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Zhou J, Yang Y, Liu Q, Liang L, Wang X, Sun T, Li S, Gan L. Revisiting the hydrological legacy of revegetation on China's Loess Plateau using Eagleson's ecohydrological perspective. Sci Total Environ 2024; 929:172758. [PMID: 38670382 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172758] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2024] [Revised: 04/23/2024] [Accepted: 04/23/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024]
Abstract
Revegetation has resulted in a trend of increasing vegetation greenness on the Chinese Loess Plateau. However, it remains unclear whether the regional vegetation coverage exceeds hydroclimatic limitations in the context of revegetation, and the hydrological effects of greening are controversial. Eagleson's optimality hypothesis can explain some of the hydrological effects on the Loess Plateau. Here, building on previous research, the geospatial vegetation states were estimated for pre- and post-revegetation periods on the Loess Plateau from 1982 to 2015 using Eagleson's ecological optimality theory. Additionally, a drought composite analysis approach was utilized to investigate the hydrological effects related to drought (including sensitivity and partitioning) under various vegetation states. It was found that revegetation increased the proportion of catchments in the equilibrium state and decreased the proportion in the disturbed state, owing to a wetter climate compared with the pre-revegetation period. Root-zone soil drought, driven by precipitation (P) deficit, asymmetrically triggered hydrological effects for both the pre- and post-revegetation periods, with reduced runoff (Q) for both periods and a decrease in evapotranspiration (ET) during the pre-revegetation period but an increase in ET during the post-revegetation period. Moreover, catchments in an equilibrium state exhibited lower sensitivity between ET and P, and more stable partitioning of ET with regards to P, compared with those in a disturbed state. These results underscore the theoretical framework that an equilibrium state is crucial for maintaining ecosystem ET. Our results highlight the necessity of considering the hydrologic regulation of vegetation states when assessing the hydrological effects of vegetation change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jialiang Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Key Laboratory for Water and Sediment Sciences, Ministry of Education, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Yuting Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Qiang Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Key Laboratory for Water and Sediment Sciences, Ministry of Education, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
| | - Liqiao Liang
- Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
| | - Xuan Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Tao Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Key Laboratory for Water and Sediment Sciences, Ministry of Education, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Shuzhen Li
- State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Key Laboratory for Water and Sediment Sciences, Ministry of Education, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Luoyang Gan
- State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Key Laboratory for Water and Sediment Sciences, Ministry of Education, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
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Dong W, Mitchard ETA, Santoro M, Chen M, Wheeler CE. A new circa 2007 biomass map for China differs significantly from existing maps. Sci Data 2024; 11:287. [PMID: 38467652 PMCID: PMC10928215 DOI: 10.1038/s41597-024-03092-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2023] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 03/13/2024] Open
Abstract
The forest area of China is the fifth largest of any country, and unlike in many other countries, in recent decades its area has been increasing. However, there are substantial differences in estimates of the amount of carbon this forest contains, ranging from 3.92 to 17.02 Pg C for circa 2007. This makes it unclear how the changes in China's forest area contribute to the global carbon cycle. We generate a circa 2007 aboveground biomass (AGB) map at a resolution of 50 m using optical, radar and LiDAR satellite data. Our estimates of total carbon stored in the forest in China was 9.52 Pg C, with an average forest AGB of 104 Mg ha-1. Compared with three existing AGB maps, our AGB map showed better correlation with a distributed set of forest inventory plots. In addition, our high resolution AGB map provided more details on spatial distribution of forest AGB, and is likely to help understand the carbon storage changes in China's forest.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenquan Dong
- School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3FF, UK.
| | | | | | - Man Chen
- School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3FF, UK.
| | - Charlotte E Wheeler
- Department of Plant Sciences and Conservation Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EA, UK
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Lee YJ, Park GE, Lee HI, Lee CB. Stand age-driven tree size variation and stand type regulate aboveground biomass in alpine-subalpine forests, South Korea. Sci Total Environ 2024; 915:170063. [PMID: 38218491 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2023] [Revised: 12/30/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 01/15/2024]
Abstract
Alpine and subalpine forests in mountains worldwide are ecologically significant because of their unique biodiversity and increased vulnerability to climate change. This study was conducted to explore the possibilities and ways to preserve the ecological diversity of alpine-subalpine forests and their function as important carbon sinks. In this study, data from 664 plots (400 m2) were collected in the alpine-subalpine zones above 1000 m elevation in South Korea, we divided 664 plots into four stand types: conifer, conifer-dominant mixed, broadleaved-dominant mixed, and broadleaved stands. Abiotic drivers and forest successional stage-related factor including topographic, climatic drivers and stand age class were used. Biotic drivers including taxonomic, phylogenetic, functional, stand structural diversity, and community-weighted mean of functional traits were used to find independent variables controlling aboveground biomass (AGB) for each stand type. We employed multi-model averaging approach as well as piecewise structural equation modeling (pSEM) for the identification of the most influential variables affecting AGB in each stand type of alpine-subalpine forests and to quantify their interrelationships and strengths. The main results showed that tree size variation (i.e., DBH STD) induced by stand age had direct effects on AGB, with varying degrees of significance (β) ranging from 0.146 to 0.241 across all stand types in alpine-subalpine forests. Following these results, as forest succession progresses, tree species adapted to the specific environmental conditions, such as topography and climate, become dominant by creating their own niche, which increases AGB in each stand type. Additionally, climatic and topographic conditions played an important role in controlling biotic drivers depending on the stand type. In this study, we suggest that AGB should be managed and conserved depending on forest stand types according to forest succession. Furthermore, increasing size variation among tree individuals through proper forest treatments is important for increasing AGB in alpine-subalpine forests.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yong-Ju Lee
- Department of Climate Technology Convergence (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning Major), Kookmin University, 77 Jeongneungro, Seongbukgu, Seoul 02707, Republic of Korea; Forest Carbon Graduate School, Kookmin University, 77 Jeongneungro, Seongbukgu, Seoul 02707, Republic of Korea
| | - Go-Eun Park
- Forest Ecology Division, National Institute of Forest Science, Seoul 02455, Republic of Korea
| | - Hae-In Lee
- Department of Climate Technology Convergence (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning Major), Kookmin University, 77 Jeongneungro, Seongbukgu, Seoul 02707, Republic of Korea; Forest Carbon Graduate School, Kookmin University, 77 Jeongneungro, Seongbukgu, Seoul 02707, Republic of Korea
| | - Chang-Bae Lee
- Department of Climate Technology Convergence (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning Major), Kookmin University, 77 Jeongneungro, Seongbukgu, Seoul 02707, Republic of Korea; Forest Carbon Graduate School, Kookmin University, 77 Jeongneungro, Seongbukgu, Seoul 02707, Republic of Korea; Department of Forestry, Environment, and Systems, Kookmin University, 77 Jeongneungro, Seongbukgu, Seoul 02707, Republic of Korea.
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Bartholomew DC, Hayward R, Burslem DFRP, Bittencourt PRL, Chapman D, Bin Suis MAF, Nilus R, O'Brien MJ, Reynolds G, Rowland L, Banin LF, Dent D. Bornean tropical forests recovering from logging at risk of regeneration failure. Glob Chang Biol 2024; 30:e17209. [PMID: 38469989 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.17209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2023] [Revised: 01/08/2024] [Accepted: 01/17/2024] [Indexed: 03/13/2024]
Abstract
Active restoration through silvicultural treatments (enrichment planting, cutting climbers and liberation thinning) is considered an important intervention in logged forests. However, its ability to enhance regeneration is key for long-term recovery of logged forests, which remains poorly understood, particularly for the production and survival of seedlings in subsequent generations. To understand the long-term impacts of logging and restoration we tracked the diversity, survival and traits of seedlings that germinated immediately after a mast fruiting in North Borneo in unlogged and logged forests 30-35 years after logging. We monitored 5119 seedlings from germination for ~1.5 years across a mixed landscape of unlogged forests (ULs), naturally regenerating logged forests (NR) and actively restored logged forests via rehabilitative silvicultural treatments (AR), 15-27 years after restoration. We measured 14 leaf, root and biomass allocation traits on 399 seedlings from 15 species. Soon after fruiting, UL and AR forests had higher seedling densities than NR forest, but survival was the lowest in AR forests in the first 6 months. Community composition differed among forest types; AR and NR forests had lower species richness and lower evenness than UL forests by 5-6 months post-mast but did not differ between them. Differences in community composition altered community-weighted mean trait values across forest types, with higher root biomass allocation in NR relative to UL forest. Traits influenced mortality ~3 months post-mast, with more acquisitive traits and relative aboveground investment favoured in AR forests relative to UL forests. Our findings of reduced seedling survival and diversity suggest long time lags in post-logging recruitment, particularly for some taxa. Active restoration of logged forests recovers initial seedling production, but elevated mortality in AR forests lowers the efficacy of active restoration to enhance recruitment or diversity of seedling communities. This suggests current active restoration practices may fail to overcome barriers to regeneration in logged forests, which may drive long-term changes in future forest plant communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- David C Bartholomew
- School of Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
- Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
- Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Richmond, UK
| | - Robin Hayward
- Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
- School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
| | | | | | - Daniel Chapman
- Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
| | | | - Reuben Nilus
- Forest Research Centre Sepilok, Sandakan, Malaysia
| | - Michael J O'Brien
- Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Almería, Spain
| | - Glen Reynolds
- SE Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
| | - Lucy Rowland
- School of Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | | | - Daisy Dent
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH, Zürich, Switzerland
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Ek‐Rodríguez IL, Meave JA, Navarrete‐Segueda A, González‐Arqueros ML, Ibarra‐Manríquez G. Environmental heterogeneity influences liana community differentiation across a Neotropical rainforest landscape. Ecol Evol 2024; 14:e11170. [PMID: 38529022 PMCID: PMC10961474 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.11170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2023] [Revised: 03/03/2024] [Accepted: 03/06/2024] [Indexed: 03/27/2024] Open
Abstract
We examined the variation in liana community composition and structure across geopedological land units to test the hypothesis that environmental heterogeneity is a driving force in liana community assembly. The study site was the Los Tuxtlas Tropical Biology Station, SE Mexico, a reserve that encompasses 640 ha of tropical rainforest. We sampled all lianas with basal diameter ≥1 cm in three 0.5-ha plots established in each of five land units (totaling 15 plots and 7.5 ha). We censused 6055 individuals and 110 species. Overall, the most speciose families were also the most abundant ones. Density and basal area of some dominant liana species differed among land units, and a permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) and a non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination (NMDS) revealed differences in the presence, density, and basal area of liana species across the landscape. Liana composition and structure were highly heterogeneous among land units, suggesting that variations in soil water availability and relief are key drivers of liana community spatial differentiation. By showing that soil and topography play an important role at the landscape scale, we underscore the ecological relevance of environmental heterogeneity for liana community assembly. In the future, as our ability to assess the local environmental complexity increases, we will gain a better understanding of the liana community assembly process and their heterogeneous distribution in tropical forests.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iván Leonardo Ek‐Rodríguez
- Laboratorio de Ecología y Sistemática Vegetal, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y SustentabilidadUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoMoreliaMichoacánMexico
- Posgrado en Ciencias BiológicasUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoCoyoacánCiudad de MéxicoMexico
| | - Jorge A. Meave
- Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de CienciasUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoCoyoacánCiudad de MéxicoMexico
| | - Armando Navarrete‐Segueda
- Laboratorio de Ecología y Sistemática Vegetal, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y SustentabilidadUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoMoreliaMichoacánMexico
| | - M. Lourdes González‐Arqueros
- CONAHCYT‐Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la TierraUniversidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de HidalgoMoreliaMichoacánMexico
| | - Guillermo Ibarra‐Manríquez
- Laboratorio de Ecología y Sistemática Vegetal, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y SustentabilidadUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoMoreliaMichoacánMexico
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Aqeel M, Khalid N, Noman A, Ran J, Manan A, Hou Q, Dong L, Sun Y, Deng Y, Lee SS, Hu W, Deng J. Interplay between edaphic and climatic factors unravels plant and microbial diversity along an altitudinal gradient. Environ Res 2024; 242:117711. [PMID: 37995997 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117711] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2023] [Revised: 11/03/2023] [Accepted: 11/15/2023] [Indexed: 11/25/2023]
Abstract
Altitude influences biodiversity and physiochemical soil attributes in terrestrial ecosystems. It is of immense importance to know the patterns of how interactions among climatic and edaphic factors influence plant and microbial diversity in various ecosystems, particularly along the gradients. We hypothesize that altitudinal variation determines the distribution of plant and microbial species as well as their interactions. To test the hypothesis, different sites with variable altitudes were selected. Analyses of edaphic factors revealed significant (p < 0.001) effects of the altitude. Soil ammonium and nitrate were strongly affected by it contrary to potassium (K), soil organic matter and carbon. The response patterns of individual taxonomic groups differed across the altitudinal gradient. Plant species and soil fungal diversity increased with increasing altitude, while soil archaeal and bacterial diversity decreased with increasing altitude. Plant species richness showed significant positive and negative interactions with edaphic and climatic factors. Fungal species richness was also significantly influenced by the soil ammonium, nitrate, available phosphorus, available potassium, electrical conductivity, and the pH of the soil, but showed non-significant interactions with other edaphic factors. Similarly, soil variables had limited impact on soil bacterial and archaeal species richness along the altitude gradient. Proteobacteria, Ascomycota, and Thaumarchaeota dominate soil bacterial, fungal, and archaeal communities, with relative abundance of 27.4%, 70.56%, and 81.55%, respectively. Additionally, Cynodon dactylon is most abundant plant species, comprising 22.33% of the recorded plant taxa in various study sites. RDA revealed that these communities influenced by certain edaphic and climatic factors, e.g., Actinobacteria strongly respond to MAT, EC, and C/N ratio, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota show strong associations with EC and MAP, respectively. Thaumarcheota are linked to pH, and OM, while Cyperus rotundus are sensitive to AI and EC. In conclusion, the observed variations in microbial as well as plant species richness and changes in soil properties at different elevations provide valuable insights into the factors determining ecosystem stability and multifunctionality in different regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Muhammad Aqeel
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China
| | - Noreen Khalid
- Department of Botany, Government College Women University Sialkot, Pakistan
| | - Ali Noman
- Department of Botany, Government College University Faisalabad, Pakistan
| | - Jinzhi Ran
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China
| | - Abdul Manan
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China
| | - Qingqing Hou
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China
| | - Longwei Dong
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China
| | - Ying Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China
| | - Yan Deng
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China
| | - Sang Soo Lee
- Department of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Yonsei University, Wonju, 26493, Republic of Korea
| | - Weigang Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China.
| | - Jianming Deng
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (SKLHIGA), College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, PR China.
