Effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 and tropospheric O3 on tree branch growth and implications for hydrologic budgeting

The forest hydrologic budget may be impacted by increasing CO₂ and tropospheric O₃. Efficient means to quantify such effects are beneficial. We hypothesized that changes in the balance of canopy interception, stem flow, and through-fall in the presence of elevated CO₂ and O₃ could be discerned using image analysis of leafless branches. We compared annual stem flow to the results of a computerized analysis of all branches from the 2002, 2004, and 2006 annual growth whorls of 97 ten-year-old trees from the Aspen Free-Air CO₂ and O₃ Enrichment (Aspen FACE) experiment in Rhinelander, WI. We found significant effects of elevated CO₂ and O₃ on some branch metrics, and that the branch metrics were useful for predicting stem flow from birch, but not aspen. The results of this study should contribute to development of techniques for efficient characterization of effects on the forest hydrologic budget of increasing CO₂ and tropospheric O₃.     

Demographic Analysis of Tree Colonization in a20-Year-Old Right-of-Way

Past tree colonization dynamics of a powerline-right-of-way (ROW) corridor in the Haut-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec was studied based on the present age distribution of its tree populations. This colonization study spans 20 years, from 1977 (ROW clearance) to 1996. The sampled quadrats were classified into six vegetation types. Tree colonization dynamics were interpreted in each type, and three distinct patterns were identified. (1) Communities adapted to acidic conditions were heavily colonized by Acer rubrum, at least for the last 12 years. (2) Communities adapted to mesic or to hydric conditions were more intensely colonized in the period 1985-1987 than in the following 9 years; this past success in tree colonization may have been caused by herbicide treatments, which could have facilitated tree establishment by damaging the herbaceous and shrub vegetation. (3) Cattail, vine-raspberry, and reed-dominated communities contained few tree individuals, with almost all trees establishing between 1979 and 1990; those three vegetation types appear as the most resistant to tree invasion in the ROW studied. This study supports the need for an integrated approach in ROW vegetation management, in which the selection of vegetation treatment methods would depend on the tree colonization dynamics in each vegetation type. Minimizing disturbances inflicted on ROW herbaceous and shrub covers should be the central strategy because disturbances jeopardize natural resistance to future tree invasion, except in communities adapted to acidic conditions where the existing vegetation does not prevent invasion by A. rubrum. Many trees are surviving the successive cutting operations by producing new sprouts each time, particularly in communities adapted to mesic and hydric conditions. In these cases, mechanical cutting should be replaced by a one-time stump-killing operation, to avoid repeated and unsuccessful treatments of the same individuals over time.     

Population structure and community characteristics of Acer catalpifolium Rehd北大核心CSCD

Acer catalpifolium Rehd., a critically endangered tree species with an extremely limited range of distribution, is one of the 120 plant species with extremely small populations, as approved by the state forestry administration of the People's Republic of China and requires urgent rescue action. In order to comprehensively understand the population status and the future developmental trend of A. catalpifolium, the plant communities were investigated from 5 sites, including Caishenmiao (CSM), Banruosi (BRS), Zhangshancun (ZSC), Fuhusi (FHS), and Baoguosi (BGS). The population structure of A. catalpifolium as well as the species composition and community characteristics of its habitat were investigated. The results showed that A. catalpifolium is mainly distributed in the evergreen broad-leaved and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forests, in different community layers, namely, the tree layer, shrub layer, and herb layer, and is accompanied by 52, 74, and 52 plant species, respectively. Analyses of the distribution of population abundance revealed that BRS had the largest distribution of A. catalpifolium, accounting for 26.04% of the total population, followed by FHS, ZSC, BGS, and CSM, in that order. Analyses of the community characteristics revealed that the species diversity indices in FHS, BRS, BGS, and CSM were greater than that in ZSC. Analyses of the population age structure of A. catalpifolium revealed the gap in the distribution of the levels of seedlings and young trees. There were serious obstacles to the regeneration of the natural population. We concluded that the obstacle to the regeneration of the population of A. catalpifolium might be caused by the high competitive pressure from the dominant species and the micro-environment in the forest. Understanding the community characteristics and the population structure of A. catalpifolium could provide a theoretical foundation for its reintroduction and recovery. © 2018 Science Press. All rights reserved.     

