Forest disturbance accelerates thermophilization of understory plant communities

Climate change is likely to shift plant communities towards species from warmer regions, a process termed ‘thermophilization’. In forests, canopy disturbances such as fire may hasten this process by increasing temperature and moisture stress in the understory, yet little is known about the mechanism...

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Veröffentlicht in:The Journal of ecology Jg. 103; H. 5; S. 1253 - 1263
Hauptverfasser: Stevens, Jens T, Safford, Hugh D, Harrison, Susan, Latimer, Andrew M, Gilliam, Frank
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: Oxford Blackwell Scientific Publ 01.09.2015
John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Schlagworte:
Biodiversity
biogeographic affinity
biogeography
California
Canopies
canopy
Climate change
Determinants of plant community diversity and structure
Disturbance
diversity
Ecology
fire
Flora
forest
Forest & brush fires
forest thinning
Forests
functional traits
Microclimate
Moisture stress
Plant communities
Plant diversity
temperature
thermophilization
Understory
understory vegetation
Vegetation
Water stress
Wildfires
California
United States > US
INE, USA, California
ISSN:0022-0477, 1365-2745
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Zusammenfassung:Climate change is likely to shift plant communities towards species from warmer regions, a process termed ‘thermophilization’. In forests, canopy disturbances such as fire may hasten this process by increasing temperature and moisture stress in the understory, yet little is known about the mechanisms that might drive such shifts, or the consequences of these processes for plant diversity. We sampled understory vegetation across a gradient of disturbance severity from a large‐scale natural experiment created by the factorial combination of forest thinning and wildfire in California. Using information on evolutionary history and functional traits, we tested the hypothesis that disturbance severity should increase community dominance by species with southern‐xeric biogeographic affinities. We also analysed how climatic productivity mediates the effect of disturbance severity, and quantified the functional trait response to disturbance, to investigate potential mechanisms behind thermophilization. The proportion of north‐temperate flora decreased, while the proportion of southern‐xeric flora increased, with greater disturbance severity and less canopy closure. Disturbance caused a greater reduction of north‐temperate flora in productive (wetter) forests, while functional trait analyses suggested that species colonizing after severe disturbance may be adapted to increased water stress. Forests with intermediate disturbance severity, where abundances of northern and southern species were most equitable, had the highest stand‐scale understory diversity. Synthesis. Canopy disturbance is likely to accelerate plant community shifts towards species from warmer regions, via its effects on understory microclimate at small scales. Understory diversity can be enhanced by intermediate disturbance regimes that promote the coexistence of species with different biogeographic affinities.
Bibliographie:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12426
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ISSN:0022-0477
1365-2745
DOI:10.1111/1365-2745.12426