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Investigation of Temperature and Aridity at Different Elevations of Mt Int J Biometeorol DOI 10.1007/s00484-012-0570-6 SHORT NOTE Investigation of temperature and aridity at different elevations of Mt. Ailao, SW China Guangyong You & Yiping Zhang & Yuhong Liu & Douglas Schaefer & Hede Gong & Jinbo Gao & Zhiyun Lu & Qinghai Song & Junbin Zhao & Chuansheng Wu & Lei Yu & Youneng Xie Received: 28 July 2011 /Revised: 8 June 2012 /Accepted: 8 June 2012 # ISB 2012 Abstract Our current understanding is that plant species 2,680 m than at 2,480 m, especially for the surface soil distribution in the subtropical mountain forests of Southwest layer. China is controlled mainly by inadequate warmth. Due to We conclude that the decrease in temperature does not abundant annual precipitation, aridity has been less considered effectively explain the sharp transition between these forest in this context, yet rainfall here is highly seasonal, and types. During the dry season, plants growing at 2,680 m are the magnitude of drought severity at different elevations likely to experience more drought stress. In seeking to has not been examined due to limited access to higher understand the mountain forest distribution, further studies elevations in this area. should consider the effects of drought stress alongside those In this study, short-term micrometeorological variables of altitude. were measured at 2,480 m and 2,680 m, where different forest types occur. Drought stress was evaluated by combin- Keywords Drought . Water evaporation demand . Soil ing measurements of water evaporation demand (Ep) and volumetric water content . Bulk density . Subtropical soil volumetric water content (VWC). The results showed mountain forest that: (1) mean temperature decreased 1 °C from 2,480 m to 2,680 m and the minimum temperature at 2,680 m was above freezing. (2) Elevation had a significant influence Introduction on Ep; however, the difference in daily Ep between 2,480 m and 2,680 m was not significant, which was possi- In subtropical mountain forests with high annual precipita- bly due to the small difference in elevation between these tion, temperature patterns are considered to be controlling two sites. (3) VWC had larger range of annual variation at factors of species distribution (Jobbágy and Jackson 2000). G. You : Y. Zhang : Y. Liu : D. Schaefer : Z. Lu : Q. Song : H. Gong J. Zhao : C. Wu : L. Yu Faculty of Ecotourism, Southwest Forestry University, Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Kunming, Yunnan 650224, China Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, J. Gao Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China Institute of the Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Y. Zhang : Y. Liu : Z. Lu : C. Wu Xiamen, Fujian 361021, China Ailaoshan Station for Subtropical Forest Ecosystem Studies, Chinese Ecosystem Research Network, Y. Xie Jingdong, Yunnan 676209, China Jingdong Bureau of National Nature Reserve, Jingdong, Yunnan 676209, China Y. Zhang : Y. Liu : Z. Lu : C. Wu National Forest Ecosystem Research Station at Ailaoshan, Y. Zhang (*) Jingdong, Yunnan 676209, China Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (Kunming Section), Chinese Academy of Sciences, G. You : J. Gao : Q. Song : J. Zhao : L. Yu 88 Xuefu Road, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China Beijing 100049, China e-mail: [email protected] Int J Biometeorol In contrast, drought stress with elevation has not been ex- Materials and methods amined except in some studies of arid areas (Vargas- Rodriguez et al. 2005; Köhler et al. 2006; Urbieta et al. Study site 2008). However, in some climates rainfall is highly seasonal and limited mostly to a short wet season. In the following Sampling was conducted in the northern part of Ailaoshan dry season, there are high water losses via evapotranspira- National Natural Reserve, which is the largest remaining tion and soil-water depletion. area of natural subtropical broad-leaved forest in China. The Potential evapotranspiration and soil water content Ailaoshan Station for Subtropical Forest Ecosystem Studies are two important indicators used to evaluate drought (ASSFE; 24°32′N, 101°01′E; 2,480 m a.s.l.) of the Chinese stress. For potential evapotranspiration estimations with Academy of Sciences is located in Jingdong County, temperature-dependent methods, water evaporation de- Yunnan Province (Fig. 1). A standard meteorological sta- mand decreases with elevation (Staudinger and Rott tion, operated by ASSFE, has been in operation at the site 1981; Lambert and Chitrakar 1989; Shevenell 1999;Liu since 1981. Based on long-term meteorological observa- et al. 2007). When more climatic variables are consid- tions from that station, the annual mean temperature is ered, however, water evaporation demand can increase 11.0 °C, with a monthly mean temperature of 5.2 °C in the with elevation (Leuschner 2000; Köhler et al. 2006). coldest month (January) and 15.2 °C in the warmest month Soil water content is influenced