scholarly journals Key Roles of Dipterocarpaceae, Bark Type Diversity and Tree Size in Lowland Rainforests of Northeast Borneo—Using Functional Traits of Lichens to Distinguish Plots of Old Growth and Regenerating Logged Forests

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 541
Author(s):  
Holger Thüs ◽  
Pat Wolseley ◽  
Dan Carpenter ◽  
Paul Eggleton ◽  
Glen Reynolds ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Functional Groups ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Rapid Assessment ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Selective Logging ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Lichen Community ◽  
Large Trees ◽  
Using Data

Many lowland rainforests in Southeast Asia are severely altered by selective logging and there is a need for rapid assessment methods to identify characteristic communities of old growth forests and to monitor restoration success in regenerating forests. We have studied the effect of logging on the diversity and composition of lichen communities on trunks of trees in lowland rainforests of northeast Borneo dominated by Dipterocarpaceae. Using data from field observations and vouchers collected from plots in disturbed and undisturbed forests, we compared a taxonomy-based and a taxon-free method. Vouchers were identified to genus or genus group and assigned to functional groups based on sets of functional traits. Both datasets allowed the detection of significant differences in lichen communities between disturbed and undisturbed forest plots. Bark type diversity and the proportion of large trees, particularly those belonging to the family Dipterocarpaceae, were the main drivers of lichen community structure. Our results confirm the usefulness of a functional groups approach for the rapid assessment of tropical lowland rainforests in Southeast Asia. A high proportion of Dipterocarpaceae trees is revealed as an essential element for the restoration of near natural lichen communities in lowland rainforests of Southeast Asia.

Effects of two silvicultural regimes with large tree retention on epiphytic macrolichen communities in Adirondack northern hardwoods, New York, USA

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (10) ◽  
pp. 1854-1866 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather T. Root ◽  
Gregory G. McGee ◽  
Ralph D. Nyland
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Epiphytic Lichen ◽  
Tree Diameter ◽  
Diameter At Breast Height ◽  
Breast Height ◽  
Lichen Community ◽  
Selection Systems ◽  
Large Trees

We sampled epiphytic lichen communities in nine Adirondack northern hardwood stands: three old growth, three reserve shelterwood, and three single-tree selection systems. Our objectives were to assess the effects of treatment, tree diameter at breast height, and their interaction on lichen communities and to determine whether lichen traits were associated with particular habitats. Lichen community composition was strongly related to tree diameter at breast height and differed between old growth and reserve shelterwoods. Lichen community composition was also related to an interaction between tree size and stand type. Lobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm. was associated with large trees in old growth, whereas Evernia mesomorpha Nyl., Parmelia sulcata Taylor, and Physcia millegrana Degel. characterized those in shelterwood stands. Nitrophilous lichens were most common on small trees and in reserve shelterwoods, whereas small trees in selection systems and old growth supported lichens that were found to be most associated with larger trees overall. Selection systems apparently maintained lichen communities indistinguishable from those in old growth or reserve shelterwood. Because large trees hosted unique epiphyte assemblages particularly rich in fruticose and cyanolichen species, we expect that management retaining few or no large trees will alter epiphytic lichen communities.

Effects of beech bark disease on the growth of American beech (Fagusgrandifolia)

1993 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 1566-1575 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Gavin ◽  
David R. Peart
Keyword(s):  
Radial Growth ◽  
Selective Logging ◽  
Northern Hardwoods ◽  
Beech Bark Disease ◽  
Internal Defect ◽  
American Beech ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Growth Ratio ◽  
Second Growth ◽  
Large Trees

We studied radial growth reduction in American beech (Fagusgrandifolia Ehrh.) in relation to the level of defect induced by beech bark disease, in second-growth and old-growth northern hardwoods stands in New Hampshire. In the second-growth stand at Moose Mountain (n = 243 trees), 1989–1990 radial growth declined significantly with increasing severity of external symptoms. The severity of external symptoms increased significantly with DBH. To examine temporal trends, internal defect induced by the disease was quantified as the percentage of growth sheath cankered in each year, by cross-sectioning a subsample of 40 trees. Internal defect first appeared in 1950, increased through 1969, then declined until a major pulse of infection in the period 1983–1987. Sectioned trees were divided into infection classes based on a cumulative measure of internal defect. Growth of severely infected trees first fell below that of uninfected trees in 1965, and was consistently lower after 1972. The growth ratio of severely infected to uninfected trees generally declined from 1960 to 1990; by 1990, growth of severely infected trees was reduced by more than 40% relative to healthy trees. This decline in the growth ratio corresponded well to the increase in cumulative internal defect in the stand, suggesting that disease stress had cumulative effects on tree vigor. The relation between beech bark disease and growth was also examined on an individual-tree basis; recent growth decline was significantly greater for trees with higher levels of internal defect. Internal defect was a better predictor of growth trends than was external defect. External defect was only moderately correlated with internal defect (r2 = 0.503). In the old-growth stand at Bartlett, N.H. (n = 40 trees) infection was quantified from external symptoms only. As in the second-growth stand, the growth of severely infected trees in the old-growth stand fell significantly below that of uninfected trees. However, significant differences in growth between uninfected and severely infected trees occurred earlier in the old-growth stand, first appearing in 1949. Delayed growth reductions in the second-growth stand may be associated with changes in shade and moisture affecting the beech scale, changes in tree physiological stress after selective logging, or changes in the density of large trees. Beech may survive long periods of infection by beech bark disease. However, our results demonstrate clearly that beech bark disease has reduced the growth of American beech in both second-growth and old-growth northern hardwoods stands for several decades.

