Search results for " Forest"

High seedling recruitment of indigenous tree species in forest plantations in Kakamega Forest, western Kenya

2009

Tree plantations are often used to compensate for the destruction and conversion of natural forests in the tropics. An important question is whether these plantations allow for the regeneration of indigenous tree species and are expected to transform into more natural forests in the future. To evaluate the potential of differently managed forest types for seedling recruitment of indigenous tree species we studied structural characteristics as well as tree and seedling communities in stands of natural forest, different types of tree plantations and secondary forest in Kakamega Forest, western Kenya. Forest types differed considerably in structural characteristics and tree composition with st…

Corrigendum: Fire Responses to the 2010 and 2015/2016 Amazonian Droughts

2019

Structural variables drive the distribution of the sensitive lichen Lobaria pulmonaria in Mediterranean old-growth forests

2015

a b s t r a c t We tested the hypothesis that structural variables related to old-growth features affect the distribution of Lobaria pulmonaria in a Mediterranean National Park of Italy. A total of 36 plots, with old-growth characteristics and representing overall three forest types (beech- oak- and mixed- forests) were studied. The lichen was absent in about half of the sites, suggesting that the selection of old-growth forests based solely on structural features is not sufficient to predict the presence of this species, which therefore proves to be rather sensitive and selective. Its abundance was related to high tree circumference and basal area, and to availability of deadwood, confirmi…

Uso del método mejorado del uso del injerto (Isum) como herramienta para determinar el valor de factores topográficos alternativos en la estimación d…

2020

Made available in DSpace on 2020-12-12T02:01:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2020-03-15 The Improved Stock Unearthing Method (ISUM) was initially designed to assess soil mobilisation rates in vineyards; however, other grafted crops such as citrus orchards could also be successfully used. The results obtained from ISUM have been used for several goals, but have not yet been applied for computing the LS factor (length and slope) as a part of the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), which could give useful information to improve soil management system plans. This investigation was conducted in an 8-year old clementine field located in Canals (Valencia, Spain) and values of…

Age and spatial structure of natural Pinus sylvestris stands in Latvia

2005

Abstract The age and spatial structure of six natural old growth Pinus sylvestris stands in Latvia were investigated, to attempt to identify retrospectively the past features of development. In each stand, one or two plots of size 200–900 m2 were established. Tree locations were mapped, stem diameter was measured, and tree age was determined from cores or by counting branch whorls. Tree distribution was assessed by Ripley's K function. A clumped spatial pattern was shown for P. sylvestris younger than 100 years. The temporal patterns of establishment could be partly linked to favourable climatic periods. The major disturbance affecting pine stands along the coast was windblown sand, which p…

Response of wood-inhabiting fungal community to fragmentation in a beech forest landscape

2014

Fragmentation of natural habitats has become one of the main causes of the loss of biodiversity. To assess the effects of forest fragmentation on wood-inhabiting fungal community in a beech-dominated landscape, 15 differently shaped beech forest fragments were examined in northern Spain. This work covers all the wood-inhabiting macromycetes, including Basidiomycota and Ascomycota. A modelling approach was used to examine the predictability of the fungal community in a fragmented beech forest landscape. In the beech forest patches, a large proportion of edge, low tree densities and low levels of variety of woody debris caused a decrease of wood-inhabiting fungal richness. The fungal communit…

Impact of climate, soil properties and grassland cover on soil water repellency

2021

Abstract Numerous soil water repellency (SWR) studies have investigated the possible causes of this temporal phenomenon, yet there remains a lack of knowledge on the order of importance of the main driving forces of SWR in the context of changing environmental conditions under grassland ecosystems. To study the separate and combined effects of soil texture, climate, and grassland cover type on inducing or altering SWR, four sites from different climatic and soil regions were selected: Ciavolo (CI, IT), Csolyospalos (CSP, HU), Pwllpeiran (PW, UK), Sekule (SE, SK). The investigated parameters were the extent (determined by repellency indices RI, RIc and RIm) and persistence (determined by wat…

Drained organic soils under agriculture — The more degraded the soil the higher the specific basal respiration

2019

Abstract Drained peatlands are hotspots of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from agricultural soils. As a consequence of both drainage-induced mineralisation and anthropogenic mixing with mineral soils, large areas of former peatlands under agricultural use underwent a secondary transformation of the peat (e.g. formation of aggregates). These soils show contents of soil organic carbon (SOC) at the boundary between mineral and organic soils. However, the carbon (C) dynamics of such soils have rarely been studied so far. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the vulnerability of soil organic matter (SOM) to decomposition over the whole range of peat-derived soils under agriculture includ…

Trophic cascades in benthic marine ecosystems: lessons for fisheries and protected-area management

2000

An important principle of environmental science is that changes in single components of systems are likely to have consequences elsewhere in the same systems. In the sea, food web data are one of the few foundations for predicting such indirect effects, whether of fishery exploitation or following recovery in marine protected areas (MPAs). We review the available literature on one type of indirect interaction in benthic marine ecosystems, namely trophic cascades, which involve three or more trophic levels connected by predation. Because many indirect effects have been revealed through fishery exploitation, in some cases we include humans as trophic levels. Our purpose is to establish how wi…

Transitions in European land-management regimes between 1800 and 2010

2015

Land use is a cornerstone of human civilization, but also intrinsically linked to many global sustainability challenges—from climate change to food security to the ongoing biodiversity crisis. Understanding the underlying technological, institutional and economic drivers of land-use change, and how they play out in different environmental, socio-economic and cultural contexts, is therefore important for identifying effective policies to successfully address these challenges. In this regard, much can be learned from studying long-term land-use change. We examined the evolution of European land management over the past 200 years with the aim of identifying (1) key episodes of changes in land …