An index of photosynthesis for comparing forest sites in western Oregon

1977 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
William H. Emmingham ◽  
Richard H. Waring
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Carbon Fixation ◽  
Unit Area ◽  
Carbon Assimilation ◽  
Forest Productivity ◽  
Douglas Fir ◽  
Soil Drought ◽  
Forest Sites ◽  
Annual Carbon ◽  
Soil Temperatures

An index was developed that takes into account the combined influence of air and soil temperatures, light, and the availability of soil moisture upon photosynthesis by a unit area of fully exposed foliage of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsugamenziesii (Mirb.) Franco). The index is derived from a summation of daily estimates of carbon assimilation (milligrams CO2 assimilation per decimeter per day) for an entire year. In a comparison of forest environments in western Oregon the index was correlated to a measure of forest productivity (r2 = 0.99). Furthermore, it suggests that much of the annual carbon fixation occurs during the mild winters characteristic of the region. The ability to assess the effects of frost, soil drought, and other variables separately was valuable in explaining differences between coastal, valley, and mountainous sites.

scholarly journals A Comparison of Herbicide and Mulch Mat Treatments for Reducing Grass, Herb, and Shrub Competition in the BC Interior Douglas-Fir Zone—Ten-Year Results

2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Harper ◽  
P. G. Comeau ◽  
B. S. Biring
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Seedling Growth ◽  
Height Growth ◽  
Douglas Fir ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
Soil Drought ◽  
Plastic Mulch ◽  
Growth And Survival ◽  
Growing Seasons ◽  
Soil Moisture Availability

Abstract We present results from a study established in 1993 in the Interior Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone of southwestern British Columbia to test the effectiveness of several herbicide and mulch mat treatments for reducing grass, herbaceous, and shrub competition. The effectiveness of the preplant herbicide applications of hexazinone (Velpar L) at 2.1 kg ai/ha, glyphosate (Vision) at 2.1 and 1.0 kg ai/ha, and the installation of plastic mulch mats (Tredegar 90 × 90-cm mats) for controlling competing vegetation, improving seedling growth and survival of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) seedlings and improving soil moisture availability was evaluated. Ten-year results indicate that application of hexazinone and glyphosate enhanced the survival, diameter, and height growth of planted Douglas-fir seedlings. These herbicide treatments provided effective control of grass and herbaceous vegetation for three to four growing seasons. Plastic mulch mats did result in improvements in growth and survival, but these were not statistically different from untreated seedlings. The results of soil moisture monitoring from within the various treatments indicated delay in the onset of soil drought as a key determinant of the seedling growth improvement noted. West. J. Appl. For. 20(3):167–176.

Microclimatic and soil moisture responses to gap formation in coastal Douglas-fir forests

2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 332-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew N Gray ◽  
Thomas A Spies ◽  
Mark J Easter
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Douglas Fir ◽  
Organic Substrates ◽  
Gap Formation ◽  
The North ◽  
Soil Temperatures ◽  
Closed Canopy

The effects of gap formation on solar radiation, soil and air temperature, and soil moisture were studied in mature coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. Measurements were taken over a 6-year period in closed-canopy areas and recently created gaps in four stands of mature (90–140 years) and old-growth (>400 years) Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) forest in the western Cascade Range of central Oregon and southern Washington. Gap sizes ranged from 40 to 2000 m2. Summer solar radiation levels and soil temperatures differed significantly among gap sizes and positions within gaps and were driven primarily by patterns of direct radiation. Nevertheless, effects on air temperature were slight. Soil moisture was more abundant in gaps than in controls, was most abundant in intermediate gap sizes, and tended to decline during the growing season in single-tree gaps and on the north edges of large gaps. However, there was substantial variation in moisture availability within individual gaps, primarily related to the variety of organic substrates present. Moisture in gaps declined over multiple years, likely caused by encroachment of vegetation within and around gaps. Low light levels probably limit filling of natural gaps in these forests, but the variety of microenvironments in large gaps may facilitate diverse plant communities.

