Article
Ecology
Johanna Clara Metzger, Janett Filipzik, Beate Michalzik, Anke Hildebrandt
Summary: The study revealed that stemflow infiltration areas are much smaller than typically assumed, serving as strong infiltration hotspots compared to throughfall, and significantly altering soil properties near tree stems. Even comparatively low stemflow fractions can generate impactful hotspots of water and matter inputs, influencing subsequent hydrological and biogeochemical processes and properties.
FRONTIERS IN FORESTS AND GLOBAL CHANGE
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Teresa Margarita Gonzalez-Martinez, Guadalupe Williams-Linera, Friso Holwerda
Summary: This study examines how the size of rainfall events affects the influence of functional traits on the stemflow volume of woody plants in a tropical montane cloud forest. The research finds that stemflow volume is primarily influenced by size-related traits, particularly basal area and crown area, with the strength of these relationships increasing as rainfall event size increases. Other traits, such as the crown area/basal area ratio, also play a role in determining stemflow volume. Multiple regression models incorporating functional traits provide better predictions of stemflow volume than allometric equations based solely on basal area. The importance of functional traits in defining stemflow is mediated by the size of rainfall events.
Article
Agronomy
Kelly Cristina Tonello, John Toland Van Stan, Alexandra Guidelli Rosa, Leonardo Balbinot, Luara Castilho Pereira, Julieta Bramorski
Summary: The Cerrado savanna in Brazil is the most biodiverse savanna in the world, playing a critical role in connecting rainfall and recharge processes for the Guarani aquifer in South America. This study investigated how morphological traits of major Cerrado tree species, such as bark texture, stem diameter, and canopy structure, influence stemflow generation. The results showed that tree size and canopy traits play a significant role in stemflow yield, emphasizing the importance of trait-based approaches in studying ecohydrology in the Brazilian Cerrado.
AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Forestry
Laura V. Cano-Arboleda, Juan Camilo Villegas, Aura Cristina Restrepo, Estela Quintero-Vallejo
Summary: Vegetation impacts local water balance through its effects on precipitation, radiation balance, and soil hydrological properties, with plant functional traits playing a key role in determining hydrological function. Species selection in forest restoration is crucial for ecological recovery, and the association between plant traits and ecohydrological function is significant, highlighting the importance of considering diversity in ecosystem management and restoration efforts.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Anvar Sanaei, Zuoqiang Yuan, Arshad Ali, Michel Loreau, Akira S. Mori, Peter B. Reich, Tommaso Jucker, Fei Lin, Ji Ye, Shuai Fang, Zhanqing Hao, Xugao Wang
Summary: Positive plant-soil interactions enhance biodiversity and functioning in temperate forests. Relationships between plant and soil diversity and functions were predominantly positive, supporting the niche complementarity effect. Tree species diversity had a pronounced positive effect on soil biodiversity and carbon stocks, linking the positive connections between plant and soil compartments of a temperate forest.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Laurel M. Brigham, Clifton P. Bueno de Mesquita, Jane G. Smith, Samuel A. Sartwell, Steven K. Schmidt, Katharine N. Suding
Summary: In a long-term experiment in the Front Range of Colorado, researchers found that the effects of nitrogen deposition on soil microbial communities were uncoupled from the response of plant communities, indicating a lack of strong cascading effects of nitrogen deposition across the plant-soil interface in their system.
Article
Plant Sciences
Javad Mirzaei, Mehdi Heydari, Reza Omidipour, Nahid Jafarian, Christopher Carcaillet
Summary: The effects of short fire intervals on soil properties, herbaceous plant and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) community diversity were assessed in the semi-arid forest ecosystems dominated by Quercus brantii in western Iran. The fires had negative impacts on soil organic matter, nitrogen concentrations, microbial respiration, biomass carbon, substrate-induced respiration, urease enzyme activity, and AMF's Shannon diversity. One fire increased herb community diversity, but two fires decreased it. The short-interval fires depleted soil functional properties and reduced herb diversity, posing the risk of collapse in this semi-arid oak forest ecosystem.
