Metacommunity versus Biogeography: a case study of two groups of neotropical vegetation-dwelling arthropods

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Assessing the dynamic of structural changes in Cerrado vegetation of protected and non-protected areas using NDVI

The structure of Brazilian savannah, named locally as “cerrado”, tends to change if the human pressures, such as pasture and intensive fire, are suppressed showing a densification of the physiognomies throughout the time. Vegetation Index acquired from remotely sensed data has been a proper way to study and monitoring large areas, and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is one of the most used for this purpose. The aim of this study was to assess the dynamic of structural changes in protected and non-protected areas of cerrado vegetation using NDVI. For this purpose, three cerrado fragments in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, were evaluated for a 26 year time span from 1985 and 2011, being two of them protected against anthropogenic interference. Landsat 5 –Thematic Mapper images were used and processed in ArcGIS. In the protected areas NDVI indicated that the vegetation followed the expected trend of changes for cerrado, with more open physiognomies tending to be denser throughout this period of 26 years, whereas in the non-protected fragment the NDVI evidences human pressure, showing lower phytomass in 2011. NDVI showed to be efficient in detecting and monitoring changes in cerrado vegetation structure, and can be useful to study both, the natural dynamics of cerrado vegetation and the anthropogenic interference in protected areas.

Crop, Native Vegetation, and Biofuels: Response of White- Tailed Deer to Changing Management Priorities

The expansion of the cellulosic biofuels industry throughout the United States has broad-scale implications for wildlife management on public and private lands. Knowledge is limited on the effects of reverting agriculture to native grass, and vice versa, on size of home range and habitat use of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). We followed 68 radio-collared female deer from 1991 through 2004 that were residents of DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge (DNWR) in eastern Nebraska, USA. The refuge was undergoing conversion of vegetation out of row-crop agriculture and into native grass, forest, and emergent aquatic vegetation. Habitat in DNWR consisted of 30% crop in 1991 but removing crops to establish native grass and wetland habitat at DNWR resulted in a 44% reduction in crops by 2004. A decrease in the amount of crops on DNWR contributed to a decline in mean size of annual home range from 400 ha in 1991 to 200 ha in 2005 but percentage of crops in home ranges increased from 21% to 29%. Mean overlap for individuals was 77% between consecutive annual home ranges across 8 years, regardless of crop availability. Conversion of crop to native habitat will not likely result in home range abandonment but may impact disease transmission by increasing rates of contact between deer social groups that occupy adjacent areas. Future research on condition indices or changes in population parameters (e.g., recruitment) could be incorporated into the study design to assess impacts of habitat conversion for biofuel production.

Accumulation of semivolatile organic compounds in Antarctic vegetation: A case study of polybrominated diphenyl ethers

Antarctic plant communities are dominated by lichens and mosses which accumulate semivolatile organic compounds (SOCs) such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) directly from the atmosphere. Differences in the levels of PBDEs observed in lichens and mosses collected at King George Island in the austral summers 2004-05 and 2005-06 are probably explained by environmental and/or plant parameters. Contamination of lichens showed a positive correlation with local precipitation, suggesting that wet deposition processes are a major mechanism controlling the uptake of most PBDE congeners. These findings are in agreement with physical-chemical data supporting that tetra- through hepta-BDEs in the Antarctic atmosphere are basically bound to aerosols. Conversely, accumulation of PBDEs in mosses appears to be controlled by other environmental factors and/or plant-specific characteristics. Model simulations demonstrated that an ocean-atmosphere coupling may have played a role in the long-range transport of less volatile SOCs such as PBDEs to Antarctica. According to simulations, the atmosphere is the most important transport medium for PBDEs while the surface ocean serves as a temporary storage compartment, boosting the deposition/volatilization ""hopping"" effect similarly to vegetation on continents. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Distribution patterns of a marsh vegetation metacommunity in relation to habitat configuration

The identification of the factors behind the distribution of plant communities in patched habitats may prove useful towards better understanding how ecosystems function. Plant assemblages are especially important for wetland productivity and provide food and habitat to animals. The present study analyses the distribution of a metacommunity of helophytes and phreatophytes in a wetland complex in oder to identify the effects of habitat configuration on the colonisation process. Ponds with wide vegetated shores and a short distance to a big (> 10 ha) wetland, had higher species richness. The average percentage of surface covered by each species in all the wetlands correlated positively with the number of patches occupied by that species. Moreover, the community presented a nested pattern (species-poor patches were subsets of species-rich patches), and this pattern came about by selective extinction and colonisation processes. We also detected the presence of some idiosyncratic species that did not follow nestedness. Conservation managers should attempt to maximise the vegetated shore width and to reduce the degree of isolation to enhance species richness. Furthermore, a single large and poorly isolated reserve may have the highest level of biodiversity in emergent vegetation species in this wetland complex, however, the particular ecological requirements of idiosyncratic species should also be taken into account when managing this type of community.

