Site‐specific impacts of a major hurricane on alpha and beta diversity in tropical forest seedling communities

Worthy, Samantha J.; Rubio, Vanessa E.; Staiger, Kirstin; Ngouajio, Boris; Yang, Jie; Swenson, Nathan G.

doi:10.1002/ecs2.3651

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 78 publications

(190 reference statements)

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“…That is, richness differences were particularly high between environmentally heterogeneous localities within elevations. Environmental heterogeneity has been described as very important for species richness across many taxa and at different spatial scales (Stein et al 2014, Worthy et al 2021). Additionally, topography has been reported as a prominent driver of the high local diversity of trees in the study area (Homeier et al 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, Pinto‐Ledezma et al (2018) showed that high turnover of plant species occurred mainly in stable climates with higher species richness, while richness differences contributed to beta‐diversity of plant communities in less diverse biomes with high environmental variability. So far, most studies investigated the role of environmental filtering to explain regional patterns of beta‐diversity (Condit et al 2002, Swenson et al 2011, Worthy et al 2021). However, cross‐scale comparisons of beta‐diversity are needed to disentangle the effects of environmental factors and biotic interactions on local and regional diversity in plant communities (Kraft et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studying seedlings in tropical forests is, however, a challenging task, because of the lack of identification tools, high morphological diversity and high seedling mortality (Browne et al 2021). Given these difficulties, only few studies have sought to disentangle the effects of environmental factors on beta‐diversity in tropical seedling communities (Murphy et al 2016, Worthy et al 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biotic pressures and environmental heterogeneity shape beta‐diversity of seedling communities in tropical montane forests

et al. 2023

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Many theories have been proposed to explain the high diversity of plants in the tropics. However, we lack an understanding of the processes that drive plant diversity and community assembly at different spatial scales. Here, we applied beta-diversity partitioning to test how biotic and abiotic factors are associated with seedling beta-diversity in a tropical montane forest in southern Ecuador. We recorded seedling communities on 81 subplots in nine plots located at three elevations along a 2000 m elevational gradient. We measured biotic pressures (i.e. herbivory and fungal pathogen attacks) and environmental conditions (i.e. soil moisture and canopy closure) in all subplots and related them to species turnover and richness differences in seedling communities within and between elevations. We found that species turnover increased with differences in biotic dissimilarity within elevations, while differences in species richness within elevations increased with increasing environmental dissimilarity. Between elevations, species turnover increased with increasing environmental dissimilarity. Our findings show that species turnover and changes in species richness are related differently to abiotic and biotic factors, and that the importance of these factors for shaping seedling diversity is scale-dependent. Our study contributes to better understand the processes driving seedling beta-diversity and the assembly of plant communities in highly diverse tropical montane forests.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biotic pressures and environmental heterogeneity shape beta‐diversity of seedling communities in tropical montane forests

et al. 2023

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“…The effects of tropical cyclones as environmental drivers for species assemblages in various ecosystems are well established (Lin et al., 2020; Morrison & Spiller, 2008). Depending on the ecological context, tropical cyclones can have homogenizing or non‐homogenizing effects on community composition (Worthy et al., 2021). Homogenizing effects can arise due to selective, deterministic mortality/survival (McCoid, 1996), a reduction in environmental heterogeneity (Comita et al., 2010), and synchronized succession trajectories following the disturbance event (Xi et al., 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beta‐diversity within coral atolls: Terrestrial species turnover increases with cyclone frequencies

Steibl,

Russell

2023

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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AimAtolls are a widely distributed, common type of tropical ecosystem, each consisting of an annular coral reef and up to several hundred individual islets sitting on the reef platform. The small land areas and low elevation render the terrestrial communities susceptible to local extinctions from overwash and inundation due to tropical cyclones. Such recurring catastrophic disturbances should be expected to drive strong priority effects and historical contingency in species assembly, thus also promoting species turnover within atolls. This stands contradictory to the received wisdom of atolls consisting of numerous uniform, replicated island systems. We tested the hypothesis that the individual islets within an atoll exhibit compositional turnover and that this species turnover within atolls is related to cyclone frequency.LocationAtolls worldwide.Time PeriodPresent.Taxa StudiedVascular plants, reptiles, birds.MethodsWe compiled a global dataset at the level of islets for species presence/absence within atolls. We obtained long‐term (80 year) tropical cyclone frequency data for each atoll from the NOAA hurricane database and used Bayesian regression to estimate the effects of tropical cyclone frequency on species turnover within atolls.ResultsWe consistently measured high within‐atoll species turnover (i.e., between the individual islets within an atoll) on atolls worldwide. The degree of within‐atoll species turnover increases with increasing tropical cyclone frequency. Atolls that are more frequently hit by tropical cyclones show higher species turnover between their islets than those that occur outside the tropical cyclone belt.Main ConclusionsTropical cyclones are a significant driver of the community assemblages on atolls. These catastrophic disturbances promote a heterogenous atoll landscape, which challenges perceptions that the islets within an atoll are identical replicates of the entire atoll terrestrial community. Biodiversity surveys undertaken at the islet‐level (alpha‐diversity) might therefore not be representative of the entire atoll metacommunity (gamma) diversity.

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Site‐specific impacts of a major hurricane on alpha and beta diversity in tropical forest seedling communities

Abstract: Site-specific impacts of a major hurricane on alpha and beta diversity in tropical forest seedling communities.

Cited by 2 publications

References 78 publications

Biotic pressures and environmental heterogeneity shape beta‐diversity of seedling communities in tropical montane forests

Biotic pressures and environmental heterogeneity shape beta‐diversity of seedling communities in tropical montane forests

Beta‐diversity within coral atolls: Terrestrial species turnover increases with cyclone frequencies

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