by precipitation, water (July). Average annual rainfall is 1,902 mm, with 1,630 mm evaporation demand, and soil properties, which results in falling during the wet season (May–October) and 272 mm in site-specific relationships between soil water content and the dry season (November–April). The Penman potential elevation (Denslow et al. 2006; Köhler et al. 2006; evaporation is 441.5 mm in dry season and 383.7 mm in Cierjacks et al. 2008). Therefore, observed water evapo- wet season (unpublished data). Consequently, there is a net ration demand and soil water content will assist in eval- accumulation of water in the wet season, and a net loss in uating aridity along elevation gradients. the dry season. The Hengduan Mountains of Southwestern China, and particularly the well-preserved area of Ailaoshan Microclimatic observations and water evaporation demands National Natural Reserve (ANNR), contain an abundant subtropical mountain humid evergreen broad-leaved for- During four sampling periods (in July 2008, October 2008, est (MHEF) with the forest canopy typically being 25– January 2009, and April 2009), simultaneous measurements 30 m in height. At altitudes from 2,600 m to the sum- were made of micrometeorological variables in the open mits (approximately 3,100 m), the forest canopy height lands of MHEF (2,480 ma.s.l.) and MDF (2,680 ma.s.l.). decreases to 5–7 m, accompanied by changes in forest In this study, measurement in MHEF was made by the auto- species composition, community structure, and forest recording meteorological station (affiliated to ASSFE), physiognomy (Wu et al. 1983; Qiu and Xie 1998). where wind speed was recorded at 10 m height. Based on Therefore, it has been termed top-mountain dwarf mossy previous simultaneous observations (14 September 2005–17 forest (MDF). Due to limited access to higher elevations, September 2005) of wind speed at the heights of 2 m and few studies have explored transitions in forest types in relation to altitude (Shi and Zhu 2009). Traditional un- derstanding of species distributions at different altitudes has focused on the temperature regimes (Fang et al. 1996; Liu et al. 2007;Yangetal.2009), and seasonal drought stress has been largely disregarded in this con- text due to high annual precipitation in this region. This study investigated temperature and aridity at two elevations with different forest types. The objectives of this study were to answer the following questions: (1) related to temperature-controlled transition of forest types, what is temperature difference between these two elevations? (2) Does aridity, the combined effect of water evaporation demand and soil water content, in- crease with altitude? This study aims to obtain further knowledge on the transition of the forest types found at different elevations in subtropical mountain forests of Southwest China. Fig. 1 Location of the study site Int J Biometeorol 10 m, we found a linear transfer coefficient of 0.377 (n075; replicate measurements of VWC at MDF, soil samples at R200.900) for 10 m to 2 m. The micrometeorological var- each depth were collected with a corer. The sample was iables in MDF were recorded by micrometeorological ob- dried to constant weight at 80 °C and the VWC was servation system with data collected by a data logger calculated. (CR1000, Campbell Scientific, Logan, UT). We need one For comparison of soil bulk densities, we randomly se- clear day to install the micrometeorological observation lected three sites in both MHEF and MDF and collected the system, and another clear day to dismantle it after the soil samples at different depths with a corer. The samples observations. Therefore the lengths of the observation peri- were dried to constant weight at 80 °C and the bulk densities ods were not equal. Each sampling period lasted more than were calculated. 10 days (11 days in July 2008; 12 days in October 2008; 12 days in January 2009; 17 days in April 2009), and data Data analysis were collected at 30-min intervals. Air temperature (T) and vapor saturation deficit (VPD) were measured by a temper- For micrometeorological measurements at the two eleva- ature and relative humidity probe (HMP45C; Campbell tions, altitude and month were the categorical predictor Scientific). Wind speed at 2 m height (U2) was measured variables. Effects of altitude and month were analyzed joint- by an anemometer (05103 R.M. Young, Campbell ly using Two-Way-ANOVA, followed by Tukey HSD post- Scientific). Net radiation (Rn) was measured by a net radi- hoc test for the difference among months. In each observa- ometer (CNR1, Kipp and Zonen, Delft, the Netherlands). tion period, normal data distribution was tested by Shapiro- For measurements in open lands, spatial replication was not Wilk. Statistical significance of difference between eleva- necessary as a result of uniformity in site conditions. tions was conducted by the Paired-samples-t test for periods Water evaporation demand was evaluated by PenPan with normally distributed data.
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