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Long-term productivity of short rotation coppice under decreased soil water availability
Orság, Matěj ; Fischer, Milan ; Tripathi, Abishek ; Žalud, Zdeněk ; Trnka, Miroslav
Wood, in fact, is the unsung hero of the technological revolution that has brought us from a stone and bone culture to our present age (Perlin 1991). Given its high-energy content and versatile use, biomass in the form of wood has been used for energy purposes for millennia. The production and use of woody biomass resources has been expanding around the world. The main drivers of its use as a source of energy are diversification and mitigation of energy related greenhouse gas emissions through partial substitution for fossil fuels. An alternative to sourcing wood biomass from natural forests is short rotation woody coppice. Its productivity is largely dependent on the environment in terms of climatic conditions. Especially drought is the main constraint on woody biomass production and involves serious economic consequences. For that reason, our field experiment was designed to evaluate the impact of decreased soil water availability on productivity of a poplar based short rotation coppice plantation over multiple growing seasons during 2011–2014. Aboveground biomass productivity of treatments with and without throughfall exclusion was assessed within this study. Our results show a systematic decline in the productivity of the plots subjected to decreased soil water availability by 30% in 2011, 20% in 2012, 49% in 2013, and 51% in 2014 compared to control plot. Aboveground biomass productivity ranged from 8.8 to 9.9 t dry matter ha−1 year−1 for the control treatment and 4.5 to 8.0 t dry matter ha−1 year−1 for the treatment with throughfall exclusion.On average, the throughfall exclusion treatment exhibited 47% less productivity than control treatment had over the entire study period.
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Analysis of poplar water-use efficiency at Domanínek experimental site
Hlaváčová, M. ; Fischer, Milan ; Tripathi, Abishek ; Orság, Matěj ; Trnka, Miroslav
The main objective of this study was to test if water-use efficiency (WUE) values are higher for short-rotation poplar coppice than they are for field crops. WUE of woody biomass was determined for 16 trees within a short-rotation poplar coppiced culture (poplar clone J-105) in the within the Czech Republic during the 2013 growing season. Total WUE of woody biomass for the 16 measured trees was 4.93 g kg−1 when calculated with the data set without a vapour pressure deficit condition and 4.63 g kg−1 when calculated with the data set with a vapour pressure deficit condition. Poplar clone J-105 is a tree species with relatively high WUE, but some crops or short-rotation coppice species can reach higher or comparable WUE values.
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Leaf area index development and radiation use efficiency of a poplar short rotation coppice culture
Tripathi, Abishek ; Fischer, Milan ; Trnka, Miroslav ; Orság, Matěj ; Vanbeveren, S. ; Marek, Michal V.
Leaf area index (LAI) is the most appropriate parameter for analyzing canopy structure and crop productivity. LAI and radiation use efficiency (RUE) were estimated to evaluate the productivity of a short rotation coppice culture of a poplar clone. RUE was calculated as the ratio between total aboveground woody biomass and available photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) accumulated during one growing season. Prior to coppicing, LAI reached a maximum value of 7.3 (in 2009), whereas the maximum LAI after coppicing was 6.8 (in 2012). The maximum RUE reached prior to coppicing was 0.25 g mol−1 (in 2009), while after coppicing it was 0.20 g mol−1 (in 2012), which did not represent a significant difference (p > 0.05).
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Analysis of Spring Barley Actual Evapotranspiration
Pozníková, Gabriela ; Fischer, Milan ; Pohanková, Eva ; Žalud, Zdeněk ; Trnka, Miroslav
Evapotranspiration (ET) represents the main water-loss part of the water balance in agricultural landscape. The reliable quantification of the agricultural field ET is, however, still a challenge. To calculate ET, the Bowen ratio/energy balance (BREB) method was used in this study. It is based on measurements of the temperature and humidity gradients and radiation balance with the soil heat flux. Calculated ET was further used to quantify crop coefficient (Kc). Subsequently, we analysed the crop coefficient of spring barley during one growing season since 7th May 2013 to 30th July 2013. We used the data obtained above 1-ha spring barley field in Bystřice nad Pernštejnem, Czech Republic. In particular, we investigated how Kc correlates to climatic conditions as rainfall and soil humidity and how it reflects Plant Area Index (PAI) during the year during different parts of growing season. The cumulative ET of spring barley was 228.6 mm per investigated period. For reference evapotranspiration (ETo) two different approaches were used. Typically, a reference grass cover 0.12 m high standard for Europe. On the other hand, in the USA it is common to use also alfalfa (0.50 m high). ETo of grass was 296.3 mm and ETo of alfalfa was 351.4 mm. Maximum Plant Area Index occurred in June and its value was 4.1. Mean Kc in May was 1.17 for reference grass and 1.03 for alfalfa. Similarly in June, Kc was equal to 1.16 (grass) and 1.03 (alfalfa). Finally in July, for reference grass Kc was 0.55 and 0.48 for alfalfa. The decline at the end of the growing season was caused by dry weather and ripe stage of spring barley.
