Ground-level ozone (O3) concentrations are expected to increase over the 21(st) century, especially in East Asia. However, the impact of O3 has not been directly assessed at the forest level in this region. We performed O3 flux-based risk assessments of carbon sequestration capacity in an old cool temperate deciduous forest, consisting of O3-sensitive Japanese beech (Fagus crenata), and in a wa...

The Glentress Trial Area is an extensive research area in southern Scotland of 117 ha where a long-term trial of the transformation of even-aged plantations to continuous cover has been in progress since 1952. During the assessment of permanent sample plots in 1990 information on the species and spatial position of saplings (trees taller than 1.3 m with a diameter at breast height of <7 cm) was...

Fagus grandifolia (American Beech) is uncommon along the coast of southern New England, but occasionally forms unusual monodominant stands with higher beech abundance than is typical for inland areas. This study documents the distribution of beech on Cape Cod and nearby coastal islands, and evaluates environmental and historical factors that are likely to infl uence its distribution. Tree-ring ...

The morphological concept of Trichoderma koningii is found to include several species that differ from each other in details of phenotype (including conidium morphology, growth rate) and biogeography. Phylogenetic analysis utilizing partial sequences of the translation-elongation factor 1 alpha (tef1), as well as fragments of actin and calmodulin genes, indicate that phenotypic characters typic...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Plants growing under elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations often have reduced stomatal conductance and subsequently increased leaf temperature. This study therefore tested the hypothesis that under long-term elevated CO2 the temperature optima of photosynthetic processes will shift towards higher temperatures and the thermostability of the photosynthetic apparatus will inc...

Unfavourable soil conditions frequently limit tree regeneration in mountain forests on calcareous bedrock. Rocky, shallow organic soils on dolomite pose a particular problem for tree regeneration due to commonly restricted water and nutrient supplies. Moreover, an often dense layer of understorey vegetation competes for the limited resources available. Hence, an array of interacting factors imp...

Knowledge is limited about whether root nutrient concentrations are affected by mixtures of tree species and interspecific root competition. The goal of this field study was to investigate root nutrient element concentrations in relation to root and ectomycorrhizal (EM) diversity in six different mixtures of beech (Fagus sylvatica), ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and lime (Tilia sp.) in an old-growth...

Due to the fact that forest ecosystems can potentially mitigate the impact of climate change, the carbon balance of managed forests has caught the attention of a large scientific community. Some authors conclude that extending rotation lengths would actually favour the climate change mitigation effect since more carbon would be stored in the biomass on the average. However, when the occurrence ...

1 In forest communities, species coexistence can be favoured by disturbance-related variations in light regime coupled with rank reversal in species performance. The objective of this study was to determine if a major canopy disturbance, resulting from an ice storm, would favour the coexistence of sugar maple ( Acer saccharum ) and beech ( Fagus grandifolia ) in an old-growth forest located nea...