The climate change is expected to affect especially alpine areas negatively, replacing the alpine flora with subalpine forest. The understanding of how vegetation influences total organic carbon (TOC) in soil, streams and lakes in alpine and subalpine areas will lead to a better understanding of the effects of climate change, and will also increase the knowledge of the ecotone as a whole. In this study plant-soil relations were examined in a subalpine and an alpine catchment in the north of Sweden, by comparing dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations, 13C-DOC, 13 compared with lake and stream water DOC, as well as sediment OC from the recipient lakes in the catchments. The results show that subalpine forests at lower altitudes, have higher DOC concentrations, higher C:N ratios, and more depleted Particulate OM in water and inlets, show that allochthonous carbon influences water properties in both catchments, as does primary production by benthic and pelagic algae, separating shallow and deep sediment Differences between the catchments are explained with the higher primary production of organic material and root exudations from trees in the subalpine forested catchment effecting the whole catchment dynamics. C-SOM and the carbon to nitrogen (C:N) ratios. The terrestrial bulk chemical properties of DOC were alsoδ13C signals in soil, and soil-solution compared to alpine areas. δ13C signals from Dissolved OM andδ13C signals.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-32429 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Eriksson, Stina |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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