantic moisture and its recycling over this huge tropical forest display a progressive isotopic gradient, as a function of distance from the ocean. At the level of the montane cloud forest and on the altiplano, respectively, additional water recycling and evaporation occur, but they are insignificant in the total water discharge. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Transpiration of montane Pinus sylvestris L. and Quercus pubescens Willd. forest stands measured with sap flow sensors in NE Spain

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R. Poyatos

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Stand transpiration was measured during the 2003 and 2004 growing seasons using heat dissipation sap flow sensors in a Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L. and a pubescent oak (Quercus pubescens Willd. forests located in a montane area of the Eastern Pyrenees (NE Spain. The first aim of the study was to assess the differences in quantitative estimates of transpiration (Ec and the response to evaporative demand of the two stands. Over the studied period of 2003, characterised by a severe drought episode during the summer, the oak stand (Ec was only 110 mm compared to the 239 mm transpired by the Scots pine stand, although the ratio of transpiration to reference evapotranspiration (Ec/ET0 in the oak stand compares well with the expected values predicted for low leaf area index (LAI oak forests in southern Europe. Scots pine showed a strong reduction in (Ec/ET0 as the drought developed, whereas pubescent oak was less affected by soil moisture deficits in the upper soil. As a second objective, and given the contrasting meteorological conditions between 2003 and 2004 summer periods, the interannual variability of transpiration was studied in the Scots pine plot. Rainfall during the summer months (June-September in 2003 was almost 40% less than in the same interval in 2004. Accordingly, transpiration was also reduced about 25% in 2003. Finally, Scots pine data from 2003 and 2004 was used to calibrate a simple transpiration model using ET0 and soil moisture deficit (SMD as input variables, and implicitly including stomatal responses to high vapour pressure deficits (Dd and soil water status.

Disturbance and topography shape nitrogen availability and δ15N over long-term forest succession

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Forest disturbance and long-term succession can promote open N cycling that increases N loss and soil δ15N values. We examined soil and foliar patterns in N and δ15N, and soil N mineralization, across a topographically complex montane forest landscape influenced by human logging ...

Diversidade arbórea das florestas alto montanas no Sul da Chapada Diamantina, Bahia, Brasil Tree diversity of high montane forests in Southern Chapada Diamantina, Bahia, Brazil

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Francisco Haroldo Feitosa do Nascimento

2010-09-01

Full Text Available A região do extremo Sul da Chapada Diamantina abriga as maiores altitudes do Nordeste brasileiro. Situam-se nessas serras as maiores elevações da região Nordeste, entre elas, o Pico do Barbado (2.033 m.s.n.m.. Dois dos rios mais importantes da Bahia nascem nestas serras: o Rio de Contas e o Rio Paramirim. A região é bem conhecida botanicamente, porém, este foi o primeiro inventário quantitativo realizado enfocando as formações florestais. Comparou-se a composição florística de 12 fragmentos de floresta montana, entre 1.350 e 1.750 m.s.n.m., tendo sido amostrados os indivíduos com PAP> 8 cm. Registrou-se a presença de 116 espécies em 84 gêneros de 48 famílias. As famílias com maior número de espécies foram Myrtaceae (N=20 e Lauraceae (N=10. Os gêneros com maior número de espécies foram Ocotea (N=7, Myrcia (N=5, Eugenia (N=4 e Miconia (N=4. A maioria das espécies apresentou padrão de distribuição amplo, mas foram encontradas espécies comuns a formações florestais de altitude do Sudeste e Sul do Brasil, como Drimys brasiliensis Miers (Winteraceae e Weinmannia paulliniifolia Pohl (Cunnoniacae. A flora dos fragmentos estudados compartilha baixo número de espécies com as formações estacionais deciduais do entorno da Chapada Diamantina, indicando que estas florestas são únicas e merecem atenção especial, para sua conservação.The southernmost region of Chapada Diamantina, nearest to Rio de Contas harbours the highest peaks of the Brazilian northeastern region, including Pico do Barbado (2,033 m.a.s.l. and the source of the two important rivers in Bahia state (Rio de Contas and Rio Paramirim. The region is well known botanically. This was the first quantitative study to survey the floristic composition of 12 fragments of montane forests (1,350 m.a.s.l. to 1750 m.a.s.l. including trees > 8 cbh. A total of 117 species, 84 genera and 48 families were found. The richest families were Myrtaceae (N=20 and Lauraceae (N

Response of dissolved carbon and nitrogen concentrations to moderate nutrient additions in a tropical montane forest of south Ecuador

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Velescu, Andre; Valarezo, Carlos; Wilcke, Wolfgang

2016-05-01

In the past two decades, the tropical montane rain forests in south Ecuador experienced increasing deposition of reactive nitrogen mainly originating from Amazonian forest fires, while Saharan dust inputs episodically increased deposition of base metals. Increasing air temperature and unevenly distributed rainfall have allowed for longer dry spells in a perhumid ecosystem. This might have favored mineralization of dissolved organic matter (DOM) by microorganisms and increased nutrient release from the organic layer. Environmental change is expected to impact the functioning of this ecosystem belonging to the biodiversity hotspots of the Earth. In 2007, we established a nutrient manipulation experiment (NUMEX) to understand the response of the ecosystem to moderately increased nutrient inputs. Since 2008, we have continuously applied 50 kg ha-1 a-1 of nitrogen (N), 10 kg ha-1 a-1 of phosphorus (P), 50 kg + 10 kg ha-1 a-1 of N and P and 10 kg ha-1 a-1 of calcium (Ca) in a randomized block design at 2000 m a.s.l. in a natural forest on the Amazonia-exposed slopes of the south Ecuadorian Andes. Nitrogen concentrations in throughfall increased following N+P additions, while separate N amendments only increased nitrate concentrations. Total organic carbon (TOC) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) concentrations showed high seasonal variations in litter leachate and decreased significantly in the P and N+P treatments, but not in the N treatment. Thus, P availability plays a key role in the mineralization of DOM. TOC/DON ratios were narrower in throughfall than in litter leachate but their temporal course did not respond to nutrient amendments. Our results revealed an initially fast, positive response of the C and N cycling to nutrient additions which declined with time. TOC and DON cycling only change if N and P supply are improved concurrently, while NO3-N leaching increases only if N is separately added. This indicates co-limitation of the microorganisms by N and P

Response of dissolved carbon and nitrogen concentrations to moderate nutrient additions in a tropical montane forest of south Ecuador

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andre eVelescu

2016-05-01

Full Text Available In the past two decades, the tropical montane rain forests in south Ecuador experienced increasing deposition of reactive nitrogen mainly originating from Amazonian forest fires, while Saharan dust inputs episodically increased deposition of base metals. Increasing air temperature and unevenly distributed rainfall have allowed for longer dry spells in a perhumid ecosystem. This might have favored mineralization of dissolved organic matter (DOM by microorganisms and increased nutrient release from the organic layer. Environmental change is expected to impact the functioning of this ecosystem belonging to the biodiversity hotspots of the Earth.In 2007, we established a nutrient manipulation experiment (NUMEX to understand the response of the ecosystem to moderately increased nutrient inputs. Since 2008, we have continuously applied 50 kg ha-1 a-1 of nitrogen (N, 10 kg ha-1 a-1 of phosphorus (P, 50 kg + 10 kg ha-1 a-1 of N and P and 10 kg ha-1 a-1 of calcium (Ca in a randomized block design at 2000 m a.s.l. in a natural forest on the Amazonia-exposed slopes of the south Ecuadorian Andes.Nitrogen concentrations in throughfall increased following N+P additions, while separate N amendments only increased nitrate concentrations. Total organic carbon (TOC and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON concentrations showed high seasonal variations in litter leachate and decreased significantly in the P and N+P treatments, but not in the N treatment. Thus, P availability plays a key role in the mineralization of DOM. TOC/DON ratios were narrower in throughfall than in litter leachate but their temporal course did not respond to nutrient amendments.Our results revealed an initially fast, positive response of the C and N cycling to nutrient additions which declined with time. TOC and DON cycling only change if N and P supply are improved concurrently, while NO3-N leaching increases only if N is separately added. This indicates co-limitation of the microorganisms by N

FOREST Unbiased Galactic plane Imaging survey with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope (FUGIN): Molecular clouds toward W 33; possible evidence for a cloud-cloud collision triggering O star formation

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Kohno, Mikito; Torii, Kazufumi; Tachihara, Kengo; Umemoto, Tomofumi; Minamidani, Tetsuhiro; Nishimura, Atsushi; Fujita, Shinji; Matsuo, Mitsuhiro; Yamagishi, Mitsuyoshi; Tsuda, Yuya; Kuriki, Mika; Kuno, Nario; Ohama, Akio; Hattori, Yusuke; Sano, Hidetoshi; Yamamoto, Hiroaki; Fukui, Yasuo

2018-05-01

We observed molecular clouds in the W 33 high-mass star-forming region associated with compact and extended H II regions using the NANTEN2 telescope as well as the Nobeyama 45 m telescope in the J = 1-0 transitions of 12CO, 13CO, and C18O as part of the FOREST Unbiased Galactic plane Imaging survey with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope (FUGIN) legacy survey. We detected three velocity components at 35 km s-1, 45 km s-1, and 58 km s-1. The 35 km s-1 and 58 km s-1 clouds are likely to be physically associated with W 33 because of the enhanced 12CO J = 3-2 to J = 1-0 intensity ratio as R_3-2/1-0} > 1.0 due to the ultraviolet irradiation by OB stars, and morphological correspondence between the distributions of molecular gas and the infrared and radio continuum emissions excited by high-mass stars. The two clouds show complementary distributions around W 33. The velocity separation is too large to be gravitationally bound, and yet not explained by expanding motion by stellar feedback. Therefore, we discuss whether a cloud-cloud collision scenario likely explains the high-mass star formation in W 33.

Assessing the performance of aerial image point cloud and spectral metrics in predicting boreal forest canopy cover

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Melin, M.; Korhonen, L.; Kukkonen, M.; Packalen, P.

2017-07-01

Canopy cover (CC) is a variable used to describe the status of forests and forested habitats, but also the variable used primarily to define what counts as a forest. The estimation of CC has relied heavily on remote sensing with past studies focusing on satellite imagery as well as Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) using light detection and ranging (lidar). Of these, ALS has been proven highly accurate, because the fraction of pulses penetrating the canopy represents a direct measurement of canopy gap percentage. However, the methods of photogrammetry can be applied to produce point clouds fairly similar to airborne lidar data from aerial images. Currently there is little information about how well such point clouds measure canopy density and gaps. The aim of this study was to assess the suitability of aerial image point clouds for CC estimation and compare the results with those obtained using spectral data from aerial images and Landsat 5. First, we modeled CC for n = 1149 lidar plots using field-measured CCs and lidar data. Next, this data was split into five subsets in north-south direction (y-coordinate). Finally, four CC models (AerialSpectral, AerialPointcloud, AerialCombi (spectral + pointcloud) and Landsat) were created and they were used to predict new CC values to the lidar plots, subset by subset, using five-fold cross validation. The Landsat and AerialSpectral models performed with RMSEs of 13.8% and 12.4%, respectively. AerialPointcloud model reached an RMSE of 10.3%, which was further improved by the inclusion of spectral data; RMSE of the AerialCombi model was 9.3%. We noticed that the aerial image point clouds managed to describe only the outermost layer of the canopy and missed the details in lower canopy, which was resulted in weak characterization of the total CC variation, especially in the tails of the data.

Patterns of macromycete community assemblage along an elevation gradient: options for fungal gradient and metacommunity analyse

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Marko Gómez-Hernández; Guadalupe Williams-Linera; Roger Guevara; D. Jean Lodge

2012-01-01

Gradient analysis is rarely used in studies of fungal communities. Data on macromycetes from eight sites along an elevation gradient in central Veracruz, Mexico, were used to demonstrate methods for gradient analysis that can be applied to studies of communities of fungi. Selected sites from 100 to 3,500 m altitude represent tropical dry forest, tropical montane cloud...

Mycena sect. Hygrocyboideae in the mountains of the Dominican Republic

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D. Jean Lodge; B.A. Perry; D.E. Desjardin

2004-01-01

A collection of Mycena epipterygia from montane cloud forest in the Dominican Republic was found to have one-fourth to one-half monosporous basidia mixed with bisporous basidia. It is described as a new variety, M. epipterygia var. domingensis Lodge, differing from M. epipterygia var. epipterygioides and other two-spored varieties in having smaller dimensions of spores...

Land cover and forest formation distributions for St. Kitts, Nevis, St. Eustatius, Grenada and Barbados from decision tree classification of cloud-cleared satellite imagery

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Helmer, E.H.; Kennaway, T.A.; Pedreros, D.H.; Clark, M.L.; Marcano-Vega, H.; Tieszen, L.L.; Ruzycki, T.R.; Schill, S.R.; Carrington, C.M.S.

2008-01-01

Satellite image-based mapping of tropical forests is vital to conservation planning. Standard methods for automated image classification, however, limit classification detail in complex tropical landscapes. In this study, we test an approach to Landsat image interpretation on four islands of the Lesser Antilles, including Grenada and St. Kitts, Nevis and St. Eustatius, testing a more detailed classification than earlier work in the latter three islands. Secondly, we estimate the extents of land cover and protected forest by formation for five islands and ask how land cover has changed over the second half of the 20th century. The image interpretation approach combines image mosaics and ancillary geographic data, classifying the resulting set of raster data with decision tree software. Cloud-free image mosaics for one or two seasons were created by applying regression tree normalization to scene dates that could fill cloudy areas in a base scene. Such mosaics are also known as cloud-filled, cloud-minimized or cloud-cleared imagery, mosaics, or composites. The approach accurately distinguished several classes that more standard methods would confuse; the seamless mosaics aided reference data collection; and the multiseason imagery allowed us to separate drought deciduous forests and woodlands from semi-deciduous ones. Cultivated land areas declined 60 to 100 percent from about 1945 to 2000 on several islands. Meanwhile, forest cover has increased 50 to 950%. This trend will likely continue where sugar cane cultivation has dominated. Like the island of Puerto Rico, most higher-elevation forest formations are protected in formal or informal reserves. Also similarly, lowland forests, which are drier forest types on these islands, are not well represented in reserves. Former cultivated lands in lowland areas could provide lands for new reserves of drier forest types. The land-use history of these islands may provide insight for planners in countries currently considering

Carbon stocks and dynamics at different successional stages in an Afromontane tropical forest

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Nyirambangutse, Brigitte; Zibera, Etienne; Uwizeye, Félicien K.; Nsabimana, Donat; Bizuru, Elias; Pleijel, Håkan; Uddling, Johan; Wallin, Göran

2017-03-01

As a result of different types of disturbance, forests are a mixture of stands at different stages of ecological succession. Successional stage is likely to influence forest productivity and carbon storage, linking the degree of forest disturbance to the global carbon cycle and climate. Although tropical montane forests are an important part of tropical forest ecosystems (ca. 8 %, elevation > 1000 m a.s.l.), there are still significant knowledge gaps regarding the carbon dynamics and stocks of these forests, and how these differ between early (ES) and late successional (LS) stages. This study examines the carbon (C) stock, relative growth rate (RGR) and net primary production (NPP) of ES and LS forest stands in an Afromontane tropical rainforest using data from inventories of quantitatively important ecosystem compartments in fifteen 0.5 ha plots in Nyungwe National Park in Rwanda. The total C stock was 35 % larger in LS compared to ES plots due to significantly larger above-ground biomass (AGB; 185 and 76 Mg C ha-1 in LS and ES plots), while the soil and root C stock (down to 45 cm depth in the mineral soil) did not significantly differ between the two successional stages (178 and 204 Mg C ha-1 in LS and ES plots). The main reasons for the difference in AGB were that ES trees had significantly lower stature and wood density compared to LS trees. However, ES and LS stands had similar total NPP (canopy, wood and roots of all plots ˜ 9.4 Mg C ha-1) due to counterbalancing effects of differences in AGB (higher in LS stands) and RGR (higher in ES stands). The AGB in the LS plots was considerably higher than the average value reported for old-growth tropical montane forest of south-east Asia and Central and South America at similar elevations and temperatures, and of the same magnitude as in tropical lowland forest of these regions. The results of this study highlight the importance of accounting for disturbance regimes and differences in wood density and allometry of

[Historic record of Gastrotheca ovifera (Anura: Hemiphractidae): decline evidence in Venezuelan coastal cloud forests].

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Valera-Leal, Javier; Acevedo, Aldemar; Pérez-Sánchez, Antonio; Vega, Jorge; Manzanilla, Jesús

2011-03-01

G. ovifera is a marsupial frog of the cloud and riparian forest from Western and Litoral sections of the Venezuelan Cordillera de la Costa (820-2 000m). This amphibian is considered as an endangered species by the IUCN Species Red List, due to its population decline in pristine and well preserved environments. This conservation status is based on anecdotic interpretations. We collected disperse data from museum records (national and international) and explored the possible association between collection records and precipitation data available for the Henri Pittier National Park (PNHP). Likewise, we carried out a systematic population monitoring of G. ovifera in historic and additional localities among the cloud forest of Rancho Grande, PNHP. We found 106 individuals in 11 zoological collections deposited during 1929-2007. After an effort of 646 hours/person we did not detect G. ovifera individuals in the evaluated localities; as well as no statistical significant associations between the annual precipitation average and the historic records of the species during 1941-1997 period (r = -0.054, p = 0.820, n = 19). We discussed the distribution, fluctuation and population changes of this species, analyzing it conservation status.

Photosynthetic capacity of tropical montane tree species in relation to leaf nutrients, successional strategy and growth temperature.

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Dusenge, Mirindi Eric; Wallin, Göran; Gårdesten, Johanna; Niyonzima, Felix; Adolfsson, Lisa; Nsabimana, Donat; Uddling, Johan

2015-04-01

Photosynthetic capacity of tree leaves is typically positively related to nutrient content and little affected by changes in growth temperature. These relationships are, however, often poorly supported for tropical trees, for which interspecific differences may be more strongly controlled by within-leaf nutrient allocation than by absolute leaf nutrient content, and little is known regarding photosynthetic acclimation to temperature. To explore the influence of leaf nutrient status, successional strategy and growth temperature on the photosynthetic capacity of tropical trees, we collected data on photosynthetic, chemical and morphological leaf traits of ten tree species in Rwanda. Seven species were studied in a forest plantation at mid-altitude (~1,700 m), whereas six species were studied in a cooler montane rainforest at higher altitude (~2,500 m). Three species were common to both sites, and, in the montane rainforest, three pioneer species and three climax species were investigated. Across species, interspecific variation in photosynthetic capacity was not related to leaf nutrient content. Instead, this variation was related to differences in within-leaf nitrogen allocation, with a tradeoff between investments into compounds related to photosynthetic capacity (higher in pioneer species) versus light-harvesting compounds (higher in climax species). Photosynthetic capacity was significantly lower at the warmer site at 1,700 m altitude. We conclude that (1) within-leaf nutrient allocation is more important than leaf nutrient content per se in controlling interspecific variation in photosynthetic capacity among tree species in tropical Rwanda, and that (2) tropical montane rainforest species exhibit decreased photosynthetic capacity when grown in a warmer environment.

Disturbance and topography shape nitrogen availability and ä15N over long-term forest succession

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Steven S. Perakis; Alan J. Tepley; Jana E. Compton

2015-01-01

Forest disturbance and long-term succession towards old-growth are thought to increase nitrogen (N) availability and N loss, which should increase soil ä15N values. We examined soil and foliar patterns in N and ä15N, and soil N mineralization, across 800 years of forest succession in a topographically complex montane...

Exploring interactions between payment for hydrologic service policies, landowner decisions, and ecohydrology in a Mexican cloud forest watershed: Is there a disconnect between the policy and the resource?

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Asbjornsen, H.; Geissert, D.; Gomez-Tagle, A.; Holwerda, F.; Manson, R.; Perez-Maqueo, O.; Munoz-Villers, L.; Scullion, J.

2013-05-01

Payment for hydrologic service (PHS) programs are increasingly being used as a means to incentivize watershed protection by compensating upstream 'water producers' with payments made by downstream 'water consumers'. However, the effectiveness of PHS programs in achieving their target goals is often poorly understood. Here, we draw from insights obtained from socioeconomic and ecohydrological research in Veracruz, Mexico to explore interactions between PHS policies, landowner decisions, and hydrologic services. GIS analysis of land-cover changes during 2003-2009 combined with interviews of PHS participants indicated that despite lower deforestation rates on properties receiving PES payments, other factors were likely to have a greater influence on land use decisions than PHS payments per se, including opportunity costs and personal conservation ethic. The interviews also highlighted a general lack of trust and cooperation between the citizen participants and government administrators, which was reflected in the relatively low level of knowledge of the PHS programs' regulations and goals, the role of forests in protecting water resources, and a low level of co-financing by the private sector. An important premise of PHS programs is that protecting existing forest cover (and planting trees) will enhance water supply, especially in upland cloud forests that are due to their perceived role as water producers. Measurements of climate, steamflow, canopy fog interception, plant transpiration, soil water dynamics, and hydrologic flow paths were collected over a 3-year period to assess stand water balance and streamflow response under four different land covers: mature cloud forest, pasture, regenerating cloud forest, pine reforestation. Results suggested relatively minor additional inputs of fog to increasing streamflow in cloud forest watersheds, while conversion of forest to pasture did not markedly decrease dry season flows, but did increase annual flows due to lower

Uav-Based Photogrammetric Point Clouds and Hyperspectral Imaging for Mapping Biodiversity Indicators in Boreal Forests

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Saarinen, N.; Vastaranta, M.; Näsi, R.; Rosnell, T.; Hakala, T.; Honkavaara, E.; Wulder, M. A.; Luoma, V.; Tommaselli, A. M. G.; Imai, N. N.; Ribeiro, E. A. W.; Guimarães, R. B.; Holopainen, M.; Hyyppä, J.

2017-10-01

Biodiversity is commonly referred to as species diversity but in forest ecosystems variability in structural and functional characteristics can also be treated as measures of biodiversity. Small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide a means for characterizing forest ecosystem with high spatial resolution, permitting measuring physical characteristics of a forest ecosystem from a viewpoint of biodiversity. The objective of this study is to examine the applicability of photogrammetric point clouds and hyperspectral imaging acquired with a small UAV helicopter in mapping biodiversity indicators, such as structural complexity as well as the amount of deciduous and dead trees at plot level in southern boreal forests. Standard deviation of tree heights within a sample plot, used as a proxy for structural complexity, was the most accurately derived biodiversity indicator resulting in a mean error of 0.5 m, with a standard deviation of 0.9 m. The volume predictions for deciduous and dead trees were underestimated by 32.4 m3/ha and 1.7 m3/ha, respectively, with standard deviation of 50.2 m3/ha for deciduous and 3.2 m3/ha for dead trees. The spectral features describing brightness (i.e. higher reflectance values) were prevailing in feature selection but several wavelengths were represented. Thus, it can be concluded that structural complexity can be predicted reliably but at the same time can be expected to be underestimated with photogrammetric point clouds obtained with a small UAV. Additionally, plot-level volume of dead trees can be predicted with small mean error whereas identifying deciduous species was more challenging at plot level.

Variation in leaf litter production and resorption of nutrients in abundant tree species in Nyungwe tropical montane rainforest in Rwanda

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Nyirambangutse, Brigitte; Mirindi Dusenge, Eric; Nsabimana, Donat; Bizuru, Elias; Pleijel, Håkan; Uddling, Johan; Wallin, Göran

2014-05-01

African tropical rainforests play many roles from local to global scale as providers of resources and ecosystem services. Although covering 30% of the global rainforest, only few studies aiming to better understand the storage and fluxes of carbon and nutrients in these forests have been conducted. To answer questions related to these issues, we have established 15 permanent 0.5 ha plots where we compare carbon and nutrient fluxes of primary and secondary forest tree communities in a tropical montane forest in central Africa. The studies are conducted in Nyungwe montane tropical rain forest gazetted as a National Park to protect its extensive floral and faunal diversity covering an area of 970 km2. Nyungwe is located in Southwest Rwanda (2o17'-2o50'S, 29o07'-29o26A'E). The forest is ranging between 1600-2950 m.a.s.l. and is one of the most biologically important rainforest in Albertine Rift region in terms of Biodiversity. Nyungwe consists of a mixture of primary and secondary forest communities supporting a richness of plant and animal life. More than 260 species of trees and shrubs have been found in Nyungwe, including species endemic to the Albertine Rift. The forest has a climate with a mean annual temperature of 15.5oC and annual rainfall of ca 1850 mm yr-1, with July and August being the only months when rainfall drops. A part of this study is focusing on the dynamics of nutrients through leaf turnover. This turnover of leaves is regulated to maximize the carbon gain through canopy photosynthesis and resource-use efficiency of the plant. It is known that about half of leaf nitrogen is invested in photosynthetic apparatus and that there normally is a strong correlation between the photosynthetic capacity and leaf nitrogen per unit area. Hence leaf nitrogen is an important factor for canopy photosynthesis. However, leaves are produced, senesce and fall. Some nitrogen in the leaf is lost when leaves senesce but other is resorbed. The resorption of nitrogen

Topoclimate effects on growing season length and montane conifer growth in complex terrain

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Barnard, D. M.; Barnard, H. R.; Molotch, N. P.

2017-05-01

Spatial variability in the topoclimate-driven linkage between forest phenology and tree growth in complex terrain is poorly understood, limiting our understanding of how ecosystems function as a whole. To characterize the influence of topoclimate on phenology and growth, we determined the start, end, and length of the growing season (GSstart, GSend, and GSL, respectively) using the correlation between transpiration and evaporative demand, measured with sapflow. We then compared these metrics with stem relative basal area increment (relative BAI) at seven sites among elevation and aspects in a Colorado montane forest. As elevation increased, we found shorter GSL (-50 d km-1) due to later GSstart (40 d km-1) and earlier GSend (-10 d km-1). North-facing sites had a 21 d shorter GSL than south-facing sites at similar elevations (i.e. equal to 200 m elevation difference on a given aspect). Growing season length was positively correlated with relative BAI, explaining 83% of the variance. This study shows that topography exerts strong environmental controls on GSL and thus forest growth. Given the climate-related dependencies of these controls, the results presented here have important implications for ecosystem responses to changes in climate and highlight the need for improved phenology representation in complex terrain.

Comparative Drought Responses of Quercus ilex L. and Pinus sylvestris L. in a Montane Forest Undergoing a Vegetation Shift

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David Aguadé

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Different functional and structural strategies to cope with water shortage exist both within and across plant communities. The current trend towards increasing drought in many regions could drive some species to their physiological limits of drought tolerance, potentially leading to mortality episodes and vegetation shifts. In this paper, we study the drought responses of Quercus ilex and Pinus sylvestris in a montane Mediterranean forest where the former species is replacing the latter in association with recent episodes of drought-induced mortality. Our aim was to compare the physiological responses to variations in soil water content (SWC and vapor pressure deficit (VPD of the two species when living together in a mixed stand or separately in pure stands, where the canopies of both species are completely exposed to high radiation and VPD. P. sylvestris showed typical isohydric behavior, with greater losses of stomatal conductance with declining SWC and greater reductions of stored non-structural carbohydrates during drought, consistent with carbon starvation being an important factor in the mortality of this species. On the other hand, Q. ilex trees showed a more anisohydric behavior, experiencing more negative water potentials and higher levels of xylem embolism under extreme drought, presumably putting them at higher risk of hydraulic failure. In addition, our results show relatively small changes in the physiological responses of Q. ilex in mixed vs. pure stands, suggesting that the current replacement of P. sylvestris by Q. ilex will continue.

Soil Organic Carbon Storage and Stability in the Aspen-Conifer Ecotone in Montane Forests in Utah, USA

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Mercedes Román Dobarco

2014-04-01

Full Text Available To assess the potential impact of conifer encroachment on soil organic carbon (SOC dynamics and storage in montane aspen-conifer forests from the interior western US, we sampled mineral soils (0–15 cm across the aspen-conifer ecotones in southern and northern Utah and quantified total SOC stocks, stable SOC (i.e., mineral-associated SOC (MoM, labile SOC (i.e., light fraction (LF, decomposable (CO2 release during long-term aerobic incubations and soluble SOC (hot water extractable organic carbon (HWEOC. Total SOC storage (47.0 ± 16.5 Mg C ha−1 and labile SOC as LF (14.0 ± 7.10 Mg C ha−1, SOC decomposability (cumulative released CO2-C of 5.6 ± 3.8 g C g−1 soil or HWEOC (0.6 ± 0.6 mg C g−1 soil did not differ substantially with vegetation type, although a slight increase in HWEOC was observed with increasing conifer in the overstory. There were statistically significant differences (p = 0.035 in stable MoM storage, which was higher under aspen (31.2 ± 15.1 Mg C ha−1 than under conifer (22.8 ± 9.0 Mg C ha−1, with intermediate values under mixed (25.7 ± 8.8 Mg C ha−1. Texture had the greatest impact on SOC distribution among labile and stable fractions, with increasing stabilization in MoM and decreasing bio-availability of SOC with increasing silt + clay content. Only at lower silt + clay contents (40%–70% could we discern the influence of vegetation on MoM content. This highlights the importance of chemical protection mechanisms for long-term C sequestration.

Two new species of Leandra s.str. (Melastomataceae) from the Atlantic Forest in Espírito Santo, Brazil

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Reginato, M.; Goldenberg, R.

2012-01-01

Two species of Leandra that occur in the Atlantic Forest, in the state of Espírito Santo, eastern Brazil, are described and illustrated here. Leandra cristata has been found in the understory of montane rain forest, and can be recognized by the distinct nodal ridges on the young branches, by the

Forests of hope: Costa Rica. Restoring hope in the clouds.

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Bowen, L

1996-01-01

The rapid population growth in Central America has created pressure on the largest tract of cloud forest spanning the Talamanca Mountains in Costa Rica and Panama. Of immediate concern is restoring hope in the forest and improving the standard of living among local people. Such is the goal of the Amistad Conservation and Development (AMISCONDE) project in the communities of Cerro Punta, Panama, and San Rafael in Costa Rica. Through agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, environmental education, and community development, AMISCONDE aims to restore the degraded lands in the reserve's buffer zone and improve the income of the people. All the local people, the farmers, women and children have benefited from the project. Some of the activities carried out to meet its objectives include helping the farmers improve the productivity and marketability of their products by teaching them new technologies and giving agricultural credits to farmers, women, and youth groups. In addition, AMISCONDE conducts training courses to address the economic, social and educational needs of women and communities. It is assured that the community and the group will be prepared to continue on their own after the official AMISCONDE office is gone.

Biology and Ecology of Alchisme grossa in a Cloud Forest of the Bolivian Yungas

OpenAIRE

Torrico-Bazoberry, Daniel; Caceres-Sanchez, Liliana; Saavedra-Ulloa, Daniela; Flores-Prado, Luis; Niemeyer, Hermann M.; Pinto, Carlos F.

2014-01-01

Treehoppers (Membracidae) exhibit different levels of sociality, from solitary to presocial. Although they are one of the best biological systems to study the evolution of maternal care in insects, information on the biology of species in this group is scarce. This work describes the biology and ecology of Alchisme grossa (Fairmaire) (Hemiptera: Membracidae) in a rain cloud forest of Bolivia. This subsocial membracid utilizes two host-plant species, Brugmansia suaveolens (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Wi...

The forest vegetation of Ramal de Guaramacal in the Venezuelan Andes

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Cuello, A.N.L.; Cleef, A.M.

2009-01-01

Montane forest community composition of Ranial de Guaramacal, Venezuelan Andes, was studied along the altitudinal gradient on both sides of the range with different slope expositions. Thirty five 0.1 ha plots were Surveyed, with variable intervals of 30 to 150 meters between 1350 in and 2890 in and

The forest vegetation of Ramal de Guaramacal in the Venezuelan Andes

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Cuello A., N.L.; Cleef, A.M.

2009-01-01

Montane forest community composition of Ramal de Guaramacal, Venezuelan Andes, was studied along the altitudinal gradient on both sides of the range with different slope expositions. Thirty five 0.1 ha plots were surveyed, with variable intervals of 30 to 150 meters between 1350 m and 2890 m and

Not seeing the grass for the trees: Timber plantations and agriculture shrink tropical montane grassland by two-thirds over four decades in the Palani Hills, a Western Ghats Sky Island.

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Arasumani, M; Khan, Danish; Das, Arundhati; Lockwood, Ian; Stewart, Robert; Kiran, Ravi A; Muthukumar, M; Bunyan, Milind; Robin, V V

2018-01-01

Tropical montane habitats, grasslands, in particular, merit urgent conservation attention owing to the disproportionate levels of endemic biodiversity they harbour, the ecosystem services they provide, and the fact that they are among the most threatened habitats globally. The Shola Sky Islands in the Western Ghats host a matrix of native forest-grassland matrix that has been planted over the last century, with exotic timber plantations. The popular discourse on the landscape change is that mainly forests have been lost to the timber plantations and recent court directives are to restore Shola forest trees. In this study, we examine spatiotemporal patterns of landscape change over the last 40 years in the Palani Hills, a significant part of the montane habitat in the Western Ghats. Using satellite imagery and field surveys, we find that 66% of native grasslands and 31% of native forests have been lost over the last 40 years. Grasslands have gone from being the dominant, most contiguous land cover to one of the rarest and most fragmented. They have been replaced by timber plantations and, to a lesser extent, expanding agriculture. We find that the spatial pattern of grassland loss to plantations differs from the loss to agriculture, likely driven by the invasion of plantation species into grasslands. We identify remnant grasslands that should be prioritised for conservation and make specific recommendations for conservation and restoration of grasslands in light of current management policy in the Palani Hills, which favours large-scale removal of plantations and emphasises the restoration of native forests.

Projecting the Hydrologic Impacts of Climate Change on Montane Wetlands

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Hamlet, Alan F.; Palen, Wendy J.; Lawler, Joshua J.; Halabisky, Meghan

2015-01-01

Wetlands are globally important ecosystems that provide critical services for natural communities and human society. Montane wetland ecosystems are expected to be among the most sensitive to changing climate, as their persistence depends on factors directly influenced by climate (e.g. precipitation, snowpack, evaporation). Despite their importance and climate sensitivity, wetlands tend to be understudied due to a lack of tools and data relative to what is available for other ecosystem types. Here, we develop and demonstrate a new method for projecting climate-induced hydrologic changes in montane wetlands. Using observed wetland water levels and soil moisture simulated by the physically based Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrologic model, we developed site-specific regression models relating soil moisture to observed wetland water levels to simulate the hydrologic behavior of four types of montane wetlands (ephemeral, intermediate, perennial, permanent wetlands) in the U. S. Pacific Northwest. The hybrid models captured observed wetland dynamics in many cases, though were less robust in others. We then used these models to a) hindcast historical wetland behavior in response to observed climate variability (1916–2010 or later) and classify wetland types, and b) project the impacts of climate change on montane wetlands using global climate model scenarios for the 2040s and 2080s (A1B emissions scenario). These future projections show that climate-induced changes to key driving variables (reduced snowpack, higher evapotranspiration, extended summer drought) will result in earlier and faster drawdown in Pacific Northwest montane wetlands, leading to systematic reductions in water levels, shortened wetland hydroperiods, and increased probability of drying. Intermediate hydroperiod wetlands are projected to experience the greatest changes. For the 2080s scenario, widespread conversion of intermediate wetlands to fast-drying ephemeral wetlands will likely reduce

Projecting the Hydrologic Impacts of Climate Change on Montane Wetlands.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Se-Yeun; Ryan, Maureen E; Hamlet, Alan F; Palen, Wendy J; Lawler, Joshua J; Halabisky, Meghan

2015-01-01

Wetlands are globally important ecosystems that provide critical services for natural communities and human society. Montane wetland ecosystems are expected to be among the most sensitive to changing climate, as their persistence depends on factors directly influenced by climate (e.g. precipitation, snowpack, evaporation). Despite their importance and climate sensitivity, wetlands tend to be understudied due to a lack of tools and data relative to what is available for other ecosystem types. Here, we develop and demonstrate a new method for projecting climate-induced hydrologic changes in montane wetlands. Using observed wetland water levels and soil moisture simulated by the physically based Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrologic model, we developed site-specific regression models relating soil moisture to observed wetland water levels to simulate the hydrologic behavior of four types of montane wetlands (ephemeral, intermediate, perennial, permanent wetlands) in the U. S. Pacific Northwest. The hybrid models captured observed wetland dynamics in many cases, though were less robust in others. We then used these models to a) hindcast historical wetland behavior in response to observed climate variability (1916-2010 or later) and classify wetland types, and b) project the impacts of climate change on montane wetlands using global climate model scenarios for the 2040s and 2080s (A1B emissions scenario). These future projections show that climate-induced changes to key driving variables (reduced snowpack, higher evapotranspiration, extended summer drought) will result in earlier and faster drawdown in Pacific Northwest montane wetlands, leading to systematic reductions in water levels, shortened wetland hydroperiods, and increased probability of drying. Intermediate hydroperiod wetlands are projected to experience the greatest changes. For the 2080s scenario, widespread conversion of intermediate wetlands to fast-drying ephemeral wetlands will likely reduce

Spatial requirements of free-ranging Huon tree kangaroos, Dendrolagus matschiei (Macropodidae, in upper montane forest.

