Variation in Stomatal Characteristics of &amp;lt;i&amp;gt;Bursera simaruba&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt; (L.) Sarg., a Dominant Tree Species of Tropical Hardwood Hammock Forest across a Habitat Gradient in the Florida Keys

Subedi, Suresh C.; Ross, Michael S.; Vidales, Rosario; Sah, Jay P.; Sternberg, L. O.

doi:10.4236/ajps.2018.910154

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…The effect of salt stress is even more pronounced where water availability is limited such as in the Florida Keys forests (Ogurcak , Subedi et al. ). Therefore, the ability of trees to survive under salinity exposure, drought, and hurricanes clearly contributes to environmental filtering in the Florida Keys.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Trees are more susceptible to occasional salt water brought by storm, tide, and wave activities in coastal environments, and salt deposition in soil may occur in hurricane-prone areas such as the Florida Keys. The effect of salt stress is even more pronounced where water availability is limited such as in the Florida Keys forests (Ogurcak 2016, Subedi et al 2018. Therefore, the ability of trees to survive under salinity exposure, drought, and hurricanes clearly contributes to environmental filtering in the Florida Keys.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evidence for trait‐based community assembly patterns in hardwood hammock forests

et al. 2019

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The hardwood forests of south Florida, commonly referred to as hammocks, persist as well‐drained patches of broadleaf forest, embedded in a matrix of brackish water swamp, freshwater marsh, or pineland. Little is known about the patterns of community assembly of these subtropical forest communities in the landscape mosaic of south Florida. We used a functional trait approach to understand the composition of these communities and their responses to environmental variation across four areas of south Florida: the pine rocklands and freshwater marshes in Everglades National Park, and the lower and upper Florida Keys, where the hammocks are surrounded by halophytic swamp communities. These sites represent an environmental gradient from less‐productive, more xeric sites in the lower Florida Keys, to more‐productive, wetter sites in the Everglades marshes. We examined the patterns of trait variation at three levels (individual, population, and community) to examine the underlying processes driving assembly in these hammock communities. To understand processes governing community composition in each site, we used methods that partition variance in six traits (maximum tree height, specific leaf area, wood specific gravity, leaf nitrogen, leaf phosphorus, and leaf stable carbon isotope ratios) into internal and external filtering components. Community‐weighted mean trait values for three traits (specific leaf area, height, and leaf phosphorus) increased significantly from dry, less‐productive coastal sites in the Florida Keys to the moist, more‐productive areas on the mainland, while wood specific gravity and leaf δ13C showed the opposite pattern. For one or more traits per site, standardized effect sizes differed significantly from null expectation. Processes such as competition for resources (e.g., water, nutrients, light) and species sorting across microhabitats (i.e., within site) operate to increase local functional trait variation within communities and among species across sites. External filtering on individuals for height and leaf phosphorus differed significantly from null expectations across sites, while external filtering on species was only observed for specific leaf area, maximum tree height, and leaf phosphorus. These results are consistent with strong environmental filtering across the region, among local communities differing in freshwater accessibility or that occupy different positions along strong edaphic gradients. Our results confirm the importance of intraspecific variation among species and reflect a high degree of trait plasticity across the environmental gradient.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for trait‐based community assembly patterns in hardwood hammock forests

et al. 2019

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“…In particular, the high energy reaching the coast during storms and hurricanes exposes coastal forests to damaging winds, and storm tides bring salt-water, sediments, and debris well inland. The impacts of stresses caused by salt spray or salt water flooding in coastal forests are similar to the ones faced by plants growing in dry environments (Subedi et al, 2018). Salt stress leads to cellular dehydration through xylem cavitation or through the toxicity imposed by salts on biochemical processes (Sternberg & Manganiello, 2014) which can limit vegetative growth (Fernandes et al, 2018) and alter biogeochemical cycles (Herbert et al, 2015;Hopfensperger et al, 2014).…”

Section: Definiti On Of the Coa S Tal Dry Tropi C Al Fore S Tsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, occasional airborne doses of salt spray brought by wind and wave activities in coastal environments, especially during storms and hurricanes, may cause physiological stress for CDTF plants (Subedi et al., 2018). During Hurricane Andrew, even forests in relatively low‐intensity wind fields at some distance from the eyewall experienced complete defoliation, allowing light to penetrate to a forest floor buried in dead vegetation (Armentano et al., 1995).…”

