<p>Whether through sea level rise, farmland abandonment, or wetland restoration, agricultural soils in coastal areas will be inundated at increasing rates, renewing connections to sensitive surface waters and raising critical questions related to environmental tradeoffs. Wetland restoration in particular is often implemented not only to promote wildlife habitat, but also to improve water quality through nutrient removal, especially in agricultural catchments. The microbial process of denitrification is the central mechanism of nitrogen removal in wetlands and flooded soils, and can be seen as a potential environmental benefit of flooding agricultural lands. While denitrification undoubtedly can remove nitrogen from soil and surface water, higher soil moisture or flooding in wetland soils can also increase the production of greenhouse gases, specifically nitrous oxide and methane, representing a potential environmental tradeoff. Understanding the likely benefits of denitrification and the likely greenhouse gas costs of wetland restoration could help inform environmental policies concerning wetland restoration. </p> <p>Determining whether restored wetlands are larger sources of greenhouse gases compared to contrasting land use types (agriculture and forested wetlands) was the first goal of this dissertation (Chapter 2). We measured gas fluxes from soil and water to the atmosphere, and related environmental variables, in four sites over two years to estimate fluxes of the three major greenhouse gases. We found that carbon dioxide was the major contributor to the radiative balance across all sites, but that in the agricultural site and one of the forested wetland reference sites, nitrous oxide was the second most important contributor. Many studies have shown that methane is more important that nitrous oxide in most freshwater wetlands, as we found in the other forested wetland reference site and in flooded parts of the restored wetland. Overall, we did not find higher greenhouse gas fluxes in the restored wetland compared to agricultural soils or forested wetlands.</p> <p>The controls over nitrous oxide are especially complex, because it can be produced by two complementary processes, nitrification and denitrification, which generally occur under different conditions in the environment. In Chapter 3, we determined the soil and environmental factors that best predicted nitrous oxide fluxes for a subset of our data encompassing gas fluxes measured in November 2007. We found that soil temperature and soil carbon dioxide flux, along with ammonium availability and denitrification potential, were good predictors of nitrous oxide (adj R<super>2</super>=0.81). Although the nitrous oxide model did not perform as well when applied to data from another sampling period, we expect to further develop our modeling efforts to include possible non-linear temperature effects and a larger range of environmental conditions. </p> <p>In Chapter 4, we present results of a stable isotope tracer experiment to determine the relative contribution of nitrification and denitrification to nitrous oxide fluxes in these different land use types, and to determine the response of these processes to changing soil moisture. We added two forms of nitrogen-15 to intact soil cores to distinguish nitrification from denitrification, and subjected the cores to drainage or to a simulated rain event. We found that across the range of soil moisture, the fraction of nitrous oxide produced by denitrification did not change, but within each soil type there was a response to the simulated rain. In mineral soils, the nitrous oxide fraction increased with increasing soil moisture, with the highest mole fraction [N₂O/(N₂+N₂O)] in the agricultural soils, while in the organic soils there was no change or even a decrease. The fraction of nitrous oxide derived from coupled nitrification-denitrification increased with increasing soil moisture, and was much higher than that from denitrification alone in the more organic soils. This suggests that, in these saturated acid-organic soils, nitrification plays an important and underappreciated role in contributing to nitrous oxide fluxes from freshwater wetlands. The results from the laboratory experiment were consistent with patterns we saw in the field and help explain the differential contribution of nitrification and denitrification to nitrous oxide fluxes in different land use types in coastal plain wetlands of North Carolina. </p> <p>Overall, we found that both nitrification and denitrification contribute to nitrous oxide fluxes in coastal plain wetlands in North Carolina, and that nitrification is an especially important source in acid-organic soils under both field-moist and saturated conditions. Although freshwater wetlands, with an average nitrous oxide mole fraction of 0.08, are generally seen as being insignificant sources of nitrous oxide, our study sites ranged from 0.10 to 0.30, placing them closer to agricultural fields (0.38; Schlesinger 2009). Although the ecosystems in our study produced more nitrous oxide than expected for freshwater wetlands, we found no significant tradeoff between the local water quality benefits conferred by denitrification and the global greenhouse gas costs in the restored wetland. These results suggest that, from a nitrogen perspective, wetland restoration in coastal agricultural lands has a net environmental benefit.</p> / Dissertation

