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Birds from semi-arid regions may suffer dehydration during hot, dry seasons with low food availability. During this period, both energetic costs and water requirements for thermoregulation increase, limiting the scope of activity. For granivorous birds feeding on dry seeds, this is a major challenge and availability of water may affect the value of food. Water availability could (1) increase the v
Global monitoring of vegetation using optical remote sensing has undergone rapid technological and methodological development during the past decade. Physically based methods generally apply reflectance models for interpreting remotely sensed data sets. These methods have become increasingly important in the assessment of terrestrial variables from satellite-borne and airborne images. Products bas
High air concentrations of ammonium were detected at low and high altitude sites in Sweden, Finland and Norway during the spring 2006, coinciding with polluted air from biomass burning in eastern Europe passing over central and northern Fennoscandia. Unusually high values for throughfall deposition of ammonium were detected at one low altitude site and several high altitude sites in north Sweden.
The aim of this study was to explore how acid deposition may affect the concentration and quality of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in soil-water. This was done by a small-scale acidification experiment during two years where 0.5 × 0.5 m(2) plots were artificially irrigated with water with different sulfuric acid content, and soil-water was sampled using zero-tension lysimeters under the O-horizon
The relationship between palynological diversity and floristic diversity was studied on the basis of sediment surface sample pollen data from nine small lakes and vegetation data within a 250 m radius from the lake shore of each. The nine study areas are situated in the patchy cultural landscape of Southern Estonia and were chosen to represent landscape changes along a gradient from closed forest
Abstract in UndeterminedThe aim of this study was to evaluate the extent to which water use efficiency (WUE) at leaf scale can be used to assess WUE at canopy scale, leaf WUE being assumed to be a constant function of vapor pressure deficit and to thus not be dependent upon other environmental factors or varying leaf properties. Leaf WUE and its variability and dependencies were assessed using lea
Recent studies have shown that the complexities of the surface features in mountainous terrain require a re-assessment of climate impacts at the local level. We explored the importance of surface-air-temperature based on a recently published 50-m-gridded dataset, versus soil variables for explaining vegetation distribution in Swedish Lapland using generalised linear models (GLMs). The results demo
Studies of climatic change and adaptation to climate change can include a wide range of methodologies and approaches. As one of such approaches, we here present meteorological measurement data from a site in the Demokeya experimental forest outside El Obeid in North Kordofan State of Sudan. We hope this descriptive note can inform about the available meteorological data, as well as to promote and
Identifying environmental factors that structure intraspecific genetic diversity is of interest for both habitat preservation and biodiversity conservation. Recent advances in statistical and geographical genetics make it possible to investigate how environmental factors affect geographic organisation and population structure of molecular genetic diversity within species. Here we present a study o
Forests are important from many perspectives. Forestry delivers products such as timber, fiber and fuel; forests are also important for recreational activities as well as for the global carbon balance. Consequently, it is important to develop methods that enable efficient monitoring of disturbances, such as insect attacks, over vast forested areas. These methods can be based on remote sensing, sin
Plants can influence methane emissions from wetland ecosystems by altering its production, consumption and transport in the soil. The aim of this study was to investigate how eight vascular plant species from mesotrophic to eutrophic wetlands vary in their influence on CH4 emissions from peat cores, under low and high N supply. Additionally, we measured the production of low-molecular-weight organ
Bioavailable phosphorus (BAP) concentrations were determined nine times between April and October 2010 in two humic boreal headwater streams draining forest-and mire-dominated catchments. BAP was analyzed in a bioassay in which natural P-limited bacterioplankton grew with natural P as the sole P source. In both streams, approximately 90% of the BAP occurred as dissolved species (passing a 0.2-mu m
The boreal forest carbon balance is predicted to be particularly sensitive to climate change. Carbon balance estimates of these biomes stem mainly from eddy-covariance measurements of net ecosystem exchange (NEE). However, a full net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB) must include the lateral carbon export (LCE) through discharge. We show that annual LCE at a boreal forest site ranged from 4 to 28%,
Aim Understanding what constituted species ranges prior to large-scale human influence, and how past climate and land use change have affected range dynamics, provides conservation planners with important insights into how species may respond to future environmental change. Our aim here was to reconstruct the Holocene range of European bison (Bison bonasus) by combining a time-calibrated species d
Studies using satellite sensor-derived data as input to models for CO2 exchange show promising results for closed forest stands. There is a need for extending this approach to other land cover types, in order to carry out large-scale monitoring of CO2 exchange. In this study, three years of eddy covariance data from two peatlands in Sweden were averaged for 16-day composite periods and related to
Globally, the food and energy demands of the growing global population are rising and require increased agricultural production. Additionally, climate change will have adverse effects on agricultural productivity. Technological change can contribute to closing yield gaps and reducing post-harvest losses, but needs to be facilitated through investments and education. Considering the multiple driver
Abstract in Undetermined To improve our knowledge of climate change and its impacts on ecosystem services, and to inform local people and governments that need assistance with the development of mitigation and adaptation strategies, climate impacts need to be understood urgently at the smaller scale. On one hand, the microclimate/topoclimate is known to be strongly decoupled from the general macro
The use of stable carbon isotopes (d13C) has played a key role in estimation of the proportion of aquatic consumer biomass derived from terrestrial organic matter (OM; i.e., allochthony; Meili et al. 1996; Grey et al. 2001; Pace et al. 2004). However, the use of d13C for assessing allochthony has shortcomings because of the small natural separation between terrestrial and aquatic isotopic end memb
