| 1. |
- Cavard, Xavier, et al.
(författare)
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Disentangling Effects of Time Since Fire, Overstory Composition and Organic Layer Thickness on Nutrient Availability in Canadian Boreal Forest
- 2019
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Ingår i: Ecosystems. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1432-9840 .- 1435-0629. ; 22, s. 33-48
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wildfire is the primary abiotic disturbance in the boreal forest, and its long-term absence can lead to large changes in ecosystem properties, including the availability and cycling of nutrients. These effects are, however, often confounded with the effects of successional changes in vegetation toward nutrient-conservative species. We studied a system of boreal forested lake islands in eastern Canada, where time since last fire ranged from 50 to 1500years, and where the relative abundance of the most nutrient-conservative tree species, black spruce, was largely independent of time since last fire. This allowed us to disentangle the effects of time since fire and the dominant vegetation on ecosystem properties, including nutrient stocks and concentrations. Effects of time since fire independent of vegetation composition mostly involved an increase in the thickness of the organic layer and in nitrogen concentration in both soil and leaves. Domination by black spruce had strong negative effects on nutrient concentrations and was associated with a shift toward more fungi and Gram-positive bacteria in the soil microbial community. Path modeling showed that phosphorus concentration was inversely related to organic layer thickness, which was in turn related to both time since fire and black spruce abundance, while nitrogen was more directly related to time since fire and the composition of the overstory. We conclude that discriminating between the effects of vegetation and time since fire is necessary for better understanding and predicting the long-term changes that occur in forest nutrient availability and ecosystem properties.
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| 2. |
- De Long, Jonathan, et al.
(författare)
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Contrasting Responses of Soil Microbial and Nematode Communities to Warming and Plant Functional Group Removal Across a Post-fire Boreal Forest Successional Gradient
- 2016
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Ingår i: Ecosystems (New York. Print). - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1432-9840 .- 1435-0629. ; 19:2, s. 339-355
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Global warming is causing increases in surface temperatures and has the potential to influence the structure of soil microbial and faunal communities. However, little is known about how warming interacts with other ecosystem drivers, such as plant functional groups or changes associated with succession, to affect the soil community and thereby alter ecosystem functioning. We investigated how experimental warming and the removal of plant functional groups along a post-fire boreal forest successional gradient impacted soil microbial and nematode communities. Our results showed that warming altered soil microbial communities and favored bacterial-based microbial communities, but these effects were mediated by mosses and shrubs, and often varied with successional stage. Meanwhile, the nematode community was generally unaffected by warming and was positively affected by the presence of mosses and shrubs, with these effects mostly independent of successional stage. These results highlight that different groups of soil organisms may respond dissimilarly to interactions between warming and changes to plant functional groups, with likely consequences for ecosystem functioning that may vary with successional stage. Due to the ubiquitous presence of shrubs and mosses in boreal forests, the effects observed in this study are likely to be significant over a large proportion of the terrestrial land surface. Our results demonstrate that it is crucial to consider interactive effects between warming, plant functional groups, and successional stage when predicting soil community responses to global climate change in forested ecosystems.
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| 3. |
- Ibáñez, Theresa Simona, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of Soil Abiotic and Biotic Factors on Tree Seedling Regeneration Following a Boreal Forest Wildfire
- 2022
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Ingår i: Ecosystems. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1432-9840 .- 1435-0629. ; 25, s. 471-487
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wildfire disturbance is important for tree regeneration in boreal ecosystems. A considerable amount of literature has been published on how wildfires affect boreal forest regeneration. However, we lack understanding about how soil-mediated effects of fire disturbance on seedlings occur via soil abiotic properties versus soil biota. We collected soil from stands with three different severities of burning (high, low and unburned) and conducted two greenhouse experiments to explore how seedlings of tree species (Betula pendula, Pinus sylvestris and Picea abies) performed in live soils and in sterilized soil inoculated by live soil from each of the three burning severities. Seedlings grown in live soil grew best in unburned soil. When sterilized soils were reinoculated with live soil, seedlings of P. abies and P. sylvestris grew better in soil from low burn severity stands than soil from either high severity or unburned stands, demonstrating that fire disturbance may favor post-fire regeneration of conifers in part due to the presence of soil biota that persists when fire severity is low or recovers quickly post-fire. Betula pendula did not respond to soil biota and was instead driven by changes in abiotic soil properties following fire. Our study provides strong evidence that high fire severity creates soil conditions that are adverse for seedling regeneration, but that low burn severity promotes soil biota that stimulates growth and potential regeneration of conifers. It also shows that species-specific responses to abiotic and biotic soil characteristics are altered by variation in fire severity. This has important implications for tree regeneration because it points to the role of plant-soil-microbial feedbacks in promoting successful establishment, and potentially successional trajectories and species dominance in boreal forests in the future as fire regimes become increasingly severe through climate change.
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| 4. |
- Jonsson, Micael, et al.
(författare)
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Direct and Indirect Drivers of Moss Community Structure, Function, and Associated Microfauna Across a Successional Gradient
- 2015
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Ingår i: Ecosystems. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1432-9840 .- 1435-0629. ; 18:1, s. 154-169
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Relative to vascular plants, little is known about what factors control bryophyte communities or how they respond to successional and environmental changes. Bryophytes are abundant in boreal forests, thus changes in moss community composition and functional traits (for example, moisture and nutrient content; rates of photosynthesis and respiration) may have important consequences for ecosystem processes and microfaunal communities. Through synthesis of previous work and new analyses integrating new and published data from a long-term successional gradient in the boreal forest of northern Sweden, we provide a comprehensive view of the biotic factors (for example, vascular plant productivity, species composition, and diversity) and abiotic factors (for example, soil fertility and light transmission) that impact the moss community. Our results show that different aspects of the moss community (that is, composition, functional traits, moss-driven processes, and associated invertebrate fauna) respond to different sets of environmental variables, and that these are not always the same variables as those that influence the vascular plant community. Measures of moss community composition and functional traits were primarily influenced by vascular plant community composition and productivity. This suggests that successional shifts in abiotic variables, such as soil nutrient levels, indirectly affect the moss community via their influence on vascular plant community characteristics, whereas direct abiotic effects are less important. Among the moss-driven processes, moss litter decomposition and moss productivity were mainly influenced by biotic variables (notably the community characteristics of both vascular plants and mosses), whereas moss functional traits (primarily specific leaf area and tissue nutrient concentrations) also were important in explaining moss di-nitrogen-fixation rates. In contrast, both abiotic and biotic variables were important drivers of moss microfaunal community structure. Taken together, our results show which abiotic and biotic factors impact mosses and their associated organisms, and thus highlight that multiple interacting factors need to be considered to understand how moss communities, associated food webs, and the ecosystem processes they influence will respond to environmental change.
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