A comparison of two statistical downscaling methods for daily maximum and minimum surface air temperature, total daily precipitation and total monthly precipitation at Indianapolis, IN, USA, is presented. The analysis is conducted for two seasons, the growing season and the non-growing season, defined based on variability of surface air temperature. The predictors used in the downscaling are in...

Global temperature is increasing, and this is affecting the vegetation phenology in many parts of the world. In Fennoscandia, as well as Northern Europe, the advances of phenological events in spring have been recorded in recent decades. In this study, we analyzed the start of the growing season within five different vegetation regions in Fennoscandia using the 30-year Global Inventory Modeling...

The development of models to predict yield potential and quality of a Miscanthus crop must consider climatic limitations and the duration of growing season. As a biomass crop, yield and quality are impacted by the timing of plant developmental transitions such as flowering and senescence. Growth models are available for the commercially grown clone Miscanthus x giganteus (Mxg), but breeding pro...

The Arctic is among the regions with the most rapid changes in climate and has the expected highest increase in temperature. Changes in the timing of phenological phases, such as onset of the growing season observed from remote sensing, are among the most sensitive bio-indicators of climate change. The study area here is the High Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, located between 76°30ʹ and 80°50ʹ...

Dollar spot disease, caused by the fungus Sclerotinia homoeocarpa F.T. Bennett is common on intensively managed creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) and annual bluegrass (Poa annua L.), and other turfgrasses. Frequent chemical applications during the growing season are made to control this disease. Previous observations state that application of fungicides such as azoxystrobin can incre...

The carbon (C) sink strength of arctic tundra is under pressure from increasing populations of arctic breeding geese. In this study we examined how CO2 and CH4 fluxes, plant biomass and soil C responded to the removal of vertebrate herbivores in a high arctic wet moss meadow that has been intensively used by barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) for ca. 20 years. We used 4 and 9 years old grazing e...

Salt marshes are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth, and play an important role in the global carbon cycle. Net carbon dioxide (CO2) ecosystem exchanges in coastal salt marshes remain poorly investigated. In Spartina alterniflora dominated North American Atlantic coast marshes, the lack of a clear understanding of how Spartina alterniflora responds to flooding limits our current abil...

Global warming and shortage of water have been evidenced in the recent past and are predicted for the future. Climate change will inevitably have considerable impact on plant physiology, growth, productivity and forest ecosystem functions. The present study determined the effects of simulated daytime air warming (+1 to 1.5 °C during the growing season), drought (-40% and -57% of mean precipitat...

We studied the effects of periodic disturbance (prescribed burning and light disking) and landscape composition on nest density and success for grassland birds in agricultural conservation buffers in southeastern United States agroecosystems. During the 2007–2009 breeding seasons, we located 387 nests in buffers of a northeast Mississippi agroecosystem. Dickcissel (Spiza americana) and red-wing...