scholarly journals Photosynthetic efficiency and production of cowpea cultivars under deficit irrigation

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Soares de Melo ◽  
Allisson Rafael Ferreira da Silva ◽  
Alexson Filgueiras Dutra ◽  
Wellison Filgueiras Dutra ◽  
Marcos Eric Barbosa Brito ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Deficit ◽  
Deficit Irrigation ◽  
Photosynthetic Efficiency ◽  
Arid Regions ◽  
Carbon Fixation ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Carbon Assimilation ◽  
Green Beans ◽  
Gas Exchanges ◽  
Cowpea Cultivars

Cowpea is a crop with great economic, social and food importance in semi-arid regions, but its production is drastically reduced by the water deficit in these regions, requiring better management strategies that allow the crop’s production. This study therefore aimed to evaluate the photosynthetic efficiency and production of cowpea cultivars under deficit irrigation replacement levels. The experiment tested three cowpea genotypes (G1 = ‘BRS Aracé’, G2 = ‘BR 17 Gurguéia’ and G3 = ‘BRS Marataoã’) and four irrigation depths (40, 60, 80 and 100% of ETc), resulting in a 3 x 4 factorial scheme, arranged in randomized complete blocks design with four replicates. During the experiment, the gas exchanges, chlorophyll a fluorescence and production of the cowpea genotypes under deficit irrigation were evaluated. Carbon fixation in the photosynthetic metabolism of cowpea plants was reduced by accentuated water deficit, regardless of the genotype. The low stress severity was indicated by the lack of effects on chlorophyll fluorescence, indicating that the reduction in the rate of carbon assimilation was due to the stomatal effects. The irrigation with 80% of ETc can be used in the cultivation of the respective cultivars, but with small losses in the production. Among the genotypes, ‘BRS Marataoã’ stands out with respect to yield, with higher values for weight of pods and green beans.

Silvicultural treatments, microclimatic conditions and seedling response in Southern Interior clearcuts

1998 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. L. Fleming ◽  
T. A. Black ◽  
R. S. Adams ◽  
R. J. Stathers
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Seedling Establishment ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
Mineral Soil ◽  
Soil Disturbance ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Lower Elevation ◽  
Organic Horizons ◽  
Soil Temperatures ◽  
Microclimatic Conditions

Post-harvest levels of soil disturbance and vegetation regrowth strongly influence microclimate conditions, and this has important implications for seedling establishment. We examined the effects of blading (scalping), soil loosening (ripping) and vegetation control (herbicide), as well as no soil disturbance, on growing season microclimates and 3-yr seedling response on two grass-dominated clearcuts at different elevations in the Southern Interior of British Columbia. Warmer soil temperatures were obtained by removing surface organic horizons. Ripping produced somewhat higher soil temperatures than scalping at the drier, lower-elevation site, but slightly reduced soil temperatures at the wetter, higher-elevation site. Near-surface air temperatures were more extreme (higher daily maximums and lower daily minimums) over the control than over exposed mineral soil. Root zone soil moisture deficits largely reflected transpiration by competing vegetation; vegetation removal was effective in improving soil moisture availability at the lower elevation site, but unnecessary from this perspective at the higher elevation site. The exposed mineral surfaces self-mulched and conserved soil moisture after an initial period of high evaporation. Ripping and scalping resulted in somewhat lower near-surface available soil water storage capacities. Seedling establishment on both clearcuts was better following treatments which removed vegetation and surface organic horizons and thus enhanced microclimatic conditions, despite reducing nutrient supply. Such treatments may, however, compromise subsequent stand development through negative impacts on site nutrition. Temporal changes in the relative importance of different physical (microclimate) and chemical (soil nutrition) properties to soil processes and plant growth need to be considered when evaluating site productivity. Key words: Microclimate, soil temperature, air temperature, soil moisture, clearcut, seedling establishment

scholarly journals White Root Rot of Raspberries

1951 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 211
Author(s):  
GC Wade
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Root Rot ◽  
Soil Moisture Content ◽  
Soil Conditions ◽  
Causal Organism ◽  
White Root Rot ◽  
High Soil Moisture ◽  
High Soil ◽  
Soil Temperatures ◽  
Dry Soil

The disease known as white root rot affects raspberries, and to a less extent loganberries, in Victoria. The causal organism is a white, sterile fungus that has not been identified. The disease is favoured by dry soil conditions and high soil temperatures. It spreads externally to the host by means of undifferentiated rhizomorphs; and requires a food base for the establishment of infection. The spread of rhizomorphs through the soil is hindered by high soil moisture content and consequent poor aeration of the soil.

