Extreme drought events exert both immediate and prolonged influences on terrestrial ecosystems, yet the patterns and mechanisms of the delayed effects of extreme drought on alpine ecosystems remain largely unknown. In this study, we use satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data to examine the legacy effect of severe drought events on vegetation greenness across the Tibetan

Understanding the relationship between fire and weather has important implications for fire danger evaluations, firefighting and fire management. Fire weather indices are mathematical representations of a suite of meteorological variables that are often used as decision-support tools for evaluating the likelihood of fire on a given day. However, these indices are seldom evaluated for their ability

Knowledge about heat acclimation in perennial plants is limited. Our hypotheses were (i) that high temperature during budswell before budbreak elicits acclimation in grapevines that is mediated by greater water transport capacity, and (ii) that water deficit modulates acclimation to high temperature. We compared field grown Malbec grapevines heated before budbreak during 3 or 15 days with untreated

Oil palm plantations have been expanding in recent decades in Indonesia and Malaysia. Carbon-rich tropical peat swamp forest has not been excluded from this expansion, because it was the last frontier suitable for industrial agriculture and more accessible than other undeveloped areas. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission through accelerated peat decomposition is one of the main environmental concerns in

Forest microclimate is strongly affected by local topography and management activities, as these directly alter overstory structure. In the present work we analysed the dependence of observed patterns of spatio-temporal microclimatic variations on topographic, canopy- and management-related factors. A forestry experiment was conducted in managed fir-beech forests in the Dinaric Mountains (Slovenia)

Surface-atmosphere fluxes are known to vary at multiple time scales, but uncertainty is high as to how fluxes change spatially within regions. With an increase in the number of eddy covariance towers, we are now able to examine the geospatial coherence of ecosystem fluxes, using time-series correlation. Eighteen sites from Michigan and Wisconsin were used in this study, ranging from 100 m to 600 km

Foliage clumping is a forest canopy structural feature influencing light interception, the inversion of light interception for estimating leaf area index, and photosynthesis rates. In this study we estimated clumping factor values at the branch level from different heights in broadleaf tree species at four sites in two climatic zones (two sites in dry climate and two sites in humid climate) using laser

Montane cloud forests are incredibly biodiverse regions that exist globally at narrow elevation bands and are frequently under the presence of low-level clouds and fog. Increasing temperatures and rising cloud base heights threaten these ecosystems, and may reduce the duration of time that plants are exposed to fog. Some cloud forest species have adapted to cloud immersion and enhanced photosynthesis

Soil moisture (SM) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) are key variables that affect the carbon, water, and energy cycles. Very few studies have been conducted to evaluate their impacts on site-specific ecosystems, especially in mountainous regions and plains using an integrated remote sensing and modeling approach. This study used two flux tower sites, P301 (forest–ecosystem), Prairie View A&M University

Temporal and spatial variations in methane (CH4) emissions from the littoral zone of a shallow mid-latitude lake, Lake Suwa, were examined using the eddy covariance technique. The observation data were supplemented with dissolved CH4 measurement and incubation experiments of lake sediment and water. This lake had areas with steady bubble CH4 emissions, shaping the spatial variation in CH4 flux with

Rotation forestry including clearcutting is a common method of practising forestry in Fennoscandia. Clearcutting in peatland forests markedly increases environmental loading: leaching of nutrients and methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes from soil. Continuous cover forestry has been suggested as an alternative because it does not include clearcutting but partial harvesting. However, impacts

Tropical peatlands are a major, but understudied, biophysical feedback factor on the atmospheric greenhouse effect. The largest expanses of tropical peatlands are located in lowland areas of Southeast Asia and the Amazon basin. The Loreto Region of Amazonian Peru contains ~63,000 km2 of peatlands. However, little is known about the biogeochemistry of these peatlands, and in particular, the cycling

Agricultural fields can be significant sources of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4), with implications for climate change. This paper reports continuous half-hourly CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes over a conventionally-managed highbush blueberry field on Westham Island in Delta, British Columbia (BC), Canada, measured using the eddy-covariance (EC) method for a 1-year period. Field

