Study on Relationship between Height and <I>DBH</I> of Mountain Coniferous Forests in Xinjiang

The boreal coniferous forests form the most extended vegetation zone of the Northern Hemisphere. As opposed to North America, they are disconnected from the mountain coniferous forests in Europe, because of the dominant east-west direction of the mountain chains. Consequently, the mountain forests show some unique characteristic features of glacial survival and postglacial history, as well. The mountain coniferous forests have numerous common floral and faunal elements with the boreal zone. However, the few unique faunal elements of the European mountain coniferous forests can be used to unravel the peculiar patterns and processes of this biome. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Thomas Schmitt and Karola Haubrich (2008) use the relatively common and taxonomically well-studied butterfly, the large ringlet (Erebia euryale) to identify the last glacial refugia and postglacial expansion routes.

The set of 234 forest vegetation samples from North Korean forests was subdivided into two homogenous groups, i.e. coniferous forests, and broad-leaved and mixed forests. The indirect (i.e. the detrended correspondence analysis, DCA) and direct (i.e. canonical correspondence analysis, CCA) gradient analyses were used to recognize relationships between forest communities and several environmental variables (mean annual precipitation, slope orientation and inclination, altitude, cover of particular forest strata, mean annual Kira’s warmth (WI) and coldness (CI) indices). Although relatively little variation in species composition is explained by the indirect ordination, environmental gradients were recognizable in both mountain coniferous forests and mixed pine-oak forests. Altitude and precipitation, and their interdependence, seem to be good predictors of forest composition, particularly in the mountain coniferous forests. In fact, these variables generally are the most important factors affecting species distribution and vegetation zonation along environmental gradients. Nevertheless, understanding the ecology of these forest ecosystems will not be complete without investigation of the effects of other biotic and abiotic factors, such as latitude, distance from the sea, air humidity, prevailing wind direction, temperature, light intensity, evapotranspiration, soil features and various kinds of natural and human-caused disturbances. This is an area for future research in the region. The change in species diversity (Hill’s index) did not show any distinct pattern in relation to any environmental gradient. This is true across the whole data set and within the two main forest types.

A Model for Optimization of Roe Deer Management in Central Europe

To provide scientific basis for appraising natural resources in Mt. Namjagbarwa area, the migration characteristics of geochemical microelements, such as Zn, V, Ti, Pb, Ni, Cu, Cr, Co, Be and Ba, in the landscape zones of alpine scrub and meadow, the mountainous dark coniferous forest, the mountainous mixed broadleaf and coniferous forest, the mountainous quasi-subtropical semi-evergreen broadleaf forest, the mountainous subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest, and the valley quasi-tropical monsoon rainforest have been described in the paper.

Coniferous forests are a significant feature in the natural vegetation of the Mediterranean mountains, but most stands are rather degraded and the present distribution is just a fraction of its potential natural area. The Parnonas range (Peloponnese, Greece) ranks among the most extensive areas with a well-preserved mountain coniferous forest in the Mediterranean. The present paper aims at describing the conifer-dominated vegetation of this mountain and the ecological roles of the prevailing speciesAbies cephalonica, Pinus nigra, andJuniperus drupacea. For comparison, a survey is provided of theAbies cephalonica forests in the total distribution area, using all published releves. Species composition and abundance, together with structural and abiotic parameters were recorded in 118 releves distributed throughout Mt. Parnon. The phytosociological classification reveals 8 interpretable vegetation types well separated by groups of diagnostic species and presented in a synoptic table. The ecology and distribution of the units are outlined, and they are assigned to 4 associations within theAbietion cephalonicae (Helictotricho convoluti-Abietetum cephalonicae, Junipero drupaceae-Abietetum cephalonicae, Lilio chalcedonicae-Abietetum cephalonicae, Pyrolo chloranthae — Pinetum nigrae). The syntaxonomy and nomenclature of these associations, two of which are described as new, are discussed. The most important gradients in the data matrix found by detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) are related to altitude/climate and rockiness/soil. The communities are well segregated in the ordination space, and the fairly distinct clusters of the three conifer species are discussed. These conifers may be arranged along a gradient of decreasing drought tolerance fromJuniperus throughAbies toPinus. The latter is predominant and most vital essentially on schistose soils, or else reflects previous disturbance by, e.g., wildfires.Juniperus drupacea is a subordinate low tree or shrub in Tripolitza limestoneAbies forest. The vitality ofAbies cephalonica as expressed by tree height and structure is best in theLilio-Abietetum, between 1300 and 1600 m. The community variation within the total area of theAbietion cephalonicae reflects a principal differentiation in xerophytic and mesophytic stands. This pattern is encountered in various mountains and suggests that water supply is the crucial factor governing the floristic variation in the mountain coniferous forests.

