Effects of Climate, Soil, Topography and Disturbance on Liana Prevalence

ABSTRACT Lianas (woody vines and climbing monocots) are increasing in abundance in many tropical forests with uncertain consequences for forest functioning and recovery following disturbances. At a global scale, these increases are likely driven by disturbances and climate change. Yet, our understan...

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Vydané v:	Ecology and evolution Ročník 14; číslo 10; s. e70374 - n/a
Hlavní autori:	Mackintosh, Emma J., Waite, Catherine E., Putz, Francis E., Pfeifer, Marion, Chen, Chengrong, Lan, Zhongming, Brennan, Sophie, Marshall, Andrew R.
Médium:	Journal Article
Jazyk:	English
Vydavateľské údaje:	England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.10.2024 John Wiley and Sons Inc Wiley
Predmet:	Annual precipitation Australian wet tropics Canopies Carbon sequestration Climate change Climate effects Climate models Climatic conditions Climbing Community Ecology Cyclones Density Disturbances Ecosystem Ecology Elevation environmental drivers Environmental effects Forests Global Change Ecology Landscape Ecology Lianas Precipitation rainforest Rainforests rattans Recovery Regions Stems Topography Trees Tropical environment Tropical environments Tropical forests Vegetation Vines Latin America Australian wet tropics vines rattans rainforest environmental drivers recovery
ISSN:	2045-7758, 2045-7758
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Shrnutí:	ABSTRACT Lianas (woody vines and climbing monocots) are increasing in abundance in many tropical forests with uncertain consequences for forest functioning and recovery following disturbances. At a global scale, these increases are likely driven by disturbances and climate change. Yet, our understanding of the environmental variables that drive liana prevalence at regional scales is incomplete and geographically biased towards Latin America. To address this gap, we present a comprehensive study evaluating the combined effects of climate, soil, disturbance and topography on liana prevalence in the Australian Wet Tropics. We established 31 20 × 20 m vegetation plots along an elevation gradient in low disturbance (canopy closure ≥ 75%) and high disturbance (canopy closure ≤ 25%) forest stands. In these plots, all tree and liana (defined as all woody dicot vines and climbing monocots, i.e., rattans) stems ≥ 1 cm DBH were measured and environmental data were collected on climate, soil and topography. Generalised linear models were used with multi‐model averaging to quantify the relative effects of the environmental variables on measures of liana prevalence (liana–tree basal area ratio, woody vine basal area and stem density and rattan stem density). Liana prevalence decreased with elevation but increased with disturbance and mean annual precipitation. The increase in the liana–tree ratio with precipitation was more pronounced for highly disturbed sites. Like other tropical regions, disturbance is an important driver of liana prevalence in Australian rainforests and appears to interact with climate to increase liana–tree ratios. The observed increase in liana–tree ratio with precipitation contrasts findings from elsewhere but is confounded by correlated changes in elevation and temperature, which highlights the importance of regional studies. Our findings show that forests with high disturbance and climatic conditions favourable to lianas are where lianas most likely to outcompete trees and impede forest recovery. Lianas (woody vines and climbing monocots) are highly important in tropical forests; however, our understanding of the environmental variables that drive their proliferation at regional scales is incomplete and geographically biased. We address this gap through a study in the Australian Wet Tropics and find that disturbance and climate are important drivers of liana prevalence. This provides further support for the concern that global change may be contributing to increasing lianas relative to trees, with serious consequences for rates of tropical forest recovery and carbon sequestration.
Bibliografia:	Funding This work was supported by the University of the Sunshine Coast Research Training Scholarship, CAT11904; Australian Research Council, FT170100279. ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 14 content type line 23 Funding: This work was supported by the University of the Sunshine Coast Research Training Scholarship, CAT11904; Australian Research Council, FT170100279.
ISSN:	2045-7758 2045-7758
DOI:	10.1002/ece3.70374