Similar successional development of functional community structure in glacier forelands despite contrasting bedrocks

Greinwald, Konrad; Gebauer, Tobias; Musso, Alessandra; Scherer‐Lorenzen, Michael

doi:10.1111/jvs.12993

Cited by 9 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…We therefore had to compromise and selected the moraine with an age of 110 years as our youngest moraine. At each moraine, the vegetation was mapped (Greinwald et al, 2021b), and the soil physical characteristics were identified in 10, 30, and 50 cm depth (Hartmann et al, 2020b).…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the Brilliant Blue tracer experiments, three plots (1.0× 1.5 m) were selected on each moraine. To capture the spatial heterogeneity of the vegetation cover, the plots at each moraine were chosen along a gradient in vegetation complexity (Greinwald et al, 2021b). At each plot, species richness, root length density (RLD), vegetation cover, above-ground biomass (BM), and the slope were measured or estimated by Greinwald et al (2021a) (Table 1).…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

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Subsurface flow paths in a chronosequence of calcareous soils: impact of soil age and rainfall intensities on preferential flow occurrence

Hartmann

Weiler²,

Greinwald³

et al. 2022

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Soil hydrologic processes play an important role in the hydro-pedo-geomorphological feedback cycle of landscape evolution. Soil properties and subsurface flow paths both change over time, but due to a lack of observations, subsurface water flow paths are often not properly represented in soil and landscape evolution models. We investigated the evolution of subsurface flow paths across a soil chronosequence in the calcareous glacier forefield at the Griessfirn glacier in the Swiss Alps. Young soils developed from calcareous parent material usually have a high pH value, which likely affects vegetation development and pedogenesis and thus the evolution of subsurface flow paths. We chose four glacial moraines of different ages (110, 160, 4 900, and 13 500 years) and conducted sprinkling experiments with the dye tracer Brilliant Blue on three plots at each moraine. Each plot was divided into three equal subplots, and dyed water was applied with three different irrigation intensities (20, 40, and 60 mm h−1) and an irrigation amount of 40 mm. Subsequent excavation of soil profiles enabled the tracing of subsurface flow paths. A change in flow types with increasing moraine age was observed from a rather homogeneous matrix flow at 110 and 160 years to heterogeneous matrix and finger-shaped flow at 4 900 and 13 500 years. However, the proportion of preferential flow paths is not necessarily directly related to the moraine age but rather to soil properties such as texture, soil layering, organic matter content, and vegetation characteristics such as root length density and biomass. Irrigation intensity had an effect on the number of finger-shaped flow paths at the two old moraines. We also found that flow paths in this calcareous material evolved differently compared to a previous study in siliceous material, which emphasizes the importance of parent material for flow path evolution. Our study provides a rare systematic dataset and observations on the evolution of vertical subsurface flow paths in calcareous soils, which is useful to improve their representation in the context of landscape evolution modeling.

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Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Subsurface flow paths in a chronosequence of calcareous soils: impact of soil age and rainfall intensities on preferential flow occurrence

Hartmann

Weiler²,

Greinwald³

et al. 2022

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…This measure was developed in the larger context of the interdisciplinary chronosequence study (e.g. Musso et al (2019), Maier et al (2020), Greinwald et al (2021b)) and is defined as a combination of vegetation cover and a measure of functional diversity. We chose the functional divergence as an index of functional diversity, which describes the variance of species traits in the community (Greinwald et al, 2021b).…”

Section: Plot Selection and Vegetation Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Musso et al (2019), Maier et al (2020), Greinwald et al (2021b)) and is defined as a combination of vegetation cover and a measure of functional diversity. We chose the functional divergence as an index of functional diversity, which describes the variance of species traits in the community (Greinwald et al, 2021b). This index describes the functional similarity of communities in the multivariate niche space, and it has the advantage of not being correlated to vegetation cover.…”

Section: Plot Selection and Vegetation Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our research, which focuses on the evolution of hydrological flow paths across a chronosequence in the Swiss Alps, is part of a larger interdiscplinary chronosequence study covering aspects of geomorphology (Musso et al (2019), Musso et al (2020)), geobotany (Greinwald et al (2021a), Greinwald et al (2021b)), and surface (Maier et al, 2020) and subsurface hydrology (Hartmann et al (2020a), Hartmann et al (2020b). This interdisciplinary study opens up a broader view of the various processes either driving the feedback loop of landscape evolution or affected by it.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The impact of soil development, rainfall intensity and vegetation complexity on subsurface flow paths along a glacial chronosequence of 10 millennia