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Gabriel Porolak

Full Text Available Tree kangaroos (Macropodidae, Dendrolagus are some of Australasia's least known mammals. However, there is sufficient evidence of population decline and local extinctions that all New Guinea tree kangaroos are considered threatened. Understanding spatial requirements is important in conservation and management. Expectations from studies of Australian tree kangaroos and other rainforest macropodids suggest that tree kangaroos should have small discrete home ranges with the potential for high population densities, but there are no published estimates of spatial requirements of any New Guinea tree kangaroo species. Home ranges of 15 Huon tree kangaroos, Dendrolagus matschiei, were measured in upper montane forest on the Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea. The home range area was an average of 139.6±26.5 ha (100% MCP; n = 15 or 81.8±28.3 ha (90% harmonic mean; n = 15, and did not differ between males and females. Home ranges of D. matschiei were 40-100 times larger than those of Australian tree kangaroos or other rainforest macropods, possibly due to the impact of hunting reducing density, or low productivity of their high altitude habitat. Huon tree kangaroos had cores of activity within their range at 45% (20.9±4.1 ha and 70% (36.6±7.5 ha harmonic mean isopleths, with little overlap (4.8±2.9%; n = 15 pairs between neighbouring females at the 45% isopleth, but, unlike the Australian species, extensive overlap between females (20.8±5.5%; n = 15 pairs at the complete range (90% harmonic mean. Males overlapped each other and females to a greater extent than did pairs of females. From core areas and overlap, the density of female D. matschiei was one per 19.4 ha. Understanding the cause of this low density is crucial in gaining greater understanding of variations in density of tree kangaroos across the landscape. We consider the potential role of habitat fragmentation, productivity and hunting pressure in limiting tree kangaroo

Canopy in the Clouds: Integrating Science and Media to Inspire a New Generation of Scientists

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Goldsmith, G. R.; Fulton, A. D.; Witherill, C. D.

2008-12-01

Innovative approaches to science education are critical for inspiring a new generation of scientists. In a world where students are inundated with digital media inviting them to explore exciting, emerging disciplines, science often lags behind in using progressive media techniques. Additionally, science education media often neglects to include the scientists conducting research, thereby disconnecting students from the excitement, adventure, and beauty of conducting research in the field. Here we present initial work from a science education media project entitled Canopy in the Clouds. In particular, we address the goals and approach of the project, the logistics associated with generating educational material at a foreign field site, and the challenges associated with effectively integrating science and media. Canopy in the Clouds is designed to engage students in research, motivate a new generation of young scientists, and promote conservation from the perspective of a current research project being conducted in the canopy of a tropical montane cloud forest located in Monteverde, Costa Rica. The project seeks to generate curriculum based on multiple, immersive forms of novel digital media that attract and maintain student attention. By doing so from the perspective of an adventurous research project in a beautiful and highly biodiverse region, we hope to engage students in science and enhance bioliteracy. However, there are considerable logistic considerations associated with such an approach, including safety, travel, permitting, and equipment maintenance. Additionally, the goals of both the scientific research and the educational media project must be balanced in order to meet objectives in a timely fashion. Finally, materials generated in the field must be translated to viable final products and distributed. Work associated with Canopy in the Clouds will thus provide insight into this process and can serve to inform future science education and outreach

Assessing the links among environmental contaminants, endocrinology, and parasites to understand amphibian declines in montane regions of Costa Rica.

Science.gov (United States)

Leary, Christopher J; Ralicki, Hannah F; Laurencio, David; Crocker-Buta, Sarah; Malone, John H

2018-01-01

Amphibians inhabiting montane riparian zones in the Neotropics are particularly vulnerable to decline, but the reasons are poorly understood. Because environmental contaminants, endocrine disruption, and pathogens often figure prominently in amphibian declines it is imperative that we understand how these factors are potentially interrelated to affect montane populations. One possibility is that increased precipitation associated with global warming promotes the deposition of contaminants in montane regions. Increased exposure to contaminants, in turn, potentially elicits chronic elevations in circulating stress hormones that could contribute to montane population declines by compromising resistance to pathogens and/or production of sex steroids regulating reproduction. Here, we test this hypothesis by examining contaminant levels, stress and sex steroid levels, and nematode abundances in male drab treefrogs, Smilisca sordida, from lowland and montane populations in Costa Rica. We found no evidence that montane populations were more likely to possess contaminants (i.e., organochlorine, organophosphate and carbamate pesticides or benzidine and chlorophenoxy herbicides) than lowland populations. We also found no evidence of elevational differences in circulating levels of the stress hormone corticosterone, estradiol or progesterone. However, montane populations possessed lower androgen levels, hosted more nematode species, and had higher nematode abundances than lowland populations. Although these results suggested that nematodes contributed to lower androgens in montane populations, we were unable to detect a significant inverse relationship between nematode abundance and androgen level. Our results suggest that montane populations of this species are not at greater risk of exposure to contaminants or chronic stress, but implicate nematodes and compromised sex steroid levels as potential threats to montane populations.

Assessing the links among environmental contaminants, endocrinology, and parasites to understand amphibian declines in montane regions of Costa Rica.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christopher J Leary

Full Text Available Amphibians inhabiting montane riparian zones in the Neotropics are particularly vulnerable to decline, but the reasons are poorly understood. Because environmental contaminants, endocrine disruption, and pathogens often figure prominently in amphibian declines it is imperative that we understand how these factors are potentially interrelated to affect montane populations. One possibility is that increased precipitation associated with global warming promotes the deposition of contaminants in montane regions. Increased exposure to contaminants, in turn, potentially elicits chronic elevations in circulating stress hormones that could contribute to montane population declines by compromising resistance to pathogens and/or production of sex steroids regulating reproduction. Here, we test this hypothesis by examining contaminant levels, stress and sex steroid levels, and nematode abundances in male drab treefrogs, Smilisca sordida, from lowland and montane populations in Costa Rica. We found no evidence that montane populations were more likely to possess contaminants (i.e., organochlorine, organophosphate and carbamate pesticides or benzidine and chlorophenoxy herbicides than lowland populations. We also found no evidence of elevational differences in circulating levels of the stress hormone corticosterone, estradiol or progesterone. However, montane populations possessed lower androgen levels, hosted more nematode species, and had higher nematode abundances than lowland populations. Although these results suggested that nematodes contributed to lower androgens in montane populations, we were unable to detect a significant inverse relationship between nematode abundance and androgen level. Our results suggest that montane populations of this species are not at greater risk of exposure to contaminants or chronic stress, but implicate nematodes and compromised sex steroid levels as potential threats to montane populations.

Impact of deforestation in the Amazon basin on cloud climatology.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jingfeng; Chagnon, Frédéric J F; Williams, Earle R; Betts, Alan K; Renno, Nilton O; Machado, Luiz A T; Bisht, Gautam; Knox, Ryan; Bras, Rafael L

2009-03-10

Shallow clouds are prone to appear over deforested surfaces whereas deep clouds, much less frequent than shallow clouds, favor forested surfaces. Simultaneous atmospheric soundings at forest and pasture sites during the Rondonian Boundary Layer Experiment (RBLE-3) elucidate the physical mechanisms responsible for the observed correlation between clouds and land cover. We demonstrate that the atmospheric boundary layer over the forested areas is more unstable and characterized by larger values of the convective available potential energy (CAPE) due to greater humidity than that which is found over the deforested area. The shallow convection over the deforested areas is relatively more active than the deep convection over the forested areas. This greater activity results from a stronger lifting mechanism caused by mesoscale circulations driven by deforestation-induced heterogeneities in land cover.

Effect of canopy position on germination and seedling survival of epiphytic bromeliads in a Mexican humid montane forest.

Science.gov (United States)

Winkler, Manuela; Hülber, Karl; Hietz, Peter

2005-05-01

Seeds of epiphytes must land on branches with suitable substrates and microclimates to germinate and for the resulting seedlings to survive. It is important to understand the fate of seeds and seedlings in order to model populations, but this is often neglected when only established plants are included in analyses. The seeds of five bromeliad species were exposed to different canopy positions in a Mexican montane forest, and germination and early seedling survival were recorded. Additionally, the survival of naturally dispersed seedlings was monitored in a census over 2.5 years. Survival analysis, a procedure rarely used in plant ecology, was used to study the influence of branch characteristics and light on germination and seedling survival in natural and experimental populations. Experimental germination percentages ranged from 7.2 % in Tillandsia deppeana to 33.7 % in T. juncea, but the seeds of T. multicaulis largely failed to germinate. Twenty months after exposure between 3.5 and 9.4 % of the seedlings were still alive. There was no evidence that canopy position affected the probability of germination, but time to germination was shorter in less exposed canopy positions indicating that higher humidity accelerates germination. More experimental seedlings survived when canopy openness was high, whereas survival in census-seedlings was influenced by moss cover. While mortality decreased steadily with age in juveniles of the atmospheric Tillandsia, in the more mesomorphic Catopsis sessiliflora mortality increased dramatically in the dry season. Seedling mortality, rather than the failure to germinate, accounts for the differential distribution of epiphytes within the canopy studied. With few safe sites to germinate and high seedling mortality, changes of local climate may affect epiphyte populations primarily through their seedling stage.

Thematic trip: "Save Roşia MontanÄă"

Science.gov (United States)

Eugenia, Marcu

2015-04-01

The name Roşia Montană, situated in Transylvania, became well known after a Romanian-Canadian company, Roşia Montană Gold Company (RMGC), obtained the concession license on exploitation for gold and silver minerals in the Roşia Montană area. The project consists of opening the largest surface gold mines in Europe using cyanide, which will include four open pits and a processing plant for gold and silver in The Roşia Valley and a tailings facility with an area of 367 hectares in the Corna Valley. One of the main fears is related to a possible ecological accident like the one in Baia Mare in 2000, when a tailing facility dam break led to cyanide pollution of Tisa and Danube rivers that resulted in the death of 1,200 tons of fish and contamination of water resources for 2 million people. This thematic trip is important for the scientific preparation of students and an opportunity to educate them in the spirit of environmental protection. The training and education of students will require assimilation and understanding, actively and consciously, using the knowledge acquired during the compulsory curriculum and training skills. REASON: The continuous degradation of the environment is a major crisis due to human intervention in nature, and the proposed Roşia Montană mining project will continue this trend. The company proposes to extract gold from mines by using the gold separation technique using cyanide, a process that involves destroying a total area of 16 km² which includes 5 mountains, 7 churches, 11 cemeteries and the ruins of Alburnus Maior Citadel, as well as creating pollution that would last for hundreds of years. The extraction of gold from low-grade ores using cyanide processes was estimated to result in a worldwide emission of 45,300 tons of hydrogen cyanide. Environmental education for a healthy life has children as target group, because they are the trustees and beneficiaries of tomorrow's natural resources and can influence the attitudes of

Forest gradient response in Sierran landscapes: the physical template

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Urban, Dean L.; Miller, Carol; Halpin, Patrick N.; Stephenson, Nathan L.

2000-01-01

Vegetation pattern on landscapes is the manifestation of physical gradients, biotic response to these gradients, and disturbances. Here we focus on the physical template as it governs the distribution of mixed-conifer forests in California's Sierra Nevada. We extended a forest simulation model to examine montane environmental gradients, emphasizing factors affecting the water balance in these summer-dry landscapes. The model simulates the soil moisture regime in terms of the interaction of water supply and demand: supply depends on precipitation and water storage, while evapotranspirational demand varies with solar radiation and temperature. The forest cover itself can affect the water balance via canopy interception and evapotranspiration. We simulated Sierran forests as slope facets, defined as gridded stands of homogeneous topographic exposure, and verified simulated gradient response against sample quadrats distributed across Sequoia National Park. We then performed a modified sensitivity analysis of abiotic factors governing the physical gradient. Importantly, the model's sensitivity to temperature, precipitation, and soil depth varies considerably over the physical template, particularly relative to elevation. The physical drivers of the water balance have characteristic spatial scales that differ by orders of magnitude. Across large spatial extents, temperature and precipitation as defined by elevation primarily govern the location of the mixed conifer zone. If the analysis is constrained to elevations within the mixed-conifer zone, local topography comes into play as it influences drainage. Soil depth varies considerably at all measured scales, and is especially dominant at fine (within-stand) scales. Physical site variables can influence soil moisture deficit either by affecting water supply or water demand; these effects have qualitatively different implications for forest response. These results have clear implications about purely inferential approaches

Responses of Two Litter-Based Invertebrate Communities to Changes in Canopy Cover in a Forest Subject to Hurricanes

Science.gov (United States)

Barbara Richardson; Michael Richardson; Grizelle González

2018-01-01

Tropical forests are subject to seasonal hurricanes resulting in cycles of canopy opening and deposition of litter, followed by periods of recovery and canopy closure. Herein, we review two studies of litter-based communities in Puerto Rico; (i) a survey of bromeliad invertebrates in three montane forest types along an elevational gradient in 1993–1997, during a period...

Destruction and management of Mount Kenya`s forests

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bussmann, R.W. [Bayreuth Univ. (Germany). Fakultaet fuer Biologie, Chemie und Geowissenschaften

1996-08-01

This article presents data on the destruction of the montane forests on Mount Kenya. The material was obtained during field-work for a phytosociological study in 1992-1994. Special emphasis was given to the observation of regeneration patterns and succession cycles within the different forest communities, with regard to the impact of humans and big game. Although private tree planting is reducing the fuelwood deficit in Kenya, large parts of the 200 000 ha of Mount Kenya`s forests - the largest natural-forest area in the country - are heavily impacted by among other things illegal activities. The wet camphor forests of the south and southeast mountain slopes are being destroyed at an alarming speed, by large-scale selective logging of Ocotea usambarensis and marihuana cultivation. The drier Juniperus procera are also logged, but are even more endangered by the new settlement schemes. The large elephant population does not affect forest regeneration; whereas browsing and chaffing by buffaloes inhibits regeneration of the dry forests, and damages many trees. Suggestions are presented for better management of the forest resources. 12 refs, 1 fig

Nature and Age of Neighbours Matter: Interspecific Associations among Tree Species Exist and Vary across Life Stages in Tropical Forests.

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Alicia Ledo

Full Text Available Detailed information about interspecific spatial associations among tropical tree species is scarce, and hence the ecological importance of those associations may have been underestimated. However, they can play a role in community assembly and species diversity maintenance. This study investigated the spatial dependence between pairs of species. First, the spatial associations (spatial attraction and spatial repulsion that arose between species were examined. Second, different sizes of trees were considered in order to evaluate whether the spatial relationships between species are constant or vary during the lifetime of individuals. Third, the consistency of those spatial associations with the species-habitat associations found in previous studies was assessed. Two different tropical ecosystems were investigated: a montane cloud forest and a lowland moist forest. The results showed that spatial associations among species exist, and these vary among life stages and species. The rarity of negative spatial interactions suggested that exclusive competition was not common in the studied forests. On the other hand, positive interactions were common, and the results of this study strongly suggested that habitat associations were not the only cause of spatial attraction among species. If this is true, habitat associations and density dependence are not the only mechanisms that explain species distribution and diversity; other ecological interactions, such as facilitation among species, may also play a role. These spatial associations could be important in the assembly of tropical tree communities and forest succession, and should be taken into account in future studies.

Remarkable fly (Diptera) diversity in a patch of Costa Rican cloud forest: Why inventory is a vital science

Science.gov (United States)

All flies (Diptera) collected for one year from a four-hectare (150 X 266 meter) patch of cloud forest at 1600 meters above sea level at Zurquí de Moravia, San José Province, Costa Rica (hereafter referred to as Zurquí), revealed an astounding 4,348 species. These amount to more than half the number...

Birds of a high-altitude cloud forest in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala

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Knut Eisermann

2005-09-01

Full Text Available The Northern Central American Highlands have been recognized as endemic bird area, but little is known about bird communities in Guatemalan cloud forests. From 1997 to 2001 a total of 142 bird species were recorded between 2 000 and 2 400 masl in cloud forest and agricultural clearings on Montaña Caquipec (Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. The bird community is described based on line transect counts within the forest. Pooling census data from undisturbed and disturbed forest, the Gray-breasted Wood-Wren (Henicorhina leucophrys was found to be the most abundant species, followed in descending order by the Common Bush-Tanager (Chlorospingus ophthalmicus, the Paltry Tyrannulet (Zimmerius vilissimus, the Yellowish Flycatcher (Empidonax flavescens, the Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrush (Catharus frantzii, and the Amethyst-throated Hummingbird (Lampornis amethystinus. Bird communities in undisturbed and disturbed forest were found to be similar (Sørensen similarity index 0.85, indicating low human impact. Of all recorded species, ~27% were Nearctic-Neotropical migratory birds. The most abundant one was the Wilson’s Warbler (Wilsonia pusilla. The Montaña Caquipec is an important area for bird conservation, which is indicated by the presence of four species listed in the IUCN Red List (Highland Guan Penelopina nigra, Resplendent Quetzal Pharomachrus mocinno, Pink-headed Warbler Ergaticus versicolor, Golden-cheeked Warbler Dendroica chrysoparia, and 42 Mesoamerican endemics, of which 14 species are endemic to the Central American Highlands. The results presented here will be useful as baseline data for a long-term monitoring. Rev. Biol. Trop. 53(3-4: 577-594. Epub 2005 Oct 3.Las alturas del norte de Centroamérica han sido reconocidas como región de aves endémicas, pero se conoce poco sobre las comunidades de aves en bosques nubosos de Guatemala. De 1997 a 2001 se han detectado 142 especies de aves entre 2 000 y 2 400 msnm en el bosque nuboso y áreas agr

Edaphic potentials of beech forests on Brezovica

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Knežević Milan

2002-01-01

Full Text Available The study deals with the soils in the montane beech forest (Fagetum moesiacae montanum Jov. 53 in the management units "Južni Kuèaj II" and "Bogovina I", on the mountain massif Brezovica. Soil genesis in the beech forests of Brezovica, along with vegetation and relief, was affected by the character of parent rock. The study soils occur over two types of bedrock: limestone and argilloschist The soil types and sub-types are defined based on the profile morphology, parent rock and pedogenetic processes Two types of soil were analysed on limestone: black earth (calcomelanosol and brown soil (calcocambisol. Two sub-types of black earth were defined: organomineral and brownised. There are two varieties of organomineral black earth: colluvial and lithic. Also two sub-types of brown soils were defined and: typical and illimerised. The soils on limestone are characterised by great spatial variability. Different combinations of soil formations occur on a small area. Soil combinations consist of two or three development phases, the most represented of which are the following: organomineral black earth - brownised black earth; organomineral black earth - brownised black earth - typical brown soil; typical brown soil - illimerised soil Typical brown soil is formed on argilloschists and it occurs in two forms: medium deep, medium skeletal acid brown soil and deep, poorly skeletal acid brown soil The most productive sites of the montane beech forest on Brezovica are deep acid brown soils and the soil combination: typical brown soil - illimerised soil on limestone.

Habitat shifts in the evolutionary history of a Neotropical flycatcher lineage from forest and open landscapes

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Christidis Les

2008-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Little is known about the role ecological shifts play in the evolution of Neotropical radiations that have colonized a variety of environments. We here examine habitat shifts in the evolutionary history of Elaenia flycatchers, a Neotropical bird lineage that lives in a range of forest and open habitats. We evaluate phylogenetic relationships within the genus based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data, and then employ parsimony-based and Bayesian methods to reconstruct preferences for a number of habitat types and migratory behaviour throughout the evolutionary history of the genus. Using a molecular clock approach, we date the most important habitat shifts. Results Our analyses resolve phylogenetic relationships among Elaenia species and confirm several species associations predicted by morphology while furnishing support for other taxon placements that are in conflict with traditional classification, such as the elevation of various Elaenia taxa to species level. While savannah specialism is restricted to one basal clade within the genus, montane forest was invaded from open habitat only on a limited number of occasions. Riparian growth may have been favoured early on in the evolution of the main Elaenia clade and subsequently been deserted on several occasions. Austral long-distance migratory behaviour evolved on several occasions. Conclusion Ancestral reconstructions of habitat preferences reveal pronounced differences not only in the timing of the emergence of certain habitat preferences, but also in the frequency of habitat shifts. The early origin of savannah specialism in Elaenia highlights the importance of this habitat in Neotropical Pliocene and late Miocene biogeography. While forest in old mountain ranges such as the Tepuis and the Brazilian Shield was colonized early on, the most important colonization event of montane forest was in conjunction with Pliocene Andean uplift. Riparian habitats may have

Predictors of breeding site occupancy by amphibians in montane landscapes

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Groff, Luke A.; Loftin, Cynthia S.; Calhoun, Aram J.K.

2017-01-01

Ecological relationships and processes vary across species’ geographic distributions, life stages and spatial, and temporal scales. Montane landscapes are characterized by low wetland densities, rugged topographies, and cold climates. Consequently, aquatic-dependent and low-vagility ectothermic species (e.g., pool-breeding amphibians) may exhibit unique ecological associations in montane landscapes. We evaluated the relative importance of breeding- and landscape-scale features associated with spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) and wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) wetland occupancy in Maine's Upper Montane-Alpine Zone ecoregion, and we determined whether models performed better when the inclusive landscape-scale covariates were estimated with topography-weighted or circular buffers. We surveyed 135 potential breeding sites during May 2013–June 2014 and evaluated environmental relationships with multi-season implicit dynamics occupancy models. Breeding site occupancy by both species was influenced solely by breeding-scale habitat features. Spotted salamander occupancy probabilities increased with previous or current beaver (Castor canadensis) presence, and models generally were better supported when the inclusive landscape-scale covariates were estimated with topography-weighted rather than circular buffers. Wood frog occupancy probabilities increased with site area and percent shallows, but neither buffer type was better supported than the other. Model rank order and support varied between buffer types, but model inferences did not. Our results suggest pool-breeding amphibian conservation in montane Maine include measures to maintain beaver populations and large wetlands with proportionally large areas of shallows ≤1-m deep. Inconsistencies between our study and previous studies substantiate the value of region-specific research for augmenting species’ conservation management plans and suggest the application of out-of-region inferences may promote

Interactions between payments for hydrologic services, landowner decisions, and ecohydrological consequences: synergies and disconnection in the cloud forest zone of central Veracruz, Mexico

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Heidi Asbjornsen

2017-06-01

hydrologic services and people's decisions, behavior, and knowledge regarding forest conservation and water. Using central Veracruz as our case study, we identify areas of both synchrony and disconnection between PHS goals and outcomes. Mature and regenerating cloud forests (targeted by PHS were found to produce enhanced hydrologic services relative to areas converted to pasture, including reduced peak flows during large rain events and maintenance of dry-season base flows. However, unexpectedly, these hydrologic benefits from cloud forests were not necessarily greater than those from other vegetation types. Consequently, the location of forests in strategic watershed positions (e.g., where deforestation risk or hydrologic recharge are high may be more critical than forest type in promoting hydrologic functions within watersheds and should be considered when targeting PHS payments. While our results suggest that participation in PHS improved the level of knowledge among watershed inhabitants about forest-water relationships, a mismatch existed between payment amounts and landowner opportunity costs, which may contribute to the modest success in targeting priority areas within watersheds. Combined, these findings underscore the complexity of factors that influence motivations for PHS participation and land use decisions and behavior, and the importance of integrating understanding of both ecohydrological and socioeconomic dynamics into PHS design and implementation. We conclude by identifying opportunities for improving the design of PHS programs and recommending priority areas for future research and monitoring, both in Mexico and globally.

Composição florística de uma floresta estacional semidecidual montana no município de Viçosa-MG Floristic composition of a montane seasonal semideciduous tropical forest in Viçosa, MG, Brasil

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João Augusto Alves Meira-Neto

2002-08-01

Full Text Available O objetivo do presente estudo foi investigar a composição florística arbórea da Mata da Silvicultura (20º45'S e 42º55'W, município de Viçosa, Zona da Mata de Minas Gerais, com o intuito de avaliar sua similaridade com outras florestas. Para comparação florística foi utilizada a análise de agrupamentos pelo método de médias aritméticas não-ponderadas (UPGMA, a partir dos índices binários de similaridade de Sørensen entre as florestas comparadas. Foram relacionadas 154 espécies de 47 famílias botânicas para a Mata da Silvicultura. Esta mata mostrou-se mais similar às florestas semideciduais de altitude de Lavras (MG e de Atibaia (SP e menos similar às florestas submontanas e litorâneas. Estes resultados evidenciam uma importante influência das temperaturas na determinação do tipo florístico das florestas do Sudeste e Sul brasileiros.This study aims to investigate the floristic composition of the Silvicultura forest (20º45`S and 42º55´W by comparing it to other forest compositions. Thus, the cluster analysis method of unweighted pair-group using arithmetic averages (UPGMA was used, applying the Sørensen binary similarity index found among compared forests. A list of 154 species of 47 families was recorded. The Silvicultura forest is more similar to the montane semideciduous forests of Lavras and Atibaia, but less similar to submontane and coastal forests. These results show that temperature plays an important role in the floristic differentiation of the southern and southeastern Brazilian forest types.

Charcoal and Total Carbon in Soils from Foothills Shrublands to Subalpine Forests in the Colorado Front Range

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Robert Sanford

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Temperate conifer forests in the Colorado Front Range are fire-adapted ecosystems where wildland fires leave a legacy in the form of char and charcoal. Long-term soil charcoal C (CC pools result from the combined effects of wildland fires, aboveground biomass characteristics and soil transfer mechanisms. We measured CC pools in surface soils (0–10 cm at mid-slope positions on east facing aspects in five continuous foothills shrubland and conifer forest types. We found a significant statistical effect of vegetation type on CC pools along this ecological gradient, but not a linear pattern increasing with elevation gain. There is a weak bimodal pattern of CC gain with elevation between foothills shrublands (1.2 mg CC ha−1 and the lower montane, ponderosa pine (1.5 mg CC ha−1 and Douglas-fir (1.5 mg CC ha−1 forest types prior to a mid-elevation decline in upper montane lodgepole pine forests (1.2 mg CC ha−1 before increasing again in the spruce/subalpine fir forests (1.5 mg CC ha−1. We propose that CC forms and accumulates via unique ecological conditions such as fire regime. The range of soil CC amounts and ratios of CC to total SOC are comparable to but lower than other regional estimates.

Comparison of passive fog gauges for determining fog duration and fog interception by a Puerto Rican elfin cloud forest

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Holwerda, F; Bruijnzeel, L.A.; Scatena, F.N.

2011-01-01

Between 5 March and 10 May 2001, the performance of three types of passive fog gauges (wire harp WH, standard fog collector SC and Juvik gauge JU) was compared at a wind-exposed Puerto Rican elfin cloud forest site. The gauges were used to determine the timing and duration of fog, as well as

Xeromorphic traits help to maintain photosynthesis in the perhumid climate of a Taiwanese cloud forest.

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Pariyar, Shyam; Chang, Shih-Chieh; Zinsmeister, Daniel; Zhou, Haiyang; Grantz, David A; Hunsche, Mauricio; Burkhardt, Juergen

2017-07-01

Previous flux measurements in the perhumid cloud forest of northeastern Taiwan have shown efficient photosynthesis of the endemic tree species Chamaecyparis obtusa var. formosana even under foggy conditions in which leaf surface moisture would be expected. We hypothesized this to be the result of 'xeromorphic' traits of the Chamaecyparis leaves (hydrophobicity, stomatal crypts, stomatal clustering), which could prevent coverage of stomata by precipitation, fog, and condensation, thereby maintaining CO 2 uptake. Here we studied the amount, distribution, and composition of moisture accumulated on Chamaecyparis leaf surfaces in situ in the cloud forest. We studied the effect of surface tension on gas penetration to stomata using optical O 2 microelectrodes in the laboratory. We captured the dynamics of condensation to the leaf surfaces with an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). In spite of substantial surface hydrophobicity, the mean water film thickness on branchlets under foggy conditions was 80 µm (upper surface) and 40 µm (lower surface). This amount of water could cover stomata and prevent CO 2 uptake. This is avoided by the clustered arrangement of stomata within narrow clefts and the presence of Florin rings. These features keep stomatal pores free from water due to surface tension and provide efficient separation of plant and atmosphere in this perhumid environment. Air pollutants, particularly hygroscopic aerosol, may disturb this functionality by enhancing condensation and reducing the surface tension of leaf surface water.

Projected range contractions of European protected oceanic montane plant communities: focus on climate change impacts is essential for their future conservation.

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Hodd, Rory L; Bourke, David; Skeffington, Micheline Sheehy

2014-01-01

Global climate is rapidly changing and while many studies have investigated the potential impacts of this on the distribution of montane plant species and communities, few have focused on those with oceanic montane affinities. In Europe, highly sensitive bryophyte species reach their optimum occurrence, highest diversity and abundance in the north-west hyperoceanic regions, while a number of montane vascular plant species occur here at the edge of their range. This study evaluates the potential impact of climate change on the distribution of these species and assesses the implications for EU Habitats Directive-protected oceanic montane plant communities. We applied an ensemble of species distribution modelling techniques, using atlas data of 30 vascular plant and bryophyte species, to calculate range changes under projected future climate change. The future effectiveness of the protected area network to conserve these species was evaluated using gap analysis. We found that the majority of these montane species are projected to lose suitable climate space, primarily at lower altitudes, or that areas of suitable climate will principally shift northwards. In particular, rare oceanic montane bryophytes have poor dispersal capacity and are likely to be especially vulnerable to contractions in their current climate space. Significantly different projected range change responses were found between 1) oceanic montane bryophytes and vascular plants; 2) species belonging to different montane plant communities; 3) species categorised according to different biomes and eastern limit classifications. The inclusion of topographical variables in addition to climate, significantly improved the statistical and spatial performance of models. The current protected area network is projected to become less effective, especially for specialised arctic-montane species, posing a challenge to conserving oceanic montane plant communities. Conservation management plans need significantly

Projected range contractions of European protected oceanic montane plant communities: focus on climate change impacts is essential for their future conservation.

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Rory L Hodd

Full Text Available Global climate is rapidly changing and while many studies have investigated the potential impacts of this on the distribution of montane plant species and communities, few have focused on those with oceanic montane affinities. In Europe, highly sensitive bryophyte species reach their optimum occurrence, highest diversity and abundance in the north-west hyperoceanic regions, while a number of montane vascular plant species occur here at the edge of their range. This study evaluates the potential impact of climate change on the distribution of these species and assesses the implications for EU Habitats Directive-protected oceanic montane plant communities. We applied an ensemble of species distribution modelling techniques, using atlas data of 30 vascular plant and bryophyte species, to calculate range changes under projected future climate change. The future effectiveness of the protected area network to conserve these species was evaluated using gap analysis. We found that the majority of these montane species are projected to lose suitable climate space, primarily at lower altitudes, or that areas of suitable climate will principally shift northwards. In particular, rare oceanic montane bryophytes have poor dispersal capacity and are likely to be especially vulnerable to contractions in their current climate space. Significantly different projected range change responses were found between 1 oceanic montane bryophytes and vascular plants; 2 species belonging to different montane plant communities; 3 species categorised according to different biomes and eastern limit classifications. The inclusion of topographical variables in addition to climate, significantly improved the statistical and spatial performance of models. The current protected area network is projected to become less effective, especially for specialised arctic-montane species, posing a challenge to conserving oceanic montane plant communities. Conservation management plans need

ESCORRENTÍA SUPERFICIAL EN BOSQUES MONTANOS NATURALES Y PLANTADOS DE PIEDRAS BLANCAS, ANTIOQUIA (COLOMBIA SURFACE RUNOFF IN NATURAL MONTANE FORESTS AND FOREST PLANTATIONS IN ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA

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Oscar Andrés Ruiz Suescún

2005-06-01

Full Text Available En bosques montanos naturales de roble (Quercus humboldtii Bonpl. y plantados de pino pátula (Pinus patula Schltdl. & Cham. y ciprés (Cupressus lusitanica Mill. de la región de Piedras Blancas, Antioquia (Colombia, fueron medidos los flujos de escorrentía superficial (ES por un periodo de tiempo de 16 meses. Se implementaron parcelas cerradas de escorrentía superficial de 10 m de largo x 2 m de ancho, tanques colectores y sistemas de registro volumétrico. Los flujos fueron de 23,19 mm año-1 (1,07 % de la precipitación para la cobertura de roble; 35,13 mm año-1 (1,61 % de la precipitación para la cobertura de pino pátula y 230,64 mm año-1 (11,05 % de la precipitación para la cobertura de ciprés. Mediante análisis de componentes principales (ACP se identificaron las relaciones existentes entre las variables hidrológicas y los flujos de ES, y por medio de análisis de regresión lineal múltiple se ajustaron modelos para los flujos de ES por cobertura en función de la precipitación, la precipitación en el bosque y la intensidad de lluvia promedio, variables que mostraron alta relación con la ES según el ACP.In natural montane oak forests (Quercus humboldtii Bonpl., in pine (Pinus patula Schltdl. & Cham. and cypress (Cupressus lusitanica Mill. plantations in Piedras Blancas, Antioquia (Colombia, surface runoff flows (SRF were measured over 16 months. Runoff was measured using 10 m long x 2 m wide runoff bounded plots, collector tanks and a volumetric counter system. SRF were 23,19 mm year -1 (1,07 % of rainfall for oak forest; 35,13 mm year -1 (1,61 % of rainfall for pine and 230,64 mm year-1 (11,05 % of rainfall for cypress plantations. Relationships between hydrological variables and SRF were identified by a principal components analysis (PCA. For each one of the stands, multiple regression analysis was used to fit models of SRF on rainfall, throughfall and mean intensity of rainfall, variables that, according to the PCA

FLORISTIC CHANGES ALONG THE TOPOGRAPHICAL GRADIENT IN MONTANE GRASSLANDS IN MONTI PICENTINI (CAMPANIA, SW ITALY

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M. CUTINI

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Populations of xerotolerant species (Achnatherum calamagrostis, Stipa crassiculmis subsp. picentina, are scattered along a wide altitudinal gradient on slopes at mid- and high elevation in Monti Picentini, a subcoastal mesozoic limestone ridge in Tyrrhenian Southern Italy. Their stands are widespread in grasslands of mostly secondary origin. At lower altitudes these grasslands replace former deciduous forest communities dominated by oaks or beech, while at higher altitudes they reach the summits, where they apparently merge into the remnants of the still partially grazed, zonal climatogenic, grasslands ranging above the local tree-line. Nevertheless primary stands of these grasslands are to be found around the many clusters of highly dynamic sites of the montane and sub-alpine levels, scattered around screes and rocky outcrops of the prevalently dolomitic morphology of the slopes. This virtual continuity of non arboreal communities across more than 1000 metres of the local topographical gradient, where azonal, relic stands of Pinus nigra s.l. are transitional between the grasslands and the surrounding zonal broadleaved forest vegetation, stresses patterns of the coenological changes between Festuco-Brometea and Elyno-Seslerietea along the catena, which suggest fragmentary persistence of a paleozonation.

FLORISTIC CHANGES ALONG THE TOPOGRAPHICAL GRADIENT IN MONTANE GRASSLANDS IN MONTI PICENTINI (CAMPANIA, SW ITALY

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F. SPADA

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Populations of xerotolerant species (Achnatherum calamagrostis, Stipa crassiculmis subsp. picentina, are scattered along a wide altitudinal gradient on slopes at mid- and high elevation in Monti Picentini, a subcoastal mesozoic limestone ridge in Tyrrhenian Southern Italy. Their stands are widespread in grasslands of mostly secondary origin. At lower altitudes these grasslands replace former deciduous forest communities dominated by oaks or beech, while at higher altitudes they reach the summits, where they apparently merge into the remnants of the still partially grazed, zonal climatogenic, grasslands ranging above the local tree-line. Nevertheless primary stands of these grasslands are to be found around the many clusters of highly dynamic sites of the montane and sub-alpine levels, scattered around screes and rocky outcrops of the prevalently dolomitic morphology of the slopes. This virtual continuity of non arboreal communities across more than 1000 metres of the local topographical gradient, where azonal, relic stands of Pinus nigra s.l. are transitional between the grasslands and the surrounding zonal broadleaved forest vegetation, stresses patterns of the coenological changes between Festuco-Brometea and Elyno-Seslerietea along the catena, which suggest fragmentary persistence of a paleozonation.