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Villanova PH, Torres CMME, Jacovine LAG, Schettini BLS, Ribeiro SC, da Rocha SJSS, Rufino MPMX, de Freitas MF, Kerkoff LA. Impacts of a severe storm on carbon accumulation in coarse woody debris within a secondary Atlantic Forest fragment in Brazil. Environ Monit Assess 2024; 196:203. [PMID: 38277071 DOI: 10.1007/s10661-024-12316-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2023] [Accepted: 01/05/2024] [Indexed: 01/27/2024]
Abstract
The alarming increase in extreme weather events, such as severe storms with torrential rain and strong winds, is a direct result of climate change. These events have led to discernible shifts in forest structure and the carbon cycle, primarily driven by a surge in tree mortality. However, the impacts caused by these severe storms on the production and carbon increment from coarse woody debris (CWD) are still poorly understood, especially in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Thus, the goal proposed by the study was to quantify the CWD volume, necromass, and carbon stock before and after the occurrence of a severe storm and to determine the importance of spatial, structural, and qualitative variables of trees in the CWD carbon increment. The increase in carbon by the storm was 2.01 MgC ha-1, with a higher concentration in the CWD less decomposed and smaller diameter class. The forest fragment plots showed distinct increments (0.05-0.35 MgC), being influenced by spatial (elevation, declivity, and slope angle) structural (basal area) and qualitative factors (trunk quality and tree health), intrinsic to the forest. Thus, it is concluded that severe storms cause a large increase in carbon in CWD, making it essential to understand the susceptibility of forests to the action of intense rains and strong winds to model and monitor the future impacts of these extreme weather events on Atlantic Forest and other tropical forests in the world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paulo Henrique Villanova
- Departamento de Engenharia Florestal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
| | | | | | | | - Sabina Cerruto Ribeiro
- Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Natureza, Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil
| | | | | | | | - Lucas Abreu Kerkoff
- Departamento de Engenharia Florestal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
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Wen D, Yang L, Ni K, Xu X, Yu L, Elrys AS, Meng L, Zhou J, Zhu T, Müller C. Topography-driven differences in soil N transformation constrain N availability in karst ecosystems. Sci Total Environ 2024; 908:168363. [PMID: 37939962 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168363] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2023] [Revised: 10/19/2023] [Accepted: 11/04/2023] [Indexed: 11/10/2023]
Abstract
Fragile karst ecosystems are characterized by complex topographic landscapes associated with high variations in vegetation restoration. Identifying the characteristics and driving factors of nitrogen (N) availability across the topographic gradient is essential to guide vegetation restoration in karst regions. In this study, we collected soil samples and plant leaves along the topographic gradient (ridge, upper slope, middle slope, and foot slope) of convex slopes in the karst fault basin of southwest China, and determined the indicators reflecting soil N availability, N transformation rates, and their controlling factors. Our results showed that foliar N content and δ15N value, soil inorganic N content and δ15N value, and foliar N:P ratio were substantially lower on the steep hillslopes than on the flat top ridge. Steep slope soils also had a lower enzyme C:N ratio but a higher enzyme N:P ratio than the flat ridge soils. Furthermore, the vector angles calculated by soil extracellular enzyme analysis were below 45o in all studied soils and decreased significantly with increasing slope, indicating that microbial growth was generally limited by N. These results jointly suggest the declines in soil N availability across the topographic gradient, which are further explained by the changes in soil inherent N transformation processes. As the slope became steeper, soil mineralization and autotrophic nitrification (ONH4) rates decreased significantly, while ratio of microbial NH4+ immobilization to ONH4 and NH4+ adsorption rate increased significantly, indicating the decrease in soil inorganic N supply capacity. We further found that deteriorated soil structure, decreased soil organic matter and calcium content, altered microbial abundance, and increased ratios of fungi to bacteria and gram-positive bacteria to gram-negative bacteria were the primary drivers of reduced N transformation rates and N availability across the topographic gradient. Overall, this study highlights the critical role of the topography in controlling soil N availability by regulating N transformation processes in karst regions. The topography should be considered an important factor affecting the functions and services of karst ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dongni Wen
- College of Tropical Crops, Hainan University, Haikou 570100, China; Key Laboratory of Karst Dynamics, MLR & Guangxi, Institute of Karst Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Guilin 541004, China
| | - Lin Yang
- Key Laboratory of Karst Dynamics, MLR & Guangxi, Institute of Karst Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Guilin 541004, China
| | - Kang Ni
- Tea Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310008, China
| | - Xingliang Xu
- Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Longfei Yu
- Institute of Environment and Ecology, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Ahmed S Elrys
- College of Tropical Crops, Hainan University, Haikou 570100, China
| | - Lei Meng
- College of Tropical Crops, Hainan University, Haikou 570100, China
| | - Jinxing Zhou
- Jianshui Research Station, School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Tongbin Zhu
- Key Laboratory of Karst Dynamics, MLR & Guangxi, Institute of Karst Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Guilin 541004, China; Liebig Centre for Agroecology and Climate Impact Research, Justus Liebig University, Germany.
| | - Christoph Müller
- Liebig Centre for Agroecology and Climate Impact Research, Justus Liebig University, Germany; Institute of Plant Ecology, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26, 35392 Giessen, Germany; School of Biology and Environmental Science and Earth Science Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
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Elsy AD, Pfeifer M, Jones IL, DeWalt SJ, Lopez OR, Dent DH. Incomplete recovery of tree community composition and rare species after 120 years of tropical forest succession in Panama. Biotropica 2024; 56:36-49. [PMID: 38515454 PMCID: PMC10952663 DOI: 10.1111/btp.13275] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2023] [Revised: 09/07/2023] [Accepted: 09/20/2023] [Indexed: 03/23/2024]
Abstract
Determining how fully tropical forests regenerating on abandoned land recover characteristics of old-growth forests is increasingly important for understanding their role in conserving rare species and maintaining ecosystem services. Despite this, our understanding of forest structure and community composition recovery throughout succession is incomplete, as many tropical chronosequences do not extend beyond the first 50 years of succession. Here, we examined trajectories of forest recovery across eight 1-hectare plots in middle and later stages of forest succession (40-120 years) and five 1-hectare old-growth plots, in the Barro Colorado Nature Monument (BCNM), Panama. We first verified that forest age had a greater effect than edaphic or topographic variation on forest structure, diversity and composition and then corroborated results from smaller plots censused 20 years previously. Tree species diversity (but not species richness) and forest structure had fully recovered to old-growth levels by 40 and 90 years, respectively. However, rare species were missing, and old-growth specialists were in low abundance, in the mid- and late secondary forest plots, leading to incomplete recovery of species composition even by 120 years into succession. We also found evidence that dominance early in succession by a long-lived pioneer led to altered forest structure and delayed recovery of species diversity and composition well past a century after land abandonment. Our results illustrate the critical importance of old-growth and old secondary forests for biodiversity conservation, given that recovery of community composition may take several centuries, particularly when a long-lived pioneer dominates in early succession. Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander D. Elsy
- Biological and Environmental SciencesUniversity of StirlingStirlingUK
| | - Marion Pfeifer
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Modelling, Evidence and Policy GroupNewcastle UniversityNewcastle upon TyneUK
| | - Isabel L. Jones
- Biological and Environmental SciencesUniversity of StirlingStirlingUK
| | - Saara J. DeWalt
- Department of Biological SciencesClemson UniversityClemsonSouth CarolinaUSA
| | - Omar R. Lopez
- Smithsonian Tropical Research InstituteBalboaPanama
- Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT)ClaytonPanama
| | - Daisy H. Dent
- Smithsonian Tropical Research InstituteBalboaPanama
- Max Planck Institute for Animal BehaviorKonstanzGermany
- Department of Environmental Systems ScienceETH ZürichZurichSwitzerland
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10
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Noulèkoun F, Mensah S, Kim H, Jo H, Gouwakinnou GN, Houéhanou TD, Mensah M, Naab J, Son Y, Khamzina A. Tree size diversity is the major driver of aboveground carbon storage in dryland agroforestry parklands. Sci Rep 2023; 13:22210. [PMID: 38097646 PMCID: PMC10721610 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-49119-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 12/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite the importance of agroforestry parkland systems for ecosystem and livelihood benefits, evidence on determinants of carbon storage in parklands remains scarce. Here, we assessed the direct and indirect influence of human management (selective harvesting of trees), abiotic factors (climate, topography, and soil) and multiple attributes of species diversity (taxonomic, functional, and structural) on aboveground carbon (AGC) stocks in 51 parklands in drylands of Benin. We used linear mixed-effects regressions and structural equation modeling to test the relative effects of these predictors on AGC stocks. We found that structural diversity (tree size diversity, HDBH) had the strongest (effect size β = 0.59, R2 = 54%) relationship with AGC stocks, followed by community-weighted mean of maximum height (CWMMAXH). Taxonomic diversity had no significant direct relationship with AGC stocks but influenced the latter indirectly through its negative effect on CWMMAXH, reflecting the impact of species selection by farmers. Elevation and soil total organic carbon content positively influenced AGC stocks both directly and indirectly via HDBH. No significant association was found between AGC stocks and tree harvesting factor. Our results suggest the mass ratio, niche complementarity and environmental favorability as underlying mechanisms of AGC storage in the parklands. Our findings also highlight the potential role of human-driven filtering of local species pool in regulating the effect of biodiversity on AGC storage in the parklands. We conclude that the promotion of AGC stocks in parklands is dependent on protecting tree regeneration in addition to enhancing tree size diversity and managing tall-stature trees.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florent Noulèkoun
- Agroforestry Systems and Ecology Laboratory (ASEL), Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, 02841, South Korea
| | - Sylvanus Mensah
- Laboratoire de Biomathématiques et d'Estimations Forestières, Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques, Université d'Abomey Calavi, Cotonou, Benin
- Chair of Forest Growth and Dendroecology, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - HyungSub Kim
- Ecosystem Ecology Laboratory, Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, 02841, South Korea
| | - Heejae Jo
- Agroforestry Systems and Ecology Laboratory (ASEL), Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, 02841, South Korea
- Ecosystem Ecology Laboratory, Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, 02841, South Korea
| | - Gérard N Gouwakinnou
- Research Unit of Biodiversity Conservation at the Interface People-Land Use and Climate Changes, Laboratory of Ecology, Botany and Plant Biology, Faculty of Agronomy, University of Parakou, BP 125, Parakou, Benin
| | - Thierry D Houéhanou
- Research Unit of Biodiversity Conservation at the Interface People-Land Use and Climate Changes, Laboratory of Ecology, Botany and Plant Biology, Faculty of Agronomy, University of Parakou, BP 125, Parakou, Benin
| | - Michael Mensah
- Department of Business Administration, University of Professional Studies, Accra, Ghana
| | - Jesse Naab
- West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL), P.O. Box 9507, Ouagadougou 06, Burkina Faso
| | - Yowhan Son
- Ecosystem Ecology Laboratory, Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, 02841, South Korea
| | - Asia Khamzina
- Agroforestry Systems and Ecology Laboratory (ASEL), Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, 02841, South Korea.
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11
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Zhao C, Liu J, Mou W, Zhao W, Zhou Z, Ta F, Lei L, Li C. Topography shapes the carbon allocation patterns of alpine forests. Sci Total Environ 2023; 898:165542. [PMID: 37454841 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165542] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2023] [Revised: 07/10/2023] [Accepted: 07/12/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023]
Abstract
Topography plays a crucial role in determining the structure of alpine forests, as it restricts the availability of nutrients and water necessary for plant growth. Nevertheless, our information on how variations in forest carbon allocation patterns driven by fine-scale topography are influenced by broader-scale environmental contexts is limited. In the northern Tibetan Plateau, we combined field data from 89 forest plots with a high-resolution (1 m2) digital elevation model (DEM) and utilized a linear mixed-effects model to investigate how microtopography (characterized by slope, aspect, and topographic wetness index (TWI)) and broader-scale environmental context (characterized by elevation) and their interactions affect the carbon allocation patterns of alpine forest. Our results revealed that at low and high elevations with pronounced subsurface resource limitations, plants tend to allocate a higher proportion of carbon to the root system and have lower aboveground carbon stocks (ACS). Microtopographic heterogeneity significantly influenced the carbon allocation patterns of forest, with the intensity and direction of these effects varying across the environmental gradient. At low elevations, topographically wetter and northerly microhabitats had higher ACS and lower ratios of below- and aboveground carbon stocks (RBA); however, at high elevations, topographically drier and southerly microhabitats had higher ACS and lower RBA. TWI and aspect had the weakest effect on ACS and RBA in the mid-elevations. The relationship between slope and ACS and RBA was significantly positive but not evidently related to the broader-scale environmental gradient.
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Affiliation(s)
- Changxing Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Engineering Research Center of Grassland Industry, Ministry of Education, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
| | - Jinrong Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Engineering Research Center of Grassland Industry, Ministry of Education, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
| | - Wenbo Mou
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, School of Life Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
| | - Weijun Zhao
- Academy of Water Resources Conservation Forests in Qilian Mountains of Gansu Province, Zhangye 734000, China
| | - Ziqiang Zhou
- Institute of Geological Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, Gansu Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730030, China
| | - Feng Ta
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Engineering Research Center of Grassland Industry, Ministry of Education, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
| | - Longju Lei
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Engineering Research Center of Grassland Industry, Ministry of Education, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
| | - Chaonan Li
- State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Engineering Research Center of Grassland Industry, Ministry of Education, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
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12
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Wang K, Wang Y, Wen H, Zhang X, Yu J, Wang Q, Han S, Wang W. Biomass carbon sink stability of conifer and broadleaf boreal forests: differently associated with plant diversity and mycorrhizal symbionts? Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 2023; 30:115337-115359. [PMID: 37882924 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-30445-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2022] [Accepted: 10/09/2023] [Indexed: 10/27/2023]
Abstract
Forest biomass carbon stability is crucial in achieving carbon neutrality in the high-latitude northern hemisphere, and identifying the differences among forest types and decoupling their associations with plant traits and geoclimatic conditions is the basis for precise forest management. We conducted a large-scale field survey in state-owned forest areas in northeastern China, covering a total of 280,000 km2 forest area, 1275 arbor plots (30 m × 30 m), 5285 shrub plots (5 m × 5 m), and 7076 herb plots (1 m × 1 m). We hypothesized that the conifer and broadleaf forest differences in biomass carbon (C) storage and stability (environmental stability to climatic changes-ES and recalcitrant stability to be decomposed-RS) are associated with mycorrhizal abundance (EcM: ectomycorrhizal, AM: arbuscular mycorrhizal, NM-AM: non-mycorrhizal or arbuscular mycorrhizal), taxon diversity traits (richness, Simpson, Shannon-Wiener, and evenness), and structural differences (diameter, height, and density) in the arbor, shrub, and herb layers. Our results showed that (1) conifer forests had 13.1 Mg/ha higher C stocks and 30.9% higher RS, but 8.6% lower ES than broadleaf forests (p < 0.05). Trees in conifer forests had 1.5 m taller and 2.4 cm thicker trees, but 15% less tree density than those in broadleaf forests. Herbs in conifer forests were 14% shorter and 57% denser than in broadleaf forests. (2) The abundance of EcM-symbiont trees in conifer forests was 15% higher than in broadleaf forests, while their EcM-symbiont shrubs and AM-symbiont herbs were 5-6% lower (p < 0.05). Broadleaf forests had 7% higher tree richness and 19% higher herb richness but 9% lower shrub richness than conifer forests (p < 0.05). Tree and herb evenness was 5-6% higher in conifer forests (p < 0.05). (3) Variations of biomass C sink traits could be explained more by plant diversity in conifer forests (7%) than in broadleaf forests (3.4%). Mycorrhizal symbionts could explain more in broadleaf forests (9.7%) than conifer forests (6.7%). In conifer forests, fewer EcM trees (higher AM trees) and AM herbs, higher tree richness were accompanied by higher biomass C storage and ES. Broadleaf forests underwent similar changes, characterized by an elevation in both RS and ES. (4) Our research emphasized that variations in carbon sequestration between conifer and broadleaf forests could be attributed to mycorrhizal symbionts and species diversity besides tree size-related structural differences. Our findings support the precise management of boreal forests to achieve carbon neutrality based on leaf blade types, plant diversity, and mycorrhizal symbionts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai Wang
- Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Yuanyuan Wang
- Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China
| | - Hui Wen
- Key Laboratory of Forest Plant Ecology (MOE), College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Resource Utilization, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, China
| | - Xiting Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Forest Plant Ecology (MOE), College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Resource Utilization, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, China
| | - Jinghua Yu
- Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
| | - Qinggui Wang
- College of Life Science, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, 273165, China
| | - Shijie Han
- College of Life Science, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, China
| | - Wenjie Wang
- Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China.
- State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, College of Forestry and Biotechnology, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, 311300, Zhejiang, China.
