Vegetation in grasslands is changing at an unprecedented rate. In the Nebraska Sandhills, this shift is attributed in part to encroachment of the woody species Juniperus virginiana. We investigated changes in resource availability and their feedback on seasonal trends in photosynthetic characteristics of J. virginiana trees scattered in open grasslands vs. a dense 57-year-old stand. Dense stand exhibited lower volumetric soil water content, NH4+, NO3-, and δ13C, as well as foliage δ13C, δ15N, and N content, compared to grasslands. Water potential was higher in trees in grasslands compared to dense stand. J. virginiana in dense stand exhibited similar trends to trees in grasslands for net photosynthetic rate (PN), stomatal conductance, transpiration, maximum photochemical efficiency of PSII, maximum carboxylation velocity, and maximum rate of electron transport. PN peaked early summer and declined in the fall, with trees in open grasslands lagging behind those in dense stand. Plasticity of this species may place it at a competitive advantage in the Sandhills, further altering grasslands vegetation and ecosystem processes., J. Msanne, T. Awada, N. M. Bryan, W. Schacht, R. Drijber, Y. Li, X. Zhou, J. Okalebo, D. Wedin, J. Brandle, J. Hiller., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The extreme rainfall events in Central and East Europe on August 2002 rise the question, how other basins would respond on such rainfall situations. Such theorisation helps us to arrange in advance the necessary activity in the basin to reduce the consequence of the assumed disaster. The aim of the study is to recognise a reaction of the Uh River basin (Slovakia, Ukraine) to the simulated catastrophic rainfall events from August 2002. Two precipitation scenarios, sc1 and sc2, were created. The first of them was based on August’s precipitation from Ybbs (Austria), the second one was based on precipitation from south Bohemia. The rainfall-runoff model HBV-light was used to simulate average daily discharge. Observed daily precipitation in each August during the period 1990-1999 was replaced by these two scenarios and the daily discharges were simulated in Lekárovce gauging station. Peak discharges were computed from the daily averages according to the empirical relationship. In last step, a selection of the best theoretical distribution function of the annual maximum discharge was done using Qmax data series from the period 1931-2001. and Extrémne zrážkové udalosti z augusta 2002 v strednej a východnej Európe vyvolali otázku, ako by na podobné zrážkové situácie reagovali iné povodia. Takéto teoretické simulácie poskytujú možnosť eliminovať dôsledky extrémnych hydrologických situácií. Cieľom tejto štúdie je poznať reakciu povodia rieky Uh (Slovensko, Ukrajina) na prípadnú katastrofickú zrážkovo-odtokovú situáciu, aká bola v auguste 2002. Pre simuláciu extrémnych zrážkovo-odtokových situácií boli vytvorené dva katastrofické scenáre sc1 a sc2. Prvý scenár bol určený na základe zrážkových úhrnov nameraných v Rakúska (Ybbs) a druhý na základe zrážkových úhrnov nameraných v južných Čechách počas augusta 2002. Na simuláciu priemerných denných prietokov bol použitý model HBV-light. Merané denné zrážky v každom mesiaci august počas obdobia 1990-1999 boli zmenené podľa týchto scenárov. Následne boli simulované priemerné denné prietoky v stanici Uh-Lekárovce modelom HBV-light. Vrcholové prietoky boli počítané z denných priemerov vzhľadom na odvodené empirické vzťahy. V poslednom kroku štúdie bola vybratá najvhodnejšia teoretická distribučná funkcia maximálnych ročných prietokov použitím ročných Qmax z obdobia 1931-2001.