Anthropogenic disturbance shapes phylogenetic and functional tree community structure in a subtropical forest

Feng, Gang; Svenning, Jens‐Christian; Mi, Xiangcheng; Qi, Jia; Rao, Mide; Ren, Haiyun; Bebber, Daniel P.; Ma, Keping

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2013.10.047

Cited by 47 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…In the present case, functional NRI was most correlated with the proportion of LDSR, an indicator of local-scale disturbance dynamics (Molino and Sabatier, 2001;Feng et al, 2014). In a smaller study area (8107 ha), Feng et al (2014) also found LDSR to be well linked with functional diversity in a subtropical forest landscape in southern China and concluded that this might reflect the important role of competition for light in determining forest structure. Across Chinese forests there was increasing functional clustering and thus decreasing variability in H max with increasing LDSR.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 52%

“…Nevertheless, it is important to note that other aspects of functional diversity may very well show other geographic patterns and ecological relationships (Wright et al, 2007;Swenson and Weiser, 2010). In the present case, functional NRI was most correlated with the proportion of LDSR, an indicator of local-scale disturbance dynamics (Molino and Sabatier, 2001;Feng et al, 2014). In a smaller study area (8107 ha), Feng et al (2014) also found LDSR to be well linked with functional diversity in a subtropical forest landscape in southern China and concluded that this might reflect the important role of competition for light in determining forest structure.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

“…While eastern Asia was less affected by the Pleistocene glaciations than Europe or North America, these nevertheless caused massive vegetation changes and retraction of forests (Yu et al, 2000;Liu et al, 2003Liu et al, , 2013. The much weaker and often inconsistent patterns that resulted when gymnosperms were included probably reflect the potentially strong effects of such phylogenetic outlier groups on phylogenetic community structure (Letcher et al, 2012;Feng et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both abundance weighted and presence-absence based NRI PHY and NRI FUN were computed (indicated by _ab and _pr subscripts). As phylogenetic outliers may strongly influence phylogenetic community structure (Letcher et al, 2012;Feng et al, 2014), NRI PHY was furthermore computed including both gymnosperms and angiosperms or only angiosperms (indicated by _gym and _ang subscripts).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Species were scored as light-demanding (n = 346 spp.) primarily based on their habitat descriptions (occurrence in open forest or in disturbed, anthropogenic habitats) in Flora of China (Feng et al, 2014). Finally, to account for the varying plot areas (Table A1), plot area was also included as an explanatory variable in the modeling.…”

Section: Environmental Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Relative roles of local disturbance, current climate and paleoclimate in determining phylogenetic and functional diversity in Chinese forests

Feng

Bøcher

et al. 2014

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. The main processes underlying the generation and maintenance of biodiversity include both local factors such as competition and abiotic filtering and regional forces such as paleoclimate, speciation and dispersal. While the effects of regional and local drivers on species diversity are increasingly studied, their relative importance for other aspects of diversity, notably phylogenetic and functional diversity is so far little studied. Here, we link data from large Chinese forest plots to data on current and Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) climate as well as local disturbance regimes to study their relative roles in determining woody plant phylogenetic and functional diversity in this important hotspot for woody plant diversity. Local disturbance was the best predictor of functional diversity as represented by maximum canopy height (H max ), probably reflecting the dominant role of competition for light in determining the forest H max structure. In contrast, the LGM-present anomaly in temperature was the factor with the strongest explanatory power for phylogenetic diversity, with modern climate also important. Hence, local contemporary and regional historical factors have highly contrasting importance for the geographic patterns of the functional (as represented by variation in maximum canopy height) and phylogenetic aspects of Chinese forest's woody plant diversity. Importantly, contemporary factors are of overriding importance for functional diversity, while paleoclimate has left a strong signature in the phylogenetic diversity patterns.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 52%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Environmental Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Relative roles of local disturbance, current climate and paleoclimate in determining phylogenetic and functional diversity in Chinese forests

