Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : Understanding the pattern in spatial distribution of soil microbial processes is critical to understand the environmental factors that regulate them as well as to scale up these processes to ecosystem. Soil samples from a I ha tropical rainforest plot (Paracou, French Guiana) were analyzed according a nested sampling approach using different separation distances ranging from 0.4 to 40 m. The variability of substrate induced respiration (SIR) and of denitrification enzyme activity (DEA) was characterized in relation to various soil properties (total C and N contents, NIRS related index of soil organic matter quality, SOMQ and index of tree influence potential, IP). The variability of SIR and DEA was higher than that of environmental properties. The patterns of accumulated variance as a function of distance varied among the soil properties. The variability of SIR and DEA mainly occurred at small (1 m) scale (and at the 10-40 m-scales for SIR), probably reflecting the quality of litter input that results of the influence of local assemblage of different tree species, though changes in the soil N and C contents. Indeed, total soil C and N contents explained the microbial properties at every scale. Coefficients of codispersion showed that neither SOMQ nor IP did correlate with SIR and DEA, and confirmed that total C and N contents explained microbial properties in a scale dependent and complex manner. Such spatial dependency underlines the importance of soil heterogeneity in this tropical forest with implications for sampling strategies when studying the microbial processes and their response to disturbances. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
ISSN: 0016-7061

hal-01032409
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032409
DOI : 10.1016/j.geoderma.2012.12.009

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union
Résumé : International audience
This paper investigates the orientation and sources of stress in the forearc of the Cascadia subduction zone in southwest British Columbia, using Bayesian inversion results from focal mechanism data and comparing results with GPS derived short-term strain rates. The subduction margin in this region includes a change in orientation from N-S in Washington State to NW-SE in British Columbia. Over 1000 focal mechanisms from North American crustal earthquakes have been calculated to identify the dominant style of faulting, and ∼600 were inverted to estimate the principal stress orientations and the stress ratio. Our results indicate the maximum horizontal compressive stress orientation changes with distance to the trench, from approximately margin-normal along the coast to approximately margin-parallel 100-150 km inland from the coast. Comparing stress orientations with GPS data, we relate the margin-normal stress direction to subduction-related strain rates due to the locked interface between the North American and Juan de Fuca plates just west of Vancouver Island. Further from the margin the plates are coupled less strongly, and the margin-parallel maximum horizontal compressive stress in the North American Plate relates to the northward push of the Oregon Block, which is also observed in the horizontal shortening direction of the residual strain rates, after the subduction component is removed.
ISSN: 0148-0227

hal-00853734
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00853734
DOI : 10.1029/2010JB008003