The Frequency of Cyclonic Wind Storms Shapes Tropical Forest Dynamism and Functional Trait Dispersion

Forests

Richard Condit¹  María Uriarte²  StuartJ. Davies³  Jill Thompson⁴  J.Aaron Hogan⁵  Stephen Hubbell⁶  IFang Sun⁷  NathanG. Swenson⁸  JessK. Zimmerman⁹  Sheng-Hsin Su^1,10  Perry Ong^1,10  DanielJ. Johnson^1,11  Sandra Yap^1,12  CarlaC. Monoy^1,12  Chia-Hao Chang-Yang^1,13  Lillian Rodriguez^1,14 

[1] Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA;Hydrology, Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 0QB, UK;Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun 666303, Yunnan, China;;Centre for Ecology &Department of Biological Sciences, International Center for Tropical Botany, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33175, USA;Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA;Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA;;Department of Ecology, Evolution &Department of Environmental Science, University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras, San Juan, PR 00936, USA;Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien 97401, Taiwan;Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL 60605, USA;Institute of Biology, College of Sciences, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines;Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA;Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, Taipei 10066, Taiwan;

关键词: cyclonic wind disturbance;    hurricanes;    typhoons;    forest resistance;    forest demography;    tree mortality;    tree growth;    functional traits;    Luquillo;    Fushan;    Palanan;    Barro Colorado Island;   

DOI  :  10.3390/f9070404

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

As cyclonic wind storms (hurricanes and typhoons) increase in frequency and intensity with climate change, it is important to understand their effects on the populations and communities of tropical trees they impact. Using tree demographic data from four large, tropical forest dynamics plots that differ in cyclonic storm frequency, we compare tree population and community dynamics. Additionally, we assess the effect of cyclonic storms on three functional traits, specific leaf area, wood density, and tree height of the dynamic tree assemblages. Mortality, growth and recruitment rates and the intrinsic rates of population growth of species differed across the plots, and were most dynamic, especially for stems 1–2 cm in diameter, at the plot which had an intermediate level of cyclonic storm frequency. Functional assemblages of species had the greatest degree of temporal variation in relation to disturbance, as measured by the change in functional divergence for the two plots with more intermediate cyclonic storm recurrence. Therefore, cyclonic storms affecting these plots generally have a greater effect on forest composition and dynamism than comparable cyclonic storms do on the plot which experiences cyclonic storms more frequently. Thus, we provide some evidence that community-wide demographic resistance to cyclonic storms is generally lower at an intermediate frequency of storms. While cyclonic storm strength and timing are important determinants of the within forest variation in tree dynamics and functional trait assemblages, we also show that cyclonic storm timing and frequency shapes tropical forest dynamics and functional composition across forests. We conclude that, over a given time interval, sites with intermediate levels of damaging cyclonic wind disturbance express a greater potential for life-history variation in the forest community, when compared to sites with less or more frequent disturbance.

【 授权许可】

Unknown