The responses of tropical forests to global anthropogenic disturbances remain poorly understood. Above-ground woody biomass in some tropical forest plots has increased over the past several decades, potentially reflecting a widespread response to increased resource availability, for example, due to elevated atmospheric CO2 and/or nutrient deposition. However, previous studies of biomass dynamic...

Many marshes in the Gulf Coast Chenier Plain, USA, are managed through a combination of fall or winter burning and structural marsh management (i.e., levees and water control structures; hereafter SMM). The goals of winter burning and SMM include improvement of waterfowl and furbearer habitat, maintenance of historic isohaline lines, and creation and maintenance of emergent wetlands. Although m...

Currently, information on forest biomass is available from a mixture of sources, including in-situ measurements, national forest inventories, administrative-level statistics, model outputs and regional satellite products. These data tend to be regional or national, based on different methodologies and not easily accessible. One of the few maps available is the Global Forest Resources Assessment...

Blown sand is a serious problem in the district facing the Japan Sea where seasonal wind is very strong in winter. In order to prevent the blown sand, the construction technique using natural vegetations had been developed. The growth of the natural vegetations is encouraged by the improvement of sand ingredients in this method. The effects of the method were investigated by the field survey an...

Through estimations of above-and below-ground standing biomass, annual biomass increment, fine root production and turnover, litterfall, canopy respiration and total soil CO 2 efflux, a carbon balance on seasonal and yearly timescales is developed for a Eucalypt open-forest savanna in northern Australia. This carbon balance is compared to estimates of carbon fluxes derived from eddy covariance ...

In the rain forests of Costa Rica, there is an unusual type of tree known as a “walking tree.” It is a strange looking tree. At the base of the tree is a tangle of roots, rising about a meter above the ground. It looks as if someone yanked the tree straight up out of the ground, leaving about a meter of its roots exposed above ground level. According to rain-forest guides, the walking tree actu...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Plant biomass-density relationships during self-thinning are determined mainly by allometry. Both allometry and biomass-density relationship have been shown to vary with abiotic conditions, but the effects of biotic interactions have not been investigated. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can promote plant growth and affect plant form. Here experiments were carried out to ...