Climatic Characteristics of the Subtropical Mountainous Cloud Forest at the Yuanyang Lake Long-Term Ecological Research Site, Taiwan

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I-Ling Lai

2006-12-01

Full Text Available To better understand the climatic characteristics in a subtropical mountainous cloud forest at the Yuanyang Lake long-term ecological research site, weather data collected from January 1994 to December 2004 were analyzed in the present study. The obvious seasonal changes in climatic factors were observed at this site. The annual mean air temperature was 12.7°C. The lowest temperature was recorded in February (monthly mean 5.9°C, and the highest one was taken in July (monthly mean 18.1°C. Winter featured light rain with a prolonged occurrence of fog, resulting in a large reduction of radiation. In summer, fog occurred once in the early morning and the other time from afternoon to evening. The latter one was associated with the wind direction changes and usually accompanied with short moderate to heavy convective rain. Consequently the photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD was high in the morning but reduced drastically in the afternoon. Typhoons occurred in the summer had contributed to 37% of the annual rainfall, usually resulting in torrential rain events and sharp increases in the water level of this lake. As a matter of fact, perhumid environment of this site was attributed to abundant rainfall (mean annual precipitation 3396 mm and high frequency (up to 40% of foggy time. Such conditions would reduce the intensity of solar radiation and PPFD. The average annual solar radiation at the site was 2475 MJ m-2, and annual PPFD was 5713 mol m-2. The average degree of reduction of PPFD under foggy condition was up to 88%. Such climatic characteristics are suggested to constrain the growth of plants and play an important role in competition among plant species in this cloud forest. It is considered that the distinct seasonal fluctuation in environmental factors, perhumid and dim light conditions are the most distinguished characteristics of this subtropical mountainous cloud forest ecosystem.

SPECIES-SPECIFIC FOREST VARIABLE ESTIMATION USING NON-PARAMETRIC MODELING OF MULTI-SPECTRAL PHOTOGRAMMETRIC POINT CLOUD DATA

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J. Bohlin

2012-07-01

Full Text Available The recent development in software for automatic photogrammetric processing of multispectral aerial imagery, and the growing nation-wide availability of Digital Elevation Model (DEM data, are about to revolutionize data capture for forest management planning in Scandinavia. Using only already available aerial imagery and ALS-assessed DEM data, raster estimates of the forest variables mean tree height, basal area, total stem volume, and species-specific stem volumes were produced and evaluated. The study was conducted at a coniferous hemi-boreal test site in southern Sweden (lat. 58° N, long. 13° E. Digital aerial images from the Zeiss/Intergraph Digital Mapping Camera system were used to produce 3D point-cloud data with spectral information. Metrics were calculated for 696 field plots (10 m radius from point-cloud data and used in k-MSN to estimate forest variables. For these stands, the tree height ranged from 1.4 to 33.0 m (18.1 m mean, stem volume from 0 to 829 m3 ha-1 (249 m3 ha-1 mean and basal area from 0 to 62.2 m2 ha-1 (26.1 m2 ha-1 mean, with mean stand size of 2.8 ha. Estimates made using digital aerial images corresponding to the standard acquisition of the Swedish National Land Survey (Lantmäteriet showed RMSEs (in percent of the surveyed stand mean of 7.5% for tree height, 11.4% for basal area, 13.2% for total stem volume, 90.6% for pine stem volume, 26.4 for spruce stem volume, and 72.6% for deciduous stem volume. The results imply that photogrammetric matching of digital aerial images has significant potential for operational use in forestry.

Input of trace substances to coniferous forests by fog interception at high elevations of Black Forest

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Winkler, P.; Pahl, S.

1993-10-01

The deposition of trace substances to a coniferous forest has been estimated by means of a one-dimensional cloud droplet deposition model. For a period of 21 months the liquid water content has been measured and 89 samples of cloud water from the weather station Feldberg have been analysed for chemical composition. These data and meteorological routine observations have been used as input parameters for the deposition model. Deposition calculations to a 40 years old coniferous forest for the period 1982-1991 showed that the cloud water deposition amounts to 33% of the precipitation amount on the average and varies between 23 and 43% in single years. The highest cloud water deposition rates occur during fall and winter. The trace substance concentration in cloud water has been found to be higher than in precipitation, by a factor between 6 and 12, depending on the type of ions. Typically seasonal variations of normalized ion concentrations could be shown to exist as well as dependencies on wind direction. Air mass transport from the industries of the Stuttgart area resulted in higher trace substance concentrations in cloud water. The deposition of trace substances via fog interception during the summer months is as high and in the winter months higher than that by wet deposition. The forests at high elevations of Black Forest are charged appreciably by fog interception. (orig.). 31 figs., 5 tabs., 39 refs [de

Forest biomass and tree planting for fossil fuel offsets in the Colorado Front Range

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Mike A. Battaglia; Kellen Nelson; Dan Kashian; Michael G. Ryan

2010-01-01

This study estimates the amount of carbon available for removal in fuel reduction and reforestation treatments in montane forests of the Colorado Front Range based on site productivity, pre-treatment basal area, and planting density. Thinning dense stands will yield the greatest offsets for biomass fuel. However, this will also yield the greatest carbon losses, if the...

The contribution of large trees to total transpiration rates in a pre-montane tropical forest and its implications for selective logging practices

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Orozco, G.; Moore, G. W.; Miller, G. R.

2012-12-01

In the humid tropics, conservationists generally prefer selective logging practices over clearcutting. Large valuable timber is removed while the remaining forest is left relatively undisturbed. However, little is known about the impact of selective logging on site water balance. Because large trees have very deep sapwood and exposed canopies, they tend to have high transpiration. The first objective was to evaluate the methods used for scaling sap flow measurements to the watershed with particular emphasis on large trees. The second objective of this study was to determine the relative contribution of large trees to site water balance. Our study was conducted in a pre-montane transitional forest at the Texas A&M University Soltis Center in north-central Costa Rica. During the period between January and July 2012, sap flux was monitored in a 30-m diameter plot within a 10-ha watershed. Two pairs of heat dissipation sensors were installed in the outer 0-20 mm of each of 15 trees selected to represent the full range of tree sizes. In six of the largest trees, depth profiles were recorded at 10-mm intervals to a depth of 60 mm using compensation heat pulse sensors. To estimate sapwood basal area of the entire watershed, a stand survey was conducted in three 30-m-diameter plots. In each plot, we measured basal area of all trees and estimated sapwood basal area from sapwood depth measured in nearly half of the trees. An estimated 36.5% of the total sapwood area in this watershed comes from the outer 20 mm of sapwood, with the remaining 63.5% of sapwood from depths deeper than 20 mm. Nearly 13% of sapwood is from depths beyond 60 mm. Sap velocity profiles indicate the highest flow rates occurred in the 0-2 cm depths, with declines of 17% and 25% in the 20-40 mm and 40-60 mm ranges, respectively. Our results demonstrate the need to measure sap velocity profiles in large tropical trees. If total transpiration had been estimated solely from the 0-20 mm heat dissipation

Floral diversity, composition and distribution in a montane wetland in hogsback, the eastern cape province, south africa

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Omar, M.Y.; Tol, J.J.V.; Maroyi, A.

2016-01-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate plant species diversity, composition and distribution in a montane wetland in Hogsback, Eastern Cape province, South Africa. Twenty four circular plots with radius of 2m were established between March and August 2013 within Hogsback montane wetland. Within each sample plot, the habitat information and species present were recorded including Braun-Blanquet cover-abundance values for all species present in the plot. A total of 41 species belonging to 19 families and 36 genera were recorded. Of the documented species, 7.3% were exotic and endemic to South Africa, indicating diversity and dynamic nature of Hogsback montane wetland flora. Plant families with the highest number of species were: Poaceae (11 species), Asteraceae (six species), Onagraceae and Cyperaceae (three species each) and Lamiaceae with two species. The low number of exotic plant species recorded in Hogsback wetland (three species in total) indicates limited anthropogenic influences. Unique species recorded in Hogsback montane wetland were three species that are endemic to South Africa, namely, Alchemilla capensis Thunb., Helichrysum rosum (P.J. Bergius) Lees and Lysimachia nutans Nees. Five main floristic associations were identified from the Hierarchical Cluster Analysis. The Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) indicated that edaphic factors, particularly area covered with water, erosion category, organic matter content and water table depth were the most important environmental variables measured accounting for the vegetation pattern present in the Hogsback montane wetland. Montane wetlands have a relatively low species richness characterised by unique species compositions which are distinctive and habitat specific. (author)

Parameterized approximation of lacunarity functions derived from airborne laser scanning point clouds of forested areas

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Székely, Balázs; Kania, Adam; Varga, Katalin; Heilmeier, Hermann

2017-04-01

Lacunarity, a measure of the spatial distribution of the empty space is found to be a useful descriptive quantity of the forest structure. Its calculation, based on laser-scanned point clouds, results in a four-dimensional data set. The evaluation of results needs sophisticated tools and visualization techniques. To simplify the evaluation, it is straightforward to use approximation functions fitted to the results. The lacunarity function L(r), being a measure of scale-independent structural properties, has a power-law character. Previous studies showed that log(log(L(r))) transformation is suitable for analysis of spatial patterns. Accordingly, transformed lacunarity functions can be approximated by appropriate functions either in the original or in the transformed domain. As input data we have used a number of laser-scanned point clouds of various forests. The lacunarity distribution has been calculated along a regular horizontal grid at various (relative) elevations. The lacunarity data cube then has been logarithm-transformed and the resulting values became the input of parameter estimation at each point (point of interest, POI). This way at each POI a parameter set is generated that is suitable for spatial analysis. The expectation is that the horizontal variation and vertical layering of the vegetation can be characterized by this procedure. The results show that the transformed L(r) functions can be typically approximated by exponentials individually, and the residual values remain low in most cases. However, (1) in most cases the residuals may vary considerably, and (2) neighbouring POIs often give rather differing estimates both in horizontal and in vertical directions, of them the vertical variation seems to be more characteristic. In the vertical sense, the distribution of estimates shows abrupt changes at places, presumably related to the vertical structure of the forest. In low relief areas horizontal similarity is more typical, in higher relief areas

Historical patterns in lichen communities of montane quaking aspen forests

Science.gov (United States)

Paul C. Rogers; Dale L. Bartos; Ronald J. Ryel

2011-01-01

Climate shifts and resource exploitation in Rocky Mountain forests have caused profound changes in quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) structure and function since Euro-American settlement. It therefore seems likely that commensurate shifts in dependent epiphytes would follow major ecological transitions. In the current study, we merge several lines of inquiry...

water quality of the high-montane Juan Cojo and El Salado's basins (Glrardota - Antioqula, Colombia)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gomez Marin, Ana Maria; Naranjo Fernandez, Dario; Martinez, Andres Alfonso; Gallego Suarez, Dario de Jesus

2007-01-01

This work is a preliminary diagnosis of the actual state of the high-montane water sources located in the Juan Cojo's and El Salado's basins of the NE side of the Aburra valley' both belong to the Girardota municipality (6 degrades 20.951' N, 75 celsius 27.199' W between 1900 and 2500 meter above sea level in the central montane chain. in order to achieve this work several samples were taken in august 10, 11, 17 and 19 of 2004. this preliminary study includes the physicochemical and microbiological evaluation of 30 sampling points. just one of the 30 sampling points exhibited absence of microbiological pollution due to fecal and total coliforms. this fact suggests bad practices in the final disposal of domestic and farming water residuals. in the other hand, the physicochemical and the ICA (water quality index) evaluation reveal that the sampled water sources exhibit typical characteristics of common low-montane ,non-polluted water sources. in other words, although pollution levels found in those water sources are not alarming, they do not exhibit the typical pollution levels found in natural high-montane waters, as they should, even we could find some sampling points with meso-eutrophic conditions

Photosynthetic capacities of mature tropical forest trees in Rwanda are linked to successional group identity rather than to leaf nutrient content

Science.gov (United States)

Dusenge, Mirindi Eric; Wallin, Göran; Gårdesten, Johanna; Adolfsson, Lisa; Niyonzima, Felix; Nsabimana, Donat; Uddling, Johan

2014-05-01

Tropical forests are crucial in the global carbon balance, yet information required to estimate how much carbon that enter these ecosystems through photosynthesis is very limited, in particular for Africa and for tropical montane forests. In order to increases the knowledge of natural variability of photosynthetic capacities in tropical tree species in tropical Africa, measurements of leaf traits and gas exchange were conducted on sun and shade leaves of ten tree species growing in two tropical forests in Rwanda in central Africa. Seven species were studied in Ruhande Arboretum, a forest plantation at mid altitude (1700 m), and six species in Nyungwe National Park, a cooler and higher altitude (at 2500 m) montane rainforest. Three species were common to both sites. At Nyungwe, three species each belonged to the successional groups pioneer and climax species. Climax species had considerably lower maximum rates of photosynthetic carboxylation (Vcmax) and electron transport (Jmax) than pioneer species. This difference was not related to leaf nutrient content, but rather seemed to be caused by differences in within-leaf N allocation between the two successional groups. With respect to N, leaves of climax species invested less N into photosynthetic enzymes (as judged by lower Vcmax and Jmax values) and more N into chlorophyll (as judged by higher SPAD values). Photosynthetic capacities, (i.e., Jmax and Vcmax), Jmax to Vcmax ratio and P content were significantly higher in Nyungwe than in Arboretum. Sun leaves had higher photosynthetic capacities and nutrient content than shade leaves. Across the entire dataset, variation in photosynthetic capacities among species was not related to leaf nutrient content, although significant relationships were found within individual species. This study contributes critical tropical data for global carbon models and suggests that, for montane rainforest trees of different functional types, successional group identity is a better

Quantifying Sediment Transport in a Premontane Transitional Cloud Forest

Science.gov (United States)

Waring, E. R.; Brumbelow, J. K.

2013-12-01

Quantifying sediment transport is a difficult task in any watershed, and relatively little direct measurement has occurred in tropical, mountainous watersheds. The Howler Monkey Watershed (2.2 hectares) is located in a premontane transitional cloud forest in San Isidro de Peñas Blancas, Costa Rica. In June 2012, a V-notch stream-gaging weir was built in the catchment with a 8 ft by 6 ft by 4 ft concrete stilling basin. Sediment captured by the weir was left untouched for an 11 month time period. To collect the contents of the weir, the stream was rerouted and the weir was drained. The stilling basin contents were systematically sampled, and samples were taken to a lab and characterized using sieve and hydrometer tests. The wet volume of the remaining sediment was obtained, and dry mass was estimated. Particle size distribution of samples were obtained from lab tests, with 96% of sediment trapped by the weir being sand or coarser. The efficiency of the weir as a sediment collector was evaluated by comparing particle fall velocities to residence time of water in the weir under baseflow conditions. Under these assumptions, only two to three percent of the total mass of soil transported in the stream is thought to have been suspended in the water and lost over the V-notch. Data were compared to the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), a widely accepted method for predicting soil loss in agricultural watersheds. As expected, application of the USLE to a tropical rainforest was problematic with uncertainty in parameters yielding a soil loss estimate varying by a factor of 50. Continued monitoring of sediment transport should yield data for improved methods of soil loss estimation applicable to tropical mountainous forests.

Remarkable fly (Diptera) diversity in a patch of Costa Rican cloud forest: Why inventory is a vital science

Science.gov (United States)

Art Borkent; Brian V. Brown; Peter H. Adler; Dalton de Souza Amorim; Kevin Barber; Daniel Bickel; Stephanie Boucher; Scott E. Brooks; John Burger; Zelia L. Burington; Renato S. Capellari; Daniel N. R. Costa; Jeffrey M. Cumming; Greg Curler; Carl W. Dick; John H. Epler; Eric Fisher; Stephen D. Gaimari; Jon Gelhaus; David A. Grimaldi; John Hash; Martin Hauser; Heikki Hippa; Sergio Ibanez-Bernal; Mathias Jaschhof; Elena P. Kameneva; Peter H. Kerr; Valery Korneyev; Cheslavo A. Korytkowski; Giar-Ann Kung; Gunnar Mikalsen Kvifte; Owen Lonsdale; Stephen A. Marshall; Wayne N. Mathis; Verner Michelsen; Stefan Naglis; Allen L. Norrbom; Steven Paiero; Thomas Pape; Alessandre Pereira-Colavite; Marc Pollet; Sabrina Rochefort; Alessandra Rung; Justin B. Runyon; Jade Savage; Vera C. Silva; Bradley J. Sinclair; Jeffrey H. Skevington; John O. Stireman; John Swann; F. Christian Thompson; Pekka Vilkamaa; Terry Wheeler; Terry Whitworth; Maria Wong; D. Monty Wood; Norman Woodley; Tiffany Yau; Thomas J. Zavortink; Manuel A. Zumbado

2018-01-01

Study of all flies (Diptera) collected for one year from a four-hectare (150 x 266 meter) patch of cloud forest at 1,600 meters above sea level at Zurquí de Moravia, San José Province, Costa Rica (hereafter referred to as Zurquí), revealed an astounding 4,332 species. This amounts to more than half the number of named species of flies for all of Central America....

Using High-Resolution Data to Assess Land Use Impact on Nitrate Dynamics in East African Tropical Montane Catchments

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Jacobs, Suzanne R.; Weeser, Björn; Guzha, Alphonce C.; Rufino, Mariana C.; Butterbach-Bahl, Klaus; Windhorst, David; Breuer, Lutz

2018-03-01

Land use change alters nitrate (NO3-N) dynamics in stream water by changing nitrogen cycling, nutrient inputs, uptake and hydrological flow paths. There is little empirical evidence of these processes for East Africa. We collected a unique 2 year high-resolution data set to assess the effects of land use (i.e., natural forest, smallholder agriculture and commercial tea plantations) on NO3-N dynamics in three subcatchments within a headwater catchment in the Mau Forest Complex, Kenya's largest tropical montane forest. The natural forest subcatchment had the lowest NO3-N concentrations (0.44 ± 0.043 mg N L-1) with no seasonal variation. NO3-N concentrations in the smallholder agriculture (1.09 ± 0.11 mg N L-1) and tea plantation (2.13 ± 0.19 mg N L-1) subcatchments closely followed discharge patterns, indicating mobilization of NO3-N during the rainy seasons. Hysteresis patterns of rainfall events indicate a shift from subsurface flow in the natural forest to surface runoff in agricultural subcatchments. Distinct peaks in NO3-N concentrations were observed during rainfall events after a longer dry period in the forest and tea subcatchments. The high-resolution data set enabled us to identify differences in NO3-N transport of catchments under different land use, such as enhanced NO3-N inputs to the stream during the rainy season and higher annual export in agricultural subcatchments (4.9 ± 0.3 to 12.0 ± 0.8 kg N ha-1 yr-1) than in natural forest (2.6 ± 0.2 kg N ha-1 yr-1). This emphasizes the usefulness of our monitoring approach to improve the understanding of land use effects on riverine N exports in tropical landscapes, but also the need to apply such methods in other regions.

Growth rates of important East African montane forest trees, with ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

These trees showed growth rates at least twice as high as those of the primary species. Juniperus procera was found to be the fastest growing species in the cedar forest, underlining its success in forming dense stands after a fire. Only young Podocarpus latifolius showed a similar fast growth. Olea europaea ssp. cuspidata, ...

The effect of the tropical cloud (fog) forest on the spatial distribution of cesium-137 in soils in the Henri Pittier National Park (Edo, Aragua, Venezuela)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

LaBrecque, J.J.; Rosales, P.A.; Cordoves, P.R.

2002-01-01

Soils were collected at different elevations (m.a.s.l.) near the two roadways, that pass through the Henri Pittier National Park (Edo, Aragua, Venezuela) in order to determine the distribution of the concentrations of the 137 Cs fallout and its relation to the tropical cloud forest. Duplicate samples were taken at most elevations between 2-5 cm below the soil surface to confirm that the samples were representative of the area. In many cases, it was difficult or impossible to locate areas that were undisturbed by man or nature. The 137 Cs (Bq/kg) content was determined by conventional high resolution gamma ray spectroscopy employing a standard comparison method. The background of the 137 Cs fallout in soils, below the cloud (fog) baseline was calculated to be about 5 Bq/kg on both the south (land) side and north (ocean) side for both roadways. The concentrations of 137 Cs (Bq/kg) were between 2-3 times higher at the baseline of the cloud (fog) on both sides of the mountain range. The 137 Cs values at the highest elevations (1105 and 1625 m.a.s.l.) near the roadways were about 5-6 times higher than the determined background levels. Our estimates of the baseline of the cloud (fog) are in good agreement with other visual observations. It was concluded that the distribution of 137 Cs in soils in cloud forests can be employed to estimate the baseline and the concentrations of 137 Cs fallout can be related to the relative density of the cloud (fog) when it was deposited. (author)

Lizard activity and abundance greater in burned habitat of a xeric montane forest

Science.gov (United States)

Fouts, Kevin L.; Moore, Clinton; Johnson, Kristine D.; Maerz, John C.

2017-01-01

Restoring the natural or historical state of ecosystems is a common objective among resource managers, but determining whether desired system responses to management actions are occurring is often protracted and challenging. For wildlife, the integration of mechanistic habitat modeling with population monitoring may provide expedited measures of management effectiveness and improve understanding of how management actions succeed or fail to recover populations. Southern Appalachia is a region of high biodiversity that has undergone dramatic change as a result of human activities such as historic logging, exotic invasions, and alteration of disturbance regimes—including reduction in application of fire. Contemporary efforts to restore fire-maintained ecosystems within southern Appalachian forests require tools to assess the effects of fire management practices on individual animal fitness and relate them to corresponding influences on species abundance. Using automated sensing equipment, we investigated the effects of burned forests on reptile habitat suitability within the western portion of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee. Specifically, we used microclimate measurements to model northern fence lizard Sceloporus undulatus hyacinthinus diurnal activity budgets in unburned and variable burn age (3–27-y) forest stands. We estimated northern fence lizard occurrence and abundance along transects through burned and unburned forests. Burned forest stands had microclimates that resulted in longer modeled daily activity periods under most conditions during summer. S. undulatus abundance was 4.75 times greater on burned stands compared to paired unburned stands, although the relationship between burn age and abundance was not well determined. Results suggest the more open habitat structure of burned areas within these xeric pine–oak forests may benefit S. undulatus.

The arboreal component of a dry forest in Northeastern Brazil

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M. J. N. Rodal

Full Text Available The dry forests of northeastern Brazil are found near the coastal zone and on low, isolated mountains inland amid semi-arid vegetation. The floristic composition of these dry montane forests, as well as their relationship to humid forests (Atlantic forest sensu stricto and to the deciduous thorn woodlands (Caatinga sensu stricto of the Brazilian northeast are not yet well known. This paper sought to determine if the arboreal plants in a dry forest growing on a low mountain in the semi-arid inland region (Serra Negra, 8° 35’ - 8° 38’ S and 38° 02’ - 38° 04’ W between the municipalities of Floresta and Inajá, state of Pernambuco have the same floristic composition and structure as that seen in other regional forests. In fifty 10 x 20 m plots all live and standing dead trees with trunk measuring > 5 cm diameter at breast height were measured. Floristic similarities between the forest studied and other regional forests were assessed using multivariate analysis. The results demonstrate that the dry forest studied can be classified into two groups that represent two major vegetational transitions: (1 a humid forest/dry forest transition; and (2 a deciduous thorn-woodland/ dry forest transition.

The arboreal component of a dry forest in Northeastern Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodal, M J N; Nascimento, L M

2006-05-01

The dry forests of northeastern Brazil are found near the coastal zone and on low, isolated mountains inland amid semi-arid vegetation. The floristic composition of these dry montane forests, as well as their relationship to humid forests (Atlantic forest sensu stricto) and to the deciduous thorn woodlands (Caatinga sensu stricto) of the Brazilian northeast are not yet well known. This paper sought to determine if the arboreal plants in a dry forest growing on a low mountain in the semi-arid inland region (Serra Negra, 8 degrees 35 - 8 degrees 38 S and 38 degrees 02 - 38 degrees 04 W) between the municipalities of Floresta and Inajá, state of Pernambuco have the same floristic composition and structure as that seen in other regional forests. In fifty 10 x 20 m plots all live and standing dead trees with trunk measuring > 5 cm diameter at breast height were measured. Floristic similarities between the forest studied and other regional forests were assessed using multivariate analysis. The results demonstrate that the dry forest studied can be classified into two groups that represent two major vegetational transitions: (1) a humid forest/dry forest transition; and (2) a deciduous thorn-woodland/ dry forest transition.

Using digital photography to examine grazing in montane meadows

Science.gov (United States)

McIlroy, Susan K.; Allen-Diaz, Barbara H.; Berg, Alexander C.

2011-01-01

Cattle (Bos taurus) numbers on national forests are allocated based on allotment grazing capacity, but spatial patterns of timing and density at smaller scales are difficult to assess. However, it is often in meadows or riparian areas that grazing may affect hydrology, biodiversity, and other important ecosystem characteristics. To explore real-time animal presence in montane meadows we distributed 18 digital cameras across nine sites in the Sierra National Forest, California. Our objectives were to document seasonal and diurnal presence of both cattle and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), identify the effects of three fencing treatments on animal distribution, and test digital photography as a tool for documenting cattle presence. We recorded 409 399 images during daylight hours for two grazing seasons, and we identified 5 084 and 24 482 cattle "marks" (instances of animal occurrence) in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Deer presence was much lower, with 331 marks in 2006 and 598 in 2007. Morning cattle presence was highest before 0800 hours both years (13.7% and 15.4% of total marks for 2006 and 2007, respectively). Marks decreased until 1100 hours and then increased around 1400 hours and remained relatively stable until 1900 hours. Marks then rose precipitously, with >20% of total marks recorded after 1900 hours both years. Deer presence was less than 10% per hour until 1800 hours, when >20% of total marks were recorded after this time both years. Among treatments, cattle marks were highest outside fences at partially fenced meadows, and deer were highest within completely fenced meadows. Our experience suggests that cameras are not viable tools for meadow monitoring due to variation captured within meadows and the time and effort involved in image processing and review.

From the Guiana Highlands to the Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest: four new species of Selaginella (Selaginellaceae – Lycopodiophyta: S. agioneuma, S. magnafornensis, S. ventricosa, and S. zartmanii

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Iván A. Valdespino

2018-05-01

Full Text Available We describe four new species in the genus Selaginella (i.e., S. agioneuma, S. magnafornensis, S. ventricosa, and S. zartmanii from Brazil, all presently classified in subg. Stachygynandrum. For each of the new taxa we discuss taxonomic affinities and provide information on habitat, distribution, and conservation status. In addition, line drawings and scanning electron microscope (SEM images of stems sections, leaves, and spores (when present are included. Selaginella agioneuma and S. magnafornensis are from the State of Espíritu Santo where they inhabit premontane to montane Atlantic rain forests in the Reserva Biológica Augusto Ruschi and Parque Estadual Forno Grande, respectively. Selaginella ventricosa was collected in upper montane forests at Parque Nacional Serra da Mocidade, State of Roraima and S. zartmanii in premontane Amazon rain forests on upper Rio Negro at Mpio. São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas State in both Serra Curicuriari and the Morro dos Seis Lagos Biological Reserve.

Comparison of Laser and Stereo Optical, SAR and InSAR Point Clouds from Air- and Space-Borne Sources in the Retrieval of Forest Inventory Attributes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaowei Yu

2015-11-01

Full Text Available It is anticipated that many of the future forest mapping applications will be based on three-dimensional (3D point clouds. A comparison study was conducted to verify the explanatory power and information contents of several 3D remote sensing data sources on the retrieval of above ground biomass (AGB, stem volume (VOL, basal area (G, basal-area weighted mean diameter (Dg and Lorey’s mean height (Hg at the plot level, utilizing the following data: synthetic aperture radar (SAR Interferometry, SAR radargrammetry, satellite-imagery having stereo viewing capability, airborne laser scanning (ALS with various densities (0.8–6 pulses/m2 and aerial stereo imagery. Laser scanning is generally known as the primary source providing a 3D point cloud. However, photogrammetric, radargrammetric and interferometric techniques can be used to produce 3D point clouds from space- and air-borne stereo images. Such an image-based point cloud could be utilized in a similar manner as ALS providing that accurate digital terrain model is available. In this study, the performance of these data sources for providing point cloud data was evaluated with 91 sample plots that were established in Evo, southern Finland within a boreal forest zone and surveyed in 2014 for this comparison. The prediction models were built using random forests technique with features derived from each data sources as independent variables and field measurements of forest attributes as response variable. The relative root mean square errors (RMSEs varied in the ranges of 4.6% (0.97 m–13.4% (2.83 m for Hg, 11.7% (3.0 cm–20.6% (5.3 cm for Dg, 14.8% (4.0 m2/ha–25.8% (6.9 m2/ha for G, 15.9% (43.0 m3/ha–31.2% (84.2 m3/ha for VOL and 14.3% (19.2 Mg/ha–27.5% (37.0 Mg/ha for AGB, respectively, depending on the data used. Results indicate that ALS data achieved the most accurate estimates for all forest inventory attributes. For image-based 3D data, high-altitude aerial images and WorldView-2

FOREST Unbiased Galactic plane Imaging survey with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope (FUGIN). III. Possible evidence for formation of NGC 6618 cluster in M 17 by cloud-cloud collision

Science.gov (United States)

Nishimura, Atsushi; Minamidani, Tetsuhiro; Umemoto, Tomofumi; Fujita, Shinji; Matsuo, Mitsuhiro; Hattori, Yusuke; Kohno, Mikito; Yamagishi, Mitsuyoshi; Tsuda, Yuya; Kuriki, Mika; Kuno, Nario; Torii, Kazufumi; Tsutsumi, Daichi; Okawa, Kazuki; Sano, Hidetoshi; Tachihara, Kengo; Ohama, Akio; Fukui, Yasuo

2018-05-01

We present 12CO (J = 1-0), 13CO (J = 1-0), and C18O (J = 1-0) images of the M 17 giant molecular clouds obtained as part of the FUGIN (FOREST Ultra-wide Galactic Plane Survey In Nobeyama) project. The observations cover the entire area of the M 17 SW and M 17 N clouds at the highest angular resolution (˜19″) to date, which corresponds to ˜0.18 pc at the distance of 2.0 kpc. We find that the region consists of four different velocity components: a very low velocity (VLV) clump, a low velocity component (LVC), a main velocity component (MVC), and a high velocity component (HVC). The LVC and the HVC have cavities. Ultraviolet photons radiated from NGC 6618 cluster penetrate into the N cloud up to ˜5 pc through the cavities and interact with molecular gas. This interaction is correlated with the distribution of young stellar objects in the N cloud. The LVC and the HVC are distributed complementarily after the HVC is displaced by 0.8 pc toward the east-southeast direction, suggesting that collision of the LVC and the HVC created the cavities in both clouds. The collision velocity and timescale are estimated to be 9.9 km s-1 and 1.1 × 105 yr, respectively. The high collision velocity can provide a mass accretion rate of up to 10^{-3} M_{⊙}yr-1, and the high column density (4 × 1023 cm-2) might result in massive cluster formation. The scenario of cloud-cloud collision likely explains well the stellar population and the formation history of the NGC 6618 cluster proposed by Hoffmeister et al. (2008, ApJ, 686, 310).

The vegetation of the pale green patches in the mountain forest on the North side of Mt. Pangerango (West Java)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Steenis, van C.G.G.J.

1986-01-01

Everybody visiting the Cibodas Mountain Garden must have observed that on the North side of Mt. Pangerango there are roughly between 2300 and 2700 m several sizeable pale green patches visible in the dark green montane forest. They were never visited and it intrigued me to know their vegetation

Foliar uptake, carbon fluxes and water status are affected by the timing of daily fog in saplings from a threatened cloud forest.

Science.gov (United States)

Berry, Z Carter; White, Joseph C; Smith, William K

2014-05-01

In cloud forests, foliar uptake (FU) of water has been reported for numerous species, possibly acting to relieve daily water and carbon stress. While the prevalence of FU seems common, how daily variation in fog timing may affect this process has not been studied. We examined the quantity of FU, water potentials, gas exchange and abiotic variation at the beginning and end of a 9-day exposure to fog in a glasshouse setting. Saplings of Abies fraseri (Pursh) Poir. and Picea rubens Sarg. were exposed to morning (MF), afternoon (AF) or evening fog (EF) regimes to assess the ability to utilize fog water at different times of day and after sustained exposure to simulated fog. The greatest amount of FU occurred during MF (up to 50%), followed by AF (up to 23%) and then EF, which surprisingly had no FU. There was also a positive relationship between leaf conductance and FU, suggesting a role of stomata in FU. Moreover, MF and AF lead to the greatest improvements in daily water balance and carbon gain, respectively. Foliar uptake was important for improving plant ecophysiology but was influenced by diurnal variation in fog. With climate change scenarios predicting changes to cloud patterns and frequency that will likely alter diurnal patterns, cloud forests that rely on this water subsidy could be affected. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Forest impacts on snow accumulation and ablation across an elevation gradient in a temperate montane environment

Science.gov (United States)

Roth, Travis R.; Nolin, Anne W.

2017-11-01

Forest cover modifies snow accumulation and ablation rates via canopy interception and changes in sub-canopy energy balance processes. However, the ways in which snowpacks are affected by forest canopy processes vary depending on climatic, topographic and forest characteristics. Here we present results from a 4-year study of snow-forest interactions in the Oregon Cascades. We continuously monitored snow and meteorological variables at paired forested and open sites at three elevations representing the Low, Mid, and High seasonal snow zones in the study region. On a monthly to bi-weekly basis, we surveyed snow depth and snow water equivalent across 900 m transects connecting the forested and open pairs of sites. Our results show that relative to nearby open areas, the dense, relatively warm forests at Low and Mid sites impede snow accumulation via canopy snow interception and increase sub-canopy snowpack energy inputs via longwave radiation. Compared with the Forest sites, snowpacks are deeper and last longer in the Open site at the Low and Mid sites (4-26 and 11-33 days, respectively). However, we see the opposite relationship at the relatively colder High sites, with the Forest site maintaining snow longer into the spring by 15-29 days relative to the nearby Open site. Canopy interception efficiency (CIE) values at the Low and Mid Forest sites averaged 79 and 76 % of the total event snowfall, whereas CIE was 31 % at the lower density High Forest site. At all elevations, longwave radiation in forested environments appears to be the primary energy component due to the maritime climate and forest presence, accounting for 93, 92, and 47 % of total energy inputs to the snowpack at the Low, Mid, and High Forest sites, respectively. Higher wind speeds in the High Open site significantly increase turbulent energy exchanges and snow sublimation. Lower wind speeds in the High Forest site create preferential snowfall deposition. These results show the importance of

Potential for Extensive Forest Loss in the Klamath Mountains due to Increased Fire Activity and Altered Post-Fire Forest Recovery Dynamics in a Warming Climate

Science.gov (United States)

Tepley, A. J.; Thompson, J. R.; Epstein, H. E.; Anderson-Teixeira, K. J.