Identification of Freshwater Zooplankton Functional Groups Based on the Functional Traits of Species

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (10) ◽  
pp. 1849-1856
Author(s):  
D. E. Gavrilko ◽  
G. V. Shurganova ◽  
I. A. Kudrin ◽  
B. N. Yakimov
Keyword(s):  
Functional Groups ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Freshwater Zooplankton

Natural selection and adaptation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Lewens
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Skin Pigmentation ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Modern Biology ◽  
Biology Textbook ◽  
Selection For ◽  
The Relationship

Students of the natural world have long remarked on the fact that animals and plants are well suited to the demands of their environments. ‘Adaptation’, as it is used in modern biology, can name both the process by which organisms acquire this functional match, and the products of that process. Eyes, wings, beaks, camouflaging skin pigmentation and so forth, are all ‘adaptations’ in this second sense. Modern biological orthodoxy follows Darwin in giving a central role to natural selection in explaining the production of adaptations such as these. This much is uncontroversial. But a number of more contentious conceptual questions are raised when we look in more detail at the relationship between natural selection and adaptation. One of these questions concerns how we should define adaptation. It is tempting to characterize adaptations as functional traits – eyes are for seeing, large beaks are for cracking tough seed-casings. This in turn has led many commentators in biology and philosophy to define adaptations as those traits which have been shaped by natural selection for their respective tasks. Others – especially biologists – have complained that such a definition trivializes Darwin’s claim that natural selection explains adaptation. This claim was meant to be an important discovery, not a definitional consequence of the meaning of ‘adaptation’. These worries naturally lead on to the issues of how natural selection itself is to be understood, how it is meant to explain adaptation, and how it should be distinguished from other important evolutionary processes. These topics have a historical dimension: is Darwin’s understanding of natural selection, and its relationship to adaptation, the same as that of today’s evolutionary biology? Textbook presentations often say yes, and this is surely legitimate if we make the comparison in broad terms. But differences emerge when we look in more detail. Darwin, for example, seems to make the ‘struggle for existence’ an essential element of natural selection. It is not clear whether this is the case in modern presentations. And Darwin’s presentation is largely neutral on the inheritance mechanism that accounts for parent/offspring resemblance, while modern presentations sometimes insist that natural selection always implies a genetic underpinning to inheritance.

Changes in liana community structure and functional traits along a chronosequence of selective logging in a moist semi-deciduous forest in Ghana

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-84
Author(s):  
Patrick Addo-Fordjour ◽  
Bismark Ofosu-Bamfo ◽  
Francis Kwofie ◽  
Nukunu Akyea-Bobi ◽  
Fidaus A. Rahman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Selective Logging

scholarly journals Antelope Bitterbrush and Scouler's Willow Response to a Shelterwood Harvest and Prescribed Burn in Western Montana

1999 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 137-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dayna M. Ayers ◽  
Donald J. Bedunah ◽  
Michael G. Harrington
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Consumption ◽  
Pinus Ponderosa ◽  
Ponderosa Pine ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Selective Logging ◽  
Western Montana ◽  
Fire Damage ◽  
Prescribed Burn ◽  
Large Trees ◽  
Shelterwood Cut

Abstract In many western Montana ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) stands, fire suppression and past selective logging of large trees have resulted in conditions favoring succession to dense stands of shade-tolerant, but insect- and disease-prone Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). Stand thinning and understory prescribed burning have been proposed as surrogates for pre-Euro-American settlement ecological processes and as potential treatments to improve declining forest condition and reduce the probability of severe wildfire. To test the effectiveness of these silvicultural techniques on overstory and understory conditions, research is ongoing in the Lick Creek Demonstration Site in the Bitterroot National Forest, Montana. Our research examined the response (mortality and vigor) of the dominant browse species, antelope bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata) and Scouler's willow (Salix scouleriana), to a ponderosa pine stand restoration project utilizing four treatments: (1) a shelterwood cut that removed 53% of the tree basal area; (2) a shelterwood cut with a low fuel consumption burn; (3) a shelterwood cut with a high fuel consumption burn; and (4) a control. Prior to the application of treatments, 1,856 bitterbrush and 871 willow were located, and their survival and vigor subsequently monitored for 2 yr posttreatment. The cut and burn treatments resulted in the greatest reduction in antelope bitterbrush and Scouler's willow density averaging 66% and 24% of pretreatment density, respectively. The shelterwood cut reduced bitterbrush and Scouler's willow density by 35% and 14%, respectively. On treatments receiving a shelterwood cut (all treatments but the control), but where antelope bitterbrush and Scouler's willow did not have fire damage, mortality was 45% for bitterbrush and 20% for willow, respectively. For bitterbrush and Scouler's willow plants that received fire damage, mortality was 72% for bitterbrush and 19% for willow. Although the burn and shelterwood harvest treatments resulted in reduced density of antelope bitterbrush and Scouler's willow 2 yr posttreatment, these treatments increased vigor of both species and created mineral seedbeds that may be necessary for establishment of seedlings. West. J. Appl. For. 14(3):137-143.