A survey of antennal responses by five species of coniferophagous bark beetles (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) to bark volatiles of six species of angiosperm trees

Summary. Using Porapak Q traps, we collected the bark volatiles of six angiosperm trees native to British Columbia: black cottonwood, Populus trichocarpa Torr. & A. Gray (Salicaceae), trembling aspen, P. tremuloides Michx. (Salicaceae), paper birch, Betula papyrifera Marsh. (Betulaceae), bigleaf maple, Acer macrophyllum Pursh (Aceraceae), red alder, Alnus rubra Bong. (Betulaceae), and Sitka alder, A. viridis ssp. sinuata (Regel) á. L?ve & D. L?ve (Betulaceae). Utilising coupled gas chromatographic-electroantennographic detection analysis, the captured volatiles were assayed for antennal responses in five species of coniferophagous bark beetles (Coleoptera: Scolytidae), sympatric with most or all of the angiosperm trees: the Douglas-fir beetle, Dendroctonus pseudotsugae Hopkins, the mountain pine beetle, D. ponderosae Hopkins, the spruce beetle, D. rufipennis (Kirby), the western balsam bark beetle, Dryocoetes confusus Swaine, and the pine engraver, Ips pini (Say). The identities of 25 antennally-active compounds were determined by coupled gas chromatographic-mass spectroscopic analysis, and co-chromatographic comparisons with authentic chemicals. The compounds identified were: hexanal, (E)-2-hexenal, (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol, 1-hexanol, heptanal, α-pinene, frontalin, benzaldehyde, β-pinene, 2-hydroxycyclohexanone, 3-carene, limonene, β-phellandrene, benzyl alcohol, (E)-ocimene, salicylaldehyde, conophthorin, guaiacol, nonanal, methyl salicylate, 4-allylanisole, decanal, thymol methyl ether, (E)-nerolidol, and dendrolasin. A number of these compounds are known semiochemicals that are active in the behaviour of other organisms, including bark beetles, suggesting a high degree of semiochemical parsimony. Antennally-active compounds ranged from seven in A. viridis to 17 in P. trichocarpa. The fewest number of compounds (9) were detected by I. pini and the largest number (24) were detected by D. pseudotsugae. Six compounds excited the antennae of all five species of bark beetles. The large number of antennally-active compounds detected in common by numerous bark beetles and present in common in numerous nonhost trees supports the hypothesis of olfaction-based recognition and avoidance of nonhost angiosperm trees during the process of host selection by coniferophagous bark beetles. Received 13 December 1999; accepted 14 March 2000     

Susceptibility of a Northern Hardwood Forest to Exotic Earthworm Invasion

Abstract:  Numerous exotic earthworm species are colonizing northern hardwood forests of North America, where no native earthworms exist. Upon invasion, earthworms have been shown to alter the surface soil environment and plant populations and communities. We sought to identify land-use factors in the Ottawa National Forest (ONF), Michigan (U.S.A.), that contribute to earthworm invasion in forest dominated by sugar maple ( Acer saccharum Marsh.) so that the susceptibility to additional colonization could be evaluated. We sampled earthworm communities in Sylvania Wilderness Area, a unique old-growth hardwood forest, and nonwilderness sites influenced by recreational fishing, recent timber harvesting, or roads. All the nonwilderness sites contained one to five species of exotic earthworms. In contrast, only 50% of wilderness sites contained exotic earthworms, all of a single species. Nonwilderness sites also had thinner litter and duff layers, higher soil C and N content, and higher nitrogen mineralization potentials than Sylvania sites. Two central differences between Sylvania and nonwilderness sites were that all nonwilderness sites were in close contact with roads and had a history of timber harvest, whereas these factors were not present in Sylvania Wilderness Area. Using average rates of colonization, we constructed two geographic information system models to estimate the percentage of sugar maple on the ONF falling within a theoretical 100-year invasion distance of roads and of second-growth sugar maple as relative indices of susceptibility to invasion. Both models indicated high susceptibility to invasion, with 91.7% and 98.9% of sugar maple habitat falling within a theoretical 100-year invasion distance of roads or historical harvests, respectively.     

Air pollution assessment based on elemental concentration of leaves tissue and foliage dust along an urbanization gradient in Vienna

Foliage dust contains heavy metal that may have harmful effects on human health. The elemental contents of tree leaves and foliage dust are especially useful to assess air environmental pollution. We studied the elemental concentrations in foliage dust and leaves of Acer pseudoplatanus along an urbanization gradient in Vienna, Austria. Samples were collected from urban, suburban and rural areas. We analysed 19 elements in both kind of samples: aluminium, barium, calcium, copper, iron, potassium, magnesium, sodium, phosphor, sulphur, strontium and zinc. We found that the elemental concentrations of foliage dust were significantly higher in the urban area than in the rural area for aluminium, barium, iron, lead, phosphor and selenium. Elemental concentrations of leaves were significantly higher in urban than in rural area for manganese and strontium. Urbanization changed significantly the elemental concentrations of foliage dust and leaves and the applied method can be useful for monitoring the environmental load.     

