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Page 1. Ecologv, 75(4), 1994, pp. 867-879 fc) 1994 by the Ecological Society of America ELEMENT DYNAMICS ALONG A DECAY CONTINUUM IN A RED SPRUCE ECOSYSTEM IN MAINE, USA' LINDSEY E. RUSTAD Department ...
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Research Interests: Geography, Environmental Science, Forestry, Climate Change, Carbon Dioxide, and 15 moreGlobal Health, Carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Environmental Monitoring, Climate, Biodiversity, Global Warming, Global change, global Climate change, Environmental Resource Management, Ecological forecasting, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Greenhouse Gas, Ecosystem, and Early Terrestrial Ecosystems
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Litter decay in a Maine red spruce ecosystem was examined to determine the importance of decomposition as a recycling pathway for the trace metals Al, Mn, and Fe versus the major nutrients N, P, Ca, and Mg. The experimental design... more
Litter decay in a Maine red spruce ecosystem was examined to determine the importance of decomposition as a recycling pathway for the trace metals Al, Mn, and Fe versus the major nutrients N, P, Ca, and Mg. The experimental design included litterbags containing the following species: red spruce (Picearubens Sarg.), red maple (Acerrubrum L.), white pine (Pinusstrobus L.), and mixtures of all three. Although decomposing litter was an important source of P, Mg, and Mn, the litter acted as a sink for Al, Fe, and N. Calcium showed a variable, species-dependent pattern. During the 2-year study, there was no net mineralization of Al, Fe, or N. The estimated net accumulations of Al and Fe during the first 24 months of litter decomposition were 0.58 and 0.50 kg ha−1, respectively. By comparison, the net accumulation of N during the same period was approximately 3.43 kg ha−1. Evidence suggests that Al and Fe accumulation are controlled by abiotic adsorption on humified litter, whereas N retention is controlled by microbial immobilization.
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Ice storms can have profound and lasting effects on the structure and function of forest ecosystems in regions that experience freezing conditions. Current models suggest that the frequency and intensity of ice storms could increase over... more
Ice storms can have profound and lasting effects on the structure and function of forest ecosystems in regions that experience freezing conditions. Current models suggest that the frequency and intensity of ice storms could increase over the coming decades in response to changes in climate, heightening interest in understanding their impacts. Because of the stochastic nature of ice storms and difficulties in predicting when and where they will occur, most past investigations of the ecological effects of ice storms have been based on case studies following major storms. Since intense ice storms are exceedingly rare events it is impractical to study them by waiting for their natural occurrence. Here we present a novel alternative experimental approach, involving the simulation of glaze ice events on forest plots under field conditions. With this method, water is pumped from a stream or lake and sprayed above the forest canopy when air temperatures are below freezing. The water rains down and freezes upon contact with cold surfaces. As the ice accumulates on trees, the boles and branches bend and break; damage that can be quantified through comparisons with untreated reference stands. The experimental approach described is advantageous because it enables control over the timing and amount of ice applied. Creating ice storms of different frequency and intensity makes it possible to identify critical ecological thresholds necessary for predicting and preparing for ice storm impacts.
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Annual and seasonal variations in the concentration and total return of Al, Fe, Mn, Ca, Mg, K, Na, C, N, and P in litterfall were studied for a period of 2 years in a mature red spruce stand in central Maine. Seasonal differences in... more
Annual and seasonal variations in the concentration and total return of Al, Fe, Mn, Ca, Mg, K, Na, C, N, and P in litterfall were studied for a period of 2 years in a mature red spruce stand in central Maine. Seasonal differences in elemental composition were large. The greatest change occurred in the autumn, when the concentrations of Al, Fe, N, P, and K declined, while Ca and Mg concentrations peaked. On an annual basis, litterfall contributed 0.5, 0.5, 1.1, 13.8, 2.1, 5.3, 0.2, 17.6, and 1.3 kg •ha−1•year−1 of Al, Fe, Mn, Ca, Mg, K, Na, N, and P, respectively, to the forest floor. The input of Al in litterfall was 10 times as great as that in net canopy throughfall, indicating that the biological cycling of Al in litterfall was an important source of Al to the forest floor at this site.
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Extreme weather events, such as ice storms, are increasing and have potentially large impacts on forests, including belowground structures such as fine roots and mycorrhizal fungi. Many forest trees rely on the mutualistic relationship... more
Extreme weather events, such as ice storms, are increasing and have potentially large impacts on forests, including belowground structures such as fine roots and mycorrhizal fungi. Many forest trees rely on the mutualistic relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and plants; a relationship that, when disrupted, can negatively impact tree net primary productivity. We took advantage of a large‐scale ice storm manipulation in the northeastern United States to test the hypothesis that increasing ice storm intensity and frequency would reduce ectomycorrhizal fungal root tips per unit root length and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal structures per unit root length, hereafter colonization. We found that ice storm intensity reduced spring ectomycorrhizal fungal and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal colonization. However, these patterns changed in the fall, where ice storm intensity still reduced ectomycorrhizal fungal root tips, but arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal colonization was higher in ice storm treatments than controls. The amount of ectomycorrhizal fungal root tips and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal colonization differed seasonally: ectomycorrhizal fungal root tips were 1.7× higher in the spring than in the fall, while arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal colonization was 3× higher in the fall than in the spring. Our results indicate that mycorrhizal fungal colonization responses to ice storm severity vary temporally and by mycorrhizal fungal type. Further, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi may recover from ice storms relatively quickly, potentially aiding forests in their recovery, whereas ice storms may have a long lasting impact on ectomycorrhizal fungi.
