FORBIO; Drought; Tree performance; Microbial biomass; Nutrient cycling
Abstract :
[en] Drier condition during the growing season have been predicted in the future. It has been suggested that diverse forest could maintain productivity and provide better ecosystem services under stress condition such as drought. However, those studies focused mainly on mature forest and little known about young forest. Oak and beech are the important species in European forestry, and may face a strong challenge in the future. Drought effects on young ( ̴5yr) oak and beech saplings in monoculture and mixed with other species are not known. Moreover, single studies evaluating both above- and below-ground ecosystem response to drought are scarce.
A two-year manipulative field experiment has been planned to answer the following questions. (i) Can species mixtures improve oak and beech sapling performances under drought conditions? (ii) What are the mechanisms underlying ecosystem functioning and sapling performance in mixed species stands subjected to drought?
A 3m × 3m rainout shelter will be placed only in growing season in Zedelgem sites of FORBIO experimental platform (http://www.treedivbelgium.ugent.be/pl_forbio.html). Tree diversity vary from 1 to 4 species and about 50% of precipitation will be taken off. Both aboveground sapling performance and belowground microbial properties and biogeochemical processes will be investigated. We will present the design of the experimental tree species diversity plantation of Zedelgem site, the setting of the drought experiment and planned analysis
Research center :
Plant and Microbial Ecology Lab, University of Liege
