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Land Cover Differences in Soil Carbon and Nitrogen at Fort Benning, Georgia
Get PDFLand cover characterization might help land managers assess the impacts of management practices and land cover change on attributes linked to the maintenance and/or recovery of soil quality. However, connections between land cover and measures of soil quality are not well established. The objective of this limited investigation was to examine differences in soil carbon and nitrogen among various land cover types at Fort Benning, Georgia. Forty-one sampling sites were classified into five major land cover types: deciduous forest, mixed forest, evergreen forest or plantation, transitional herbaceous vegetation, and barren land. Key measures of soil quality (including mineral soil density, nitrogen availability, soil carbon and nitrogen stocks, as well as properties and chemistry of the O-horizon) were significantly different among the five land covers. In general, barren land had the poorest soil quality. Barren land, created through disturbance by tracked vehicles and/or erosion, had significantly greater soil density and a substantial loss of carbon and nitrogen relative to soils at less disturbed sites. We estimate that recovery of soil carbon under barren land at Fort Benning to current day levels under transitional vegetation or forests would require about 60 years following reestablishment of vegetation. Maps of soil carbon and nitrogen were produced for Fort Benning based on a 1999 land cover map and field measurements of soil carbon and nitrogen stocks under different land cover categories
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Soil Carbon Dynamics Along an Elevation Gradient in the Southern Appalachian Mountains
Get PDFThe role of soil C dynamics in the exchange of CO{sub 2} between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere is at the center of many science questions related to global climate change. The purpose of this report is to summarize measured trends in environmental factors and ecosystem processes that affect soil C balance along elevation gradients in the southern Appalachian Mountains of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, USA. Three environmental factors that have potentially significant effects on soil C dynamics (temperature, precipitation, and soil N availability) vary in a predictable manner with altitude. Forest soil C stocks and calculated turnover times of labile soil C increase with elevation, and there is an apparent inverse relationship between soil C storage and mean annual temperature. Relationships between climate variables and soil C dynamics along elevation gradients must be interpreted with caution because litter chemistry, soil moisture, N availability, and temperature are confounded; all potentially interact in complex ways to regulate soil C storage through effects on decomposition. Some recommendations are presented for untangling these complexities. It is concluded that past studies along elevation gradients have contributed to a better but not complete understanding of environmental factors and processes that potentially affect soil C balance. Furthermore, there are advantages linked to the use of elevation gradients as an approach to climate change research when hypotheses are placed in a strong theoretical or mechanistic framework. Climate change research along elevation gradients can be both convenient and economical. More importantly, ecosystem processes and attributes affecting soil C dynamics along elevation gradients are usually the product of the long-term interactions between climate, vegetation, and soil type. Investigations along elevation gradients are a useful approach to the study of environmental change, and its effect on soil processes, which can complement data obtained from controlled, large-scale, field experiments as well as other empirical and theoretical approaches to climate change research
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Effects of Heavy, Tracked-Vehicle Disturbance on Forest Soil Properties at Fort Benning, Georgia
Get PDFThe purpose of this report is to describe the effects of heavy, tracked-vehicle disturbance on various measures of soil quality in training compartment K-11 at Fort Benning, Georgia. Predisturbance soil sampling in April and October of 2002 indicated statistically significant differences in soil properties between upland and riparian sites. Soil density was less at riparian sites, but riparian soils had significantly greater C and N concentrations and stocks than upland soils. Most of the C stock in riparian soils was associated with mineral-associated organic matter (i.e., the silt + clay fraction physically separated from whole mineral soil). Topographic differences in soil N availability were highly dependent on the time of sampling. Riparian soils had higher concentrations of extractable inorganic N than upland soils and also exhibited significantly greater soil N availability during the spring sampling. The disturbance experiment was performed in May 2003 by driving a D7 bulldozer through the mixed pine/hardwood forest. Post-disturbance sampling was limited to upland sites because training with heavy, tracked vehicles at Fort Benning is generally confined to upland soils. Soil sampling approximately one month after the experiment indicated that effects of the bulldozer were limited primarily to the forest floor (O-horizon) and the surface (0-10 cm) mineral soil. O-horizon dry mass and C stocks were significantly reduced, relative to undisturbed sites, and there was an indication of reduced mineral soil C stocks in the disturbance zone. Differences in the surface (0-10 cm) mineral soil also indicated a significant increase in soil density as a result of disturbance by the bulldozer. Although there was some tendency for greater soil N availability in disturbed soils, the changes were not significantly different from undisturbed controls. It