第22回名古屋大学年代測定総合研究センターシンポジウム平成21(2009)年度報告

Grasslands are characterized by recurring disturbances such as fire and grazing occurring against a background of topoedaphic heterogeneity and climatic variability. The result is a complex, multi-scaled disturbance regime, in which fire and grazing often have interactive roles, yet they have usually been studied independently. Relationships between climate, fire and simulated grazing (=mowing) were explored to determine the roles these disturbances play in shaping patterns and processes in southern mixed-grass prairie. A field experiment investigated the potential effects of these disturbances on above and belowground plant productivity, patch dynamics, and soil respiration over a 2-year period characterized by drought (1998) and normal (1999) rainfall. Spring burning and mowing had interactive effects on aboveground net primary production (ANPP). Consistent with published single factor studies, burning without mowing doubled ANPP, whereas mowing in the absence of burning had neutral effects. However, subsequent mowing on burned plots reduced ANPP gains to levels comparable with all unburned plots. Drought reduced ANPP by 22% relative to a normal rainfall year. In contrast to the traditional model of root response to defoliation, burning and mowing each stimulated root length recruitment measured with minirhizotrons. However, subsequent mowing on burned plots did not produce additional root recruitment. Fire and mowing appear to interact by affecting different components of root recruitment (production and mortality, respectively). Root biomass recovered from ingrowth cores were not correlated with minirhizotron results, and responded only to drought, suggesting that methodological differences have contributed to the varied root responses reported in the literature. Drought suppressed soil respiration, diminished soil moisture, and enhanced soil temperature, whereas fire and/or mowing had little effect. Results suggest that any fire or mowing effects on soil respiration in southern mixed-grass prairie may be highly constrained by moisture limitations during dry periods. In summary, patch level response to fire is a pulse of root recruitment followed by increased ANPP, unless subsequent grazing offsets these gains. Grazing alone produces a pulse of root recruitment, perhaps to replace consumed foliage. This study demonstrates the interactive nature of fire and grazing in grasslands, and the perils of single-factor studies.

No description available.

Afforestation and stand development can significantly affect soil respiration and net ecosystem productivity (NEP). I studied 1) the effects of afforestation on NEP by comparing cropland previously planted to barley (on a barley-barley-alfalfa-alfalfa-alfalfa rotation) and that converted to a hybrid poplar (Populus deltoides Populus petrowskyana var. Walker) plantation and 2) the NEP along a chronosequence of stands aged 5-, 8-, 14-, and 16-year old in 2009 in central Alberta, Canada. Soil respiration and NEP decreased in the first two to three years after afforestation, while both generally increased with stand development. The ecosys model was used to simulate carbon dynamics in the plantations over a 20-year rotation under contrasting soil conditions. Soil conditions of the 14-year-old plantation accumulated the greatest amount of ecosystem carbon over the whole rotation. The research indicated that plantations could be a net carbon source in the first few years after afforestation and then became a net carbon sink, helping to mitigate net CO2 emissions for the remainder of the rotation. / Soil Science

Diss. (sammanfattning). Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2003. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2007. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Forests of the northeastern U.S. help maintain water and air quality by reducing losses of nitrogen (N) into nearby waterways and removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. However, carbon (C) and N retention in northeastern forests may decrease in response to projected changes in climate, including reductions in winter snowpack and increased soil freezing. Together, these climatic changes may damage tree roots and alter soil processes. Few studies have investigated the extent to which snowpack and soil frost drive C and N fluxes during spring snowmelt, a biogeochemically important period. Similarly, little is known about how changes in winter climate affect above- and belowground CO2 fluxes to the atmosphere. My dissertation combines laboratory and field experiments to quantify the effects of reduced snowpack and increased soil freezing on C and N cycling in northeastern forests. I conducted a laboratory experiment to study the effects of soil freezing on C and N losses during snowmelt. Organic horizon soils collected from mixed Acer saccharum-Fagus grandifolia and Picea rubens-Abies balsamea forests were incubated in severe, mild, and no soil frost conditions prior to snowmelt. Results show that losses of N in leachate, as well as total C and N fluxes (gases + leachate), were reduced following severe soil frost, indicating the response to winter climate depends on both the presence and severity of soil frost. I also implemented a snow removal experiment in a mixed Quercus rubra-Acer rubrum forest at Harvard Forest, MA to quantify the effects of depth and duration of snowpack and soil frost on CO2 losses from tree stems and soils. This study provides evidence that reduced snowpack and increased soil freezing may increase annual soil CO2 efflux, but have no significant effect on tree stem CO2 efflux. Taken together, results from my dissertation highlight the importance of winter climate as a driver of C and N fluxes in northeastern forests and suggest that while soil frost reduces C and N losses during snowmelt, annual losses of CO2 may increase Future studies investigating controls on C and N cycling in northeastern forests should account for changes in winter climate.

Soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition and formation is an important climate feedback, with the potential to amplify or offset climate forcing. To understand the fate of soil carbon (C) stores and fluxes (i.e., soil respiration) under future climate it is necessary to investigate responses across spatial and temporal scales, from the ecosystem to the molecular level, from diurnal to decadal trends. Moreover, it is important to question the assumptions and paradigms that underlie apparently paradoxical evidence to reveal the true nature of soil-climate feedbacks. My dissertation includes research into the response of soil respiration in Pacific Northwest prairies to warming and wetting along a natural regional climate gradient (Chapter II), and then delves deeper into the mechanisms underlying SOM decomposition and formation, examining the temperature sensitivity of SOM decomposition of prairie soils that were experimentally warmed for ~2 yr, and a forest soil in which litter-inputs were manipulation for 20 yr (Chapter III), and finally testing soil C cycling dynamics, including mineral-associated C pools, decomposition dynamics, and the molecular nature of SOM itself, under litter-manipulation in order to understand the controls on SOM formation and mineralization (Chapter IV). This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished coauthored material; see the individual chapters for a list of co-authors, and description of contributions.

