| 1. |
- Sigurdsson, Bjarni D., et al.
(författare)
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Geothermal ecosystems as natural climate change experiments : The ForHot research site in Iceland as a case study
- 2016
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Ingår i: Icelandic Agricultural Sciences. - 1670-567X. ; 29:1, s. 53-71
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article describes how natural geothermal soil temperature gradients in Iceland have been used to study terrestrial ecosystem responses to soil warming. The experimental approach was evaluated at three study sites in southern Iceland one grassland site that has been warm for at least 50 years (GO), and another comparable grassland site (GN) and a Sitka spruce plantation (FN) site that have both been warmed since an earthquake took place in 2008. Within each site type, five ca. 50 m long transects, with six permanent study plots each, were established across the soil warming gradients, spanning from unwarmed control conditions to gradually warmer soils. It was attempted to select the plots so the annual warming levels would be ca. +1, +3, +5, +10 and +20 °C within each transect. Results of continuous measurements of soil temperature (Ts) from 2013-2015 revealed that the soil warming was relatively constant and followed the seasonal Ts cycle of the unwarmed control plots. Volumetric water content in the top 5 cm of soil was repeatedly surveyed during 2013-2016. The grassland soils were wetter than the FN soils, but they had sometimes some significant warming-induced drying in the surface layer of the warmest plots, in contrast to FN. Soil chemistry did not show any indications that geothermal water had reached the root zone, but soil pH did increase somewhat with warming, which was probably linked to vegetation changes. As expected, the potential decomposition rate of organic matter increased significantly with warming. It was concluded that the natural geothermal gradients at the ForHot sites in Iceland offered realistic conditions for studying terrestrial ecosystem responses to warming with minimal artefacts.
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| 2. |
- Marteinsdottir, Bryndis, et al.
(författare)
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An experimental test of the relationship between small scale topography and seedling establishment in primary succession
- 2013
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Ingår i: Plant Ecology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1385-0237 .- 1573-5052. ; 214:8, s. 1007-1015
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In infertile environments, the spatial scale and distribution of favourable microsites may be an important determinant of vegetation patterns. Such patterns may be persistent although the association and causality may only be detectable during initial establishment. In this study we investigated experimentally how spatial variation on two different scales and species-specific traits affected seedling survival at an early successional site on SkeiA degrees ararsandur, a 1,000 km(2) homogeneous glacial outwash plain in SE-Iceland. Seedlings of eight native species were transplanted into six different micro-topographical combinations: three types of microsites (lee side of small stones and cushion plants, and control), located within two topographical features (shallow depressions and surrounding flats). Seedling survival was then recorded. Only 11 % of transplanted seedlings survived through the second winter, however seedlings that survived past the second growing season were likely to persist. Survival rates varied by species and were positively linked to seed size. Seedling survival was only weakly associated with spatial variation. The strongest association found was that survival was sometimes higher on flats compared to depressions. Sand accumulation in depressions might lower seedling survival there. We conclude that early plant establishment at the site, and the emergent vegetation mosaic, is most likely produced by the interaction of stochastic factors, such as the sand storms that intermittently rage across the plain and species-specific properties like seed size. However, in better-vegetated areas of SkeiA degrees ararsandur depressions often have higher moss and vascular plant cover than nearby flats, suggesting that moss may control vegetation patterns seen later in succession.
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