Interactions between defoliation,warming,and drought in a native northern grassland in Alberta,Canada
Introduction Canada contains 22 M ha of land dedicated to range and forage production,where the majority of C is produced and stored belowground (Steinaker and Wilson 2005).A healthy rangeland stores equivalent C mass per ha as forested ecosystems,and because this C is primarily belowground,it is at lower risk of release during fires.Consequently,healthy grassland ecosystems may play a significant role in mitigating global climate change.Overgrazing has been documented on up to half of all rangelands in the region,and through a potential decline in root biomass,may reduce soil carbon storage.Coupled with predictions of climate change,these disturbances are likely to further change range health.Improvement of rangeland condition provides direct economic benefits,and because native rangelands store more C than annual croplands,this should also lead to increased C storage,with implications for feedback to climate systems both locally and globally.
climate change carbon and nitrogen fluxes rangeland function plant community composition
J.F.Cahill E.W.Bork S.X.Chang H.C.Proctor S.D.Wilson
Department of Biological Sciences,University of Alberta,Edmonton,Alberta,Canada T6G 2E9 Department of Agriculture,Food and Nutritional Sciences,University of Alberta,Edmonton,Alberta,Canad Department of Renewable Resources,University of Alberta,Edmonton,Alberta,Canada T6G 2E3 Department of Biology,University of Regina,Regina,Saskatchewan.Canada S4S 0A2
国际会议
呼和浩特
英文
2008-06-29（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）