Calibration of a Species-Specific Spectral Vegetation Index for Leaf Area Index (LAI) Monitoring: Example with MODIS Reflectance Time-Series on Eucalyptus Plantations

The leaf area index (LAI) is a key characteristic of forest ecosystems. Estimations of LAI from satellite images generally rely on spectral vegetation indices (SVIs) or radiative transfer model (RTM) inversions. We have developed a new and precise method suitable for practical application, consisting of building a species-specific SVI that is best-suited to both sensor and vegetation characteristics. Such an SVI requires calibration on a large number of representative vegetation conditions. We developed a two-step approach: (1) estimation of LAI on a subset of satellite data through RTM inversion; and (2) the calibration of a vegetation index on these estimated LAI. We applied this methodology to Eucalyptus plantations which have highly variable LAI in time and space. Previous results showed that an RTM inversion of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) near-infrared and red reflectance allowed good retrieval performance (R-2 = 0.80, RMSE = 0.41), but was computationally difficult. Here, the RTM results were used to calibrate a dedicated vegetation index (called "EucVI") which gave similar LAI retrieval results but in a simpler way. The R-2 of the regression between measured and EucVI-simulated LAI values on a validation dataset was 0.68, and the RMSE was 0.49. The additional use of stand age and day of year in the SVI equation slightly increased the performance of the index (R-2 = 0.77 and RMSE = 0.41). This simple index opens the way to an easily applicable retrieval of Eucalyptus LAI from MODIS data, which could be used in an operational way.

Validation and comparison of two soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer models for tropical Africa

This study aims to compare and validate two soil-vegetation-atmosphere-transfer (SVAT) schemes: TERRA-ML and the Community Land Model (CLM). Both SVAT schemes are run in standalone mode (decoupled from an atmospheric model) and forced with meteorological in-situ measurements obtained at several tropical African sites. Model performance is quantified by comparing simulated sensible and latent heat fluxes with eddy-covariance measurements. Our analysis indicates that the Community Land Model corresponds more closely to the micrometeorological observations, reflecting the advantages of the higher model complexity and physical realism. Deficiencies in TERRA-ML are addressed and its performance is improved: (1) adjusting input data (root depth) to region-specific values (tropical evergreen forest) resolves dry-season underestimation of evapotranspiration; (2) adjusting the leaf area index and albedo (depending on hard-coded model constants) resolves overestimations of both latent and sensible heat fluxes; and (3) an unrealistic flux partitioning caused by overestimated superficial water contents is reduced by adjusting the hydraulic conductivity parameterization. CLM is by default more versatile in its global application on different vegetation types and climates. On the other hand, with its lower degree of complexity, TERRA-ML is much less computationally demanding, which leads to faster calculation times in a coupled climate simulation.

Can the red palm mite threaten the Amazon vegetation?

The red palm mite Raoiella indica Hirst (Tenuipalpidae) was first reported in the New World in 2004, dispersing quickly and widely while adopting new plant species as hosts. Since then, it has caused severe damage in this region, especially to coconut (Cocos nucifera L.). It was first found in Brazil in 2009, in the northern Amazonian state of Roraima. In the present study, native and introduced plants were sampled between March 2010 and February 2011 in sites of the 15 Roraima municipalities, to estimate its distribution and the associated mite fauna. In addition, monthly samples were taken from a coconut plantation in Mucajai throughout the same period, for an initial appraisal of the levels R. indica could reach. It was found in 10 municipalities, on 19 plant species of four families. Six species are reported for the first time as hosts. Among the associated predators, 89.1% were Phytoseiidae, most commonly Amblyseius largoensis (Muma), Iphiseiodes zuluagai Denmark & Muma and Euseius concordis (Chant). The highest densities of R. indica, 1.5 and 0.35 mites/cm2 of leaflet (approx total of 331 and 77 mites/leaflet), were reached respectively in March 2010 and February 2011. The highest density of phytoseiids on coconut (0.009 mites/cm2 or about 2 mites/leaflet) was reached in November 2010. The average densities of R. indica recorded for Roraima were comparable to those reported for countries in which the mite is reportedly economically damaging. The dispersal of R. indica through the Amazon forest may result in damage to cultivated and native palms, and plants of other families, if the projected increase in both the frequency and the severity of drought events occurs. Parts of the Amazon have undergone periods of low rainfall, a condition that appears to favour the biology of this mite. Its eventual arrival to northeastern Brazil may result in heavy economic and ecological losses.