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13
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Rahman IU, Hart RE, Afzal A, Iqbal Z, Bussmann RW, Ijaz F, Khan MA, Ali H, Rahman SU, Hashem A, Abd-Allah EF, Sher A, Calixto ES. Vegetation-environment interactions: plant species distribution and community assembly in mixed coniferous forests of Northwestern Himalayas. Sci Rep 2023; 13:17228. [PMID: 37821469 PMCID: PMC10567734 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-42272-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2022] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 10/13/2023] Open
Abstract
One of the main goals of ecological studies is to disentangle the dynamics that underlie the spatiotemporal distribution of biodiversity and further functions of the ecosystem. However, due to many ecological and geopolitical reasons, many remote areas with high plant species diversity have not been assessed using newly based analytical approaches for vegetation characterization. Here, we classified and characterized different vegetation types (i.e., major plant communities) based on indicator species and on the influence of different environmental gradients in the Himalayan mixed coniferous forest, Pakistan. For that, we addressed the following questions: Does the vegetation composition of the Himalayan mixed coniferous forest correlate with climatic, topographic, geographic, and edaphic variables? Is it possible to identify plant communities through indicator species in relation to environmental gradients using multivariate approaches? Can this multivariate be helpful for conservation planning? During four consecutive years we assessed the vegetation composition and environmental variables (21 variables divided in geographic, climatic, topographic, and edaphic groups) of 156 50 m-trasects between an elevation of 2000-4000 m. Using newly based analytical approaches for community characterization, we found a total of 218 plant species clustered into four plant communities with the influence of environmental gradients. The highest index of similarity was recorded between Pinus-Cedrus-Viburnum (PCV) and Viburnum-Pinus-Abies (VPA) communities, and the highest index of dissimilarity was recorded between PCV and Abies-Juniperus-Picea (AJP) communities. Among these four communities, highest number of plant species (156 species) was recorded in PCV, maximum alpha diversity (H' = 3.68) was reported in VPA, highest Simpson index (0.961) and Pielou's evenness (0.862) were reported in VPA and AJP. The edaphic gradients (i.e., organic matter, phosphorous, pH and soil texture) and climatic factors (temperature, humidity) were the strongest environmental gradients that were responsible for structuring and hosting the diverse plant communities in mixed coniferous forest. Finally, the Himalayan mixed coniferous structure is more influenced by the spatial turnover beta-diversity process (βsim) than by the species loss (nestedness-resultant, βsne). Our analysis of the vegetation structure along the environmental gradient in the Himalayan mixed coniferous forest supported by sophisticated analytical approaches reveled indicator species groups, which are associated to specific microclimatic zones (i.e., vegetation communities). Within this focus, we side with the view that these results can support conservation planning and management for similar and different areas providing mitigating and preventive measures to reduce potential negative impacts, such as anthropic and climatic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Inayat Ur Rahman
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra, 21300, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
- William L. Brown Center, Missouri Botanical Garden, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO, 63166-0299, USA.
- Department of Botany, Khushal Khan Khattak University, Karak, 27200, KP, Pakistan.
| | - Robbie E Hart
- William L. Brown Center, Missouri Botanical Garden, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO, 63166-0299, USA
| | - Aftab Afzal
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra, 21300, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
| | - Zafar Iqbal
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra, 21300, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
| | - Rainer W Bussmann
- Department of Ethnobotany, Institute of Botany, Ilia State University, 1 Botanical Street, 0105, Tbilisi, Georgia
- Department of Botany, State Museum of Natural History, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Farhana Ijaz
- Department of Botany, Hazara University, Mansehra, 21300, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
| | - Muazzam Ali Khan
- Department of Botany, Bacha Khan University, Charsadda, 24460, KP, Pakistan
| | - Hamid Ali
- Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Hazara University, Mansehra, 21300, KP, Pakistan
| | - Siddiq Ur Rahman
- Department of Computer Science and Bioinformatics, Khushal Khan Khattak University, Karak, 27200, KP, Pakistan
| | - Abeer Hashem
- Botany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box. 2460, 11451, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Elsayed Fathi Abd-Allah
- Department of Plant Production, College of Food and Agriculture Science, King Saud University, 11451, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ali Sher
- Department of Agriculture, Bacha Khan University, Charsadda, KP, Pakistan
| | - Eduardo Soares Calixto
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL), Saint Louis, MO, USA
- Entomology and Nematology Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
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14
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Ishida A, Yamaji K, Nakano T, Ladpala P, Popradit A, Yoshimura K, Saiki ST, Maeda T, Yoshimura J, Koyama K, Diloksumpun S, Marod D. Comparative physiology of canopy tree leaves in evergreen and deciduous forests in lowland Thailand. Sci Data 2023; 10:601. [PMID: 37684226 PMCID: PMC10491629 DOI: 10.1038/s41597-023-02468-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2023] [Accepted: 08/14/2023] [Indexed: 09/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The typical seasonally dry forests in Southeast Asia are the mixed deciduous forest (MDF), dry dipterocarp (deciduous) forest (DDF), and dry evergreen forest (DEF). We obtained 21 physiological traits in the top/sunlit leaves of 107, 65 and 51 tree species in MDF, DEF and DDF, respectively. Approximately 70%, 95% and 95% of canopy tree species which consist of MDF, DEF and DDF are sampled, respectively. Light-saturated photosynthetic rates (Asat) exhibit a positive correlation with foliar nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) on leaf mass and area bases across tree species. Decreased leaf mass-based P reduces the positive slope of the mass-based N and Asat relationship across species and habitats. The differences in nutrient and water use and leaf habits are well matched to the variation in soil properties among the forest types, highlighting the reliability of this comprehensive database for revealing the mechanism of niche segregation based on edaphic factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Atsushi Ishida
- Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Otsu, Shiga, 520-2113, Japan.
| | - Keiko Yamaji
- Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0006, Japan
| | - Takashi Nakano
- Yamanashi Mount Fuji Research Institute, Kami-Yoshida, Fuji-Yoshida, Yamanashi, 403-0005, Japan
| | - Phanumard Ladpala
- Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, Chatuchak, Bangkok, 10900, Thailand
| | - Ananya Popradit
- College of Innovation Management, Valaya Alongkorn University under the Royal Patronage, Klongluang, Pathum Thani, 13180, Thailand
| | - Kenichi Yoshimura
- Faculty of Agriculture, Yamagata University, Tsuruoka, Yamagata, 997-8555, Japan
| | - Shin-Taro Saiki
- Department of Forest Ecology, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8687, Japan
| | - Takahisa Maeda
- National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8569, Japan
| | - Jin Yoshimura
- Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Sakamoto, Nagasaki, Nagasaki, 852-8523, Japan
- Faculty of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Minami-Osawa, Hachioji, Tokyo, 192-0397, Japan
- The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan
| | - Kohei Koyama
- Asahikawa campus, Hokkaido University of Education, Asahikawa, Hokkaido, 070-8621, Japan
| | - Sapit Diloksumpun
- Faculty of Forestry, Kasetsart University, Chatuchak, Bangkok, 10900, Thailand
| | - Dokrak Marod
- Faculty of Forestry, Kasetsart University, Chatuchak, Bangkok, 10900, Thailand
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Liu X, Zhou W, Li X, Zhang Y, Dong W. Secondary succession of shrub-herb communities in the hilly area of Taihang Mountain. Front Plant Sci 2023; 14:1194083. [PMID: 37746017 PMCID: PMC10514918 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1194083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2023] [Accepted: 08/23/2023] [Indexed: 09/26/2023]
Abstract
Introduction To document the successional processes of shrub-herb communities after large-scale human disturbance, and understand how changing environmental conditions affect species replacement in semi-humid hilly areas. Methods Utilizing the established permanent plots in the hilly area of Taihang Mountain, we evaluated temporal patterns of vegetation and soil following grass-to-shrub succession. Results and Discussion Along secondary succession, Vitex negundo var. heterophylla gradually dominated in dry sunny slope and shared the dominance with Leptodermis oblonga in shaded slope. Herbaceous dominant species in shrub-herb communities switched from Themeda japonica, Bothriochloa ischaemum, Artemisia sacrorum, and Cleistogenes chinensis in 1986 census to B. ischaemum and A. sacrorum in 2008 census, but herb was no longer dominant in 2020 census. As succession progresses, species dominance increased while richness decreased generally, and herb cover and aboveground biomass decreased, whereas shrub height, cover, and aboveground biomass increased significantly. Soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and total potassium (TK) in topsoil increased significantly while pH declined by 1.04 units over the past three decades. Plant communities transitioned from perennial herbs to shrub-herb and then shrub communities, and V. negundo var. heterophylla dominated in the succession of shrub-herb communities. Climate and soil properties, combined with plant attributes, together drive post-disturbance secondary succession. From a management perspective, the tight coupling between vegetation and soil under local climatic conditions should be considered to improve the fragile ecosystem in the hilly area of Taihang Mountain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiuping Liu
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Hebei Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang, China
| | - Wangming Zhou
- School of life Sciences, Anqing Normal University, Anqing, China
| | - Xiaoxin Li
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Hebei Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang, China
| | - Yuming Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Hebei Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang, China
| | - Wenxu Dong
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Hebei Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang, China
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Lu S, Zhang D, Wang L, Dong L, Liu C, Hou D, Chen G, Qiao X, Wang Y, Guo K. Comparison of plant diversity-carbon storage relationships along altitudinal gradients in temperate forests and shrublands. Front Plant Sci 2023; 14:1120050. [PMID: 37636113 PMCID: PMC10453807 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1120050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2022] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 08/29/2023]
Abstract
Understanding the mechanisms underlying the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function (BEF) is critical for the implementation of productive and resilient ecosystem management. However, the differences in BEF relationships along altitudinal gradients between forests and shrublands are poorly understood, impeding the ability to manage terrestrial ecosystems and promote their carbon sinks. Using data from 37962 trees of 115 temperate forest and 134 shrubland plots of Taihang Mountains Priority Reserve, we analyzed the effects of species diversity, structural diversity, climate factors and soil moisture on carbon storage along altitudinal gradients in temperate forests and shrublands. We found that: (1) Structural diversity, rather than species diversity, mainly promoted carbon storage in forests. While species diversity had greater positive effect on carbon storage in shrublands. (2) Mean annual temperature (MAT) had a direct negative effect on forest carbon storage, and indirectly affected forest carbon storage by inhibiting structural diversity. In contrast, MAT promoted shrubland carbon storage directly and indirectly through the positive mediating effect of species diversity. (3) Increasing altitudinal gradients enhanced the structural diversity-carbon relationship in forests, but weakened the species diversity-carbon relationship in shrublands. Niche and architectural complementarity and different life strategies of forests and shrubs mainly explain these findings. These differential characteristics are critical for our comprehensive understanding of the BEF relationship and could help guide the differentiated management of forests and shrublands in reaction to environmental changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuaizhi Lu
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Dou Zhang
- Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Le Wang
- Institute of Ecological Protection and Restoration, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China
| | - Lei Dong
- Institute of Water Resources for Pastoral Area Ministry of Water Resources, Inner Mongolia, China
| | - Changcheng Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Dongjie Hou
- Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, China
| | - Guoping Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xianguo Qiao
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | | | - Ke Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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17
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Mensah S, Noulèkoun F, Dimobe K, Seifert T, Glèlè Kakaï R. Climate and soil effects on tree species diversity and aboveground carbon patterns in semi-arid tree savannas. Sci Rep 2023; 13:11509. [PMID: 37460693 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-38225-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2023] [Accepted: 07/05/2023] [Indexed: 07/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Climatic and edaphic effects are increasingly being discussed in the context of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning. Here we use data from West African semi-arid tree savannas and contrasting climatic conditions (lower vs. higher mean annual precipitation-MAP and mean annual temperature-MAT) to (1) determine how climate modulates the effects of species richness on aboveground carbon (AGC); (2) explore how species richness and AGC relate with soil variables in these contrasting climatic conditions; and (3) assess how climate and soil influence directly, and/or indirectly AGC through species richness and stand structural attributes such as tree density and size variation. We find that greater species richness is generally associated with higher AGC, but more strongly in areas with higher MAP, which also have greater stem density. There is a climate-related influence of soils on AGC, which decreases from lower to higher MAP conditions. Variance partitioning analyses and structural equation modelling show that, across all sites, MAP, relative to soils, has smaller effect on AGC, mediated by stand structural attributes whereas soil texture and fertility explain 14% of variations in AGC and influence AGC directly and indirectly via species richness and stand structural attributes. Our results highlight coordinated effects of climate and soils on AGC, which operated primarily via the mediation role of species diversity and stand structures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sylvanus Mensah
- Laboratoire de Biomathématiques et d'Estimations Forestières, Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques, Université d'Abomey Calavi, Cotonou, Benin.
- Chair of Forest Growth, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.
| | - Florent Noulèkoun
- Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, 145 Anamro, Seongbukgu, Seoul, 02841, Korea
| | - Kangbéni Dimobe
- Institut des Sciences de l'Environnement et du Développement Rural, Université de Dédougou, BP 176, Dédougou, Burkina Faso
| | - Thomas Seifert
- Chair of Forest Growth, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
- Department of Forest and Wood Science, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, 7602, South Africa
| | - Romain Glèlè Kakaï
- Laboratoire de Biomathématiques et d'Estimations Forestières, Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques, Université d'Abomey Calavi, Cotonou, Benin
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18
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Baumbach L, Hickler T, Yousefpour R, Hanewinkel M. High economic costs of reduced carbon sinks and declining biome stability in Central American forests. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2043. [PMID: 37041211 PMCID: PMC10090148 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37796-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2022] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 04/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Tropical forests represent important supporting pillars for society, supplying global ecosystem services (ES), e.g., as carbon sinks for climate regulation and as crucial habitats for unique biodiversity. However, climate change impacts including implications for the economic value of these services have been rarely explored before. Here, we derive monetary estimates for the effect of climate change on climate regulation and habitat services for the forests of Central America. Our results projected ES declines in 24-62% of the study region with associated economic costs of $51-314 billion/year until 2100. These declines particularly affected montane and dry forests and had strong economic implications for Central America's lower-middle income countries (losses of up to 335% gross domestic product). In addition, economic losses were mostly higher for habitat services than for climate regulation. This highlights the need to expand the focus from mere maximization of CO2 sequestration and avoid false incentives from carbon markets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lukas Baumbach
- Chair of Forestry Economics and Forest Planning, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacherstr. 4, 79106, Freiburg, Germany.