2016-12-01

In the context of ongoing climatic warming, certain landscapes could be near a tipping point where relatively small changes to their fire regimes or post-fire forest recovery dynamics could bring about extensive conversion of forests to shorter-statured, more fire-prone vegetation, with associated changes in biodiversity, carbon dynamics, and climate feedbacks. Such concerns are particularly valid in the Klamath Region of northern California and southwestern Oregon, where montane landscapes support conifer forests, but severe fire converts them to systems dominated by broadleaf trees and shrubs that rapidly resprout or germinate from a dormant seedbank. Conifers eventually overtop the competing vegetation, but until they do, these systems are highly fire prone and susceptible to perpetuation through a cycle of reburning. To assess the vulnerability to fire-driven loss of conifer forests in a warming climate, we characterized the trajectories of post-fire forest recovery in 57 sites that burned severely within the last three decades and span the aridity gradient of montane conifer forests. Post-fire conifer regeneration was limited to a surprisingly narrow window, with 89% of all seedlings established in the first four years after fire. Early establishment conferred a competitive growth advantage such that the longer the lag between the fire year and the year of seedling establishment, the slower its height growth. A substantial portion of variation in post-fire conifer seedling density was driven by an interaction between propagule pressure and site moisture status (climatic water deficit). Mesic sites had abundant regeneration except where seed sources were nearly absent across large (ca. 50 ha) high-severity patches. Toward the dry end of the moisture gradient, much higher propagule pressure was required to support even moderate levels of conifer regeneration. The present distribution of conifer forests falls largely within the portion of the moisture gradient

The Green Ocean Amazon Experiment (GoAmazon2014/5) Observes Pollution Affecting Gases, Aerosols, Clouds, and Rainfall over the Rain Forest

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Martin, S. T. [Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Artaxo, P. [University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Machado, L. [National Institute for Space Research, São José dos Campos, Brazil; Manzi, A. O. [National Institute of Amazonian Research, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil; Souza, R. A. F. [Amazonas State University, Amazonas, Brazil; Schumacher, C. [Texas A& amp,M University, College Station, Texas; Wang, J. [Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York; Biscaro, T. [National Institute for Space Research, São José dos Campos, Brazil; Brito, J. [University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Calheiros, A. [National Institute for Space Research, São José dos Campos, Brazil; Jardine, K. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California; Medeiros, A. [Amazonas State University, Amazonas, Brazil; Portela, B. [National Institute of Amazonian Research, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil; de Sá, S. S. [Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Adachi, K. [Meteorological Research Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan; Aiken, A. C. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico; Albrecht, R. [University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Alexander, L. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Andreae, M. O. [Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany; Barbosa, H. M. J. [University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Buseck, P. [Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona; Chand, D. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Comstock, J. M. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Day, D. A. [University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado; Dubey, M. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico; Fan, J. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Fast, J. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Fisch, G. [Aeronautic and Space Institute, São José dos Campos, Brazil; Fortner, E. [Aerodyne, Inc., Billerica, Massachusetts; Giangrande, S. [Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York; Gilles, M. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California; Goldstein, A. H. [University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California; Guenther, A. [University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California; Hubbe, J. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Jensen, M. [Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York; Jimenez, J. L. [University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado; Keutsch, F. N. [Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Kim, S. [University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California; Kuang, C. [Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York; Laskin, A. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; McKinney, K. [Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Mei, F. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Miller, M. [Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey; Nascimento, R. [Amazonas State University, Amazonas, Brazil; Pauliquevis, T. [Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Pekour, M. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Peres, J. [University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Petäjä, T. [University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Pöhlker, C. [Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany; Pöschl, U. [Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany; Rizzo, L. [Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Schmid, B. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Shilling, J. E. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Dias, M. A. Silva [University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Smith, J. N. [University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California; Tomlinson, J. M. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington; Tóta, J. [Federal University of West Para, Santarém, Pará, Brazil; Wendisch, M. [University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

2017-05-01

The Observations and Modeling of the Green Ocean Amazon (GoAmazon2014/5) experiment took place around the urban region of Manaus in central Amazonia across two years. The urban pollution plume was used to study the susceptibility of gases, aerosols, clouds, and rainfall to human activities in a tropical environment. Many aspects of air quality, weather, terrestrial ecosystems, and climate work differently in the tropics than in the more thoroughly studied USA, employed an unparalleled suite of measurements at nine ground sites and onboard two aircraft to investigate the flow of background air into Manaus, the emissions into the air over the city, and the advection of the pollution downwind of the city. Herein, to visualize this train of processes and its effects, observations aboard a low-flying aircraft are presented. Comparative measurements within and adjacent to the plume followed the emissions of biogenic volatile organic carbon compounds (BVOCs) from the tropical forest, their transformations by the atmospheric oxidant cycle, alterations of this cycle by the influence of the pollutants, transformations of the chemical products into aerosol particles, the relationship of these particles to cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity, and the differences in cloud properties and rainfall for background compared to polluted conditions. The observations of the GoAmazon2014/5 experiment illustrate how the hydrologic cycle, radiation balance, and carbon recycling may be affected by present-day as well as future economic development and pollution over the Amazonian tropical forest.

Disturbance and topography shape nitrogen availability and δ15 N over long-term forest succession

Science.gov (United States)

Perakis, Steven; Tepley, Alan J.; Compton, Jana

2015-01-01

Forest disturbance and long-term succession towards old-growth are thought to increase nitrogen (N) availability and N loss, which should increase soil δ15N values. We examined soil and foliar patterns in N and δ15N, and soil N mineralization, across 800 years of forest succession in a topographically complex montane landscape influenced by human logging and wildfire. In contrast to expectations, we found that disturbance caused declines in surface mineral soil δ15N values, both in logged forests measured 40–50 years after disturbance, and in unlogged forests disturbed by severe wildfire within the last 200 years. Both symbiotic N fixation and N transfers from disturbed vegetation and detritus could lower soil δ15N values after disturbance. A more important role for symbiotic N fixation is suggested by lower soil δ15N values in slow-successional sites with slow canopy closure, which favors early-successional N fixers. Soil δ15N values increased only marginally throughout 800 years of succession, reflecting soil N uptake by vegetation and strong overall N retention. Although post-disturbance N inputs lowered surface soil δ15N values, steady-state mass balance calculations suggest that wildfire combustion of vegetation and detritus can dominate long-term N loss and increase whole-ecosystem δ15N. On steeper topography, declining soil δ15N values highlight erosion and accelerated soil turnover as an additional abiotic control on N balances. We conclude for N-limited montane forests that soil δ15N and N availability are less influenced by nitrate leaching and denitrification loss than by interactions between disturbance, N fixation, and erosion.

Retreating or standing: Responses of forest species and steppe species to climate change in arid eastern central Asia

Science.gov (United States)

Hong-Xiang Zhang; Ming-Li Zhang; Stewart C. Sanderson

2013-01-01

The temperature in arid Eastern Central Asia is projected to increase in the future, accompanied by increased variability of precipitation. To investigate the impacts of climate change on plant species in this area, we selected two widespread species as candidates, Clematis sibirica and C. songorica, from montane coniferous forest and arid steppe habitats respectively...

The conversion of evenaged into unevenaged mixed conifer forests in southern British Columbia

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eichel, G.H.

1995-12-31

A detailed description of the conditions and history leading to the establishment and continuity of all-aged mixed coniferous forests in the montane south central region of British Columbia, Canada. Also described are the attempts by one forest products company to perpetuate and proportionally increase this type of forest cover through the selective removal necessitated by bark beetle depredation of the component, Pinus contorta. The report concludes with a description of and recommendations for the post-harvest management employing treatments which imitate natural conditions leading to a gradual and lasting conversion of natural multi-species stands into unevenaged or all-aged stands of mixed conifers which are conducive to single tree or group selection harvests at more or less regular intervals. 10 figs, 1 tab

The conversion of evenaged into unevenaged mixed conifer forests in southern British Columbia

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eichel, G H

1996-12-31

A detailed description of the conditions and history leading to the establishment and continuity of all-aged mixed coniferous forests in the montane south central region of British Columbia, Canada. Also described are the attempts by one forest products company to perpetuate and proportionally increase this type of forest cover through the selective removal necessitated by bark beetle depredation of the component, Pinus contorta. The report concludes with a description of and recommendations for the post-harvest management employing treatments which imitate natural conditions leading to a gradual and lasting conversion of natural multi-species stands into unevenaged or all-aged stands of mixed conifers which are conducive to single tree or group selection harvests at more or less regular intervals. 10 figs, 1 tab

Complex terrain alters temperature and moisture limitations of forest soil respiration across a semiarid to subalpine gradient

Science.gov (United States)

Berryman, Erin Michele; Barnard, H.R.; Adams, H.R.; Burns, M.A.; Gallo, E.; Brooks, P.D.

2015-01-01

Forest soil respiration is a major carbon (C) flux that is characterized by significant variability in space and time. We quantified growing season soil respiration during both a drought year and a nondrought year across a complex landscape to identify how landscape and climate interact to control soil respiration. We asked the following questions: (1) How does soil respiration vary across the catchments due to terrain-induced variability in moisture availability and temperature? (2) Does the relative importance of moisture versus temperature limitation of respiration vary across space and time? And (3) what terrain elements are important for dictating the pattern of soil respiration and its controls? Moisture superseded temperature in explaining watershed respiration patterns, with wetter yet cooler areas higher up and on north facing slopes yielding greater soil respiration than lower and south facing areas. Wetter subalpine forests had reduced moisture limitation in favor of greater seasonal temperature limitation, and the reverse was true for low-elevation semiarid forests. Coincident climate poorly predicted soil respiration in the montane transition zone; however, antecedent precipitation from the prior 10 days provided additional explanatory power. A seasonal trend in respiration remained after accounting for microclimate effects, suggesting that local climate alone may not adequately predict seasonal variability in soil respiration in montane forests. Soil respiration climate controls were more strongly related to topography during the drought year highlighting the importance of landscape complexity in ecosystem response to drought.

Vascular epiphytic flora of a high montane environment of Brazilian Atlantic Forest: composition and floristic relationships with other ombrophilous forests

OpenAIRE

Furtado,Samyra Gomes; Menini Neto,Luiz

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT Only a few studies regarding vascular epiphytes have been conducted in mixed ombrophilous forests (MOF) in Serra da Mantiqueira, a mountainous environment in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, where the relationships of epiphytic flora with other physiognomies are unknown. This study aimed to survey the epiphytes of a MOF remnant located in Serra da Mantiqueira, and to analyze the floristic relationships with ombrophilous forests of the Southern and Southeastern regions of Brazil. The ch...

Habitat, density and group size of primates in a Brazilian tropical forest.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinto, L P; Costa, C M; Strier, K B; da Fonseca, G A

1993-01-01

Habitats, population densities and group sizes of 5 primate species (Callithrix flaviceps, Callicebus personatus personatus, Cebus apella nigritus, Alouatta fusca clamitans, and Brachyteles arachnoides) were estimated, using the method of repeated transect sampling, in an area of montane pluvial forest in eastern Brazil (Atlantic forest). A. fusca and C. apella had the highest densities in terms of groups and individuals per square kilometer, respectively, while B. arachnoides was least abundant. The highest primate densities were observed in areas of secondary vegetation. Both group sizes and population densities for the 5 species were generally lower at the Reserva Biologica Augusto Ruschi than those reported in other areas of Atlantic forest. Hunting pressure and the different carrying capacity of the habitat are suggested as possible causes for the low number of sightings registered for these species.

Responses of Montane Forest to Climate Variability in the Central Himalayas of Nepal

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Janardan Mainali

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Climate changes are having dramatic ecological impacts in mid- to high-latitude mountain ranges where growth conditions are limited by climatic variables such as duration of growing season, moisture, and ambient temperature. We document patterns of forest vegetative response for 5 major alpine forest communities to current climate variability in the central Himalayas of Nepal to provide a baseline for assessment of future changes, as well as offer some insight into the trajectory of these changes over time. We used mean monthly surface air temperature and rainfall and the monthly averaged normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI to compare relative vegetation productivity among forest types and in relation to both climatic variables. Because changes in temperature and precipitation are directly manifested as changes in phenology, we examined current vegetative responses to climate variability in an effort to determine which climate variable is most critical for different alpine forest types. Our results show that correlations differ according to vegetation type and confirm that both precipitation and temperature affect monthly NDVI values, though more significant correlations were found with temperature data. The temperature response was more consistent because at the maximum increased temperatures, there was still an ongoing increase in vegetative vigor. This indicates that temperature is still the major limiting factor for plant growth at higher-elevation sites. This part of the Himalayas has abundant moisture, and some forest types are already saturated in terms of growth in relation to precipitation. Clear increases in productivity are documented on the upper treeline ecotones, and these systems are likely to continue to have increasing growth rates.

Leaf gas exchange of understory spruce-fir saplings in relict cloud forests, southern Appalachian Mountains, USA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reinhardt, K.; Smith, W.K. [Wake Forest Univ., Winston-Salem, NC (United States). Dept. of Biology

2008-01-15

Global climate change is expected to increase regional cloud ceiling levels in many mountainous forested areas of the world. This study investigated environmental influences on the gas exchange physiology of understory red spruce and Fraser fir trees at 2 sites in the Appalachian mountains. The study hypothesized that the humid, cloudy environment would influence the photosynthetic performance of the trees, and that the species would adapt to low, diffuse light. The study also predicted that leaf conductance to carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) would be high as a result of low leaf-to-air-vapour pressure deficit (LAVD). The study demonstrated that leaf conductance decreased exponentially as LAVD increased. Predawn leaf water potentials remained stable, while late afternoon values declined. It was concluded that leaf gas exchange was correlated with the response of leaf conductance and LAVD. The cloudy, humid environment strongly influenced tree leaf gas exchange and water relations. It was suggested that further research is needed to investigate cloud impacts on carbon gain and water relations. 72 refs., 1 tab., 8 figs.

A rapid upward shift of a forest ecotone during 40 years of warming in the Green Mountains of Vermont.

Science.gov (United States)

Beckage, Brian; Osborne, Ben; Gavin, Daniel G; Pucko, Carolyn; Siccama, Thomas; Perkins, Timothy

2008-03-18

Detecting latitudinal range shifts of forest trees in response to recent climate change is difficult because of slow demographic rates and limited dispersal but may be facilitated by spatially compressed climatic zones along elevation gradients in montane environments. We resurveyed forest plots established in 1964 along elevation transects in the Green Mountains (Vermont) to examine whether a shift had occurred in the location of the northern hardwood-boreal forest ecotone (NBE) from 1964 to 2004. We found a 19% increase in dominance of northern hardwoods from 70% in 1964 to 89% in 2004 in the lower half of the NBE. This shift was driven by a decrease (up to 76%) in boreal and increase (up to 16%) in northern hardwood basal area within the lower portions of the ecotone. We used aerial photographs and satellite imagery to estimate a 91- to 119-m upslope shift in the upper limits of the NBE from 1962 to 2005. The upward shift is consistent with regional climatic change during the same period; interpolating climate data to the NBE showed a 1.1 degrees C increase in annual temperature, which would predict a 208-m upslope movement of the ecotone, along with a 34% increase in precipitation. The rapid upward movement of the NBE indicates little inertia to climatically induced range shifts in montane forests; the upslope shift may have been accelerated by high turnover in canopy trees that provided opportunities for ingrowth of lower elevation species. Our results indicate that high-elevation forests may be jeopardized by climate change sooner than anticipated.

Dynamics of leaf litter humidity, depth and quantity: two restoration strategies failed to mimic ground microhabitat conditions of a low montane and premontane forest in Costa Rica

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Zaidett Barrientos

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Little is known about how restoration strategies affect aspects like leaf litter’s quantity, depth and humidity. I analyzed leaf litter’s quantity, depth and humidity yearly patterns in a primary tropical lower montane wet forest and two restored areas: a 15 year old secondary forest (unassisted restoration and a 40 year old Cupressus lusitanica plantation (natural understory. The three habitats are located in the Río Macho Forest Reserve, Costa Rica. Twenty litter samples were taken every three months (April 2009-April 2010 in each habitat; humidity was measured in 439g samples (average, depth and quantity were measured in five points inside 50x50cm plots. None of the restoration strategies reproduced the primary forest leaf litter humidity, depth and quantity yearly patterns. Primary forest leaf litter humidity was higher and more stable (x=73.2, followed by secondary forest (x=63.3 and cypress plantation (x=52.9 (Kruskall-Wallis=77.93, n=232, p=0.00. In the primary (Kruskal-Wallis=31.63, n=78, pPoco se sabe acerca de cómo las estrategias de restauración afectan aspectos como la cantidad, profundidad y humedad de la hojarasca. Se analizaron estas variables en un bosque tropical húmedo montano bajo, considerado bosque primario y dos áreas restauradas: un bosque secundario de 15 años (restauración natural y una plantación de Cupressus lusitanica de 40 años con sotobosque restaurado naturalmente. Los sitios estudiados se ubican en la reserva forestal Río Macho, Costa Rica. Los muestreos se realizaron cada tres meses (abril 2009-abril 2010. En cada ocasión se escogieron al azar 20 cuadrículas de 50x50cm de las que se recogió 439g en promedio de hojarasca para medir la humedad por diferencia entre peso seco y húmedo. En cada cuadrícula se midió la profundidad y cantidad de hojarasca haciendo un promedio de cinco puntos. La cantidad se midió con el número de hojas ensartadas en un picahielos. La profundidad se midió con una

Nitrogen Oxide Fluxes and Nitrogen Cycling during Postagricultural Succession and Forest Fertilization in the Humid Tropics.

Science.gov (United States)

Heather Erickson; Michael Keller; Eric Davidson

2001-01-01

The effects of changes in tropical land use on soil emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) and nitric oxide (NO) are not well understood. We examined emissions of N2O and NO and their relationships to land use and forest composition, litterfall, soil nitrogen (N) pools and turnover, soil moisture, and patterns of carbon (C) cycling in a lower montane, subtropical wet region...

Sediment Transport Capacity and Channel Processes in a Humid Tropical Montane River - Rio Pacuare, Costa Rica

Science.gov (United States)

Lind, P.; McDowell, P. F.

2017-12-01

Investigating sediment transport capacity as well as the spatial and temporal variations of sediment flux are critical component of river research, especially for applications in resource management and conservation, hazards assessment and planning, and riverine ecology. The bedload fraction of sediment transported through montane rivers often defines channel and bed form processes. It is understood that humid tropical montane rivers are capable of producing some of the largest quantities of sediment per unit drainage area. Bedload flux reported on a few Southeast Asian humid tropical montane rivers show that bedload constituted 16-75% of the total sediment load - this is notably higher than the generally accepted 10% of a channel's sediment load. However, to date almost all of the research done on sediment transport in humid tropical systems has focused on suspended load. This study presents annual bedload transport rate estimates for six field sites distributed within 45 river kilometers (Rkm) of the montane portion of the Rio Pacuare, located in the Talamanca Mountains of Costa Rica. This research reveals that flows capable of mobilizing the D84 occur on average at least once but often multiple times a year in this river system. The Rio Pacuare has a sufficient supply of sediment to meet its high transport capacity needs. As a result, large active bars composed of imbricated boulders define channel form at moderate and low flows throughout the study area. Differences in the magnitude, as well as the spatial and temporal variations of sediment flux at each field site are discussed in relation to stream power, and annual/inter-annual precipitation patterns. A unique mix of field and remote sensing techniques were applied to address these questions and to overcome some of the challenges of tropical river research. For example, due to the large grain size and high stream energy, grain mobilization and validation of modeled shear stress requirements for transport

A Potentially Endangered New Species of Euptychia Hübner, 1818 (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae) from the Atlantic Coastal Forest of Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Nakahara, S; Barbosa, E P; Freitas, A V L

2017-06-01

A new satyrine species in the subtribe Euptychiina, Euptychia atlantica Nakahara & Freitas sp. nov., is described from the Atlantic coastal forest of Brazil. Based on the existing museum specimens, E. atlantica sp. nov. is known from the coastal montane forests of Rio de Janeiro to south Bahia, a unique biogeographical region which is undergoing rapid degradation. Illustrations of adults and their genitalia, as well as a distribution map, are provided herein, in addition to a discussion of the relationships and conservation status of the new species.

Forest impacts on snow accumulation and ablation across an elevation gradient in a temperate montane environment

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T. R. Roth

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Forest cover modifies snow accumulation and ablation rates via canopy interception and changes in sub-canopy energy balance processes. However, the ways in which snowpacks are affected by forest canopy processes vary depending on climatic, topographic and forest characteristics. Here we present results from a 4-year study of snow–forest interactions in the Oregon Cascades. We continuously monitored snow and meteorological variables at paired forested and open sites at three elevations representing the Low, Mid, and High seasonal snow zones in the study region. On a monthly to bi-weekly basis, we surveyed snow depth and snow water equivalent across 900 m transects connecting the forested and open pairs of sites. Our results show that relative to nearby open areas, the dense, relatively warm forests at Low and Mid sites impede snow accumulation via canopy snow interception and increase sub-canopy snowpack energy inputs via longwave radiation. Compared with the Forest sites, snowpacks are deeper and last longer in the Open site at the Low and Mid sites (4–26 and 11–33 days, respectively. However, we see the opposite relationship at the relatively colder High sites, with the Forest site maintaining snow longer into the spring by 15–29 days relative to the nearby Open site. Canopy interception efficiency (CIE values at the Low and Mid Forest sites averaged 79 and 76 % of the total event snowfall, whereas CIE was 31 % at the lower density High Forest site. At all elevations, longwave radiation in forested environments appears to be the primary energy component due to the maritime climate and forest presence, accounting for 93, 92, and 47 % of total energy inputs to the snowpack at the Low, Mid, and High Forest sites, respectively. Higher wind speeds in the High Open site significantly increase turbulent energy exchanges and snow sublimation. Lower wind speeds in the High Forest site create preferential snowfall deposition. These

Forest Fires Darken Snow for Years following Disturbance: Magnitude, Duration, and Composition of Light Absorbing Impurities in Seasonal Snow across a Chronosequence of Burned Forests in the Colorado River Headwaters

Science.gov (United States)

Gleason, K. E.; Arienzo, M. M.; Chellman, N.; McConnell, J.

2017-12-01

Charred forests shed black carbon and burned debris, which accumulates and concentrates on winter snowpack, reducing snow surface albedo, and subsequently increasing snowmelt rates, and advancing the date of snow disappearance. Forest fires have occurred across vast areas of the seasonal snow zone in recent decades, however we do not understand the long-term implications of burned forests in montane headwaters to snow hydrology and downstream water resources. Across a chronosequence of nine burned forests in the Colorado River Headwaters, we sampled snow throughout the complete snowpack profile to conserve the composition, properties, and vertical stratigraphy of impurities in the snowpack during maximum snow accumulation. Using state-of-the-art geochemical analyses, we determined the magnitude, composition, and particle size distribution of black carbon, dust, and other impurities in the snowpack relative to years-since fire. Forest fires continue to darken snow for many years following fire, however the magnitude, composition, and particle size distribution of impurities change through time, altering the post-fire radiative forcing on snow as a burned forest ages.

The Late Holocene upper montane cloud forest and high altitude grassland mosaic in the Serra da Igreja, Southern Brazil

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MAURÍCIO B. SCHEER

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Many soils of the highlands of Serra do Mar, as in other mountain ranges, have thick histic horizons that preserve high amounts of carbon. However, the age and constitution of the organic matter of these soils remain doubtful, with possible late Pleistocene or Holocene ages. This study was conducted in three profiles (two in grassland and one in forest in Serra da Igreja highlands in the state of Paraná. We performed δ13C isotope analysis of organic matter in soil horizons to detect whether C3 or C4 plants dominated the past communities and 14C dating of the humin fraction to obtain the age of the studied horizons. C3 plants seem to have dominated the mountain ridges of Serra da Igreja since at least 3,000 years BP. Even though the Serra da Igreja may represents a landscape of high altitude grasslands in soils containing organic matter from the late Pleistocene, as reported elsewhere in Southern and Southeastern Brazil, our results indicate that the sites studied are at least from the beginning of the Late Holocene, when conditions of high moisture enabled the colonization/recolonization of the Serra da Igreja ridges by C3 plants. This is the period, often reported in the literature, when forests advanced onto grasslands and savannas.Muitos solos dos picos da Serra do Mar, como em muitas outras serras, apresentam horizontes hísticos espessos com elevados estoques de carbono. No entanto, a idade e constituição da matéria orgânica destes solos ainda é pouco conhecida e não se sabe se é predominantemente proveniente de comunidades de plantas do final do Pleistoceno ou do Holoceno. Este estudo foi realizado em três perfis, dois em campos altomontanos sobre Organossolos (1.335 m s.n.m e um em um colo (ponto de sela, onde a floresta altomontana sobre Gleissolos alcança seu patamar mais alto (1.325 m s.n.m. Foram realizadas análises isotópicas (δ13C da matéria orgânica de horizontes do solo para saber se plantas C3 ou C4 dominaram

A mistletoe tale: postglacial invasion of Psittacanthus schiedeanus (Loranthaceae) to Mesoamerican cloud forests revealed by molecular data and species distribution modeling.

Science.gov (United States)

Ornelas, Juan Francisco; Gándara, Etelvina; Vásquez-Aguilar, Antonio Acini; Ramírez-Barahona, Santiago; Ortiz-Rodriguez, Andrés Ernesto; González, Clementina; Mejía Saules, María Teresa; Ruiz-Sanchez, Eduardo

2016-04-12

Ecological adaptation to host taxa is thought to result in mistletoe speciation via race formation. However, historical and ecological factors could also contribute to explain genetic structuring particularly when mistletoe host races are distributed allopatrically. Using sequence data from nuclear (ITS) and chloroplast (trnL-F) DNA, we investigate the genetic differentiation of 31 Psittacanthus schiedeanus (Loranthaceae) populations across the Mesoamerican species range. We conducted phylogenetic, population and spatial genetic analyses on 274 individuals of P. schiedeanus to gain insight of the evolutionary history of these populations. Species distribution modeling, isolation with migration and Bayesian inference methods were used to infer the evolutionary transition of mistletoe invasion, in which evolutionary scenarios were compared through posterior probabilities. Our analyses revealed shallow levels of population structure with three genetic groups present across the sample area. Nine haplotypes were identified after sequencing the trnL-F intergenic spacer. These haplotypes showed phylogeographic structure, with three groups with restricted gene flow corresponding to the distribution of individuals/populations separated by habitat (cloud forest localities from San Luis Potosí to northwestern Oaxaca and Chiapas, localities with xeric vegetation in central Oaxaca, and localities with tropical deciduous forests in Chiapas), with post-glacial population expansions and potentially corresponding to post-glacial invasion types. Similarly, 44 ITS ribotypes suggest phylogeographic structure, despite the fact that most frequent ribotypes are widespread indicating effective nuclear gene flow via pollen. Gene flow estimates, a significant genetic signal of demographic expansion, and range shifts under past climatic conditions predicted by species distribution modeling suggest post-glacial invasion of P. schiedeanus mistletoes to cloud forests. However, Approximate

Are species photosynthetic characteristics good predictors of seedling post-hurricane demographic patterns and species spatiotemporal distribution in a hurricane impacted wet montane forest?

Science.gov (United States)

Luke, Denneko; McLaren, Kurt

2018-05-01

In situ measurements of leaf level photosynthetic response to light were collected from seedlings of ten tree species from a tropical montane wet forest, the John Crow Mountains, Jamaica. A model-based recursive partitioning ('mob') algorithm was then used to identify species associations based on their fitted photosynthetic response curves. Leaf area dark respiration (RD) and light saturated maximum photosynthetic (Amax) rates were also used as 'mob' partitioning variables, to identify species associations based on seedling demographic patterns (from June 2007 to May 2010) following a hurricane (Aug. 2007) and the spatiotemporal distribution patterns of stems in 2006 and 2012. RD and Amax rates ranged from 1.14 to 2.02 μmol (CO2) m-2s-1 and 2.97-5.87 μmol (CO2) m-2s-1, respectively, placing the ten species in the range of intermediate shade tolerance. Several parsimonious species 'mob' groups were formed based on 1) interspecific differences among species response curves, 2) variations in post-hurricane seedling demographic trends and 3) RD rates and species spatiotemporal distribution patterns at aspects that are more or less exposed to hurricanes. The composition of parsimonious groupings based on photosynthetic curves was not concordant with the groups based on demographic trends but was partially concordant with the RD - species spatiotemporal distribution groups. Our results indicated that the influence of photosynthetic characteristics on demographic traits and species distributions was not straightforward. Rather, there was a complex pattern of interaction between ecophysiological and demographic traits, which determined species successional status, post-hurricane response and ultimately, species distribution at our study site.

Feeding resource partitioning between two understorey insectivorous birds in a fragment of Neotropical cloud forest

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M. A. Manhães

Full Text Available Abstract The food habits and niche overlap based on diet composition and prey size of two species of understorey insectivorous birds were investigated in an area of montane rain forest in the state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. A total of 43 birds were captured: 33 individuals of Conopophaga lineata (Conopophagidae with 13 recaptures, and 10 individuals of Myiothlypis leucoblephara (Parulidae with 12 recaptures, from which were obtained respectively 33 and 10 fecal samples. Fragments of 16 groups of arthropods, plus insect eggs, were identified in these samples. Conopophaga lineata predominantly consumed Formicidae (32% and Isoptera (23.6%. However, the index of alimentary importance (AI of Isoptera (3.53 was lower than other groups such as Formicidae (AI = 61.88, Coleoptera (AI = 16.17, insect larvae (AI = 6.95 and Araneae (AI = 6.6. Myiothlypis leucoblephara predominantly consumed Formicidae (28.2% and Coleoptera (24.4%, although Coleoptera and Hymenoptera non-Formicidae had the highest values of AI (38.71 and 22.98 respectively. Differences in the proportions of the types of arthropods consumed by birds were not enough to reveal their separation into feeding niches (overlap = 0.618, p observed ≤ expected = 0.934, whereas differences in the use of resources was mainly due to the size of the prey (p<0.001, where C lineata, the species with the highest body mass (p<0.001 consumed larger prey. It is plausible that prey size is an axis of niche dimension that allows the coexistence of these species.

A MCDM Analysis of the Roşia Montană Gold Mining Project

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Adriana Mihai

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The need and estimated utility for a structured analysis of the Roşia Montană gold exploitation project have been palpable in the Romanian public sphere during the last 15 years and there is a vast amount of conflicting information and opinions on the benefits and risks involved. This article provides a comprehensive decision analysis of the Roşia Montană project. Over 100 documents from the past years have been gathered regarding the Roşia Montană mining project, which cover the main official, formal and less formal documents covering the case and produced by a wide range of stakeholders. These were then analyzed while designing a multi-criteria tree including the relevant perspectives under which the most commonly discussed four alternatives were analyzed. The result of this can be translated into a valuable recommendation for the mining company and for the political decision-makers. If these stakeholders want the continuation of the project and its acceptance by civil society, the key challenge is to increase the transparency of the process and improve the credibility and legal aspects; if these aspects cannot be met, the decision-makers need to pay attention to the alternatives available for a sustainable development in the area.

Stream Nitrogen Inputs Reflect Groundwater Across a Snowmelt-Dominated Montane to Urban Watershed.

Science.gov (United States)

Hall, Steven J; Weintraub, Samantha R; Eiriksson, David; Brooks, Paul D; Baker, Michelle A; Bowen, Gabriel J; Bowling, David R

2016-02-02

Snowmelt dominates the hydrograph of many temperate montane streams, yet little work has characterized how streamwater sources and nitrogen (N) dynamics vary across wildland to urban land use gradients in these watersheds. Across a third-order catchment in Salt Lake City, Utah, we asked where and when groundwater vs shallow surface water inputs controlled stream discharge and N dynamics. Stream water isotopes (δ(2)H and δ(18)O) reflected a consistent snowmelt water source during baseflow. Near-chemostatic relationships between conservative ions and discharge implied that groundwater dominated discharge year-round across the montane and urban sites, challenging the conceptual emphasis on direct stormwater inputs to urban streams. Stream and groundwater NO3(-) concentrations remained consistently low during snowmelt and baseflow in most montane and urban stream reaches, indicating effective subsurface N retention or denitrification and minimal impact of fertilizer or deposition N sources. Rather, NO3(-) concentrations increased 50-fold following urban groundwater inputs, showing that subsurface flow paths potentially impact nutrient loading more than surficial land use. Isotopic composition of H2O and NO3(-) suggested that snowmelt-derived urban groundwater intercepted NO3(-) from leaking sewers. Sewer maintenance could potentially mitigate hotspots of stream N inputs at mountain/valley transitions, which have been largely overlooked in semiarid urban ecosystems.

Wet season water distribution in a tropical Andean cloud forest of Boyacá (Colombia) during the dry climate of El Niño

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Garcia-Santos, G.; Berdugo, M. B.

2010-07-01

Fog has been demonstrated as the only source of moisture during the dry climate of El Niño in the tropical Andean cloud forest of Boyacá region in Colombia, yet its importance for the forest is virtually unknown. We assessed fog water distribution during the wet season inside the forest and outside in a practically deforested area. Water intercepted by plant was measured at different vertical stratus. Soil moisture in the first centimetres was also measured. During the anomalous drier wet season there was lack of rainfall and the total recorded cloud water was lower compared with the same period during the previous year. Our results indicated that the upper part of the forest mass intercepts most of the fog water compared with lower stratus when the fog event starts. However upper most stratus became rapidly drier after the event, which is explained because water is released to the atmosphere due to high heat atmosphere-leaves interface fluctuations caused by wind and solar radiation, flows towards a different water potential and drips from the leaves. Low amount of fog dripped from tree foliage into the soil, indicating a large water storage capacity of the epiphyte and bryophyte vegetation. Despite the small amount of throughfall, understory vegetation and litter remained wet, which might be explained by the water flowing through the epiphyte vegetation or the high capacity of the understory to absorb moisture from the air. Soil water did not infiltrate in depth, which underlines the importance of fog as water and cool source for seedling growth and shallow rooted understory species, especially during drier conditions.

Identifying the location of fire refuges in wet forest ecosystems.

Science.gov (United States)

Berry, Laurence E; Driscoll, Don A; Stein, John A; Blanchard, Wade; Banks, Sam C; Bradstock, Ross A; Lindenmayer, David B

2015-12-01

The increasing frequency of large, high-severity fires threatens the survival of old-growth specialist fauna in fire-prone forests. Within topographically diverse montane forests, areas that experience less severe or fewer fires compared with those prevailing in the landscape may present unique resource opportunities enabling old-growth specialist fauna to survive. Statistical landscape models that identify the extent and distribution of potential fire refuges may assist land managers to incorporate these areas into relevant biodiversity conservation strategies. We used a case study in an Australian wet montane forest to establish how predictive fire simulation models can be interpreted as management tools to identify potential fire refuges. We examined the relationship between the probability of fire refuge occurrence as predicted by an existing fire refuge model and fire severity experienced during a large wildfire. We also examined the extent to which local fire severity was influenced by fire severity in the surrounding landscape. We used a combination of statistical approaches, including generalized linear modeling, variogram analysis, and receiver operating characteristics and area under the curve analysis (ROC AUC). We found that the amount of unburned habitat and the factors influencing the retention and location of fire refuges varied with fire conditions. Under extreme fire conditions, the distribution of fire refuges was limited to only extremely sheltered, fire-resistant regions of the landscape. During extreme fire conditions, fire severity patterns were largely determined by stochastic factors that could not be predicted by the model. When fire conditions were moderate, physical landscape properties appeared to mediate fire severity distribution. Our study demonstrates that land managers can employ predictive landscape fire models to identify the broader climatic and spatial domain within which fire refuges are likely to be present. It is essential

Evaluating UAV and LiDAR Retrieval of Snow Depth in a Coniferous Forest in Arizona

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Van Leeuwen, W. J. D.; Broxton, P.; Biederman, J. A.

2017-12-01

Remote sensing of snow depth and cover in forested environments is challenging. Trees interfere with the remote sensing of snowpack below the canopy and cause large variations in the spatial distribution of the snowpack itself (e.g. between below canopy environments to shaded gaps to open clearings). The distribution of trees and topographic variation make it challenging to monitor the snowpack with in-situ observations. Airborne LiDAR has improved our ability to monitor snowpack over large areas in montane and forested environments because of its high sampling rate and ability to penetrate the canopy. However, these LiDAR flights can be too expensive and time-consuming to process, making it hard to use them for real-time snow monitoring. In this research, we evaluate Structure from Motion (SfM) as an alternative to Airborne LiDAR to generate high-resolution snow depth data in forested environments. This past winter, we conducted a snow field campaign over Arizona's Mogollon Rim where we acquired aerial LiDAR, multi-angle aerial photography from a UAV, and extensive field observations of snow depth at two sites. LiDAR and SFM derived snow depth maps were generated by comparing "snow-on" and "snow-off" LiDAR and SfM data. The SfM- and LiDAR-generated snow depth maps were similar at a site with fewer trees, though there were more discrepancies at a site with more trees. Both compared reasonably well with the field observations at the sparser forested site, with poorer agreement at the denser forested site. Finally, although the SfM produced point clouds with much higher point densities than the aerial LiDAR, the SfM was not able to produce meaningful snow depth estimates directly underneath trees and had trouble in areas with deep shadows. Based on these findings, we are optimizing our UAV data acquisition strategies for this upcoming field season. We are using these data, along with high-resolution hydrological modeling, to gain a better understanding of how

Variability of Cloud Cover and Its Relation to Snowmelt and Runoff in the Mountainous Western United States

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Sumargo, E.; Cayan, D. R.; Iacobellis, S.

