The carbon sequestration potential in coastal soils is linked to aboveground and belowground plant productivity and biomass, which in turn, is directly and indirectly influenced by nutrient input. We evaluated the influence of longterm and near-term nutrient input on aboveground and belowground carbon accumulation in seagrass beds, using a nutrient enrichment (nitrogen and phosphorus) experimen...

Soil organisms can have important impacts on the structure, diversity, and invasion potential of plant communities. In particular, the short co-evolutionary history of nonnative plants with soil biota could confer unusual benefits or costs to hosts in the introduced range with consequences for invasion success. We used parallel pot and field studies to examine how soil biota (active or steriliz...

The effects of nitrogen (N) addition on the macro- and micronutrient concentrations, storage, and allocation of Bothriochloa ischaemum (L.) Keng, a native forage plant on the Loess Plateau in China remain unclear. We studied the effects of N addition at 0 (CK), 2.5 (N1), 5.0 (N2), and 10.0 (N3) g N m-2 y-1. N addition significantly decreased the available copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and total Cu co...

Bamboo plants have been proven to be rich in phytolith-occluded carbon (PhytOC) and play an important role in reducing atmospheric concentrations of CO2. The object of this paper was to obtain more accurate methods for estimation of PhytOC stock in monopodial bamboo because previous studies may have underestimated it. Eight monopodial bamboo species, widely distributed across China, were select...

This paper compares the paradigms of LiDAR and aerophotogrammetry in the context of building extraction and briefly discusses two roof building contour extraction methodologies. The assets and drawbacks of both data capturing system have been reported several times. In general, empirical and theoretical studies have confirmed that LiDAR methodologies are more suitable in deriving building heigh...

Remote sensing is revolutionizing the way we study forests, and recent technological advances mean we are now able - for the first time - to identify and measure the crown dimensions of individual trees from airborne imagery. Yet to make full use of these data for quantifying forest carbon stocks and dynamics, a new generation of allometric tools which have tree height and crown size at their c...

Net primary productivity (NPP) is enhanced under future atmospheric [CO2] in temperate forests representing a broad range of productivity. Yet questions remain in regard to how elevated [CO2]-induced NPP enhancement may be affected by climatic variations and limiting nutrient resources, as well as how this additional production is distributed among carbon (C) pools of different longevities. Usi...

We examined the influence of abiotic drivers on inter-annual and phenological patterns of aboveground biomass for Marsh Cordgrass, Spartina alterniflora, on the Central Georgia Coast. The linkages between drivers and plant response via soil edaphic factors are captured in our graphical conceptual model. We used geospatial techniques to scale up in situ measurements of aboveground S. alterniflor...

Ecological theory predicts that diversity decreases variability in ecosystem function. We predict that, at the landscape scale, spatial variability created by a mosaic of contrasting patches that differ in time since disturbance will decrease temporal variability in aboveground plant biomass. Using data from a multi-year study of seven grazed tallgrass prairie landscapes, each experimentally ma...

When it comes to keeping the world green, roots have historically been considered to be mere purveyors of water and nutrients to the shoots. However, this view has changed dramatically over the past 25 years as evidence has accumulated that roots can be the ‘movers and shakers’ in orchestrating aboveground interactions between plants and their panoply of parasites (Bezemer and van Dam, 2005; Er...