08.09.2014 Views

On the Ecology of Mountainous Forests in a Changing Climate: A ...

On the Ecology of Mountainous Forests in a Changing Climate: A ...

On the Ecology of Mountainous Forests in a Changing Climate: A ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

52 Chapter 3<br />

ForClim-E: Environment<br />

uAET<br />

LITTER<br />

gLign<br />

LOM<br />

gImmob<br />

gNMR<br />

HUMUS<br />

ForClim-S:<br />

Soil submodel<br />

HOM<br />

N m<strong>in</strong>eralization<br />

ForClim-P: Plants<br />

Plant<br />

litter<br />

uAvN<br />

LN<br />

HN<br />

Fig. 3.3: Structure <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> soil organic matter submodel FORCLIM-S. The identifiers are<br />

expla<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> text.<br />

The litter produced by <strong>the</strong> trees <strong>in</strong> a given year loses carbon cont<strong>in</strong>uously dur<strong>in</strong>g decomposition,<br />

but <strong>the</strong> rate <strong>of</strong> nitrogen uptake by <strong>the</strong> microbes attack<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> tissue is <strong>in</strong>itially<br />

greater than <strong>the</strong> release <strong>of</strong> nitrogen from <strong>the</strong> tissue; this results <strong>in</strong> a net immobilization <strong>of</strong><br />

nitrogen (e.g. Berg & Staaf 1981, War<strong>in</strong>g & Schles<strong>in</strong>ger 1985). Thus, <strong>in</strong> FORCLIM-S<br />

two state variables are used to characterize litter: its organic matter content (LOM), and its<br />

nitrogen content (LN; Fig. 3.3). The litter becomes progressively richer <strong>in</strong> recalcitrant<br />

compounds, and <strong>the</strong> rate <strong>of</strong> nitrogen release beg<strong>in</strong>s to exceed <strong>the</strong> uptake, lead<strong>in</strong>g to<br />

nitrogen m<strong>in</strong>eralization. Pastor & Post (1985) call <strong>the</strong> material <strong>in</strong> this stage “humus”. The<br />

change from immobilization to m<strong>in</strong>eralization – and thus <strong>the</strong> transition from “litter” to<br />

“humus” – generally happens at nitrogen concentrations <strong>of</strong> about 2% <strong>of</strong> weight<br />

(Alexander 1977). Similar to <strong>the</strong> litter, <strong>the</strong> humus is divided <strong>in</strong>to organic matter (HOM)<br />

and nitrogen content (HN, Fig. 3.3).<br />

The basic idea beh<strong>in</strong>d <strong>the</strong> decomposition module <strong>in</strong> LINKAGES is to formulate decay rates<br />

based directly on <strong>the</strong> wealth <strong>of</strong> data obta<strong>in</strong>ed from litterbag studies (e.g. Meentemeyer<br />

1978, Melillo et al. 1982, Pastor et al. 1984, Coûteaux et al. 1991). To this end, <strong>the</strong>

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!