bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Net methane emissions from grazing sheep
Authors: Judd Murray J. , Kellier Francis M. , Ulyatt Marcus J. , Lassey Keith R. , Tate Kevin R. , Shelton I. David , Harvey Michael J. , Walker Carolyn F. 
Published: March 2003

SummaryMethane emissions from ruminant livestock are responsible for 45 % of New Zealand’s combined CO2‐equivalent greenhouse gas inventory, and arise principally from sheep. Using a flock of 6‐month old sheep (20 ha–1) grazing abundant pasture, we compare micrometeorological measurements of net methane emission rates with measurements from individual sheep based on a sulphur‐hexafluoride tracer technique. Individual sheep emission rates were highly variable and averaged 19.5 ± 4.8 (SD) g CH4 sheep–1 d–1, or 39 ± 9.6 mg CH4 m–2 d–1 on an areal basis. Emission rates were poorly correlated with animal live weight or dry matter intake but represented an average dietary energy loss of 3.6%. Methane fluxes from the surface were determined as half hourly averages by a flux‐gradient technique using temperature and methane gradients. Soil methane consumption was measured using chambers and found to be negligible (< 0.09 mg CH4 m–2 d–1) in comparison with the animal contribution. Daily net emission rates averaged 46 mg m–2 d–1 and exhibited a broad peak in the early afternoon which corresponded with animal activity patterns. On average, net emisssion rates were 40% higher during the day than at night. Stable nocturnal conditions led to a separation of the micrometeorological measurements from the methane source and hence highly variable results. Based on two corroborating techniques, the average net methane emission rate was c. 43 mg CH4 m–2 d–1 or 155 kg CH4 ha–1 y–1.
Elevated CO2 increases nitrogen fixation and decreases soil nitrogen mineralization in Florida scrub oak
Authors: Hungate Bruce A. , Dijkstra PauL. , Johnson DalE. W. , Hinkle C. RosS. , Drake BerT. G. 
Published: March 2003

SummaryWe report changes in nitrogen cycling in Florida scrub oak in response to elevated atmospheric CO2 during the first 14 months of experimental treatment. Elevated CO2 stimulated above‐ground growth, nitrogen mass, and root nodule production of the nitrogen‐fixing vine, Galactia elliottii Nuttall. During this period, elevated CO2 reduced rates of gross nitrogen mineralization in soil, and resulted in lower recovery of nitrate on resin lysimeters. Elevated CO2 did not alter nitrogen in the soil microbial biomass, but increased the specific rate of ammonium immobilization (NH4+ immobilized per unit microbial N) measured over a 24‐h period. Increased carbon input to soil through greater root growth combined with a decrease in the quality of that carbon in elevated CO2 best explains these changes. These results demonstrate that atmospheric CO2 concentration influences both the internal cycling of nitrogen (mineralization, immobilization, and nitrification) as well as the processes that regulate total ecosystem nitrogen mass (nitrogen fixation and nitrate leaching) in Florida coastal scrub oak. If these changes in nitrogen cycling are sustained, they could cause long‐term feedbacks to the growth responses of plants to elevated CO2. Greater nitrogen fixation and reduced leaching could stimulate nitrogen‐limited plant growth by increasing the mass of labile nitrogen in the ecosystem. By contrast, reduced nitrogen mineralization and increased immobilization will restrict the supply rate of plant‐available nitrogen, potentially reducing plant growth. Thus, the net feedback to plant growth will depend on the balance of these effects through time.
Measurements of gross and net ecosystem productivity and water vapour exchange of a Pinus ponderosa ecosystem, and an evaluation of two generalized models
Authors: Law B. E. , Waring . R. H. , Anthoni P. M. , Aber J. D. 
Published: March 2003