Submitted by ELIENAI FERREIRA DA SILVA null (elienay_ufal@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-04-20T13:13:56Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_Elienai_Ferreira_da_Silva_2016.pdf: 3253667 bytes, checksum: e870c1f05f0e42c11842daaae32d27f1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Felipe Augusto Arakaki (arakaki@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-04-26T14:57:01Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_ef_me_jabo.pdf: 3253667 bytes, checksum: e870c1f05f0e42c11842daaae32d27f1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T14:57:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_ef_me_jabo.pdf: 3253667 bytes, checksum: e870c1f05f0e42c11842daaae32d27f1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-26 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A emissão de CO2 do solo (FCO2) em áreas agrícolas é um processo resultante da interação de diferentes fatores, tais como as condições de clima e solo. Nesse sentido, objetivou-se, com este estudo, investigar a variabilidade espaço-temporal da FCO2, temperatura (Tsolo), umidade (Usolo) e porosidade livre de água (PLA) do solo e suas interações, em área de reforma do canavial. O estudo foi conduzido em área de cana-de-açúcar sob reforma, na qual foi instalada malha amostral de 90 × 90 m2 contendo 100 pontos espaçados entre si em 10 m. Nestes pontos foram avaliadas a FCO2, Tsolo e Usolo em 10 avaliações ao longo de um período de 28 dias. Para as avaliações da FCO2, foi utilizado o sistema portátil LI-8100A. Concomitantemente à avaliação de FCO2, foram determinadas a Tsolo (termômetro integrante do sistema LI-8100A) e a Usolo (aparelho TDR). A emissão de CO2 e a Usolo foi maior no dia 276, com maior valor médio de 4,67 µmol m-2 s-1 e 31,75% em função das precipitações na área de estudo. Contrariamente os menores valor médios foram observados para PLA 19,17% e para a Tsolo 20,90 ºC. Os modelos de regressão linear utilizando somente a Usolo e a PLA explicaram 85% e 80%, respectivamente, da variabilidade temporal da FCO2, indicando que ao longo do tempo, a emissão de CO2 foi controlada pela variação do conteúdo de água e aeração do solo. Por outro lado, não foram encontrados modelos lineares ou quadráticos significativos (p>0,05) entre a FCO2 e a Tsolo. Os modelos ajustados para descrever a variabilidade espacial da FCO2, Tsolo, Usolo e PLA foram esféricos e exponenciais, sendo o modelo esférico predominante. Com exceção de alguns dias específicos, a partir dos mapas não foi possível a visualização de regiões características da área que indicassem um padrão de variabilidade espacial. Possivelmente o fato da amostragem ter sido conduzida em uma escala reduzida pode ter colaborado para um comportamento aleatório das variáveis no tempo. A variabilidade espaço-temporal da emissão de CO2, temperatura, umidade e a aeração do solo é afetada pelas precipitações na área de estudo, e pode ser dividida em três períodos: antes, durante e após as precipitações. Valores mais elevados da emissão de CO2 do solo são observados durante as precipitações e menores valores antes e pós-precipitações. / Soil CO2 emission (FCO2) in agricultural areas is a process that results of the interaction of different factors such as climate and soil conditions. In this sense, the aim of this study was to investigate the spatial and temporal variability of FCO2, soil temperature (Tsoil), soil moisture (Msoil) and air-filled pore space (AFPS) and their interactions in a sugarcane field reform. This study was conducted in a 90 × 90- m sampling grid with 100 points spaced at distances of 10 m; at these points, 10 measurements were performed over a period of 28 days. In order to measure the FCO2, it was used a LI-8100A. Along with the measurements of FCO2, Tsoil and Msoil were also measured. It was observed an increase of 78% in FCO2 due to the rainfall in the study area. The linear regression models using only Msoil and AFPS explained 85% and 80%, respectively, of the variability of FCO2, indicating that over the time, the emission of CO2 was controlled by varying the content of water and soil aeration. The adjusted models to describe the spatial variability of FCO2, Tsoil, Msoil and AFPS were spherical and exponential. However, the spherical model was more predominant. We did not identify spatial variability using the maps for some days. Probably this happened because we used the small scale. It can have collaborated for random behavior. The spatiotemporal variability of CO2 emission, temperature, moisture and air-filled pore space was affected by rainfall in the study area. We can divide this variability in three periods: before, during and after rainfall. The higher values of CO2 emissions was observed during rainfall and lower values before and after rainfall.