Hartmann

Weiler

Greinwald

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Abstract. Hydrologic processes play an important role in the hydro-pedo-geomorphological feedback cycle of landscape evolution. Soil properties and subsurface flow paths change over time, but due to lack of observations important hydrologic processes such as water flow paths are often not properly considered in soil and landscape evolution studies. We investigated the evolution of subsurface flow paths during landscape development in the calcareous glacier forefield at the Griessfirn in the Swiss Alps. While the main focus was on flow path evolution and the formation of preferential flow paths with soil development, we also looked at the impact of irrigation intensity and vegetation complexity (in what way does the vegetation complexity defined by degree of vegetation cover and functional diversity at each age class relate to subsurface structures and flow path initialization?). We chose four glacial moraines of different ages (110, 160, 4 900, and 13 500 years) and conducted dye tracer experiments with Brilliant Blue (4 g l−1) on three plots at each moraine. The three plots at each age class differed by their degree of vegetation complexity (low, medium, and high) and each was further divided into three equal subplots where dyed water was applied with three different irrigation intensities (20, 40, and 60 mm h−1) and an irrigation amount of 40 mm. Dye pattern characteristics in form of volume density and surface area density were derived by digital image analysis and compared via statistical analysis.Volume density was used to classify the observed dye patterns into specific flow type categories. The effect of soil formation and thus changing soil characteristics on flow types were investigated by the analysis of structural and textural parameters in form of grain size distribution, porosity, bulk density, and loss on ignition. A change in flow types with increasing moraine age was observed from a rather homogeneous matrix flow to heterogeneous matrix and finger flow. Along the soil chronosequence, a reduction in particle sizes and an ongoing vegetation development resulted in an accumulation of organic matter in the topsoil and an increase in water storage capacity (decrease in bulk density and increase in porosity). Differences in irrigation intensity only had an effect on flow types at the oldest moraine, where the frequency of finger flow decreased with increasing irrigation intensity. A relation between vegetation complexity and flow types was only observed at the older moraines, which had a dense vegetation cover. With increasing vegetation complexity the proportion of preferential flow paths in form of finger flow also increased.

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Soil erosion rates during the Holocene continuity in a forest‐steppe landscape

Püntener

Šamonil

Tikhomirov

et al. 2022

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Despite a long‐term human impact, Central and Eastern Europe exhibit patches of steppe ecosystems having the highest plant species diversity worldwide. These unique ecosystems have persisted over millennia even though the local climatic conditions would support the formation of a closed forest. Several sources of disturbances have contributed to the persistence of the forest‐steppe landscape such as grazing, fire events and human impact. These disturbances have been recorded in local erosion rates. To gain a deeper understanding of the soil dynamics we aimed at deciphering the long‐ and short‐term erosion rates and the age of the soil mantle. The steppes in Transylvania, Romania, were studied to find evidence of a Holocene continuity of grasslands. Long‐term (millennia) average erosion rates were determined using meteoric 10Be in soils and in situ 10Be of rock outcrops (scarp). Long‐term rates were also estimated by the percolation theory. Short‐term (last few decades) erosion rates were obtained from 239+240Pu in soils. The soils started to form prior to the Last Glacial Maximum, probably during the Eemian Interglacial. The average, long‐term erosion rates varied between 0.18 and 0.63 t ha−1 yr−1. These rates are slightly elevated compared to expected soil erosion rates. The soils of the Transylvanian Plain formed over a long period and reached a quasi‐steady state (soil production equals denudation) that contributed to the maintenance of a biodiversity‐rich forest‐steppe landscape. The slightly elevated erosion rates are an effect of factors that contributed to the Holocene continuity (fire, grazing) and indicate open rather than a forested character of the landscape during soil development. During the last few decades, the erosion rates increased by a factor of 5–10, with values in the range of 1.31–4.05 t ha−1 yr−1. These large differences are caused by changes in human management of the soils. The biodiversity‐rich forest‐steppe landscapes are now under threat.

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Similar successional development of functional community structure in glacier forelands despite contrasting bedrocks

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Cited by 9 publications

References 90 publications

Subsurface flow paths in a chronosequence of calcareous soils: impact of soil age and rainfall intensities on preferential flow occurrence

Subsurface flow paths in a chronosequence of calcareous soils: impact of soil age and rainfall intensities on preferential flow occurrence

The impact of soil development, rainfall intensity and vegetation complexity on subsurface flow paths along a glacial chronosequence of 10 millennia

Soil erosion rates during the Holocene continuity in a forest‐steppe landscape

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