This study tested the possibility of improving whole-canopy water use efficiency (WUE) of grapevines (cv. Bobal) by maximizing radiation interception during the mornings and limiting this during the afternoons, when the vapour pressure deficit and the evaporative demand are higher. The three-year study consisted of two trials conducted in parallel on North-South row oriented potted- and field-grown

Coastal shoreline forests are vulnerable to seawater exposure, the impacts of which will increase due to sea-level rise, but the long-term adaptation strategies and vulnerability of coastal forests are not well understood. We used whole-tree transpiration, leaf water potential, tree-ring width, and tree-ring δ13C (a proxy for intrinsic water use efficiency, iWUE) to examine the long-term adaptation

Forest stands fundamentally alter hydrology of a region through impacting area micrometeorology and corresponding variability in snow accumulation and melt. Bushfires significantly change these interactions through removal of forest canopy, darkening of tree stems, and post-fire stem decay. This study quantified the impact of pre- and post-bushfire E. pauciflora (Snow Gum) forest stands on snowpack

Temperature is one of the most important factors controlling the phenology of winter wheat. Rapid urbanization in China dramatically modifies the microclimate, especially temperature, surrounding cities. However, it is unclear whether such urban-induced changes in microclimate can influence the phenology of winter wheat and whether the influence is consistent across cities of different sizes. Here

Long-term monitoring of crop phenology is a critical process to understand changes in cropland vegetation dynamics related to climate and human management. During the last four decades, seasonal changes in vegetation have been measured by satellite instruments, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers (AVHRRs). However, an acceptable detection of crop phenology has been prevented due to its coarse

Agricultural systems experience numerous management-associated events during the growing season that can significantly influence seasonal and annual carbon balances. Measurements of carbon fluxes from agricultural fields using micrometeorological techniques such as eddy covariance can improve our understanding of management and weather-driven changes in carbon budgets. In-situ carbon flux data are

Knowledge of soil–vegetation–atmosphere energy exchange processes is essential for examining the response of agriculture to changes in climate in both the short and long term. However, there are relatively few sites where all the flux measurements necessary for evaluating these responses are available; where they exist, data are often incomplete and/or of limited duration. At the same time, there is

The present study aims at developing a specific algorithm to automatize the calibrated average-gradient (CAG) heat pulse method and estimating low and reverse sap flow in roots, termed as CAGALG. The innovative algorithm is based on an automatic data processing to make easier the complexity in interpreting data from sap flow sensors, without losing the reliability on low and even reverse sap flows

Concurrent below and above canopy sonic anemometer vertical velocity (w) measurements reveal frequent decoupling events between the air masses below and above the canopy at a dense spruce forest stand in mountainous terrain. Decoupling events occurred predominantly during nighttime but not exclusively. Several single-level approaches based on steady state and integral turbulence characteristic tests

The relation between water-use and intercepted solar radiation depends on many factors involved in vine canopy architecture and physiology. In addition, vine productivity is related to the efficiency with which the intercepted photosynthetically active radiation (IPAR) is used, which in turn depends mainly on water availability and transport. In hedgerow-managed vines it exists the possibility to modulate

Tropical rice production is at risk from rising temperature. Understanding regional and seasonal heterogeneity of optimum temperatures for rice production is important for model simulation to predict rice yield change under climate change. However, studies or tools for widely observation of crop responses to temperature over broad spatial scales with long time spans are limited. In this study, we detected

A series of policies and laws have been implemented to address climate change impacts in China since the 1980s. One of the most notable policies is ecological restoration engineering. However, there are many environmental factors that affect vegetation in the ecological restoration engineering zones. The relationships among different factors cannot be explained well by traditional statistical methods

The conversion of primary forest (PF) to other types of land cover, such as pasture and agriculture, in Amazonia, affects regional carbon and water balances, significantly contributing to increased carbon emissions and reduced evapotranspiration. However, secondary forest (SF) growth, resulting from the abandonment of low-productivity pasture areas, offers a potential alternative to counterbalance

