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| Titel |
The response of vegetation structure to active warming and precipitation reduction of the Sphagnum peatland |
| VerfasserIn |
Dominika Łuców, Anna Basińska, Bogdan Chojnicki, Maciej Gąbka, Damian Józefczyk, Radoslaw Juszczak, Jacek Leśny, Janusz Olejnik, Monika Reczuga, Mateusz Samson, Hanna Silvennoinen, Marcin Stróżecki, Marek Urbaniak, Małgorzata Zielińska, Mariusz Lamentowicz |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2017
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
en
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 19 (2017) |
| Datensatznummer |
250144202
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2017-8001.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The recent climate change (e.g. increased temperature and decreased precipitation) is
expected to affect biodiversity and vegetation structure of the European peatlands, as
well as carbon fluxes. Our experimental study carried out in Western Poland, tests
the hypothesis that the increased temperature, in particular in combination with
rainfall reduction affects vegetation structure of the Sphagnum peatland, through
changes in moss and vascular plants abundance. The innovative climate manipulation
system was installed on the Rzecin peatland in 2014. The field site consists of four
blocks: "drought" "warming and drought” "warming" and "control”. The air and
peat temperatures were increased in 2015 and 2016 by about 0.2 oC and 1.0 oC,
respectively, using infrared radiators. Precipitation was reduced by automatic curtain
operated only during the nights by about 37 % in both years. Data resulting from the
analyses of digital pictures as well as Point Intercept method were used to identify
changes in vegetation structure as a response to warming and drought. We observed
increase in abundance of vascular plant and decrease in abundance of mosses during
the very dry 2015 vegetation season. It appeared that Carex spp. (C. limosa and
C. rostrata) abundance responded positively to warming, while Sphagnum spp.
(S. angustifolium and S. teres) responded negatively. The “warming” block was
characterized by an increase in abundance of Carex spp. by 8.3 % to 16.7 % and
decreased abundance of Sphagnum spp. from 25 % to 19.4 %, whereas in the block of
“warming and drought” 11.4 % to by 18.3 and 38 % to 26.9 %, respectively in the
August 2015. However, we observed decrease in Sphagnum spp. abundance in the
treatment with rainfall reduction in wetter 2016, and their increase in the control. Our
results show how considerable changes in vegetation structure can be expected
under the stress of warming and modified rainfall conditions, even after a short-term
manipulation. However, it is still challenging to explore air temperature as a key variable
driving the observed species turnover. Therefore the study needs to be continued
in the following years. We plan to synthesize vegetation data with carbon fluxes
to obtain a better understanding of the response of peatland ecosystem to global
warming.
The Research was co-founded by the Polish National Centre for Research and
Development within the Polish-Norwegian Research Programme within the WETMAN
project (Central European Wetland Ecosystem Feedbacks to Changing Climate – Field Scale
Manipulation, Project ID: 203258, contract No. Pol-Nor/203258/31/2013 (www.wetman.pl). |
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