2014-12-01

Obtaining accurate solar radiation input to snowmelt runoff models remains a fundamental challenge for water supply forecasters in the mountainous western U.S. The variability of cloud cover is a primary source of uncertainty in estimating surface radiation, especially given that ground-based radiometer networks in mountain terrains are sparse. Thus, remote sensed cloud properties provide a way to extend in situ observations and more importantly, to understand cloud variability in montane environment. We utilize 17 years of NASA/NOAA GOES visible albedo product with 4 km spatial and half-hour temporal resolutions to investigate daytime cloud variability in the western U.S. at elevations above 800 m. REOF/PC analysis finds that the 5 leading modes account for about two-thirds of the total daily cloud albedo variability during the whole year (ALL) and snowmelt season (AMJJ). The AMJJ PCs are significantly correlated with de-seasonalized snowmelt derived from CDWR CDEC and NRCS SNOTEL SWE data and USGS stream discharge across the western conterminous states. The sum of R2 from 7 days prior to the day of snowmelt/discharge amounts to as much as ~52% on snowmelt and ~44% on discharge variation. Spatially, the correlation patterns take on broad footprints, with strongest signals in regions of highest REOF weightings. That the response of snowmelt and streamflow to cloud variation is spread across several days indicates the cumulative effect of cloud variation on the energy budget in mountain catchments.

Leaf litter copepods from a cloud forest mountain top in Honduras (Copepoda: Cyclopidae, Canthocamptidae).

Science.gov (United States)

Fiers, Frank; Jocque, Merlijn

2013-01-01

Five different species of Copepoda were extracted from a leaf litter sample collected on the top (at 2000 m a.s.l.) of a cloud forested mountain in El Cusuco National Park, Honduras. Three of them, one Cyclopidae and two Canthocamptidae are new to science, and are described herein. Olmeccyclops hondo sp. nov. is the second representative thus far known of this New World genus. Moraria catracha sp. nov. and Moraria cusuca sp. nov. are the first formally described members of the genus occurring in Central America. The concept of a "Moraria-group" is considered to be an artificial grouping and is limited here to the genera Moraria and Morariopsis only. The distributional range of this group is essentially Holarctic, with the mountainous regions in Honduras, and probably in west Nicaragua, as the southernmost limits in the New World.

CICLAJE Y PÉRDIDA DE NUTRIENTES DEL SUELO EN BOSQUES ALTOANDINOS DE ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA NUTRIENT CYCLING AND NUTRIENT LOSSES IN ANDEAN MONTANE FORESTS FROM ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adriana Londoño Álvarez

2007-06-01

Full Text Available El agua gravitacional y su composición química fueron medidos en bosques montanos de Quercus humboldtii y reforestados (Pinus patula y Cupressus lusitanica de la región de Piedras Blancas, Antioquia (Colombia, por un período de tiempo de dos años. Se utilizaron lisímetros sin tensión con el fin de estimar el agua gravitacional y los flujos de nutrientes a diferentes profundidades en el perfil del suelo. El mayor valor anual de agua gravitacional en el nivel más profundo (50- 80 cm, fue hallado en la cobertura de ciprés ( 492,7 mm, seguido por pino pátula ( 14,2 mm y roble ( 2,0 mm. De manera similar ocurrió con la pérdida de nutrientes, mostrando el mismo patrón hallado para el agua gravitacional. Así, para roble, pátula y ciprés, en su orden, se presentaron los siguientes valores de pérdida: Ca: 0,004, 0,084 y 2,270 kg ha-1 año-1; P: 0,008, 0,052 y 1,234 kg ha-1 año-1; Mg: 0,004, 0,022 y 0,667 kg ha-1 año-1. De K se registraron 0,08 y 7,092 kg ha-1 año-1 para roble y ciprés respectivamente. Estos flujos siguieron el siguiente orden según cobertura, roble: K>P>Ca>Mg, pátula: Ca>Fe>P>Mg>Zn>Mn, y ciprés: K>Mn>Ca>P>Fe>Zn>Mg.Gravitational flow and its chemical composition were measured in montane oak forests (Quercus humboldtii, in pine (Pinus patula and cypress (Cupressus lusitanica plantations in Piedras Blancas, Antioquia ( Colombia , over two years. Zero tension lysimeters were used at different depth soil levels. The highest gravitational flow value at highest depth (50- 80 cm was obtained in cypress plot ( 492,7 mm, followed by pine ( 14,2 mm and oak forest ( 2,0 mm. A similar behavior was encountered for nutrient losses, following the same pattern as gravitational flow. Thus, for oak, pine and cypress, nutrient losses were respectively: Ca: 0,004, 0,084 and 2,270 kg ha-1 y-1; P: 0,008, 0,052 and 1,234 kg ha-1 y -1; Mg: 0,004, 0,022 and 0,667 kg ha-1 y-1. K losses were 0,08 and 7,092 kg ha-1 y-1 for oak forest and

Detection System of HTTP DDoS Attacks in a Cloud Environment Based on Information Theoretic Entropy and Random Forest

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Mohamed Idhammad

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Cloud Computing services are often delivered through HTTP protocol. This facilitates access to services and reduces costs for both providers and end-users. However, this increases the vulnerabilities of the Cloud services face to HTTP DDoS attacks. HTTP request methods are often used to address web servers’ vulnerabilities and create multiple scenarios of HTTP DDoS attack such as Low and Slow or Flooding attacks. Existing HTTP DDoS detection systems are challenged by the big amounts of network traffic generated by these attacks, low detection accuracy, and high false positive rates. In this paper we present a detection system of HTTP DDoS attacks in a Cloud environment based on Information Theoretic Entropy and Random Forest ensemble learning algorithm. A time-based sliding window algorithm is used to estimate the entropy of the network header features of the incoming network traffic. When the estimated entropy exceeds its normal range the preprocessing and the classification tasks are triggered. To assess the proposed approach various experiments were performed on the CIDDS-001 public dataset. The proposed approach achieves satisfactory results with an accuracy of 99.54%, a FPR of 0.4%, and a running time of 18.5s.

Life-history and ecological distribution of chameleons (Reptilia, Chamaeleonidae) from the rain forests of Nigeria: conservation implications

OpenAIRE

Akani, G. C.; Ogbalu, O. K.; Luiselli, L.

2001-01-01

Five species of chameleons were observed in the continuous forest zone of southern Nigeria: Chamaeleo gracilis gracilis Hallowell, 1842, Chamaeleo owenii Gray, 1831, Chamaeleo cristatus Stutchbury, 1837, Chamaeleo wiedersheimi Nieden, 1910, and Rhampholeon spectrum (Bucholz 1874). Many original locality records are presented for each species. One species is apparently rare and confined to montane habitats (C. wiedersheimi), another species is relatively common and its habitat is generalist (C...

Forest Cover Estimation in Ireland Using Radar Remote Sensing: A Comparative Analysis of Forest Cover Assessment Methodologies

Science.gov (United States)

Devaney, John; Barrett, Brian; Barrett, Frank; Redmond, John; O`Halloran, John

2015-01-01

Quantification of spatial and temporal changes in forest cover is an essential component of forest monitoring programs. Due to its cloud free capability, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an ideal source of information on forest dynamics in countries with near-constant cloud-cover. However, few studies have investigated the use of SAR for forest cover estimation in landscapes with highly sparse and fragmented forest cover. In this study, the potential use of L-band SAR for forest cover estimation in two regions (Longford and Sligo) in Ireland is investigated and compared to forest cover estimates derived from three national (Forestry2010, Prime2, National Forest Inventory), one pan-European (Forest Map 2006) and one global forest cover (Global Forest Change) product. Two machine-learning approaches (Random Forests and Extremely Randomised Trees) are evaluated. Both Random Forests and Extremely Randomised Trees classification accuracies were high (98.1–98.5%), with differences between the two classifiers being minimal (forest area and an increase in overall accuracy of SAR-derived forest cover maps. All forest cover products were evaluated using an independent validation dataset. For the Longford region, the highest overall accuracy was recorded with the Forestry2010 dataset (97.42%) whereas in Sligo, highest overall accuracy was obtained for the Prime2 dataset (97.43%), although accuracies of SAR-derived forest maps were comparable. Our findings indicate that spaceborne radar could aid inventories in regions with low levels of forest cover in fragmented landscapes. The reduced accuracies observed for the global and pan-continental forest cover maps in comparison to national and SAR-derived forest maps indicate that caution should be exercised when applying these datasets for national reporting. PMID:26262681

Vascular epiphytic flora of a high montane environment of Brazilian Atlantic Forest: composition and floristic relationships with other ombrophilous forests

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Samyra Gomes Furtado

2016-01-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Only a few studies regarding vascular epiphytes have been conducted in mixed ombrophilous forests (MOF in Serra da Mantiqueira, a mountainous environment in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, where the relationships of epiphytic flora with other physiognomies are unknown. This study aimed to survey the epiphytes of a MOF remnant located in Serra da Mantiqueira, and to analyze the floristic relationships with ombrophilous forests of the Southern and Southeastern regions of Brazil. The checklist was compared with 51 other areas composed of ombrophilous forests and/or ecotones with other physiognomies using UPGMA (with Sørensen index, and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA. We recorded 138 species, and Orchidaceae and Polypodiaceae were the richest families (51 and 23 species, respectively. The UPGMA showed the importance of physiognomy and elevation in the floristic relationships, and CCA reinforced the influence of elevation, in addition to the shortest distance to the ocean and minimum annual temperature; however, in this analysis, the physiognomies showed little influence on the relationships. The epiphytic flora of MOF of Southern and Southeastern regions of Brazil has different relationships compared with the data available for shrubs and trees, suggesting a greater importance of phorophytic species than geographical distance and, to some extent, environmental variables.

Climatic controls on the isotopic composition and availability of soil nitrogen in mountainous tropical forests

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Weintraub, S. R.; Cole, R. J.; Schmitt, C. G.; All, J.

2014-12-01

Tropical forests in mountainous regions are often assumed to be nitrogen (N) limited, yet N dynamics across rugged terrain can be complex due to gradients in climate and topography. Elucidating patterns of N availability and loss across such gradients is necessary to predict and manage tropical forest response to environmental changes such as increasing N deposition and rising temperatures. However, such data is currently lacking, particularly in remote locations that are of high conservation value. To address this gap, a research expedition organized by the American Climber Science Program recently made a coast-to-coast journey across a remote region of Costa Rica, travelling over the Cordillera Talamanca and through La Amistad International Park. Numerous biological, chemical and hydrologic measurements were made en-route across montane to premontane wet tropical forests, spanning nearly 2,000 m in elevation and 200 km. Surface soil samples collected at regular intervals along this transect illuminate environmental drivers of N dynamics across the region. The dataset reveals strong links between soil natural abundance N isotopic composition (δ15N) and elevation and temperature parameters, and weaker links to precipitation and topography. This is in general agreement with global scale observations, but divergence from some previously published works is apparent and will be discussed. δ15N mass balance models suggest that N isotope patterns reflect differences in forms of N loss and the relative importance of fractionating and non-fractionating pathways. When combined with data on several other edaphic properties, especially C:N stoichiometry, the results points toward notable variation in soil N availability and N constraints across the transect. This study illustrates large, but predictable, variation in key N cycle traits across the premontane to montane wet tropical forest transition. These findings have management-relevant implications for tropical regions.

Using transient ERT mapping to monitor infiltration pathways in a semi-arid cloud forest in Oman

Science.gov (United States)

Friesen, J.; Werban, U.; Pohle, M.; Bawain, A.; Hildebrandt, A.; Attinger, S.

2011-12-01

In forests rainfall partitioning provides highly organized rainfall patterns caused by rainfall funneling through vegetation structure. The patterns of rainfall partitioning have already been studied in great detail at a cloud forest enclosure in Dhofar, Oman. How those organized rainfall patterns on the surface advance into the root zone and deeper is the focus of this work. Trees in the Dhofar Mountains function as excellent natural fog catchers that funnel extracted fog water through stemflow directly into the ground. Stemflow may provide a direct pathway from the stem along the roots to deeper soil water reservoirs. By doing so, trees might also contribute to groundwater recharge, and hence deforestation might have a negative effect on the aquifer. Electric resistivity tomography (ERT) has already proven useful for visualization of root water uptake in a tree orchard, by observing local increases of resistivity from soil drying. In our approach we aim at using ERT data for observing the local decrease of resistivity from soil wetting near stems. For this we will use the advantage of ERT to look into the near surface area (down to 3-4m) and deeper subsurface (10-15m). With a large number of subsequent ERT measurements we will obtain a time series of ERT data. Transient ERT data, starting before the monsoon season and ending after the monsoon season, aim at providing information about recharge patterns during and uptake patterns after monsoon. To determine the effect of vegetation we conducted field observation for two land cover types, forest and grassland. The ERT measurements are support by a network of stemflow, throughfall, and rain gage observations. Results already show a clear distinction between grassland and forested land cover.

Evidence for an edge effect on avian nest predation in fragmented afromontane forests in the Bamenda-Banso Highlands, NW Cameroon

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Sedláček, O.; Mikeš, M.; Albrecht, Tomáš; Reif, J.; Hořák, D.

2014-01-01

Roč. 7, č. 4 (2014), s. 720-732 ISSN 1940-0829 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP505/11/1617 Institutional support: RVO:68081766 Keywords : Artificial nest s * Zebra finch eggs * Montane forest * Endemic species * Cameroon Mountains Subject RIV: EG - Zoology Impact factor: 1.125, year: 2014 http://tropicalconservationscience.mongabay.com/content/v7/TCS-2014-Vol7(4)_720-732_%20Ondrej.pdf

Detection of Single Tree Stems in Forested Areas from High Density ALS Point Clouds Using 3d Shape Descriptors

Science.gov (United States)

Amiri, N.; Polewski, P.; Yao, W.; Krzystek, P.; Skidmore, A. K.

2017-09-01

Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) is a widespread method for forest mapping and management purposes. While common ALS techniques provide valuable information about the forest canopy and intermediate layers, the point density near the ground may be poor due to dense overstory conditions. The current study highlights a new method for detecting stems of single trees in 3D point clouds obtained from high density ALS with a density of 300 points/m2. Compared to standard ALS data, due to lower flight height (150-200 m) this elevated point density leads to more laser reflections from tree stems. In this work, we propose a three-tiered method which works on the point, segment and object levels. First, for each point we calculate the likelihood that it belongs to a tree stem, derived from the radiometric and geometric features of its neighboring points. In the next step, we construct short stem segments based on high-probability stem points, and classify the segments by considering the distribution of points around them as well as their spatial orientation, which encodes the prior knowledge that trees are mainly vertically aligned due to gravity. Finally, we apply hierarchical clustering on the positively classified segments to obtain point sets corresponding to single stems, and perform ℓ1-based orthogonal distance regression to robustly fit lines through each stem point set. The ℓ1-based method is less sensitive to outliers compared to the least square approaches. From the fitted lines, the planimetric tree positions can then be derived. Experiments were performed on two plots from the Hochficht forest in Oberösterreich region located in Austria.We marked a total of 196 reference stems in the point clouds of both plots by visual interpretation. The evaluation of the automatically detected stems showed a classification precision of 0.86 and 0.85, respectively for Plot 1 and 2, with recall values of 0.7 and 0.67.

Contributions to the herpetofauna of the Albertine Rift: Two new species of chameleon (Sauria: Chamaeleonidae) from an isolated montane forest, south eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Science.gov (United States)

Tilbury, Colin R; Tolley, Krystal A

2015-01-13

Two new species of chameleons from the genera Rhampholeon and Kinyongia are described from an isolated montane forest remnant situated toward the southern end of the Albertine Rift bordering Lake Tanganyika. The closest known localities of species from these genera are 200km and 400km to the north respectively, separated by large intervening tracts of lowland savannah and Brachystegia (Miombo) woodland - habitats not normally inhabited by species of these genera. Rhampholeon hattinghi sp. nov. and Kinyongia mulyai sp. nov. bear superficial resemblances to previously described species (Rh. boulengeri Steindachner and K. adolfifriderici  (Sternfeld)). Rhampholeon hattinghi sp. nov. has a relatively smooth supra-orbital ridge, deep axillary but absent inguinal mite pockets, prominent white spots on the base of the tail and a uniquely derived hemipenal morphology with billowing parasulcal evaginations. Like K. adolfifriderici, Kinyongia mulyai sp. nov. is devoid of a rostral appendage but differs in having a longer and narrower head, a higher upper labial scale count and by the absence of a dorsal crest in the male. To place these new chameleons within the context of their respective genera, Bayesian and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses were carried out utilising two mitochondrial (ND2 and 16S) and one nuclear marker (RAG1).  Both chameleons were found to have morphological features that distinguish them from other congeners. Based on phylogenetic analysis they are clearly separate evolutionary lineages and are described as new species. 

Management intensity affects traits of soil microarthropod community in montane spruce forest

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Farská, Jitka; Prejzková, Kristýna; Rusek, Josef

2014-01-01

Roč. 75, March (2014), s. 71-79 ISSN 0929-1393 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA526/03/1259; GA ČR GAP504/12/1218; GA MŠk LC06066 Grant - others:GAJU(CZ) 143/2010/P Institutional support: RVO:60077344 Keywords : Oribatida * Collembola * spruce forest * trait * management intensity Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour Impact factor: 2.644, year: 2014

Status and limiting factors of two rare plant species in dry montane communities of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park.

Science.gov (United States)

Pratt, Linda W.; VanDeMark, Joshua R.; Euaparadorn, Melody

2012-01-01

Two rare plants native to montane dry forests and woodland communities of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park (HAVO) were studied for more than two years to determine their stand structure, short-term mortality rates, patterns of reproductive phenology, success of fruit production, floral visitor composition, seed germination rates in the greenhouse, and survival of both natural and planted seedlings. Phyllostegia stachyoides, a shrubby Hawaiian mint (Lamiaceae) that is a species of concern, was studied within two small kīpuka at a natural population on the park’s Mauna Loa Strip, and three plantings at sites along the Mauna Loa Road were also monitored. Silene hawaiiensis, a threatened shrub species in the pink family (Caryophyllaceae), was monitored at two natural populations, one on Mauna Loa at the Three Trees Kīpuka and the second on Kīlauea Crater Rim south of Halema`uma`u. Silene hawaiiensis plantings were also made inside and outside ungulate exclosures at the park’s Kahuku Unit

BAECC Biogenic Aerosols - Effects on Clouds and Climate

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Petäjä, Tuukka [Univ. of Helsinki (Finland); Moisseev, Dmitri [Univ. of Helsinki (Finland); Sinclair, Victoria [Univ. of Helsinki (Finland); O' Connor, Ewan J. [Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki (Finland); Manninen, Antti J. [Univ. of Helsinki (Finland); Levula, Janne [Univ. of Helsinki (Finland); Väänänen, Riikka [Univ. of Helsinki (Finland); Heikkinen, Liine [Univ. of Helsinki (Finland); Äijälä, Mikko [Univ. of Helsinki (Finland); Aalto, Juho [Univ. of Helsinki (Finland); Bäck, Jaana [University of Helsinki, Finland

2015-11-01

“Biogenic Aerosols - Effects on Clouds and Climate (BAECC)”, featured the U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program’s 2nd Mobile Facility (AMF2) in Hyytiälä, Finland. It operated for an 8-month intensive measurement campaign from February to September 2014. The main research goal was to understand the role of biogenic aerosols in cloud formation. One of the reasons to perform BAECC study in Hyytiälä was the fact that it hosts SMEAR-II (Station for Measuring Forest Ecosystem-Atmosphere Relations), which is one of the world’s most comprehensive surface in-situ observation sites in a boreal forest environment. The station has been measuring atmospheric aerosols, biogenic emissions and an extensive suite of parameters relevant to atmosphere-biosphere interactions continuously since 1996. The BAECC enables combining vertical profiles from AMF2 with surface-based in-situ SMEAR-II observations and allows the processes at the surface to be directly related to processes occurring throughout the entire tropospheric column. With the inclusion of extensive surface precipitation measurements, and intensive observation periods involving aircraft flights and novel radiosonde launches, the complementary observations of AMF2 and SMEAR-II provide a unique opportunity for investigating aerosol-cloud interactions, and cloud-to-precipitation processes. The BAECC dataset will initiate new opportunities for evaluating and improving models of aerosol sources and transport, cloud microphysical processes, and boundary-layer structures.

Detailed maps of tropical forest types are within reach: forest tree communities for Trinidad and Tobago mapped with multiseason Landsat and multiseason fine-resolution imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Eileen H. Helmer; Thomas S. Ruzycki; Jay Benner; Shannon M. Voggesser; Barbara P. Scobie; Courtenay Park; David W. Fanning; Seepersad. Ramnarine

2012-01-01

Tropical forest managers need detailed maps of forest types for REDD+, but spectral similarity among forest types; cloud and scan-line gaps; and scarce vegetation ground plots make producing such maps with satellite imagery difficult. How can managers map tropical forest tree communities with satellite imagery given these challenges? Here we describe a case study of...

Leaf litter decomposition rates increase with rising mean annual temperature in Hawaiian tropical montane wet forests

Science.gov (United States)

Lori D. Bothwell; Paul C. Selmants; Christian P. Giardina; Creighton M. Litton

2014-01-01

Decomposing litter in forest ecosystems supplies nutrients to plants, carbon to heterotrophic soil microorganisms and is a large source of CO2 to the atmosphere. Despite its essential role in carbon and nutrient cycling, the temperature sensitivityof leaf litter decay in tropical forest ecosystems remains poorly resolved, especially in tropical...

Efecto nodriza intra-específico de Kageneckia angustifolia D. Don (Rosaceae sobre la germinación de semillas y sobrevivencia de plántulas en el bosque esclerófilo montano de Chile central Intra-specific nurse effect of Kageneckia angustifolia D. Don (Rosaceae and its effect on seed germination and seedling survival in the montane sclerophyllous forest of central Chile

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ALEJANDRO PEÑALOZA

2001-09-01

sclerophyllous forests of central Chile (32-33° S, 1,500-2,100 m altitude are dominated by Kageneckia angustifolia (Rosaceae, a summer semi-deciduous species, that form a very open canopy. This open canopy suggests that microclimatic differences between open areas outside canopy and beneath canopy should be minimal, in contrast to the lower elevation "matorral" where the closed canopy of trees and bushes generate different microclimatic conditions beneath canopy. On the other hand, in montane forests precipitation occurs as snow, with higher accumulation and duration in the open areas between trees. These differences in the accumulation of snow could affect the recruitment of new individuals. We studied the intra-specific nurse effect of K. angustifolia determining the microclimatic differences between open areas and beneath canopy, and the effect of the accumulation of snow on the seed germination and seedling survival in a montane sclerophyllous forest located in the Santuario de la Naturaleza Yerba Loca, 50 km east of Santiago (33° S, 1,600 m. According to the microclimatic parameters studied (PAR, soil and air humidity, and soil and air temperature, in the montane forests there were no major microclimatic differences between open areas and beneath canopy. Only the accumulation of snow showed differences, with higher accumulation in the open areas. Seed germination was lower and later in the open areas outside canopy, suggesting that this could be related with the above-mentioned higher accumulation of snow. Seedling emerging earlier have enough time to grow and successfully survive the summer drought in comparison with seedling emerging later. This could explain the lower seedling survival in the open areas outside canopy

Human uses of forested watersheds and riparian corridors: hazard mitigation as an ecosystem service, with examples from Panama, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela

Science.gov (United States)

Larsen, M. C.

2015-12-01

Humans have long favored settlement along rivers for access to water supply for drinking and agriculture, for transport corridors, and for food sources. Additionally, settlement in or near montane forests include benefits such as food sources, wood supply, esthetic values, and high quality water resources derived from watersheds where upstream human disturbance and environmental degradation is generally reduced. However, the advantages afforded by these riparian and montane settings pose episodic risks for communities located there as floods, landslides, and wildfires cause loss of life, destroy infrastructure, and damage or destroy crops. A basic understanding of flood probability and magnitude as well as hillslope stability by residents in these environments can mitigate these risks. Early humans presumably developed some degree of knowledge about these risks by means of their long periods of occupation in these environments and their observations of seasonal and storm rainfall patterns and river discharge, which became more refined as agriculture developed over the past 10,000 years. Modern global urbanization, particularly in regions of rapid economic growth, has resulted in much of this "organic" knowledge being lost, as rural populations move into megacities, many of which encroach on floodplains and mountain fronts. Moreover, the most likely occupants of these hazardous locations are often economically constrained, increasing their vulnerabity. Effective stewardship of river floodplains and upstream montane forests yields a key ecosystem service, which in addition to the well-known services, ie. water, hydroelectric energy, etc., provides a risk mitigation service, by reducing hazard and vulnerability. Puerto Rico, Panama, and Venezuela illustrate a range of practices and results, providing useful examples for planners and land use managers.

Hydro-meteorological functioning of tropical montane cloud forests in the Orinoco River basin

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ramírez Correal, Beatriz Helena

2018-01-01

The hydrologic interactions between the atmosphere, land cover and soil largely determine water availability to sustain ecosystems’and anthropogenic demands. Therefore, understanding how these interactions operate is required to design strategies to reduce or cope with the potential hydrological

Characterizing forest carbon stocks at tropical biome and landscape level in Mount Apo National Park, Philippines

Science.gov (United States)

Rubas, L. C.

2012-12-01

Forest resources sequester and store carbon, and serve as a natural brake on climate change. In the tropics, the largest source of greenhouse emission is from deforestation and forest degradation (Gibbs et al 2007). This paper attempts to compile sixty (60) existing studies on using remote sensing to measure key environmental forest indicators at two levels of scales: biome and landscape level. At the tropical forest biome level, there is not as much remote sensing studies that have been done as compared to other forest biomes. Also, existing studies on tropical Asia is still sparse compared to other tropical regions in Latin America and Africa. Biomass map is also produced for the tropical biome using keyhole macro language (KML) which is projected on Google Earth. The compiled studies showed there are four indicators being measured using remote sensors in tropical forest. These are biomass, landcover classification, deforestation and cloud cover. The landscape level will focus on Mount Apo National Park in the Philippines which is encompassing a total area of 54,974.87 hectares. It is one of the ten priority sites targeted in the World Bank-assisted Biodiversity Conservation Program. This park serves as the major watershed for the three provinces with 19 major rivers emanating from the montane formations. Only a small fraction of the natural forest that once covered the country remains. In spite of different policies that aim to reduce logging recent commercial deforestation, illegal logging and agricultural expansion pose an important threat to the remaining forest areas. In some locations in the country, these hotspots of deforestation overlap with the protected areas (Verburg et al 2006). The study site was clipped using ArcGIS from the forest biomass carbon density map produced by Gibbs and Brown (2007). Characterization on this national park using vegetation density, elevation, slope, land cover and precipitation will be conducted to determine factors that

Detecting Forest Cover and Ecosystem Service Change Using ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

user

Mpigi, than in Butambala by 5.99%, disturbed forest was 3%, farm land ... climate change impacts on ecosystem services requires more attention and ... While these conceptual models usually assume relatively a causal-effect ... images with relatively low cloud cover or free-cloud imagery during the time period of interest.

Extra-zonal beech forests in Tuscany: structure, diversity and synecologic features

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Viciani D

2011-07-01

Full Text Available The present paper focuses on the structural, synecological and floristic diversity features of beech-dominated forest communities in four major areas of the Antiapenninic Tyrrhenian system in Tuscany: Metalliferous hills, mountains to the south of Mt. Amiata, volcanic area of the upper Lente valley and Mt. Cetona. These are relict woodlands of Holo-Pleistocene origin with a special ecological and conservation value due to their extrazonal location in lowland submediterranean areas. Results show substantial among-area differences in structure, synecology and plant species composition, but in general a potential for coppices to reach the tall forest stage, as demonstrated by the old-growth stands of Pietraporciana and Sassoforte. Compared with montane Apenninic beechwoods, the relatively rich flora of the studied communities include thermophilous species with a southern Apennine-Balkan distribution, making their syntaxonomical position unclear. Closer affinities are found with the calcicolous Beech Forests of the association and with the silicicolous ones of the . Based on the Natura 2000 system, all the examined communities belong to the priority Habitat “Apennine beech forests with and ” (code: 9210*. Due their relict nature, these biotopes appear vulnerable to climate changes and to a production-oriented forest management. Criteria of naturalistic silviculture should instead promote the dynamic development of these communities towards tall forests and their natural regeneration.

Fogwater Inputs to a Cloud Forest in Puerto Rico

Science.gov (United States)

Eugster, W.; Burkard, R.; Holwerda, F.; Bruijnzeel, S.; Scatena, F. N.; Siegwolf, R.

2002-12-01

Fog is highly persistent at upper elevations of humid tropical mountains and is an important pathway for water and nutrient inputs to mountain forest ecosystems. Measurements of fogwater fluxes were performed in the Luquillo mountains of Puerto Rico using the eddy covariance approach and a Caltech-type active strand cloudwater collector. Rainfall and throughfall were collected between 25 June--7 August 2002. Samples of fog, rain, stemflow and throughfall were analyzed for inorganic ion and stable isotope concentrations (δ18O and δD). Initial results indicate that fog inputs can occur during periods without rain and last for up to several days. The isotope ratios in rainwater and fogwater are rather similar, indicative of the proximity of the Carribbean Sea and the close interrelation between the origins of fog and rain at our experimental site. Largest differences in isotope ratios for fog were found between daytime convective and nighttime stable conditions. Throughfall was always exceeding rainfall, indicating (a) the relevance of fogwater inputs and (b) the potentially significant undersampling of rainfall due to relatively high wind speeds (5.7 m/s mean) and the exposition of our field site close to a mountain ridge. Our size-resolved measurements of cloud droplets (40 size bins between 2 and 50 μm aerodynamic diameter) indicate that the liquid water content of fog in the Luquillo mountains is 5 times higher than previously assumed, and thus does not differ from the values reported from other mountain ranges in other climate zones. Average deposition rates are 0.88 mm and 6.5 mm per day for fog and rain, respectively.

Distinct subspecies or phenotypic plasticity? Genetic and morphological differentiation of mountain honey bees in East Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Gruber, Karl; Schöning, Caspar; Otte, Marianne; Kinuthia, Wanja; Hasselmann, Martin

2013-09-01

Identifying the forces shaping intraspecific phenotypic and genotypic divergence are of key importance in evolutionary biology. Phenotypic divergence may result from local adaptation or, especially in species with strong gene flow, from pronounced phenotypic plasticity. Here, we examine morphological and genetic divergence among populations of the western honey bee Apis mellifera in the topographically heterogeneous East African region. The currently accepted "mountain refugia hypothesis" states that populations living in disjunct montane forests belong to a different lineage than those in savanna habitats surrounding these forests. We obtained microsatellite data, mitochondrial sequences, and morphometric data from worker honey bees collected from feral colonies in three montane forests and corresponding neighboring savanna regions in Kenya. Honey bee colonies from montane forests showed distinct worker morphology compared with colonies in savanna areas. Mitochondrial sequence data did not support the existence of the two currently accepted subspecies. Furthermore, analyses of the microsatellite data with a Bayesian clustering method did not support the existence of two source populations as it would be expected under the mountain refugia scenario. Our findings suggest that phenotypic plasticity rather than distinct ancestry is the leading cause behind the phenotypic divergence observed between montane forest and savanna honey bees. Our study thus corroborates the idea that high gene flow may select for increased plasticity.

A practical and automated approach to large area forest disturbance mapping with remote sensing.

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Mutlu Ozdogan

Full Text Available In this paper, I describe a set of procedures that automate forest disturbance mapping using a pair of Landsat images. The approach is built on the traditional pair-wise change detection method, but is designed to extract training data without user interaction and uses a robust classification algorithm capable of handling incorrectly labeled training data. The steps in this procedure include: i creating masks for water, non-forested areas, clouds, and cloud shadows; ii identifying training pixels whose value is above or below a threshold defined by the number of standard deviations from the mean value of the histograms generated from local windows in the short-wave infrared (SWIR difference image; iii filtering the original training data through a number of classification algorithms using an n-fold cross validation to eliminate mislabeled training samples; and finally, iv mapping forest disturbance using a supervised classification algorithm. When applied to 17 Landsat footprints across the U.S. at five-year intervals between 1985 and 2010, the proposed approach produced forest disturbance maps with 80 to 95% overall accuracy, comparable to those obtained from traditional approaches to forest change detection. The primary sources of mis-classification errors included inaccurate identification of forests (errors of commission, issues related to the land/water mask, and clouds and cloud shadows missed during image screening. The approach requires images from the peak growing season, at least for the deciduous forest sites, and cannot readily distinguish forest harvest from natural disturbances or other types of land cover change. The accuracy of detecting forest disturbance diminishes with the number of years between the images that make up the image pair. Nevertheless, the relatively high accuracies, little or no user input needed for processing, speed of map production, and simplicity of the approach make the new method especially practical for

Automatic Mapping of Forest Stands Based on Three-Dimensional Point Clouds Derived from Terrestrial Laser-Scanning

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Tim Ritter

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Mapping of exact tree positions can be regarded as a crucial task of field work associated with forest monitoring, especially on intensive research plots. We propose a two-stage density clustering approach for the automatic mapping of tree positions, and an algorithm for automatic tree diameter estimates based on terrestrial laser-scanning (TLS point cloud data sampled under limited sighting conditions. We show that our novel approach is able to detect tree positions in a mixed and vertically structured stand with an overall accuracy of 91.6%, and with omission- and commission error of only 5.7% and 2.7% respectively. Moreover, we were able to reproduce the stand’s diameter in breast height (DBH distribution, and to estimate single trees DBH with a mean average deviation of ±2.90 cm compared with tape measurements as reference.

Individual tree detection in intact forest and degraded forest areas in the north region of Mato Grosso State, Brazilian Amazon

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, E. G.; Jorge, A.; Shimabukuro, Y. E.; Gasparini, K.

2017-12-01

The State of Mato Grosso - MT has the second largest area with degraded forest among the states of the Brazilian Legal Amazon. Land use and land cover change processes that occur in this region cause the loss of forest biomass, releasing greenhouse gases that contribute to the increase of temperature on earth. These degraded forest areas lose biomass according to the intensity and magnitude of the degradation type. The estimate of forest biomass, commonly performed by forest inventory through sample plots, shows high variance in degraded forest areas. Due to this variance and complexity of tropical forests, the aim of this work was to estimate forest biomass using LiDAR point clouds in three distinct forest areas: one degraded by fire, another by selective logging and one area of intact forest. The approach applied in these areas was the Individual Tree Detection (ITD). To isolate the trees, we generated Canopy Height Models (CHM) images, which are obtained by subtracting the Digital Elevation Model (MDE) and the Digital Terrain Model (MDT), created by the cloud of LiDAR points. The trees in the CHM images are isolated by an algorithm provided by the Quantitative Ecology research group at the School of Forestry at Northern Arizona University (SILVA, 2015). With these points, metrics were calculated for some areas, which were used in the model of biomass estimation. The methodology used in this work was expected to reduce the error in biomass estimate in the study area. The cloud points of the most representative trees were analyzed, and thus field data was correlated with the individual trees found by the proposed algorithm. In a pilot study, the proposed methodology was applied generating the individual tree metrics: total height and area of the crown. When correlating 339 isolated trees, an unsatisfactory R² was obtained, as heights found by the algorithm were lower than those obtained in the field, with an average difference of 2.43 m. This shows that the

The nitrogen budget for different forest types in the central Congo Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Bauters, Marijn; Verbeeck, Hans; Cizungu, Landry; Boeckx, Pascal

2016-04-01

Characterization of fundamental processes in different forest types is vital to understand the interaction of forests with their changing environment. Recent data analyses, as well as modeling activities have shown that the CO2 uptake by terrestrial ecosystems strongly depends on site fertility, i.e. nutrient availability. Accurate projections of future net forest growth and terrestrial CO2 uptake thus necessitate an improved understanding on nutrient cycles and how these are coupled to the carbon (C) cycle in forests. This holds especially for tropical forests, since they represent about 40-50% of the total carbon that is stored in terrestrial vegetation, with the Amazon basin and the Congo basin being the largest two contiguous blocks. However, due to political instability and reduced accessibility in the central Africa region, there is a strong bias in scientific research towards the Amazon basin. Consequently, central African forests are poorly characterized and their role in global change interactions shows distinct knowledge gaps, which is important bottleneck for all efforts to further optimize Earth system models explicitly including this region. Research in the Congo Basin region should combine assessments of both carbon stocks and the underlying nutrient cycles which directly impact the forest productivity. We set up a monitoring network for carbon stocks and nitrogen fluxes in four different forest types in the Congo Basin, which is now operative. With the preliminary data, we can get a glimpse of the differences in nitrogen budget and biogeochemistry of African mixed lowland rainforest, monodominant lowland forest, mixed montane forest and eucalypt plantations.

Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI): Environmental Assessment of the Farish Recreation Area Observatory and Cabin Construction

Science.gov (United States)

2011-12-21

Montane forest comprises approximately 34 percent of the study area. Montane forests within the study area are a mix of Ponderosa pine ( Pinus ...ponderosa), limber pine ( Pinus flexilis), lodgepole pine ( Pinus contorta), and Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) in dry areas. Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga... drought stress. El Paso County fire bans are enforced within Farish. The USAFA has instituted thinning operations to mitigate fire dangers (Strohm

Urban forest topographical mapping using UAV LIDAR

Science.gov (United States)

Putut Ash Shidiq, Iqbal; Wibowo, Adi; Kusratmoko, Eko; Indratmoko, Satria; Ardhianto, Ronni; Prasetyo Nugroho, Budi

2017-12-01

Topographical data is highly needed by many parties, such as government institution, mining companies and agricultural sectors. It is not just about the precision, the acquisition time and data processing are also carefully considered. In relation with forest management, a high accuracy topographic map is necessary for planning, close monitoring and evaluating forest changes. One of the solution to quickly and precisely mapped topography is using remote sensing system. In this study, we test high-resolution data using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) collected from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to map topography and differentiate vegetation classes based on height in urban forest area of University of Indonesia (UI). The semi-automatic and manual classifications were applied to divide point clouds into two main classes, namely ground and vegetation. There were 15,806,380 point clouds obtained during the post-process, in which 2.39% of it were detected as ground.

Evidence of a reduction in cloud condensation nuclei activity of water-soluble aerosols caused by biogenic emissions in a cool-temperate forest.

Science.gov (United States)

Müller, Astrid; Miyazaki, Yuzo; Tachibana, Eri; Kawamura, Kimitaka; Hiura, Tsutom

2017-08-16

Biogenic organic aerosols can affect cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) properties, and subsequently impact climate change. Large uncertainties exist in how the difference in the types of terrestrial biogenic sources and the abundance of organics relative to sulfate affect CCN properties. For the submicron water-soluble aerosols collected for two years in a cool-temperate forest in northern Japan, we show that the hygroscopicity parameter κ CCN (0.44 ± 0.07) exhibited a distinct seasonal trend with a minimum in autumn (κ CCN  = 0.32-0.37); these κ CCN values were generally larger than that of ambient particles, including water-insoluble fractions. The temporal variability of κ CCN was controlled by the water-soluble organic matter (WSOM)-to-sulfate ratio (R 2  > 0.60), where the significant reduction of κ CCN in autumn was linked to the increased WSOM/sulfate ratio. Positive matrix factorization analysis indicates that α-pinene-derived secondary organic aerosol (SOA) substantially contributed to the WSOM mass (~75%) in autumn, the majority of which was attributable to emissions from litter/soil microbial activity near the forest floor. These findings suggest that WSOM, most likely α-pinene SOA, originated from the forest floor can significantly suppress the aerosol CCN activity in cool-temperate forests, which have implications for predicting climate effects by changes in biogenic emissions in future.

Breeding biology of passerines in a subtropical montane forest in northwestern Argentina

Science.gov (United States)

Auer, S.K.; Bassar, R.D.; Fontaine, J.J.; Martin, T.E.

2007-01-01

The breeding ecology of south temperate bird species is less widely known than that of north temperate species, yet because they comprise a large portion of the world's avian diversity, knowledge of their breeding ecology can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the geographic diversity of avian reproductive traits and life history strategies. We provide the first detailed examination of the reproductive strategies of 18 forest passerines of subtropical, northwestern Argentina. Mean clutch sizes were smaller and egg mass was greater than for north temperate birds, but differed among species and nest types, with cavity-nesters having larger clutches than species with open-cup and enclosed nests. Across all species, the average breeding season duration was 50 days; thus, the common perception that southern species have smaller clutch sizes because of longer breeding seasons is not supported in this community. Daily nest predation rates were influenced by nest type, cavity nests suffering the least from predation, as found in north temperate systems. Only females incubated eggs in all but one species, whereas both parents fed and cared for nestlings in all species. Mean nest attentiveness was low compared to north temperate passerines. Mean hourly nestling feeding rates differed among species and were negatively related to nest predation risk. In short, coexisting species in this subtropical forest varied in their life history strategies, in part correlated with variation in nest predation risk, but also differing from north temperate species. ?? The Cooper Ornithological Society 2007.

Reallocation and nutrient use efficiency in Antioquia central forests

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leon Pelaez, Juan; Gonzalez Hernandez, Maria; Gallardo Lancho, Juan

2009-01-01

We have studied nutrient related variables such as reallocation, nutrient use efficiency (NUE) and fine litter fall for three years in an oak forest Quercus humboldtii Bonpl. and also in some other forest plantations like pine, Pinus patula, and cypress, Cupressus lusitanica, in Antioquia, Colombia. Leaf litter quantities returned to the soil followed a falling sequence: oak (5313.3 kg ha-1 year-1) > pine (4866.5 kg ha-1 year-1) > cypress (2460.3 kg ha-1 year-1). The coniferous species showed the highest NUE for the majority of elements that were examined, except for P, which reached its absolute maximum in the oak forest -where a clear reallocation of this nutrient was also recorded-, probably because of its reduced availability in these volcanic ash-derived soils. Nutrient reallocation allows the conservation of the nutrients by reducing its loss from leaching and litter-fall, thereby closing the nutrient cycle in this native forest. In fact, P gains from net deposition were found there -this includes foliar leaching and atmospheric deposition-, which indicates that the species absorbs the P contained in rainfall from the leaves before it reaches the forest ground. N slow-efficiency use was probably due to its low availability in soil, given its low mineralization rates in these montane forests. K showed the highest reallocation values. Such figures are influenced by its clearly mobile character, according to the highest net deposition levels also verified for this element. With the exception of Mg, there was no clear relationship between the reallocation process and NUE.

Turbulent Fogwater Flux Measurements Above A Forest

Science.gov (United States)

Burkard, R.; Eugster, W.; Buetzberger, P.; Siegwolf, R.

Many forest ecosystems in elevated regions receive a significant fraction of their wa- ter and nutrient input by the interception of fogwater. Recently, several studies have demonstrated the suitability of the eddy covariance technique for the direct measure- ment of turbulent liquid water fluxes. Since summer 2001 a fogwater flux measure- ment equipment has been running at a montane site above a mixed forest canopy in Switzerland. The measurement equipment consists of a high-speed size-resolving droplet spectrometer and a three-dimensional ultrasonic anemometer. The chemical composition of the fogwater was determined from samples collected with a modified Caltech active strand collector. The deposition of nutrients by fog (occult deposition) was calculated by multiplying the total fogwater flux (total of measured turbulent and calculated gravitational flux) during each fog event by the ionic concentrations found in the collected fogwater. Several uncertainties still exist as far as the accuracy of the measurements is con- cerned. Although there is no universal statistical approach for testing the quality of the liquid water flux data directly, results of independent data quality checks of the two time series involved in the flux computation and accordingly the two instruments (ultrasonic anemometer and the droplet spectrometer) are presented. Within the measurement period, over 80 fog events with a duration longer than 2.5 hours were analyzed. An enormous physical and chemical heterogeneity among these fog events was found. We assume that some of this heterogeneity is due to the fact that fog or cloud droplets are not conservative entities: the turbulent flux of fog droplets, which can be referred to as the liquid water flux, is affected by phase change processes and coagulation. The measured coexistence of upward fluxes of small fog droplets (di- ameter < 10 µm) with the downward transport of larger droplets indicates the influ- ence of such processes. With the

FITOSSOCIOLOGIA DA VEGETAÇÃO ARBÓREA DO PARQUE NACIONAL DO IGUAÇU

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Ronan Felipe de Souza

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Phytosociology of tree vegetation in Iguaçu National Park is inserted within Atlantic Forest biome and is considered the largest Brazilian non-Amazon Park. Despite its importance and its significant forest area, there are few scientific studies related to its vegetation. In order to meet this demand, we conducted a phytosociological inventory of the tree vegetation by means of plots installed in different environments, striving to achieve optimum environmental representation. In the classification of vegetation by TWINSPAN the forests were initially separated into ambient montane and submontane. An ecotone region between seasonal and araucaria forests was observed in the montane site, at an altitude above 700 m. The semideciduous forest montane was observed at altitudes of 600-700 meters. The Forest Seasonal Submontane in the lowlands was separated into two subformations, Typical and Humid, due to physiognomic variations regulated by geomorphology and humidity. According to the results, the tree vegetation of Iguaçu National Park is a remnant of great importance for the conservation of forest species in southern Brazil, among which stand out Aspidosperma polyneuron Müll. Arg., Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol. Kuntze, Euterpe edulis Mart. and Ilex paraguariensis A. St.-Hil.

Watershed-scale modeling of streamflow change in incised montane meadows

Science.gov (United States)

Essaid, Hedeff I.; Hill, Barry R.

2014-01-01

Land use practices have caused stream channel incision and water table decline in many montane meadows of the Western United States. Incision changes the magnitude and timing of streamflow in water supply source watersheds, a concern to resource managers and downstream water users. The hydrology of montane meadows under natural and incised conditions was investigated using watershed simulation for a range of hydrologic conditions. The results illustrate the interdependence between: watershed and meadow hydrology; bedrock and meadow aquifers; and surface and groundwater flow through the meadow for the modeled scenarios. During the wet season, stream incision resulted in less overland flow and interflow and more meadow recharge causing a net decrease in streamflow and increase in groundwater storage relative to natural meadow conditions. During the dry season, incision resulted in less meadow evapotranspiration and more groundwater discharge to the stream causing a net increase in streamflow and a decrease in groundwater storage relative to natural meadow conditions. In general, for a given meadow setting, the magnitude of change in summer streamflow and long-term change in watershed groundwater storage due to incision will depend on the combined effect of: reduced evapotranspiration in the eroded meadow; induced groundwater recharge; replenishment of dry season groundwater storage depletion in meadow and bedrock aquifers by precipitation during wet years; and groundwater storage depletion that is not replenished by precipitation during wet years.

Establishing a long-term permanent plot in remnant forest of Cibodas Botanic Garden, West Java

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ZAENAL MUTAQIEN

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Mutaqien Z, Zuhri M (2011 Establishing a long-term permanent plot in remnant forest of Cibodas Botanic Garden, West Java. Biodiversitas 12: 218-224. Cibodas Botanic Garden (CBG has unique characters; almost 10% of which is forested area adjacent to the natural forest of Mt. Gede Pangrango National Park. The area is a transition between natural forest and artificial habitat which mostly consists of exotic plant species. The permanent plot in CBG was established in 2007-2009. Two hundred and eighty four units of 10x10 square meters sub-plot were established in four locations, i.e. Wornojiwo, Kompos, Jalan Akar, and Lumut forest. Vegetation analyses were conducted for trees, saplings, shrubs, and herb species. The inventory found 137 species plants consisting of 74 tree species dominated by Villebrunea rubescens (Bl. Bl. and Ostodes paniculata Bl., 30 shrub species dominated by Strobilanthes hamiltoniana (Steud., 24 herb species dominated by Cyrtandra picta Bl., 6 fern species mainly consisted of Diplazium pallidum Moore, and 3 climber species dominated by Calamus reinwardtii Mart. In comparison with the natural forest of Mt. Gede Pangrango National Park, the CBG permanent plot showed a good representative of the vegetation of lower montane forest. A regular monitoring during the successive years is needed to maintain diversity, monitor forest dynamics and anticipate the spread of invasive plant from CBG.

Forest Cover Mapping in Iskandar Malaysia Using Satellite Data

Science.gov (United States)

Kanniah, K. D.; Mohd Najib, N. E.; Vu, T. T.

2016-09-01

Malaysia is the third largest country in the world that had lost forest cover. Therefore, timely information on forest cover is required to help the government to ensure that the remaining forest resources are managed in a sustainable manner. This study aims to map and detect changes of forest cover (deforestation and disturbance) in Iskandar Malaysia region in the south of Peninsular Malaysia between years 1990 and 2010 using Landsat satellite images. The Carnegie Landsat Analysis System-Lite (CLASlite) programme was used to classify forest cover using Landsat images. This software is able to mask out clouds, cloud shadows, terrain shadows, and water bodies and atmospherically correct the images using 6S radiative transfer model. An Automated Monte Carlo Unmixing technique embedded in CLASlite was used to unmix each Landsat pixel into fractions of photosynthetic vegetation (PV), non photosynthetic vegetation (NPV) and soil surface (S). Forest and non-forest areas were produced from the fractional cover images using appropriate threshold values of PV, NPV and S. CLASlite software was found to be able to classify forest cover in Iskandar Malaysia with only a difference between 14% (1990) and 5% (2010) compared to the forest land use map produced by the Department of Agriculture, Malaysia. Nevertheless, the CLASlite automated software used in this study was found not to exclude other vegetation types especially rubber and oil palm that has similar reflectance to forest. Currently rubber and oil palm were discriminated from forest manually using land use maps. Therefore, CLASlite algorithm needs further adjustment to exclude these vegetation and classify only forest cover.

Resource use of Japanese macaques in heavy snowfall areas: implications for habitat management.

Science.gov (United States)

Enari, Hiroto; Sakamaki-Enari, Haruka

2013-07-01

Populations of Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata) that inhabit the northernmost distribution of any nonhuman primates have been listed as endangered in Japan; however, macaques are widely known for being pests that cause agricultural damage. This study identified priority areas for the conservation and management of macaque habitats, by comparing the resource use of troops occupying remote mountains (montane troops) against troops inhabiting disturbed forests adjacent to settlements (rural troops). We collected species presence data across 2 years by radio-tracking two montane troops and two rural troops in the Shirakami Mountains. We developed seasonal utilization distributions by using the kernel method, and identified habitat characteristics by using ecological-niche factor analysis (ENFA). Our results indicate that environmental factors influencing the potential habitat varied widely with season in montane troops as compared with that in rural troops. ENFA results demonstrated that rural troops exhibited more biased resource use and narrower niche breadths than montane troops. Based on our findings, we propose that (1) primary broadleaf forests are the spring habitat conservation priority of montane troops; (2) the habitat unit--the product of habitat suitability index and its surface area--for montane troops is enhanced by removing old conifer plantations from the forest edge at low elevations; (3) such removal around settlements may also contribute toward removing a frontline refuge for rural troops intruding farmlands; and (4) intensive prevention measures against macaque intrusions into settlements during the bottleneck snowy season contribute toward reducing the habitat unit of rural troops.

A 50-m forest cover map in Southeast Asia from ALOS/PALSAR and its application on forest fragmentation assessment.

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Jinwei Dong

Full Text Available Southeast Asia experienced higher rates of deforestation than other continents in the 1990s and still was a hotspot of forest change in the 2000s. Biodiversity conservation planning and accurate estimation of forest carbon fluxes and pools need more accurate information about forest area, spatial distribution and fragmentation. However, the recent forest maps of Southeast Asia were generated from optical images at spatial resolutions of several hundreds of meters, and they do not capture well the exceptionally complex and dynamic environments in Southeast Asia. The forest area estimates from those maps vary substantially, ranging from 1.73×10(6 km(2 (GlobCover to 2.69×10(6 km(2 (MCD12Q1 in 2009; and their uncertainty is constrained by frequent cloud cover and coarse spatial resolution. Recently, cloud-free imagery from the Phased Array Type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR onboard the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS became available. We used the PALSAR 50-m orthorectified mosaic imagery in 2009 to generate a forest cover map of Southeast Asia at 50-m spatial resolution. The validation, using ground-reference data collected from the Geo-Referenced Field Photo Library and high-resolution images in Google Earth, showed that our forest map has a reasonably high accuracy (producer's accuracy 86% and user's accuracy 93%. The PALSAR-based forest area estimates in 2009 are significantly correlated with those from GlobCover and MCD12Q1 at national and subnational scales but differ in some regions at the pixel scale due to different spatial resolutions, forest definitions, and algorithms. The resultant 50-m forest map was used to quantify forest fragmentation and it revealed substantial details of forest fragmentation. This new 50-m map of tropical forests could serve as a baseline map for forest resource inventory, deforestation monitoring, reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+ implementation, and

Complex controls on nitrous oxide flux across a large-elevation gradient in the tropical Peruvian Andes

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T. Diem

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Current bottom–up process models suggest that montane tropical ecosystems are weak atmospheric sources of N2O, although recent empirical studies from the southern Peruvian Andes have challenged this idea. Here we report N2O flux from combined field and laboratory experiments that investigated the process-based controls on N2O flux from montane ecosystems across a large-elevation gradient (600–3700 m a.s.l. in the southern Peruvian Andes. Nitrous oxide flux and environmental variables were quantified in four major habitats (premontane forest, lower montane forest, upper montane forest and montane grassland at monthly intervals over a 30-month period from January 2011 to June 2013. The role of soil moisture content in regulating N2O flux was investigated through a manipulative, laboratory-based 15N-tracer experiment. The role of substrate availability (labile organic matter, NO3− in regulating N2O flux was examined through a field-based litter-fall manipulation experiment and a laboratory-based 15N–NO3− addition study, respectively. Ecosystems in this region were net atmospheric sources of N2O, with an unweighted mean flux of 0.27 ± 0.07 mg N–N2O m−2 d−1. Weighted extrapolations, which accounted for differences in land surface area among habitats and variations in flux between seasons, predicted a mean annual flux of 1.27 ± 0.33 kg N2O–N ha−1 yr−1. Nitrous oxide flux was greatest from premontane forest, with an unweighted mean flux of 0.75 ± 0.18 mg N–N2O m−2 d−1, translating to a weighted annual flux of 0.66 ± 0.16 kg N2O–N ha−1 yr−1. In contrast, N2O flux was significantly lower in other habitats. The unweighted mean fluxes for lower montane forest, montane grasslands, and upper montane forest were 0.46 ± 0.24 mg N–N2O m−2 d−1, 0.07 ± 0.08 mg N–N2O m−2 d−1, and 0.04 ± 0.07 mg N–N2O m−2 d−1

Satellite-Observed Vertical Structures of Clouds over the Amazon Basin

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Wu, M.; Lee, J. E.

2017-12-01

The long wet season of the Amazon basin currently plays a critical role in the terrestrial ecosystem, regulating carbon balance and supporting high biodiversity. It has been argued that the land surface processes are important in maintaining high precipitation; yet, how the land-atmosphere interactions modulate the atmospheric processes are not completely understood. As a first step toward solving this problem, here we examine the vertical structures of clouds and the thermodynamics of the atmosphere over the entire basin at the different time of the year. We combine the vertical distribution of cloud water content from CloudSat, and the atmospheric thermodynamic conditions from the ECMWF ERA-interim reanalysis to compare and contrast the atmospheric condition at different time of the year-the wet, dry, and dry-to-wet transition seasons-and in different regions-ever-wet evergreen broadleaf forests, wet evergreen broadleaf forests with a dry season, and dry wooded grasslands/woodlands-following water stress gradient. In the ever-wet and wet regions, a large amount of cloud ice water is present in the upper atmosphere (above 11km) and convective available potential energy (CAPE) is high during the transition season, supporting the claim that the convective activity is strongest during the transition season. In the dry region, there are more cloud water above 8km over woodlands than over wooded grasslands during the dry and transition seasons, indicating the influence of the land cover. We also classified our data following the large-scale circulation pattern, and the CloudSat data support more deep convective activities in the wet and dry regions when the wind blows from the east during the wet and transition seasons. As a next step, we will focus more on linking the cloud structure to the large-scale circulation and surface processes.

Cryptic diversity in Afro-tropical lowland forests: The systematics and biogeography of the avian genus Bleda.

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Huntley, Jerry W; Voelker, Gary

2016-06-01

Recent investigations of distributional patterns of Afro-tropical lowland forest species have demonstrated to some degree our overall lack of understanding involving historical diversification patterns. Traditionally, researchers have relied upon two hypotheses, each of which views the lowland forest of Africa in differing roles. The Pleistocene Forest Refuge Hypothesis (PFRH) posits that biogeographic patterns of avian lowland species are explained via allopatric speciation during forest fragmentation cycles in the Pleistocene epoch (c. 1.8Ma-11,700Ka). The Montane Speciation Hypothesis (MSH) countered by suggesting that lowland forests are "evolutionary museums" where species, which originally evolved in montane forest refuge centers, remained without further diversification. Furthermore, investigations have largely regarded widespread, avian species which lack phenotypic variability as biogeographically "uninformative", with regards to historical biogeographic patterns. To test the tenets of these ideas, we investigated the systematics and biogeography of the genus Bleda, whose constituent species are restricted to lowland forest and are lacking in phenotypic variation. Using extracted DNA from 179 individuals, we amplified two mitochondrial genes and three nuclear loci and utilized Bayesian phylogenetic methods and molecular clock dating to develop a time-calibrated phylogeny of Bleda. We used LaGrange to develop an ancestral area reconstruction for the genus. Haplotype networks for three species were generated using Network. We recovered the four currently recognized species of Bleda, plus a monophyletic B. ugandae, a current sub-species which may warrant full species status. We found that the origins of the genus Bleda are estimated to be in the Upper Guinean forests of West Africa, dating to the Miocene (c. 7.5Ma), while the speciation events for the rest of the genus are dated to the Pliocene (c. 5-1.8Ma). Our analyses recovered discrete and highly

Selective extraction methods for aluminium, iron and organic carbon from montane volcanic ash soils

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jansen, B.; Tonneijck, F.H.; Verstraten, J.M.

2011-01-01

Montane volcanic ash soils contain disproportionate amounts of soil organic carbon and thereby play an often underestimated role in the global carbon cycle. Given the central role of Al and Fe in stabilizing organic matter in volcanic ash soils, we assessed various extraction methods of Al, Fe, and

Morphology and sedimentation in Caribbean montane streams" examples from Jamaica and Puerto Rico

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R. Ahmad; F.N. Scatena; A Gupta

1993-01-01

This paper presents a summary description of the morphology, sedimentation, and behaviour of the montane streams of eastern Jamaica and eastern Puerto Rico. The area is located within a 200 km wide seismically active zone of Neogene left-lateral strike-slip deformation which defines the plate boundary between the Caribbean and North American Plates. Tropical storms,...

Amazonian landscapes and the bias in field studies of forest structure and biomass.

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Marvin, David C; Asner, Gregory P; Knapp, David E; Anderson, Christopher B; Martin, Roberta E; Sinca, Felipe; Tupayachi, Raul

2014-12-02

Tropical forests convert more atmospheric carbon into biomass each year than any terrestrial ecosystem on Earth, underscoring the importance of accurate tropical forest structure and biomass maps for the understanding and management of the global carbon cycle. Ecologists have long used field inventory plots as the main tool for understanding forest structure and biomass at landscape-to-regional scales, under the implicit assumption that these plots accurately represent their surrounding landscape. However, no study has used continuous, high-spatial-resolution data to test whether field plots meet this assumption in tropical forests. Using airborne LiDAR (light detection and ranging) acquired over three regions in Peru, we assessed how representative a typical set of field plots are relative to their surrounding host landscapes. We uncovered substantial mean biases (9-98%) in forest canopy structure (height, gaps, and layers) and aboveground biomass in both lowland Amazonian and montane Andean landscapes. Moreover, simulations reveal that an impractical number of 1-ha field plots (from 10 to more than 100 per landscape) are needed to develop accurate estimates of aboveground biomass at landscape scales. These biases should temper the use of plots for extrapolations of forest dynamics to larger scales, and they demonstrate the need for a fundamental shift to high-resolution active remote sensing techniques as a primary sampling tool in tropical forest biomass studies. The potential decrease in the bias and uncertainty of remotely sensed estimates of forest structure and biomass is a vital step toward successful tropical forest conservation and climate-change mitigation policy.

Tolerance of frugivorous birds to habitat disturbance in a tropical cloud forest

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gomes, L.G.L.; Oostra, V.; Nijman, V.; Cleef, A.M.; Kappelle, M.

2008-01-01

In view of the continued decline in tropical forest cover around the globe, forest restoration has become a key tool in tropical rainforest conservation. One of the main - and least expensive - restoration strategies is natural forest regeneration. By aiding forest seed influx both into disturbed

Global demand for gold is another threat for tropical forests

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alvarez-Berríos, Nora L; Mitchell Aide, T

2015-01-01

The current global gold rush, driven by increasing consumption in developing countries and uncertainty in financial markets, is an increasing threat for tropical ecosystems. Gold mining causes significant alteration to the environment, yet mining is often overlooked in deforestation analyses because it occupies relatively small areas. As a result, we lack a comprehensive assessment of the spatial extent of gold mining impacts on tropical forests. In this study, we provide a regional assessment of gold mining deforestation in the tropical moist forest biome of South America. Specifically, we analyzed the patterns of forest change in gold mining sites between 2001 and 2013, and evaluated the proximity of gold mining deforestation to protected areas (PAs). The forest cover maps were produced using the Land Mapper web application and images from the MODIS satellite MOD13Q1 vegetation indices 250 m product. Annual maps of forest cover were used to model the incremental change in forest in ∼1600 potential gold mining sites between 2001–2006 and 2007–2013. Approximately 1680 km 2 of tropical moist forest was lost in these mining sites between 2001 and 2013. Deforestation was significantly higher during the 2007–2013 period, and this was associated with the increase in global demand for gold after the international financial crisis. More than 90% of the deforestation occurred in four major hotspots: Guianan moist forest ecoregion (41%), Southwest Amazon moist forest ecoregion (28%), Tapajós–Xingú moist forest ecoregion (11%), and Magdalena Valley montane forest and Magdalena–Urabá moist forest ecoregions (9%). In addition, some of the more active zones of gold mining deforestation occurred inside or within 10 km of ∼32 PAs. There is an urgent need to understand the ecological and social impacts of gold mining because it is an important cause of deforestation in the most remote forests in South America, and the impacts, particularly in aquatic systems

Evaluating the Contribution of Climate Forcing and Forest Dynamics to Accelerating Carbon Sequestration by Forest Ecosystems in the Northeastern U.S.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fitzjarrald, David Roy [Atmos Sciences Res Ctr

2013-09-11

We used 10 Hz eddy flux signals and 0.2 Hz incident radiation (global shortwave and PAR) records from Harvard Forest (Massachusetts) and Tapajos National Forest (Brazil) to establish empirical relationships among directly measured cloud type and cover percentage and corresponding PAR fluctuations and its diffuse fraction. In future work such a cloud characterization will be related to water and light use efficiency estimates for each of these ecosystems. We developed empirical relationships to link sky cover type and fraction (measured with the ceilometer) to incident direct and diffuse PAR. We developed a methodology for constructing synthetic incident solar radiation time series based on operational reports of sky cover and cloud type from National Weather Service METAR reports. The aim of this work is to document the temporal and spectral properties radiation incident on the canopy, as a first step toward developing a sky-type parameterization for the net carbon uptake models.

Mapping forest transition trends in Okomu reserve using Landsat ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

DR. ALEX O. ONOJEGHUO

1 Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, United ... and improve upon the technical capacity of forest managers to improve forest management. Overall, the .... cloud cover or were totally free of such and acquired within the same season (as was the case in this ... Green (2), red (3) and.

On the Origin of Pantepui montane biotas: A Perspective Based on the Phylogeny of Aulacorhynchus toucanets.

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Elisa Bonaccorso

Full Text Available To understand the origin of Pantepui montane biotas, we studied the biogeography of toucanets in the genus Aulacorhynchus. These birds are ideal for analyzing historical relationships among Neotropical montane regions, given their geographic distribution from Mexico south to Bolivia, including northern Venezuela (Cordillera de la Costa, and the Pantepui. Analyses were based on molecular phylogenies using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences. Topology tests were applied to compare alternative hypotheses that may explain the current distribution of Aulacorhynchus toucanets, in the context of previous hypotheses of the origin of Pantepui montane biotas. Biogeographic reconstructions in RASP and Lagrange were used to estimate the ancestral area of the genus, and an analysis in BEAST was used to estimate a time framework for its diversification. A sister relationship between the Pantepui and Andes+Cordillera de la Costa was significantly more likely than topologies indicating other hypothesis for the origin of Pantepui populations. The Andes was inferred as the ancestral area for Aulacorhynchus, and the group has diversified since the late Miocene. The biogeographic patterns found herein, in which the Andes are the source for biotas of other regions, are consistent with those found for flowerpiercers and tanagers, and do not support the hypothesis of the geologically old Pantepui as a source of Neotropical montain diversity. Based on the high potential for cryptic speciation and isolation of Pantepui populations, we consider that phylogenetic studies of additional taxa are important from a conservation perspective.

Stomatal structure and physiology do not explain differences in water use among montane eucalypts.

Science.gov (United States)

Gharun, Mana; Turnbull, Tarryn L; Pfautsch, Sebastian; Adams, Mark A

2015-04-01

Understanding the regulation of water use at the whole-tree scale is critical to advancing the utility of physiological ecology, for example in its role in predictive hydrology of forested catchments. For three eucalypt species that dominate high-elevation catchments in south-eastern Australia, we examined if whole-tree water use could be related to three widely discussed regulators of water use: stomatal anatomy, sensitivity of stomata [i.e. stomatal conductance (g(s))] to environmental influences, and sapwood area. While daily tree water use varied sixfold among species, sap velocity and sapwood area varied in parallel. Combined, stomatal structure and physiology could not explain differences in species-specific water use. Species which exhibited the fastest (Eucalyptus delegatensis) and slowest (Eucalyptus pauciflora) rates of water use both exhibited greater capacity for physiological control of g(s) [indicated by sensitivity to vapour pressure deficit (VPD)] and a reduced capacity to limit g(s) anatomically [indicated by greater potential g(s) (g(max))]. Conversely, g(s) was insensitive to VPD and g(max) was lowest for Eucalyptus radiata, the species showing intermediate rates of water use. Improved knowledge of stomatal anatomy will help us to understand the capacity of species to regulate leaf-level water loss, but seems likely to remain of limited use for explaining rates of whole-tree water use in montane eucalypts at the catchment scale.

Cloud attenuation studies of the six major climatic zones of Africa for Ka and V satellite system design

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Temidayo Victor Omotosho

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE Cloud cover statistics, cloud base and top height, cloud temperature, frequency of precipitation, freezing height, total cloud liquid water content (TCLWC and cloud attenuation data have been obtained for the six major climatic zones of Africa. The present results reveal a strong positive correlation between the monthly distribution of low cloud cover, cloud top height, cloud temperature, and frequency of precipitation in the six zones. The cumulative distribution of the TCLWC derived from radiosonde measurement in each climatic zone shows a departure from the TCLWC recommended by the ITU Study Group 3 data, with an exceedance percentage difference of 32% to 90% occurring 0.01% to 10% of the time. The underestimation of the TCLWC is greatest in the tropical rain forest. A comparison of the cloud attenuation cumulative distribution in the Ka and V bands reveals that the International Telecommunication Union – Region (ITU-R is an intergovernmental organization that develops rain model based on collected data around the world. This model underestimates the cloud attenuation in all of the six climatic zones by 2.0 dB and 4.7 dB for the arid Sahara desert, 1.3 dB and 3.0 dB in semi-arid North Africa, 1.3 dB and 1.5 dB in savannah North Africa, 2.0 dB and 3.6 dB in the tropical rain forest, 1.3 dB and 2.9 dB in savannah South Africa and 0.9 dB and 2.6 dB in semi-arid South Africa, respectively, at 30 and 50 GHz. Overall, the cloud attenuation in the tropical rain-forest zone is very high because of the high annual total cloud cover (98%, high annual frequency of precipitation (4.5, low annual clear sky amount (8%, high cloud depth (10,937 m, high 0°C isotherm height (4.7 km, high TCLWC (4.0 kg/m2 at 0.01% and low seasonal cloud base height (356 m.

A mangrove forest map of China in 2015: Analysis of time series Landsat 7/8 and Sentinel-1A imagery in Google Earth Engine cloud computing platform

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Bangqian; Xiao, Xiangming; Li, Xiangping; Pan, Lianghao; Doughty, Russell; Ma, Jun; Dong, Jinwei; Qin, Yuanwei; Zhao, Bin; Wu, Zhixiang; Sun, Rui; Lan, Guoyu; Xie, Guishui; Clinton, Nicholas; Giri, Chandra

2017-09-01

Due to rapid losses of mangrove forests caused by anthropogenic disturbances and climate change, accurate and contemporary maps of mangrove forests are needed to understand how mangrove ecosystems are changing and establish plans for sustainable management. In this study, a new classification algorithm was developed using the biophysical characteristics of mangrove forests in China. More specifically, these forests were mapped by identifying: (1) greenness, canopy coverage, and tidal inundation from time series Landsat data, and (2) elevation, slope, and intersection-with-sea criterion. The annual mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was found to be a key variable in determining the classification thresholds of greenness, canopy coverage, and tidal inundation of mangrove forests, which are greatly affected by tide dynamics. In addition, the integration of Sentinel-1A VH band and modified Normalized Difference Water Index (mNDWI) shows great potential in identifying yearlong tidal and fresh water bodies, which is related to mangrove forests. This algorithm was developed using 6 typical Regions of Interest (ROIs) as algorithm training and was run on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud computing platform to process 1941 Landsat images (25 Path/Row) and 586 Sentinel-1A images circa 2015. The resultant mangrove forest map of China at 30 m spatial resolution has an overall/users/producer's accuracy greater than 95% when validated with ground reference data. In 2015, China's mangrove forests had a total area of 20,303 ha, about 92% of which was in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guangdong, and Hainan Provinces. This study has demonstrated the potential of using the GEE platform, time series Landsat and Sentine-1A SAR images to identify and map mangrove forests along the coastal zones. The resultant mangrove forest maps are likely to be useful for the sustainable management and ecological assessments of mangrove forests in China.

Amphibian diversity and threatened species in a severely transformed neotropical region in Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

Meza-Parral, Yocoyani; Pineda, Eduardo

2015-01-01

Many regions around the world concentrate a large number of highly endangered species that have very restricted distributions. The mountainous region of central Veracruz, Mexico, is considered a priority area for amphibian conservation because of its high level of endemism and the number of threatened species. The original tropical montane cloud forest in the region has been dramatically reduced and fragmented and is now mainly confined to ravines and hillsides. We evaluated the current situation of amphibian diversity in the cloud forest fragments of this region by analyzing species richness and abundance, comparing assemblage structure and species composition, examining the distribution and abundance of threatened species, and identifying the local and landscape variables associated with the observed amphibian diversity. From June to October 2012 we sampled ten forest fragments, investing 944 person-hours of sampling effort. A total of 895 amphibians belonging to 16 species were recorded. Notable differences in species richness, abundance, and assemblage structure between forest fragments were observed. Species composition between pairs of fragments differed by an average of 53%, with the majority (58%) resulting from species replacement and the rest (42%) explained by differences in species richness. Half of the species detected are under threat of extinction according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and although their distribution and abundance varied markedly, there were also ubiquitous and abundant species, along with rare species of restricted distribution. The evident heterogeneity of the ten study sites indicates that to conserve amphibians in a mountainous region such as this one it is necessary to protect groups of fragments which represent the variability of the system. Both individually and together cloud forest fragments are very important to conservation because each remnant is inhabited by several threatened species, some of

Selection and quality assessment of Landsat data for the North American forest dynamics forest history maps of the US

Science.gov (United States)

Schleeweis, Karen; Goward, Samuel N.; Huang, Chengquan; Dwyer, John L.; Dungan, Jennifer L.; Lindsey, Mary A.; Michaelis, Andrew; Rishmawi, Khaldoun; Masek, Jeffery G.

2016-01-01

Using the NASA Earth Exchange platform, the North American Forest Dynamics (NAFD) project mapped forest history wall-to-wall, annually for the contiguous US (1986–2010) using the Vegetation Change Tracker algorithm. As with any effort to identify real changes in remotely sensed time-series, data gaps, shifts in seasonality, misregistration, inconsistent radiometry and cloud contamination can be sources of error. We discuss the NAFD image selection and processing stream (NISPS) that was designed to minimize these sources of error. The NISPS image quality assessments highlighted issues with the Landsat archive and metadata including inadequate georegistration, unreliability of the pre-2009 L5 cloud cover assessments algorithm, missing growing-season imagery and paucity of clear views. Assessment maps of Landsat 5–7 image quantities and qualities are presented that offer novel perspectives on the growing-season archive considered for this study. Over 150,000+ Landsat images were considered for the NAFD project. Optimally, one high quality cloud-free image in each year or a total of 12,152 images would be used. However, to accommodate data gaps and cloud/shadow contamination 23,338 images were needed. In 220 specific path-row image years no acceptable images were found resulting in data gaps in the annual national map products.

Constraints on tree seedling establishment in montane grasslands of the Valles Caldera, New Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

Jonathan D. Coop; Thomas J. Givnish

2008-01-01

Montane and subalpine grasslands are prominent, but poorly understood, features of the Rocky Mountains. These communities frequently occur below reversed tree lines on valley floors, where nightly cold air accumulation is spatially coupled with fine soil texture. We used field experiments to assess the roles of minimum temperature, soil texture, grass competition, and...

