Effects of afforestation on soil carbon turnover in China's subtropical region

Afforestation in China's subtropics plays an important role in sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere and in storage of soil carbon (C). Compared with natural forests, plantation forests have lower soil organic carbon (SOC) content and great potential to store more C. To better evaluate the effects of afforestation on soil C turnover, we investigated SOC and its stable C isotope (delta C-13) composition in three planted forests at Qianyanzhou Ecological Experimental Station in southern China. Litter and soil samples were collected and analyzed for total organic C, delta C-13 and total nitrogen. Similarly to the vertical distribution of SOC in natural forests, SOC concentrations decrease exponentially with depth. The land cover type (grassland) before plantation had a significant influence on the vertical distribution of SOC. The SOC delta C-13 composition of the upper soil layer of two plantation forests has been mainly affected by the grass biomass C-13 composition. Soil profiles with a change in photosynthetic pathway had a more complex C-13 isotope composition distribution. During the 20 years after plantation establishment, the soil organic matter sources influenced both the delta C-13 distribution with depth, and C replacement. The upper soil layer SOC turnover in masson pine (a mean 34% of replacement in the 10 cm after 20 years) was more than twice as fast as that of slash pine (16% of replacement) under subtropical conditions. The results demonstrate that masson pine and slash pine plantations cannot rapidly sequester SOC into long-term storage pools in subtropical China.

Drivers of soil net nitrogen mineralization in the temperate grasslands in Inner Mongolia, China

Soil net nitrogen mineralization (NNM) of four grasslands across the elevation and precipitation gradients was studied in situ in the upper 0-10 cm soil layer using the resin-core technique in Xilin River basin, Inner Mongolia, China during the growing season of 2006. The primary objectives were to examine variations of NNM among grassland types and the main influencing factors. These grasslands included Stipa baicalensis (SB), Aneulolepidum Chinense (AC), Stipa grandis (SG), and Stipa krylovii (SK) grassland. The results showed that the seasonal variation patterns of NNM were similar among the four grasslands, the rates of NNM and nitrification were highest from June to August, and lowest in September and October during the growing season. The rates of NNM and nitrification were affected significantly by the incubation time, and they were positively correlated with soil organic carbon content, total soil nitrogen (TN) content, soil temperature, and soil water content, but the rates of NNM and nitrification were negatively correlated with available N, and weakly correlated with soil pH and C:N ratio. The sequences of the daily mean rates of NNM and nitrification in the four grasslands during the growing season were AC > SG > SB > SK, and TN content maybe the main affecting factors which can be attributed to the land use type.

Subtropical dipole mode in the Southern Hemisphere: A global view

A global wavenumber-3 dipole SST mode is showed to exist in the Southern Hemisphere subtropical climate variability in austral summer. A positive (negative) phase of the mode is characterized by cool (warm) SST anomalies in the east and warm (cool) SST anomalies in the southwest of the south Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans, respectively. This coherent dipole structure is largely a response of ocean mixed layer to the atmospheric forcing characterized by migration and modulation of the subtropical high-pressures, in which the latent heat flux play a leading role through wind-induced evaporation, although ocean dynamics may also be crucial in forming SST anomalies attached to the continents. Exploratory analyses suggest that this mode is strongly damped by the negative heat flux feedback, with a persistence time about three months and no spectral peak at interannual to decadal time scales. As the subtropical dipole mode is linearly independent of ENSO and SAM, whether it represents an additional source of climate predictability should be further studied. Citation: Wang, F. (2010), Subtropical dipole mode in the Southern Hemisphere: A global view, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L10702, doi: 10.1029/2010GL042750.

Eddy generation and evolution in the North Pacific Subtropical Countercurrent (NPSC) zone

The seasonal generation and evolution of eddies in the region of the North Pacific Subtropical Countercurrent remain poorly understood due to the scarcity of available data. We used TOPEX/POSEIDON altimetry data from 1992 to 2007 to study the eddy field in this zone. We found that velocity shear between this region and the neighboring North Equatorial Current contributes greatly to the eddy generation. Furthermore, the eddy kinetic energy level (EKE) shows an annual cycle, maximum in April/May and minimum in December/January. Analyses of the temporal and spatial distributions of the eddy field revealed clearly that the velocity shear closely related to baroclinic instability processes. The eddy field seems to be more zonal than meridional, and the energy containing length scale shows a surprising lag of 2-3 months in comparison with the 1-D and 2-D EKE level. A similar phenomenon is observed in individual eddies in this zone. The results show that in this eddy field band, the velocity shear may drive the EKE level change so that the eddy field takes another 2-3 months to grow and interact to reach a relatively stable state. This explains the seasonal evolution of identifiable eddies.

