Coastal sand dunes are extremely dynamic ecosystems, characterized by stark ecological succession gradients. Dune stabilization is mainly attributed to plant growth, but the establishment and survival of dune-inhabiting vegetation is closely linked to soil microorganisms and to the ecological functions they fulfill. Fungi are particularly important in this context, as some interact intimately w...

To test factors limiting regeneration of large-seeded hardwoods in the Upper Coastal Plain of South Carolina, we planted one-year old bare root Quercus alba L. and Cornus florida L. seedlings in pine plantation understories and adjacent clearcuts. We hypothesized that soil moisture, light, and leaf and stem herbivory would have relatively strong effects on growth and survival during the first t...

Forest structural change affects the forest's growth and the carbon storage. Two treatments, thinning (30% thinning intensity) and underplanting plus thinning, are being implemented in a coastal Metasequoia glyptostroboides forest shelterbelt in Eastern China. The vegetation carbon storage significantly increased in the underplanted and thinned treatments compared with that in the unthinned tre...

The factors that influence the invasion of natural habitats by nonnative plants remain poorly understood. We investigated abiotic, biotic, and human influences on the distribution and abundance of nonnative species in coastal upland habitats of southern New England and adjacent New York, US. We censused vegetation and sampled soils in 776, 20 · 20 m plots in natural areas and constructed a spat...

Carbon cycling on the east coast of Australia has the potential to be strongly affected by El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) intensification and coastal development (industrialization and urbanization). We performed paleoreconstructions of estuarine sediments from a seagrass-dominated estuary on the east coast of Australia (Tuggerah Lake, New South Wales) to test the hypothesis that millennia...

[1] Sulfate, nitrate, and chloride are major water-soluble anions in soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV), Antarctica. We measured the chloride stable isotope composition of 40 soil samples from 16 different soil profiles. The soil profiles come from three different microclimate zones in the MDV: a coastal thaw zone, which fosters a seasonally saturated active layer; a stable upland zone, in ...

Problem statement: For a number of geological reasons a proportion of the present coastal plains in the Malay Peninsula were inundated by seawater in the past when pyrite in some of the soils is believed to have been mineralized. Random survey of these sites showed a unique distribution and depth of pyritic layer in the soils along the coastal plains. A study was conducted in order to explain t...

Primary production in coastal wetlands is conventionally thought to be limited by nitrogen. Although the plant community in a pristine salt marsh was found to be limited primarily by nitrogen availability, the bacterial community in the soil was limited by phosphorus. Hence, in coastal wetlands, and possibly in many ecosystems, individual trophic groups may respond differently to nitrogen and p...

The delivery and distribution of nutrients in coastal wetland ecosystems is much related to the land use. The spatial variations of TOC, TN, NH4+-N, NO3--N and TP and associated soil salinity with depth in 9 kinds land uses in coastal zone of the modern Yellow River Delta (YRD) was evaluated based on monitoring data in field from 2009 to 2015. The results showed that the average contents of soi...