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The population dynamics of organisms living in short-lived habitats will largely depend on the turnover of habitat patches. It has been suggested that epiphytes, whose host plants can be regarded as habitat patches, often form such patch-tracking populations. However, very little is known about the long-term fate of epiphyte individuals and populations. We estimated life span and assessed environm
Kettle holes are widespread in moraine landscapes. Their hydrological properties may be very vulnerable to changes in climatic conditions. To increase our knowledge of how kettle holes function and how they may be affected by climate change requires a model that can be applied to a variety of them regardless of their properties. We used the PIRFICT time series model to simulate the water levels in
We studied the microbial communities in maize (Zea mays) rhizosphere to determine the extent to which their structure, biomass, activity and growth were influenced by plant genotype (su1 and sh2 genes) and the addition of standard and high doses of different types of fertilizer (inorganic, raw manure and vermicompost). For this purpose, we sampled the rhizosphere of maize plants at harvest, and an
Nitrogen (N) fixation in the feather moss-cyanobacteria association represents a major N source in boreal forests which experience low levels of N deposition; however, little is known about the effects of anthropogenic N inputs on the rate of fixation of atmospheric N-2 in mosses and the succeeding effects on soil nutrient concentrations and microbial community composition. We collected soil sampl
Although climate change is acknowledged to affect population dynamics and species distribution, details of how community composition is affected are still lacking. We investigate whether ongoing changes in bird community composition can be explained by contemporary changes in summer temperatures, using four independent long-term bird census schemes from Sweden (up to 57 yr); two at the national sc
The objective of this study was to evaluate the concentrations of nutrients in stumps and coarse roots in Norway spruce, Scots pine and silver birch in Sweden, Finland and Denmark, and to assess how nutrient concentrations vary with site characteristics, stand age and root size. Concentrations of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and sodium (Na) in spruce, p
Several studies have proposed aerobic methane (CH4) emissions by plants. If confirmed, these findings would further increase the imbalance in the global CH4 budget which today underestimates CH4 sinks. Oxidation by OH-radicals in the troposphere is the major identified sink followed by smaller contribution from stratospheric loss and oxidation by methano- and methylotrophic bacteria in soils. This
Soil pH is one of the most influential variables in soil, and is a powerful factor in influencing the size, activity and community structure of the soil microbial community. It was previously shown in a century old artificial pH gradient in an arable soil (pH 4.0-8.3) that bacterial growth is positively related to pH, while fungal growth increases with decreasing pH. In an attempt to elucidate som
Changes to the carbon cycle in tropical forests could affect global climate, but predicting such changes has been previously limited by lack of field-based data. Here we show seasonal cycles of the complete carbon cycle for 14, 1ha intensive carbon cycling plots which we separate into three regions: humid lowland, highlands, and dry lowlands. Our data highlight three trends: (1) there is differing
Food security can be defined as stable access to food of good nutritional quality. In Sub Saharan Africa access to food is strongly linked to local food production and the capacity to generate enough calories to sustain the local population. Therefore it is important in these regions to generate not only sufficiently high yields but also to reduce interannual variability in food production. Tradit
Abstract is not available
We sampled small (0.03 to 3.3 km(2) surface area) forest lakes in southern Sweden during two summers to investigate how concentration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and lake size influence epilimnion depth (z(e)) and light conditions in the epilimnion. z(e) increased with increasing fetch (square root of lake area) but did not decrease with increasing DOC concentration. This suggests greater im
A capture-mark-recapture study on the threatened saproxylic beetle Lucanus cervus was carried out in a chestnut (Castanea sativa) woodland located in northern Italy, using visual encounter surveys (VES) as well as aerial flight interception traps and pitfall traps (PT), both of which were baited with different odour lures. In total, 111 males and 25 females were captured, and VES was by far the mo
Africa is an important part of the global carbon cycle. It is also a continent facing potential problems due to increasing resource demand in combination with climate change-induced changes in resource supply. Quantifying the pools and fluxes constituting the terrestrial African carbon cycle is a challenge, because of uncertainties in meteorological driver data, lack of validation data, and potent
The direct response and the short-term recolonisation of soil by fungi and bacteria were studied after heat treatments of a humus soil with high carbon content and low pH. and a calcareous soil with lower carbon content and high pH. Heating was administered using a muffle furnace or an autoclave, with different temperatures and times of heat exposure, after which fresh soil (1%) was added as inocu
Abstract in UndeterminedAccurate estimation of forest net primary productivity (NPP), biomass, and their sensitivity to changes in temperature and precipitation is important for understanding the fluxes and pools of terrestrial carbon resulting from anthropogenically driven climate change. The objectives of this study were to (1) estimate potential forest NPP and biomass for New England using a re
Drying and rewetting is a frequent physiological stress for soil microbial communities; a stress that is predicted to grow more influential with future climate change. We investigated the effect of repeated drying-rewetting cycles on bacterial (leucine incorporation) and fungal (acetate in ergosterol incorporation) growth, on the biomass concentration and composition (PLFA), and on the soil respir
Both ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) play an important role in nitrification in terrestrial environments. Most often AOA outnumber AOB, but the relative contribution of AOA and AOB to nitrification rates remains unclear. The aim of this experiment was to test the hypotheses that high nitrogen availability would favor AOB and result in high gross nitrification r