Intra-habitat heterogeneity of microbial food web structure under the regime of eutrophication and sediment resuspension in the large subtropical shallow Lake Taihu, China

Planktonic microbial community structure and classical food web were investigated in the large shallow eutrophic Lake Taihu (2338 km(2), mean depth 1.9 m) located in subtropical Southeast China. The water column of the lake was sampled biweekly at two sites located 22 km apart over a period of twelve month. Site 1 is under the regime of heavy eutrophication while Site 2 is governed by wind-driven sediment resuspension. Within-lake comparison indicates that phosphorus enrichment resulted in increased abundance of microbial components. However, the coupling between total phosphorus and abundance of microbial components was different between the two sites. Much stronger coupling was observed at Site 1 than at Site 2. The weak coupling at Site 2 was mainly caused by strong sediment resuspension, which limited growth of phytoplankton and, consequently, growth of bacterioplankton and other microbial components. High percentages of attached bacteria, which were strongly correlated with the biomass of phytoplankton, especially Microcystis spp., were found at Site 1 during summer and early autumn, but no such correlation was observed at Site 2. This potentially leads to differences in carbon flow through microbial food web at different locations. Overall, significant heterogeneity of microbial food web structure between the two sites was observed. Site-specific differences in nutrient enrichment (i.e. nitrogen and phosphorus) and sediment resuspension were identified as driving forces of the observed intra-habitat differences in food web structure.

Spatial and temporal relationships between precipitation and ANPP of four types of grasslands in northern China

Precipitation is considered to be the primary resource limiting terrestrial biological activity in water-limited regions. Its overriding effect on the production of grassland is complex. In this paper, field data of 48 sites (including temperate meadow steppe,temperate steppe, temperate desert steppe and alpine meadow) were gathered from 31 published papers and monographs to analyze the relationship between above-ground net primary productivity (ANPP) and precipitation by the method of regression analysis. The results indicated that there was a great difference between spatial pattern and temporal pattern by which precipitation influenced grassland ANPP. Mean annual precipitation (MAP) was the main factor determining spatial distribution of grassland ANPP (r~2 = 0.61,P ＜ 0.01); while temporally, no significant relationship was found between the variance of AN PP and inter-annual precipitation for the four types of grassland. However, after dividing annual precipitation into monthly value and taking time lag effect into account, the study found significant relationships between ANPP and precipitation. For the temperate meadow steppe, the key variable determining inter-annual change of ANPP was last August-May precipitation (r~2= 0.47, P = 0.01); for the temperate steppe, the key variable was July precipitation (r~2 = 0.36, P = 0.02); for the temperate desert steppe, the key variable was April-June precipitation (r~2 = 0.51, P ＜0.01); for the alpine meadow, the key variable was last September-May precipitation (r~2 = 0.29, P ＜ 0.05). In comparison with analogous research, the study demonstrated that the key factor determining inter-annual changes of grassland ANPP was the cumulative precipitation in certain periods of that year or the previous year.

UTILIZAÇÃO do timbó (Ateleia glazioveana Bailon) para produção perene de adubo verde na agricultura familiar, em zonas de clima subtropical.

2002

Adaptabilidade e estabilidade de híbridos de milho para região subtropical via modelos mistos.

O Ensaio Elite Sul vem sendo conduzido desde a década de 90 em vários locais representativos da região subtropical. O objetivo desse trabalho foi avaliar o desempenho, a adaptabilidade e a estabilidade de híbridos de milho avaliados no ensaio Elite Sul pela metodologia de modelos mistos. Os ensaios foram em 15 ambientes com número variável de tratamentos. Todos em delineamento látice, com duas linhas de cinco metros, espaçamento entre linhas de 0,80m e duas repetições. Para as análises de adaptabilidade e estabilidade, foram utilizados os dados de rendimento de grão, corrigidos para 13% de umidade, e aplicada a metodologia de Modelos Lineares Mistos seguindo o modelo 52 do software SELEGEN-REML/BLUP. Considerando-se os valores genotípicos e capitalizando-se a interação média entre genótipos e ambiente (u+g+ge) os híbridos Maximus, 1I1002, 1I998, 2F633 5 e 1G748 5 foram os melhores. Houve completa concordância na seleção dos cinco híbridos de melhor desempenho, entre os valores genotípicos e MHPRVG (medida concomitante de produtividade, adaptabilidade e estabilidade).

Changes to the North Atlantic subtropical high and its role in the intensification of summer rainfall variability in the southeastern United States

This study investigates the changes of the North Atlantic subtropical high (NASH) and its impact on summer precipitation over the southeastern (SE) United States using the 850-hPa geopotential height field in the National Centers forEnvironmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis, the 40-yr European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Re-Analysis (ERA-40), long-term rainfall data, and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) model simulations during the past six decades (1948-2007). The results show that the NASH in the last 30 yr has become more intense, and its western ridge has displaced westward with an enhanced meridional movement compared to the previous 30 yr. When the NASH moved closer to the continental United States in the three most recent decades, the effect of the NASH on the interannual variation of SE U.S. precipitation is enhanced through the ridge's north-south movement. The study's attribution analysis suggested that the changes of the NASH are mainly due to anthropogenic warming. In the twenty-first century with an increase of the atmospheric CO2 concentration, the center of the NASH would be intensified and the western ridge of the NASH would shift farther westward. These changes would increase the likelihood of both strong anomalously wet and dry summers over the SEUnited States in the future, as suggested by the IPCC AR4 models. © 2011 American Meteorological Society.