Under sufficiently moist conditions, such as seen over the Amazon, small additions of water vapor due to evaporation and transpiration from vegetation help ensure greater volumes of water are returned to the earth. Our latest study clarifies key aspects of these relationships by examining how large-scale atmospheric processes-including moisture recycling, the import of water vapor, and the resulting rain-respond to changes in vegetation cover (see ). Nonetheless, the extent and nature of the underlying relationships that keep our planet moist and habitable are frequently undervalued, misunderstood and neglected. Globally, the majority of rain that falls over land is recycled-evaporated from land to the atmosphere only to fall on land again. The majority of this recycled rain in turn depends on vegetation (being emitted from plants, mainly trees and wetlands).
Precarious precipitation and profound possibilities: how forests and wetlands determine rain #productivity #ecology #tropical #forest #WUR #NMBU #CIFOR #rainforest #treesĬontribution of tree community structure to forest productivity across a thermal gradient in eastern Asia - Nature Communications
#TRUCK BY LIGHTNING SCARS FULL#
Our full study-with details of the locations, data, analyses and results-is free online at Nature Communications here Ĭurious to hear what people think of this. We concluded that species-rich tropical forests are more productive than temperate forests mainly due to the greater contribution of short-stature, small-biomass species with high relative productivity. This difference in the relative contribution of smaller versus larger species explained an estimated 86% of the observed productivity differences over the temperature gradient when controlling for total biomass. If we control for total biomass then the remaining differences in productivity reflect community structure: more small species means more productivity and more species. Productivity & tree richness were positively correlated as expected but species with similar biomass by area & by stature had similar patterns of productivity across forests. With Tetsuo and Takashi Kohyama and colleagues we collected tree growth measurements from 60 old-growth forest plots spanning mean annual temperatures from 2.0 to 26.6 ☌ in East Asia. I also expected that each of the constituent species would, on average, be more productive given the warmer and less seasonal climate. They also tend to have greater above ground biomass. Tropical forests are typically two or three times more productive in terms of woody growth than temperate forests.
What makes species rich tropical forests more productive than temperate forests? Please see the OPEN ACCESS article in Landscape Ecology for more details #conservation #forest #biodiversity #climate #conservationmatters #warming #costarica #Talamanca #WUR #NMBU #adaptation #conserv Notably, clearings and gaps provide opportunities for (otherwise vulnerable to warming) high elevation species to establish and persist under warmer conditions (lower elevations) than would occur in undisturbed forests alone. We confirm that temporarily open sites are often key to explaining observed elevation ranges. Our study uses innovative survey methods to compliment our experimental work (see here ). While mountains often support considerable plant diversity we remain uncertain what determines the upper and lower range of most species, what aspects could be managed, and thus whether and how species may be sustained in situ under a changing climate. The latest article by Miguel Munoz Mazon, Kari Klanderud and myself examines the distribution of trees and shrubs over a 1400 m elevation range in the Talamanca Mountains of Costa Rica. Disturbing distributions could guide conservation
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