Drought spatiotemporal propagation via land feedbacks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego G. Miralles ◽  
Dominik L. Schumacher ◽  
Jessica Keune ◽  
Paul A. Dirmeyer
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Water Vapor ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Soil Drought ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Forecast Models ◽  
Atmospheric Feedbacks ◽  
Dry Out ◽  
Water And Food Security ◽  
The Impact

<p>The predicted increase in drought occurrence and intensity will pose serious threats to global future water and food security. This was hinted by several historically unprecedented droughts over the last two decades, taking place in Europe, Australia, Amazonia or the USA. It has been hypothesised that the strength of these events responded to self-reinforcement processes related to land–atmospheric feedbacks: as rainfall deficits dry out soil and vegetation, the evaporation of land water is reduced, then the local air becomes too dry to yield rainfall, which further enhances drought conditions. Despite the 'local' nature of these feedbacks, their consequences can be remote, as downwind regions may rely on evaporated water transported by winds from drought-affected locations. Following this rationale, droughts may not only self-reinforce locally, due to land atmospheric feedbacks, but <em>self-propagate</em> in the downwind direction, always conditioned on atmospheric circulation. This propagation is not only meteorological but relies on soil moisture drought, and may lead to a downwind cascading of impacts on water resources. However, a global capacity to observe these processes is lacking, and thus our knowledge of how droughts start and evolve, and how this may change as climate changes, remains limited. Furthermore, climate and forecast models are still immature when it comes to representing the influences of land on rainfall.</p><p>Here, the largest global drought events are studied to unravel the role of land–atmosphere feedbacks during the spatiotemporal propagation of these events. We based our study on satellite and reanalysis records of soil moisture, evaporation, air humidity, winds and precipitation, in combination with a Lagrangian framework that can map water vapor trajectories and explore multi-dimensional feedbacks. We estimate the reduction in precipitation in the direction of drought propagation that is caused by the upwind soil moisture drought, and isolate this effect from the influence of potential evaporation and circulation changes. By doing so, the downwind lack of precipitation caused by upwind soil drought via water vapor deficits, and hence the impact of drought self-propagation, is determined. We show that droughts occurring in dryland regions are particularly prone to self-propagate, as evaporation there tends to respond strongly to enhanced soil stress and precipitation is frequently convective. This kind of knowledge may be used to improve climate and forecast models and can be exploited to develop geo-engineering mitigation strategies to help prevent drought events from aggravating during their early stages.</p>

scholarly journals Modelling tropical forest responses to drought and El Niño with a stomatal optimization model based on xylem hydraulics

2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1760) ◽  
pp. 20170315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cleiton B. Eller ◽  
Lucy Rowland ◽  
Rafael S. Oliveira ◽  
Paulo R. L. Bittencourt ◽  
Fernanda V. Barros ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Forest ◽  
El Niño ◽  
Optimization Model ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Soil Drought ◽  
Forest Sites ◽  
Dynamic Global Vegetation Models ◽  
Vegetation Models ◽  
Global Vegetation

The current generation of dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) lacks a mechanistic representation of vegetation responses to soil drought, impairing their ability to accurately predict Earth system responses to future climate scenarios and climatic anomalies, such as El Niño events. We propose a simple numerical approach to model plant responses to drought coupling stomatal optimality theory and plant hydraulics that can be used in dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs). The model is validated against stand-scale forest transpiration ( E ) observations from a long-term soil drought experiment and used to predict the response of three Amazonian forest sites to climatic anomalies during the twentieth century. We show that our stomatal optimization model produces realistic stomatal responses to environmental conditions and can accurately simulate how tropical forest E responds to seasonal, and even long-term soil drought. Our model predicts a stronger cumulative effect of climatic anomalies in Amazon forest sites exposed to soil drought during El Niño years than can be captured by alternative empirical drought representation schemes. The contrasting responses between our model and empirical drought factors highlight the utility of hydraulically-based stomatal optimization models to represent vegetation responses to drought and climatic anomalies in DGVMs. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The impact of the 2015/2016 El Niño on the terrestrial tropical carbon cycle: patterns, mechanisms and implications’.

scholarly journals Photoperiod, Carbon Partitioning, and Reproductive Development in Rabbiteye Blueberry

1991 ◽  
Vol 116 (5) ◽  
pp. 856-860 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca L. Darnell
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Fixation ◽  
Carbon Assimilation ◽  
Reproductive Development ◽  
Carbon Partitioning ◽  
Stem Tissue ◽  
Flower Buds ◽  
Vaccinium Ashei ◽  
Bloom Period ◽  
Short Days

Containerized `Climax' and `Beckyblue' rabbiteye blueberry plants (Vaccinium ashei Reade) were exposed to 5 weeks of natural daylengths or shortened daylengths starting 30 Sept. `Beckyblue' plants exposed to short daylengths in the fall initiated more flower buds and had a shorter, more concentrated bloom period than did plants exposed to natural fall daylengths. Reproductive development of `Climax' was not influenced by photoperiod treatments. Leaf carbon assimilation of both cultivars increased under short days. Partitioning of translocated 14C-labeled assimilates to stem tissue increased under short photoperiods for `Beckyblue'; however, partitioning patterns in `Climax' were not affected. Increased carbon fixation and increased partitioning of carbon to stem tissue under short days may contribute to the observed effect of short days on enhancing reproductive development in `Beckyblue'.

scholarly journals The keystone species of Precambrian deep bedrock biosphere belong to <i>Burkholderiales</i> and <i>Clostridiales</i>

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 18103-18150 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Purkamo ◽  
M. Bomberg ◽  
R. Kietäväinen ◽  
H. Salavirta ◽  
M. Nyyssönen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Carbon Fixation ◽  
Keystone Species ◽  
Carbon Assimilation ◽  
Sugar Metabolism ◽  
Archaeal Community ◽  
Amino Sugar ◽  
Amplicon Sequencing ◽  
Fracture Zones ◽  
Crystalline Bedrock

Abstract. The bacterial and archaeal community composition and the possible carbon assimilation processes and energy sources of microbial communities in oligotrophic, deep, crystalline bedrock fractures is yet to be resolved. In this study, intrinsic microbial communities from six fracture zones from 180–2300 m depths in Outokumpu bedrock were characterized using high-throughput amplicon sequencing and metagenomic prediction. Comamonadaceae-, Anaerobrancaceae- and Pseudomonadaceae-related OTUs form the core community in deep crystalline bedrock fractures in Outokumpu. Archaeal communities were mainly composed of Methanobacteraceae-affiliating OTUs. The predicted bacterial metagenomes showed that pathways involved in fatty acid and amino sugar metabolism were common. In addition, relative abundance of genes coding the enzymes of autotrophic carbon fixation pathways in predicted metagenomes was low. This indicates that heterotrophic carbon assimilation is more important for microbial communities of the fracture zones. Network analysis based on co-occurrence of OTUs revealed the keystone genera of the microbial communities belonging to Burkholderiales and Clostridiales. Bacterial communities in fractures resemble those found from oligotrophic, hydrogen-enriched environments. Serpentinization reactions of ophiolitic rocks in Outokumpu assemblage may provide a source of energy and organic carbon compounds for the microbial communities in the fractures. Sulfate reducers and methanogens form a minority of the total microbial communities, but OTUs forming these minor groups are similar to those found from other deep Precambrian terrestrial bedrock environments.

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