Abstract/Overview Background: Natural forest succession often affects soil physical and chemical properties. Selected physical and chemical soil properties were studied in an old-growth forest across a forest successional series in Dinghushan Nature Reserve, Southern China. Methodology/Principal Findings: The aim was to assess the effects of forest succession change on soil properties. Soil samples (0–20 cm depth) were collected from three forest types at different succession stages, na...
Abstract/Overview CO2 fluxes were measured continuously for twelve months (2003) using eddy covariance technique at canopy layer in a dominant subtropical forest in South China. Our results showed that daytime maximum CO2 fluxes of the whole ecosystem varied from −15 to −20 µmol m−2 s −1 5 . The peaks of CO2 fluxes appeared earlier than the peaks of solar radiation. Contribution of CO2 fluxes in a subtropical forest in the dry season was 53% of the annual total from the whole for...
Abstract/Overview Functional convergence in water use of trees across species from diverse geographic locations was examined using data on tree water use parameters, with the intention of gaining an understanding on the capacity for water transport for trees with varying structural and functional traits. Wood density (ρw), which is reported to have a negative exponential relation with sap flow density (SFD), showed a bell-shaped curve when the daily SFD data from 101 tree species belongi...
Abstract/Overview Experiments were conducted between 2003 and 2008 to examine how N additions influence soil organic C (SOC) and its fractions in forests at different succession stages in the subtropical China. The succession stages included pine forest, pine and broadleaf mixed forest, and old‐growth monsoon evergreen broadleaf forest. Three levels of N (NH4NO3)‐addition treatments comprising control, low‐N (50 kg N ha–1 y–1), and medium‐N (100 kg N ha–1 y–1) were est...
Abstract/Overview Data collected on a free ranging group of Tana River mangabeys (Cercocebus galeritus) indicates that this endangered primate species, which has previously been regarded as a seed predator, plays an important role in seed dispersal and do contribute to the regeneration of a highly fragmented gallery forest. We observed fruit handling behavior and the post-dispersal fate of seeds ingested by the mangabeys. The two main fruit handling behaviors observed, fruit swallowing an...
Abstract: A study was conducted in Ades forest in Tullo Woreda, which is one of the dry afromontane forests with the objective of documenting species composition and assessing species diversity, dominance, population structure and regeneration status. Vegetation data were collected systematically from 67 quadrants of 20 x 20 m (400 m2) along transects. In each quadrat, parameters such as density and diameter at breast height (DBH) for those with DBH>2cm were measured for all live woody speci...