Climate change and resource availability increasingly influence plant phenology. Previous research has shown that global warming and nitrogen (N) enrichment reduce the effectiveness of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). However, the mechanism by which global change drivers and AMF interactively affect plant phenology is still poorly understood. We examined the impact of warming, N addition and AMF

Annually variable and synchronous seed production, or masting, is often correlated with environmental factors and in oaks involves differential pollination success that depends on phenological synchrony in flowering. The synchronization of phenology of flowering was thought to be driven by temperature during flowering (microclimatic hypothesis). We tested an alternative, whereby phenological synchronization

The assessment of the impact of climate change on Mediterranean crop systems is affected by a large number of uncertainties. To overcome this issue in an impact and adaptation assessment for tree crops, an experimental dataset containing 556 phenological observations was used to calibrate and validate a modelling framework based on the Dynamic Model and ASYMCUR approach, for assessing the flowering

Unmanned aerial system (UAS)-based remote sensing can provide high spatial- and temporal-resolution crop monitoring for precision management. Existing crop monitoring UAS primarily use conventional techniques such as multi-spectral broadband vegetation indices (VIs) to track canopy structure/biomass. Recently developed lightweight hyperspectral sensors can track crop physiology and performance via

Freeze-thaw cycles, where temperatures fluctuate above and below 0 °C, are the cause of elevated stem pressures that drive sap flow from within the sugar maple. This temperature-dependency has historically limited the production of maple syrup to select regions of North America. The plantation method of sap harvesting (which uses densely planted saplings instead of mature trees) now raises the possibility

This work evaluates roles and interactions of ground albedo (ag) and canopy architecture in capturing solar radiation inside Mediterranean greenhouses. Both incident and reflected solar radiation were measured over the ground surface and the greenhouse roof cover during a series of greenhouse experiments where common types of mulch and crop architecture were combined. In the experiments without crop

Future weather and climates, especially rainfall, are expected to have larger variability in the Southern Plains of the United States. However, the degree and timing of environmental variability that affect productivity of pastures managed differently have not been well studied. We examined the impacts of environmental variability on grassland productivity using 17 years of gross primary productivity

Salt marshes are highly productive ecosystems and yet we have only a preliminary understanding of how net ecosystem exchange varies on daily and seasonal time scales. We used the eddy-covariance method to examine the behaviour of the net ecosystem exchange as influenced by tidal flooding in daytime conditions in a coastal salt marsh dominated by Spartina alterniflora in Georgia, USA. Two different

In China, foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is one of the main cereal crops. Due to its rich nutrition, foxtail millet has also been widely used as Traditional Chinese Medicine in dietary therapy. The spatial distribution of foxtail millet production plays an important role in domestic cropping pattern. Cropping pattern needs to be continually adjusted in order to combat ongoing climate change in China

There is growing interest in the use of canopy temperature to evaluate the water status of crops for irrigation water management. One of the main indicators currently used is the Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI). In this index, the canopy temperature is normalized by the environmental conditions to account for the evaporative demand of the atmosphere. The theoretical framework, based on the Penman-Monteith

A simple formula is proposed to calculate the air temperature from the temperatures of multiple spheres of different size and thus eliminate the effects of radiation on the measurement of air temperature. The formula is derived from energy balance and heat transfer theory for a spherical surface in external flow. Using this formula, we developed an instrument with which to obtain the air temperature

The factors influencing the interception process such as the vegetation structure and the meteorological conditions, especially rainfall characteristics, are diverse and highly variable. Therefore, derivation of canopy parameters for interception modelling requires data from field experiments over a long period. In this study, we analyse long-term changes in canopy parameters and rainfall interception

Partitioning measured net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE) into ecosystem respiration (Re) and gross primary production (GPP) is essential for understanding the biophysical controls on forest ecosystem carbon (C) dynamics. Obtaining Re and GPP accurately from NEE remains a challenge. In this study, we measured stable CO2 isotopologue signatures at ecosystem scale simultaneously with eddy-covariance