Size dependent associations between tree diameter growth rates and functional traits in an Asian tropical seasonal rainforest

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 231
Author(s):  
Yu-Mei Yan ◽  
Ze-Xin Fan ◽  
Pei-Li Fu ◽  
Hui Chen ◽  
Lu-Xiang Lin
Keyword(s):  
Functional Traits ◽  
Tree Growth ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Small Diameter ◽  
Diameter Growth ◽  
Ontogenetic Shifts ◽  
Size Classes ◽  
Size Dependent ◽  
Large Trees ◽  
Leaf Economic Spectrum

Many studies focus on the relationships between plant functional traits and tree growth performances. However, little is known about the ontogenetic shifts of the relationships between functional traits and tree growth. This study examined associations between stem and leaf functional traits and growth rates and their ontogenetic shifts across 20 tropical tree species in a tropical seasonal rainforest in Xishuangbanna, south-west China. For each species, physiological active branches of individual trees belonged to three size classes (i.e. small, diameter at breast height (DBH) 5–10 cm; middle, DBH 10–20 cm; big, DBH >20 cm) were sampled respectively. We measured 18 morphological and structural traits, which characterised plant hydraulic properties or leaf economic spectrum. Associations between diameter growth rates and functional traits were analysed across three size classes. Our results revealed that diameter growth rates of big-sized trees were mainly related to traits related to plant hydraulic efficiency (i.e. theoretical hydraulic conductivity (Ktheo) and leaf vein density (Dvein)), which suggests that the growth of large trees is limited mainly by their xylem water transport capacity. For middle-sized trees, growth rates were significantly related to traits representing leaf economic spectrum (i.e. specific leaf area (SLA), individual leaf mass (ILM), palisade thickness (PT) and spongy thickness (SP)). Diameter growth rates of small-sized trees were not correlated with hydraulic or leaf economic traits. Thus, the associations between tree growth rates and functional traits are size dependent. Our results suggest ontogenetic shift of functional traits which could potential contribute to different growth response to climate change.

scholarly journals Plant functional traits are correlated with species persistence in the herb layer of old-growth beech forests

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giandiego Campetella ◽  
Stefano Chelli ◽  
Enrico Simonetti ◽  
Claudia Damiani ◽  
Sandor Bartha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Traits ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Seed Mass ◽  
Plant Functional Traits ◽  
Summer Drought ◽  
Fine Scale ◽  
Herb Layer ◽  
Beech Forests ◽  
Old Growth ◽  
Species Persistence

Abstract This paper explores which traits are correlated with fine-scale (0.25 m2) species persistence patterns in the herb layer of old-growth forests. Four old-growth beech forests representing different climatic contexts (presence or absence of summer drought period) were selected along a north–south gradient in Italy. Eight surveys were conducted in each of the sites during the period spanning 1999–2011. We found that fine-scale species persistence was correlated with different sets of plant functional traits, depending on local ecological context. Seed mass was found to be as important for the fine-scale species persistence in the northern sites, while clonal and bud-bank traits were markedly correlated with the southern sites characterised by summer drought. Leaf traits appeared to correlate with species persistence in the drier and wetter sites. However, we found that different attributes, i.e. helomorphic vs scleromorphic leaves, were correlated to species persistence in the northernmost and southernmost sites, respectively. These differences appear to be dependent on local trait adaptation rather than plant phylogenetic history. Our findings suggest that the persistent species in the old-growth forests might adopt an acquisitive resource-use strategy (i.e. helomorphic leaves with high SLA) with higher seed mass in sites without summer drought, while under water-stressed conditions persistent species have a conservative resource-use strategy (i.e. scleromorphic leaves with low SLA) with an increased importance of clonal and resprouting ability.

Large trees as key elements of carbon storage and dynamics after selective logging in the Eastern Amazon

2014 ◽  
Vol 318 ◽  
pp. 103-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Plinio Sist ◽  
Lucas Mazzei ◽  
Lilian Blanc ◽  
Ervan Rutishauser
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Selective Logging ◽  
Large Trees
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