TY - JOUR
T1 - Topographic and climatic controls on soil environments and net primary production in a rugged temperate hardwood forest in Korea
AU - Kang, Sinkyu
AU - Lee, Dowon
AU - Lee, Jangho
AU - Running, Steven W.
PY - 2006/1
Y1 - 2006/1
N2 - Eight years (1994-2001) of field data and a biogeochemical process model, BIOME-BGC, were used to examine effects of local topography and inter-annual climatic variability on soil physical (i.e., soil moisture and temperature) and biogeochemical (i.e., organic matter content, soil respiration, and leaf litter production) variables in a temperate hardwood forest in Korea. The field data were collected from adjacent south-facing (S) and north-facing (N) slopes, respectively, to examine effects of local topography, and were utilized to validate predictability according to BIOME-BGC which was applied to model unmeasured hydro-ecological processes [i.e., evapotranspiration, net primary production (NPP), and net ecosystem exchange of carbon]. Our field-data analyses indicated that soil-related variables including soil temperature, water content, organic matter, soil respiration, and floor leaf litter store significantly differed between the S and N slopes, while leaf litter production did not differ as significantly as the soil-related variables. The BIOME-BGC predictions showed good agreement with the mean field data aggregated across the slopes. Our simulation results and field observations indicated that the inter-annual variations of leaf litter production and maximum leaf area index were best explained by precipitation, both at a 1-year lag, while variation in annual NPP was well correlated with precipitation without a temporal lag. Our results imply that: (1) local topography needs to be explicitly considered in ecosystem studies as a forcing function generating spatial heterogeneity in soil physical and biogeochemical variables within a rugged landscape, and (2) water limits vegetation productivity in our study forest, in spite of a relatively high annual precipitation rate (1,579 mm year-1).
AB - Eight years (1994-2001) of field data and a biogeochemical process model, BIOME-BGC, were used to examine effects of local topography and inter-annual climatic variability on soil physical (i.e., soil moisture and temperature) and biogeochemical (i.e., organic matter content, soil respiration, and leaf litter production) variables in a temperate hardwood forest in Korea. The field data were collected from adjacent south-facing (S) and north-facing (N) slopes, respectively, to examine effects of local topography, and were utilized to validate predictability according to BIOME-BGC which was applied to model unmeasured hydro-ecological processes [i.e., evapotranspiration, net primary production (NPP), and net ecosystem exchange of carbon]. Our field-data analyses indicated that soil-related variables including soil temperature, water content, organic matter, soil respiration, and floor leaf litter store significantly differed between the S and N slopes, while leaf litter production did not differ as significantly as the soil-related variables. The BIOME-BGC predictions showed good agreement with the mean field data aggregated across the slopes. Our simulation results and field observations indicated that the inter-annual variations of leaf litter production and maximum leaf area index were best explained by precipitation, both at a 1-year lag, while variation in annual NPP was well correlated with precipitation without a temporal lag. Our results imply that: (1) local topography needs to be explicitly considered in ecosystem studies as a forcing function generating spatial heterogeneity in soil physical and biogeochemical variables within a rugged landscape, and (2) water limits vegetation productivity in our study forest, in spite of a relatively high annual precipitation rate (1,579 mm year-1).
KW - Climate variability
KW - Primary production
KW - Temperate hardwood forest
KW - Topography
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33746441983&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11284-005-0095-0
DO - 10.1007/s11284-005-0095-0
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33746441983
SN - 0912-3814
VL - 21
SP - 64
EP - 74
JO - Ecological Research
JF - Ecological Research
IS - 1
ER -