This is the first truly ecosystem-oriented book on peatlands. It adopts an ecosystems approach to understanding the world's boreal peatlands. The focus is on biogeochemical patterns and processes, production, decomposition, and peat accumulation, and it provides additional information on animal and fungal diversity. A recurring theme is the legacy of boreal peatlands as impressive accumulators of carbon as peat over millennia.
Fire plays a key role in Earth system processes. Wildfires influence the carbon cycle and the nutrient balance of our planet, and may even play a role in regulating the oxygen content of our atmosphere. The evolutionary history of plants has been intimately tied to fire and this in part explains the distribution of our ecosystems and their ability to withstand the effects of natural fires today. Fire Phenomena and the Earth System brings together the various subdisciplines within fire science to provide a synthesis of our understanding of the role of wildfire in the Earth system. The book shows how knowledge of fire phenomena and the nature of combustion of natural fuels can be used to understand modern wildfires, interpret fire events in the geological record and to understand the role of fire in a variety of Earth system processes. By bringing together chapters written by leading international researchers from a range of geological, environmental, chemical and engineering disciplines, the book will stimulate the exchange of ideas and knowledge across these subject areas. Fire Phenomena and the Earth System provides a truly interdisciplinary guide that can inform us about Earth’s past, present and beyond. Readership: Advanced students and researchers across a wide range of earth, environmental and life sciences, including biogeochemistry, paleoclimatology, atmospheric science, palaeontology and paleoecology, combustion science, ecology and forestry.
Most projects in Landscape Ecology, at some point, define a species-habitat association. These models are inherently spatial, dealing with landscapes and their configurations. Whether coding behavioral rules for dispersal of simulated organisms through simulated landscapes, or designing the sampling extent of field surveys and experiments in real landscapes, landscape ecologists must make assumptions about how organisms experience and utilize the landscape. These convenient working postulates allow modelers to project the model in time and space, yet rarely are they explicitly considered. The early years of landscape ecology necessarily focused on the evolution of effective data sources, metrics, and statistical approaches that could truly capture the spatial and temporal patterns and processes of interest. Now that these tools are well established, we reflect on the ecological theories that underpin the assumptions commonly made during species distribution modeling and mapping. This is crucial for applying models to questions of global sustainability. Due to the inherent use of GIS for much of this kind of research, and as several authors’ research involves the production of multicolored map figures, there would be an 8-page color insert. Additional color figures could be made available through a digital archive, or by cost contributions of the chapter authors. Where applicable, would be relevant chapters’ GIS data and model code available through a digital archive. The practice of data and code sharing is becoming standard in GIS studies, is an inherent method of this book, and will serve to add additional research value to the book for both academic and practitioner audiences.
Based on more than 20 years of research and lecturing, Jordi Vil...-Guerau de Arellano and his team's textbook provides an excellent introduction to the interactions between the atmosphere and the land for advanced undergraduate and graduate students and a reference text for researchers in atmospheric physics and chemistry, hydrology, and plant physiology. The combination of the book, which provides the essential theoretical concepts, and the associated interactive Chemistry Land-surface Atmosphere Soil Slab (CLASS) software, which provides hands-on practical exercises and allows students to design their own numerical experiments, will prove invaluable for learning about many aspects of the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system. This book has a modular and flexible structure, allowing instructors to accommodate it to their own learning-outcome needs.
In a world filled with breathtaking beauty, we have often overlooked the elusive magic of certain landscapes. A cloudy river flows into an Arctic wetland where sandhill cranes and muskoxen dwell. Further south, cypress branches hang low over dismal swamps. Places like these-collectively known as swamplands or peatlands-often go unnoticed for their ecological splendor. They are as globally significant as rainforests, yet, because of their reputation as wastelands, they are being systematically drained and degraded. Swamplands celebrates these wild places, as journalist Edward Struzik highlights the unappreciated struggle to save peatlands by scientists, conservationists, and landowners around the world. An ode to peaty landscapes in all their offbeat glory, the book is also a demand for awareness of the myriad threats they face. It inspires us to see the beauty and importance in these least likely of places. Our planet's survival might depend on it.
Boreal ecosystems contain one-third of the world's forests and stored carbon, but these regions are under increasing threat from both natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Written by leaders from the forefront of private, public and academic sectors, Restoration and Reclamation of Boreal Ecosystems emphasises a broad, conceptual approach to the specific application of empirical research into development planning, restoration and modelling of these ecosystems. The importance of this is highlighted at a time of global climate change, as these ecosystems act as carbon sinks. There is a focus on the reclamation of exploited ecosystems from a holistic standpoint, ranging from environmental and edaphic variables to the restoration of keystone flora. Recent advances in quantification of ecosystem services, such as habitat suitability and carbon storage modelling, are also detailed. The book contains case-studies which address how both historical and novel assemblages can provide ecosystem stability under projected climatic and land-use scenarios.
