Soil carbon loss in warmed subarctic grasslands is rapid and restricted to topsoil

Global warming may lead to carbon transfers from soils to the atmosphere, yet this positive feedback to the climate system remains highly uncertain, especially in subsoils (Ilyina and Friedlingstein, 2016; Shi et al., 2018). Using natural geothermal soil warming gradients of up to +6.4 degrees C in subarctic grasslands (Sigurdsson et al., 2016), we show that soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks decline strongly and linearly with warming (-2.8 t ha(-1) degrees C-1). Comparison of SOC stock changes following medium-term (5 and 10 years) and long-term (> 50 years) warming revealed that all SOC stock reduction occurred within the first 5 years of warming, after which continued warming no longer reduced SOC stocks. This rapid equilibration of SOC observed in Andosol suggests a critical role for ecosystem adaptations to warming and could imply short-lived soil carbon-climate feedbacks. Our data further revealed that the soil C loss occurred in all aggregate size fractions and that SOC stock reduction was only visible in topsoil (0-10 cm). SOC stocks in subsoil (10-30 cm), where plant roots were absent, showed apparent conservation after > 50 years of warming. The observed depth-dependent warming responses indicate that explicit vertical resolution is a prerequisite for global models to accurately project future SOC stocks for this soil type and should be investigated for soils with other mineralogies

Selfoss Declaration Achievements Report

This report reflects on the achievements of the Selfoss Declaration on sustainable forestry in the Nordic region, made in 2008 by the Ministers of Forestry in the Nordic countries and the following reccommendations on how to implement the intention of the declaration. The question is, did the forestry sector focus on the resolution acknowledged by the forestry ministers in the Declaration, and furthermore, how did it affect the forestry sector in the Nordic countries. The Selfoss Declaration initiated a lot of activities, financed with funds from the Nordic Council of Ministers and incisive actions in organizing the forest research cooperation across national boundaries within the Nordic neighbouring countries. Based on this experience, it seems important that the forestry ministers continue to take an active part in visualizing where Nordic cooperation should head in the future

Effects of afforestation on ecosystems, landscape and rural development : Proceedings of the AFFORNORD conference, Reykholt, Iceland, June 18–22, 2005

Forests and forestry play a major role in the economy and ecology of the Nordic countries. This important resource has been heavily exploited throughout the centuries, with the consequence that, in certain regions, forests were almost eradicated. In order to amend this, extensive afforestation has taken place in the Nordic countries. The goals of afforestation are many, among these to re-establish the forest resource and to have a positive influence on rural development. However, afforestation has other consequences, such as changes in ecosystems and landscape. Therefore, it is important to gain an overview over the multi-scale effects of afforestation in the Nordic countries. This is the goal of the Nordic project AFFORNORD. This book contains 43 scientific papers presented in an international conference held in Iceland in 2005 on the effects of afforestation on ecosystems, landscape and rural development. The papers are dealing with different topics related to afforestation, stretching from biology to sociology, from insect communities to human communities, and from microhabitats to landscapes

AFFORNORD : Effects on Ecosystems, Landscape and Rural Development

The Nordic project AFFORNORD studied the effects of afforestation on ecosystems, landscape and rural development in the years 2004–2006. Forests play a major role in the environment and economy of the Nordic countries. In historical times, extensive areas in the southern and western part of the Nordic region were deforestated, followed by afforestation in the past two centuries. There is no doubt that afforestation affects biodiversity, landscape dynamics, rural development and human health in several ways, positive as well as negative. Therefore, the purpose of afforestation must be clear in the planning phase. Proper forest management is also of critical importance. No land-use meets all environmental goals simultaneously. Some negative impacts are inevitable, even if the most conscientious management is employed. Generally, a trade-off must be made between the desire for a pristine environment and the need for a working and operational landscape for the benefit of society at large

Cultural ecosystem services provided by the biodiversity of forest soils : a European review

Soil is one of the most species-rich habitats and plays a crucial role in the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. It is acknowledged that soils and their biota deliver many ecosystem services. However, up to now, cultural ecosystem services (CES) provided by soil biodiversity remained virtually unknown. Here we present a multilingual and multisubject literature review on cultural benefits provided by belowground biota in European forests. We found 226 papers mentioning impact of soil biota on the cultural aspects of human life. According to the reviewed literature, soil organisms contribute to all CES. Impact on CES, as reflected in literature, was highest for fungi and lowest for microorganisms and mesofauna. Cultural benefits provided by soil biota clearly prevailed in the total of the reviewed references, but there were also negative effects mentioned in six CES. The same organism groups or even individual species may have negative impacts within one CES and at the same time act as an ecosystem service provider for another CES. The CES were found to be supported at several levels of ecosystem service provision: from single species to two or more functional/taxonomical groups and in some cases morphological diversity acted as a surrogate for species diversity. Impact of soil biota on CES may be both direct % by providing the benefits (or dis-benefits) and indirect through the use of the products or services obtained from these benefits. The CES from soil biota interacted among themselves and with other ES, but more than often, they did not create bundles, because there exist temporal fluctuations in value of CES and a time lag between direct and indirect benefits. Strong regionality was noted for most of CES underpinned by soil biota: the same organism group or species may have strong impact on CES (positive, negative or both) in some regions while no, minor or opposite effects in others. Contrarily to the CES based on landscapes, in the CES provided by soil biota distance between the ecosystem and its CES benefiting area is shorter (CES based on landscapes are used less by local people and more by visitors, meanwhile CES based on species or organism groups are used mainly by local people). Our review revealed the existence of a considerable amount of spatially fragmented and semantically rich information highlighting cultural values provided by forest soil biota in Europe