Lab of Terrestrial Ecosystem Research

• Yeh, K. H., Travlos, I., Nawaz, A., Chang, S. C., Chao, H. C. (2023) Editorial: Sustainable and intelligent plant health management in Asia (2022). Frontiers in Plant Science, 14, 1244869, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1244869

The Research Topic "Sustainable and intelligent plant health management in Asia" of the journal Frontiers in Plant Science was guest edited by Prof. Dr. K.-H. Yeh and co. This editorial summarizes the papers published within it.

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• Chen, C. Y., Lai, I. L., Chang, S. C. (2022) Changes in soil microbial community and carbon flux regime across a subtropical montane peatland-to-forest successional series in Taiwan. Forests, 13, f13060958, https://doi.org/10.3390/f13060958

The Yuan-Yang Lake Natural Reserve is one of the well protected montane watershed consisting of the subalpine Yuan-Yang Lake, the upland pristine Chamaecyparis forest, and the peatland surrounding the lake. We conducted a 3-year study on the relationship between surface CO2 and CH4 flux and the vegetation and microbial communities along the peatland-to-forest successional series.

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• Chi, C. J. E., Zinsmeister, D., Lai, I. L., Chang, S. C., Kuo, Y. L., Burkhardt, J. (2022) Aerosol impacts on water relations of camphor (Cinnamomum camphora). Frontiers in Plant Science , 13, 892096, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.892096 

Based​ on the findings in laboratory and greenhouse that the deposition of aerosols on the plant leaves may have negative impact of the control of stomatal conductance, the research group led by Dr. J. Burkhardt from the University of Bonn, Germany conducted this further study in the field. The two study sites with extremely constrasting PM2.5 concentrations were used for this comparison work.  

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• Gu, R. Y., Lo, M. H., Liao, C. Y., Jang, Y. S., Juang, J. Y., Huang, C. Y., Chang, S. C., Hsieh, C. I., Chen, Y. Y., Chu, H. S., Chang, K. Y. (2021) Early peak of latent heat fluxes regulates diurnal temperature range in montane cloud forests. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 22, 2475-2487, https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-21-0005.1

This is a study combining field measurements of ecosystem-level water vapor fluxes, tree transpiration via sapflow sensors, and modelling work for clarifying the influence of fog deposition on the micrometeological characteristics at a montane cloud forest. For comparison purpose, another mountainous flux tower site without the influence of fog was included in the modelling work. The study was led by Dr. M. H. Lo from Department of Atmospheric Sciences, National Taiwan University.

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• Bond-Lamberty, B., Christianson, D. S., Malhotra, A., Pennington, S. C., Sihi, D., AghaKouchak, A., Anjileli, H., Altaf Arain, M., Armesto, J. J., Ashraf, S., Ataka, M., Baldocchi, D., Andrew Black, T., Buchmann, N., Carbone, M. S., Chang, S.-C., Crill, P., Curtis, P. S., Davidson, E. A., Desai, A. R., Drake, J. E., El-Madany, T. S., Gavazzi, M., Görres, C.-M., Gough, C. M., Goulden, M., Gregg, J., Gutiérrez del Arroyo, O., He, J.-S. Hirano, T., Hopple, A., Hughes, H., Järveoja, J., Jassal, R., Jian, J., Kan, H., Kaye, J., Kominami, Y., Liang, N., Lipson, D., Macdonald, C. A., Maseyk, K., Mathes, K., Mauritz, M., Mayes, M. A., McNulty, S., Miao, G., Migliavacca, M., Miller, S., Miniat, C. F., Nietz, J. G., Nilsson, M. B., Noormets, A., Norouzi, H., O’Connell, C. S., Osborne, B., Oyonarte, C., Pang, Z., Peichl, M., Pendall, E., Perez-Quezada, J. F., Phillips, C. L., Phillips, R. P., Raich, J. W., Renchon, A. A., Ruehr, N. K., Sánchez-Cañete, E. P., Saunders, M., Savage, K. E., Schrumpf, M., Scott, R. L., Seibt, U., Silver, W. L., Sun, W. Szutu, D., Takagi, K., Takagi, M., Teramoto, M., Tjoelker, M. G., Trumbore, S., Ueyama, M., Vargas, R., Varner, R. K., Verfaillie, J., Vogel, C., Wang, J., Winston, G., Wood, T. E., Wu, J., Wutzler, T., Zeng, J., Zha, T., Zhang, Q. (2020) COSORE: A community database for continuous soil respiration and other soil-atmosphere greenhouse gas flux data. Global Change Biology, 26, 7268-7283, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15353