Identifying Priority Areas for Conservation: A Global Assessment for Forest-Dependent Birds

Science.gov (United States)

Buchanan, Graeme M.; Donald, Paul F.; Butchart, Stuart H. M.

2011-01-01

Limited resources are available to address the world's growing environmental problems, requiring conservationists to identify priority sites for action. Using new distribution maps for all of the world's forest-dependent birds (60.6% of all bird species), we quantify the contribution of remaining forest to conserving global avian biodiversity. For each of the world's partly or wholly forested 5-km cells, we estimated an impact score of its contribution to the distribution of all the forest bird species estimated to occur within it, and so is proportional to the impact on the conservation status of the world's forest-dependent birds were the forest it contains lost. The distribution of scores was highly skewed, a very small proportion of cells having scores several orders of magnitude above the global mean. Ecoregions containing the highest values of this score included relatively species-poor islands such as Hawaii and Palau, the relatively species-rich islands of Indonesia and the Philippines, and the megadiverse Atlantic Forests and northern Andes of South America. Ecoregions with high impact scores and high deforestation rates (2000–2005) included montane forests in Cameroon and the Eastern Arc of Tanzania, although deforestation data were not available for all ecoregions. Ecoregions with high impact scores, high rates of recent deforestation and low coverage by the protected area network included Indonesia's Seram rain forests and the moist forests of Trinidad and Tobago. Key sites in these ecoregions represent some of the most urgent priorities for expansion of the global protected areas network to meet Convention on Biological Diversity targets to increase the proportion of land formally protected to 17% by 2020. Areas with high impact scores, rapid deforestation, low protection and high carbon storage values may represent significant opportunities for both biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, for example through Reducing Emissions from

Identifying priority areas for conservation: a global assessment for forest-dependent birds.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Graeme M Buchanan

Full Text Available Limited resources are available to address the world's growing environmental problems, requiring conservationists to identify priority sites for action. Using new distribution maps for all of the world's forest-dependent birds (60.6% of all bird species, we quantify the contribution of remaining forest to conserving global avian biodiversity. For each of the world's partly or wholly forested 5-km cells, we estimated an impact score of its contribution to the distribution of all the forest bird species estimated to occur within it, and so is proportional to the impact on the conservation status of the world's forest-dependent birds were the forest it contains lost. The distribution of scores was highly skewed, a very small proportion of cells having scores several orders of magnitude above the global mean. Ecoregions containing the highest values of this score included relatively species-poor islands such as Hawaii and Palau, the relatively species-rich islands of Indonesia and the Philippines, and the megadiverse Atlantic Forests and northern Andes of South America. Ecoregions with high impact scores and high deforestation rates (2000-2005 included montane forests in Cameroon and the Eastern Arc of Tanzania, although deforestation data were not available for all ecoregions. Ecoregions with high impact scores, high rates of recent deforestation and low coverage by the protected area network included Indonesia's Seram rain forests and the moist forests of Trinidad and Tobago. Key sites in these ecoregions represent some of the most urgent priorities for expansion of the global protected areas network to meet Convention on Biological Diversity targets to increase the proportion of land formally protected to 17% by 2020. Areas with high impact scores, rapid deforestation, low protection and high carbon storage values may represent significant opportunities for both biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, for example through Reducing

Identifying priority areas for conservation: a global assessment for forest-dependent birds.

Science.gov (United States)

Buchanan, Graeme M; Donald, Paul F; Butchart, Stuart H M

2011-01-01

Limited resources are available to address the world's growing environmental problems, requiring conservationists to identify priority sites for action. Using new distribution maps for all of the world's forest-dependent birds (60.6% of all bird species), we quantify the contribution of remaining forest to conserving global avian biodiversity. For each of the world's partly or wholly forested 5-km cells, we estimated an impact score of its contribution to the distribution of all the forest bird species estimated to occur within it, and so is proportional to the impact on the conservation status of the world's forest-dependent birds were the forest it contains lost. The distribution of scores was highly skewed, a very small proportion of cells having scores several orders of magnitude above the global mean. Ecoregions containing the highest values of this score included relatively species-poor islands such as Hawaii and Palau, the relatively species-rich islands of Indonesia and the Philippines, and the megadiverse Atlantic Forests and northern Andes of South America. Ecoregions with high impact scores and high deforestation rates (2000-2005) included montane forests in Cameroon and the Eastern Arc of Tanzania, although deforestation data were not available for all ecoregions. Ecoregions with high impact scores, high rates of recent deforestation and low coverage by the protected area network included Indonesia's Seram rain forests and the moist forests of Trinidad and Tobago. Key sites in these ecoregions represent some of the most urgent priorities for expansion of the global protected areas network to meet Convention on Biological Diversity targets to increase the proportion of land formally protected to 17% by 2020. Areas with high impact scores, rapid deforestation, low protection and high carbon storage values may represent significant opportunities for both biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, for example through Reducing Emissions from

The Impact of Conflict on Forests in South Sudan

Science.gov (United States)

Gorsevski, V.; Kasischke, E. S.; Dempewolf, J.; Loboda, T. V.; Geores, M.

2014-12-01

The impacts of armed conflict on ecosystems are complex and difficult to assess due to restricted access to affected areas making satellite remote sensing a useful tool for studying direct and indirect effects of conflict on the landscape. The Imatong Central Forest Reserve (ICFR) in South Sudan together with the nearby Dongotana Hills and the Agoro-Agu Forest Reserve (AFR) in Northern Uganda share a boundary and encompass a biologically diverse montane ecosystem. This study used satellite data combined with general human population trends to examine the impact of armed conflict and its outcome on similar forest ecosystems both during and after hostilities. A Disturbance Index (DI) was used to investigate the location and extent of forest cover loss and gain in three areas for two key time periods. Results indicate that the rate of forest recovery was significantly higher than the rate of disturbance both during and after wartime in and around the ICFR. In contrast, the nearby Dongotana Hills experienced relatively high rates of disturbance during both periods; however, post war period losses were largely offset by some gains in forest cover. Discussions with local inhabitants confirmed these findings and provided further insights into the underlying causes impacting forest cover and wildlife. South Sudan is the latest nation to join the Global Environment Facility (GEF). While the GEF does not explicitly address conflict, many of the projects it supports occur in conflict and post-conflict zones with wide-ranging repercussions for both people and the environment. In an effort to assess best practices for working in conflict and post-conflict areas, the GEF Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) will undertake an analysis of GEF-funded projects over the last two decades to identify where the GEF has promoted cooperation between groups and states, and/or made a positive contribution toward conflict avoidance resulting in shared environmental benefits.

A possible role of ground-based microorganisms on cloud formation in the atmosphere

Science.gov (United States)

Ekström, S.; Nozière, B.; Hultberg, M.; Alsberg, T.; Magnér, J.; Nilsson, E. D.; Artaxo, P.

2010-01-01

The formation of clouds is an important process for the atmosphere, the hydrological cycle, and climate, but some aspects of it are not completely understood. In this work, we show that microorganisms might affect cloud formation without leaving the Earth's surface by releasing biological surfactants (or biosurfactants) in the environment, that make their way into atmospheric aerosols and could significantly enhance their activation into cloud droplets. In the first part of this work, the cloud-nucleating efficiency of standard biosurfactants was characterized and found to be better than that of any aerosol material studied so far, including inorganic salts. These results identify molecular structures that give organic compounds exceptional cloud-nucleating properties. In the second part, atmospheric aerosols were sampled at different locations: a temperate coastal site, a marine site, a temperate forest, and a tropical forest. Their surface tension was measured and found to be below 30 mN/m, the lowest reported for aerosols, to our knowledge. This very low surface tension was attributed to the presence of biosurfactants, the only natural substances able to reach to such low values. The presence of strong microbial surfactants in aerosols would be consistent with the organic fractions of exceptional cloud-nucleating efficiency recently found in aerosols, and with the correlations between algae bloom and cloud cover reported in the Southern Ocean. The results of this work also suggest that biosurfactants might be common in aerosols and thus of global relevance. If this is confirmed, a new role for microorganisms on the atmosphere and climate could be identified.

Cloud shading and fog drip influence the metabolism of a coastal pine ecosystem.

Science.gov (United States)

Carbone, Mariah S; Park Williams, A; Ambrose, Anthony R; Boot, Claudia M; Bradley, Eliza S; Dawson, Todd E; Schaeffer, Sean M; Schimel, Joshua P; Still, Christopher J

2013-02-01

Assessing the ecological importance of clouds has substantial implications for our basic understanding of ecosystems and for predicting how they will respond to a changing climate. This study was conducted in a coastal Bishop pine forest ecosystem that experiences regular cycles of stratus cloud cover and inundation in summer. Our objective was to understand how these clouds impact ecosystem metabolism by contrasting two sites along a gradient of summer stratus cover. The site that was under cloud cover ~15% more of the summer daytime hours had lower air temperatures and evaporation rates, higher soil moisture content, and received more frequent fog drip inputs than the site with less cloud cover. These cloud-driven differences in environmental conditions translated into large differences in plant and microbial activity. Pine trees at the site with greater cloud cover exhibited less water stress in summer, larger basal area growth, and greater rates of sap velocity. The difference in basal area growth between the two sites was largely due to summer growth. Microbial metabolism was highly responsive to fog drip, illustrated by an observed ~3-fold increase in microbial biomass C with increasing summer fog drip. In addition, the site with more cloud cover had greater total soil respiration and a larger fractional contribution from heterotrophic sources. We conclude that clouds are important to the ecological functioning of these coastal forests, providing summer shading and cooling that relieve pine and microbial drought stress as well as regular moisture inputs that elevate plant and microbial metabolism. These findings are important for understanding how these and other seasonally dry coastal ecosystems will respond to predicted changes in stratus cover, rainfall, and temperature. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Reproductive success of Cabralea canjerana (Meliaceae in Atlantic forest fragments, Brazil

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Edivani Villaron Franceschinelli

2015-06-01

Full Text Available In Brazil, the Atlantic forest remnants have high biological diversity and a high level of endemism, but very little is known about the reproductive success of native species. Cabralea canjerana is a common tree in the Montane Atlantic forest, and its reproduction is highly dependent on pollinators. In order to contribute with the particular knowledge on this species, we collected data in three fragmented and three continuous forest sites, where the effects of fragmentation on both mutualistic (pollination and antagonistic (seed predation interactions were analysed. We determined fruit production and weight of 25 trees per site. The number of seeds and the percentage of predated and aborted seeds were also accessed for seven fruits of 10 trees per site. Pollinator visitation frequencies to flowers were recorded in two forest fragments and in two sites of the continuous forest. Our data showed that plants of C. canjerana produced more fruits (z-value=-8.24; p<0.0001 and seeds per fruit (z-value=-6.58; p=0.002 in the continuous than in the fragmented sites. This was likely due to differences in pollination, because the number of pollinator visits was higher in the continuous forest than in the fragments. Seed abortion (z-value=4.08, p<0.001 and predation (z-value=3.72, p=0.0002, on the other hand, were higher in the fragmented than in the continuous sites. Then, mutualistic and antagonistic interactions were affected by fragmentation, decreasing the reproductive success of the study tree. This study was the first to show a decrease in the reproductive output in forest fragments in an Atlantic forest tree species. This decrease may threaten the population structure and viability of C. canjerana in forest fragments. Rev. Biol. Trop. 63 (2: 515-524. Epub 2015 June 01.

Lauraceae endémicas del Perú

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Blanca León

2013-10-01

Full Text Available The Lauraceae, a characteristic family of Peru’s eastern montane forests are represented in Peru by 16 genera and 247 species (Brako & Zarucchi, 1993; Ulloa Ulloa et al., 2004. Here we recognize 55 endemic species included in 11 genera. Nectandra and Ocotea are the genera with the largest number of endemic species. These endemic taxa, mostly trees and shrubs, are found mainly in the Humid Lowland Amazonian Forest and Very Humid Montane Forest regions, between 125 and 3100 m elevation. Nine of these species have been recorded to date in the Peruvian protected areas system.

Energy balance of a sparse coniferous high-latitude forest under winter conditions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gryning, Sven-Erik; Batchvarova, E.; Bruin, H.A.R. de

2001-01-01

was simulated for a three month period. For conditions with a cloud cover of less than 7 oktas good agreement between model predictions and measurements were found. For cloud cover 7 and 8 oktas a considerable spread can be observed. To apply the proposed energy balance model, the global radiation must......Measurements carried out in Northern Finland on radiation and turbulent fluxes over a sparse, sub-arctic boreal forest with snow covered ground were analysed. The measurements represent late winter conditions characterised by low solar elevation angles. During the experiment (12-24 March 1997) day...... and night were about equally long. At low solar elevation angles the forest shades most of the snow surface. Therefore an important part of the radiation never reaches the snow surface but is absorbed by the forest. The sensible heat flux above the forest was fairly large, reaching more than 100 W m(-2...

Il laser scanning e CloudCUBE per le grotte di Naica

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Erminio Paolo Canevese

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Laser scanning and CloudCube for Naica caves On May 2007, Virtualgeo, a geomatic software development and communication company, took part in the first official expedition to Mexico. The Project, coined "Naica", involves researchers from ten universities, four companies and several laboratories. Virtualgeo carried out the survey by applying laser scanning technology to hypogeal caves covered with selenite crystals. The data was processed using CloudCUBE, a proprietary software designed to manage and model 3D point clouds. The first results of the laser scanning survey of a spectacular “forest of crystals” are presented here.

Il laser scanning e CloudCUBE per le grotte di Naica

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erminio Paolo Canevese

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Laser scanning and CloudCube for Naica cavesOn May 2007, Virtualgeo, a geomatic software development and communication company, took part in the first official expedition to Mexico. The Project, coined "Naica", involves researchers from ten universities, four companies and several laboratories. Virtualgeo carried out the survey by applying laser scanning technology to hypogeal caves covered with selenite crystals. The data was processed using CloudCUBE, a proprietary software designed to manage and model 3D point clouds. The first results of the laser scanning survey of a spectacular “forest of crystals” are presented here.

Sphagnum bogs of Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yao, T.L.; Kamarudin, S.; Chew, M.Y.; Kiew, R.

2009-01-01

Sphagnum bog, a unique plant community for Peninsular Malaysia was encountered on Padang Ragut, Kelantan. Its topographical features and flora are described, and compared with padang and upper montane floras. It is postulated that the community is derived from upper montane forest and is the result

Estimates of forest canopy height and aboveground biomass using ICESat.

Science.gov (United States)

Michael A. Lefsky; David J. Harding; Michael Keller; Warren B. Cohen; Claudia C. Carabajal; Fernando Del Bom; Maria O. Hunter; Raimundo Jr. de Oliveira

2005-01-01

Exchange of carbon between forests and the atmosphere is a vital component of the global carbon cycle. Satellite laser altimetry has a unique capability for estimating forest canopy height, which has a direct and increasingly well understood relationship to aboveground carbon storage. While the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) onboard the Ice, Cloud and land...

Agricultural matrices affect ground ant assemblage composition inside forest fragments.

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Diego Santana Assis

Full Text Available The establishment of agricultural matrices generally involves deforestation, which leads to fragmentation of the remaining forest. This fragmentation can affect forest dynamics both positively and negatively. Since most animal species are affected, certain groups can be used to measure the impact of such fragmentation. This study aimed to measure the impacts of agricultural crops (matrices on ant communities of adjacent lower montane Atlantic rainforest fragments. We sampled nine forest fragments at locations surrounded by different agricultural matrices, namely: coffee (3 replicates; sugarcane (3; and pasture (3. At each site we installed pitfall traps along a 500 m transect from the interior of the matrix to the interior of the fragment (20 pitfall traps ~25 m apart. Each transect was partitioned into four categories: interior of the matrix; edge of the matrix; edge of the fragment; and interior of the fragment. For each sample site, we measured ant species richness and ant community composition within each transect category. Ant richness and composition differed between fragments and matrices. Each sample location had a specific composition of ants, probably because of the influence of the nature and management of the agricultural matrices. Species composition in the coffee matrix had the highest similarity to its corresponding fragment. The variability in species composition within forest fragments surrounded by pasture was greatest when compared with forest fragments surrounded by sugarcane or, to a lesser extent, coffee. Functional guild composition differed between locations, but the most representative guild was 'generalist' both in the agricultural matrices and forest fragments. Our results are important for understanding how agricultural matrices act on ant communities, and also, how these isolated forest fragments could act as an island of biodiversity in an 'ocean of crops'.

Agricultural matrices affect ground ant assemblage composition inside forest fragments.

Science.gov (United States)

Assis, Diego Santana; Dos Santos, Iracenir Andrade; Ramos, Flavio Nunes; Barrios-Rojas, Katty Elena; Majer, Jonathan David; Vilela, Evaldo Ferreira

2018-01-01

The establishment of agricultural matrices generally involves deforestation, which leads to fragmentation of the remaining forest. This fragmentation can affect forest dynamics both positively and negatively. Since most animal species are affected, certain groups can be used to measure the impact of such fragmentation. This study aimed to measure the impacts of agricultural crops (matrices) on ant communities of adjacent lower montane Atlantic rainforest fragments. We sampled nine forest fragments at locations surrounded by different agricultural matrices, namely: coffee (3 replicates); sugarcane (3); and pasture (3). At each site we installed pitfall traps along a 500 m transect from the interior of the matrix to the interior of the fragment (20 pitfall traps ~25 m apart). Each transect was partitioned into four categories: interior of the matrix; edge of the matrix; edge of the fragment; and interior of the fragment. For each sample site, we measured ant species richness and ant community composition within each transect category. Ant richness and composition differed between fragments and matrices. Each sample location had a specific composition of ants, probably because of the influence of the nature and management of the agricultural matrices. Species composition in the coffee matrix had the highest similarity to its corresponding fragment. The variability in species composition within forest fragments surrounded by pasture was greatest when compared with forest fragments surrounded by sugarcane or, to a lesser extent, coffee. Functional guild composition differed between locations, but the most representative guild was 'generalist' both in the agricultural matrices and forest fragments. Our results are important for understanding how agricultural matrices act on ant communities, and also, how these isolated forest fragments could act as an island of biodiversity in an 'ocean of crops'.

Mapping Forest Cover and Forest Cover Change with Airborne S-Band Radar

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Ramesh K. Ningthoujam

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Assessments of forest cover, forest carbon stocks and carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation are increasingly important components of sustainable resource management, for combating biodiversity loss and in climate mitigation policies. Satellite remote sensing provides the only means for mapping global forest cover regularly. However, forest classification with optical data is limited by its insensitivity to three-dimensional canopy structure and cloud cover obscuring many forest regions. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR sensors are increasingly being used to mitigate these problems, mainly in the L-, C- and X-band domains of the electromagnetic spectrum. S-band has not been systematically studied for this purpose. In anticipation of the British built NovaSAR-S satellite mission, this study evaluates the benefits of polarimetric S-band SAR for forest characterisation. The Michigan Microwave Canopy Scattering (MIMICS-I radiative transfer model is utilised to understand the scattering mechanisms in forest canopies at S-band. The MIMICS-I model reveals strong S-band backscatter sensitivity to the forest canopy in comparison to soil characteristics across all polarisations and incidence angles. Airborne S-band SAR imagery over the temperate mixed forest of Savernake Forest in southern England is analysed for its information content. Based on the modelling results, S-band HH- and VV-polarisation radar backscatter and the Radar Forest Degradation Index (RFDI are used in a forest/non-forest Maximum Likelihood classification at a spatial resolution of 6 m (70% overall accuracy, κ = 0.41 and 20 m (63% overall accuracy, κ = 0.27. The conclusion is that S-band SAR such as from NovaSAR-S is likely to be suitable for monitoring forest cover and its changes.

Impact of a drier Early-Mid-Holocene climate upon Amazonian forests.

Science.gov (United States)

Mayle, Francis E; Power, Mitchell J

2008-05-27

This paper uses a palaeoecological approach to examine the impact of drier climatic conditions of the Early-Mid-Holocene (ca 8000-4000 years ago) upon Amazonia's forests and their fire regimes. Palaeovegetation (pollen data) and palaeofire (charcoal) records are synthesized from 20 sites within the present tropical forest biome, and the underlying causes of any emergent patterns or changes are explored by reference to independent palaeoclimate data and present-day patterns of precipitation, forest cover and fire activity across Amazonia. During the Early-Mid-Holocene, Andean cloud forest taxa were replaced by lowland tree taxa as the cloud base rose while lowland ecotonal areas, which are presently covered by evergreen rainforest, were instead dominated by savannahs and/or semi-deciduous dry forests. Elsewhere in the Amazon Basin there is considerable spatial and temporal variation in patterns of vegetation disturbance and fire, which probably reflects the complex heterogeneous patterns in precipitation and seasonality across the basin, and the interactions between climate change, drought- and fire susceptibility of the forests, and Palaeo-Indian land use. Our analysis shows that the forest biome in most parts of Amazonia appears to have been remarkably resilient to climatic conditions significantly drier than those of today, despite widespread evidence of forest burning. Only in ecotonal areas is there evidence of biome replacement in the Holocene. From this palaeoecological perspective, we argue against the Amazon forest 'dieback' scenario simulated for the future.

UAV-BASED PHOTOGRAMMETRIC POINT CLOUDS – TREE STEM MAPPING IN OPEN STANDS IN COMPARISON TO TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNER POINT CLOUDS

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A. Fritz

2013-08-01

Full Text Available In both ecology and forestry, there is a high demand for structural information of forest stands. Forest structures, due to their heterogeneity and density, are often difficult to assess. Hence, a variety of technologies are being applied to account for this "difficult to come by" information. Common techniques are aerial images or ground- and airborne-Lidar. In the present study we evaluate the potential use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs as a platform for tree stem detection in open stands. A flight campaign over a test site near Freiburg, Germany covering a target area of 120 × 75 [m2] was conducted. The dominant tree species of the site is oak (quercus robur with almost no understory growth. Over 1000 images with a tilt angle of 45° were shot. The flight pattern applied consisted of two antipodal staggered flight routes at a height of 55 [m] above the ground. We used a Panasonic G3 consumer camera equipped with a 14–42 [mm] standard lens and a 16.6 megapixel sensor. The data collection took place in leaf-off state in April 2013. The area was prepared with artificial ground control points for transformation of the structure-from-motion (SFM point cloud into real world coordinates. After processing, the results were compared with a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS point cloud of the same area. In the 0.9 [ha] test area, 102 individual trees above 7 [cm] diameter at breast height were located on in the TLS-cloud. We chose the software CMVS/PMVS-2 since its algorithms are developed with focus on dense reconstruction. The processing chain for the UAV-acquired images consists of six steps: a. cleaning the data: removing of blurry, under- or over exposed and off-site images; b. applying the SIFT operator [Lowe, 2004]; c. image matching; d. bundle adjustment; e. clustering; and f. dense reconstruction. In total, 73 stems were considered as reconstructed and located within one meter of the reference trees. In general stems were far less accurate

Preliminary Diversity Of Dung Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae Attracting By Human Dung (Calvario, Meta

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Ruth Mariela Castillo Morales

2011-12-01

Full Text Available In the Private Reserve, Refugio del Oso de Anteojos (El Calvario-Meta, the diversity of dung beetles was studied (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae, grouped around different types of vegetation (Montane Rain Forest, Rainforest Premontane, Lower Montane Rain Forest, by using pitfall traps baited with human dung. During the samplings carried out in the rainy station on 2008, were captured a total of 177 individuals belonging to 9 species. The tribe Canthonini was the most representative with 87.5%, of the described species, followed by Aechini 10.8%, and Onthophagini 1.7%. The dominant species was Canthon lituratus in the three vegetation units: Lower montane rain forest was the richest (9 species and abundance (86 individuals, compared with other environments sampled. By calculating the complementarity index, shows a similar species composition in the three habitats sampled, possibly, related to the floristic composition presented in each one of them.

Photosynthetic temperature responses of tree species in Rwanda: evidence of pronounced negative effects of high temperature in montane rainforest climax species

Science.gov (United States)

Vårhammar, Angelica; Wallin, Göran; McLean, Christopher M.; Dusenge, Mirindi Eric; Medlyn, Belinda E.; Hasper, Thomas B.; Nsabimana, Donat; Uddling, Johan

2015-04-01

The sensitivity of photosynthetic metabolism to temperature has been identified as a key uncertainty for projecting the magnitude of the terrestrial feedback on future climate change. While temperature responses of photosynthetic capacities have been comparatively well investigated in temperate species, the responses of tropical tree species remain unexplored. We compared the responses of seedlings of native cold-adapted tropical montane rainforest tree species to exotic warm-adapted plantation species, all growing in an intermediate temperature common garden in Rwanda. Leaf gas exchange responses to CO2 at different temperatures (20 - 40 C) were used to assess the temperature responses of biochemical photosynthetic capacities. Analyses revealed a lower optimum temperature for photosynthetic electron transport rates than for Rubisco carboxylation rates, along with lower electron transport optima in the native cold-adapted than in the exotic warm-adapted species. The photosynthetic optimum temperatures were generally exceeded by daytime peak leaf temperatures, in particular in the native montane rainforest climax species. This study thus provides evidence of pronounced negative effects of high temperature in tropical trees and indicates high susceptibility of montane rainforest climax species to future global warming. (Reference: New Phytologist, in press)

Spatial models reveal the microclimatic buffering capacity of old-growth forests.

Science.gov (United States)

Frey, Sarah J K; Hadley, Adam S; Johnson, Sherri L; Schulze, Mark; Jones, Julia A; Betts, Matthew G

2016-04-01

Climate change is predicted to cause widespread declines in biodiversity, but these predictions are derived from coarse-resolution climate models applied at global scales. Such models lack the capacity to incorporate microclimate variability, which is critical to biodiversity microrefugia. In forested montane regions, microclimate is thought to be influenced by combined effects of elevation, microtopography, and vegetation, but their relative effects at fine spatial scales are poorly known. We used boosted regression trees to model the spatial distribution of fine-scale, under-canopy air temperatures in mountainous terrain. Spatial models predicted observed independent test data well (r = 0.87). As expected, elevation strongly predicted temperatures, but vegetation and microtopography also exerted critical effects. Old-growth vegetation characteristics, measured using LiDAR (light detection and ranging), appeared to have an insulating effect; maximum spring monthly temperatures decreased by 2.5°C across the observed gradient in old-growth structure. These cooling effects across a gradient in forest structure are of similar magnitude to 50-year forecasts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and therefore have the potential to mitigate climate warming at local scales. Management strategies to conserve old-growth characteristics and to curb current rates of primary forest loss could maintain microrefugia, enhancing biodiversity persistence in mountainous systems under climate warming.

Toward Integrated Analysis of Human Impacts on Forest Biodiversity: Lessons from Latin America

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Adrian C. Newton

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Although sustainable forest management (SFM has been widely adopted as a policy and management goal, high rates of forest loss and degradation are still occurring in many areas. Human activities such as logging, livestock husbandry, crop cultivation, infrastructural development, and use of fire are causing widespread loss of biodiversity, restricting progress toward SFM. In such situations, there is an urgent need for tools that can provide an integrated assessment of human impacts on forest biodiversity and that can support decision making related to forest use. This paper summarizes the experience gained by an international collaborative research effort spanning more than a decade, focusing on the tropical montane forests of Mexico and the temperate rain forests of southern South America, both of which are global conservation priorities. The lessons learned from this research are identified, specifically in relation to developing an integrated modeling framework for achieving SFM. Experience has highlighted a number of challenges that need to be overcome in such areas, including the lack of information regarding ecological processes and species characteristics and a lack of forest inventory data, which hinders model parameterization. Quantitative models are poorly developed for some ecological phenomena, such as edge effects and genetic diversity, limiting model integration. Establishment of participatory approaches to forest management is difficult, as a supportive institutional and policy environment is often lacking. However, experience to date suggests that the modeling toolkit approach suggested by Sturvetant et al. (2008 could be of value in such areas. Suggestions are made regarding desirable elements of such a toolkit to support participatory-research approaches in domains characterized by high uncertainty, including Bayesian Belief Networks, spatial multi-criteria analysis, and scenario planning.

Lithological and fluvial controls on the geomorphology of tropical montane stream channels in Puerto Rico

Science.gov (United States)

Andrew S. Pike; F.N. Scatena; Ellen E. Wohl

2010-01-01

An extensive survey and topographic analysis of fi ve watersheds draining the Luquillo Mountains in north-eastern Puerto Rico was conducted to decouple the relative infl uences of lithologic and hydraulic forces in shaping the morphology of tropical montane stream channels. The Luquillo Mountains are a steep landscape composed of volcaniclastic and igneous rocks that...

Mapping forest tree species over large areas with partially cloudy Landsat imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Turlej, K.; Radeloff, V.

2017-12-01

Forests provide numerous services to natural systems and humankind, but which services forest provide depends greatly on their tree species composition. That makes it important to track not only changes in forest extent, something that remote sensing excels in, but also to map tree species. The main goal of our work was to map tree species with Landsat imagery, and to identify how to maximize mapping accuracy by including partially cloudy imagery. Our study area covered one Landsat footprint (26/28) in Northern Wisconsin, USA, with temperate and boreal forests. We selected this area because it contains numerous tree species and variable forest composition providing an ideal study area to test the limits of Landsat data. We quantified how species-level classification accuracy was affected by a) the number of acquisitions, b) the seasonal distribution of observations, and c) the amount of cloud contamination. We classified a single year stack of Landsat-7, and -8 images data with a decision tree algorithm to generate a map of dominant tree species at the pixel- and stand-level. We obtained three important results. First, we achieved producer's accuracies in the range 70-80% and user's accuracies in range 80-90% for the most abundant tree species in our study area. Second, classification accuracy improved with more acquisitions, when observations were available from all seasons, and is the best when images with up to 40% cloud cover are included. Finally, classifications for pure stands were 10 to 30 percentage points better than those for mixed stands. We conclude that including partially cloudy Landsat imagery allows to map forest tree species with accuracies that were previously only possible for rare years with many cloud-free observations. Our approach thus provides important information for both forest management and science.

Guild of Frugivores on three fruit-producing tree species Polyscias ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Guild of Frugivores on three fruit-producing tree species Polyscias fulva, Syzyguim Guineensis SUBSP. Bamensdae and Pouteria Altissima ) in Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve, a Montane Forest Ecosystem in Nigeria.

Environmental conditions regulate the impact of plants on cloud formation.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, D F; Buchholz, A; Tillmann, R; Kleist, E; Wu, C; Rubach, F; Kiendler-Scharr, A; Rudich, Y; Wildt, J; Mentel, Th F

2017-02-20

The terrestrial vegetation emits large amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOC) into the atmosphere, which on oxidation produce secondary organic aerosol (SOA). By acting as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), SOA influences cloud formation and climate. In a warming climate, changes in environmental factors can cause stresses to plants, inducing changes of the emitted VOC. These can modify particle size and composition. Here we report how induced emissions eventually affect CCN activity of SOA, a key parameter in cloud formation. For boreal forest tree species, insect infestation by aphids causes additional VOC emissions which modifies SOA composition thus hygroscopicity and CCN activity. Moderate heat increases the total amount of constitutive VOC, which has a minor effect on hygroscopicity, but affects CCN activity by increasing the particles' size. The coupling of plant stresses, VOC composition and CCN activity points to an important impact of induced plant emissions on cloud formation and climate.

Quantifying Biomass from Point Clouds by Connecting Representations of Ecosystem Structure

Science.gov (United States)

Hendryx, S. M.; Barron-Gafford, G.

2017-12-01

Quantifying terrestrial ecosystem biomass is an essential part of monitoring carbon stocks and fluxes within the global carbon cycle and optimizing natural resource management. Point cloud data such as from lidar and structure from motion can be effective for quantifying biomass over large areas, but significant challenges remain in developing effective models that allow for such predictions. Inference models that estimate biomass from point clouds are established in many environments, yet, are often scale-dependent, needing to be fitted and applied at the same spatial scale and grid size at which they were developed. Furthermore, training such models typically requires large in situ datasets that are often prohibitively costly or time-consuming to obtain. We present here a scale- and sensor-invariant framework for efficiently estimating biomass from point clouds. Central to this framework, we present a new algorithm, assignPointsToExistingClusters, that has been developed for finding matches between in situ data and clusters in remotely-sensed point clouds. The algorithm can be used for assessing canopy segmentation accuracy and for training and validating machine learning models for predicting biophysical variables. We demonstrate the algorithm's efficacy by using it to train a random forest model of above ground biomass in a shrubland environment in Southern Arizona. We show that by learning a nonlinear function to estimate biomass from segmented canopy features we can reduce error, especially in the presence of inaccurate clusterings, when compared to a traditional, deterministic technique to estimate biomass from remotely measured canopies. Our random forest on cluster features model extends established methods of training random forest regressions to predict biomass of subplots but requires significantly less training data and is scale invariant. The random forest on cluster features model reduced mean absolute error, when evaluated on all test data in leave

Infiltration capacity in a tropical montane landscape: Disentangling the effects of land-use intensity and biophysical gradients

Science.gov (United States)

Looker, N. T.; Kolka, R.; Colin, P. O.; Asbjornsen, H.

2017-12-01

The alteration of soil field-saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) is a primary mechanism by which land-use/cover changes influence catchment hydrologic behavior. While previous studies have demonstrated declines in Ksat with forest cover loss, we lack a comprehensive framework for predicting the response of Ksat to increases in forest cover or to changes in land-use intensity (rather than changes in cover type per se). Variation in Ksat due to biophysical factors (e.g., climate or topography) may further obscure the effects of land cover or intensity. We assessed differences in Ksat between four cover types representative of a catchment in central Veracruz, Mexico (maize, pasture, shade coffee, and secondary cloud forest) and evaluated the factors that control variation across sites within cover types. In 38 sites distributed from 1200 m to 2900 m above sea level, we estimated Ksat at a depth of 25 cm using a Guelph permeameter. Ksat was significantly lower in soils under pasture and maize than in those under woody cover types (i.e., shade coffee and secondary forest), largely due to differences in horizon thickness. Variation in Ksat within woody cover types was associated with vegetation productivity and seasonality as inferred using remotely sensed vegetation indices. Unexpectedly, coffee and forest sites exhibited contrasting relationships between Ksat and vegetation indices. We propose possible mechanisms for these relationships and explore their implications for the regionalization of Ksat in catchment modeling applications.

Effects of past logging and grazing on understory plant communities in a montane Colorado forest

Science.gov (United States)

Fornwalt, P.J.; Kaufmann, M.R.; Huckaby, L.S.; Stohlgren, T.J.

2009-01-01

Throughout Pinus ponderosa-Pseudotsuga menziesii forests of the southern Colorado Front Range, USA, intense logging and domestic grazing began at the time of Euro-American settlement in the late 1800s and continued until the early 1900s. We investigated the long-term impacts of these settlement-era activities on understory plant communities by comparing understory composition at a historically logged and grazed site to that of an environmentally similar site which was protected from past use. We found that species richness and cover within functional groups rarely differed between sites in either upland or riparian areas. Multivariate analyses revealed little difference in species composition between sites on uplands, though compositional differences were apparent in riparian zones. Our findings suggest that settlement-era logging and grazing have had only minor long-term impacts on understories of upland Front Range P. ponderosa-P. menziesii forests, though they have had a greater long-term influence on riparian understories, where these activities were likely the most intense. ?? 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Forest Management_MCD Issue2 2007

African Journals Online (AJOL)

for biodiversity on Earth, and this biodiversity is found mainly in Madagascar's .... Standardized models are appropriate .... this had little effect on its forest management policy until very recently. ... In the mid - 1980s, Madagascar's political climate began to change as ..... A selection correction for cloud cover in satellite images.

51 climate change perception, awareness and adaptation decision ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2 Environment Department, University of York, York, UK. Corresponding author: ... The perception of climate change and adaptation decision of forest .... well as the broader characteristics of the production system and ... mangrove forest, Guinea savanna, montane forest ...... forecastsand regional climate-risk management.

Abundance and potential metabolic activity of methanogens in well-aerated forest and grassland soils of an alpine region.

