近日，美国西北太平洋国家实验室Peter Regier团队报道了短期实验性洪水影响土壤生物地球化学，但不影响沿海森林的地上植被。2025年10月9日，《美国科学院院刊》杂志发表了这一成果。

海平面上升和风暴加剧增加了沿海森林的洪水压力，引发树木死亡、生态系统转型和沿海碳循环的变化。然而，由于洪水干扰期间地下和地上过程之间的复杂相互作用以及沿海森林死亡率研究中典型报告的观测结果的局限性，驱动沿海森林死亡率的机制仍然不明确。

研究组使用生态系统规模的操纵，模拟沿海森林的飓风级洪水，并探索淹没和盐度的个体和相互影响。通过实时监测土壤条件和树木的生理反应，研究组观察到洪水对土壤生物地球化学的影响与树木死亡的地下驱动因素一致，但在洪水发生后，地上植被没有一致的响应。该发现为假设的森林死亡率螺旋上升的早期阶段提供了基于经验的见解，并为预测沿海森林在面对加速气候变化时的恢复能力提供了关键基准。

附：英文原文

Title: Short-term experimental flooding impacts soil biogeochemistry but not aboveground vegetation in a coastal forest

Author: Regier, Peter, Bond-Lamberty, Ben, Ward, Nicholas, Bailey, Vanessa, Peixoto, Roberta Bittencourt, Machado-Silva, Fausto, McDowell, Nate, Morris, Kendalynn A., Myers-Pigg, Allison, Pennington, Stephanie C., Rahman, Mizanur, Rich, Roy, Smith, Richard W., Wilson, Stephanie J., Woodard, Stella C., Stearns, Alice, Day, Donnie, Doro, Kennedy, Emmanuel, Efemena, Grossiord, Charlotte, Hopple, Anya, Ogunsola, Olawale, Patel, Kaizad, Phillips, Evan, Megonigal, J. Patrick

Issue&Volume: 2025-10-9

Abstract: Rising sea levels and intensifying storms increase flooding pressure on coastal forests, triggering tree mortality, ecosystem transitions, and changes to the coastal carbon cycle. However, the mechanisms that drive coastal forest mortality remain elusive due to the complex interplay between belowground and aboveground processes during flooding disturbances and limitations of observations typically reported in coastal forest mortality studies. We used an ecosystem-scale manipulation to simulate hurricane-level flooding of a coastal forest and explore the individual and interactive impacts of inundation and salinity. Monitoring real-time soil conditions and tree physiological responses, we observed consistent impacts on soil biogeochemistry aligned with belowground drivers of tree mortality, but no consistent responses in aboveground vegetation immediately following flooding. Our findings provide empirically based insight into the earliest stages of a hypothesized forest mortality spiral and offer critical benchmarks for predicting coastal forest resilience in the face of accelerating climate change.

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2511756122

Source: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2511756122