Vegetation mapping in an area of Ombrophilous Dense Forest at Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar, São Paulo State, Brazil, and floristic composition of the tree component of some physiognomies*

This study aimed to map phytophysiognomies of an area of Ombrophilous Dense Forest at Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar and characterize their floristic composition. Photointerpretation of aerial photographs in scale of 1:35,000 was realized in association with field work. Thirteen physiognomies were mapped and they were classified as Montane Ombrophilous Dense Forest, Alluvial Ombrophilous Dense Forest or Secondary System. Three physiognomies identified at Casa de Pedra streamlet's basin were studied with more details. Riparian forest (RF), valley forest (VF), and hill forest (HF) presented some floristic distinction, as confirmed by Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) and Indicator Species Analysis (ISA) conducted here. Anthropic or natural disturbances and heterogeneity of environmental conditions may be the causes of physiognomic variation in the vegetation of the region. The results presented here may be useful to decisions related to management and conservation of Núcleo Santa Virgínia forests, in general.

Surface ecophysiological behavior across vegetation and moisture gradients in tropical South America

Surface ecophysiology at five sites in tropical South America across vegetation and moisture gradients is investigated. From the moist northwest (Manaus) to the relatively dry southeast (Pé de Gigante, state of São Paulo) simulated seasonal cycles of latent and sensible heat, and carbon flux produced with the Simple Biosphere Model (SiB3) are confronted with observational data. In the northwest, abundant moisture is available, suggesting that the ecosystem is light-limited. In these wettest regions, Bowen ratio is consistently low, with little or no annual cycle. Carbon flux shows little or no annual cycle as well; efflux and uptake are determined by high-frequency variability in light and moisture availability. Moving downgradient in annual precipitation amount, dry season length is more clearly defined. In these regions, a dry season sink of carbon is observed and simulated. This sink is the result of the combination of increased photosynthetic production due to higher light levels, and decreased respiratory efflux due to soil drying. The differential response time of photosynthetic and respiratory processes produce observed annual cycles of net carbon flux. In drier regions, moisture and carbon fluxes are in-phase; there is carbon uptake during seasonal rains and efflux during the dry season. At the driest site, there is also a large annual cycle in latent and sensible heat flux.

Informationsgehalt von ERS-1/-2 SAR-Daten zur Erfassung der Arteninventare und des Zustandes landwirtschaftlich genutzter Böden und Vegetation

Auf einer drei Anbauperioden umfassenden Ground Truth Datenbasis wird der Informationsgehalt multitemporaler ERS-1/-2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Daten zur Erfassung der Arteninventare und des Zustandes landwirtschaftlich genutzter Böden und Vegetation in Agrarregionen Bayerns evaluiert.Dazu wird ein für Radardaten angepaßtes, multitemporales, auf landwirtschaftlichen Schlägen beruhendes Klassifizierungsverfahren ausgearbeitet, das auf bildstatistischen Parametern der ERS-Zeitreihen beruht. Als überwachte Klassifizierungsverfahren wird vergleichend der Maximum-Likelihood-Klassifikator und ein Neuronales-Backpropagation-Netz eingesetzt. Die auf Radarbildkanälen beruhenden Gesamtgenauigkeiten variieren zwischen 75 und 85%. Darüber hinaus wird gezeigt, daß die interferometrische Kohärenz und die Kombination mit Bildkanälen optischer Sensoren (Landsat-TM, SPOT-PAN und IRS-1C-PAN) zur Verbesserung der Klassifizierung beitragen. Gleichermaßen können die Klassifizierungsergebnisse durch eine vorgeschaltete Grobsegmentierung des Untersuchungsgebietes in naturräumlich homogene Raumeinheiten verbessert werden. Über die Landnutzungsklassifizierung hinaus, werden weitere bio- und bodenphysikalische Parameter aus den SAR-Daten anhand von Regressionsmodellen abgeleitet. Im Mittelpunkt stehen die Paramter oberflächennahen Bodenfeuchte vegetationsfreier/-armer Flächen sowie die Biomasse landwirtschaftlicher Kulturen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, daß mit ERS-1/-2 SAR-Daten eine Messung der Bodenfeuchte möglich ist, wenn Informationen zur Bodenrauhigkeit vorliegen. Hinsichtlich der biophysikalischen Parameter sind signifikante Zusammenhänge zwischen der Frisch- bzw. Trockenmasse des Vegetationsbestandes verschiedener Getreide und dem Radarsignal nachweisbar. Die Biomasse-Informationen können zur Korrektur von Wachstumsmodellen genutzt werden und dazu beitragen, die Genauigkeit von Ertragsschätzungen zu steigern.

