Tree Mortality may Drive Landscape Formation: Comparative Study from Ten Temperate Forests

Šamonil, Pavel; Daněk, Pavel; Lutz, James A.; Anderson‐Teixeira, Kristina J.; Jaroš, Jakub; Phillips, Jonathan D.; Rousová, A.; Adam, Dušan; Larson, Andrew J.; Kašpar, Jakub; Janík, David; Gonzalez‐Akre, Erika; Egli, Markus

doi:10.1007/s10021-022-00755-8

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Forests may respond to climatic changes in a number of ways. Trees may increase resistance to mechanical stresses through thigmomorphogenesis ( 68 ), or trees may lose resistance following fire ( 69 ), or beetle kill and disease may change the entire resistance function by removing certain species ( 70 ). The mechanical model can incorporate the coevolution of climate and tree resistance by all of these responses as a shift of μ R t ( R t ) and σ R t 2 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hillslope roughness reveals forest sensitivity to extreme winds

Doane

Yanites

Edmonds

et al. 2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Windthrow, or the uprooting of trees by extreme wind gusts, is a natural forest disturbance that creates microhabitats, turns over soil, alters hydrology, and removes carbon from the above-ground carbon stock. Long recurrence intervals between extreme wind events, however, make direct observations of windthrow rare, challenging our understanding of this important disturbance process. To overcome this difficulty, we present an approach that uses the geomorphic record of hillslope topographic roughness as a proxy for the occurrence of windthrow. The approach produces a probability function of the number of annual windthrow events for a maximum wind speed, allowing us to explore how windthrow or tree strengths may change due to shifting wind climates. Slight changes to extreme wind speeds may drive comparatively large changes in windthrow production rates or force trees to respond and change the distribution. We also highlight that topographic roughness has the potential to serve as an important archive of extreme wind speeds.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hillslope roughness reveals forest sensitivity to extreme winds

Doane

Yanites

Edmonds

et al. 2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Tree demographic drivers across temperate rain forests, after accounting for site‐, species‐, and stem‐level attributes

Jo,

Bellingham,

Richardson

et al. 2024

Ecology

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Diverse drivers such as climate, soil fertility, neighborhood competition, and functional traits all contribute to variation in tree stem demographic rates. However, these demographic drivers operate at different scales, making it difficult to compare the relative importance of each driver on tree demography. Using c. 20,000 stem records from New Zealand's temperate rain forests, we analyzed the growth, recruitment, and mortality rates of 48 tree species and determined the relative importance of demographic drivers in a multilevel modeling approach. Tree species' maximum height emerged as the one most strongly associated with all demographic rates, with a positive association with growth rate and negative associations with recruitment and mortality rates. Climate, soil properties, neighborhood competition, stem size, and other functional traits also played significant roles in shaping demographic rates. Forest structure and functional composition were linked to climate and soil, with warm, dry climates and fertile soil associated with higher growth and recruitment rates. Neighborhood competition affected demographic rates depending on stem size, with smaller stems experiencing stronger negative effects, suggesting asymmetric competition where larger trees exert greater competitive effects on smaller trees. Our study emphasizes the importance of considering multiple drivers of demographic rates to better understand forest tree dynamics.

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