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| Titel |
Medium term ecohydrological response of peatland bryophytes to canopy disturbance |
| VerfasserIn |
Rhoswen Leonard, Nick Kettridge, Stefan Krause, Kevin Devito, Gustaf Granath, Richard Petrone, Carl Mandoza, James Micheal Waddington |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2016
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
en
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 18 (2016) |
| Datensatznummer |
250124953
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2016-4465.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Canopy disturbance in northern forested peatlands is widespread. Canopy changes
impact the ecohydrological function of moss and peat, which provide the principal
carbon store within these carbon rich ecosystems. Different mosses have contrasting
contributions to carbon and water fluxes (e.g. Sphagnum fuscum and Pleurozium schreberi)
and are strongly influenced by canopy cover. As a result, changes in canopy cover
lead to long-term shifts in species composition and associated ecohydrological
function. Despite this, the medium-term response to such disturbance, the associated
lag in this transition to a new ecohydrological and biogeochemical regime, is not
understood. Here we investigate this medium term ecohydrological response to
canopy removal using a randomised plot design within a north Albertan peatland.
We show no significant ecohydrological change in treatment plots four years after
canopy removal. Notably, Pleurozium schreberi and Sphagnum fuscum remained
within respective plots post treatment and there was no significant difference in plot
resistance to evapotranspiration or carbon exchange. Our results show that canopy
removal alone has little impact on bryophyte ecohydrology in the short/medium
term. This resistance to disturbance contrasts strongly with dramatic short-term
changes observed within mineral soils suggesting that concurrent shifts in the large
scale hydrology induced within such disturbances are necessary to cause rapid
ecohydrological transitions. Understanding this lagged response is critical to determine
the decadal response of carbon and water fluxes in response to disturbance and
the rate at which important medium term ecohydrological feedbacks are invoked. |
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