SummaryNet ecosystem productivity (NEP), net primary productivity (NPP), and water vapour exchange of a mature Pinus ponderosa forest (44°30′ N, 121°37′ W) growing in a region subject to summer drought were investigated along with canopy assimilation and respiratory fluxes. This paper describes seasonal and annual variation in these factors, and the evaluation of two generalized models of carbon and water balance (PnET‐II and 3‐PG) with a combination of traditional measurements of NPP, respiration and water stress, and eddy covariance measurements of above‐and below‐canopy CO2 and water vapour exchange. The objective was to evaluate the models using two years of traditional and eddy covariance measurements, and to use the models to help interpret the relative importance of processes controlling carbon and water vapour exchange in a water‐limited pine ecosystem throughout the year. PnET‐II is a monthly time‐step model that is driven by nitrogen availability through foliar N concentration, and 3‐PG is a monthly time‐step quantum‐efficiency model constrained by extreme temperatures, drought, and vapour pressure deficits. Both models require few parameters and have the potential to be applied at the watershed to regional scale. There was 2/3 less rainfall in 1997 than in 1996, providing a challenge to modelling the water balance, and consequently the carbon balance, when driving the models with the two years of climate data, sequentially. Soil fertility was not a key factor in modelling processes at this site because other environmental factors limited photosynthesis and restricted projected leaf area index to ∼1.6. Seasonally, GEP and LE were overestimated in early summer and underestimated through the rest of the year. The model predictions of annual GEP, NEP and water vapour exchange were within 1–39% of flux measurements, with greater disparity in 1997 because soil water never fully recharged. The results suggest that generalized models can provide insights to constraints on productivity on an annual basis, using a minimum of site data.
How much do local factors matter for predicting transient ecosystem dynamics? Suggestions from permafrost formation in boreal peatlands
Authors: Camill Philip 
Published: March 2003

SummaryWith rapid climate warming, ecosystems will probably exhibit complex dynamics because local factors and life history attributes of species mediate the effects of regional climate change. To assess the relative importance of local vs. regional processes on permafrost formation in boreal peatlands, I sampled for permafrost and factors affecting its formation in 38 collapse scars across a 4 °C mean annual temperature (MAT) gradient in the discontinuous permafrost zone of northern Manitoba, Canada. Three complimentary approaches were used to model factors important to permafrost formation at both local and regional scales. In the first analysis, a mechanistic, spatial model of permafrost formation was developed as a function of Picea mariana size and proximity. In the second approach, permafrost formation was modelled as a function of two local factors, diameter of Picea mariana trees and emergent organic matter depth, and the regional factor, mean annual temperature (MAT). Finally, published aerial photography data were used to determine whether the proportion of bogs with permafrost changes across a MAT gradient. Results show that permafrost formation in boreal permafrost peatlands is best described as a locally driven process within regional climatic constraints. At local scales of 1–2 meters, the spatial and size distributions of trees controlled the spatial distribution of permafrost. At regional scales, tree size was a significantly better predictor than emergent organic matter or MAT. These results suggest that transient models of discontinuous permafrost based only on climate may poorly predict changes in vegetation and permafrost.
The high‐latitude terrestrial carbon sink: a model analysis
Authors: White A. , Cannell M. G. R. , Friend A. D. 
Published: March 2003