Mechanisms of moisture stress in a mid-latitude temperate forest: Implications for feedforward and feedback controls from an irrigation experiment

While it is well established that stomata close during moisture stress, strong correlations among environmental (e.g., vapor pressure deficit, soil moisture, air temperature, radiation) and internal (e.g., leaf water potential, sap flow, root-shoot signaling) variables obscure the identification of causal mechanisms from field experiments. Models of stomatal control fitted to field data therefore suffer from ambiguous parameter identification, with multiple acceptable (i.e., nearly optimal) model structures emphasizing different moisture status indicators and different processes. In an effort to minimize these correlations and improve parameter and process identification, we conducted an irrigation experiment on red maples (Acer rubrum L.) at Harvard Forest (summers of 2005 and 2006). Control and irrigated trees experienced similar radiative and boundary layer forcings, but different soil moisture status, and thus presumably different diurnal cycles of internal leaf water potential. Measured soil moisture and atmospheric forcing were used to drive a transient tree hydraulic model that incorporated a Jarvis-type leaf conductance in a Penman–Monteith framework with a Cowan-type (resistance and capacitance) tree hydraulic representation. The leaf conductance model included dependence on both leaf matric potential, Ψ_L (so-called feedback control) and on vapor pressure deficit, D (so-called feedforward control). Model parameters were estimated by minimizing the error between predicted and measured sap flow. The whole-tree irrigation treatment had the effect of elevating measured transpiration during summer dry-downs, demonstrating the limiting effect that subsurface resistance may have on transpiration during these times of moisture stress. From the best fitted model, we infer that during dry downs, moisture stress manifests itself in an increase of soil resistance with a resulting decrease in Ψ_L, leading to both feedforward and feedback controls in the control trees, but only feedforward control for the irrigated set. Increases in the sum-of-squares error when individual model components were disabled allow us to reject the following three null hypotheses: (1) the f(D) stress is statistically insignificant (p = 0.01); (2) the f(Ψ_L) stress is statistically insignificant (p = 0.07); and (3) plant storage capacitance is independent of moisture status (p = 0.07).     

镧(La)-甘氨酸(Gly)稀土配合物对酸雨伤害植物的影响

用３０ ｍｇ Ｌ－ １ ＬａＧｌｙ 处理鸡爪槭１ 次,可减轻ｐＨ３．５ 酸雨对鸡爪槭造成的伤害．实验结果显示,此与ＬａＧｌｙ 提高鸡爪槭叶片光合速率,叶绿素含量,减少丙二醛含量,降低细胞质膜透性,维持细胞汁ｐＨ 值稳定性与过氧化氢酶、过氧化物酶及脱氢酶活性等多重生态生理效应相关．     

土壤含水量对三种阔叶树苗气体交换及生物量分配的影响

在温室内用盆栽法研究了土壤含水量对茶条槭、山梨和山桃的气体交换及生物量分配的影响,设置4种土壤水分处理(土壤相对含水量75．0％、61．1％、46．4％和35．4％)．结果表明：随土壤含水量降低，3树种苗木净光合速率、蒸腾速率和气孔导度均下降，土壤含水量最低时，茶条槭苗木各生理指标降低幅度最大，山梨和山桃次之．茶条槭和山梨水分利用效率(WUE)随土壤含水量的减少呈降低趋势，山桃WUE呈升高趋势．水分胁迫下，3树种苗木根分配生物量显著增加．茶条槭在水分胁迫下，根冠比增加幅度最大，山梨次之，山桃最小．此外，茶条槭叶形态可塑性强，随土壤含水量降低，茶条槭单叶叶面积和总叶面积显著减小，叶厚度增加．山梨和山桃在水分胁迫下单叶叶面积及总叶面积无显著变化．综合3树种苗木在水分胁迫下的生理和形态指标及生物量分配的变化，茶条槭和山桃对水分胁迫的适应能力强于山梨．表4参31     

Comparative analysis of metal translocation in red maple (Acer rubrum) and trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) populations from stressed ecosystems contaminated with metals

Uptake of contaminants by plants and their mechanisms have been the subjects of several studies, but reports on the analysis of metal translocation in hardwood trees are limited. The main objective of this study is to compare metal accumulation and translocation in red maple (Acer rubrum) and trembling aspen (Poplar tremuloides) growing in Northern Ontario. Results show that P. tremuloides leaf tissues accumulate more nickel (Ni) and zinc (Zn) than roots. The concentrations of these elements in A. rubrum were low in leaf, branch, and roots tissues compared to the bioavailable levels of these metals in soil. The translocation factors (TFs) of metals from roots to leaves were low for copper (Cu) and high for iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), Ni, and Zn in P. tremuloides. They varied from 0.52 to 3.26 for Fe, 3.39 to 5.47 for Mg, 2.6 to 16.4 for Ni, and 1.41 to 4.1 for Zn. For A. rubrum the TF was low for all the elements except Mg. For this species, the TF values from roots to leaves varied from 0.08 to 0.17 for Fe, 2.62 to 4.13 for Mg, 0.26 to 0.81 for Ni, and 0.71 to 0.90 for Zn. Overall, Cu does not accumulate in P. tremuloides and A. rubrum tissues, and the two species have different mechanisms in dealing with the other main contaminants in the region, specifically Ni and Zn. P. tremuloides is an accumulator for Ni and Zn while A. rubrum is an excluder for Zn and it uses the avoidance strategy to deal with soil Ni contamination.