Dr. Bond-Lamberty is one of the leading researchers in soil respiration study. He initiated and constructed the open-source COSORE (COntinuous SOil REspiration) database which collects the published soil respiration data through the contribution of the co-authors of this paper around the world. This database may provide further synthesis work for understanding the global pattern of soil respiration and its controlling mechanism.  

 

• Chang, S.-C., Saitoh, T. M., Shibata, H., Suzuki, S. N. (2020) Recent advances in the understanding of ecosystem processes at eddy covariance
  CO2 flux sites in East Asian forest ecosystems: a review. Journal of Agricultural Meteorology, 77, 52-65, https://doi.org/10.2480/agrmet.D-20-00018

AsiaFlux, the scientific community working on ecosystem carbon, water, and energy fluxes in Asia, has celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2019. In many of the flux tower sites, the ecosystem processes such as nitrogen biogeochemial cycles, litter decomposition, carbon allocation and partitioning, as well as plant functional traits, have also been studied for better understanding the ecosystem functions. We review the main progress and findings of those processes in the past two decades in East Asia and point out some perspectives for the future research.  

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• Shiau, Y.-J., Pai, C.-W., Tsai, J.-W., Liu, W.-C., Yam, R. S. W., Chang, S.-C., Tang, S.-L., Chiu, C.-Y. (2018) Characterization of phosphorus in a toposequence of subtropical perhumid forest soils facing a subalpine lake. Forests, 9, 294, https://doi.org/10.3390/f9060294

In this study, chemical fractionation and 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy were used to characterize the form of phosphorus and its distribution in undisturbed perhumid Taiwan false cypress (Chamaecyparis formosensis Matsum.) forest soils at the Yuan-Yang Lake site. This study was mainly conducted by research group of Dr. Chih-Yu Chiu of the Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica. 

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• Pariyar, S., Chang, S.-C., Zinsmeister, D., Zhou, H., Grantz, D. A., Hunsche, M. & Burkhardt, J. (2017) Xeromorphic traits help to maintain photosynthesis in the perhumid climate of a Taiwanese cloud forest. Oecologia, 184, 609-621, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-017-3894-4

Previous flux measurements in the perhumid cloud forest of northeastern Taiwan have shown efficient photosynthesis of the endemic tree species Chamaecyparis obtusa var. formosana even under foggy conditions in which leaf surface moisture would be expected. We hypothesized this to be the result of ‘xeromorphic’ traits of the Chamaecyparis leaves (hydrophobicity, stomatal crypts, stomatal clustering), which could prevent coverage of stomata by precipitation, fog, and condensation, thereby maintaining CO2 uptake. This study was conducted by research group of Dr. Jürgen Burkhardt of the University of Bonn through a joint research project between MOST, Taiwan and DAAD, Germany. 

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• Schulz, H. M., Li, C. F., Chang, S. C., Thies, B. & Bendix, J. (2017) Mapping the montane cloud forest of Taiwan using 12 year MODIS-derived ground fog frequency data. PLOS ONE, 12, e0172663, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172663

This paper presents the first comprehensive map of Montane Cloud Forest (MCF) distribution for the entire island of Taiwan. For its creation, a Random Forest model was trained with vegetation plots from the National Vegetation Database of Taiwan that were classified as “MCF” or “non-MCF”. This model predicted the distribution of MCF from a raster data set of parameters derived from a digital elevation model (DEM), Landsat channels and texture measures derived from them as well as ground fog frequency data derived from the MODIS. This study was conducted by research group of Prof. Dr. Jörg Bendix of the University of Marburg through a joint research project between MOST, Taiwan and DFG, Germany. 

