Local variation in the abundance and richness of vascular epiphytes is often attributed to environmental characteristics such as substrate and microclimate. Less is known, however, about the impacts of tree and branch turnover on epiphyte communities. To address this issue, we surveyed branches and epiphytes found on the forest floor in 96 transects in two forests (Atlantic rainforest in Brazil...

Measuring forest floor interception in a beech forest in Luxembourg A. M. J. Gerrits, H. H. G. Savenije, L. Hoffmann, and L. Pfister Water Resources Section, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands Department Environment and Agro-biotechnologies, Centre de Recherche Public – Gabriel Lippmann, 41, rue du Brill, 4...

The energy balance components were measured above the ground surface of a temperate deciduous forest over an annual cycle using the eddy covariance technique. Over a year, the net radiation at the forest floor was 21.5% of that above the canopy, but this proportion was not constant, primarily because of the distinct phenological stages separated by the emergence and senescence of leaves. The do...

Changes in aboveground and forest floor mass, carbon (C), and nitrogen (N) pools were quantified on three sites in the southern Appalachians 2 yr after felling and burning. Before felling and burning, stands were characterized by sparse overstories and dense Kalmia latifolia L. understories. Two years after burning, foliar C and N pools had reached 25% and 29% of pretreatment levels, respective...

In a northwestern Connecticut forest, we quantified the carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) content of the forest floor and the top 15 cm of mineral soil and the rate of midsummer net N mineralization beneath six different tree species. There were large interspecific differences in forest floor depth and mass, in the size and distribution of C and N pools at varying soil depths, and in rates of midsumm...

This study focuses on two Mediterranean beech forests located in northern and southern Italy and therefore subjected to different environmental conditions. The research goal was to understand C storage in the forest floor and mineral soil and the major determinants. Relative to the northern forest (NF), the southern forest (SF) was found to produce higher amounts of litterfall (4.3 vs. 2.5 Mg·h...

European earthworms are invading previously worm-free hardwood forests across Minnesota and the Great Lakes region. In many of these forests, earthworm invasions have been associated with the loss of a previously thick forest floor. The ability of earthworms to alter and control ecosystem processes has been demonstrated in agricultural systems, but the dynamics and impact of these invasions in ...

Effects of prescribed fires on the 1-year establishment of white oak seedlings were investigated on the Clemson Experimental Forest, South Carolina, USA. Three stands, each consisting of a burn and a control treatment of about 1 ha in size, were examined in the study. On each burn and control treatment, six to eight dominant white oak trees were randomly selected along the slope and four 2-m ra...

In this study, artificial neural network analyses (ANN) were used to identify the forcing environmental variables that are most significant in governing the transpiration rates of an Austrian Pine stand and its forest floor. Latent heat flux densities (Lh) of the Austrian Pine stand and its forest floor were separately measured using the eddy covariance technique. To assess the sensitivity of t...

In this study we characterized spatial heterogeneity of soil carbon and nitrogen pools, soil moisture, and soil pH of the first 15 cm of the soil profile; depth of the organic horizon; forest floor covers; and understory vegetation abundances in three sites (1999, 1987 and 1920 wildfires) of a boreal forest chronosequence of interior Alaska. We also investigated the cross-dependence between und...