Shih-Chieh Chang

• National Dong Hwa University

Climate change is having impacts on the biodiversity and structure of many ecosystems. In this chapter, we focus on its impacts on forests. We will focus on how the potential climate change impacts on forest biodiversity and structure will have a reflection on the ecosystem services provided by forests, and therefore on the capacity of these ecosyst...

Up until now montane cloud forest (MCF) in Taiwan has only been mapped for selected areas of vegetation plots. This paper presents the first comprehensive map of MCF distribution for the entire island. For its creation, a Random Forest model was trained with vegetation plots from the National Vegetation Database of Taiwan that were classified as “M...

Download all the chapters for the book here: http://www.intechopen.com/books/tropical-forests-the-challenges-of-maintaining-ecosystem-services-while-managing-the-landscape

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. While the sites varied largely in terms of altitude above mean sea level (asl), type of fog, and the potential sour...

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. Bi-directional fluxes occurred regularly, start from the smallest droplet class (<2.66 µm diameter), and...

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 can not be applied to fog occurrences...

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 a...

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...

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 moveme...

In eastern Taiwan, large areas of former sugarcane plantations were converted into planted forests in the 1990s. Different tree species have been used for these plantations, and here we present the preliminary results of a modelling exercise aimed to estimate ecological and socio-economic trade-offs of different planting regimes. We simulated mixed...

A new method for the determination of cloud top heights from the footage of a time-lapse camera is presented. 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 positi...

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, METER USA-1, and R.M. Young 81000VRE) were tested for 15 consecutive d...

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. Mean morning CO2 fluxes at 24 m in height on the main tower (T1) and 26 m in...

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 t...

In European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests, a large proportion of the water and ion input to the soil results from stemflow which creates a soil microsite of high element fluxes proximal to the tree trunk. The soil proximal to the stem is considered to have different rates of nitrogen turnover which might influence the estimation of N-turnover...

Annual fog deposition and atmospheric chemical deposition were evaluated for a strongly fog-affected coniferous forest at Chi-Lan, Taiwan. Fog capture efficiencies of Chamaecyparis obtusa var. formosana leaves were measured at three heights within the canopy using in situ exposure experiments under contrasting climatic conditions. The efficiencies...

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 fore...

Disturbances play a critical role to alter the structures and functions of ecosystems. In East Asia, typhoons are among the most important and frequent natural disturbances to ecosystems. For forest ecosystems, therefore, typhoons may affect the carbon cycling within ecosystems, including gross primary production (GPP), soil respiration, and exchan...

Stem CO 2 efflux of a Chamaecyparis obtusa var. formosana forest ecosystem was measured at the Chi-Lan Mountain site in northern Taiwan. The site is located at an altitude of 1650 m and is subjected to frequent fog coverage around the year. Stem CO 2 efflux was measured continuously at 1 m height by horizontally mounting an automatic soil respirati...

Foggy conditions are a toughness test for anemometers because the transceivers are continuously influenced by the deposition of fog-droplets. During a period of nearly four weeks three sonic anemometers where tested for their performance under foggy conditions. The anemometers were set up on a 24 meter high flux tower in a 14 meter high Chamaecypar...

In July 2009, microphysical measurements of orographic fog were performed above a montane cloud forest in north eastern Taiwan (Chilan mountain site). At this location, orographic fog appears almost every day. The goal of this work was to study the short term variations of the droplet size distribution (DSD), temperature, and relative humidity (RH)...

To estimate carbon dioxide or water vapor fluxes with the Eddy Covariance method high quality data sets are necessary. Under foggy conditions this is challenging, because open path measurements are influenced by the water droplets that cross the measurement path as well as deposit on the windows of the optical path. For the LI-7500 the deposition o...

Interception plays an important role in the hydrological characteristics of cloud forest ecosystems due to frequent wetness of the canopy. The dynamics of this canopy interception processes are ecologically important for partitioning between interception evaporation and transpiration. Long term meteorological observations at the Chi-Lan Mountain si...

The intracellular proline level in Anacystis nidulans cells was enhanced when the cells were exposed to sublethal concentrations of Cu2+; the degree of enhancement was positively related to the concentration of Cu2+. Analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography confirmed that the enhancement of proline levels was the most pronounced change in...

Little is known about carbon budgets for tropical and subtropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) ecosystems. Information about the soil CO2 efflux from these ecosystems is particularly scarce, although they have been shown to have special hydrological regimes which might be important in controlling soil respiration. In this study, we used an automatic...

Chemical composition of fog and rain water was studied during a 47-day experimental period. The differences between the fog and rain water were found to be significantly for most analyzed ions. H+, NH4 +, NO3 −, and SO4 2− made up 85% of the total median ion concentration in fog and 84% in rain water. The total mean equivalent concentration was 15...

Forest ecosystems in Taiwan are frequently influenced by typhoons that cause large amounts of litter input to the soil. The rapid decomposition of such litter under the high precipitation and temperature conditions may trigger nutrient losses via seepage. Our goal was to investigate the effects of exceptionally high inputs of Chamaecyparis obtusa v...

To better understand the climatic characteristics in a subtropical mountainous cloud forest at the Yuanyang Lake long-term ecological research site, weather data collected from January 1994 to December 2004 were analyzed in the present study. The obvious seasonal changes in climatic factors were observed at this site. The annual mean air temperatur...

Forest ecosystems in Taiwan are periodically influenced by typhoons that cause large amounts of litter input to the soil. The potential rapid decomposition of such litter under the warm and moist climatic conditions in Taiwan may lead to nutrient losses via seepage. The goal of this study was to investigate the dynamics of C, N, K, Ca, Mg, and diss...

A new approach for quantifying fog deposition rate was conducted in a mountainous forested ecosystem (Chamaecyparis obtusa var. formosana) in northeastern Taiwan where the frequency and duration of fog occurrence is extremely high and the annual number of foggy days often exceeds 350. The significance of fog in the hydrological budget of such ecosy...

Results are presented of a 5-day micrometeorological experiment to study the fluxes of radiation and sensible and latent heat above a homogeneous Chamaecyparis forest in northeastern Taiwan at 1650m a.s.l. The site exhibits a well pronounced diurnal cycle of winds, with valley winds from the SE during daytime, advecting warm and moist air masses an...

The fog meteorology, fog chemistry and fog deposition on epiphytic bryophytes were investigated from July 2000 to June 2001 in the Yuanyang Lake forest ecosystem. The elevation of the site ranges from 1650 to 2420 m, at which the high frequency of fog occurrence throughout the year has been thought to be of benefit to the establishment of the prima...

Yuanyang Lake is an acidic alpine lake located in northern Taiwan. The lake's acidity displays both spatial and temporal variations and is correlated with concentrations of organic and inorganic carbon, and with some cations in the lake water. The factors relating to such characteristics were studied, with particular focus on acid precipitation and...

Stemflow of beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) represents a significant input of water and elements to the soil and might influence the spatial patterns and the rate of seepage fluxes at the stand scale. We investigated the soil solution chemistry at different depths and distances from the stem and the element fluxes with stemflow, throughfall and seepage...

Yuanyang Lake is an acidic alpine lake at an altitude of 1,670 m located in northern Taiwan that shows a pH gradient, up to 1.5 pH units between inlet and outlet. The diatoms in the surface sediment were studied with respect to such a gradient. The results show that the species and diversity of diatom assemblages vary with the pH of the lakewater....