Myrmarker har en stor roll i regleringen av den globala kolbalansen och koncentrationerna av koldioxid och metan i atmosfären, vilket gör dem till speciellt viktiga ekosystem ur ett klimatförandringsperspektiv. Förändringar av myrmarker genom naturlig utveckling eller antropogen påverkan kan därför få långtgående störningar av myrars klimatreglerande funktion. Mikroorganismer har en avgörande roll i biogeokemiska processer genom att t ex bryta ned organisk material i mark och därmed styra kolets kretslopp. För att förstå hur myrsystemen reagerar på störningar är det därför väsentligt att veta hur mikroorganismsamhällena reagerar genom förändringar i sammansättning och biogeokemisk aktivitet. Målet för studierna, som ligger till grund för denna avhandling, var att undersöka hur mikroorganismsamhällen i myrar reagerar på uppvärmning genom klimatförändring och ökade kväve- (N) och svavel- (S) halter i nederbörd. High through-put sekvensering användes för att studera taxonomiska och funktionella egenskaper hos mikroorganismerna i myrar och quantative PCR användes för att mer specifikt studera de metanbildande arkeorna. Två fältkampanjer vardera omfattande tre ombrotrofa myrar med olika klimatförhållanden och olika mängder N och S inederbörden användes för att undersöka lokala och storskaliga effekter på myrars mikrobiella samhällen. Resultaten visade att latudinell variation i geoklimatologiska förhållanden (temperatur ochnederbördsmängd) och deposition av näringsämnen hade en påverkan på sammansättningen av de mikrobiella samhällena och aktiva metanbildare förr än variationen i den kemiska miljön inom varje specifik myr. Myrväxtsamhällenas sammansättning för en specifik myr visades sig i stor utsträckning styra sammansättningen av motsvarande mikrobiella samhälle i torvprofilen. Detta framgick klart av i en analys av samexisterande nätverk av mikroorganismsamhällen och motsvarande växtsamhällen i en studie av tre geografiskt skilda myrar med olika kvävedeposition. Effekterna av klimatförändring och nederbörd med olika mängder av N och S studerades mer specifikt genom att analysera de mikrobiellasamhällena i ett långliggande (18 år) försök. Påverkan av var och en av dessa manipulationer antingen förstärktes eller minskades, när de förekom i kombinationer. Ökad kvävedeposition var den faktor som hade starkast effekt. De långvariga störningarna medförde stora förändringar i den mikrobiella taxonomin inom samhällena. Detta återspeglades dock inte i den fysiologiska kapaciteten, vilket visar att det finns en stark buffring i myrarnas mikrobiella funktion. Detta tyder på att framtida utveckling av myrar i relation till olika störningar sannolikt inte kommer att påverka myrarnas roll för kolbalans och växthusgasutbyte med atmosfären. Peatlands play a substantial role in regulating the global carbon balance and concentrations of the greenhouse gases CO2 and CH4 in the atmosphere, and are thus of utmost importance from a climate change perspective. Any changes of peatland functions due to natural or anthropogenic perturbations may result in changes in these ecosystem services. Soil microbial communities are essential drivers of biogeochemical processes, including the carbon cycle. In order to fully understand the effect of environmental perturbations on peatland functions, it is essential to understand how microbial communities are affected. The aim of the research presented in this thesis was to investigate the responses of the peat microbial communities to climate change and increased precipitation of nitrogen(N) and sulfur (S) compounds. High-throughput sequencing approaches were used to investigate the taxonomic and functional composition of microbial communities, and quantitative PCR was used to specifically target the methanogen community. Two field studies including three ombrotrophic peatlands each that differed in climatological conditions and atmospheric N and S depositions, were used to investigate and compare the effect of large- and local-scale environmental conditions on microbial communities. The results show that the variation in geo-climatological (temperature and precipitation) and atmospheric deposition conditions along the latitudinal gradient modulate the peat microbial community composition and the abundance of active methanogens to a greater extent thansite-related microhabitats. Furthermore, a tight coupling between the plant community composition of a site and the composition of its microbial community was observed, and was found to be mainly driven by plants rather than microorganisms. These co-occurrence networks are strongly affected by seasonal climate variability and the interactions between species in colder areas are more sensitive to climate change. The long-term effects of warming and increased N and S depositions on the peat microbial communities were further investigated using an 18-year in-situ peatland experiment simulating these perturbations. The impacts of each of these perturbations on the microbial community were found to either multiply or counteract one another, with enhanced N deposition being the most important factor. While the long-term perturbations resulted in a substantial shift in the taxonomic composition of microbial communities, only minor changes occurred in genome-encoded functional traits, indicating a functional redundancy. This could act as a buffer maintaining ecosystem functioning when challenged by multiple stressors, and could limit future changes in greenhouse gases and carbonexchange.
This book provides a comprehensive and up to date overview of peatland ecosystems. It examines the entire range of biota present in this habitat and considers management, conservation, and restoration issues.