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Poplar-based short rotation coppice under artificially induced drought stress
Orság, Matěj ; Fischer, Milan ; Trnka, Miroslav ; Žalud, Zdeněk
The main aim of this study was to evaluate the diff erences in chosen microclimatological and ecophysiological variables between two types of experimental plots with diff erent levels of available soil water within a poplar-based (Populus nigra × P. maximowiczii) short rotation coppice plantation (SRC) during summer 2012. Diversity of sap fl ow, stomatal conductance and biomass increment were monitored between two treatments during the growing season of 2012. Th ere are 3 pairs of experimental plots under research. Each pair comprises a control plot and a neighbouring plot, equipped with a roof system, draining 40 % of the incoming rain water away (the water reduced plot). Our results show that a 40 % reduction in through-fall resulted in a 26 % reduction in transpiration and a 27 % reduction in stomatal conductance over the four month study period, which led to a statistically signifi cant (p = 0.03) deceleration of above-ground biomass accumulation at the plots with water-reduced treatment.
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Determination of errors in energy flux estimates using the bowen ratio energy balance method
Pozníková, G. ; Fischer, Milan ; Trnka, Miroslav ; Žalud, Zdeněk
The Bowen ratio energy balance method (BREB) is based on the measurement of air temperature and humidity gradients in at least two vertical levels above the surface of interest. So far, there have been a limited number of studies dealing with the footprint of the BREB. Staying conservative, many authors used the upper sensor of the BREB as a single point to determine the footprint of the BREB. In fact, the footprint of the fl uxes rather should be explained as a source area of the single point measurement carried out somewhere between the two BREB levels. It was suggested that this single point lies close to the geometrical mean of the two aero dynamical heights. However, there has still been no consensus regarding if this apparent height is fi xed or not, and if the second is true, whether it is a function of the Bowen ratio itself. Th e submitted study deals with the footprint of the BREB using several BREB experiments above various covers with diff erent fetches. Moreover, by simulating diff erent Bowen ratios between the area of interest and the contaminating area we attempt to investigate for which conditions (dry or wet) and type of transition (from drier to wetter or vice versa) the method is more sensitive to the limited fetch.
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Comparison of eddy covariance and bowen ratio energy balance method. Energy balance cloruse versus bowen ratio similarity assumption
Fischer, Milan ; Trnka, Miroslav ; Pozníková, Gabriela ; Sedlák, Pavel ; Orság, Matěj ; Kučera, J. ; Žalud, Z.
The Bowen ratio and the Monin-Obukhov similarity principles are based on the assumption that the eddy diff usivities for temperature and humidity are equal to each other under all atmospheric stratifi cations within turbulent surface boundary layer. However, several authors reported that this equality was violated under advective inversion or during the non-stationary conditions due to clouds passing by and sudden change of wind speed and direction. Th e inequality of the eddy diff usivity can lead to errors in the energy partitioning estimates by gradient techniques like the Bowen ratio energy balance (BREB) and the aerodynamical method, or methods based on residual energy balance such as the Penman-Monteith or Priestley-Taylor models. Th is study investigates two seasons of simultaneous measurement by eddy covariance (EC) and BREB above a high density poplar plantation at the Domanínek locality. Th e direct measurement of eddy diff usivities by EC is reinvestigating the validity of the long term measurement (since 2008) by BREB. Results showed unequal exchange coeffi cients with their mean 0.31 to 0.35 m2 s-1 for 2011 and 2012, respectively, favouring the transport of latent heat. Th is might be explained by the diff erent footprints of the BREB and EC methods, an undeveloped internal boundary layer or instrumental errors.
