Interactive effects of land use history and natural disturbance on seedling dynamics in a subtropical forest

Ecological Applications

Volumn 20, Issue 5, 2010, Pages 1270-1284

  Comita, Liza S ^a,f   Thompson, Jill ^b,g   Uriarte, Maria ^a   Jonckheere, Inge ^c,d   Canham, Charles D ^e   Zimmerman, Jess K ^b  

^a Columbia University ^*  (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO   (Puerto Rico)

^c UNIVERSITY OF LEUVEN   (Belgium)

^d FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS   (Italy)

^e CARY INSTITUTE OF ECOSYSTEM STUDIES   (United States)

^f NATIONAL CENTER FOR ECOLOGICAL ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS   (United States)

^g CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY AND HYDROLOGY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Disturbance; Forest dynamics; Guarea guidonia; Land use history; Long term ecological research; Luquillo forest dynamics plot; Montana; Puerto rico, prestoea acuminata var; Recruitment limitation; Regeneration niche; Secondary forest; Succession; Tropical forest

Indexed keywords

ABANDONED LAND; ABUNDANCE; BIODIVERSITY; DISTURBANCE; DOMINANCE; ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION; ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING; EVERGREEN TREE; FOREST DYNAMICS; GROWTH RATE; HURRICANE; HYPOTHESIS TESTING; LAND USE; REFORESTATION; REGROWTH; SECONDARY FOREST; SECONDARY SUCCESSION; SEEDLING; SPECIES DIVERSITY; SUBTROPICAL REGION; SURVIVAL; TROPICAL FOREST;

ARTICLE; BIODIVERSITY; GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT AND AGING; TREE; TROPIC CLIMATE;

BIODIVERSITY; TREES; TROPICAL CLIMATE;

MONTANA; PUERTO RICO; UNITED STATES;

GUAREA GUIDONIA; PRESTOEA ACUMINATA;

EID: 77954332474     PISSN: 10510761     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1890/09-1350.1     Document Type: Article

References (79)

