1 Plant ecology at high elevations.- The concept of limitation.- A regional and historical account.- The challenge of alpine plant research.- 2 The alpine life zone.- Altitudinal boundaries.- Global alpine land area.- Alpine plant diversity.- Origin of alpine floras.- Alpine growth forms.- 3 Alpine climate.- Which alpine climate.- Common features of alpine climates.- Regional features of alpine climates.- 4 The climate plants experience.- Interactions of relief, wind and sun.- How alpine plants influence their climate.- The geographic variation of alpine climate.- 5 Life under snow: protection and limitation.- Temperatures under snow.- Solar radiation under snow.- Gas concentrations under snow.- Plant responses to snowpack.- 6 Alpine soils.- Physics of alpine soil formation.- The organic compound.- The interaction of organic and inorganic compounds.- 7 Alpine treelines.- About trees and lines.- Current altitudinal positions of climatic treelines.- Treeline-climate relationships.- Intrazonal variations and pantropical plateauing of alpine treelines.- Treelines in the past.- Attempts at a functional explanation of treelines.- A hypothesis for treeline formation.- Growth trends near treelines.- Evidence for sink limitation.- 8 Climatic stress.- Survival of low temperature extremes.- Avoidance and tolerance of low temperature extremes.- Heat stress in alpine plants.- Ultraviolet radiation - a stress factor.- 9 Water relations.- Ecosystem water balance.- Soil moisture at high altitudes.- Plant water relations - a brief review of principles.- Water relations of alpine plants.- Desiccation stress.- Water relations of special plant types.- 10 Mineral nutrition.- Soil nutrients.- The nutrient status of alpine plants.- Nutrient cycling and nutrient budgets.- Nitrogen fixation.- Mycorrhiza.- Responses of vegetation to variable nutrient supply.- 11 Uptake and loss of carbon.- Photosynthetic capacity of alpine plants.- Photosynthetic responses to the environment.- Daily carbon gain of leaves.- The seasonal carbon gain of leaves.- C4 and CAM photosynthesis at high altitudes.- Tissue respiration of alpine plants.- Ecosystem carbon balance.- 12 Carbon investments.- Non-structural carbohydrates.- Lipids and energy content.- Carbon costs of leaves and roots.- Whole plant carbon allocation.- 13 Growth dynamics and phenology.- Seasonal growth.- Diurnal leaf extension.- Rates of plant dry matter accumulation.- Functional duration of leaves and roots.- 14 Cell division and tissue formation.- Cell size and plant size.- Mitosis and the cell cycle.- From meristem activity to growth control.- 15 Plant biomass production.- The structure of alpine plant canopies.- Primary productivity of alpine vegetation.- Plant dry matter pools.- Biomass losses through herbivores.- 16 Plant reproduction.- Flowering and pollination.- Seed development and seed size.- Germination.- Alpine seed banks and natural recruitment.- Clonal propagation.- Alpine plant age.- Community processes.- 17 Global change at high elevation.- Alpine land use.- The impact of altered atmospheric chemistry.- Climatic change and alpine ecosystems.- References (with chapter annotation).- Taxonomic index (genera).- Geographical index.- Color plates.- Plant life forms.- The alpine life zone.- Environmental stress.- The human dimension.

Alpine plant life

The rhizosphere is the interface between plant roots and soil where interactions among a myriad of microorganisms and invertebrates affect biogeochemical cycling, plant growth and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress. The rhizosphere is intriguingly complex and dynamic, and understanding its ecology and evolution is key to enhancing plant productivity and ecosystem functioning. Novel insights into key factors and evolutionary processes shaping the rhizosphere microbiome will greatly benefit from integrating reductionist and systems-based approaches in both agricultural and natural ecosystems. Here, we discuss recent developments in rhizosphere research in relation to assessing the contribution of the micro- and macroflora to sustainable agriculture, nature conservation, the development of bio-energy crops and the mitigation of climate change.

Going back to the roots: the microbial ecology of the rhizosphere.

https://cbs.umn.edu/sites/cbs.umn.edu/files/public/downloads/Nguyenetal2015b.pdf

FUNGuild: An open annotation tool for parsing fungal community datasets by ecological guild

Evidence is mounting that the immense diversity of microorganisms and animals that live belowground contributes significantly to shaping aboveground biodiversity and the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Our understanding of how this belowground biodiversity is distributed, and how it regulates the structure and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, is rapidly growing. Evidence also points to soil biodiversity as having a key role in determining the ecological and evolutionary responses of terrestrial ecosystems to current and future environmental change. Here we review recent progress and propose avenues for further research in this field.