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Estimation of above ground woody biomass of SRC hybrid poplar clone J-105 in different fertilizer treatments in Czech-Moravian highland
Tripathi, A.M. ; Trnka, Miroslav ; Fischer, Milan ; Orság, Matěj ; Fajman, M. ; Marek, Michal V. ; Žalud, Zdeněk
Short rotation coppice poplar hybrid clone J-105 (Populus nigra x P. maximowiczii) is studied as an alternative source of bio-energy in the region of Czech-Moravian Highland. The plantation was established in 2001 at the locality Domanínek in the vicinity of Bystřice nad Pernštejnem (Czech Republic, 49o32’N, 16o15’E and altitude 530 m a. s. l.) where mean annual rainfall of 609 mm and mean annual temperature of 7.2oC was recorded between 1981 and 2010. The total area planted with the clone was close to 1.5 ha with total plantation area being close to 3.5 ha. The plantation with planned density of 9,216 trees ha-1was established on the former agricultural land and the length of the rotation cycle was set to 6-8 years. At the beginning of the second rotation period i.e. in spring 2009 (following winter harvest), the plantation was divided into four randomized blocks with different nutrient treatments and three replicates (4×3). These treatments comprised of application of mineral NPK fertilizer (nitrogen 305 kg ha-1, phosphorous 154 kg ha-1 and potassium 291 kg ha-1), sewage sludge (4200 kg/ha-1) and ash (1000kg ha-1) and lime (5 ton ha-1), while control was with natural nutrients content only (deposition and leaves mineralization). The objectives of the study were to estimate the above ground annual yields (based on allometry and stem inventory), the mortality and the shoot to stump ratio as the main productivity characteristics.
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Applicability of Bowen ratio energy balance method in fetch limited conditions
Pozníková, G. ; Trnka, Miroslav ; Fischer, Milan ; Orság, Matěj ; Žalud, Zdeněk
Water plays a key role in the climatic processes of the Earth. In terrestrial ecosystems the main component of water loss is evapotranspiration. One of the standard techniques used to measure evapotranspiration indirectly is the Bowen ratio energy balance method (BREB). This study focuses on the quantification of errors caused by insufficient fetch (upwind distance from the edge of investigated cover) using data from two BREB systems obtained through intensive summer 2012 campaign. The measurement took advantage of one mobile and one fixedly positioned BREB systems employed at turf grass cover from the prevailing north-west wind direction surrounded by broadleaved trees, poplar stoolbed dirty road and buildings at experimental station in Domanínek near Bystřice nad Pernštejnem. Surprisingly, the results showed no significant systematic deviation between the reference BREB with sufficient 180 m long fetch and mobile BREB positioned at fetches between 10 to 100 m. Moreover, it was not found any impact of the fetch on non-systematic errors leading to the conclusion that the fetch did not have any effect on the overall data quality and consistency. One of the explanations may be very similar response to soil moisture conditions of the selected contrasting living ecosystems and thus their similar Bowen ratios.
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The dynamics of temperature in birdboxes
Slavíková, Z. ; Žalud, Z. ; Bartošová, Lenka ; Fischer, Milan ; Trnka, Miroslav
The aim of the study was to detect the changing temperature in bird boxes of two bird species-collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis, T.) and great tit (Parus major, L.). The work is the result of the monitoring of nesting bird species for two years (2009 and 2010) by temperature sensors. Data was continuously recorded for several different breeding pairs with the micro-datalogers MINIKIN. Temperature sensors were fixed directly into the nest with eggs and also in the upper part of bird boxes or outside the boxes. Temperature data was then processed and analyzed. Experimental work was carried out in a floodplain forest in nature reserve Plačkův les a říčka Šatava near Vranovice, altitude: 170; latitude: 48°56´54´´; longitude: 16°35´50´´. The forest is dominated by full-grown, multi-aged canopy with no forestry management. Experimental site belongs to the same natural biogeocenoses group (i.e. Ulmi-fraxineta carpini) and to the same geobotanical group (i.e. suballiance Ulmenion of the Alnion incanae alliance). Our initial hypothesis assumed that the temperature of eggs in the nest and also the time spent in the bird boxes by both bird species (collared flycatcher and great tit) do not differ significantly. The results showed that during the period when the eggs were layed (by both bird species) the temperature were significantly however the temperature of eggs of collared flycatcher and great tit during the period of incubation were very.
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