Effects of fire disturbance on species and functional compositions vary with tree sizes in a tropical dry forest

PeerJ

Jie Yang¹  Luxiang Lin¹  Zhenhua Sun¹  Sarayudh Bunyavejchewin²  Chia-Hao Chang-Yang³  Ekaphan Kraichak⁴  Kanokporn Kaewsong⁵  I-Fang Sun⁵  Caicai Zhang⁶  Wenfei Li⁷ 

[1] CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan, China;CTFS-ForestGEO, Smithsonian Institution, Bangkok, Thailand;Department of Biological Sciences, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan;Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand;Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, College of Environmental Studies, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan;Institute of Eastern-Himalaya Biodiversity Research, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, China;School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, China;

关键词: Surface fire;    Temporal turnover;    Functional composition;    Stochastic process;    Pairwise dissimilarity;    Environmental filtering;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.13270

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background Disturbances are crucial in determining forest biodiversity, dynamics, and ecosystem functions. Surface fire is a significant disturbance in tropical forests, but research on the effect of surface fire on structuring species and functional composition in a community through time remains scarce. Using a 20-year dataset of tree demography in a seasonal evergreen tropical forest in Thailand, we specifically addressed two essential questions: (1) What is the pattern of temporal turnover in species and functional composition in a community with frequent fire disturbance? (2) How did the temporal turnover vary with tree size? Methods We analyzed species compositional and functional temporal turnovers in four different tree size classes among five tree censuses. We quantified species turnover by calculating Bray-Curtis dissimilarity, and investigated its underlying mechanisms by comparing pairwise dissimilarity of functional traits with simulations from null models. If fire disturbances contribute more to a stochastic process, the functional composition would display a random pattern. However, if they contribute more towards a deterministic process, the functional composition should reveal a non-random pattern. Results Over 20 years (1994–2014), we observed changes in species composition, whereas functional composition remained relatively stable. The temporal turnover patterns of species and functional compositions varied with tree sizes. In particular, temporal functional turnover shifted very little for large trees, suggesting that changes in species composition of larger trees are contributed by species with similar functional traits through time. The temporal functional composition turnovers of smaller trees (DBH ≤ 5 cm) were mostly at random. We detected a higher functional turnover than expected by null models in some quadrats throughout the 50-ha study plot, and their observed turnover varied with diameter classes. Conclusions Species compositional changes were caused by changes in the abundance of species with similar functional traits through time. Temporal functional turnover in small trees was random in most quadrats, suggesting that the recruits came from the equal proportions of surviving trees and new individuals of fast-growing species, which increased rapidly after fires. On the other hand, functional composition in big trees was more likely determined by surviving trees which maintained higher functional similarities than small trees through time. Fire disturbance is important for ecosystem functions, as changing forest fire frequency may alter forest turnover, particularly in functional composition in the new recruits of this forest.

【 授权许可】

Unknown