Belowground biodiversity and ecosystem functioning

Progress towards understanding the extent to which mycorrhizal fungi are involved in the mobilization of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from natural substrates is reviewed here. While mycorrhiza research has emphasized the role of the symbiosis in facilitation of capture of these nutrients in ionic form, attention has shifted since the mid-1980s to analysing the mycorrhizal fungal abilities to release N and P from the detrital materials of microbial faunal and plant origins, which are the primary sources of these elements in terrestrial ecosystems. Ericoid, and some ectomycorrhizal fungi have the potential to be directly involved in attack both on structural polymers, which may render nutrients inaccessible, and in mobilization of N and P from the organic polymers in which they are sequestered. The advantages to the plant of achieving intervention in the microbial mobilization-immobilization cycles are stressed. While the new approaches may initially lack the precision achieved in studies of readily characterized ionic forms of N and P, they do provide insights of greater ecological relevance. The results support the hypothesis that selection has favoured ericoid and ectomycorrhizal systems with well developed saprotrophic capabilities in those ecosystems characterized by retention of N and P as organic complexes in the soil. The need for further investigation of the abilities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to intervene in nutrient mobilization processes is stressed.

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1469-8137.2003.00704.x

Mycorrhizas and nutrient cycling in ecosystems – a journey towards relevance?

Conservation and mapping of macrofungi in Europe - Advancement during the last decade. (Bescherming en kartering van macrofungi in Europa.)

Emulation of natural disturbances is often regarded as a key measure to make forestry biodiversity-oriented. Consequently, extraction of logging residues is assumed to have little negative effect in comparison to extraction of dead wood mainly formed at natural disturbances. This is consistent with the evolutionary species pool hypothesis, which suggests that most species are evolutionary adapted to the naturally most abundant habitats. We tested this hypothesis for dead-wood-dependent macrofungi, lichens, and beetles in a boreal forest landscape in central Sweden, assuming that species are adapted to conditions similar to today’s unmanaged forest. No occurrence patterns, for the species groups which we investigated, were consistent with the hypothesis. Overall, stumps and snags had the highest habitat quality (measured as average population density with equal weight given to each species) and fine woody debris the lowest, which was unexpected, since stumps were the rarest dead-wood type in unmanaged forest. We conclude that the evolutionary species pool concept did not explain patterns of species’ occurrences, and for two reasons, the concept is not reliable as a general rule of thumb: (1) what constitute habitats harbouring different species communities can only be understood from habitat-specific studies and (2) the suitability of habitats is affected by their biophysical characteristics. Thus, emulation of natural disturbances may promote biodiversity, but empirical studies are needed for each habitat to understand how natural disturbances should be emulated. We also conclude that stump extraction for bioenergy is associated with larger risks for biodiversity than fine woody debris extraction.

/pdf/the-evolutionary-species-pool-concept-does-not-explain-1r8qvuyedn.pdf

The evolutionary species pool concept does not explain occurrence patterns of dead-wood-dependent organisms: implications for logging residue extraction

The following corrections are made to the article. p. 1220: The fifth sentence in the Abstract should read “Our results suggest that the extraction may cause a 35%–45% reduction in FWD and a more than 20% decline in the potential amount of substrate for about 50% of the species (affecting basidiomycetes and beetles more than lichens).”. The fifth sentence in the Resume should read “Nos resultats indiquent que la recuperation peut eliminer 35 % – 45 % des DLF et reduire de plus de 20 % la quantite potentielle de substrat pour environ 50 % des especes (ce qui affecte les basidiomycetes et les insectes plus que les lichens).”. p. 1221, Table 1: A correcting and clarifying note to the table 1 is added: “In scenarios 2–4; we assumed that logging residue extraction caused a 70% decrease in the volume of 0–5 cm and a 30% decrease in the volume of 5–10 cm of all fine woody debris (including what present before final harvest).”. p. 1225, right column, “Modelled effects of logging residue extraction on the amount of dead wood” section: The first sentence should read “Extraction of logging residues left after final felling (scenario 2) caused a 35% reduction in the average availability of FWD, a 24% reduction of the inflow of aboveground FWD, and a 14% reduction in the total inflow of FWD within a stand during a forest rotation compared with scenario 1 (Figs. 2 and 4).”. The third sentence should read “Removal of aboveground FWD also after all thinnings (scenario 3) caused a reduction by 45% in the average availability of FWD, a 32% reduction of the inflow of aboveground FWD, and a 19% reduction in the total inflow of FWD within a stand during a forest rotation compared with scenario 1 (Figs. 2 and 4).”. p. 1226, caption to Fig. 4: The first sentence of the caption should read “Simulated average amount of various types of dead wood at the landscape level or during a forest generation measured as (a) volume and (b) surface area at different levels of logging residue extraction in Kronoberg.”.

/pdf/corrigendum-modelled-impact-of-norway-spruce-logging-residue-3nxyxh4tf9.pdf

Anders Dahlberg

Papers

Conservation and mapping of macrofungi in Europe - Advancement during the last decade. (Bescherming en kartering van macrofungi in Europa.)

The evolutionary species pool concept does not explain occurrence patterns of dead-wood-dependent organisms: implications for logging residue extraction

Corrigendum: Modelled impact of Norway spruce logging residue extraction on biodiversity in Sweden

Mer död ved i skogen : en förutsättning för tusentals arters överlevnad

Conservation of fungi