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• Schulz, H. M., Thies, B., Chang, S. C. & Bendix, J. (2016) Detection of ground fog in mountainous areas from MODIS (Collection 051) daytime data using a statistical approach. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 9, 1135-1152, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1135-2016

The mountain cloud forest of Taiwan can be delimited from other forest types using a map of the ground fog frequency. In order to create such a frequency map from remotely sensed data, an algorithm able to detect ground fog is necessary. Common techniques for ground fog detection based on weather satellite data cannot be applied to fog occurrences in Taiwan as they rely on several assumptions regarding cloud properties. Therefore a new statistical method for the detection of ground fog in mountainous terrain from MODIS Collection 051 data is presented. This study was conducted by research group of Prof. Dr. Jörg Bendix of the University of Marburg through a joint research project between MOST, Taiwan and DFG, Germany. 

 

• El-Madany, T. S., Walk, J. B., Deventer, M. J., Degefie, D. T., Chang, S. C., Juang, J. Y., Griessbaum, F. & Klemm, O. (2016) Canopy-atmosphere interactions under foggy condition - size-resolved fog droplet fluxes and their implications. Journal of Geophysical Research, 121, 796-808, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JG003221

Microphysical processes of fog and their spatial and temporal pattern are a challenge to study under natural conditions. This work focuses on the development of bi-directional fluxes of fog droplets above a forest canopy in north-eastern Taiwan. This work was conducted by research group of Prof. Dr. Otto Klemm in University of Münster through several PPP projects between MOST, Taiwan and DAAD, Germany. 

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• Simon, S., Klemm, O., El-Madany, T., Walk, J., Amelung, K., Lin, P.-H., Chang, S.-C., Lin, N.-H., Engling, G., Hsu, S.-C., Wey, T.-H., Wang, Y.-N. & Lee, Y.-C. (2015) Chemical composition of fog water at four sites in Taiwan. Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 16, 618-631, https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2015.03.0154

This study characterizes and compares the chemical composition of fog water at four sites in Taiwan. Fog was sampled with identical active fog collectors (modified Caltech design) using identical sampling strategies at all four sites. This work was conducted by research group of Prof. Dr. Otto Klemm in University of Münster through several PPP projects between MOST, Taiwan and DAAD, Germany. 

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• Thies, B., Groos, A., Schulz, M., Li, C.-F., Chang, S.-C. & Bendix, J. (2015) Frequency of low clouds in Taiwan retrieved from MODIS data and its relation to cloud forest occurrence. Remote Sensing, 7, 12986-13004, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs71012986

The relationship between satellite-derived low cloud frequency and the occurrence of tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) in Taiwan was investigated. From daily MODIS cloud mask products between 2003 and 2012 the low cloud class was extracted and mean low cloud frequency was calculated for Taiwan. This low cloud frequency map was blended with an existing plot-based vegetation classification for Taiwan to analyze the relationship between low cloud frequency and TMCF occurrence. This study was conducted by research group of Prof. Dr. Jörg Bendix of the University of Marburg through a joint research project between MOST, Taiwan and DFG, Germany

 

• Wu, C.-H., Lo, Y.-H., Blanco, J. A. & Chang, S.-C. (2015) Resilience assessment of lowland plantations using an ecosystem modeling approach. Sustainability, 7, 3801-3822, https://doi.org/10.3390/su7043801

