Forest land-use changes have long been suggested to profoundly affect soil microbial communities. However, how forest type conversion influences soil microbial properties remains unclear in Tibetan boreal forests. The aim of this study was to explore variations of soil microbial profiles in the surface organic layer and subsurface mineral soil among three contrasting forests (natural coniferous...

Changes in forested landscapes may have important consequences for ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation. In northern Spain, major changes in land use occurred during the second half of the 20th century, but their impacts on forests have not been quantified. We evaluated the dynamics of landscape and forest distribution patterns between 1957 and 2003 in Fragas do Eume Natural Park (n...

To explore the importance of soil microbial community composition on explaining the difference in heterotrophic soil respiration (R(h)) across forests, a field investigation was conducted on Rh and soil physiochemical and microbial properties in four subtropical forests in southern China. We observed that Rh differed significantly among forests, being 2.48 ± 0.23, 2.31 ± 0.21, 1.83 ± 0.08 and 1...

Soil dehydrogenase activity is a good indicator of overall microbial activity in soil, and it can serve as a good indicator of soil condition. However, seasonal changes in soil moisture content may have an effect on soil dehydrogenase activity, making an accurate assessment of soil condition difficult. In this study, we attempted to determine the significance of soil dehydrogenase activity for ...

Soil productivity and plant growth are usually affected by biological activities of earthworms. The objective of this study was a comparative evaluation of earthworm abundances in 20-year-old plantations of Alder, Oak, Maple and Cypress with the adjacent natural mixed broad-leaved deciduous forest in the Caspian region of Iran. In this research one sample plot, each 1 ha; was selected in every ...

Co-management of forest resources is a process of governance that enables all relevant stakeholders to participate in the decision-making processes. Illegal logging and forest degradation are currently increasing, and logging bans are ineffective in reducing forest degradation. At the same time interest in forest plantations and concern about poverty problems of neighboring people whose livelih...

This study analyzed spatial and temporal changes in land use/land cover in a typical mountain watershed covering an area of 153 km2 in central Nepal by comparing classified satellite images from 1976, 1989 and 2000 coupled by GIS analyses and also investigated changes in the shape of land use patches over the period. The results show an increase in broadleaf forest, conifer forest and winter-cr...

Ecosystem services imply the natural environmental conditions on which human life relies for existence, and their effectiveness formed and sustained by ecosystem and its ecological processes. In newly research reports, they were divided into four groups, i. e., provisioning services, regulation services, cultural services, and supporting services. To assess and valuate ecosystem services is the...

There is general agreement that terrestrial systems in the Northern Hemisphere provide a significant sink for atmospheric CO2; however, estimates of the magnitude and distribution of this sink vary greatly. National forest inventories provide strong, measurement-based constraints on the magnitude of net forest carbon uptake. We brought together forest sector C budgets for Canada, the United Sta...

Evapotranspiration (ET) is the primary component of the forest hydrologic cycle, which includes plant transpiration, canopy rainfall interception, and soil evaporation. Quantifying ET processes and potential biophysical regulations is needed for assessing forest water management options. Loblolly pines are widely planted in the coastal plain of the Southeastern US, but their water use is rarely...