Article
Ecology
Juan I. Whitworth-Hulse, Patricio N. Magliano, Sebastian R. Zeballos, Sebastian Aguiar, German Baldi
Summary: Invasive species have the potential to alter hydrological processes by changing the local water balance. Our study found that specific morphological attributes of invasive species determine higher localized water inputs, representing an ecohydrological advantage in water-limited ecosystems. This suggests that the ecological role of stemflow, throughfall, and interception should be considered in future plant invasions research.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Juan Pinos, Jerome Latron, Delphis F. Levia, Pilar Llorens
Summary: This study focuses on the spatial variability of stemflow on the bole of trees, providing quantitative data on the drivers of circumferential variation of stemflow. Biotic factors such as trunk lean, bark morphology, and tree neighborhood were found to have a greater influence on stemflow distribution than abiotic factors like rainfall intensity peaks. Non-uniform stemflow distribution around tree stems were observed, highlighting the need for further research on stemflow dynamics across tree species and vegetative surfaces.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Alexander J. Norton, Peter J. Rayner, Ying-Ping Wang, Nicholas C. Parazoo, Latha Baskaran, Peter R. Briggs, Vanessa Haverd, Russell Doughty
Summary: Vegetation growth plays an important role in land-atmosphere interactions, but the impact of water movement on vegetation response has been underestimated. This study shows that ecosystems with high hydrologic connectivity have higher interannual variability in vegetation productivity, driven by differences in soil moisture and water capacity. These ecosystems contribute significantly to regional carbon uptake through higher rates of photosynthesis and also affect annual anomalies. Global land surface models need to consider the role of water connectivity in order to accurately simulate carbon uptake.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Review
Environmental Sciences
Bertille Loiseau, Simon D. Carriere, Damien Jougnot, Kamini Singha, Benjamin Mary, Nicolas Delpierre, Roger Guerin, Nicolas K. Martin-StPaul
Summary: This review article discusses how geophysical techniques can contribute to the study of forest ecology, providing new insights into root systems, water dynamics, and spatial heterogeneity in subsurface properties. This multidisciplinary approach offers opportunities for quantitative assessment of biophysical properties and understanding forest response to the environment and climate change.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Qingqiu Zhou, Debao Li, Shangwen Xia, Zhe Chen, Bo Wang, Jianping Wu
Summary: The study found that excluding rodents after a heavy snowfall increased plant regeneration, while reducing microbial biomass and soil basal respiration. The change in soil microbial community composition was the main factor leading to the decrease in soil basal respiration.
Review
Plant Sciences
Sagar Bashyal, Chandan Kumar Gautam, Lena Maria Muller
Summary: Plants need to adapt rapidly to environmental changes by converting environmental signals into cellular signals, which induce physiological and developmental changes. CLE peptides and CLAVATA receptors play crucial roles in plant-environment interactions by regulating plant responses to environmental cues.
Article
Agronomy
Ze Huang, Yu Liu, Kaiyang Qiu, Manuel Lopez-Vicente, Weibo Shen, Gao-Lin Wu
Summary: As the forest age increases, soil water storage decreases, reaching a minimum in the 30-40 years stands, and then gradually increases in the 50-60 years stands. Soil water storage is relatively uniform in the 50-60 years stands. This pattern is associated with soil desiccation and soil-water depletion.
AGRICULTURAL WATER MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Review
Environmental Sciences
Mansi Bakshi, Arun Kumar
Summary: Copper-based nanoparticles are widely used in agriculture for their diverse properties, but long-term excessive usage may pose risks to soil systems. Their antimicrobial effects can impact soil microbes, highlighting the need for further research on their potential impacts on the soil-plant environment. Further studies are needed to understand their interactions with soil components and factors influencing their behavior in agricultural settings.
Article
Ecology
Daliza N. Rivera, John T. Van Stan
Article
Ecology
Demetrio Antonio Zema, John T. Van Stan, Pedro Antonio Plaza-Alvarez, Xiangzhou Xu, Bruno Gianmarco Carra, Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja
Summary: The study found that soil water infiltration was higher in Pinus + Juniper mixed forest and Pinus + Quercus + Juniper mixed forests compared to unmanaged Pinus stands, while repellency was primarily associated with organic matter content of the soils.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Michele Guidone, D. Alex Gordon, John T. Van Stan
Summary: Pollen shedding can lead to rapid and abundant exchanges of nutrient-rich biomass from plant canopies to the surface, altering the organismal community on plant surfaces. During pollen shedding, concentrations of flagellate cells, nematodes, and rotifers in throughfall and stemflow were higher, while mites and hexapodans remained consistent regardless of pollen presence. This study suggests that throughfall and stemflow can transport ecologically relevant amounts of pollen and organisms from the phyllosphere to the surface, with significant changes in the composition and flux of biological particulates during pollen shedding.
