Deciduousness Influences the Understory Community in a Semideciduous Tropical Forest

Souza, Flaviana Maluf; Gandolfi, Sérgius; Rodrigues, Ricardo Ribeiro

doi:10.1111/btp.12137

Cited by 28 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Although the species used in our experiment are typical canopy trees in old‐growth remnants, which have a more shaded understory, their recruitment may be favored by higher light incidence in small gaps and “gaps of deciduousness,” that is canopy openings created by deciduous species in the dry season, as already demonstrated (Souza et al ). Such ecological considerations may provide valuable guidelines for enrichment plantings in semideciduous forests embedded in highly fragmented tropical landscapes, like those found in southeastern Brazil.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Establishment of tree seedlings in the understory of restoration plantations: natural regeneration and enrichment plantings

Bertacchi

Amazonas

Brancalion

et al. 2015

Restoration Ecology

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Little is known about the potential of restoration plantations to provide appropriate understory conditions to support the establishment of seeds arriving from neighboring native forests. In this article, we investigated how seedling establishment is affected in the understory of restoration sites of different ages and assessed some of the potential environmental factors controlling this ecological process. We first compared the density and richness of native tree seedlings among 10‐, 22‐, and 55‐year‐old restoration plantations within the Atlantic Forest region of southeastern Brazil. Then, we undertook a seed addition experiment in each study site, during the wet season, and compared seedling emergence, survival, and biomass on local versus old‐growth forest soil (transferred from a reference ecosystem), in order to test whether local substrate could hamper seedling establishment. As expected, the oldest restoration site had higher density and richness of spontaneously regenerating seedlings. However, seedling establishment was less successful both in the oldest restoration planting and using substrate transferred from a reference ecosystem, where emergence and survival were lower, but surviving seedlings grew better. We attribute these results to lower light availability for seedlings in the understory of the oldest site and speculate that higher incidence of pathogens on old‐growth forest soil may have increased seedling mortality. We conclude that the understory of young restoration plantations provides suitable microsite conditions at the early establishment phases for the spontaneous regeneration or enrichment planting of native trees.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Establishment of tree seedlings in the understory of restoration plantations: natural regeneration and enrichment plantings

Bertacchi

Amazonas

Brancalion

et al. 2015

Restoration Ecology

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“…There are a multitude of factors that may explain different responses of a particular species in the understory, which include either facilitative mechanisms (e.g., "nurse" effects of canopy species) or competition. Among the positive effects, the benefactor may, for example, provide more favorable sites for germination and seedling establishment under their canopies (Tirado & Pugnaire 2005), amelioration of harmful microenvironmental conditions (Wang et al 2008;Cavieres & Badano 2009), and a higher supply of nutrients (Souza et al 2013), water (Rigg et al 2002, and light (Tomita & Seiwa 2004;Souza et al 2014). Greater seed deposition rates by dispersers (Dias et al 2005;Duarte et al 2010) is also an important factor contributing to higher density or species richness under certain species, although this would not be considered true facilitation (Callaway 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Species-specific associations between overstory and understory tree species in a semideciduous tropical forest

Souza¹,

Gandolfi²,

Rodrigues³

2015

Acta Bot. Bras.

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We investigated the occurrence of associations between overstory and understory tree species in a semideciduous tropical forest. We identified and measured all trees of nine canopy species with diameter at breast height ≥4.8 cm in a 10.24 ha plot and recorded all individuals beneath their canopies ("understory individuals") within the same diameter class. The total density of understory individuals did not significantly differ under different overstory species. One overstory species (Ceiba speciosa) showed higher understory species richness compared with five other species. There was a strong positive association between three overstory species (Esenbeckia leiocarpa, Savia dictyocarpa, and C. speciosa) and the density of seven understory species (Balfourodendron riedelianum, Chrysophyllum gonocarpum, E. leiocarpa, Holocalyx balansae, Machaerium stipitatum, Rhaminidium elaeocarpum, and S. dictyocarpa). These results probably reflect the outcome of a complex set of interactions including facilitation and competition, and further studies are necessary to better understand the magnitude and type of the effects of individual overstory species on understory species. The occurrence of species-specific associations shown here reinforces the importance of non--random processes in structuring plant communities and suggest that the influence of overstory species on understory species in high-diversity forests may be more significant than previously thought.

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“…From these variables, we computed basal area, density and canopy cover following Mitchell [46]. Tall trees and big trunks are positively correlated to high levels of epiphyte diversity, because these features reflects the time of a tree susceptible to be colonized [47,48], and for providing microsites for seed-landing [49], whilst, canopy cover works as a proxy of sunlight entrance that affects understory and terrestrial assemblages [50].…”

Section: Sampling and Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Edge Influence on Diversity of Orchids in Andean Cloud Forests

Sánchez

Armenteras

Retana

2016

Forests

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Cloud forests harbor high levels of orchid diversity. However, due to the high fragmentation of these forests in the Andes, combined with the pressure for new agricultural land, orchid diversity is highly threatened. Despite this worrying scenario, few studies have assessed the effects of habitat loss specifically on orchid assemblages in the Andes. The aim of this study was to analyze the edge effect on orchids in cloud forest fragments of varying size. We measured forest structure, neighboring land cover and edge effect on orchid abundance, species richness and beta-diversity, by sampling assemblages along edge-to-interior transects in six different sized Andean (southwest Colombia) forest remnants. We recorded 11,127 stem-individuals of orchids in 141 species. Within the forest, edges sustained equal or more species than interior plots. Our results revealed neither patch metrics nor forest structure showed any significant association to orchid diversity at any scale. Nonetheless, from our observations in composition, the type of neighboring cover, particularly pastures, negatively influences interior species (richness and composition) in larger reserves. This might be due to the fact that some species found in interior plots tend to be confined, with sporadic appearances in regeneration forest and are very scarce or absent in pastures. Species richness differed significantly between matrix types. Our results suggest that (1) orchid diversity shows spatial variability in response to disturbances, but the response is independent from forest structure, patch size and patch geometry; (2) orchid communities are negatively affected by covers, and this pattern is reflected in reduced richness and high species turnover; (3) orchid richness edge effect across a pasture-interior gradient. Two forest management implications can be discerned from our results: (1) management strategies aiming to reduce edge effects may focus on improvement regeneration conditions around pasture lands; and (2) local scale management and conservation activities of natural forests in cloud forests will favor small reserves that harbor high levels of richness.

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Deciduousness Influences the Understory Community in a Semideciduous Tropical Forest

Cited by 28 publications

References 33 publications

Establishment of tree seedlings in the understory of restoration plantations: natural regeneration and enrichment plantings

Establishment of tree seedlings in the understory of restoration plantations: natural regeneration and enrichment plantings

Species-specific associations between overstory and understory tree species in a semideciduous tropical forest

Edge Influence on Diversity of Orchids in Andean Cloud Forests

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