| | - Thomas Hickler
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- Department of Physical Geography, Goethe University Frankfurt, Altenhöferallee 1, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Rasoul Yousefpour
- Chair of Forestry Economics and Forest Planning, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacherstr. 4, 79106, Freiburg, Germany
- Institute of Forestry and Conservation, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto, 33 Willcocks St, Toronto, ON, M5S 3B3, Canada
| | - Marc Hanewinkel
- Chair of Forestry Economics and Forest Planning, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacherstr. 4, 79106, Freiburg, Germany
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19
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Liu X, Zhou W, Wang X, Wu H, Dong W. Microbial gradual shifts during the process of species replacement in Taihang Mountain. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1158731. [PMID: 37089536 PMCID: PMC10113637 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1158731] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2023] [Accepted: 03/16/2023] [Indexed: 04/08/2023] Open
Abstract
IntroductionUnderstanding microbial gradual shifts along species replacement can help elucidate the mechanisms driving secondary succession, and predict microbial responses to changing environments. However, how climate-induced species replacement alters microbial processes, and whether microbial shifts follow predictable assembly trajectories remain unclear.MethodsUsing space-for-time substitution approach, we studied shifts in bacterial and fungal communities in the succession from Leptodermis oblonga to Vitex negundo var. heterophylla shrubland in Taihang Mountain.Results and DiscussionSpecies replacement, induced by climate related environmental change, significantly increased the above-ground biomass of shrublands, and TP and TK contents in topsoil. The succession from L. oblonga to V. negundo var. heterophylla communities resulted in the gradually replacement of cold-tolerant microbes with warm-affinity ones, and alterations of microbial communities involved in soil biogeochemical processes. Soil and plant variables, such as above-ground biomass, soil pH, total phosphorus, and total potassium, well explained the variations in microbial communities, indicating that the coordinated changes in plant communities and soil properties during secondary succession caused accompanied shifts in microbial diversity and composition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiuping Liu
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Hebei Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang, China
| | - Wangming Zhou
- School of Life Sciences, Anqing Normal University, Anqing, China
| | - Xinzhen Wang
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Hebei Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang, China
| | - Hongliang Wu
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Hebei Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang, China
| | - Wenxu Dong
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Hebei Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang, China
- *Correspondence: Wenxu Dong,
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20
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Mensah S, Lokossou CJ, Assogbadjo AE, Kakaï RG. Seasonal variation of environment and conspecific density-dependence effects on early seedling growth of a tropical tree in semi-arid savannahs. Glob Ecol Conserv 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.gecco.2023.e02455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/07/2023] Open
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21
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Sun Z, Sonsuthi A, Jucker T, Ali A, Cao M, Liu F, Cao G, Hu T, Ma Q, Guo Q, Lin L. Top Canopy Height and Stem Size Variation Enhance Aboveground Biomass across Spatial Scales in Seasonal Tropical Forests. Plants (Basel) 2023; 12:1343. [PMID: 36987031 PMCID: PMC10051130 DOI: 10.3390/plants12061343] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2022] [Revised: 01/25/2023] [Accepted: 02/11/2023] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
Tropical forests are biologically diverse and structurally complex ecosystems that can store a large quantity of carbon and support a great variety of plant and animal species. However, tropical forest structure can vary dramatically within seemingly homogeneous landscapes due to subtle changes in topography, soil fertility, species composition and past disturbances. Although numerous studies have reported the effects of field-based stand structure attributes on aboveground biomass (AGB) in tropical forests, the relative effects and contributions of UAV LiDAR-based canopy structure and ground-based stand structural attributes in shaping AGB remain unclear. Here, we hypothesize that mean top-of-canopy height (TCH) enhances AGB directly and indirectly via species richness and horizontal stand structural attributes, but these positive relationships are stronger at a larger spatial scale. We used a combined approach of field inventory and LiDAR-based remote sensing to explore how stand structural attributes (stem abundance, size variation and TCH) and tree species richness affect AGB along an elevational gradient in tropical forests at two spatial scales, i.e., 20 m × 20 m (small scale), and 50 m × 50 m (large scale) in southwest China. Specifically, we used structural equation models to test the proposed hypothesis. We found that TCH, stem size variation and abundance were strongly positively associated with AGB at both spatial scales, in addition to which increasing TCH led to greater AGB indirectly through increased stem size variation. Species richness had negative to negligible influences on AGB, but species richness increased with increasing stem abundance at both spatial scales. Our results suggest that light capture and use, modulated by stand structure, are key to promoting high AGB stocks in tropical forests. Thus, we argue that both horizontal and vertical stand structures are important for shaping AGB, but the relative contributions vary across spatial scales in tropical forests. Importantly, our results highlight the importance of including vertical forest stand attributes for predicting AGB and carbon sequestration that underpins human wellbeing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhenhua Sun
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, China
- Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, China
| | - Arunkamon Sonsuthi
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Tommaso Jucker
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1QU, UK
| | - Arshad Ali
- Forest Ecology Research Group, College of Life Sciences, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, China
| | - Min Cao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, China
| | - Feng Liu
- Yunnan Academy of Forestry and Grassland, Kunming 650201, China
| | - Guanghong Cao
- Administration Bureau of Naban River Watershed National Nature Reserve, Jinghong 666100, China
| | - Tianyu Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
| | - Qin Ma
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
| | - Qinghua Guo
- Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Science, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Luxiang Lin
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, China
- Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, China
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22
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Heinrich VHA, Vancutsem C, Dalagnol R, Rosan TM, Fawcett D, Silva-Junior CHL, Cassol HLG, Achard F, Jucker T, Silva CA, House J, Sitch S, Hales TC, Aragão LEOC. The carbon sink of secondary and degraded humid tropical forests. Nature 2023; 615:436-442. [PMID: 36922608 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05679-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2022] [Accepted: 12/16/2022] [Indexed: 03/17/2023]
Abstract
The globally important carbon sink of intact, old-growth tropical humid forests is declining because of climate change, deforestation and degradation from fire and logging1-3. Recovering tropical secondary and degraded forests now cover about 10% of the tropical forest area4, but how much carbon they accumulate remains uncertain. Here we quantify the aboveground carbon (AGC) sink of recovering forests across three main continuous tropical humid regions: the Amazon, Borneo and Central Africa5,6. On the basis of satellite data products4,7, our analysis encompasses the heterogeneous spatial and temporal patterns of growth in degraded and secondary forests, influenced by key environmental and anthropogenic drivers. In the first 20 years of recovery, regrowth rates in Borneo were up to 45% and 58% higher than in Central Africa and the Amazon, respectively. This is due to variables such as temperature, water deficit and disturbance regimes. We find that regrowing degraded and secondary forests accumulated 107 Tg C year-1 (90-130 Tg C year-1) between 1984 and 2018, counterbalancing 26% (21-34%) of carbon emissions from humid tropical forest loss during the same period. Protecting old-growth forests is therefore a priority. Furthermore, we estimate that conserving recovering degraded and secondary forests can have a feasible future carbon sink potential of 53 Tg C year-1 (44-62 Tg C year-1) across the main tropical regions studied.
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Affiliation(s)
- Viola H A Heinrich
- School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
| | - Christelle Vancutsem
- Fincons Group, Milan, Italy
- Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia
| | - Ricardo Dalagnol
- Earth Observation and Geoinformatics Division, National Institute for Space Research (INPE), São José dos Campos, Brazil
- Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Thais M Rosan
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Dominic Fawcett
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Celso H L Silva-Junior
- Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Biodiversidade e Conservação, Universidade Federal do Maranhão (UFMA), São Luís, Brazil
| | - Henrique L G Cassol
- Earth Observation and Geoinformatics Division, National Institute for Space Research (INPE), São José dos Campos, Brazil
- School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | | | - Tommaso Jucker
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Carlos A Silva
- Forest Biometrics and Remote Sensing Lab (Silva Lab), School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Jo House
- School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Stephen Sitch
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Tristram C Hales
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
| | - Luiz E O C Aragão
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
- Earth Observation and Geoinformatics Division, National Institute for Space Research (INPE), São José dos Campos, Brazil
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23
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Zhang Q, Zhang Q, Zhai Y, Yang W, Zhang Y, Liu H, Zhang K, Liu X, Cui K, Wang H, Zheng P, Wang R. Drivers of aboveground biomass shift with forest stratum in temperate forest of North China. Sci Total Environ 2023; 860:160548. [PMID: 36455727 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160548] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2022] [Revised: 10/31/2022] [Accepted: 11/24/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
A better understanding of the underlying ecological mechanisms of diversity-biomass relationships in forest layers (i.e., overstory and understory) is critical to understand the importance of vertical stratification to the functioning of forest ecosystems. However, it is not clear how multiple abiotic (i.e., climate and geography) and biological (i.e., biodiversity, functional characteristics, and stand structural complexity) factors simultaneously determine the aboveground biomass (AGB) of each individual forest stratum. We used data on 156,270 trees from 1986 plots in North China to explore the relationships among biological diversity, plant functional traits, stand structure, climate and topography on variation in AGB of each stratum. The results showed that different biological factors determined the AGB of overstory and understory, and thus indicating different underlying ecological mechanisms in temperate forests. The effects of forest biodiversity on AGB were only significant in understory stratum. In the overstory of the forest, forests with high tree-size dimension inequality and high dominant tree height had larger AGB, hence mass ratio effect and stand structure complexity were the main ecological mechanisms for high biomass. In understory, diversity and overstory attributes were the main factors affecting biomass. Tree height and AGB of the overstory reduced the AGB of the understory layer. In consequence overstory attributes and niche complementation were the main ecological mechanisms in the understory. The overstory exerted influence on the understory through resource quantity and resource heterogeneity. Our findings have important implications for carbon management, enhancement of forest functions and sustainable forest management in temperate forests.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qinyuan Zhang
- Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Vegetation Ecology, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Qingdao Forest Ecology Research Station of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Qing Zhang
- Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Vegetation Ecology, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Qingdao Forest Ecology Research Station of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Yinuo Zhai
- Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Vegetation Ecology, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Qingdao Forest Ecology Research Station of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Wenjun Yang
- Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Vegetation Ecology, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Qingdao Forest Ecology Research Station of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Yan Zhang
- Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Vegetation Ecology, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Qingdao Forest Ecology Research Station of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Hongxiang Liu
- Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Vegetation Ecology, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Qingdao Forest Ecology Research Station of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Kun Zhang
- Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Vegetation Ecology, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Qingdao Forest Ecology Research Station of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Xiao Liu
- Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Vegetation Ecology, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Qingdao Forest Ecology Research Station of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Kening Cui
- Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Vegetation Ecology, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Qingdao Forest Ecology Research Station of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Hui Wang
- Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Vegetation Ecology, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Qingdao Forest Ecology Research Station of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Peiming Zheng
- Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Vegetation Ecology, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Qingdao Forest Ecology Research Station of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China.
| | - Renqing Wang
- Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technology Research Center for Vegetation Ecology, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China; Qingdao Forest Ecology Research Station of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China
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24
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Labrière N, Davies SJ, Disney MI, Duncanson LI, Herold M, Lewis SL, Phillips OL, Quegan S, Saatchi SS, Schepaschenko DG, Scipal K, Sist P, Chave J. Toward a forest biomass reference measurement system for remote sensing applications. Glob Chang Biol 2023; 29:827-840. [PMID: 36270799 PMCID: PMC10099565 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2022] [Accepted: 10/14/2022] [Indexed: 05/02/2023]
Abstract
Forests contribute to climate change mitigation through carbon storage and uptake, but the extent to which this carbon pool varies in space and time is still poorly known. Several Earth Observation missions have been specifically designed to address this issue, for example, NASA's GEDI, NASA-ISRO's NISAR and ESA's BIOMASS. Yet, all these missions' products require independent and consistent validation. A permanent, global, in situ, site-based forest biomass reference measurement system relying on ground data of the highest possible quality is therefore needed. Here, we have assembled a list of almost 200 high-quality sites through an in-depth review of the literature and expert knowledge. In this study, we explore how representative these sites are in terms of their coverage of environmental conditions, geographical space and biomass-related forest structure, compared to those experienced by forests worldwide. This work also aims at identifying which sites are the most representative, and where to invest to improve the representativeness of the proposed system. We show that the environmental coverage of the system does not seem to improve after at least the 175 most representative sites are included, but geographical and structural coverages continue to improve as more sites are added. We highlight the areas of poor environmental, geographical, or structural coverage, including, but not limited to, Canada, the western half of the USA, Mexico, Patagonia, Angola, Zambia, eastern Russia, and tropical and subtropical highlands (e.g. in Colombia, the Himalayas, Borneo, Papua). For the proposed system to succeed, we stress that (1) data must be collected and processed applying the same standards across all countries and continents; (2) system establishment and management must be inclusive and equitable, with careful consideration of working conditions; and (3) training and site partner involvement in downstream activities should be mandatory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Labrière
- Evolution and Biological Diversity (EDB)CNRS/IRD/UPSToulouseFrance
| | - Stuart J. Davies
- Forest Global Earth ObservatorySmithsonian Tropical Research InstituteWashingtonDistrict of ColumbiaUSA
| | - Mathias I. Disney
- Department of GeographyUniversity College London (UCL)LondonUK
- NERC National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO)LondonUK
| | - Laura I. Duncanson
- Department of Geographical SciencesUniversity of MarylandCollege ParkMarylandUSA
| | - Martin Herold
- GFZ German Research Centre for GeosciencesPotsdamBrandenburgGermany
| | - Simon L. Lewis
- Department of GeographyUniversity College London (UCL)LondonUK
- School of GeographyUniversity of LeedsLeedsUK
| | | | - Shaun Quegan
- School of Mathematics and StatisticsUniversity of SheffieldSheffieldUK
| | - Sassan S. Saatchi
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)California Institute of TechnologyPasadenaCaliforniaUSA
| | - Dmitry G. Schepaschenko
- International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)LaxenburgAustria
- Center for Forest Ecology and Productivity of the Russian Academy of SciencesMoscowRussia
| | | | | | - Jérôme Chave
- Evolution and Biological Diversity (EDB)CNRS/IRD/UPSToulouseFrance
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25