SummaryA dynamic, global vegetation model, hybrid v4.1 (Friend et al. 1997), was driven by transient climate output from the UK Hadley Centre GCM (HadCM2) with the IS92a scenario of increasing atmospheric CO2 equivalent, sulphate aerosols and predicted patterns of atmospheric N deposition. Changes in areas of vegetation types and carbon storage in biomass and soils were predicted for areas north of 50°N from 1860 to 2100. Hybrid is a combined biogeochemical, biophysical and biogeographical model of natural, potential ecosystems. The effect of periodic boreal forest fires was assessed by adding a simple stochastic fire model. Hybrid represents plant physiological and soil processes regulating the carbon, water and N cycles and competition between individuals of parameterized generalized plant types. The latter were combined to represent tundra, temperate grassland, temperate/mixed forest and coniferous forest. The model simulated the current areas and estimated carbon stocks in the four vegetation types.It was predicted that land areas above 50°N (about 23% of the vegetated global land area) are currently accumulating about 0.4 PgC y−1 (about 30% of the estimated global terrestrial sink) and that this sink could grow to 0.8–1.0 PgC y−1 by the second half of the next century and persist undiminished until 2100. This sink was due mainly to an increase in forest productivity and biomass in response to increasing atmospheric CO2, temperature and N deposition, and includes an estimate of the effect of boreal forest fire, which was estimated to diminish the sink approximately by the amount of carbon emitted to the atmosphere during fires. Averaged over the region, N deposition contributed about 18% to the sink by the 2080 s. As expected, climate change (temperature, precipitation, solar radiation and saturation pressure deficit) and N deposition without increasing atmospheric CO2 produced a carbon source. Forest areas expanded both south and north, halving the current tundra area by 2100. This expansion contributed about 30% to the sink by the 2090 s. Tundra areas which were not invaded by forest fluctuated from sink to source. It was concluded that a high latitude carbon sink exists at present and, even assuming little effect of N deposition, no forest expansion and continued boreal forest fires, the sink is likely to persist at its current level for a century.
Meeting Europe's climate change commitments: quantitative estimates of the potential for carbon mitigation by agriculture
Authors: Smith Pete , Powlson David S. , Smith Jo U. , Falloon Pete , Coleman Kevin 
Published: March 2003

SummaryUnder the Kyoto Protocol, the European Union is committed to a reduction in CO2 emissions to 92% of baseline (1990) levels during the first commitment period (2008–2012). The Kyoto Protocol allows carbon emissions to be offset by demonstrable removal of carbon from the atmosphere. Thus, land‐use/land‐management change and forestry activities that are shown to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels can be included in the Kyoto targets. These activities include afforestation, reforestation and deforestation (article 3.3 of the Kyoto Protocol) and the improved management of agricultural soils (article 3.4). In this paper, we estimate the carbon mitigation potential of various agricultural land‐management strategies and examine the consequences of European policy options on carbon mitigation potential, by examining combinations of changes in agricultural land‐use/land‐management. We show that no single land‐management change in isolation can mitigate all of the carbon needed to meet Europe's climate change commitments, but integrated combinations of land‐management strategies show considerable potential for carbon mitigation. Three of the combined scenarios, one of which is an optimal realistic scenario, are by themselves able to meet Europe's emission limitation or reduction commitments. Through combined land‐management scenarios, we show that the most important resource for carbon mitigation in agriculture is the surplus arable land. We conclude that in order to fully exploit the potential of arable land for carbon mitigation, policies will need to be implemented to allow surplus arable land to be put into alternative long‐term land‐use. Of all options examined, bioenergy crops show the greatest potential for carbon mitigation. Bioenergy crop production also shows an indefinite mitigation potential compared to other options where the mitigation potential is finite. We suggest that in order to exploit fully the bioenergy option, the infrastructure for bioenergy production needs to be significantly enhanced before the beginning of the first Kyoto commitment period in 2008. It is not expected that Europe will attempt to meet its climate change commitments solely through changes in agricultural land‐use. A reduction in CO2‐carbon emissions will be key to meeting Europe's Kyoto targets, and forestry activities (Kyoto Article 3.3) will play a major role. In this study, however, we demonstrate the considerable potential of changes in agricultural land‐use and ‐management (Kyoto Article 3.4) for carbon mitigation and highlight the policies needed to promote these agricultural activities. As all sources of carbon mitigation will be important in meeting Europe's climate change commitments, agricultural carbon mitigation options should be taken very seriously.
Natural nitrogen filter fails in polluted raised bogs
Authors: Lamers Leon P. M. , Bobbink Roland , Roelofs Jan G. M. 
Published: March 2003

SummaryRaised bogs are among the ecosystems most susceptible to atmospheric nitrogen pollution. Based on global data ranging from pristine to heavily polluted areas, a conceptual model is presented to explain the logistic response of these terrestrial carbon reservoirs to increased airborne nitrogen fluxes.
Sensitivity of three grassland communities to simulated extreme temperature and rainfall events
Authors: White Todd A. , Campbell Bruce D. , Kemp Peter D. , Hunt Chris L. 
Published: March 2003

