Global dry forests: a prologue

Sunderland, T.C.H.; Apgaua, Deborah M. G.; Baldauf, Cristina; Blackie, R.; Colfer, C.J.P.; Cunningham, Anthony B.; Dexter, Kyle G.; Djoudi, Houria; Gautier, Denis; Gumbo, Davison; Ickowitz, Amy; Kassa, Habtemariam; Parthasarathy, Narayanaswamy; Pennington, R. Toby; Paumgarten, Fiona; Pulla, Sandeep; Sola, Phosiso; Tng, D.; Waeber, Patrick O.; Wilmé, Lucienne

doi:10.1505/146554815815834813

Cited by 55 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…Drivers of changes include land-use and landcover change, climate change, altered disturbance regimes, and rising atmospheric CO 2 levels [2]. Some parts of the world including tropical dry forests (TDFs) are especially threatened by direct and indirect human activities and lack sustained attention from research [3]. The lack of long-term monitoring networks capable of recording changes in vegetation conditions for some large regions of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa, creates an important geographic bias in knowledge [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon sink despite large deforestation in African tropical dry forests (miombo woodlands)

Pelletier

Paquette

Mbindo³

et al. 2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Direct and indirect human impacts may be causing widespread vegetation changes African tropical dry forests (TDFs). This study provides the first field-based large-scale assessment of vegetation changes for the miombo region, using nation-wide re-measured permanent plots for the Republic of Zambia. Using path analysis, a technique used to describe and quantify causal relationships, we investigated the drivers of change for the 2006-2014 period, under different land-use and productivity trajectories. We assessed the change in vegetation metrics representing stand structure and tree diversity, identified causal factors for species richness, basal area, and productivity and compared the biomass change of different species. We assessed carbon emissions and absorptions from forestlands and used error propagation and sensitivity analysis to quantify uncertainty. Our results suggest that Zambia's TDFs are resilient in the face of human activities, with significant biomass gains observed in the re-measured plots over the country. However, the proximity to roads, fragmentation by other land uses, and to a lesser extent fire occurrence were found to negatively affect productivity. We found that biomass gains were concentrated in several dominant species, mostly belonging to a single subfamily of non-nodulating legumes (Fabaceae, subfamily Caesalpinioideae) characteristic of the region. Our results indicate that Zambia's TDFs have been acting as an overall carbon sink, despite large carbon emissions from land-cover change. Decline in biomass for certain dominant species signal a risk of over-exploitation. We also identified important differences in plant diversity and functional traits between miombo woodlands and other types of African savanna vegetation, signaling differences in ecological processes at play. These results illustrate the ecological complexity and diversity of Africa's vegetation, and caution against overgeneralizations of ecological processes in the context of global change and carbon management. Future research should focus on understanding the observed species-specific biomass gain and identifying its potential drivers.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon sink despite large deforestation in African tropical dry forests (miombo woodlands)

Pelletier

Paquette

Mbindo³

et al. 2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…Overall, we wish to draw attention to the diverse flora adapted to dry forest along our water availability gradient across the four studied river tributaries. Neotropical dry forests of the Caatinga Domain already proved to be part of a distinct and threatened global biome (Dryflor et al., ; Särkinen et al., ; Sunderland et al., ) and are thus important for conservation. Given the compositional and functional uniqueness of dry forest subjected to floods, we propose that these dry forest subformations also deserve conservation and management attention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Soil fertility (PCA axes 1 and 2: see Figure 3) and soil texture were modelled as fixed effects and river tributary as a random effect. (Dryflor et al, 2016;Särkinen et al, 2011;Sunderland et al, 2015) and are thus important for conservation. Given the compositional and functional uniqueness of dry forest subjected to floods, we propose that these dry forest subformations also deserve conservation and management attention.…”

Section: Some Studies Have Reported Higher Values In Species Richnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flooding regime drives tree community structure in Neotropical dry forests

Araújo

Tng

Apgaua

et al. 2019

J Vegetation Science

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Questions Riverine and associated vegetation communities are periodically affected by floods. However, there have been few quantitative studies on the structural responses of Neotropical tree communities in semi‐arid regions to this perturbance. Here, we ask whether flooding regimes and soil attributes affect tree species diversity, composition, community structure, and soil attributes in Neotropical dry forests. Locations Southeast Brazil. Methods We sampled 120 forest plots of 400 m² totaling 4.8 ha across four tributaries of the São Francisco River with plots situated in areas representing three flooding regimes: (a) annually flooded; (b) occasionally flooded; and (c) never subjected to flooding. Using linear mixed‐effects models, we modelled how flooding regime and soil properties (fertility and texture) affect vegetation diversity (species richness), species composition and structural attributes (abundance of individuals, above‐ground biomass [AGB], and a community‐weighted trait average of multistemness [CWMms]) of these forest plots. Results Species richness in the annually flooded forests was significantly lower than in occasionally flooded or never flooded forests, in agreement with our models, which showed that flooding regime was a significant predictor for this variable. Flooding regime was a significant predictor of CWMms, with plots in annually flooded forest sites having the highest CWMms values. Soil chemical attributes were a significant predictor of AGB across all plots but not between flooding regime categories. Conclusions In Neotropical dry forests, environmental filters established by flooding can lead to differences among distinct biomes in vegetation structure, diversity patterns as well as system productivity. Conservation strategies for dry forests should therefore take these factors into consideration. Our study also highlights annually flooded dry forest as a significant component of the regional diversity of dry forests deserving of management attention.

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“…Outro conceito, mais simplificado, define esses ambientes apenas como áreas que ocorrem em regiões tropicais caracterizadas pela sazonalidade pronunciada na distribuição de chuvas, resultando em prolongados períodos de seca severa (Mooney et al, 1995). Assim, a complexidade de estabelecer uma definição padronizada e consensual do que constitui uma floresta seca, considerando inclusive aspectos biogeográficos e fitofisionômicos, limita a análise desses ecossistemas sob uma perspectiva global (Blackie et al, 2014;Sunderland et al, 2015).…”

Section: Apresentaçãounclassified

“…Embora a Caatinga seja uma das mais extensas formações de florestas secas do mundo (Miles et al, 2006), ela é frequentemente classificada como vegetação arbustiva e não como como floresta seca, o que pode excluir o bioma de pesquisas e relatórios importantes, como os que avaliam o desmatamento, por exemplo Sunderland et al, 2015). E como qualquer outro bioma, a Caatinga apresenta seus ambientes naturais vulneráveis à degradação antrópica (Leal et al, 2005).…”

Section: O Bioma Caatingaunclassified

Mosquitos da Caatinga: biodiversidade, aspectos ecológicos e importância epidemiológica da fauna Culicidae do semiárido brasileiro

Marteis¹

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Global dry forests: a prologue

Cited by 55 publications

References 84 publications

Carbon sink despite large deforestation in African tropical dry forests (miombo woodlands)

Carbon sink despite large deforestation in African tropical dry forests (miombo woodlands)

Flooding regime drives tree community structure in Neotropical dry forests

Mosquitos da Caatinga: biodiversidade, aspectos ecológicos e importância epidemiológica da fauna Culicidae do semiárido brasileiro

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