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A study was conducted at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire, USA, to evaluate how measurements of ice accretion are affected by ice collector characteristics and configurations. Water was sprayed over passive ice... more
A study was conducted at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire, USA, to evaluate how measurements of ice accretion are affected by ice collector characteristics and configurations. Water was sprayed over passive ice collectors during freezing conditions to simulate ice storms of different intensity. The collectors consisted of plates composed of four different materials and installed horizontally; two different types of wires strung horizontally; and rods of three different materials, three different diameters, and installed at three different inclinations. Measurements were made with no ice and after approximately 0.25 and 0.50 inches of ice were applied. These data have been published in Campbell et al. 2020. Campbell, J. L., Rustad, L. E., Garlick, S., Newman, N., Stanovick, J. S., Halm, I., Driscoll, C. T., Barjenbruch, B. L., Burakowski, E., Hilberg, S. D., Sanders, K. J., Shafer, J. C., & Doesken, N. J. (2020). A Comparison of Low-Cost Collector Configurations...
www.frontiersinecology.org © The Ecological Society of America Now more than ever, society requires academicresearch – with its creativity, diversity, and impar-tiality – to address environmental problems. No other sec-tor is as well... more
www.frontiersinecology.org © The Ecological Society of America Now more than ever, society requires academicresearch – with its creativity, diversity, and impar-tiality – to address environmental problems. No other sec-tor is as well equipped as academia to gather information and determine the most effective ways to tackle today’s complex problems. US academic institutions play a cen-
Environmental monitoring is often criticized as being unscientific, too expensive, and wasteful. While some monitoring studies do suffer from these problems, there are also many highly successful long-term monitoring programs that have... more
Environmental monitoring is often criticized as being unscientific, too expensive, and wasteful. While some monitoring studies do suffer from these problems, there are also many highly successful long-term monitoring programs that have provided important scientific advances and crucial information for environmental policy. Here, we discuss the characteristics of effective monitoring programs, and contend that monitoring should be considered a fundamental component of environmental science and policy. We urge scientists who develop monitoring programs to plan in advance to ensure high data quality, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness, and we urge government agencies and other funding institutions to make greater commitments to increasing the amount and long-term stability of funding for environmental monitoring programs. Front Ecol Environ 2007; 5(5): 253–260 We use monitoring data routinely in our daily lives; we monitor the stock market, the weather, our blood pressure, and baseb...
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Climate-smart forestry (CSF) is an emerging branch of sustainable adaptive forest management aimed at enhancing the potential of forests to adapt to and mitigate climate change. It relies on much higher data requirements than traditional... more
Climate-smart forestry (CSF) is an emerging branch of sustainable adaptive forest management aimed at enhancing the potential of forests to adapt to and mitigate climate change. It relies on much higher data requirements than traditional forestry. These data requirements can be met by new devices that support continuous, in situ monitoring of forest conditions in real time. We propose a comprehensive network of sensors, i.e., a wireless sensor network (WSN), that can be part of a worldwide network of interconnected uniquely addressable objects, an Internet of Things (IoT), which can make data available in near real time to multiple stakeholders, including scientists, foresters, and forest managers, and may partially motivate citizens to participate in big data collection. The use of in situ sources of monitoring data as ground-truthed training data for remotely sensed data can boost forest monitoring by increasing the spatial and temporal scales of the monitoring, leading to a bette...
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Research Interests: Climate Change, Ecology, Global change, Land Use History, Soil Respiration, and 15 morePlant growth, Environmental Variables, Scaling up, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Meta Analysis, Oecologia, Infrared, Forest ecosystem, Early Terrestrial Ecosystems, Plant production, Site Quality, Elevated Temperature, Confidence Interval, Nitrogen mineralization, and Ecosystem processes
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Large-scale disturbances such as ice storms may increase in frequency and intensity as climate changes. While disturbances are a natural component of forest ecosystems, climatically driven alteration to historical patterns may impart... more
Large-scale disturbances such as ice storms may increase in frequency and intensity as climate changes. While disturbances are a natural component of forest ecosystems, climatically driven alteration to historical patterns may impart fundamental change to ecosystem function. At Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, NH, experimental ice storms of varying severity were applied to replicate plots of mature northern hardwoods to quantify their effects on forested ecosystems. We assessed ice storm treatment effects on insectivorous foliage-gleaning birds and evaluated insectivore predation on model caterpillars in the understory vegetation. These birds are charismatic, of conservation concern, and are major predators of caterpillars. In turn, lepidopterans are the dominant herbivores in temperate forests and are integral to ecosystem function. We predicted that avian abundance would increase due to additional structural heterogeneity caused by ice treatments, with a concomitant increase in ...
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Intermediate disturbances are an important component of many forest disturbance regimes, with effects on canopy structure and related functions that are highly dependent on the nature and intensity of the perturbation. Ice storms are an... more
Intermediate disturbances are an important component of many forest disturbance regimes, with effects on canopy structure and related functions that are highly dependent on the nature and intensity of the perturbation. Ice storms are an important disturbance mechanism in temperate forests that often result in moderate-severity, diffuse canopy damage. However, it has not previously been possible to distinguish the specific effect of ice storm intensity (as ice accretion) from predisturbance stand characteristics and physiographic factors. In this study, we utilized a novel experimental ice storm treatment to evaluate the effects of variable ice accretion levels on forest canopy structure. Our results verified significant impacts of ice storm disturbance on near-term canopy structural reorganization. Canopy openness, light transmission, and complexity increased significantly relative to predisturbance baselines and undisturbed controls. We documented variable impacts with disturbance ...