Article
Microbiology
Morgan E. Teachey, Elizabeth A. Ottesen, Preston Pound, John T. Van Stan
Summary: Stemflow, the concentrated rainwater input at the base of trees, can impact bacterial communities in soil. This study compared soil bacterial communities with and without stemflow receipt by using a diversion system. The results showed that stemflow significantly influenced bacterial community diversity and taxon selection, supporting its importance in stem-proximal communities.
ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Mark S. Raleigh, Ethan D. Gutmann, John T. Van Stan, Sean P. Burns, Peter D. Blanken, Eric E. Small
Summary: This study examines the use of monitoring tree sway to detect snow interception and quantify canopy snow water equivalent (SWE). The researchers found that larger changes in tree sway were generally not attributed to thermal effects, and the presence of canopy snow was correlated with total snowstorm amounts.
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Anna Klamerus-Iwan, John T. Van Stan
Summary: Mistletoes, the largest group of parasitic plants, are widely distributed worldwide. Despite being considered pests, they can have beneficial roles in the ecosystem. However, mistletoe infections are becoming more severe in European forests, leading to large-scale host tree mortality. This study discovered that mistletoes can store and evaporate rainfall, resulting in a reduction of annual rainwater supply beneath the canopy.
Article
Ecology
Marcelle Teodoro Lima, Maria Virginia Urso-Guimaraes, John Toland Van Stan, Kelly Cristina Tonello
Summary: In order for precipitation to reach the surface of vegetated ecosystems, it must first pass through the canopy, during which a portion of it called stemflow may wash canopy-dwelling animals into the litter and soils below. Previous research has largely ignored the transport of these animals through stemflow. In this study, the metazoan concentrations and composition in stemflow from eight urban tree species were monitored over 12 months, revealing a substantial and diverse meso- and macro-fauna transported to the surface of urban forests.
Article
Biology
John T. Van Stan, Scott T. Allen, Douglas P. Aubrey, Z. Carter Berry, Matthew Biddick, Miriam A. M. J. Coenders-Gerrits, Paolo Giordani, Sybil G. Gotsch, Ethan D. Gutmann, Yakov Kuzyakov, Donat Magyar, Valentina S. A. Mella, Kevin E. Mueller, Alexandra G. Ponette-Gonzalez, Philipp Porada, Carla E. Rosenfeld, Jack Simmons, Kandikere R. Sridhar, Aron Stubbins, Travis Swanson
Summary: Stormwater is a crucial resource and plays a dynamic role in terrestrial ecosystem processes. However, the processes during and after storms are often not well understood when relying solely on technological observations. Human observations can complement technological ones by revealing ephemeral storm-related phenomena, which can then be further investigated using sensors and virtual experiments. Storm-related phenomena have significant impacts on hydrologic and biogeochemical processes, organismal traits and functions, and ecosystem services at all scales.
Article
Water Resources
Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja, John T. Van Stan II, Maria Dolores Carmona Yanez, Carlos Alberto Garcia Lopez, Demetrio Antonio Zema
Summary: This study evaluated the canopy interception capacity and stemflow of three typical Mediterranean shrub species under simulated extreme rainfall conditions. The results showed that plant morphology, such as shrub height and canopy diameter, was the key factor determining interception capacity. The findings are important for understanding rainfall partitioning in Mediterranean dryland environments and developing hydrological models.
HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Seyed Mohammad Moein Sadeghi, Touba Panahandeh, John T. Van Stan II, Shojaat Babapour, Jan Friesen
Summary: The degree of dieback in oak trees has a significant impact on rainfall partitioning and ecohydrological parameters, with more severe dieback resulting in higher throughfall and lower rainfall interception. Furthermore, dieback of oak trees also leads to significant changes in canopy and trunk ecohydrological parameters.
AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY
(2023)
Review
Water Resources
Meimei Lin, Seyed Mohammad Moein Sadeghi, John T. Van Stan
Article
Environmental Sciences
John T. Van Stan, Scott T. Allen, Travis Swanson, Melissa Skinner, D. Alex Gordon
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
(2020)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
D. Alex R. Gordon, Miriam Coenders-Gerrits, Brent A. Sellers, S. M. Moein Sadeghi, John T. Van Stan
HYDROLOGY AND EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCES
(2020)
Review
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Jan Friesen, John T. Van Stan
Review
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Hailey Hargis, Sybil G. Gotsch, Philipp Porada, Georgianne W. Moore, Briana Ferguson, John T. Van Stan