Climate change will likely affect the carbon balance of terrestrial soils via shifts in photosynthetic carbon input relative to soil respiratory CO2 loss. This review is focused on the effects of enhanced temperature and altered precipitation on soil respiration—that is, the sum of autotrophic root and heterotrophic microbial respiration. We highlight key processes that determine the substrate supply for the microbial decomposer community. These processes include (i) root exudation of low-molecular carbon compounds, (ii) enzymatic degradation of labile and recalcitrant soil organic matter (SOM) and (iii) physicochemical protection of SOM. The sensitivities of these processes to soil temperature and moisture differ, aggravating mechanistic interpretation of bulk soil respiration in response to global change. Variation in soil respiration can also result from acclimation of autotrophic root respiration, or shifts in microbial carbon use efficiency. On the basis of such key processes, we evaluate the apparent flexibility of instantaneous temperature responses of soil respiration.
As sessile organisms, plants have to cope with a multitude of natural and anthropogenic forms of stress in their environment. Due to their longevity, this is of particular significance for trees. As a consequence, trees develop an orchestra of resilience and resistance mechanisms to biotic and abiotic stresses in order to support their growth and development in a constantly changing atmospheric and pedospheric environment. The objective of this Special Issue of Forests is to summarize state-of-art knowledge and report the current progress on the processes that determine the resilience and resistance of trees from different zonobiomes as well as all forms of biotic and abiotic stress from the molecular to the whole tree level.
Climate change will likely affect the carbon balance of terrestrial soils via shifts in photosynthetic carbon input relative to soil respiratory CO2 loss. This review is focused on the effects of enhanced temperature and altered precipitation on soil respiration—that is, the sum of autotrophic root and heterotrophic microbial respiration. We highlight key processes that determine the substrate supply for the microbial decomposer community. These processes include (i) root exudation of low-molecular carbon compounds, (ii) enzymatic degradation of labile and recalcitrant soil organic matter (SOM) and (iii) physicochemical protection of SOM. The sensitivities of these processes to soil temperature and moisture differ, aggravating mechanistic interpretation of bulk soil respiration in response to global change. Variation in soil respiration can also result from acclimation of autotrophic root respiration, or shifts in microbial carbon use efficiency. On the basis of such key processes, we evaluate the apparent flexibility of instantaneous temperature responses of soil respiration.
This handbook in two volumes synthesises our knowledge about the ecology of Central Europe’s plant cover with its 7000-yr history of human impact, covering Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Based on a thorough literature review with 5500 cited references and nearly 1000 figures and tables, the two books review in 26 chapters all major natural and man-made vegetation types with their climatic and edaphic influences, the structure and dynamics of their communities, the ecophysiology of important plant species, and key aspects of ecosystem functioning. Volume I deals with the forests and scrub vegetation and analyses the ecology of Central Europe’s tree flora, whilst Volume II is dedicated to the non-forest vegetation covering mires, grasslands, heaths, alpine habitats and urban vegetation. The consequences of over-use, pollution and recent climate change over the last century are explored and conservation issues addressed.
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