As afforestation programs of former farmlands take hold in Taiwan to achieve a variety of ecological and socio-economic values, it is becoming necessary to define best forest management. Hence, we simulated mixed stands of Cinnamomum camphora and Fraxinus griffithii planted through a gradient of soil fertility and varying camphor/ash density ratios, but maintaining a fixed total stand density of 1500 tree/ha. The productivity, NPP, and soil organic matter were compared between the scenarios. The ecosystem model FORECAST was introduced to this site by Dr. Juan A. Blanco, Public University of Navarre, Spain

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• Schulz, H. M., Chang, S. C., Thies, B. & Bendix, J. (2014) Automatic cloud top height determination in mountainous areas using a cost-effective time-lapse camera system. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 7, 4185-4201, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-4185-2014

A new method is presented for the determination of cloud top heights using the footage of a time-lapse camera that is placed above a frequently occurring cloud layer in a mountain valley. Contact points between cloud tops and underlying terrain are automatically detected in the camera image based on differences in the brightness, texture and movement of cloudy and non-cloudy areas. The height of the detected cloud top positions is determined by comparison with a digital elevation model projected to the view of the camera. The technique has been validated using data about the cloud immersion of a second camera as well as via visual assessment. The validation shows a high detection quality, especially regarding the requirements for the validation of satellite cloud top retrieval algorithms. This study was conducted by research group of Prof. Dr. Jörg Bendix of the University of Marburg through a joint research project between MOST, Taiwan and DFG, Germany

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• Chu, H.-S., Chang, S.-C., Klemm, O., Lai, C.-W., Lin, Y.-Z., Wu, C.-C., Lin, J.-Y., Jiang, J.-Y., Chen, J., Gottgens, J. F. & Hsia, Y.-J. (2014) Does canopy wetness matter? Evapotranspiration from a subtropical montane cloud forest in Taiwan. Hydrological Processes, 28, 1190-1214, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.9662

Evapotranspiration (ET) and canopy wetness were measured over a 2-year intensive field campaign at the Chi-Lan Mountain cloud forest site in Taiwan. Eddy covariance and sap flow methods were applied to measure ET and tree sap flow of the endemic yellow cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa var. formosana). As it adapted to the extremely moist environment, the yellow cypress behaved in a wet-enhanced/dry-reduced water use strategy and was sensitive to short periods of dry atmosphere with high evaporation potential.

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• El-Madany, T. S., Griessbaum, F., Fratini, G., Juang, J.-Y., Chang, S.-C. & Klemm, O. (2013) Comparison of sonic anemometer performance under foggy conditions. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 173, 63-73, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2013.01.005

A sonic anemometer comparison was performed at a mountain cloud forest site in Taiwan to evaluate the effect of fog on sonic anemometers performance, with particular emphasis to their employment in eddy-covariance applications. Four sonic anemometers (Campbell CSAT3, Gill R3-50, METEK USA-1, and R.M. Young 81000VRE) were tested for 15 consecutive days with an overall fog duration of 86 h. Four aspects were analyzed: (1) spike statistics during foggy and non-foggy conditions, (2) spectral and co-spectral analyses before, during, and after 16 fog events, (3) correlations between turbulence characteristics of wind and temperature, and (4) flux error estimations. Due to the results of the spectral analysis and small flux errors the R3-50 seems to be suited best for eddy covariance measurements and process studies under dense foggy conditions. This work was conducted by research group of Prof. Dr. Otto Klemm in University of Münster through a PPP project between MOST, Taiwan and DAAD, Germany.

 

• Chu, H.-S., Liang, N.-S., Lai, C.-W., Wu, C.-C., Chang, S.-C. & Hsia, Y.-J. (2013) Topographic effects on CO2 flux measurements at the Chi-Lan Mountain forest site. Taiwan Journal of Forest Science, 28, 1-16.

The multiple eddy covariance measurement approach was applied to discern topographic effects on CO2 flux measurements at the Chi-Lan Mountain (CLM) site, northern Taiwan. The results suggested that fluxes diverged between different heights above the canopy in the morning. The topographic effects led to evident uncertainties in NEE estimates, and further research is urgently needed to develop adequate data-filtering or correction approaches.