Science.gov (United States)

Hofmann, Katrin; Praeg, Nadine; Mutschlechner, Mira; Wagner, Andreas O; Illmer, Paul

2016-02-01

Although methanogens were recently discovered to occur in aerated soils, alpine regions have not been extensively studied for their presence so far. Here, the abundance of archaea and the methanogenic guilds Methanosarcinales, Methanococcales, Methanobacteriales, Methanomicrobiales and Methanocella spp. was studied at 16 coniferous forest and 14 grassland sites located at the montane and subalpine belts of the Northern Limestone Alps (calcareous) and the Austrian Central Alps (siliceous) using quantitative real-time PCR. Abundance of archaea, methanogens and the methanogenic potentials were significantly higher in grasslands than in forests. Furthermore, methanogenic potentials of calcareous soils were higher due to pH. Methanococcales, Methanomicrobiales and Methanocella spp. were detected in all collected samples, which indicates that they are autochthonous, while Methanobacteriales were absent from 4 out of 16 forest soils. Methanosarcinales were absent from 10 out of 16 forest soils and 2 out of 14 grassland soils. Nevertheless, together with Methanococcales they represented the majority of the 16S rRNA gene copies quantified from the grassland soils. Contrarily, forest soils were clearly dominated by Methanococcales. Our results indicate a higher diversity of methanogens in well-aerated soils than previously believed and that pH mainly influences their abundances and activities. © FEMS 2015. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Human impacts affect tree community features of 20 forest fragments of a vanishing neotropical hotspot.

Science.gov (United States)

Pereira, José Aldo Alves; de Oliveira-Filho, Ary Teixeira; Eisenlohr, Pedro V; Miranda, Pedro L S; de Lemos Filho, José Pires

2015-02-01

The loss in forest area due to human occupancy is not the only threat to the remaining biodiversity: forest fragments are susceptible to additional human impact. Our aim was to investigate the effect of human impact on tree community features (species composition and abundance, and structural descriptors) and check if there was a decrease in the number of slender trees, an increase in the amount of large trees, and also a reduction in the number of tree species that occur in 20 fragments of Atlantic montane semideciduous forest in southeastern Brazil. We produced digital maps of each forest fragment using Landsat 7 satellite images and processed the maps to obtain morphometric variables. We used investigative questionnaires and field observations to survey the history of human impact. We then converted the information into scores given to the extent, severity, and duration of each impact, including proportional border area, fire, trails, coppicing, logging, and cattle, and converted these scores into categorical levels. We used linear models to assess the effect of impacts on tree species abundance distribution and stand structural descriptors. Part of the variation in floristic patterns was significantly correlated to the impacts of fire, logging, and proportional border area. Structural descriptors were influenced by cattle and outer roads. Our results provided, for the first time, strong evidence that tree species occurrence and abundance, and forest structure of Atlantic seasonal forest fragments respond differently to various modes of disturbance by humans.

Mapping Clearances in Tropical Dry Forests Using Breakpoints, Trend, and Seasonal Components from MODIS Time Series: Does Forest Type Matter?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Grogan, Kenneth; Pflugmacher, Dirk; Hostert, Patrick; Verbesselt, Jan; Fensholt, Rasmus

2016-01-01

Tropical environments present a unique challenge for optical time series analysis, primarily owing to fragmented data availability, persistent cloud cover and atmospheric aerosols. Additionally, little is known of whether the performance of time series change detection is affected by diverse forest

Soil Carbon Stocks Decrease following Conversion of Secondary Forests to Rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) Plantations

Science.gov (United States)

de Blécourt, Marleen; Brumme, Rainer; Xu, Jianchu; Corre, Marife D.; Veldkamp, Edzo

2013-01-01

Forest-to-rubber plantation conversion is an important land-use change in the tropical region, for which the impacts on soil carbon stocks have hardly been studied. In montane mainland southeast Asia, monoculture rubber plantations cover 1.5 million ha and the conversion from secondary forests to rubber plantations is predicted to cause a fourfold expansion by 2050. Our study, conducted in southern Yunnan province, China, aimed to quantify the changes in soil carbon stocks following the conversion from secondary forests to rubber plantations. We sampled 11 rubber plantations ranging in age from 5 to 46 years and seven secondary forest plots using a space-for-time substitution approach. We found that forest-to-rubber plantation conversion resulted in losses of soil carbon stocks by an average of 37.4±4.7 (SE) Mg C ha−1 in the entire 1.2-m depth over a time period of 46 years, which was equal to 19.3±2.7% of the initial soil carbon stocks in the secondary forests. This decline in soil carbon stocks was much larger than differences between published aboveground carbon stocks of rubber plantations and secondary forests, which range from a loss of 18 Mg C ha−1 to an increase of 8 Mg C ha−1. In the topsoil, carbon stocks declined exponentially with years since deforestation and reached a steady state at around 20 years. Although the IPCC tier 1 method assumes that soil carbon changes from forest-to-rubber plantation conversions are zero, our findings show that they need to be included to avoid errors in estimating overall ecosystem carbon fluxes. PMID:23894456

The role of clouds in the surface energy balance over the Amazon forest

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eltahir, E.A.B.; Humphries, E.J. Jr.

1998-01-01

Deforestation in the Amazon region will initially impact the energy balance at the land surface through changes in land cover and surface hydrology. However, continuation of this human activity will eventually lead to atmospheric feedbacks, including changes in cloudiness which may play an important role in the final equilibrium of solar and terrestrial radiation at the surface. In this study, the different components of surface radiation over an undisturbed forest in the Amazon region are computed using data from the Amazon region micrometerological experiment (ARME). Several measures of cloudiness are defined: two estimated from the terrestrial radiation measurements, and one from the solar radiation measurements. The sensitivity of the surface fluxes of solar and terrestrial radiation to natural variability in cloudiness is investigated to infer the potential role of the cloudiness feedback in the surface energy balance. The results of this analysis indicate that a 1% decrease in cloudiness would increase net solar radiation by ca. 1.6 W/m 2 . However, the overall magnitude of this feedback, due to total deforestation of the Amazon forest, is likely to be of the same order as the magnitude of the decrease in net solar radiation due to the observed increase in surface albedo following deforestation. Hence, the total change in net solar radiation is likely to have a negligible magnitude. In contrast to this conclusion, we find that terrestrial radiation is likely to be more strongly affected; reduced cloudiness will decrease net terrestrial radiation; a 1% decrease in cloudiness induces a reduction in net terrestrial radiation of ca. 0.7 W/m 2 ; this process augments the similar effects of the predicted warming and drying in the boundary layer. Due to the cloudiness feedback, the most significant effect of large-scale deforestation on the surface energy balance is likely to be in the modification of the terrestrial radiation field rather than the classical albedo

Kinyongia asheorum sp n., a new montane chameleon from the Nyiro Range, northern Kenya (Squamata: Chamaeleonidae)

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Nečas, P.; Sindaco, R.; Kořený, L.; Kopečná, J.; Malonza, P. K.; Modrý, David

-, č. 2028 (2009), s. 41-50 ISSN 1175-5326 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA524/03/1548; GA ČR GA206/03/1544 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60220518 Keywords : Kinyongia asheorum sp n, * new montane chameleon * Kenya Subject RIV: EG - Zoology Impact factor: 0.891, year: 2009

Photosynthetic temperature responses of tree species in Rwanda: evidence of pronounced negative effects of high temperature in montane rainforest climax species.

Science.gov (United States)

Vårhammar, Angelica; Wallin, Göran; McLean, Christopher M; Dusenge, Mirindi Eric; Medlyn, Belinda E; Hasper, Thomas B; Nsabimana, Donat; Uddling, Johan

2015-05-01

The sensitivity of photosynthetic metabolism to temperature has been identified as a key uncertainty for projecting the magnitude of the terrestrial feedback on future climate change. While temperature responses of photosynthetic capacities have been comparatively well investigated in temperate species, the responses of tropical tree species remain unexplored. We compared the responses of seedlings of native cold-adapted tropical montane rainforest tree species with those of exotic warm-adapted plantation species, all growing in an intermediate temperature common garden in Rwanda. Leaf gas exchange responses to carbon dioxide (CO2 ) at different temperatures (20-40°C) were used to assess the temperature responses of biochemical photosynthetic capacities. Analyses revealed a lower optimum temperature for photosynthetic electron transport rates than for Rubisco carboxylation rates, along with lower electron transport optima in the native cold-adapted than in the exotic warm-adapted species. The photosynthetic optimum temperatures were generally exceeded by daytime peak leaf temperatures, in particular in the native montane rainforest climax species. This study thus provides evidence of pronounced negative effects of high temperature in tropical trees and indicates high susceptibility of montane rainforest climax species to future global warming. © 2015 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2015 New Phytologist Trust.

Communities of oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida) of naturally regenerating and salvage-logged montane spruce forests of Šumava Mountains

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kokořová, Petra; Starý, Josef

2017-01-01

Roč. 72, č. 4 (2017), s. 445-451 ISSN 0006-3088 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP504/12/1218 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60660521 Institutional support: RVO:60077344 Keywords : oribatid mites * spruce forest * community * bark beetle gradation * forest management Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour OBOR OECD: Ecology Impact factor: 0.759, year: 2016

Regenerative Resilience of Tree Species in a Degraded Forest within Mt Kenya Ecosystem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Omenda, T.O; Kariuki, J.G; Kamondo, B.M; Kiamba, J.K

2007-01-01

There is widespread human induced degradation of natural forest in Kenya. The major challenge to this situation is to devise cost effective rehabilitation approaches to reverse this trend. A study was conducted in Nyanza province of Kenya describing the structure and diversity of a disturbed natural forest and understanding the role so various propagules, namely seed, soil seed bank and coppices in post-disturbance recovery. The pre-disturbance forest type was a podo-Cassipourea-Teclea tropical montane forest. Four 350 m long line-plot transects were randomly located within the forest. Tree and stump data were obtained from 20*20 m plots located at 50 m intervals, while sapling, seeding and soil seed bank data were obtained from 5*5 m, 1*1 m and 0.2*0.2*0.5 subplots respectively, nested within the large plot. An 'Index of Species Resilence' that defines their continued was developed based on the tree species ability to coppice and their representation in seedling, sapling and tree stages. The forest condition was highly heterogeneous as determined through spatial distribution of basal area, height and diameter of breast height (dbh) of trees and cut stumps, the latter an indicator of disturbance. The Resilience Index indicated that, out of the 40 tree species found in the forest, only 30% had stable presence while 50% had an unstable presence characterized by in key succession stages-implying low auto-recovery potential. Results indicated that, coppicing had a more critical role in regeneration than previously thought, with 78% of all cut-tree species coppicing while only 27.5% of all the trees species regenerated from seed. The role of soil seed bank in auto-recovery was insignificant in this site. The apparent high coppicing potential presents a new opportunity for managing natural forests

Cloud Infrastructure & Applications - CloudIA

Science.gov (United States)

Sulistio, Anthony; Reich, Christoph; Doelitzscher, Frank

The idea behind Cloud Computing is to deliver Infrastructure-as-a-Services and Software-as-a-Service over the Internet on an easy pay-per-use business model. To harness the potentials of Cloud Computing for e-Learning and research purposes, and to small- and medium-sized enterprises, the Hochschule Furtwangen University establishes a new project, called Cloud Infrastructure & Applications (CloudIA). The CloudIA project is a market-oriented cloud infrastructure that leverages different virtualization technologies, by supporting Service-Level Agreements for various service offerings. This paper describes the CloudIA project in details and mentions our early experiences in building a private cloud using an existing infrastructure.

The influence of clouds and diffuse radiation on ecosystem-atmosphere CO2 and CO18O exhanges

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Still, C.J.; Riley, W.J.; Biraud, S.C.; Noone, D.C.; Buenning, N.H.; Randerson, J.T.; Torn, M.S.; Welker, J.; White, J.W.C.; Vachon, R.; Farquhar, G.D.; Berry, J.A.

2009-05-01

This study evaluates the potential impact of clouds on ecosystem CO{sub 2} and CO{sub 2} isotope fluxes ('isofluxes') in two contrasting ecosystems (a broadleaf deciduous forest and a C{sub 4} grassland), in a region for which cloud cover, meteorological, and isotope data are available for driving the isotope-enabled land surface model, ISOLSM. Our model results indicate a large impact of clouds on ecosystem CO{sub 2} fluxes and isofluxes. Despite lower irradiance on partly cloudy and cloudy days, predicted forest canopy photosynthesis was substantially higher than on clear, sunny days, and the highest carbon uptake was achieved on the cloudiest day. This effect was driven by a large increase in light-limited shade leaf photosynthesis following an increase in the diffuse fraction of irradiance. Photosynthetic isofluxes, by contrast, were largest on partly cloudy days, as leaf water isotopic composition was only slightly depleted and photosynthesis was enhanced, as compared to adjacent clear sky days. On the cloudiest day, the forest exhibited intermediate isofluxes: although photosynthesis was highest on this day, leaf-to-atmosphere isofluxes were reduced from a feedback of transpiration on canopy relative humidity and leaf water. Photosynthesis and isofluxes were both reduced in the C{sub 4} grass canopy with increasing cloud cover and diffuse fraction as a result of near-constant light limitation of photosynthesis. These results suggest that some of the unexplained variation in global mean {delta}{sup 18}O of CO{sub 2} may be driven by large-scale changes in clouds and aerosols and their impacts on diffuse radiation, photosynthesis, and relative humidity.

Predicted macroinvertebrate response to water diversion from a montane stream using two-dimensional hydrodynamic models and zero flow approximation

Science.gov (United States)

Holmquist, Jeffrey G.; Waddle, Terry J.

2013-01-01

We used two-dimensional hydrodynamic models for the assessment of water diversion effects on benthic macroinvertebrates and associated habitat in a montane stream in Yosemite National Park, Sierra Nevada Mountains, CA, USA. We sampled the macroinvertebrate assemblage via Surber sampling, recorded detailed measurements of bed topography and flow, and coupled a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model with macroinvertebrate indicators to assess habitat across a range of low flows in 2010 and representative past years. We also made zero flow approximations to assess response of fauna to extreme conditions. The fauna of this montane reach had a higher percentage of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (%EPT) than might be expected given the relatively low faunal diversity of the study reach. The modeled responses of wetted area and area-weighted macroinvertebrate metrics to decreasing discharge indicated precipitous declines in metrics as flows approached zero. Changes in area-weighted metrics closely approximated patterns observed for wetted area, i.e., area-weighted invertebrate metrics contributed relatively little additional information above that yielded by wetted area alone. Loss of habitat area in this montane stream appears to be a greater threat than reductions in velocity and depth or changes in substrate, and the modeled patterns observed across years support this conclusion. Our models suggest that step function losses of wetted area may begin when discharge in the Merced falls to 0.02 m3/s; proportionally reducing diversions when this threshold is reached will likely reduce impacts in low flow years.

Exploratory Water Budget Analysis of A Transitional Premontane Cloud Forest in Costa Rica Through Undergraduate Research

Science.gov (United States)

Washington-Allen, R. A.; Buckwalter, E. H.; Moore, G. W.; Burns, J. N.; Dennis, A. R.; Dodge, O.; Guffin, E. C.; Morris, E. R.; Oien, R. P.; Orozco, G.; Peterson, A.; Teale, N. G.; Shibley, N. C.; Tourtellotte, N.; Houser, C.; Brooks, S. D.; Brumbelow, J. K.; Cahill, A. T.; Frauenfeld, O. W.; Gonzalez, E.; Hallmark, C. T.; McInnes, K. J.; Miller, G. R.; Morgan, C.; Quiring, S. M.; Rapp, A. D.; Roark, E.; Delgado, A.; Ackerson, J. P.; Arnott, R.

2012-12-01

The ecohydrology of transitional premontane cloud forests is not well understood. This problem is being addressed by a NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) study at the Texas A&M University Soltis Center for Research & Education in Costa Rica. Exploratory analysis of the water budget within a 20-ha watershed was used to connect three faculty-mentored research areas in ecohydrology, climate, and soil sciences and highlight the roles of 12 undergraduate researchers from 12 different universities. The water budget model is Q = Pn - E - T + ΔG + ΔS where Q = runoff, Pn = net precipitation, E = evaporation, T = transpiration, and ΔG and ΔS are change in groundwater soil water storage, respectively. Additionally, Pn = Pg - I = Tf + Sf + D, where Pg = gross precipitation, I/ΔI = canopy interception or storage, Tf = throughfall, Sf = stemflow, and D = canopy drip. The following terms were well understood Pg (satellite = 34-mm and tower = 38.1-mm) and Q from a recently constructed v-notch weir. We moderately understand Tf + D (30.9-mm from an array of forest rain gages), ΔI (7.2-mm) related to Sf, and T (10.4-mm measured with sapflow sensors). We found that soils were clay loam to silty loam textured Andisols on saprolitic tuft with a mean potential ΔS of 398 mm H2O under laboratory conditions, but in the field the following terms are almost completely unknown and require further field studies including E, ΔG, and ΔS. Recent installation of piezometers will address ΔG. Temporal scaling of measurements to a 1-week period was a challenge as well as the construction, deployment and calibration of instruments. However, this exploration allowed us to determine measurement uncertainties in the water budget, e.g., E, and to set future areas of research to address these uncertainties.

Carbon stocks of three secondary coniferous forests along an altitudinal gradient on Loess Plateau in inland China

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Ning; Nan, Hongwei

2018-01-01

Natural forests in inland China are generally distributed in montane area and secondary due to a semi-arid climate and past anthropogenic disturbances. However, quantification of carbon (C) stock in these forests and the role of altitude in determining C storage and its partition among ecosystem components are unclear. We sampled 54 stands of three secondary coniferous forests (Larix principis-rupprechtii (LP) forest, Picea meyerii (PM) forest and Pinus tabulaeformis (PT) forest) on Loess Plateau in an altitudinal range of 1200-2700m a.s.l. C stocks of tree layer, shrub layer, herb layer, coarse wood debris, forest floor and soil were estimated. We found these forests had relatively high total C stocks. Driven by both higher vegetation and soil C stocks, total C stocks of LP and PM forests in the high altitudinal range were 375.0 and 368.4 t C ha-1 respectively, significantly higher than that of PT forest in the low altitudinal range (230.2 t C ha-1). In addition, understory shrubs accounted for about 20% of total biomass in PT forest. The proportions of vegetation to total C stock were similar among in the three forests (below 45%), so were the proportions of soil C stock (over 54%). Necromass C stocks were also similar among these forests, but their proportions to total C stock were significantly lower in LP and PM forests (1.4% and 1.6%) than in PT forest (3.0%). Across forest types, vegetation biomass and soil C stock simultaneously increased with increasing altitude, causing fairly unchanged C partitioning among ecosystem components along the altitudinal gradient. Soil C stock also increased with altitude in LP and PT forests. Forest floor necromass decreased with increasing altitude across the three forests. Our results suggest the important role of the altitudinal gradient in C sequestration and floor necromass of these three forests in terms of alleviated water conditions and in soil C storage of LP and PM forests in terms of temperature change. PMID

Gold and Displacement in Eastern Europe: Risks and Uncertainty at Roşia Montană

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

FILIP ALEXANDRESCU

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The Canadian-Romanian gold mining project at Roşia Montanǎ in Romania is known as the largest opencast gold mine being planned now in Europe. It involves the displacement of several thousand inhabitants, mostly former gold miners and a smaller number of farmers. The land and houses of more than three quarters of this population have already been acquired by the project owners, although the project has not yet received its formal environmental clearance. The paper analyzes the risks facing the displaced population of Roşia Montană, employing as analytical methodology the Impoverishment Risks and Reconstruction (IRR model, developed by Michael M. Cernea. The paper argues for an expansion of the IRR model. By taking into account the macro (extralocal forces that shape displacement and paying closer attention to the micro (subjective experience of this process, it becomes possible to understand the effects of uncertainty and vulnerability in displacement. The author's participant observations and in-depth interviews with local families are complemented with secondary analyses of data from several other socio-economic surveys and with the analysis of the Resettlement and Relocation Action Plan of the project owners.

¿Quién fue Lluís Montané i Mollfulleda?

OpenAIRE

Balius i Juli, Ramon

2006-01-01

Lluís Montané i Mollfulleda, nacido en Sant Celoni en 1905, era un artista integral, enmarcado en las corrientes novecentistas y mediterranistas que se sustentan en la tradición clásica del mundo griego. Estudió en la Escuela de Bellas Artes de Barcelona (Llotja) entre 1921 y 1927, aunque antes, muy joven, trabajó durante tres años en el taller del escultor Eusebi Arnau (1864-1933). En la Llotja su segundo maestro, después del profesor de primer curso, Parera, fue Antoni Alsina i Amils (1864-...

The likely impact of climate change on the biodiversity of Italian forests

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Borghetti M

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Based on literature results and our expert evaluation, we report some likely impacts of climate change on the biodiversity of forest communities in Italy by the end of this century. In the Mediterranean region and on the Apennines: at low altitudes, vulnerability of Pinus sp. and Quercus ilex forests, with loss of intraspecific genetic variability; transition from Mediterranean closed-canopy macchia to scattered shrublands; risk of local extinction for coastal populations of mesic/relic hardwood species (e.g., Quercus robur, Carpinus betulus, Zelkova sicula, Fraxinus sp.; ’eastern’ relic species like Quercus troiana, Quercus frainetto, Quercus aegilops, and Q. gussonei in Sicily, and the peripheral low-altitude Fagus sylvatica populations, will be highly vulnerable; in the mid-altitude forest, vulnerability of most demanding species like Quercus cerris and Castanea sativa, possible immigration of Mediterranean species like Quercus ilex; in the montane forest, Fagus sylvatica and Abies alba will be less competitive with respect to more continental and drought-resistant tree species, and could loose genetic variability; relic species like Taxus baccata and Betula aetnensis may be at risk. In the alpine region: upward movement of timberline and changes in timberline communities, for instance Picea abies may be more competitive over Larix decidua, and fragmented species like Pinus cembra might become vulnerable. In general, we recognize the difficulty in separating the effects of climatic variables from those of other processes, like fires and land-use change.

Mammalia, Rodentia, Cricetidae, Neusticomys monticolus (Anthony, 1921): noteworthy records of the Montane Fish- Eating Rat in Colombia

OpenAIRE

Velandia-Perilla, Jorge; Saavedra-Rodríguez, Carlos

2013-01-01

We document the presence of the Montane Fish-eating Rat, Neusticomys monticolus, in two páramo ecosystems of the Colombian Andes, in the departments of Valle del Cauca and Cauca at 3558 and 3300 m respectively. For small mammals, páramo ecosystems are underexplored zones in a biogeographic context.

Formation of Massive Molecular Cloud Cores by Cloud-cloud Collision

OpenAIRE

Inoue, Tsuyoshi; Fukui, Yasuo

2013-01-01

Recent observations of molecular clouds around rich massive star clusters including NGC3603, Westerlund 2, and M20 revealed that the formation of massive stars could be triggered by a cloud-cloud collision. By using three-dimensional, isothermal, magnetohydrodynamics simulations with the effect of self-gravity, we demonstrate that massive, gravitationally unstable, molecular cloud cores are formed behind the strong shock waves induced by the cloud-cloud collision. We find that the massive mol...

Soil Moisture/ Tree Water Status Dynamics in Mid-Latitude Montane Forest, Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory, CA

Science.gov (United States)

Hartsough, P. C.; Malazian, A.; Meadows, M. W.; Roudneva, K.; Storch, J.; Bales, R. C.; Hopmans, J. W.

2010-12-01

As part of an effort to understand the root-water-nutrient interactions in the multi-dimensional soil/vegetation system surrounding large trees, in August 2008 we instrumented a mature white fir (Abies concolor) and the surrounding soil to better define the water balance in a single tree. In July 2010, we instrumented a second tree, a Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) in shallower soils on a drier, exposed slope. The trees are located in a mixed-conifer forest at an elevation of 2000m in the Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory. The deployment of more than 250 sensors to measure temperature, volumetric water content, matric potential, and snow depth surrounding the two trees complements sap-flow measurements in the trunk and stem-water-potential measurements in the canopy to capture the seasonal cycles of soil wetting and drying. We show here the results of a multi-year deployment of soil moisture sensors as critical integrators of hydrologic/ biotic interaction in a forested catchment. Sensor networks such as deployed here are a valuable tool in closing the water budget in dynamic forested catchments. While the exchange of energy, water and carbon is continuous, the pertinent fluxes are strongly heterogeneous in both space and time. Thus, the prediction of the behavior of the system across multiple scales constitutes a major challenge.

Assessment of water availability and its relationship with vegetation distribution over a tropical montane system

Science.gov (United States)

Streher, A. S.; Sobreiro, J. F. F.; Silva, T. S. F.

2017-12-01

Water availability is one of the main drivers of vegetation distribution, but assessing it over mountainous regions is difficult given the effects of rugged topography on hydroclimatic dynamics (orographic rainfall, soil water, and runoff). We assessed how water availability may influence the distribution of vegetation types in the Espinhaço Range, a South American tropical mountain landscape comprised of savannas, grasslands, rock outcrops, cloud forests, and semi-deciduous/deciduous forests. For precipitation, we used CHIRPS monthly and daily products (1981- 2016) and 112 rain gauge ground stations, and assessed potential evapotranspiration (PET) using the MODIS MOD16A3 (2000-2013) product. Vegetation types were classified according to the Global Ecoregions by WWF. We show that rainfall has well-defined rainy and dry seasons with a strong latitudinal pattern, there is evidence for local orographic effects. Dry forests (907 mm/yr; 8% cv) and caatinga vegetation (795 mm/yr; 7% cv) had the lowest average annual precipitation and low variance, whilst Atlantic tropical forest in the southeast (1267 mm/yr; 15% cv), cerrado savanna vegetation in the west (1086 mm/yr; 15% cv) and rupestrian grasslands above 800m (1261 mm/yr; 20% cv) received the highest annual precipitation, with the largest observed variance due to their wide latitudinal distribution. Forests and rupestrian grasslands in the windward side of the mountain had a higher frequency of intense rainfall events (> 20mm), accounting for 6% of the CHIRPS daily time series, suggesting orographic effects on precipitation. Annual average PET was highest for dry forests (2437 mm/yr) and caatinga (2461 mm/yr), intermediate for cerrado (2264 mm/yr) and lowest for Atlantic tropical forest (2083 mm/yr) and rupestrian grasslands (2136 mm/yr). All vegetation types received less rainfall than its PET capacity based on yearly data, emphasizing the need for ecophysiological adaptations to water use. Climate change threatens

In vitro foliage susceptibility of canary islands laurel forests: a model for better understanding the ecology of Phytophthora ramorum

Science.gov (United States)

Eduardo Moralejo; Enrique Descals

2008-01-01

The tree species that dominate the cloud-zone forests of Macaronesia, the coastal redwoods of California, the Valdivian forests of Chile, the Atlantic forests of Brazil and the podocarp forests of New Zealand are all examples of paleoendemic species that once had a much wider distribution. They appear to owe their survival to the particular environmental conditions...

Climate change and forests: Impacts and adaption. A regional assessment for the Western Ghats, India

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ravindranath, N H; Sukumar, R [Indian Inst. of Science, Bangalore (India). Centre for Ecological Sciences; Deshingkar, P [Stockholm Environment Inst. (Sweden)

1998-12-31

Potential climate change over the next 50 to 100 years could have major impacts on tropical forests. Forests, particularly in the tropics, are subjected to anthropogenic pressures leading to degradation and loss of forest ecosystems. Given the significant dependence of local people and economies on forests in tropical and temperate countries, there is a need to assess the possible impacts of climate change and to develop adaption measures. The diversity of forest types in the Western Ghats ranges from wet evergreen and deciduous forest to dry thorn and montane forests with a wide range of annual rainfall regimes (from less than 65 cm to over 300 cm). The study was conducted in two regions of the Western Ghats; the Uttara Kannada district and the Nilgiris. Climate change projections for 2020 and 2050 were used in assessing the possible impacts on forests. In general, the `most likely` projections of climate change were an increase in mean temperature in the range of 0.3-1.0 deg C and an increase in precipitation of 3-8% over the study regions by the year 2050. The `worst case` scenario was an increase in temperature of 1 deg C and a decrease in precipitation by 8% by 2050. To assess the vegetational responses to climate change, a simple model based on present-day correlations between climatic (mean annual temperature and precipitation) and vegetation types for these regions was developed. Likely changes in the areas under different forest types were assessed for `moderate climate` sensitivity and central scaling factor (referred to as the `most likely scenario`) for the years 2020 and 2050, and `high climate` sensitivity and a lower scaling factor (the `worst case scenario`) for 2050 90 refs, 15 figs, 15 tabs

Climate change and forests: Impacts and adaption. A regional assessment for the Western Ghats, India

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ravindranath, N.H.; Sukumar, R. [Indian Inst. of Science, Bangalore (India). Centre for Ecological Sciences; Deshingkar, P. [Stockholm Environment Inst. (Sweden)

1997-12-31

Potential climate change over the next 50 to 100 years could have major impacts on tropical forests. Forests, particularly in the tropics, are subjected to anthropogenic pressures leading to degradation and loss of forest ecosystems. Given the significant dependence of local people and economies on forests in tropical and temperate countries, there is a need to assess the possible impacts of climate change and to develop adaption measures. The diversity of forest types in the Western Ghats ranges from wet evergreen and deciduous forest to dry thorn and montane forests with a wide range of annual rainfall regimes (from less than 65 cm to over 300 cm). The study was conducted in two regions of the Western Ghats; the Uttara Kannada district and the Nilgiris. Climate change projections for 2020 and 2050 were used in assessing the possible impacts on forests. In general, the `most likely` projections of climate change were an increase in mean temperature in the range of 0.3-1.0 deg C and an increase in precipitation of 3-8% over the study regions by the year 2050. The `worst case` scenario was an increase in temperature of 1 deg C and a decrease in precipitation by 8% by 2050. To assess the vegetational responses to climate change, a simple model based on present-day correlations between climatic (mean annual temperature and precipitation) and vegetation types for these regions was developed. Likely changes in the areas under different forest types were assessed for `moderate climate` sensitivity and central scaling factor (referred to as the `most likely scenario`) for the years 2020 and 2050, and `high climate` sensitivity and a lower scaling factor (the `worst case scenario`) for 2050 90 refs, 15 figs, 15 tabs

Climate Change Adaptation in the Carpathian Mountain Region

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Werners, Saskia Elisabeth; Szalai, Sándor; Zingstra, Henk; Kőpataki, Éva; Beckmann, Andreas; Bos, Ernst; Civic, Kristijan; Hlásny, Tomas; Hulea, Orieta; Jurek, Matthias; Koch, Hagen; Kondor, Attila Csaba; Kovbasko, Aleksandra; Lakatos, M.; Lambert, Stijn; Peters, Richard; Trombik, Jiří; De Velde, Van Ilse; Zsuffa, István

2016-01-01

The Carpathian mountain region is one of the most significant natural refuges on the European continent. It is home to Europe’s most extensive tracts of montane forest, the largest remaining virgin forest and natural mountain beech-fir forest ecosystems. Adding to the biodiversity are semi-natural

From frugivore to folivore: Altitudinal variations in the diet and feeding ecology of the Bioko Island drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus poensis).

Science.gov (United States)

Owens, Jacob R; Honarvar, Shaya; Nessel, Mark; Hearn, Gail W

2015-12-01

Variation in the quality and availability of food resources can greatly influence the ecology, behavior, and conservation of wild primates. We studied the influence of altitudinal differences in resource availability on diet in wild drill monkeys (Mandrillus leucophaeus poensis) on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea. We compared fecal samples (n = 234) collected across three consecutive dry seasons for drills living in lowland (0-300 m asl) forest with nearby (18 km distance) drills living in montane forest (500-1000 m asl) in the Gran Caldera Southern Highlands Scientific Reserve. Lowland forest drills had a frugivorous diet very similar to that reported from studies on nearby mainland drills (M. l. leucophaeus) and mandrills (M. sphinx), with fruits comprising 90% of their dried fecal samples. However drills living in montane forest had a more folivorous diet, with herbaceous pith, leaves and fungi comprising 74% of their dried fecal samples and fruit becoming a minor component (24%). Furthermore, a dietary preference index indicated that the differences in the proportion of fruit and fibrous vegetation in the diets of lowland compared to montane drills was not simply a result of relative availability. Montane drills were actively consuming a higher mass of the available fruits and fibrous vegetation, a condition reflected in the greater mass of their fresh feces. Our results demonstrate the unexpected flexibility and complexity of dietary choices of this endangered species in two adjacent habitat types, a comparison of considerable importance for many other limited-range species faced with habitat loss and climate change. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Relationship between cloud radiative forcing, cloud fraction and cloud albedo, and new surface-based approach for determining cloud albedo

OpenAIRE

Y. Liu; W. Wu; M. P. Jensen; T. Toto

2011-01-01

This paper focuses on three interconnected topics: (1) quantitative relationship between surface shortwave cloud radiative forcing, cloud fraction, and cloud albedo; (2) surfaced-based approach for measuring cloud albedo; (3) multiscale (diurnal, annual and inter-annual) variations and covariations of surface shortwave cloud radiative forcing, cloud fraction, and cloud albedo. An analytical expression is first derived to quantify the relationship between cloud radiative forcing, cloud fractio...

Eco-physiological characteristics and variation in water source use between montane Douglas-Fir and lodgepole pine trees in southwestern Alberta

Science.gov (United States)

Andrews, S.; Flanagan, L. B.

2009-12-01

Winter weather on the Canadian prairies is now warmer and drier than 50 years ago and this has implications for soil water re-charge in montane ecosystems with consequences for tree and ecosystem function. We used measurements of the hydrogen isotope ratio of tree stem water to analyze the use of different water sources (winter snow melt, ground water, summer precipitation) in two montane forest sites, one dominated by Douglas-Fir and the other dominated by lodgepole pine trees. On average during the growing season (May-October) stem water in both Douglas-Fir and lodgepole pine trees was composed of 60% summer precipitation. However, during late summer Douglas-Fir trees showed an increased use of ground water as summer precipitation was minimal and ground water was accessible at the bottom of a relatively large soil reservoir. The low summer precipitation and reduced soil water availability in the shallow soils at the lodgepole pine site resulted in severely reduced photosynthetic capacity in late summer. Increased precipitation during the autumn resulted in recovery of photosynthetic gas exchange in lodgepole pine before winter dormancy was induced by low temperatures. Stomatal limitation of photosynthesis, as estimated from measurements of the carbon isotope composition of leaf tissue, was higher in Douglas-Fir than lodgepole pine. This was also associated with lower midday water potential values in Douglas-Fir and sapwood cross-sectional area that was only 70% of that measured in lodgepole pine. The vulnerability of xylem to loss of conductivity with declines in water potential was very similar between the two species. However, midday water potential in Douglas-Fir approached values where cavitation and loss of conductivity were apparent, while in lodgepole pine midday water potential was always much higher than the point at which loss of hydraulic conductivity occurred. These data suggest that, despite the presence of Douglas-Fir on deeper and higher quality

Preliminary assessment of soil erosion impact during forest restoration process

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Yen-Jen; Chang, Cheng-Sheng; Tsao, Tsung-Ming; Wey, Tsong-Huei; Chiang, Po-Neng; Wang, Ya-Nan

2014-05-01

Taiwan has a fragile geology and steep terrain. The 921 earthquake, Typhoon Toraji, Typhoon Morakot, and the exploitation and use of the woodland by local residents have severely damaged the landscape and posed more severe challenges to the montane ecosystem. A land conservation project has been implemented by the Experimental Forest of National Taiwan University which reclaimed approximately 1,500 hectares of leased woodland from 2008 to 2010, primarily used to grow bamboo, tea trees, betel nut, fruit, and vegetable and about 1,298 hectares have been reforested. The process of forest restoration involves clear cutting, soil preparation and a six-year weeding and tending period which may affect the amount of soil erosion dramatically. This study tried to assess the impact of forest restoration from the perspective of soil erosion through leased-land recovery periods and would like to benefit the practical implementation of reforestation in the future. A new plantation reforested in the early 2013 and a nearby 29-year-old mature forest were chosen as experimental and comparison sites. A self-designed weir was set up in a small watershed of each site for the runoff and sediment yield observation. According to the observed results from May to August 2013, a raining season in Taiwan, the runoff and erosion would not as high as we expected, because the in-situ soil texture of both sites is sandy loam to sandy with high percentage of coarse fragment which increased the infiltration. There were around 200 kg to 250 kg of wet sand/soil yielded in mature forest during the hit of Typhoon Soulik while the rest of the time only suspended material be yielded at both sites. To further investigate the influence of the six-year weeding and tending period, long term observations are needed for a more completed assessment of soil erosion impact.

Plant species distribution in relation to water-table depth and soil redox potential in montane riparian meadows

Science.gov (United States)

Kathleen A. Dwire; J. Boone Kauffman; John E. Baham

2006-01-01

The distribution of riparian plant species is largely driven by hydrologic and soil variables, and riparian plant communities frequently occur in relatively distinct zones along streamside elevational and soil textural gradients. In two montane meadows in northeast Oregon, USA, we examined plant species distribution in three riparian plant communities¡ªdefined as wet,...

2453-IJBCS-Article-Sylvie Nguedem Fonkwo

African Journals Online (AJOL)