Species-specific responses of C and N allocation to N addition: evidence from dual C and N labeling in three tree species.

Soil nitrogen (N) availability affects plant carbon (C) utilization. However, it is unclear how various tree functional types respond to N addition in terms of C assimilation, allocation, and storage. Here, a microcosm experiment with dual C and N labeling was conducted to study the effects of N addition (i.

The metabolic fingerprint of Scots pine-root and needle metabolites show different patterns in dying trees.

The loss of leaves and needles in tree crowns and tree mortality are increasing worldwide, mostly as a result of more frequent and severe drought stress. Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is a tree species that is strongly affected by these developments in many regions of Europe and Asia.

Divergent role of nutrient availability in determining drought responses of sessile oak and Scots pine seedlings: evidence from 13C and 15N dual labeling.

Increased soil nutrient availability can promote tree growth while drought impairs metabolic functioning and induces tree mortality. However, limited information is available about the role of nutrients in the drought responses of trees. A greenhouse experiment was conducted with sessile oak (Quercus petraea (Matt.

Water status and macronutrient concentrations, but not carbon status, of ssp. are determined by its hosts: a study across nine mistletoe-host pairs in central Switzerland.

Introduction: European mistletoe, L., is a hemiparasite that can infect various tree species, yet our understanding of its physiological interactions with host species is limited.

Methods: Nine mistletoe-host pairs (i.

N and P combined addition accelerates the release of litter C, N, and most metal nutrients in a N-rich subtropical forest.

Imbalanced nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) depositions are profoundly shifting terrestrial ecosystem biogeochemical processes. However, how P addition and its interaction with N addition influence the release of litter carbon (C), N, P, and especially metal nutrients in subtropical forests remains unclear. Herein, a two-year field litterbag experiment was conducted in a natural subtropical evergreen broadleaved forest of southwestern China using a factorial design with three levels of N addition (0, 10, and 20 g N m y) and P addition (0, 5, 15 g P m y).

Networking the forest infrastructure towards near real-time monitoring - A white paper.

Forests account for nearly 90 % of the world's terrestrial biomass in the form of carbon and they support 80 % of the global biodiversity. To understand the underlying forest dynamics, we need a long-term but also relatively high-frequency, networked monitoring system, as traditionally used in meteorology or hydrology. While there are numerous existing forest monitoring sites, particularly in temperate regions, the resulting data streams are rarely connected and do not provide information promptly, which hampers real-time assessments of forest responses to extreme climate events.

Soil fauna drives vertical redistribution of soil organic carbon in a long-term irrigated dry pine forest.

Summer droughts strongly affect soil organic carbon (SOC) cycling, but net effects on SOC storage are unclear as drought affects both C inputs and outputs from soils. Here, we explored the overlooked role of soil fauna on SOC storage in forests, hypothesizing that soil faunal activity is particularly drought-sensitive, thereby reducing litter incorporation into the mineral soil and, eventually, long-term SOC storage. In a drought-prone pine forest (Switzerland), we performed a large-scale irrigation experiment for 17 years and assessed its impact on vertical SOC distribution and composition.

Number of growth days and not length of the growth period determines radial stem growth of temperate trees.

Radial stem growth dynamics at seasonal resolution are essential to understand how forests respond to climate change. We studied daily radial growth of 160 individuals of seven temperate tree species at 47 sites across Switzerland over 8 years. Growth of all species peaked in the early part of the growth season and commenced shortly before the summer solstice, but with species-specific seasonal patterns.

Growth resistance and resilience of mixed silver fir and Norway spruce forests in central Europe: Contrasting responses to mild and severe droughts.

Extreme droughts are expected to increase in frequency and severity in many regions of the world, threatening multiple ecosystem services provided by forests. Effective strategies to adapt forests to such droughts require comprehensive information on the effects and importance of the factors influencing forest resistance and resilience. We used a unique combination of inventory and dendrochronological data from a long-term (>30 years) silvicultural experiment in mixed silver fir and Norway spruce mountain forests along a temperature and precipitation gradient in southwestern Germany.

Growth and resilience responses of Scots pine to extreme droughts across Europe depend on predrought growth conditions.

Global climate change is expected to further raise the frequency and severity of extreme events, such as droughts. The effects of extreme droughts on trees are difficult to disentangle given the inherent complexity of drought events (frequency, severity, duration, and timing during the growing season). Besides, drought effects might be modulated by trees' phenotypic variability, which is, in turn, affected by long-term local selective pressures and management legacies.

Determinants of legacy effects in pine trees - implications from an irrigation-stop experiment.

Tree responses to altered water availability range from immediate (e.g. stomatal regulation) to delayed (e.

Memory of environmental conditions across generations affects the acclimation potential of scots pine.

Long generation times have been suggested to hamper rapid genetic adaptation of organisms to changing environmental conditions. We examined if environmental memory of the parental Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris L.) drive offspring survival and growth.

Climato-environmental influence on breeding phenology of native catfishes in River Ganga and modeling species response to climatic variability for their conservation.

The main objectives of the present study were to quantify the environmental, especially temperature and rainfall, effects on breeding phenology of selected catfish species and to predict changes in breeding phenology of the selected species in relation to climatic variability for the Ganga River Basin. The study showed that changes in rainfall pattern may have the most profound effect on gonad maturation and breeding of Mystus tengara and Mystus cavasius followed by the effect of increased water temperature due to rising air temperature. Indication of region-specific adaptation was noticed in reproductive phenology of Eutropiichthys vacha based on local trends of warming climate.

One Century of Forest Monitoring Data in Switzerland Reveals Species- and Site-Specific Trends of Climate-Induced Tree Mortality.

Climate-induced tree mortality became a global phenomenon during the last century and it is expected to increase in many regions in the future along with a further increase in the frequency of drought and heat events. However, tree mortality at the ecosystem level remains challenging to quantify since long-term, tree-individual, reliable observations are scarce. Here, we present a unique data set of monitoring records from 276 permanent plots located in 95 forest stands across Switzerland, which include five major European tree species (Norway spruce, Scots pine, silver fir, European beech, and sessile and common oak) and cover a time span of over one century (1898-2013), with inventory periods of 5-10 years.

Benchmarking pre-spawning fitness, climate preferendum of some catfishes from river Ganga and its proposed utility in climate research.

The concept of threshold condition factor (Fulton), beyond which more than 50% of the female fish population may attain readiness for spawning coined as pre-spawning fitness (K ), has been proposed in the present article and has been estimated by applying the non-parametric Kaplan-Meier method for fitting survival function. A binary coding strategy of gonadal maturity stages was used to classify whether a female fish is "ready to spawn" or not. The proposed K has been generated for female Mystus tengara (1.