SummaryThree grassland communities in New Zealand with differing climates and proportions of C3 and C4 species were subjected to one‐off extreme heating (eight hours at 52.5°C) and rainfall (the equivalent of 100 mm) events. A novel experimental technique using portable computer‐controlled chambers simulated the extreme heating events. The productive, moist C3/C4 community was the most sensitive to the extreme events in terms of short‐term community composition compared with a dry C3/C4 community or an exclusively C3 community. An extreme heating event caused the greatest change to plant community species abundance by favouring the expansion of C4 species relative to C3 species, shifting C4 species abundance from 43% up to 84% at the productive, moist site. This was observed both in the presence and absence of added water. In the absence of C4 species, heating reduced community productivity by over 60%. The short‐term shifts in the abundance of C3 and C4 species in response to the single extreme climatic events did not have persistent effects on community structure or on soil nitrogen one year later. There was no consistent relationship between diversity and stability of biomass production of these plant communities, and species functional identity was the most effective explanation for the observed shifts in biomass production. The presence of C4 species resulted in an increased stability of productivity after extreme climatic events, but resulted in greater overall shifts in community composition. The presence of C4 species may buffer grassland community productivity against an increased frequency of extreme heating events associated with future global climate change.
Oxidation of atmospheric methane in Northern European soils, comparison with other ecosystems, and uncertainties in the global terrestrial sink
Authors: Smith K. A. , Dobbie K. E. , Ball B. C. , Bakken L. R. , Sitaula B. K. , Hansen S. , Brumme R. , Borken W. , Christensen S. , Priemé A. , Fowler D. , Macdonald J. A. , Skiba U. , Klemedtsson L. , Kasimir‐Klemedtsson A. , Degórska A. , Orlanski P. 
Published: March 2003

SummaryThis paper reports the range and statistical distribution of oxidation rates of atmospheric CH4 in soils found in Northern Europe in an international study, and compares them with published data for various other ecosystems. It reassesses the size, and the uncertainty in, the global terrestrial CH4 sink, and examines the effect of land‐use change and other factors on the oxidation rate.Only soils with a very high water table were sources of CH4; all others were sinks. Oxidation rates varied from 1 to nearly 200 μg CH4 m−2 h−1; annual rates for sites measured for ≥1 y were 0.1–9.1 kg CH4 ha−1 y−1, with a log‐normal distribution (log‐mean ≈ 1.6 kg CH4 ha−1 y−1). Conversion of natural soils to agriculture reduced oxidation rates by two‐thirds –‐ closely similar to results reported for other regions. N inputs also decreased oxidation rates. Full recovery of rates after these disturbances takes > 100 y. Soil bulk density, water content and gas diffusivity had major impacts on oxidation rates. Trends were similar to those derived from other published work. Increasing acidity reduced oxidation, partially but not wholly explained by poor diffusion through litter layers which did not themselves contribute to the oxidation. The effect of temperature was small, attributed to substrate limitation and low atmospheric concentration.Analysis of all available data for CH4 oxidation rates in situ showed similar log‐normal distributions to those obtained for our results, with generally little difference between different natural ecosystems, or between short‐and longer‐term studies. The overall global terrestrial sink was estimated at 29 Tg CH4 y−1, close to the current IPCC assessment, but with a much wider uncertainty range (7 to > 100 Tg CH4 y−1). Little or no information is available for many major ecosystems; these should receive high priority in future research.
A proposed CO2‐controlled mechanism of woody plant invasion in grasslands and savannas
Authors: Bond William J. , Midgley Guy F. 
Published: March 2003