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Lee J, Eom T, Lee D, Ko H, Rhim S. Effects of multiple ecological factors on the body mass of small rodents in a forest ecosystem. Wildlife Biology 2023. [DOI: 10.1002/wlb3.01078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Jae‐Kang Lee
- School of Bioresource and Bioscience, Chung-Ang Univ. Ansung South Korea
- Dept of Animal Science and Technology, School of Bioresource and Bioscience, Chung‐Ang Univ. Ansung South Korea
| | - Tae‐Kyung Eom
- School of Bioresource and Bioscience, Chung-Ang Univ. Ansung South Korea
- Dept of Animal Science and Technology, School of Bioresource and Bioscience, Chung‐Ang Univ. Ansung South Korea
| | - Dong‐Ho Lee
- School of Bioresource and Bioscience, Chung-Ang Univ. Ansung South Korea
- Dept of Animal Science and Technology, School of Bioresource and Bioscience, Chung‐Ang Univ. Ansung South Korea
| | - Hyeongyu Ko
- School of Bioresource and Bioscience, Chung-Ang Univ. Ansung South Korea
- Dept of Animal Science and Technology, School of Bioresource and Bioscience, Chung‐Ang Univ. Ansung South Korea
| | - Shin‐Jae Rhim
- School of Bioresource and Bioscience, Chung-Ang Univ. Ansung South Korea
- Dept of Animal Science and Technology, School of Bioresource and Bioscience, Chung‐Ang Univ. Ansung South Korea
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26
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Banin LF, Raine EH, Rowland LM, Chazdon RL, Smith SW, Rahman NEB, Butler A, Philipson C, Applegate GG, Axelsson EP, Budiharta S, Chua SC, Cutler MEJ, Elliott S, Gemita E, Godoong E, Graham LLB, Hayward RM, Hector A, Ilstedt U, Jensen J, Kasinathan S, Kettle CJ, Lussetti D, Manohan B, Maycock C, Ngo KM, O'Brien MJ, Osuri AM, Reynolds G, Sauwai Y, Scheu S, Silalahi M, Slade EM, Swinfield T, Wardle DA, Wheeler C, Yeong KL, Burslem DFRP. The road to recovery: a synthesis of outcomes from ecosystem restoration in tropical and sub-tropical Asian forests. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20210090. [PMID: 36373930 PMCID: PMC9661948 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2021] [Accepted: 08/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Current policy is driving renewed impetus to restore forests to return ecological function, protect species, sequester carbon and secure livelihoods. Here we assess the contribution of tree planting to ecosystem restoration in tropical and sub-tropical Asia; we synthesize evidence on mortality and growth of planted trees at 176 sites and assess structural and biodiversity recovery of co-located actively restored and naturally regenerating forest plots. Mean mortality of planted trees was 18% 1 year after planting, increasing to 44% after 5 years. Mortality varied strongly by site and was typically ca 20% higher in open areas than degraded forest, with height at planting positively affecting survival. Size-standardized growth rates were negatively related to species-level wood density in degraded forest and plantations enrichment settings. Based on community-level data from 11 landscapes, active restoration resulted in faster accumulation of tree basal area and structural properties were closer to old-growth reference sites, relative to natural regeneration, but tree species richness did not differ. High variability in outcomes across sites indicates that planting for restoration is potentially rewarding but risky and context-dependent. Restoration projects must prepare for and manage commonly occurring challenges and align with efforts to protect and reconnect remaining forest areas. The abstract of this article is available in Bahasa Indonesia in the electronic supplementary material. This article is part of the theme issue 'Understanding forest landscape restoration: reinforcing scientific foundations for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindsay F. Banin
- UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 0QB, UK
| | - Elizabeth H. Raine
- UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 0QB, UK
| | - Lucy M. Rowland
- Department of Geography, University of Exeter, Laver Building, North Park Road, Exeter EX4 4QE, UK
| | - Robin L. Chazdon
- Tropical Forests and People Research Centre, Forest Research Institute, University of Sunshine Coast, 90 Sippy Downs Drive, Sippy Downs, 4556, Queensland, Australia
| | - Stuart W. Smith
- Asian School of Environment, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
- Ecology, Conservation and Zoonosis Research and Enterprise Group, School of Applied Sciences, University of Brighton, Brighton, BN2 4GJ, UK
| | - Nur Estya Binte Rahman
- Asian School of Environment, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
| | - Adam Butler
- Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland, JCMB, The King's Buildings, Peter Guthrie Tait Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, UK
| | - Christopher Philipson
- Permian Global Research Limited, Savoy Hill House, 7–10 Savoy Hill, London WC2R 0BU, UK
| | - Grahame G. Applegate
- Tropical Forests and People Research Centre, Forest Research Institute, University of Sunshine Coast, 90 Sippy Downs Drive, Sippy Downs, 4556, Queensland, Australia
| | - E. Petter Axelsson
- Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Skogsmarksgränd, Umeå 907 36, Sweden
| | - Sugeng Budiharta
- Research Centre for Ecology and Ethnobiology, National Agency for Research and Innovation (BRIN), Jl. Raya Jakarta-Bogor KM. 46, Cibinong, Bogor, West Java 16911, Indonesia
| | - Siew Chin Chua
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Block S3 #05-01 16 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117558, Singapore
| | | | - Stephen Elliott
- Environmental Science Research Centre, Science Faculty and Forest Restoration Research Unit, Biology Department, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand
| | - Elva Gemita
- PT Restorasi Ekosistem Indonesia, Jl. Dadali No. 32, Bogor 16161, Indonesia
| | - Elia Godoong
- Faculty of Tropical Forestry, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah 88400, Malaysia
| | - Laura L. B. Graham
- Tropical Forests and People Research Centre, Forest Research Institute, University of Sunshine Coast, 90 Sippy Downs Drive, Sippy Downs, 4556, Queensland, Australia
- Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, BOSF Mawas Program, Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, 73111, Indonesia
| | - Robin M. Hayward
- Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK
| | - Andy Hector
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK
| | - Ulrik Ilstedt
- Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Skogsmarksgränd, Umeå 907 36, Sweden
| | - Joel Jensen
- Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Skogsmarksgränd, Umeå 907 36, Sweden
| | - Srinivasan Kasinathan
- Nature Conservation Foundation, 1311, ‘Amritha’, 12th Main, Vijayanagar 1st Stage, Mysuru, Karnataka 570 017, India
| | - Christopher J. Kettle
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, Universitätstrasse 16, Zürich 8092, Switzerland
- Bioversity International, Via di San Domenico, 00153 Rome, Italy
| | - Daniel Lussetti
- Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Skogsmarksgränd, Umeå 907 36, Sweden
| | - Benjapan Manohan
- Environmental Science Research Centre, Science Faculty and Forest Restoration Research Unit, Biology Department, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand
| | - Colin Maycock
- Forever Sabah, Jalan Penampang, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah 88300, Malaysia
| | - Kang Min Ngo
- Asian School of Environment, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
| | - Michael J. O'Brien
- Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, c/Tulipán s/n., E-28933 Móstoles, Madrid, 28933, Spain
| | - Anand M. Osuri
- Nature Conservation Foundation, 1311, ‘Amritha’, 12th Main, Vijayanagar 1st Stage, Mysuru, Karnataka 570 017, India
| | - Glen Reynolds
- South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Danum Valley Field Centre, PO Box 60282, Lahad Datu, Sabah 91112, Malaysia
| | - Yap Sauwai
- Conservation & Environmental Management Division, Yayasan Sabah Group, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah 88817, Malaysia
| | - Stefan Scheu
- J.F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Untere Karspüle 2, Göttingen 37073, Germany
- Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use, University of Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Mangarah Silalahi
- PT Restorasi Ekosistem Indonesia, Jl. Dadali No. 32, Bogor 16161, Indonesia
| | - Eleanor M. Slade
- Asian School of Environment, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
| | - Tom Swinfield
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing St, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
| | - David A. Wardle
- Asian School of Environment, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
| | - Charlotte Wheeler
- Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Jalan CIFOR, Bogor 16115, Indonesia
| | - Kok Loong Yeong
- South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Danum Valley Field Centre, PO Box 60282, Lahad Datu, Sabah 91112, Malaysia
- Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Alfred Denny Building, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
| | - David F. R. P. Burslem
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, St Machar Drive, Aberdeen, Scotland AB24 3UU, UK
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Lolila NJ, Shirima DD, Mauya EW. Tree species composition along environmental and disturbance gradients in tropical sub-montane forests, Tanzania. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0282528. [PMID: 36888683 PMCID: PMC9994703 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282528] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2022] [Accepted: 02/17/2023] [Indexed: 03/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding the environmental and disturbance determinants of tree species dominance and community composition in an ecosystem, is important for informing management and conservation decisions, through maintaining or improving the existing forest composition and structure. This study was carried out to quantify the relationship between forest tree composition structure and environmental and disturbance gradients, in a tropical sub-montane forest of Eastern Usambara. Vegetation, environmental, and anthropogenic disturbance data for 58 plots across Amani and Nilo nature forest reserves were obtained. Agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) were used to identify plant communities and analyze the influence of environmental variables and anthropogenic disturbances on tree species and community composition respectively. Four communities were identified and CCA results showed that the variation was significantly related to elevation, pH, Annual mean temperature, temperature seasonality, phosphorus nutrients and pressures from adjacent villages and roads. Likewise, environmental factors (climate, soil and topography) explained the most variation (14.5%) of tree and community composition in relation to disturbance pressure (2.5%). The large and significant variation in tree species and community patterns explained by environmental factors suggests a need for site-specific assessment of environmental properties for biodiversity conservation plans. Similarly, the intensification of human activities and associated impacts on natural environment should be minimized to maintain forest species composition patterns and communities. The findings are useful in guiding in policy interventions that focus on minimizing human disturbances in the forests and could aid in preserving and restoring the functional organization and tree species composition of the sub-tropical montane forests.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nandera Juma Lolila
- Department of Forest Engineering and Wood Sciences, College of Forestry, Wildlife and Tourism, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania
- * E-mail:
| | - Deo D. Shirima
- Department of Ecosystems and Conservation, College of Forestry, Wildlife and Tourism, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania
- National Carbon Monitoring Centre, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania
| | - Ernest William Mauya
- Department of Forest Engineering and Wood Sciences, College of Forestry, Wildlife and Tourism, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania
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28
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Zhang B, Fischer FJ, Coomes DA, Jucker T. Logging leaves a fingerprint on the number, size, spatial configuration and geometry of tropical forest canopy gaps. Biotropica 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/btp.13190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Beibei Zhang
- School of Biological Sciences University of Bristol Bristol UK
| | | | - David A. Coomes
- Conservation Research Institute University of Cambridge Cambridge UK
| | - Tommaso Jucker
- School of Biological Sciences University of Bristol Bristol UK
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29
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Yao Z, Xin Y, Yang L, Zhao L, Ali A. Precipitation and temperature regulate species diversity, plant coverage and aboveground biomass through opposing mechanisms in large-scale grasslands. Front Plant Sci 2022; 13:999636. [PMID: 36531387 PMCID: PMC9751382 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.999636] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2022] [Accepted: 11/04/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Although the relationships between species diversity and aboveground biomass (AGB) are highly debated in grassland ecosystems, it is not well understood how climatic factors influence AGB directly and indirectly via plant coverage and species diversity in large-scale grasslands along a topographic gradient. In doing so, we hypothesized that climatic factors would regulate plant coverage, species diversity and AGB due to maintaining plant metabolic and ecological processes, but the relationship of plant coverage with AGB would be stronger than species diversity due to covering physical niche space. METHODS To test the proposed hypothesis, we collected data for calculations of species richness, evenness, plant coverage and AGB across 123 grassland sites (i.e., the mean of 3 plots in each site) dominated by Leymus chinensis in northern China. We used a structural equation model for linking the direct and indirect effects of topographic slope, mean annual precipitation and temperature on AGB via plant coverage, species richness, and evenness through multiple complex pathways. RESULTS We found that plant coverage increased AGB, but species evenness declined AGB better than species richness. Topographic slope influenced AGB directly but not indirectly via plant coverage and species diversity, whereas temperature and precipitation increased with increasing topographic slope. Regarding opposing mechanisms, on the one hand, precipitation increased AGB directly and indirectly via plant coverage as compared to species richness and evenness. On the other hand, temperature declined AGB indirectly via plant coverage but increased via species evenness as compared to species richness, whereas the direct effect was negligible. DISCUSSION Our results show that niche complementarity and selection effects are jointly regulating AGB, but these processes are dependent on climatic factors. Plant coverage promoted the coexistence of species but depended greatly on precipitation and temperature. Our results highlight that precipitation and temperature are two key climatic drivers of species richness, evenness, plant coverage and AGB through complex direct and indirect pathways. Our study suggests that grasslands are sensitive to climate change, i.e., a decline in water availability and an increase in atmospheric heat. We argue that temperature and precipitation should be considered in grassland management for higher productivity in the context of both plant coverage and species diversity which underpin animals and human well-being.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhenyu Yao
- Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecology and School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China
- Yinshanbeilu Grassland Eco-hydrological National Observation and Research Station, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China
| | - Yue Xin
- Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecology and School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China
| | - Liu Yang
- Inner Mongolia Geological Exploration Institute of China Chemical Geology and Mine Bureau, Hohhot, China
| | - Liqing Zhao
- Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Grassland Ecology and School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China
| | - Arshad Ali
- Forest Ecology Research Group, College of Life Sciences, Hebei University, Baoding, Hebei, China
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30
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Bukombe B, Bauters M, Boeckx P, Cizungu LN, Cooper M, Fiener P, Kidinda LK, Makelele I, Muhindo DI, Rewald B, Verheyen K, Doetterl S. Soil geochemistry - and not topography - as a major driver of carbon allocation, stocks, and dynamics in forests and soils of African tropical montane ecosystems. New Phytol 2022; 236:1676-1690. [PMID: 36089827 DOI: 10.1111/nph.18469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2022] [Accepted: 08/14/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The lack of field-based data in the tropics limits our mechanistic understanding of the drivers of net primary productivity (NPP) and allocation. Specifically, the role of local edaphic factors - such as soil parent material and topography controlling soil fertility as well as water and nutrient fluxes - remains unclear and introduces substantial uncertainty in understanding net ecosystem productivity and carbon (C) stocks. Using a combination of vegetation growth monitoring and soil geochemical properties, we found that soil fertility parameters reflecting the local parent material are the main drivers of NPP and C allocation patterns in tropical montane forests, resulting in significant differences in below- to aboveground biomass components across geochemical (soil) regions. Topography did not constrain the variability in C allocation and NPP. Soil organic C stocks showed no relation to C input in tropical forests. Instead, plant C input seemingly exceeded the maximum potential of these soils to stabilize C. We conclude that, even after many millennia of weathering and the presence of deeply developed soils, above- and belowground C allocation in tropical forests, as well as soil C stocks, vary substantially due to the geochemical properties that soils inherit from parent material.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Bukombe
- Institute of Geography, Augsburg University, Augsburg, 86159, Germany
| | - Marijn Bauters
- Department of Environment, Ghent University, Ghent, 9000, Belgium
- Department of Green Chemistry and Technology, Isotope Bioscience Laboratory - ISOFYS, Ghent University, Ghent, 9000, Belgium
| | - Pascal Boeckx
- Department of Green Chemistry and Technology, Isotope Bioscience Laboratory - ISOFYS, Ghent University, Ghent, 9000, Belgium
| | - Landry Ntaboba Cizungu
- Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Université Catholique de Bukavu, Bugabo 02, Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
| | - Matthew Cooper
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8092, Switzerland
| | - Peter Fiener
- Institute of Geography, Augsburg University, Augsburg, 86159, Germany
| | - Laurent Kidinda Kidinda
- Institute of Soil Science and Site Ecology, Technische Universität Dresden, Tharandt, 01737, Germany
| | - Isaac Makelele
- Department of Green Chemistry and Technology, Isotope Bioscience Laboratory - ISOFYS, Ghent University, Ghent, 9000, Belgium
| | - Daniel Iragi Muhindo
- Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Université Catholique de Bukavu, Bugabo 02, Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
| | - Boris Rewald
- Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, Institute of Forest Ecology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Vienna, 1190, Austria
| | - Kris Verheyen
- Department of Environment, Ghent University, Ghent, 9000, Belgium
| | - Sebastian Doetterl
- Institute of Geography, Augsburg University, Augsburg, 86159, Germany
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8092, Switzerland
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31
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Bittencourt PRDL, Bartholomew DC, Banin LF, Bin Suis MAF, Nilus R, Burslem DFRP, Rowland L. Divergence of hydraulic traits among tropical forest trees across topographic and vertical environment gradients in Borneo. New Phytol 2022; 235:2183-2198. [PMID: 35633119 PMCID: PMC9545514 DOI: 10.1111/nph.18280] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2022] [Accepted: 05/23/2022] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Fine-scale topographic-edaphic gradients are common in tropical forests and drive species spatial turnover and marked changes in forest structure and function. We evaluate how hydraulic traits of tropical tree species relate to vertical and horizontal spatial niche specialization along such a gradient. Along a topographic-edaphic gradient with uniform climate in Borneo, we measured six key hydraulic traits in 156 individuals of differing heights in 13 species of Dipterocarpaceae. We investigated how hydraulic traits relate to habitat, tree height and their interaction on this gradient. Embolism resistance increased in trees on sandy soils but did not vary with tree height. By contrast, water transport capacity increased on sandier soils and with increasing tree height. Habitat and height only interact for hydraulic efficiency, with slope for height changing from positive to negative from the clay-rich to the sandier soil. Habitat type influenced trait-trait relationships for all traits except wood density. Our data reveal that variation in the hydraulic traits of dipterocarps is driven by a combination of topographic-edaphic conditions, tree height and taxonomic identity. Our work indicates that hydraulic traits play a significant role in shaping forest structure across topographic-edaphic and vertical gradients and may contribute to niche specialization among dipterocarp species.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - David C. Bartholomew
- College of Life and Environmental SciencesUniversity of ExeterExeterEX4 4QEUK
- Department of Ecology and Environmental ScienceUmeå University90736UmeåSweden
| | | | | | - Reuben Nilus
- Sabah Forestry DepartmentForest Research CentrePO Box 1407Sandakan90715SabahMalaysia
| | | | - Lucy Rowland
- College of Life and Environmental SciencesUniversity of ExeterExeterEX4 4QEUK
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32
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Jucker T, Fischer FJ, Chave J, Coomes DA, Caspersen J, Ali A, Loubota Panzou GJ, Feldpausch TR, Falster D, Usoltsev VA, Adu‐Bredu S, Alves LF, Aminpour M, Angoboy IB, Anten NPR, Antin C, Askari Y, Muñoz R, Ayyappan N, Balvanera P, Banin L, Barbier N, Battles JJ, Beeckman H, Bocko YE, Bond‐Lamberty B, Bongers F, Bowers S, Brade T, van Breugel M, Chantrain A, Chaudhary R, Dai J, Dalponte M, Dimobe K, Domec J, Doucet J, Duursma RA, Enríquez M, van Ewijk KY, Farfán‐Rios W, Fayolle A, Forni E, Forrester DI, Gilani H, Godlee JL, Gourlet‐Fleury S, Haeni M, Hall JS, He J, Hemp A, Hernández‐Stefanoni JL, Higgins SI, Holdaway RJ, Hussain K, Hutley LB, Ichie T, Iida Y, Jiang H, Joshi PR, Kaboli H, Larsary MK, Kenzo T, Kloeppel BD, Kohyama T, Kunwar S, Kuyah S, Kvasnica J, Lin S, Lines ER, Liu H, Lorimer C, Loumeto J, Malhi Y, Marshall PL, Mattsson E, Matula R, Meave JA, Mensah S, Mi X, Momo S, Moncrieff GR, Mora F, Nissanka SP, O'Hara KL, Pearce S, Pelissier R, Peri PL, Ploton P, Poorter L, Pour MJ, Pourbabaei H, Dupuy‐Rada JM, Ribeiro SC, Ryan C, Sanaei A, Sanger J, Schlund M, Sellan G, Shenkin A, Sonké B, Sterck FJ, Svátek M, Takagi K, Trugman AT, Ullah F, Vadeboncoeur MA, Valipour A, Vanderwel MC, Vovides AG, Wang W, Wang L, Wirth C, Woods M, Xiang W, Ximenes FDA, Xu Y, Yamada T, Zavala MA. Tallo: A global tree allometry and crown architecture database. Glob Chang Biol 2022; 28:5254-5268. [PMID: 35703577 PMCID: PMC9542605 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16302] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2022] [Revised: 05/12/2022] [Accepted: 06/06/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Data capturing multiple axes of tree size and shape, such as a tree's stem diameter, height and crown size, underpin a wide range of ecological research-from developing and testing theory on forest structure and dynamics, to estimating forest carbon stocks and their uncertainties, and integrating remote sensing imagery into forest monitoring programmes. However, these data can be surprisingly hard to come by, particularly for certain regions of the world and for specific taxonomic groups, posing a real barrier to progress in these fields. To overcome this challenge, we developed the Tallo database, a collection of 498,838 georeferenced and taxonomically standardized records of individual trees for which stem diameter, height and/or crown radius have been measured. These data were collected at 61,856 globally distributed sites, spanning all major forested and non-forested biomes. The majority of trees in the database are identified to species (88%), and collectively Tallo includes data for 5163 species distributed across 1453 genera and 187 plant families. The database is publicly archived under a CC-BY 4.0 licence and can be access from: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6637599. To demonstrate its value, here we present three case studies that highlight how the Tallo database can be used to address a range of theoretical and applied questions in ecology-from testing the predictions of metabolic scaling theory, to exploring the limits of tree allometric plasticity along environmental gradients and modelling global variation in maximum attainable tree height. In doing so, we provide a key resource for field ecologists, remote sensing researchers and the modelling community working together to better understand the role that trees play in regulating the terrestrial carbon cycle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tommaso Jucker
- School of Biological SciencesUniversity of BristolBristolUK
| | | | - Jérôme Chave
- Laboratoire Évolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB)UMR 5174 (CNRS/IRD/UPS)Toulouse Cedex 9France
- Université ToulouseToulouse Cedex 9France
| | - David A. Coomes
- Conservation Research InstituteUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK
| | - John Caspersen
- Institute of Forestry and ConservationUniversity of TorontoTorontoOntarioCanada
| | - Arshad Ali
- Forest Ecology Research Group, College of Life SciencesHebei UniversityBaodingHebeiChina
| | - Grace Jopaul Loubota Panzou
- Université de Liège, Gembloux Agro‐Bio TechGemblouxBelgium
- Laboratoire de Biodiversité, de Gestion des Ecosystèmes et de l'Environnement (LBGE), Faculté des Sciences et TechniquesUniversité Marien NgouabiBrazzavilleRepublic of Congo
| | - Ted R. Feldpausch
- College of Life and Environmental SciencesUniversity of ExeterExeterUK
| | - Daniel Falster
- Evolution & Ecology Research CentreUniversity of New South Wales SydneySydneyNew South WalesAustralia
| | - Vladimir A. Usoltsev
- Department of ForestryUral State Forest Engineering UniversityYekaterinburgRussia
- Department of Forest DynamicsBotanical Garden of the Ural Branch of Russian Academy of SciencesYekaterinburgRussia
| | - Stephen Adu‐Bredu
- Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, Council for Scientific and Industrial ResearchUniversityKumasiGhana
| | - Luciana F. Alves
- Center for Tropical Research, Institute of the Environment and SustainabilityUniversity of California Los AngelesLos AngelesCaliforniaUSA
| | - Mohammad Aminpour
- Natural Recourses and Watershed Management Office, West Azerbaijan ProvinceUrmiaIran
| | - Ilondea B. Angoboy
- Institut National pour l'Etude et la Recherche AgronimiquesDemocratic Republic of the Congo
| | - Niels P. R. Anten
- Center for Crop Systems AnalysisWageningen UniversityWageningenThe Netherlands
| | - Cécile Antin
- AMAP LabMontpellier University, IRD, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAEMontpellierFrance
| | - Yousef Askari
- Research Division of Natural Resources, Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad Agriculture and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEOYasoujIran
| | - Rodrigo Muñoz
- Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de CienciasUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CoyoacánCiudad de MéxicoMexico
- Forest Ecology and Forest Management GroupWageningen UniversityWageningenThe Netherlands
| | | | - Patricia Balvanera
- Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoMoreliaMichoacánMexico
| | | | - Nicolas Barbier
- AMAP LabMontpellier University, IRD, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAEMontpellierFrance
| | | | - Hans Beeckman
- Service of Wood BiologyRoyal Museum for Central AfricaTervurenBelgium
| | - Yannick E. Bocko
- Laboratoire de Biodiversité, de Gestion des Ecosystèmes et de l'Environnement (LBGE), Faculté des Sciences et TechniquesUniversité Marien NgouabiBrazzavilleRepublic of Congo
| | - Ben Bond‐Lamberty
- Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryJoint Global Change Research InstituteCollege ParkMarylandUSA
| | - Frans Bongers
- Forest Ecology and Forest Management GroupWageningen UniversityWageningenThe Netherlands
| | - Samuel Bowers
- School of GeoSciencesUniversity of EdinburghEdinburghUK
| | - Thomas Brade
- School of GeoSciencesUniversity of EdinburghEdinburghUK
| | - Michiel van Breugel
- Yale‐NUS CollegeSingapore
- ForestGEOSmithsonian Tropical Research InstituteApartadoPanamaRepublic of Panama
- Department of GeographyNational University of SingaporeSingapore
| | | | - Rajeev Chaudhary
- Division Forest OfficeMinistry of ForestDhangadhiSudurpashchim ProvinceNepal
| | - Jingyu Dai
- College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and MOE Laboratory for Earth Surface ProcessesPeking UniversityBeijingChina
| | - Michele Dalponte
- Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund MachSan Michele all'AdigeItaly
| | - Kangbéni Dimobe
- Institut des Sciences de l'Environnement et du Développement Rural (ISEDR)Université de DédougouDédougouBurkina Faso
| | - Jean‐Christophe Domec
- Bordeaux Sciences Agro‐UMR ISPA, INRAEBordeauxFrance
- Nicholas School of the EnvironmentDuke UniversityDurhamNCUSA
| | | | | | - Moisés Enríquez
- Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de CienciasUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CoyoacánCiudad de MéxicoMexico
| | - Karin Y. van Ewijk
- Department of Geography and Planning, Queen's UniversityKingstonOntarioCanada
| | | | | | - Eric Forni
- CIRAD, UPR Forêts et SociétésMontpellierFrance
| | | | - Hammad Gilani
- Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad HighwayIslamabadPakistan
| | | | | | - Matthias Haeni
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSLBirmensdorfSwitzerland
| | - Jefferson S. Hall
- ForestGEOSmithsonian Tropical Research InstituteApartadoPanamaRepublic of Panama
| | - Jie‐Kun He
- Spatial Ecology Lab, School of Life SciencesSouth China Normal UniversityGuangzhouGuangdongChina
| | - Andreas Hemp
- Department of Plant SystematicsUniversity of BayreuthBayreuthGermany
| | | | | | | | - Kiramat Hussain
- Gilgit‐Baltistan Forest Wildlife and Environment DepartmentGilgitPakistan
| | - Lindsay B. Hutley
- Research Institute for the Environment & LivelihoodsCharles Darwin UniversityCasuarinaNorthern TerritoryAustralia
| | - Tomoaki Ichie
- Faculty of Agriculture and Marine ScienceKochi UniversityNankokuKochiJapan
| | - Yoshiko Iida
- Forestry and Forest Products Research InstituteTsukubaIbarakiJapan
| | - Hai‐sheng Jiang
- Spatial Ecology Lab, School of Life SciencesSouth China Normal UniversityGuangzhouGuangdongChina
| | | | - Hasan Kaboli
- Faculty of Desert Studies Semnan UniversitySemnanIran
| | | | - Tanaka Kenzo
- Japan International Research Center for Agricultural SciencesTsukubaIbarakiJapan
| | - Brian D. Kloeppel
- Department of Geosciences and Natural ResourcesWestern Carolina UniversityCullowheeNorth CarolinaUSA
- Graduate School and ResearchWestern Carolina UnversityCullowheeNorth CarolinaUSA
| | - Takashi Kohyama
- Faculty of Environmental Earth ScienceHokkaido UniversitySapporoJapan
| | - Suwash Kunwar
- Division Forest OfficeMinistry of ForestDhangadhiSudurpashchim ProvinceNepal
- Department of Forest Resources Management, College of ForestryNanjing Forestry UniversityNanjingJiangsuChina
| | - Shem Kuyah
- Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT)NairobiKenya
| | - Jakub Kvasnica
- Department of Forest Botany, Dendrology and Geobiocoenology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood TechnologyMendel University in BrnoBrnoCzech Republic
| | - Siliang Lin
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of High Technology for Plant Protection, Plant Protection Research InstituteGuangdong Academy of Agricultural SciencesGuangzhouGuangdongChina
| | - Emily R. Lines
- Department of GeographyUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK
| | - Hongyan Liu
- College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and MOE Laboratory for Earth Surface ProcessesPeking UniversityBeijingChina
| | - Craig Lorimer
- Department of Forest and Wildlife EcologyUniversity of Wisconsin‐MadisonMadisonWisconsinUSA
| | - Jean‐Joël Loumeto
- Laboratoire de Biodiversité, de Gestion des Ecosystèmes et de l'Environnement (LBGE), Faculté des Sciences et TechniquesUniversité Marien NgouabiBrazzavilleRepublic of Congo
| | - Yadvinder Malhi
- Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the EnvironmentUniversity of OxfordOxfordUK
| | - Peter L. Marshall
- Faculty of ForestryUniversity of British ColumbiaVancouverBritish ColumbiaCanada
| | - Eskil Mattsson
- IVL Swedish Environmental Research InstituteGöteborgSweden
- Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre (GGBC), GothenburgSweden
| | - Radim Matula
- Faculty of Forestry and Wood SciencesCzech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague 6SuchdolCzech Republic
| | - Jorge A. Meave
- Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de CienciasUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CoyoacánCiudad de MéxicoMexico
| | - Sylvanus Mensah
- Laboratoire de Biomathématiques et d'Estimations Forestières, Faculté des Sciences AgronomiquesUniversité d'Abomey CalaviCotonouBenin
| | - Xiangcheng Mi
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of BotanyChinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
| | - Stéphane Momo
- AMAP LabMontpellier University, IRD, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAEMontpellierFrance
- Laboratoire de Botanique systématique et d'Ecologie, Département des Sciences Biologiques, Ecole Normale SupérieureUniversité de Yaoundé IYaoundéCameroon
| | - Glenn R. Moncrieff
- Fynbos Node, South African Environmental Observation NetworkClaremontSouth Africa
- Centre for Statistics in Ecology, Environment and Conservation, Department of Statistical SciencesUniversity of Cape TownRondeboschSouth Africa
| | - Francisco Mora
- Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoMoreliaMichoacánMexico
| | - Sarath P. Nissanka
- Department of Crop Science, Faculty of AgricultureUniversity of PeradeniyaPeradeniyaSri Lanka
| | | | | | - Raphaël Pelissier
- AMAP LabMontpellier University, IRD, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAEMontpellierFrance
| | - Pablo L. Peri
- Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral (UNPA) ‐ Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) ‐ CONICETRío GallegosSanta CruzArgentina
| | - Pierre Ploton
- AMAP LabMontpellier University, IRD, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAEMontpellierFrance
| | - Lourens Poorter
- Forest Ecology and Forest Management GroupWageningen UniversityWageningenThe Netherlands
| | | | - Hassan Pourbabaei
- Department of Forestry, Faculty of Natural ResourcesUniversity of GuilanSomehsaraIran
| | - Juan Manuel Dupuy‐Rada
- Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán A.C., Unidad de Recursos NaturalesMéridaYucatánMexico
| | - Sabina C. Ribeiro
- Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da NaturezaUniversidade Federal do Acre, Campus UniversitárioRio BrancoBrazil
| | - Casey Ryan
- School of GeoSciencesUniversity of EdinburghEdinburghUK
| | - Anvar Sanaei
- Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity, Institute of BiologyLeipzig UniversityLeipzigGermany
| | | | - Michael Schlund
- Department of Natural Resources, Faculty of Geo‐information Science and Earth Observation (ITC)University of TwenteEnschedeThe Netherlands
| | - Giacomo Sellan
- UMR EcoFoG, CNRSKourouFrench Guiana
- Department of Natural SciencesManchester Metropolitan UniversityManchesterUK
| | - Alexander Shenkin
- Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the EnvironmentUniversity of OxfordOxfordUK
| | - Bonaventure Sonké
- Laboratoire de Botanique systématique et d'Ecologie, Département des Sciences Biologiques, Ecole Normale SupérieureUniversité de Yaoundé IYaoundéCameroon
| | - Frank J. Sterck
- Forest Ecology and Forest Management GroupWageningen UniversityWageningenThe Netherlands
| | - Martin Svátek
- Department of Forest Botany, Dendrology and Geobiocoenology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood TechnologyMendel University in BrnoBrnoCzech Republic
| | - Kentaro Takagi
- Field Science Center for Northern BiosphereHokkaido UniversityHoronobeJapan
| | - Anna T. Trugman
- Department of GeographyUniversity of California Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraCaliforniaUSA
| | - Farman Ullah
- Forest Ecology Research Group, College of Life SciencesHebei UniversityBaodingHebeiChina
- Department of Forest Resources Management, College of ForestryNanjing Forestry UniversityNanjingJiangsuChina
| | | | - Ahmad Valipour
- Department of Forestry and The Center for Research and Development of Northern Zagros ForestryUniversity of KurdistanErbilIran
| | | | - Alejandra G. Vovides
- School of Geographical and Earth SciencesUniversity of Glasgow, East QuadrangleGlasgowUK
| | - Weiwei Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of BotanyChinese Academy of SciencesBeijingChina
| | - Li‐Qiu Wang
- Department of Forest Resources Management, College of ForestryNanjing Forestry UniversityNanjingJiangsuChina
| | - Christian Wirth
- Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity, Institute of BiologyUniversity of LeipzigLeipzigGermany
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐LeipzigLeipzigGermany
| | - Murray Woods
- Ontario Ministry of Natural ResourcesNorth BayOntarioCanada
| | - Wenhua Xiang
- Faculty of Life Science and TechnologyCentral South University of Forestry and TechnologyChangshaHunanChina
| | | | - Yaozhan Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed EcologyWuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of SciencesWuhanChina
- Center of Conservation Biology, Core Botanical GardensChinese Academy of SciencesWuhanChina
| | - Toshihiro Yamada
- Graduate School of Integrated Sciences of LifeHiroshima UniversityHiroshimaJapan
| | - Miguel A. Zavala
- Forest Ecology and Restoration Group (FORECO), Departamento de Ciencias de la VidaUniversidad de AlcaláMadridSpain
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33
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Anderson K, Cahn ML, Stephenson TR, Few AP, Hatfield BE, German DW, Weissman JM, Croft B. Cost distance models to predict contact between bighorn sheep and domestic sheep. WILDLIFE SOC B 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/wsb.1329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Kathleen Anderson
