Treeline shifts in the Ural mountains affect soil organic matter dynamics

Kammer, Adrian; Hagedorn, Frank; Shevchenko, I. G.; Leifeld, Jens; Guggenberger, Georg; Goryacheva, T. A.; Rigling, Andreas; Moiseev, Pavel

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.01856.x

Cited by 95 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Our results showed a mutual dependency of OM content and soil physico-chemical properties for soils of the Western Rhodopes and confirmed the role of OM as an ecosystem property (Schmidt et al 2011). Our results further showed that total SOC stocks were greater in the forests compared with other sites, and similar findings were reported by Kammer et al (2009).…”

Section: Iforest -Biogeosciences and Forestrysupporting

confidence: 80%

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Carbon storage and soil property changes following afforestation in mountain ecosystems of the Western Rhodopes, Bulgaria

Zhiyanski¹,

Glushkova²,

Ferezliev³

et al. 2016

iForest

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Land-use changes and afforestation activities are widely recognized as possible measures for mitigating climate change through carbon sequestration. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of afforestation on (i) soil physical and chemical properties and soil carbon stocks in four mountain ecosystems and (ii) whole ecosystem carbon storage. The four experimental sites, situated in the Western Rhodope Mountains (Bulgaria) were characterized by typical forest-related land-use conversions. The four sites were a Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii [Mirb.] Franco) plantation (Rd1) established on former cropland, a mixed black pine (Pinus nigra Arn.) with Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) plantation (Rd2) established on former cropland, a cropland (RdA1) and an abandoned land with uncontrolled extensive grazing (RdA2) historically used as cropland. Soil parameters, i.e., sand content, pH, organic C and N contents, C/N ratio and soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, were significantly affected by land use and land-use history. Conversion from cropland into forestland significantly reduced soil bulk density and coarse fragments at 0-10 cm depth. Compared with adjacent cropland and abandoned land, soils in coniferous plantations were acidified in their upper layers. Sites Rd2 and RdA2 contained the least SOC owing to the previous long-term arable cultivation (>100 years). Analysis of the ecosystem C stock distribution revealed that most of C in forests was stored in the aboveground tree biomass. Our study confirmed that afforestation of cropland turned the soil into a C sink for the selected mountain region, but showed conflicting results when afforestation occurred on abandoned cropland.

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Section: Iforest -Biogeosciences and Forestrysupporting

confidence: 80%

“…Spatial variability of organic matter stocks and turnover in different types of ecosystem depend on many factors (air temperature, aboveground vegetation composition, soil type, soil moisture regime etc. -Kammer et al 2009, Laganière et al 2013. Mountain ecosystems are highly sensitive to environmental changes (Kör-ner & Paulsen 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon storage and soil property changes following afforestation in mountain ecosystems of the Western Rhodopes, Bulgaria

Zhiyanski¹,

Glushkova²,

Ferezliev³

et al. 2016

iForest

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“…On the other hand, warmer temperatures and increased microbial activity will likely cause a loss of carbon from alpine soils . Since a higher amount of carbon is stored in soils than in the aboveground biomass above tree line (Devi et al, 2008;Kammer et al, 2009) this indicates that alpine ecosystems may turn into carbon sources rather than sinks.…”

Section: Plant Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in alpine plant growth under future climate conditions

Rammig

Jonas²,

Zimmermann

et al. 2010

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. Alpine shrub-and grasslands are shaped by extreme climatic conditions such as a long-lasting snow cover and a short vegetation period. Such ecosystems are expected to be highly sensitive to global environmental change. Prolonged growing seasons and shifts in temperature and precipitation are likely to affect plant phenology and growth. In a unique experiment, climatology and plant growth was monitored for almost a decade at 17 snow meteorological stations in different alpine regions along the Swiss Alps. Regression analyses revealed highly significant correlations between mean air temperature in May/June and snow melt out, onset of plant growth, and plant height. These correlations were used to project plant growth phenology for future climate conditions based on the gridded output of a set of regional climate models runs. Melt out and onset of growth were projected to occur on average 17 days earlier by the end of the century than in the control period from 1971-2000 under the future climate conditions of the low resolution climate model ensemble. Plant height and biomass production were expected to increase by 77% and 45%, respectively. The earlier melt out and onset of growth will probably cause a considerable shift towards higher growing plants and thus increased biomass. Our results represent the first quantitative and spatially explicit estimates of climate change impacts on future growing season length and the respective productivity of alpine plant communities in the Swiss Alps.

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“…Hartley et al, 2012). Studies comparing alpine and forest ecosystems suggest that treeline advance onto tundra releases the older C stored in the organic horizons of the soil (Kammer et al, 2009) which is not fully compensated for by increases in above-ground stocks (Hartley et al, 2012;Sjögersten and Wookey, 2009). However, studies that seek to investigate carbon balances over the treeline ecotone typically focus on comparisons of forest and tundra ecosystems, without reference to the wider elevational pattern.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Continuous and discontinuous variation in ecosystem carbon stocks with elevation across a treeline ecotone

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Treelines differentiate vastly contrasting ecosystems: open tundra from closed forest. Treeline advance has implications for the climate system due to the impact of the transition from tundra to forest ecosystem on carbon (C) storage and albedo. Treeline advance has been seen to increase above-ground C stocks as low vegetation is replaced with trees but decrease organic soil C stocks as old carbon is decomposed. However, studies comparing across the treeline typically do not account for elevational variation within the ecotone. Here we sample ecosystem C stocks along an elevational gradient (970 to 1300 m), incorporating a large-scale and long-term livestock grazing experiment, in the southern Norwegian mountains. We investigate whether there are continuous or discontinuous changes in C storage across the treeline ecotone, and whether these are modulated by grazing. We find that vegetation C stock decreases with elevation, with a clear breakpoint between the forest line and treeline above which the vegetation C stock is constant. C stocks in organic surface horizons of the soil were higher above the treeline than in the forest, whereas C stocks in mineral soil horizons are unrelated to elevation. Total ecosystem C stocks also showed a discontinuous elevational pattern, increasing with elevation above the treeline (8 g m −2 per metre increase in elevation), but decreasing with elevation below the forest line (−15 g m −2 per metre increase in elevation), such that ecosystem C storage reaches a minimum between the forest line and treeline. We did not find any effect of short-term (12 years) grazing on the elevational patterns. Our findings demonstrate that patterns of C storage across the treeline are complex, and should be taken account of when estimating ecosystem C storage with shifting treelines.

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Treeline shifts in the Ural mountains affect soil organic matter dynamics

Cited by 95 publications

References 39 publications

Carbon storage and soil property changes following afforestation in mountain ecosystems of the Western Rhodopes, Bulgaria

Carbon storage and soil property changes following afforestation in mountain ecosystems of the Western Rhodopes, Bulgaria

Changes in alpine plant growth under future climate conditions

Continuous and discontinuous variation in ecosystem carbon stocks with elevation across a treeline ecotone

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