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• Gonser, S. G., Klemm, O., Griessbaum, F., Chang, S. C., Chu, H. S. & Hsia, Y. J. (2012) The relation between humidity and liquid water content in fog: an experimental approach. Pure and Applied Geophysics, 169, 821-833, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-011-0270-x

Microphysical measurements of orographic fog were performed above a montane cloud forest in northeastern Taiwan (Chilan mountain site). The measured parameters include droplet size distribution (DSD), absolute humidity (AH), relative humidity (RH), air temperature, wind speed and direction, visibility, and solar short wave radiation. The scope of this work was to study the short term variations of DSD, temperature, and RH, with a temporal resolution of 3 Hz. The results show that orographic fog is randomly composed of various air volumes that are intrinsically rather homogeneous, but exhibit clear differences between each other with respect to their size, RH, LWC, and DSD. This work was conducted by research group of Prof. Dr. Otto Klemm in University of Münster through a PPP project between MOST, Taiwan and DAAD, Germany.

 

• 黃菊美, 杜清澤, 張世杰 & 林國銓 (2012) 棲蘭山地區檜木林其林木生物量及生長量之估算. 中華林學季刊, 45, 137-150. (Huang, C.M., Duh, C.T., Chang, S.C. & Lin, K.C. (2012) Estimate of tree biomass and growth of hinoki stand in Chilanshang area of north-eastern Taiwan. Quarterly Journal of Chinese Forestry, 45, 137-150, In Chinese)

A harvest method was used to estimate above- and below-ground biomass, parameters such as root/shoot ratios and conversion factors, and growth of Hinoki at natural seedling regeneration stands in Chilanshan area of northeastern Taiwan. This work was conducted by Dr. Kuo-Chuan Lin in Taiwan Forestry Research Institute.

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• Schmidt, B. H. M., Wang, C. P., Chang, S. C. & Matzner, E. (2010) High precipitation causes large fluxes of dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen in a subtropical montane Chamaecyparis forest in Taiwan. Biogeochemistry, 101, 243-256, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-010-9470-1

Fluxes of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrogen (DON) may play an important role for losses of C and N from the soils of forest ecosystems, especially under conditions of high precipitation. We studied DOC and DON fluxes and concentrations in relation to precipitation intensity in a subtropical montane Chamaecyparis obtusa var. formosana forest in Taiwan. Our objective was, to quantify DOC and DON fluxes and to understand the role of high precipitation for DOC and DON export in this ecosystem. We concluded, that precipitation is an important driver for DOC and DON losses from this subtropical montane forest and that these DOC losses play an important role in the soil C cycle of this ecosystem. Moreover, we found that the linear relationship between bulk precipitation and DOC and DON fluxes in forest floor percolates of temperate ecosystems does not hold when incorporating additional data on these fluxes from (subtropical) ecosystems. This was a joint project led by Prof. Dr. Egbert Matzner of University of Bayreuth, Germany and funded by MOST, Taiwan and DFG, Germany.

 

• Chang, S. C., Tseng, K. H., Hsia, Y. J., Wang, C. P. & Wu, J. T. (2008) Soil respiration in a subtropical montane cloud forest in Taiwan. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 148, 788-798, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2008.01.003

In this study, we used an automatic chamber system to measure soil respiration rates at the Chi-Lan Mountain forest site. The half-hourly dataset was used for analyzing the controlling factors and mechanisms of soil respiration. A manipulation experiment was conducted in the field by applying 3-fold and 1-fold aboveground litter to the soil surface and measuring the respective soil respiration rates using the static alkali chamber method. The results showed that soil respiration rates have a positive exponential correlation with soil temperature and a negative exponential correlation with soil water content. The annual soil respiration rate calculated using this model was 1630 kg C/ha/y. This extremely low value might be caused by the permanently high soil moisture and the relative lower mean annual temperature compared to other sites that receive similar amounts of precipitation.