Feng

Bøcher

et al. 2014

Biogeosciences

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Environment and past land use together predict functional diversity in a temperate forest

Krishnadas

Beckman

Zuluaga

et al. 2018

Ecological Applications

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Environment and human land use both shape forest composition. Abiotic conditions sift tree species from a regional pool via functional traits that influence species' suitability to the local environment. In addition, human land use can modify species distributions and change functional diversity of forests. However, it is unclear how environment and land use simultaneously shape functional diversity of tree communities. Land-use legacies are especially prominent in temperate forest landscapes that have been extensively modified by humans in the last few centuries. Across a 900-ha temperate deciduous forest in the northeastern United States, comprising a mosaic of different-aged stands due to past human land use, we used four key functional traits-maximum height, rooting depth, wood density, and seed mass-to examine how multiple environmental and land-use variables influenced species distributions and functional diversity. We sampled ~40,000 trees >8 cm DBH within 485 plots totaling 137 ha. Species within plots were more functionally similar than expected by chance when we estimated functional diversity using all traits together (multi-trait), and to a lesser degree, with each trait separately. Multi-trait functional diversity was most strongly correlated with distance from the perennial stream, elevation, slope, and forest age. Environmental and land-use predictors varied in their correlation with functional diversities of the four individual traits. Landscape-wide change in abundances of individual species also correlated with both environment and land-use variables, but magnitudes of trait-environment interactions were generally stronger than trait interactions with land use. These findings can be applied for restoration and assisted regeneration of human-modified temperate forests by using traits to predict which tree species would establish well in relation to land-use history, topography, and soil conditions.

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Responses of species abundance distribution patterns to spatial scaling in subtropical secondary forests

Deng

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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To quantify and assess the processes underlying community assembly and driving tree species abundance distributions(SADs) with spatial scale variation in two typical subtropical secondary forests in Dashanchong state‐owned forest farm, two 1‐ha permanent study plots (100‐m × 100‐m) were established. We selected four diversity indices including species richness, Shannon–Wiener, Simpson and Pielou, and relative importance values to quantify community assembly and biodiversity. Empirical cumulative distribution and species accumulation curves were utilized to describe the SADs of two forests communities trees. Three types of models, including statistic model (lognormal and logseries model), niche model (broken‐stick, niche preemption, and Zipf‐Mandelbrodt model), and neutral theory model, were estimated by the fitted SADs. Simulation effects were tested by Akaike's information criterion ( AIC ) and Kolmogorov–Smirnov test. Results found that the Fagaceae and Anacardiaceae families were their respective dominance family in the evergreen broad‐leaved and deciduous mixed communities. According to original data and random sampling predictions, the SADs were hump‐shaped for intermediate abundance classes, peaking between 8 and 32 in the evergreen broad‐leaved community, but this maximum increased with size of total sampled area size in the deciduous mixed community. All niche models could only explain SADs patterns at smaller spatial scales. However, both the neutral theory and purely statistical models were suitable for explaining the SADs for secondary forest communities when the sampling plot exceeded 40 m. The results showed the SADs indicated a clear directional trend toward convergence and similar predominating ecological processes in two typical subtropical secondary forests. The neutral process gradually replaced the niche process in importance and become the main mechanism for determining SADs of forest trees as the sampling scale expanded. Thus, we can preliminarily conclude that neutral processes had a major effect on biodiversity patterns in these two subtropical secondary forests but exclude possible contributions of other processes.

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Anthropogenic disturbance shapes phylogenetic and functional tree community structure in a subtropical forest

Cited by 47 publications

References 40 publications

Relative roles of local disturbance, current climate and paleoclimate in determining phylogenetic and functional diversity in Chinese forests

Relative roles of local disturbance, current climate and paleoclimate in determining phylogenetic and functional diversity in Chinese forests

Environment and past land use together predict functional diversity in a temperate forest

Responses of species abundance distribution patterns to spatial scaling in subtropical secondary forests

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