1. Barberis, I. M., and E. V. J. Tanner. 2005. Gaps and root trenching increase tree seedling growth in Panamanian semievergreen forest. Ecology 86:667-674.
2. Bates, D., and M. Maechler. 2009. lme4: linear mixed-effects models using S4 classes. R package version 0.999375-31. (http://cran.r-project.org/web/ packages/lme4/index.html)
3. Benjamini, Y., and Y. Hochberg. 1995. Controlling the false discovery rate: a practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. Journal, of the Royal Statistical Society B 57:289-300.
4. Bolker, B. M., M. E. Brooks, C. J. Clark, S. W. Geange, J. R. Poulsen, M. H. H. Stevens, and J. S. S. White. 2009. Generalized linear mixed models: a practical guide for ecology and evolution. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 24:127-135.
5. Boose, E. R., D. R. Foster, and M. Fluet. 1994. Hurricane impacts to tropical and temperate forest landscapes. Ecological Monographs 64:369-400. (Pubitemid 24974543)
6. Boucher, D. H., J. H. Vandermeer, I. G. de la Cerda, M. A. Mallona, I. Perfecto, and N. Zamora. 2001. Post-agriculture versus post-hurricane succession in southeastern Nicaraguan rain forest. Plant Ecology 156:131-137.
7. Brokaw, N. V. L., and L. R. Walker. 1991. Summary of the effects of Caribbean hurricanes on vegetation. Biotropica 23: 442-447.
8. Burslem, D., and T. C. Whitmore. 1999. Species diversity, susceptibility to disturbance and tree population dynamics in tropical rain forest. Journal of Vegetation Science 10:767-776. (Pubitemid 30059377)
9. Burslem, D. F. R. P., T. C. Whitmore, and G. C. Brown. 2000. Short-term, effects of cyclone impact and long-term recovery of tropical, rain forest on Kolombangara, Solomon Islands. Journal of Ecology 88:1063-1078.
10. Canham, C. D., J. Thompson, J. K. Zimmerman, and M. Uriarte. 2009. Variation in susceptibility to hurricane damage as a function of storm, severity in Puerto Rican tree species. Biotropica 42:87-94.
11. Capers, R. S., R. L. Chazdon, A. R. Brenes, and B. V. Alvarado. 2005. Successional dynamics of woody seedling communities in wet tropical secondary forests. Journal of Ecology 93:1071-1084. (Pubitemid 43920094)
12. Catterall, C. P., S. McKenna, J. Kanowski, and S. D. Piper. 2008. Do cyclones and forest fragmentation have synergistic effects? A before-after study of rainforest vegetation structure at multiple sites. Austral Ecology 33:471-484.
13. Chazdon, R. L. 2003. Tropical forest recovery: legacies of human impact and natural disturbances. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 6:51-71.
14. Chazdon, R. L. 2008. Beyond deforestation: restoring forests and ecosystem, services on degraded lands. Science 320:1458-1460.
15. Chazdon, R. L., R. W. Pearcy, D. W. Lee, and N. Fetcher. 1996. Photosynthetic responses of tropical forest plants to contrasting light environments. Pages 5-55 in S. S. Mulkey, R. L. Chazdon, and A. P. Smith, editors. Tropical forest plant ecophysiology. Chapman and Hall, New York, New York, USA.
16. Clark, D. B. 1996. Abolishing virginity. Journal of Tropical Ecology 12:735-739.
17. Comita, L. S., M. Uriarte, J. Thompson, I. Jonckheere, C. D. Canham, and J. K. Zimmerman. 2009. Abiotic and biotic drivers of seedling survival in a hurricane-impacted tropical forest. Journal of Ecology 97:1346-1359.
18. Dambrine, E., J. L. Dupouey, L. Laut, L. Humbert, M. Thinon, T. Beaufils, and H. Richard. 2007. Present forest biodiversity patterns in France related to former Roman agriculture. Ecology 88:1430-1439. (Pubitemid 351345219)
19. Emanuel, K. 2005. Increasing destructiveness of tropical, cyclones over the past 30 years. Nature 436:686-688. (Pubitemid 41117268)
20. Everham, E. M., III, and N. V. L. Brokaw. 1996. Forest damage and recovery from catastrophic wind. Botanical Review 62:113-185.
21. Everham, E. M., III, R. W. Myster, and E. VandeGenachte. 1996. Effects of light, moisture, temperature, and litter on the regeneration of five tree species in the tropical montane wet forest of Puerto Rico. American Journal of Botany 83:1063-1068. (Pubitemid 27238167)
22. Ewel, J. J., and J. L. Whitmore. 1973. The ecological life zones of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. International Institute of Tropical Forestry, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico.
23. FAO. 2005. Global forest resources assessment 2005: progress towards sustainable forest management. FAO Forestry Paper, Food and Agriculture Organization (United Nations), Rome, Italy.
24. Finegan, B. 1996. Pattern and process in Neotropical secondary rain forests: the first 100 years of succession. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 11:119-124. (Pubitemid 2617381)
25. Foster, D., M. Fluet, and E. Boose. 1998a. Human or natural disturbance: landscape-scale dynamics of the tropical forests of Puerto Rico. Ecological Applications 9:555-572. (Pubitemid 29221233)
26. Foster, D. R., G. Motzkin, and B. Slater. 1998b. Land-use history as long-term broad-scale disturbance: regional forest dynamics in central New England. Ecosystems 1:96-119. (Pubitemid 128664037)
27. Franklin, J., D. R. Drake, K. R, McConkey, F. Tonga, and L. B. Smith. 2004. The effects of Cyclone Waka on the structure of lowland tropical rain forest in Vava'u, Tonga. Journal of Tropical Ecology 20:409-420. (Pubitemid 38927667)
28. Garcia-Montiel, D., and F. N. Scatena. 1994. The effect of human activity on the structure and composition of a tropical forest in Puerto Rico. Forest Ecology and Management 63: 57-78. (Pubitemid 2040080)
29. Gardner, T. A., J. Barlow, L. W. Parry, and C. A. Peres. 2007. Predicting the uncertain future of tropical forest species in a data vacuum. Biotropica 39:25-30.
30. Gauriguata, M. R., and R. Ostertag. 2001. Neotropical secondary forest succession: changes in structural and functional characteristics. Forest Ecology and Management 148:185-206.
31. Gerhardt, K. 1996. Effects of root competition and canopy openness on survival and growth of tree seedlings in a tropical, seasonal dry forest. Forest Ecology and Management 82:33-48. (Pubitemid 27139121)
32. Gómez-Pompa, A., and A. Kaus. 1992. Taming the wilderness myth. BioScience 42:271-279.
33. Grau, H. R., T. M. Aide, J. K. Zimmerman, J. R. Thomlinson, E. Helmer, and X. M. Zou, 2003. The ecological, consequences of socioeconomic and land-use changes in postagriculture Puerto Rico. BioScience 53:1159-1168.
34. Guariguata, M. R., R. L. Chazdon, J. S. Denslow, J. M. Dupuy, and L. Anderson. 1997. Structure and floristics of secondary and old-growth forest stands in lowland Costa Rica. Plant Ecology 132:107-120.
35. Holland, G. J., and P. J. Webster. 2007. Heightened tropical cyclone activity in the North Atlantic: natural variability or climate trend? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 365:2695-2716.
36. ITTO. 2002. ITTO guidelines for the restoration, management and rehabilitation of degraded and secondary tropical forests. International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) Policy Development Series Number 13, Yokohama, Japan.
37. Jonckheere, I., K. Nackaerts, B. Muys, and P Coppin. 2005. Assessment of automatic gap fraction estimation of forests from digital, hemispherical photography. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 132:96-114. (Pubitemid 41323005)
38. Jonckheere, L, K. Nackaerts, B. Muys, J. van Aardt, and P. Coppin. 2006. A fractal dimension-based modelling approach for studying the effect of leaf distribution on LAI retrieval in forest canopies. Ecological Modelling 197:179-195.
39. Kauffman, J. B., R. F. Hughes, and C. Heider. 2009. Carbon pool and biomass dynamics associated with deforestation, land use, and agricultural abandonment in the Neotropics. Ecological Applications 19:1211-1222.
40. King, D. A., S. J. Davies, M. N. N. Supardi, and S. Tan. 2005. Tree growth is related to light interception and wood density in two mixed Dipterocarp forests of Malaysia. Functional Ecology 19:445-453.
41. Korner, C. 2004. Through enhanced tree dynamics carbon dioxide enrichment may cause tropical forests to lose carbon. Philosophical. Transactions of the Royal Society B 359:493-498. (Pubitemid 38370779)
42. Lugo, A. E. 2008. Visible and invisible effects of hurricanes on forest ecosystems: an international review. Austral. Ecology 33:368-398.
43. Montgomery, R. A., and R. L. Chazdon. 2002. Light gradient partitioning by tropical tree seedlings in the absence of canopy gaps. Oecologia 131:165-174.
44. Muller-Landau, H. C. 2004. Interspecific and inter-site variation in wood specific gravity of tropical trees. Biotropica 36: 20-32.
45. Norden, N., R. L. Chazdon, A. Chao, Y. H. Jiang, and B. Vilchez-Alvarado. 2009. Resilience of tropical rain forests: tree community reassembly in secondary forests. Ecology Letters 12:385-394.
46. