Search results for "terrestrial ecosystem"
showing 10 items of 43 documents
Contribution of local factors to the status of a groundwater dependent terrestrial ecosystem in the transboundary Gauja-Koiva River basin, North-East…
2021
Abstract A pilot study was carried out in the Matsi spring fen, southern Estonia to test a proposed methodology ( Terasmaa et al., 2020 ) for identifying potential effects of groundwater bodies on groundwater dependent terrestrial ecosystems (GDTE). A comprehensive hydrochemical and isotopic dataset was collected and analyzed using multivariate statistical methods to assess the origin of the groundwater discharging in the spring fen and to determine both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of GDTE-groundwater interdependence. The hydrochemical findings were complemented with the hydrogeological, hydrodynamical and botanical observations, and summarized into a conceptual model of the st…
Characterization of the main land processes occurring in Europe (2000-2018) through a MODIS NDVI seasonal parameter-based procedure
2021
Trabajo desarrollado bajo la financiación del proyecto “Soil Hydrology research platform underpinning innovation to manage water scarcity in European and Chinese cropping Systems” (773903), coordinado por José Alfonso Gómez Calero, investigador del Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible (IAS).
Fire disturbance disrupts co-occurrence patterns of terrestrial vertebrates in Mediterranean woodlands
2006
Aim This paper uses null model analysis to explore the pattern of species co-occurrence of terrestrial vertebrate fauna in fire-prone, mixed evergreen oak woodlands. Location The Erico–Quercion ilicis of the Mediterranean belt (50–800 m a.s.l.) in the Madonie mountain range, a regional park in northern Sicily (37°50′ N, 14°05′ E), Italy. Methods The stratified sampling of vertebrates in a secondary succession of recent burned areas (BA, 1–2 years old), intermediate burned areas (INT, 4–10 years old) and ancient burned areas (CNB, > 50 years old), plus forest fragments left within burned areas (FF, 1–2 years old) permitted the comparison of patterns of species co-occurrence using a set of…
Platform GenoSol: a new tool for conserving and exploring soil microbial diversity
2009
International audience; Soils are the principal reservoirs of microbial diversity and represent a core component of terrestrial ecosystems. There is an increasing demand for assessing the impact of agricultural and industrial practices on the environment at large scales in a context of global change. To address this demand, taxonomic and functional diversity of soil microbial communities, and their stability over time need to be characterized for predicting soil quality upon human activities, the evolution of this quality being expected to affect environment quality and public health. Recent methodological progresses have led to the development and automation of molecular biological tools (…
Effect of catchment characteristics on aquatic carbon export from a boreal catchment and its importance in regional carbon cycling
2013
Inland waters transport and emit into the atmosphere large amounts of carbon (C), which originates from terrestrial ecosystems. The effect of land cover and land-use practises on C export from terrestrial ecosystems to inland waters is not fully understood, especially in heterogeneous landscapes under human influence. We sampled for dissolved C species in five tributaries with well-determined subcatchments (total size 174.5 km(2)), as well as in various points of two of the subcatchments draining to a boreal lake in southern Finland over a full year. Our aim was to find out how land cover and land-use affect C export from the catchments, as well as CH4 and CO2 concentrations of the streams,…
Dinosaur bonebed amber from an original swamp forest soil
2021
AbstractDinosaur bonebeds with amber content, yet scarce, offer a superior wealth and quality of data on ancient terrestrial ecosystems. However, the preserved palaeodiversity and/or taphonomic characteristics of these exceptional localities had hitherto limited their palaeobiological potential. Here we describe the amber from the Lower Cretaceous dinosaur bonebed of Ariño (Teruel, Spain) using a multidisciplinary approach. Amber is found in both a root layer with amber strictly in situ and a litter layer namely composed of aerial pieces unusually rich in bioinclusions, encompassing 11 insect orders, arachnids, and a few plant and vertebrate remains, including a feather. Additional palaeont…
Terrestrial carbon and intraspecific size-variation shape lake ecosystems
2007
Conceptual models of lake ecosystem structure and function have generally assumed that energy in pelagic systems is derived from in situ photosynthesis and that its use by higher trophic levels depends on the average properties of individuals in consumer populations.These views are challenged by evidence that allochthonous subsidies of organic carbon greatly influence energy mobilization and transfer and the trophic structure of pelagic food webs, and that size variation within consumer species has major ramifications for lake communitydynamics and structure. These discoveries represent conceptual shifts that have yet to be integrated into current views on lake ecosystems. Here, we assess k…
Energy use in the A and B horizons of the soil under a pine and a cedar stand
2002
Publisher Summary This chapter discusses a study that compares organic carbon content, availability of substrates, and microbial metabolism in two afforested sites in Sicily (Italy) developed under the same climatic and physical conditions but underlying different tree species. Given the key role of the soil microbiota in promoting energy exchanges and transformations in the soil profile, an analysis of the microbial activity and of organic carbon pools was performed on twenty profiles. The parameters considered in this study were based on microbial activity, organic carbon fractions, and kinetics of organic C mineralization. In the two systems studied, the competition for available energy …
Loss in microbial diversity affects nitrogen cycling in soil
2013
International audience; Microbial communities have a central role in ecosystem processes by driving the Earth's biogeochemical cycles. However, the importance of microbial diversity for ecosystem functioning is still debated. Here, we experimentally manipulated the soil microbial community using a dilution approach to analyze the functional consequences of diversity loss. A trait-centered approach was embraced using the denitrifiers as model guild due to their role in nitrogen cycling, a major ecosystem service. How various diversity metrics related to richness, eveness and phylogenetic diversity of the soil denitrifier community were affected by the removal experiment was assessed by 454 s…
Millennial-scale terrestrial ecosystem responses to Upper Pleistocene climatic changes: 4D-reconstruction of the Schwalbenberg Loess-Palaeosol-Sequen…
2021
Abstract Loess-Palaeosol-Sequences (LPS) in the Central European region provide outstanding terrestrial polygenetic and multiphase archives responding to past climate and environments over various spatial and temporal scales. As yet, however, the geomorphological and pedogenic processes involved in LPS formation, and their interplay with changes in ecological conditions, impede robust correlation with other palaeoenvironmental archives. The Schwalbenberg LPS, which drape a hillslope in the Middle Rhine Valley in western Central Europe, provide unique high-resolution records highly suitable for investigating the processes involved in their formation and the relationship to climatic influence…