Der Austausch von Carbonylsulfid (COS) zwischen Vegetation und Atmosphäre unter erhöhter CO 2-Umgebungskonzentration

The responses of photosynthetic plant gas exchange, COS uptake and carbonic anhydrase (CA) activity were studied on Quercus ilex (Holm oak), and beech Fagus sylvatica L

Emissions of volatile organic compounds from tropical savanna vegetation and biomass burning

This dissertation focuses on characterizing the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from grasses and young trees, and the burning of biomass mainly from Africa and Indonesia. The measurements were performed with a proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS). The biogenic emissions of tropical savanna vegetation were studied in Calabozo (Venezuela). Two field campaigns were carried out, the first during the wet season (1999) and the second during the dry season (2000). Three grass species were studied: T. plumosus, H. rufa and A. canescens, and the tree species B. crassifolia, C. americana and C. vitifolium. The emission rates were determined with a dynamic plant enclosure system. In general, the emissions increased exponentially with increasing temperature and solar radiation. Therefore, the emission rates showed high variability. Consequently, the data were normalized to a standard temperature of 30°C, and standard emission rates thus determined allowed for interspecific and seasonal comparisons. The range of average daytime (10:00-16:00) emission rates of total VOCs measured from green (mature and young) grasses was between 510-960 ngC/g/h. Methanol was the primary emission (140-360 ngC/g/h), followed by acetaldehyde, butene and butanol and acetone with emission rates between 70-200 ngC/g/h. The emissions of propene and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) were <80 ngC/g/h, and those of isoprene and C5-alcohols were between 10-130 ngC/g/h. The oxygenated species represented 70-75% of the total. The emission of VOCs was found to vary by up to a factor of three between plants of the same species, and by up to a factor of two between the different species. The annual source of methanol from savanna grasses worldwide estimated in this work was 3 to 4.4 TgC, which could represent up to 12% of the current estimated global emission from terrestrial vegetation. Two of the studied tree species, were isoprene emitters, and isoprene was also their primary emission (which accounted for 70-94% of the total carbon emitted) followed by methanol and butene + butanol. The daytime average emission rate of isoprene measured in the wet season was 27 mgC/g/h for B. crassifolia, and 123 mgC/g/h for C. vitifolium. The daytime emissions of methanol and butene + butanol were between 0.3 and 2 mgC/g/h. The total sum of VOCs emission measured during the day in the wet season was between 30 and 130 mgC/g/h. In the dry season, in contrast, the methanol emissions from C. vitifolium saplings –whose leaves were still developing– were an order of magnitude higher than in the wet season (15 mgC/g/h). The isoprene emission from B. crassifolia in the dry season was comparable to the emission in the wet season, whereas isoprene emission from C. vitifolium was about a factor of three lower (~43 mgC/g/h). Biogenic emission inventories show that isoprenoids are the most prominent and best-studied compounds. The standard emission rates of isoprene and monoterpenes of the measured savanna trees were in the lower end of the range found in the literature. The emission of other biogenic VOCs has been sparsely investigated, but in general, the standard emissions from trees studied here were within the range observed in previous investigations. The biomass burning study comprised the measurement of VOCs and other trace-gas emissions of 44 fires from 15 different fuel types, primarily from Africa and Indonesia, in a combustion laboratory. The average sum of emissions (excluding CO2, CO and NO) from African fuels was ~18 g(VOC)/kg. Six of the ten most important emissions were oxygenated VOCs. Acetic acid was the major emission, followed by methanol and formaldehyde. The emission of methane was of the same order as the methanol emission (~5 g/kg), and that of nitrogen-containing compounds was ~1 g/kg. An estimate of the VOC source from biomass burning of savannas and grasslands worldwide suggests that the sum of emissions is about 56 Tg/yr, of which 34 Tg correspond to oxygenated VOCs, 14 Tg to unsaturated and aromatic compounds, 5 Tg to methane and 3 Tg to N-compounds. The estimated emissions of CO, CO2 and NO are 216, 5117 and 9.4 Tg/yr, respectively. The emission factors reported here for Indonesian fuels are the first results of laboratory fires using Indonesian fuels. Acetic acid was the highest organic emission, followed by acetol, a compound not previously reported in smoke, methane, mass 97 (tentatively identified as furfural, dimethylfuran and ethylfuran), and methanol. The sum of total emissions of Indonesian fuels was 91 g/kg, which is 5 times higher than the emissions from African fuels. The results of this study reinforces the importance of oxygenated compounds. Due to the vast area covered by tropical savannas worldwide, the biogenic and biomass burning emission of methanol and other oxygenated compounds may be important for the regional and even global tropospheric chemistry.

