Mercury distribution across 14 U.S. Forests. Part I: spatial patterns of concentrations in biomass, litter, and soils.

Results from a systematic investigation of mercury (Hg) concentrations across 14 forest sites in the United States show highest concentrations in litter layers, strongly enriched in Hg compared to aboveground tissues and indicative of substantial postdepositional sorption of Hg. Soil Hg concentrations were lower than in litter, with highest concentrations in surface soils. Aboveground tissues showed no detectable spatial patterns, likely due to 17 different tree species present across sites. Litter and soil Hg concentrations positively correlated with carbon (C), latitude, precipitation, and clay (in soil), which together explained up to 94% of concentration variability. We observed strong latitudinal increases in Hg in soils and litter, in contrast to inverse latitudinal gradients of atmospheric deposition measures. Soil and litter Hg concentrations were closely linked to C contents, consistent with well-known associations between organic matter and Hg, and we propose that C also shapes distribution of Hg in forests at continental scales. The consistent link between C and Hg distribution may reflect a long-term legacy whereby old, C-rich soil and litter layers sequester atmospheric Hg depositions over long time periods. Based on a multiregression model, we present a distribution map of Hg concentrations in surface soils of the United States.

Changes in soil quality and below-ground carbon storage with conversion of traditional agricultural crop lands to bioenergy crop production.

Berm-isolated (0.5 ha) plots have been used since 1995 to quantify changes in soil and water quality with conversion from agricultural to bioenergy crops. Soil quality improvements, including increases in soil carbon storage, have occurred on sites planted to woody or herbaceous species, and no-till corn compared with tilled corn or cotton. Initial increases in soil carbon occurred within the upper 10 cm of the soil profile. Soil carbon on plantings of switchgrass, no-till corn, and sweetgum with a cover crop between the rows increased over the first 3 years. Soil carbon decreased by 6% on the sweetgum plantings without a cover crop and remained lower through the fifth growing season. Overall, the greatest increases in below ground carbon storage have occurred primarily within the upper 40 cm. Former land use, growth characteristics, management practices, and soil characteristics appear to be the primary factors determining the timing, depth. and extent of changes in soil carbon storage for bioenergy and no-till crops.

The effects of throughfall manipulation on soil leaching in a deciduous forest.

The effects of changing precipitation on soil leaching in a deciduous forest were examined by experimentally manipulating throughfall fluxes in the field. In addition to an ambient treatment (AMB), throughfall fluxes were reduced by 33% (DRY treatment) and increased by 33% (WET treatment) using a system of rain gutters and sprinklers on Walker Branch Watershed, Tennessee. Soil leaching was measured with resin lysimeters in the O horizons and with ceramic cup lysimeters in the E (25 cm) and Bt (70 cm) horizons. Large and statistically significant treatment effects on N fluxes were found in the O horizons (lower N fluxes in the DRY and higher N fluxes in the WET treatment). Together with the greater O horizon N content observed in the DRY treatment, this suggested that N was being immobilized at a greater rate in the DRY treatment than in the AMB or WET treatments. No statistically significant treatment effects on soil solution were found in the E horizons with the exception of (Ca2+ + Mg2+) to K+ ratio. Statistically significant treatment effects on electrical conductivity (EC), pH, Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, Na+, SO4(2-), and Cl- were found in the Bt horizons due to differences between the DRY and other treatments. Despite this, calculated fluxes of Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, Na+, SO4(2-), and Cl- were lowest in the DRY treatment. These results suggest that lower precipitation will cause temporary N immobilization in litter and long-term enrichment in soil base cations whereas increased precipitation will cause long-term depletion of soil base cations.

A six-year study of sapling and large-tree growth and mortality responses to natural and induced variability in precipitation and throughfall.

Global climatic change may cause changes in regional precipitation that have important implications for forest growth in the southern United States. In 1993, a stand-level experiment was initiated on Walker Branch Watershed, Tennessee, to study the sensitivity of forest saplings and large trees to changes in soil water content. Soil water content was manipulated by gravity-driven transfer of precipitation throughfall from a dry treatment plot (-33%) to a wet treatment plot (+33%). A control plot was included. Each plot was 6400 m2. Measurements of stem diameter and observations of mortality were made on large trees and saplings of Acer rubrum L., Cornus florida L., Liriodendron tulipifera L., Nyssa sylvatica Marsh, Quercus alba L. and Quercus prinus L. every 2 weeks during six growing seasons. Saplings of C. florida and A. rubrum grew faster and mortality was less on the wet plot compared with the dry and control plots, through 6 years of soil water manipulation. Conversely, diameter growth of large trees was unaffected by the treatments. However, tree diameter growth averaged across treatments was affected by year-to- year changes in soil water status. Growth in wet years was as much as 2-3 times greater than in dry years. Relationships between tree growth, phenology and soil water potential were consistent among species and quantitative expressions were developed for application in models. These field growth data indicate that differences in seasonal patterns of rainfall within and between years have greater impacts on growth than percentage changes in rainfall applied to all rainfall events.