Section: Vulnerability and Climate Change Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coastal dry tropical forests in Florida and the Caribbean in peril: A review

Freeman,

Subedi,

Ross

2023

Biotropica

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Coastal dry tropical forests (CDTFs) are important yet vulnerable ecosystems. In this paper, we highlight the special conservation issues facing CDTFs by focusing on one variant of the type, those that occupy limestone substrate in the northeastern Caribbean. Our analysis draws largely from the coastal terrestrial broadleaf forests of the northern Bahamas, the Florida Keys, and southwestern Puerto Rico. Based on the surveys of storm surge recorded during major hurricanes during the last 50 years, we define CDTFs as coastal terrestrial broadleaf forests on ground surfaces elevated up to 5 m above sea level and occurring within 5 km of the coast. These forests are not only threatened by land‐use change from urbanization but also climate‐driven sea level rise (SLR) and hurricanes, which have degraded them and reduced their extent. CDTFs are distinguished from other dry tropical forests by the occasional influence of marine water incursion during periodic storms, requiring species common to these forests to have some level of salt tolerance despite experiencing well‐drained, fresh water conditions during most of their life span. With precipitation being the sole freshwater source for most CDTFs, SLR and the resulting salinization in the rooting zone subjects these forests to increasingly stressful conditions. Hence, even a modest rise in sea level can push numerous imperiled and endangered species and coastal terrestrial broadleaf communities to the edge of their tolerance, causing a decline in extent or their complete disappearance. Outside of protected areas, rapid urbanization has fragmented these forests and reduced their extent, which in turn have modified the interaction between rising seas and forest function. This work emphasizes the need for refined risk assessments to be completed and for conservation measures to be enforced so that resources can be directed appropriately to prevent further loss of CDTFs.Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.

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“…In the process of long evolution and adaptation to the environment, plants have formed a series of traits combinations which are the optimal to adapt the environment (Subedi et al 2016). LES provided a new theory and method for analyzing the adaptation mechanism of plants ).…”

Section: Interrelations Of Leaf Traits In Two Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptation strategies of leaf traits and leaf economic spectrum in urban garden plants

Li-ying

Zhang

Wei

et al. 2022

Preprint

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In order to explore the adaptation strategies of urban garden plants leaf traits and the relationship of different life forms to climate zone. In this study, we used Mudanjiang of Heilongjiang Province and Bozhou of Anhui Province as the research sites, 17 and 9 woody garden plants were selected respectively, measured 7 leaf morphological characters and 4 photosynthetic pigment contents. One way ANOVA was used to reveal the variation characteristics of leaf functional traits of trees, shrubs and vines in two urbans. Two-way ANOVA was used to reveal the plant leaf traits under climate and life form. Pearson correlation analysis and principal component analysis was used to calculate the correlation coefficient between leaf functional traits of plants in the two places. Leaf dry matter content (LDMC) and Vein density (VD) of different life forms in Mudanjiang were higher than Bozhou (P < 0.05), the Relative water content (RWC) in Bozhou was higher, while Vein density (VD) of trees and shrubs in two urbans were significant ((P < 0.05), but the vine was not significant. The tree and shrub species photosynthetic pigments were larger in Mudanjiang, but it was opposite in vines. Both leaf vein density (VD) and stomatal density (SD) showed a very significant positive correlation in two nrbans (P < 0.01), and both were significantly positively correlated with specific leaf area (SLA) (P < 0.05), negatively correlated with leaf thickness (LT), and the relationship between pigment content were closer. The response was obvious differences in leaf traits of different life forms species in urban to climate, but the correlations between the traits showed convergence, which reflects that the adaptation strategies of garden plant leaves to different habitats are both coordinated and relatively independent.

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Variation in Stomatal Characteristics of <i>Bursera simaruba</i> (L.) Sarg., a Dominant Tree Species of Tropical Hardwood Hammock Forest across a Habitat Gradient in the Florida Keys

Cited by 4 publications

References 54 publications

Evidence for trait‐based community assembly patterns in hardwood hammock forests

Evidence for trait‐based community assembly patterns in hardwood hammock forests

Coastal dry tropical forests in Florida and the Caribbean in peril: A review

Adaptation strategies of leaf traits and leaf economic spectrum in urban garden plants

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