Effects of flooding on coastal vegetation and salt marshes

This thesis examines the effects of flooding on coastal and salt marsh vegetation. I conducted a field experiment in Bellocchio Lagoon to test the effects of different inundation periods (Level 1 = 0.468 or 11.23 hours; Level 2 = 0.351 or 8.42 hours; Level 3 = 0.263 or 6.312 hours; Level 4 = 0.155 or 3.72 hours; Level 5 = 0.082 or 1.963 hours; Level 6 = 0.04 or 0.96 hours) on the growth responses and survival of the salt marsh grass Spartina maritima in summer 2011 and 2012. S. maritima grew better at intermediate inundation times (0,351 hours; 0,263 hours, 0,115 hours; 0,082 hours), while growth and survival were reduced at greater inundation periods (0,468 hours). The differences between the 2011 and 2012 experiment were mainly related to differences in the initial number of shoots (1 and 5, respectively in 2011 and 2012). In the 2011 experiment a significant lower number of plants was present in the levels 1 and 6, the rhizomes reached the max pick in level 4, weights was major in level 4, spike length reached the pick in level 3 while leaf length in level 2. In the 2012 experiment the plants in level 6 all died, the rhizomes were more present in level 3, weights was major in level 3, spike length reached the pick in level 3, as well as leaf length. I also conducted a laboratory experiment which was designed to test the effects of 5 different inundation periods (0 control, 8, 24, 48, 96 hours) on the survival of three coastal vegetation species Agrostis stolonifera, Trifolium repens and Hippopae rhamnoides in summer 2012. The same laboratory experiment was repeated in the Netherlands. In Italy, H. rhamnoides showed a great survival in the controls, a variable performance in the other treatments and a clear decrease in treatment 4. Conversely T. repens and A. stolonifera only survive in the control. In the Netherlands experiment there was a greater variability responses for each species, still at the end of the experiment survival was significantly smaller in treatment 4 (96 h of seawater inundation) for all the three species. The results suggest that increased flooding can affect negatively the survival of both saltmarsh and coastal plants, limiting root system extension and leaf growth. Flooding effect could lead to further decline and fragmentation of the saltmarshes and coastal vegetation, thereby reducing recovery (and thus resilience) of these systems once disturbed. These effects could be amplified by interactions with other co-occurring human impacts in these systems, and it is therefore necessary to identify management options that increase the resilience of these systems.

Generating vegetation-spectra as a basis for global monitoring of annual vegetation cycles using DOAS satellite observations

Vegetation-cycles are of general interest for many applications. Be it for harvest-predictions, global monitoring of climate-change or as input to atmospheric models.rnrnCommon Vegetation Indices use the fact that for vegetation the difference between Red and Near Infrared reflection is higher than in any other material on Earth’s surface. This gives a very high degree of confidence for vegetation-detection.rnrnThe spectrally resolving data from the GOME and SCIAMACHY satellite-instrumentsrnprovide the chance to analyse finer spectral features throughout the Red and Near Infrared spectrum using Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS). Although originally developed to retrieve information on atmospheric trace gases, we use it to gain information on vegetation. Another advantage is that this method automatically corrects for changes in the atmosphere. This renders the vegetation-information easily comparable over long time-spans.rnThe first results using previously available reference spectra were encouraging, but also indicated substantial limitations of the available reflectance spectra of vegetation. This was the motivation to create new and more suitable vegetation reference spectra within this thesis.rnThe set of reference spectra obtained is unique in its extent and also with respect to its spectral resolution and the quality of the spectral calibration. For the first time, this allowed a comprehensive investigation of the high-frequency spectral structures of vegetation reflectance and of their dependence on the viewing geometry.rnrnThe results indicate that high-frequency reflectance from vegetation is very complex and highly variable. While this is an interesting finding in itself, it also complicates the application of the obtained reference spectra to the spectral analysis of satellite observations.rnrnThe new set of vegetation reference spectra created in this thesis opens new perspectives for research. Besides refined satellite analyses, these spectra might also be used for applications on other platforms such as aircraft. First promising studies have been presented in this thesis, but the full potential for the remote sensing of vegetation from satellite (or aircraft) could bernfurther exploited in future studies.