SummaryWe propose that elevated CO2 may have a significant positive effect on woody plant success and thus favour tree invasion and thickening in grass‐dominated ecosystems. We note that savanna tree biomass is strongly constrained by disturbance, particularly fire, and that elevated CO2 could act to reduce this constraint. Our argument combines knowledge of tree recovery from injury after grassland fires, with theory about carbon acquisition and carbohydrate storage patterns in C3 woody plants in response to elevated CO2. We propose simply that elevated CO2 will tend to favour regrowth of juvenile trees trapped (sometimes for decades) in the ‘topkill’ zone, thus allowing them to escape more readily from periodic fires as CO2 continues to rise. Little empirical evidence exists to test this hypothesis, even though the process may have important implications for tree/grass codominated ecosystems currently in a dynamic equilibrium.
The role of fire in the boreal carbon budget
Authors: Harden J. W. , Trumbore S. E. , Stocks B. J. , Hirsch A. , Gower S. T. , O'neill K. P. , Kasischke E. S. 
Published: March 2003

SummaryTo reconcile observations of decomposition rates, carbon inventories, and net primary production (NPP), we estimated long‐term averages for C exchange in boreal forests near Thompson, Manitoba. Soil drainage as defined by water table, moss cover, and permafrost dynamics, is the dominant control on direct fire emissions. In upland forests, an average of about 10–30% of annual NPP was likely consumed by fire over the past 6500 years since these landforms and ecosystems were established. This long‐term, average fire emission is much larger than has been accounted for in global C cycle models and may forecast an increase in fire activity for this region. While over decadal to century times these boreal forests may be acting as slight net sinks for C from the atmosphere to land, periods of drought and severe fire activity may result in net sources of C from these systems.
Herbaria century record of increasing eutrophication in Spanish terrestrial ecosystems
Authors: Peñuelas Josep , Filella Iolanda 
Published: March 2003

SummaryAdditional biological evidence is presented for the alteration of biogeochemical cycles by human activities. The leaf δ15N and the concentrations of nutrients in herbarium specimens of 24 species of vascular plants and 3 species of bryophytes collected in northern and eastern regions of Spain have substantially changed throughout the XX century. In the second half of the century, when anthropogenic nitrogen fixation and mobilization started to increase rapidly, leaf δ15N values started to decrease strongly, indicating that additional anthropogenic nitrogen is being retained in Spanish terrestrial ecosystems. The concentration of nutrients in vascular plants did not present any clear pattern, but there were increasing concentrations of N and other nutrients (P, K, and S) in the last decades in bryophytes, which are usually better biomonitors of airborne chemicals than vascular plants. Important consequences for ecosystem structure and functioning such as enhancement of the carbon sink or changes in community biodiversity and species distribution may be expected from this increase in eutrophication.
Parameter estimation in surface exchange models using nonlinear inversion: how many parameters can we estimate and which measurements are most useful?
Authors: Wang Ying‐Ping , Leuning Ray , Cleugh Helen A. , Coppin Peter A. 
Published: March 2003

AbstractModels of mass and energy exchanges between the biosphere and the atmosphere generally contain a nonlinear dependence between fluxes and model parameters, and thus estimation of these parameters from measurements in a heterogeneous landscape depends on the scale of the observations. The scale‐dependence of a typical surface‐exchange model (the CSIRO Biospheric Model, CBM) is examined using the diurnal variation of hourly fluxes of CO2, latent heat, sensible heat and soil heat. The fluxes were measured using micrometeorological techniques over six sites in a grazing/pasture system in SE Australia during a period of three weeks in 1995. Nonlinear parameter inversion was used to determine model parameters.Analysis of the covariance of the estimates of the parameters and the unexplained residuals of the model showed that a maximum of three or four parameters could be determined independently from the observations for all six sites. Estimates of a key model parameter, jmax, the mean of maximum potential electron transport rate of all leaves within the canopy, was best determined by the measurements of net CO2 flux at all sites examined. Measurements of ground heat flux provide little information about any of the model parameters in CBM.Because of nonlinearities in the surface exchange model, calculated fluxes will be in error if parameters for the component vegetation types are simply averaged in proportion to their areal fraction. The magnitude of these errors was examined for CBM using a hypothetical land surface consisting of two surface types, each with different parameter values. Predictions of net CO2, latent heat and ground heat fluxes using a linear combination of model parameters for the two surface types were quite similar with those found using optimal estimates of the parameters for the landscape, but were significantly poorer for sensible heat fluxes.