N-acyl homoserine lactone binding to the CarR receptor determines quorum-sensing specificity in Erwinia.

Quorum sensing via an N-acyl homoserine lactone (HSL) pheromone controls the biosynthesis of a carbapenem antibiotic in Erwinia carotovora. Transcription of the carbapenem biosynthetic genes is dependent on the LuxR-type activator protein, CarR. Equilibrium binding of a range of HSL molecules, which are thought to activate CarR to bind to its DNA target sequence, was examined using fluorescence quenching, DNA bandshift analysis, limited proteolysis and reporter gene assays. CarR bound the most physiologically relevant ligand, N-(3-oxohexanoyl)-L-homoserine lactone, with a stoichiometry of two molecules of ligand per dimer of protein and a dissociation constant of 1.8 microM, in good agreement with the concentration of HSL required to activate carbapenem production in vivo. In the presence of HSL, CarR formed a very high molecular weight complex with its target DNA, indicating that the ligand causes the protein to multimerize. Chemical cross-linking analysis supported this interpretation. Our data show that the ability of a given HSL to facilitate CarR binding to its target DNA sequence is directly proportional to the affinity of the HSL for the protein.

Measuring stem water content in four deciduous hardwoods with a time-domain reflectometer.

New technologies in time-domain reflectometry offer a reliable means of measuring soil water content. Whether these same technologies can be used or adapted to estimate the water content of other porous media, such as the woody tissue of forest trees, has not been thoroughly addressed. Therefore, curves relating the apparent dielectric constant (K(a)) to volumetric water content (g cm(-3)) were constructed for large-diameter stems of red maple (Acer rubrum L.), white oak (Quercus alba L.), chestnut oak (Q. prinus L.), and black gum (Nyssa sylvatica Marsh.). This information was combined with previously published data and a proposed "universal" calibration equation for wood was derived. Stainless-steel rods (15-cm wave guides) were inserted into 160 trees (30 to 49 per species) growing in an upland oak-hickory forest and stem water contents estimated monthly during 1994 and 1995 with a time-domain reflectometer (TDR). Volumetric water contents in April ranged from 0.28 g cm(-3) for red maple to 0.43 g cm(-3) for black gum, with no evidence that water content changed as a function of stem diameter. Stem water contents estimated during 1994 (a wet year) increased from May to July, reached a maximum in midsummer (0.41 to 0.50 g cm(-3)), and then decreased in November. During 1995 (a dry year), stem water contents for red maple and black gum (two diffuse-porous species) decreased from May to August, reached a minimum in September (0.29 to 0.37 g cm(-3)), slightly increased in October and November, and then decreased in December. A different trend was observed during 1995 for white oak and chestnut oak (two ring-porous species), with water contents remaining fairly stable from May to August, but decreasing abruptly in September and again in December. Stem water contents estimated with a TDR broadly agreed with gravimetric analyses of excised stem segments and increment cores, although there was evidence that overestimation of water content was possible with TDR as a result of wounding following wave guide installation. Nonetheless our results hold promise for the application of TDR to the study of stem water content and to the study of whole-plant water storage.

Seasonal and topographic patterns of forest floor CO(2) efflux from an upland oak forest.

Forest floor CO(2) efflux (FF(cer)) is an important component of global carbon budgets, but the spatial variability of forest floor respiration within a forest type is not well documented. Measurements of FF(cer) were initiated in mid-March of 1991 and continued at biweekly to monthly intervals until mid-November. Observations were made at 45 sites along topographic gradients of the Walker Branch Watershed, Tennessee including northeast and southwest facing slopes, valley-bottoms, and exposed ridge-top locations. The FF(cer) measurements were made with a portable gas-exchange system, and all observations were accompanied by soil temperature and soil water content measurements. As expected, FF(cer) exhibited a distinct seasonal trend following patterns of soil temperature, but soil water content and the volume percent of the soil's coarse fraction were also correlated with observed rates. Over the entire measurement period, FF(cer) ranged from a typical minimum of 0.8 micro mol m(-2) s(-1) to an average maximum near 5.7 micro mol m(-2) s(-1). No significant differences in FF(cer) were observed among the ridge-top and slope positions, but FF(cer) in the valley-bottom locations was lower on several occasions. An empirical model of FF(cer) based on these observations is suggested for application to whole-stand estimates of forest carbon sequestration.

Cycling of organic and inorganic sulphur in a chestnut oak forest.

Sulfur (S) cycling in a chestnut oak forest on Walker Branch Watershed, Tennessee, was dominated by geochemical processes involving sulfate. Even though available SO 42- was present far in excess of forest nutritional requirements, the ecosystem as a whole accumulated ∼60% of incoming SO4-S. Most (90%) of this accumulation occurred by SO 42- adsorption in sesquioxide-rich subsurface soils, with a relatively minor amount accumulating and cycling as SO 42- within vegetative components. Organic sulfates are thought to constitute a large proportion of total S in surface soils, also, and to provide a pool of readily mineralized available S within the ecosystem.