- California Department of Fish and Wildlife 787 North Main Street, Suite 220 Bishop CA 93514 USA
| | - Maya L. Cahn
- School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Yale University 370 Prospect Street New Haven CT 06511 USA
| | - Thomas R. Stephenson
- California Department of Fish and Wildlife 787 North Main Street, Suite 220 Bishop CA 93514 USA
| | - Alexandra P. Few
- California Department of Fish and Wildlife 787 North Main Street, Suite 220 Bishop CA 93514 USA
| | - Brian E. Hatfield
- California Department of Fish and Wildlife 787 North Main Street, Suite 220 Bishop CA 93514 USA
| | - David W. German
- California Department of Fish and Wildlife 787 North Main Street, Suite 220 Bishop CA 93514 USA
| | - Jonathon M. Weissman
- California Department of Fish and Wildlife 787 North Main Street, Suite 220 Bishop CA 93514 USA
| | - Brian Croft
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 777 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, Suite 208 Palm Springs CA 92262 USA
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34
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Wu Q, Ma H, Peng Y, Yan W, Pan D. Changes in Carbon Storage of Masson Pine Forests along a Latitudinal Gradient with Different Stand Structures in Southern China. Polish Journal of Ecology 2022. [DOI: 10.3161/15052249pje2021.69.3.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Qiang Wu
- Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China
| | - Hengyun Ma
- Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China
| | | | - Wende Yan
- Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 400014, China
| | - Deng Pan
- Central South Survey and Planning Institute of State Forestry and Grassland Administration, Changsha 410004, China
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35
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Bartholomew DC, Banin LF, Bittencourt PRL, Suis MAF, Mercado LM, Nilus R, Burslem DFRP, Rowland LR. Differential nutrient limitation and tree height control leaf physiology, supporting niche partitioning in tropical dipterocarp forests. Funct Ecol 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.14094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- D. C. Bartholomew
- College of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Exeter Exeter UK
- Department of Ecology and Environmental Science Umeå University Umeå Sweden
| | - L. F. Banin
- UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Penicuik Midlothian UK
| | | | - M. A. F. Suis
- Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department, P.O. Box 1407, 90715 Sandakan Sabah Malaysia
| | - L. M. Mercado
- College of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Exeter Exeter UK
- UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology Wallingford UK
| | - R. Nilus
- Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department, P.O. Box 1407, 90715 Sandakan Sabah Malaysia
| | | | - L. R. Rowland
- College of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Exeter Exeter UK
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36
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Pereira TA, Vieira SA, Oliveira RS, Antiqueira PAP, Migliorini GH, Romero GQ. Local drivers of heterogeneity in a tropical forest: epiphytic tank bromeliads affect the availability of soil resources and conditions and indirectly affect the structure of seedling communities. Oecologia 2022; 199:205-215. [DOI: 10.1007/s00442-022-05179-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2021] [Accepted: 04/25/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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37
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Köpp Hollunder R, Garbin ML, Rubio Scarano F, Mariotte P. Regional and local determinants of drought resilience in tropical forests. Ecol Evol 2022; 12:e8943. [PMID: 35646321 PMCID: PMC9130645 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8943] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2021] [Revised: 05/02/2022] [Accepted: 05/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The increase in severity of droughts associated with greater mortality and reduced vegetation growth is one of the main threats to tropical forests. Drought resilience of tropical forests is affected by multiple biotic and abiotic factors varying at different scales. Identifying those factors can help understanding the resilience to ongoing and future climate change. Altitude leads to high climate variation and to different forest formations, principally moist or dry tropical forests with contrasted vegetation structure. Each tropical forest can show distinct responses to droughts. Locally, topography is also a key factor controlling biotic and abiotic factors related to drought resilience in each forest type. Here, we show that topography has key roles controlling biotic and abiotic factors in each forest type. The most important abiotic factors are soil nutrients, water availability, and microclimate. The most important biotic factors are leaf economic and hydraulic plant traits, and vegetation structure. Both dry tropical forests and ridges (steeper and drier habitats) are more sensitive to droughts than moist tropical forest and valleys (flatter and wetter habitats). The higher mortality in ridges suggests that conservative traits are not sufficient to protect plants from drought in drier steeper habitats. Our synthesis highlights that altitude and topography gradients are essential to understand mechanisms of tropical forest's resilience to future drought events. We described important factors related to drought resilience, however, many important knowledge gaps remain. Filling those gaps will help improve future practices and studies about mitigation capacity, conservation, and restoration of tropical ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renan Köpp Hollunder
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia IB, CCS, Ilha do Fundão Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Brazil
| | - Mário Luís Garbin
- Departamento de Biologia Centro de Ciências Exatas, Naturais e da Saúde Alto Universitário Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo Alegre Brazil
| | - Fabio Rubio Scarano
- Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia IB, CCS, Ilha do Fundão Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Brazil
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38
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Wang B, Fang S, Wang Y, Guo Q, Hu T, Mi X, Lin L, Jin G, Coomes DA, Yuan Z, Ye J, Wang X, Lin F, Hao Z. The Shift from Energy to Water Limitation in Local Canopy Height from Temperate to Tropical Forests in China. Forests 2022; 13:639. [DOI: 10.3390/f13050639] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Canopy height greatly affects the biomass stock, carbon dynamics, and maintenance of biodiversity in forests. Previous research reported that the maximum forest canopy height (Hmax) at global and regional scales could be explained by variations in water or energy availability, that is, the water- or energy-related hypothesis. However, fundamental gaps remain in our understanding of how different drivers (i.e., water and energy) contribute to the Hmax at the local scale. In this study, we selected eight dynamic forest plots (20–30 ha) across a latitudinal gradient (from 21.6° N to 48.1° N) in China and measured the canopy structure using airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data. Based on the LiDAR point cloud data, we extracted the maximum tree height (Hmax) in a 20 × 20 m quadrat as a proxy for canopy height, and the topographic wetness index (TWI) and digital terrain model-derived insolation (DTMI) were calculated as proxies for water and energy conditions. We used a linear mixed model and spatial simultaneous autoregressive error model to quantify how TWI and DTMI contributed to variations in Hmax at the local scale. We found that the positive effect of TWI was stronger in subtropical and tropical forests, highlighting that water was the main factor that drives the canopy height pattern in these regions. In contrast, although the effects of DTMI can be both positive and negative, its relative contribution was higher in temperate forest plots than in other forest types, supporting the idea that energy input is more critical for Hmax in temperate forests. Overall, our study revealed the directional change from energy to water limitation from temperate to subtropical and tropical forests. Our findings can offer important insights into forest management, especially under global climate change in the Anthropocene.
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Báez S, Fadrique B, Feeley K, Homeier J. Changes in tree functional composition across topographic gradients and through time in a tropical montane forest. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0263508. [PMID: 35442987 PMCID: PMC9020722 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263508] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2021] [Accepted: 01/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding variation in tree functional traits along topographic gradients and through time provides insights into the processes that will shape community composition and determine ecosystem functioning. In montane environments, complex topography is known to affect forest structure and composition, yet its role in determining trait composition, indices on community climatic tolerances, and responses to changing environmental conditions has not been fully explored. This study investigates how functional trait composition (characterized as community-weighted moments) and community climatic indices vary for the tree community as a whole and for its separate demographic components (i.e., dying, surviving, recruiting trees) over eight years in a topographically complex tropical Andean forest in southern Ecuador. We identified a strong influence of topography on functional composition and on species' climatic optima, such that communities at lower topographic positions were dominated by acquisitive species adapted to both warmer and wetter conditions compared to communities at upper topographic positions which were dominated by conservative cold adapted species, possibly due to differences in soil conditions and hydrology. Forest functional and climatic composition remained stable through time; and we found limited evidence for trait-based responses to environmental change among demographic groups. Our findings confirm that fine-scale environmental conditions are a critical factor structuring plant communities in tropical forests, and suggest that slow environmental warming and community-based processes may promote short-term community functional stability. This study highlights the need to explore how diverse aspects of community trait composition vary in tropical montane forests, and to further investigate thresholds of forest response to environmental change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Selene Báez
- Departamento de Biología, Escuela Politécnica Nacional del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador
| | - Belén Fadrique
- School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
| | - Kenneth Feeley
- Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, United States of America
| | - Jürgen Homeier
- Department of Plant Ecology, University of Goettingen. Goettingen, Germany
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40
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Cushman K, Detto M, García M, Muller‐Landau HC. Soils and topography control natural disturbance rates and thereby forest structure in a lowland tropical landscape. Ecol Lett 2022; 25:1126-1138. [DOI: 10.1111/ele.13978] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2021] [Revised: 12/20/2021] [Accepted: 01/10/2022] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- K.C. Cushman
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Balboa Ancón Panama
| | - Matteo Detto
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Princeton University Princeton New Jersey USA
| | - Milton García
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Balboa Ancón Panama
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41
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Naqinezhad A, De Lombaerde E, Gholizadeh H, Wasof S, Perring MP, Meeussen C, De Frenne P, Verheyen K. The combined effects of climate and canopy cover changes on understorey plants of the Hyrcanian forest biodiversity hotspot in northern Iran. Glob Chang Biol 2022; 28:1103-1118. [PMID: 34679209 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15946] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2021] [Revised: 10/06/2021] [Accepted: 10/08/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Understanding forest understorey community response to environmental change, including management actions, is vital given the understorey's importance for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning. The Natural World Heritage Hyrcanian temperate forests (Iran) provide an ideal template for furnishing an appreciation of how management actions can mitigate undesired climate change effects, due to the forests' broad environmental gradients, isolation from colonization sources and varied light environments. We used records of 95 understorey plant species from 512 plots to model their probability of occurrence as a function of contemporary climate and soil variables, and canopy cover. For 65 species with good predictive accuracy, we then projected two climate scenarios in the context of either increasing or decreasing canopy cover, to assess whether overstorey management could mitigate or aggravate climate change effects. Climate variables were the most important predictors for the distribution of all species. Soil and canopy cover varied in importance depending on understorey growth form. Climate change was projected to negatively affect future probabilities of occurrence. However, management, here represented by canopy cover change, is predicted to modify this trajectory for some species groups. Models predict increases in light-adapted and generalist forbs with reduced canopy cover, while graminoids and ferns still decline. Increased canopy cover is projected to buffer an otherwise significant decreasing response of cold-adapted species to climate change. However, increasing canopy cover is not projected to buffer the predicted negative impact of climate change on shade-adapted forest specialists. Inconsistent responses of different species and/or growth forms to climate change and canopy cover reflect their complicated life histories and habitat preferences. Canopy cover management may help prevent the climate change induced loss of some important groups for biodiversity conservation. However, for shade-adapted forest specialists, our results imply a need to adopt other conservation measures in the face of anticipated climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alireza Naqinezhad
- Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Mazandaran, Iran
- Forest & Nature Lab, Ghent University, Gontrode-Melle, Belgium
| | | | - Hamid Gholizadeh
- Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Mazandaran, Iran
| | - Safaa Wasof
- Forest & Nature Lab, Ghent University, Gontrode-Melle, Belgium
| | - Michael P Perring
- Forest & Nature Lab, Ghent University, Gontrode-Melle, Belgium
- Ecosystem Restoration and Intervention Ecology Research Group, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia
- UKCEH (UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology), Environment Centre Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd, UK
| | | | | | - Kris Verheyen
- Forest & Nature Lab, Ghent University, Gontrode-Melle, Belgium
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42
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Jucker T. Deciphering the fingerprint of disturbance on the three-dimensional structure of the world's forests. New Phytol 2022; 233:612-617. [PMID: 34506641 DOI: 10.1111/nph.17729] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2021] [Accepted: 09/03/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Canopy gaps and the processes that generate them play an integral role in shaping the structure and dynamics of forests. However, it is only with recent advances in remote sensing technologies such as airborne laser scanning that studying canopy gaps at scale has become a reality. Consequently, we still lack an understanding of how the size distribution and spatial organization of canopy gaps varies among forests ecosystems, nor have we determined whether these emergent properties can be reconciled with existing theories of forest dynamics. Here, I outline a roadmap for integrating remote sensing with field data and individual-based models to build a comprehensive picture of how environmental constraints and disturbance regimes shape the three-dimensional structure of the world's forests.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tommaso Jucker
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TQ, UK
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43
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O'Brien MJ, Escudero A. Topography in tropical forests enhances growth and survival differences within and among species via water availability and biotic interactions. Funct Ecol 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13977] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Michael J. O'Brien
- Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Móstoles Spain
- Southeast Asia Rainforest Research Partnership (SEARRP) Kota Kinabalu Sabah Malaysia
| | - Adrián Escudero
- Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Móstoles Spain
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44
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Camarretta N, Ehbrecht M, Seidel D, Wenzel A, Zuhdi M, Merk MS, Schlund M, Erasmi S, Knohl A. Using Airborne Laser Scanning to Characterize Land-Use Systems in a Tropical Landscape Based on Vegetation Structural Metrics. Remote Sensing 2021; 13:4794. [DOI: 10.3390/rs13234794] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
Many Indonesian forests have been cleared and replaced by fast-growing cash crops (e.g., oil palm and rubber plantations), altering the vegetation structure of entire regions. Complex vegetation structure provides habitat niches to a large number of native species. Airborne laser scanning (ALS) can provide detailed three-dimensional information on vegetation structure. Here, we investigate the potential of ALS metrics to highlight differences across a gradient of land-use management intensities in Sumatra, Indonesia. We focused on tropical rainforests, jungle rubber, rubber plantations, oil palm plantations and transitional lands. Twenty-two ALS metrics were extracted from 183 plots. Analysis included a principal component analysis (PCA), analysis of variance (ANOVAs) and random forest (RF) characterization of the land use/land cover (LULC). Results from the PCA indicated that a greater number of canopy gaps are associated with oil palm plantations, while a taller stand height and higher vegetation structural metrics were linked with rainforest and jungle rubber. A clear separation in metrics performance between forest (including rainforest and jungle rubber) and oil palm was evident from the metrics pairwise comparison, with rubber plantations and transitional land behaving similar to forests (rainforest and jungle rubber) and oil palm plantations, according to different metrics. Lastly, two RF models were carried out: one using all five land uses (5LU), and one using four, merging jungle rubber with rainforest (4LU). The 5LU model resulted in a lower overall accuracy (51.1%) due to mismatches between jungle rubber and forest, while the 4LU model resulted in a higher accuracy (72.2%). Our results show the potential of ALS metrics to characterize different LULCs, which can be used to track changes in land use and their effect on ecosystem functioning, biodiversity and climate.