Habitat quality affects demography, population genetics, space use and phenotypic characteristics of mammals. However, little is known about the effects of habitat quality, fragmentation and/or food abundance, on host–parasite interactions. Here we present a first study on the relationships between the abundance of the dominant gastrointestinal helminth, Trypanoxyuris (Rodentoxyuris) sciuri, infecting the Eurasian red squirrel Sciurus vulgaris and three environmental factors: habitat type (mountain conifer forests vs. lowland mixed deciduous forests), fragmentation (fragmented woodlands vs. continuous forests) and food availability. Abundance of T. (R.) sciuri increased in fragmented woods. Furthermore, in mountain conifer forests, squirrels were more heavily infected after a poor Norway spruce seed crop than in years with medium or high seed production, indicating that squirrels are less capable of reducing parasite load when food availability is low. Hence, we suggest that T. (R.) sciuri abundance in red squirrels may be determined mainly by changes in host susceptibility induced by higher stress levels and/or poorer nutritional status, while in fragments, reduced genetic diversity may also increase host susceptibility to parasite infection. Although our data do not shed light on the mechanisms generating the observed patterns, results from other field studies highlighted the effect of stress and nutritional status on parasite infection, thus suggesting their implication in the changes in the abundance of T. (R.) sciuri.

Plant Pb Contents in Elevation Zones of the Changbai Mountain National Nature Reserve, China

ABSTRACTForests account for more than 23% of China’s total area. As the most important terrestrial ecosystem, forests have tremendous ecological value. However, it remains difficult to classify forest subcategories at the national scale. In this study, a newly developed binary division procedure was used to categorize forest areas, including their spatiotemporal dynamics, during the period 2000–2010. Time-series images acquired using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), together with auxiliary data on land use, climate zoning, and topography, were utilized. Hierarchical classification and zoning were combined with remote-sensing auto-classification. Based on the forest extent mask, the state-level forest system was divided into four classes and 18 subcategories. The method achieved an acceptable overall accuracy of 73.1%, based on a comparison to the sample points of China’s fourth forest general survey data set. In 2010, the total forest area was 1.755 × 106 km2, and the total area of and shrubs was 4.885 × 105 km2. The total area of woodland increased by 2536.25 km2 during the decade 2000–2010. The shrub subcategories exhibited almost no change during this time period; however, significant changes in forest area occurred in the mountainous region of Northeast China as well as in the hilly regions of Southern China. The main transformations took place in cold-temperate and temperate mountainous deciduous coniferous forest, subtropical deciduous coniferous forest, subtropical evergreen coniferous forest, and temperate and subtropical deciduous broadleaved mixed forests. The binary division procedure proposed herein can be used not only to rapidly classify more forest subcategories and monitor their dynamic changes, but also to improve the classification accuracy compared with global and national land-cover maps.