Vegetation greening and soil drying, which are simultaneously observed, have brought controversy about whether vegetation greening leads to soil drying or wetting. Relevant conclusions from previous small-scale research are uncertain worldwide, and the indirect effects of climate via vegetation change on soil moisture (SM) are poorly understood. Here, to explore the effects of vegetation greening on

Restoration of abandoned, high-elevation pastures is needed across many ecosystems. Diverse abiotic and biotic stressors often limit establishment of native trees species, however, justifying the need for novel approaches to alleviate such stressors. Freezing damage often negatively impacts survival of planted trees across temperate landscapes and on some high-elevation tropical restoration sites,

Understanding the mechanisms and controlling factors of ecosystem CO2 exchange in tidal wetlands is of great benefit for research concerning the global carbon cycle and climate change. In spite of this, the multiple controls of ecosystem-atmosphere CO2 exchange in coastal wetlands subject to subdaily tidal flooding have yet to be adequately addressed. In this study, we investigated the tidal influence

Hydraulic safety margins (HSM) have been widely studied to assess the hydraulic risks and/or strategies of plant species under drought. However, calculations of HSM tend to vary between studies, leading to conflicting conclusions. In this study, HSM of 16 co-occurring woody species (including evergreen trees, brevi-deciduous trees, and lianas) in a tropical karst forest was investigated. They were

Field measurements of leaf area density (LAD) and leaf area index (LAI) for individual trees have increased in importance and relevance with the advent of high spatial resolution remote sensing for the urban landscape. However, indirect field measurements of LAD/LAI for widely dispersed individual trees have not been comprehensively evaluated. The present study compares the accuracy of three indirect

Fire disturbance and atmosphere nitrogen (N) deposition could profoundly impact terrestrial ecosystem function. A field manipulative experiment was conducted in a coniferous-broadleaved mixed forest of the subtropical-temperate transition zone in Central China to evaluate the responses of soil respiration to fire and N addition from July 2014 to December 2018. The results showed that fire significantly

Methane (CH4) is an important greenhouse gas. Emissions from landfills and waste treatment sites are regarded as the third largest anthropogenic source in the world. Precise estimates of CH4 emissions depend on a well-designed sampling procedure and detailed analyses. This study estimates CH4 emissions from a waste treatment site by analyzing the data from a flight, which was carried out in Eastern

Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) are key to biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial ecosystems. Despite the negative effects of drought on multiple ecosystem processes, our understanding of the responses of C and N in plants, soil, and microorganisms to drought remains incomplete. Our meta-analysis of 379 observations from 79 studies revealed that the C and N concentrations and C:N ratios of plant organs,

The arid areas east of the Cascade Mountains in the Pacific Northwest have high irrigation water use and changing the elevation of sprinkler nozzles in these systems has been proposed as a strategy to reduce evaporative losses in order to diminish the total irrigation water demand. Validation of any structural modifications requires techniques able to identify water losses from these systems that were

Ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE), defined as the ratio of gross primary productivity (GPP) to total ecosystem evapotranspiration (ET), is an important indicator of the coupling between the terrestrial carbon and water cycles. China's Loess Plateau (CLP) has been experiencing climatic warming in recent decades and large-scale revegetation since the early 2000s. Understanding the combined effects

Photosynthesis is the basis of crop yield and quality. Real-time, quantitative monitoring of crop photosynthetic parameters is important to assess crop growth status, and to predict yield and quality. In the present study, we conducted two field experiments using two rice cultivars (Japonica and Indica), and nitrogen levels and light response curves (LRCs) of different leaf positions at different growth

The effects of selective logging in Argentinean native subtropical forests or its replacement by pine plantations on carbon and hydrological cycles is of importance for developing strategies for a sustainable use of water resources and climate mitigation in subtropical humid regions. Ecosystem-level gross primary productivity (GPP), evapotranspiration (ET) and water use efficiency (WUE) were assessed

Understanding the key processes and potential mechanisms of crops in response to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration and drought may further shed lights on the impacts of climate change on the global agriculture ecosystems. This study examined the effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration on the growth of winter wheat under different soil water conditions (full irrigation, mild water stress