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45
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Peguero G, Ferrín M, Sardans J, Verbruggen E, Ramírez-Rojas I, Van Langenhove L, Verryckt LT, Murienne J, Iribar A, Zinger L, Grau O, Orivel J, Stahl C, Courtois EA, Asensio D, Gargallo-Garriga A, Llusià J, Margalef O, Ogaya R, Richter A, Janssens IA, Peñuelas J. Decay of similarity across tropical forest communities: integrating spatial distance with soil nutrients. Ecology 2021; 103:e03599. [PMID: 34816429 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3599] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2021] [Revised: 09/14/2021] [Accepted: 09/28/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Understanding the mechanisms that drive the change of biotic assemblages over space and time is the main quest of community ecology. Assessing the relative importance of dispersal and environmental species selection in a range of organismic sizes and motilities has been a fruitful strategy. A consensus for whether spatial and environmental distances operate similarly across spatial scales and taxa, however, has yet to emerge. We used censuses of four major groups of organisms (soil bacteria, fungi, ground insects, and trees) at two observation scales (1-m2 sampling point vs. 2,500-m2 plots) in a topographically standardized sampling design replicated in two tropical rainforests with contrasting relationships between spatial distance and nutrient availability. We modeled the decay of assemblage similarity for each taxon set and site to assess the relative contributions of spatial distance and nutrient availability distance. Then, we evaluated the potentially structuring effect of tree composition over all other taxa. The similarity of nutrient content in the litter and topsoil had a stronger and more consistent selective effect than did dispersal limitation, particularly for bacteria, fungi, and trees at the plot level. Ground insects, the only group assessed with the capacity of active dispersal, had the highest species turnover and the flattest nonsignificant distance-decay relationship, suggesting that neither dispersal limitation nor nutrient availability were fundamental drivers of their community assembly at this scale of analysis. Only the fungal communities at one of our study sites were clearly coordinated with tree composition. The spatial distance at the smallest scale was more important than nutrient selection for the bacteria, fungi, and insects. The lower initial similarity and the moderate variation in composition identified by these distance-decay models, however, suggested that the effects of stochastic sampling were important at this smaller spatial scale. Our results highlight the importance of nutrients as one of the main environmental drivers of rainforest communities irrespective of organismic or propagule size and how the overriding effect of the analytical scale influences the interpretation, leading to the perception of greater importance of dispersal limitation and ecological drift over selection associated with environmental niches at decreasing observation scales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guille Peguero
- Departament de Biologia Animal, Biologia Vegetal i Ecologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain.,CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, 08913, Bellaterra, Spain
| | - Miquel Ferrín
- Departament de Biologia Animal, Biologia Vegetal i Ecologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain.,CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, 08913, Bellaterra, Spain
| | - Jordi Sardans
- CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, 08913, Bellaterra, Spain.,CREAF, 08913, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Erik Verbruggen
- Department of Biology, Centre of Excellence PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), University of Antwerp, 2610, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Irene Ramírez-Rojas
- Department of Biology, Centre of Excellence PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), University of Antwerp, 2610, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Leandro Van Langenhove
- Department of Biology, Centre of Excellence PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), University of Antwerp, 2610, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Lore T Verryckt
- Department of Biology, Centre of Excellence PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), University of Antwerp, 2610, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Jerome Murienne
- Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité Biologique (UMR5174), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, IRD, UPS, Toulouse, France
| | - Amaia Iribar
- Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité Biologique (UMR5174), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, IRD, UPS, Toulouse, France
| | - Lucie Zinger
- Institut de Biologie de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure (IBENS), Ecole Normale Supérieure, CNRS, INSERM, PSL Université Paris, Paris, France
| | - Oriol Grau
- CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, 08913, Bellaterra, Spain.,CREAF, 08913, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.,UMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, Université des Antilles, Université de Guyane, 97310, Kourou, France
| | - Jerome Orivel
- UMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, Université des Antilles, Université de Guyane, 97310, Kourou, France
| | - Clément Stahl
- UMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, Université des Antilles, Université de Guyane, 97310, Kourou, France
| | - Elodie A Courtois
- Laboratoire Ecologie, évolution, Interactions des Systèmes Amazoniens (LEEISA), Université de Guyane, CNRS, IFREMER, 97300, Cayenne, France
| | - Dolores Asensio
- CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, 08913, Bellaterra, Spain.,CREAF, 08913, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Albert Gargallo-Garriga
- CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, 08913, Bellaterra, Spain.,CREAF, 08913, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Joan Llusià
- CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, 08913, Bellaterra, Spain.,CREAF, 08913, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Olga Margalef
- CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, 08913, Bellaterra, Spain.,CREAF, 08913, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Romà Ogaya
- CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, 08913, Bellaterra, Spain.,CREAF, 08913, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Andreas Richter
- Department of Microbiology and Ecosystem Science, University of Vienna, 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Ivan A Janssens
- Department of Biology, Centre of Excellence PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), University of Antwerp, 2610, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Josep Peñuelas
- CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, 08913, Bellaterra, Spain.,CREAF, 08913, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
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Noulèkoun F, Birhane E, Mensah S, Kassa H, Berhe A, Gebremichael ZM, Adem NM, Seyoum Y, Mengistu T, Lemma B, Hagazi N, Abrha H. Structural diversity consistently mediates species richness effects on aboveground carbon along altitudinal gradients in northern Ethiopian grazing exclosures. Sci Total Environ 2021; 776:145838. [PMID: 33639469 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145838] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2020] [Revised: 02/08/2021] [Accepted: 02/08/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Grazing exclosures have been promoted as an effective and low-cost land management strategy to recover vegetation and associated functions in degraded landscapes in the tropics. While grazing exclosures can be important reservoirs of biodiversity and carbon, their potential in playing a dual role of conservation of biodiversity and mitigation of climate change effects is not yet established. To address this gap, we assessed the effect of diversity on aboveground carbon (AGC) and the relative importance of the driving biotic (functional diversity, functional composition and structural diversity) and abiotic (climate, topography and soil) mechanisms. We used a dataset from 133 inventory plots across three altitudinal zones, i.e., highland, midland and lowland, in northern Ethiopia, which allowed local- (within altitudinal zone) and broad- (across altitudinal zones) environmental scale analysis of diversity-AGC relationships. We found that species richness-AGC relationship shifted from neutral in highlands to positive in mid- and lowlands as well as across the altitudinal zones. Structural diversity was consistently the strongest mediator of the positive effects of species richness on AGC within and across altitudinal zones, whereas functional composition linked species richness to AGC at the broad environmental scale only. Abiotic factors had direct and indirect effects via biotic factors on AGC, but their relative importance varied with altitudinal zones. Our results indicate that the effect of species diversity on AGC was altitude-dependent and operated more strongly through structural diversity (representing niche complementarity effect) than functional composition (representing selection effect). Our study suggests that maintaining high structural diversity and managing functionally important species while promoting favourable climatic and soil conditions can enhance carbon storage in grazing exclosures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florent Noulèkoun
- Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea.
| | - Emiru Birhane
- Department of Land Resources Management and Environmental Protection, Mekelle University, P.O. Box 231, Mekelle, Ethiopia
| | - Sylvanus Mensah
- Laboratoire de Biomathématiques et d'Estimations Forestières, Université d'Abomey Calavi, 04 BP 1525, Cotonou, Benin
| | - Habtemariam Kassa
- Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), P.O. Box 0113 BOCBD, Bogor 16000, Indonesia
| | - Alemayehu Berhe
- Wukro College of Agricultural Polytechnic, Tigray, P.O. Box, 39, Wukro, Ethiopia
| | | | - Nuru Mohammed Adem
- Afar pastoral and Agro-pastoral Research Institute, P.O. Box 16, Semera, Ethiopia
| | - Yigremachew Seyoum
- Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, P. O. Box 12760, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Tefera Mengistu
- Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, P. O. Box 12760, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Bekele Lemma
- Hawassa University, Department of Chemistry, Ethiopia
| | - Nigussie Hagazi
- World Agroforestry Center, P. O. Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Haftu Abrha
- Institute of Climate and Society, P.O. Box 231, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Ethiopia
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47
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Maréchaux I, Langerwisch F, Huth A, Bugmann H, Morin X, Reyer CP, Seidl R, Collalti A, Dantas de Paula M, Fischer R, Gutsch M, Lexer MJ, Lischke H, Rammig A, Rödig E, Sakschewski B, Taubert F, Thonicke K, Vacchiano G, Bohn FJ. Tackling unresolved questions in forest ecology: The past and future role of simulation models. Ecol Evol 2021; 11:3746-3770. [PMID: 33976773 PMCID: PMC8093733 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7391] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2020] [Revised: 02/04/2021] [Accepted: 02/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding the processes that shape forest functioning, structure, and diversity remains challenging, although data on forest systems are being collected at a rapid pace and across scales. Forest models have a long history in bridging data with ecological knowledge and can simulate forest dynamics over spatio-temporal scales unreachable by most empirical investigations.We describe the development that different forest modelling communities have followed to underpin the leverage that simulation models offer for advancing our understanding of forest ecosystems.Using three widely applied but contrasting approaches - species distribution models, individual-based forest models, and dynamic global vegetation models - as examples, we show how scientific and technical advances have led models to transgress their initial objectives and limitations. We provide an overview of recent model applications on current important ecological topics and pinpoint ten key questions that could, and should, be tackled with forest models in the next decade.Synthesis. This overview shows that forest models, due to their complementarity and mutual enrichment, represent an invaluable toolkit to address a wide range of fundamental and applied ecological questions, hence fostering a deeper understanding of forest dynamics in the context of global change.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Fanny Langerwisch
- Department of Ecology and Environmental SciencesPalacký University OlomoucOlomoucCzech Republic
- Department of Water Resources and Environmental ModelingCzech University of Life SciencesPragueCzech Republic
| | - Andreas Huth
- Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research ‐ UFZLeipzigGermany
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐LeipzigLeipzigGermany
- Institute of Environmental Systems ResearchOsnabrück UniversityOsnabrückGermany
| | - Harald Bugmann
- Forest EcologyInstitute of Terrestrial EcosystemsETH ZürichZurichSwitzerland
| | - Xavier Morin
- EPHECEFECNRSUniv MontpellierUniv Paul Valéry MontpellierIRDMontpellierFrance
| | - Christopher P.O. Reyer
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)Member of the Leibniz AssociationPotsdamGermany
| | - Rupert Seidl
- Institute of SilvicultureUniversity of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU)ViennaAustria
- TUM School of Life SciencesTechnical University of MunichFreisingGermany
| | - Alessio Collalti
- Forest Modelling LabInstitute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the MediterraneanNational Research Council of Italy (CNR‐ISAFOM)Perugia (PG)Italy
- Department of Innovation in Biological, Agro‐food and Forest SystemsUniversity of TusciaViterboItaly
| | | | - Rico Fischer
- Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research ‐ UFZLeipzigGermany
| | - Martin Gutsch
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)Member of the Leibniz AssociationPotsdamGermany
| | | | - Heike Lischke
- Dynamic MacroecologyLand Change ScienceSwiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSLBirmensdorfSwitzerland
| | - Anja Rammig
- TUM School of Life SciencesTechnical University of MunichFreisingGermany
| | - Edna Rödig
- Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research ‐ UFZLeipzigGermany
| | - Boris Sakschewski
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)Member of the Leibniz AssociationPotsdamGermany
| | | | - Kirsten Thonicke
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)Member of the Leibniz AssociationPotsdamGermany
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48
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Pierick K, Leuschner C, Homeier J. Topography as a factor driving small-scale variation in tree fine root traits and root functional diversity in a species-rich tropical montane forest. New Phytol 2021; 230:129-138. [PMID: 33278844 DOI: 10.1111/nph.17136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2020] [Accepted: 11/30/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
We investigated the variation in tree fine root traits and their functional diversity along a local topographic gradient in a Neotropical montane forest to test if fine root trait variation along the gradient is consistent with the predictions of the root economics spectrum on a shift from acquisitive to conservative traits with decreasing resource supply. We measured five fine root functional traits in 179 randomly selected tree individuals of 100 species and analysed the variation of single traits (using Bayesian phylogenetic multilevel models) and of functional trait diversity with small-scale topography. Fine roots exhibited more conservative traits (thicker diameters, lower specific root length and nitrogen concentration) at upper slope compared with lower slope positions, but the largest proportion of variation (40-80%) was explained by species identity and phylogeny. Fine root functional diversity decreased towards the upper slopes. Our results suggest that local topography and the related soil fertility and moisture gradients cause considerable small-scale variation in fine root traits and functional diversity along tropical mountain slopes, with conservative root traits and greater trait convergence being associated with less favourable soil conditions due to environmental filtering. We provide evidence of a high degree of phylogenetic conservation in fine root traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kerstin Pierick
- Plant Ecology and Ecosystems Research, University of Goettingen, Untere Karspüle 2, Göttingen, 37073, Germany
| | - Christoph Leuschner
- Plant Ecology and Ecosystems Research, University of Goettingen, Untere Karspüle 2, Göttingen, 37073, Germany
- Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use, University of Goettingen, Büsgenweg 1, Göttingen, 37077, Germany
| | - Jürgen Homeier
- Plant Ecology and Ecosystems Research, University of Goettingen, Untere Karspüle 2, Göttingen, 37073, Germany
- Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use, University of Goettingen, Büsgenweg 1, Göttingen, 37077, Germany
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49
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Thomas E, Jansen M, Chiriboga-Arroyo F, Wadt LHO, Corvera-Gomringer R, Atkinson RJ, Bonser SP, Velasquez-Ramirez MG, Ladd B. Habitat Quality Differentiation and Consequences for Ecosystem Service Provision of an Amazonian Hyperdominant Tree Species. Front Plant Sci 2021; 12:621064. [PMID: 33868327 PMCID: PMC8044455 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.621064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2020] [Accepted: 03/03/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Ecosystem services of Amazonian forests are disproportionally produced by a limited set of hyperdominant tree species. Yet the spatial variation in the delivery of ecosystem services by individual hyperdominant species across their distribution ranges and corresponding environmental gradients is poorly understood. Here, we use the concept of habitat quality to unravel the effect of environmental gradients on seed production and aboveground biomass (AGB) of the Brazil nut, one of Amazonia's largest and most long-lived hyperdominants. We find that a range of climate and soil gradients create trade-offs between density and fitness of Brazil nut trees. Density responses to environmental gradients were in line with predictions under the Janzen-Connell and Herms-Mattson hypotheses, whereas tree fitness responses were in line with resource requirements of trees over their life cycle. These trade-offs resulted in divergent responses in area-based seed production and AGB. While seed production and AGB of individual trees (i.e., fitness) responded similarly to most environmental gradients, they showed opposite tendencies to tree density for almost half of the gradients. However, for gradients creating opposite fitness-density responses, area-based seed production was invariable, while trends in area-based AGB tended to mirror the response of tree density. We conclude that while the relation between environmental gradients and tree density is generally indicative of the response of AGB accumulation in a given area of forest, this is not necessarily the case for fruit production.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Merel Jansen
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Ecosystem Management, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for International Forestry Research -CIFOR, Lima, Peru
| | - Fidel Chiriboga-Arroyo
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Ecosystem Management, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | | | | | | | - Stephen P. Bonser
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Science, Ecology & Evolution Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | | | - Brenton Ladd
- Escuela de Agroforestería, Universidad Científica del Sur, Lima, Peru
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50
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Feng G, Huang J, Xu Y, Li J, Zang R. Disentangling Environmental Effects on the Tree Species Abundance Distribution and Richness in a Subtropical Forest. Front Plant Sci 2021; 12:622043. [PMID: 33828571 PMCID: PMC8020568 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.622043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2020] [Accepted: 02/16/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
As a transitional vegetation type between evergreen broadleaved forest and deciduous broadleaved forest, evergreen-deciduous broadleaved mixed forest is composed of diverse plant species. This distinctive forest is generally distributed in mountainous areas with complex landforms and heterogeneous microenvironments. However, little is known about the roles of environmental conditions in driving the species diversity patterns of this forest. Here, based on a 15-ha plot in central China, we aimed to understand how and to what extent topographical characteristics and soil nutrients regulate the number and relative abundance of tree species in this forest. We measured environmental factors (terrain convexity, slope, soil total nitrogen, and phosphorus concentrations) and species diversity (species abundance distribution and species richness) in 20 m × 20 m subplots. Species abundance distribution was characterized by skewness, Berger-Parker index, and the proportion of singletons. The generalized additive model was used to examine the variations in diversity patterns caused by environmental factors. The structural equation model was used to assess whether and how topographical characteristics regulate species diversity via soil nutrients. We found that soil nutrients had significant negative effects on species richness and positive effects on all metrics of species abundance distribution. Convexity had significant positive effects on species richness and negative effects on all metrics of species abundance distribution, but these effects were mostly mediated by soil nutrients. Slope had significant negative effects on skewness and the Berger-Parker index, and these effects were almost independent of soil nutrients. Soil nutrients and topographical characteristics together accounted for 9.5-17.1% of variations in diversity patterns and, respectively, accounted for 8.9-13.9% and 3.3-10.7% of the variations. We concluded that soil nutrients were more important than topographical factors in regulating species diversity. Increased soil nutrient concentration led to decreased taxonomic diversity and increased species dominance and rarity. Convexity could be a better proxy for soil nutrients than slope. Moreover, these abiotic factors played limited roles in regulating diversity patterns, and it is possible that the observed patterns are also driven by some biotic and abiotic factors not considered here.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guang Feng
- Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Research Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China
- Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
- College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China
| | - Jihong Huang
- Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Research Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China
- Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
| | - Yue Xu
- Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Research Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China
- Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
| | - Junqing Li
- College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China
| | - Runguo Zang
- Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Environment of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Research Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China
- Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
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