is expected that repeated soil disturbance over time, which will normally occur in a military training area, would simply intensify the changes in soil properties that were measured following a one-time soil disturbance at the K-11 training compartment. The experiment was also useful for identifying soil measurements that are particularly sensitive to disturbance and therefore can be used successfully as indicators of a change in soil properties as a result of heavy, tracked-vehicle traffic at Fort Benning. Measurements related to total O-horizon mass and C concentrations or stocks exhibited changes that ranged from {approx}25 to 75% following the one-time disturbance. Changes in surface (0-10 cm) mineral soil density or measures of surface soil C and N following the disturbance were less remarkable and ranged from {approx}15 to 45% (relative to undisturbed controls). Soil N availability (measured as initial extractable soil N or N production in laboratory incubations) was the least sensitive and the least useful indicator for detecting a change in soil quality. Collectively, the results suggest that the best indicators of a change in soil quality will be found at the soil surface because there were no statistically significant effects of bulldozer disturbance at soil depths below 10 cm
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Isotope studies to determine dry deposition of sulfate to deciduous and coniferous trees: Final draft
No full textExperiments have been conducted at two locations near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with radioactive /sup 35/S (87 day half-life) to examine the cycling behavior of sulfur in yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), red maple (Acer rubrum), and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) trees. Some findings pertain to methods development for estimating dry deposition of sulfur to forest canopies and the magnitude of sulfur emissions from natural sources (Task II). We will determine through field studies, the internal cycling, storage, and biogenic emission of sulfur, as traced by /sup 35/SO/sub 4//sup 2 -/, in environments impacted by atmospheric sulfate deposition; and will determine through isotope dilution studies, the contribution of foliar leaching and dry deposition to net throughfall (NTF) sulfate concentrations beneath deciduous and coniferous trees in such environments. 3 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab
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Predicted Effects of Prescribed Burning and Timber Management on Forest Recovery and Sustainability at Fort Benning, Georgia
Get PDFThe objective of this work was to use a simple compartment model of soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics to predict forest recovery on degraded soils and forest sustainability, following recovery, under different regimes of prescribed fire and timber management. This report describes the model and a model-based analysis of the effect of prescribed burning and forest thinning or clearcutting on stand recovery and sustainability at Fort Benning, GA. I developed the model using Stella{reg_sign} Research Software (High Performance Systems, Inc., Hanover, NH) and parameterized the model using data from field studies at Fort Benning, literature sources, and parameter fitting. The model included (1) a tree biomass submodel that predicted aboveground and belowground tree biomass, (2) a litter production submodel that predicted the dynamics of herbaceous aboveground and belowground biomass, (3) a soil C and N submodel that predicted soil C and N stocks (to a 30 cm soil depth) and net soil N mineralization, and (4) an excess N submodel that calculated the difference between predicted plant N demands and soil N supplies. There was a modeled feedback from potential excess N (PEN) to tree growth such that forest growth was limited under conditions of N deficiency. Two experiments were performed for the model-based analysis. In the first experiment, forest recovery from barren soils was predicted for 100 years with or without prescribed burning and with or without timber management by thinning or clearcutting. In the second experiment, simulations began with 100 years of predicted forest growth in the absence of fire or harvesting, and sustainability was predicted for a further 100 years either with or without prescribed burning and with or without forest management. Four performance variables (aboveground tree biomass, soil C stocks, soil N stocks, and PEN) were used to evaluate the predicted effects of timber harvesting and prescribed burning on forest recovery and sustainability. Predictions of forest recovery and sustainability were directly affected by how prescribed fire affected PEN. Prescribed fire impacted soil N supplies by lowering predicted soil C and N stocks which reduced the soil N pool that contributed to the predicted annual flux of net soil N mineralization. On soils with inherently high N availability, increasing the fire frequency in combination with stand thinning or clearcutting had little effect on predictions of forest recovery and sustainability. However, experiments with the model indicated that combined effects of stand thinning (or clearcutting) and frequent prescribed burning could have adverse effects on forest recovery and sustainability when N availability was just at the point of limiting forest growth. Model predictions indicated that prescribed burning with a 3-year return interval would decrease soil C and N stocks but not adversely affect forest recovery from barren soils or sustainability following ecosystem recovery. On soils with inherently low N availability, prescribed burning with a 2-year return interval depressed predicted soil C and N stocks to the point where soil N deficiencies prevented forest recovery as well as forest sustainability following recovery
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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