Nineteen lichen species were collected from Pinus ponderosa Dougl. in Custer National Forest in southeastern Montana; 340 trees in four vegetation types were sampled. The dominant lichen species at all heights of the trunks and on lower branches was Usnea hirta (L.) Wigg., constituting 31-74% of total lichen cover. The percentage of U. hirta was highest in the driest vegetation type (P. ponderosa-Agropyron spicatum) and lowest in the most moist vegetation type (P. ponderosa-Prunus virginiana). The majority of lichen cover and diversity on tree trunks was on the lowest 50 cm; diversity and cover increased with ascending moisture levels. Parmeliopsis ambigua (Wulf.) Nyl., Bryoria fuscescens (Gyeln.) Brodo & D. Hawksw., and Cetraria pinastri (Scop.) S. Gray increased most sub- stantially from drier to wetter sites. Most of the lichen species found in this forest type are regular components of Rocky Mountain and/or northern coniferous forests. Other conifer forest types in the Rocky Mountains and Black Hills support richer lichen floras. Because epiphytic lichens are largely dependent on atmospheric sources of water and nutrients for their survival, the study of the composition of lichen communities may fre- quently be used to document changes in atmospheric conditions (Barkman 1969). In this capacity, lichen studies have frequently been useful in documenting air quality as reflected by variation in air pollutant levels (Hawksworth 1971; Nash 1976). The high plains of Wyoming and eastern Montana contain extensive coal fields that are currently and in the upcoming decades will be a major energy source for the United States. The potential for air quality degradation due to emissions from coal-fired power-generating plants is con- siderable, and consequently knowledge of the region's lichen flora is of interest. Although much of the region is dominated by short-grass prairies, both scattered-open and extensive- dense stands of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl.) do occur in the region. To the best of my knowledge, the current study is the first report on quantitative variation in epiphytic lichens of the region. The epiphytic lichen flora of most of Montana is relatively poorly known. The majority of collections have been from the diverse and extensive conifer forests of the northwest portion of the state (Habeck 1963; McCune 1979). Imshaug (1950) collected alpine lichens in Glacier National Park and one western county. A preliminary distributional study of epiphytic lichens compared presence of those species in various areas of Montana (Ev- ersman 1979). The epiphytic lichens of Pinus ponderosa, the only conifer species in southeastern Montana forests, have not been studied. Gough (1975) described the epiphytic communities of Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirbel) France and Abies lasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt. in Colorado, 1100 km to the south of this study area. Wetmore (1967) made a floristic study of the Black Hills, 160 km to the east, where the primary coniferous species are P. ponderosa on 007-2745/82/204-213$1.15/0

Quantifying fog water deposition by in situ exposure experiments in a mountainous coniferous forest in Taiwan

Vegetation response to early Pleistocene climatic cycles in the Lamone valley (Northern Apennines, Italy)

Aims Due to complex root-soil interactions, the responses of carbon (C) dynamics in the rhizosphere soil to nitrogen (N) deposition may be different from those in bulk soil. However, the potentially different responses of C dynamics between the rhizosphere and bulk soil and their contributions to soil C sequestration under N deposition are still not elucidated. In this study, a typical subalpine coniferous plantation (Picea asperata) with chronic N addition treatments in southwestern China was selected as the research object. Based on the experimental plots of simulated N deposition (control: 0 kg•hm -2 •a -1 ; N addition: 25 kg•hm -2 •a -1 ), we measured the contents of soil organic carbon and its different physical and chemical fractions. Afterwards, by combining the rhizosphere spatial numerical model, we explored the differences in the C pool size of SOC and its fractions and their relative contribution to SOC pools between the rhizosphere and bulk soil, and further quantified the effects of N addition

Onset of aridification in mid-latitude Asia at 41 Ma linked to the proto-Paratethys Sea retreat

CapsuleIndividuals concentrated near forest edges in bigger social groups than in forest interiors and foraged more on pine cones which were more abundant there. Aims To evaluate differences in food distribution between forest edges and forest interiors and their effects on the non-breeding flocking patterns of Coal Tit populations inhabiting mountain coniferous forests. Methods We collected cone production data at forests edges and interiors in mountain pine forests located in the Pyrenees (northeast Iberian peninsula). At the same sites, we also quantified Coal Tit abundance, flocking patterns and foraging behaviour by means of paired bird surveys during autumn and early winter. Results We recorded a larger abundance of pine cones available on trees along forest edges compared with forest interiors. Coal Tit groups were of bigger size along forest edges, although the number of social groups detected did not differ from forest interiors. Our observations on foraging behaviour supported the hypothesis that differences in flock sizes and overall abundances associated with distance to the edge are due to differences in the availability of pine cones and to the heavier use of these foraging substrates by birds along forest edges. Conclusions Our results suggest that by changing food distribution, edge effects on pine cone production may be significantly involved in local changes in the social structure of the Coal Tit. An increase in resource heterogeneity and local population density may have important implications at a population level, such as favouring mobility of individuals searching for food resources and thus a transient life, and increasing the costs of territory defence to resident individuals.

Plant trait filtering is stronger in the herb layer than in the tree layer in Greek mountain forests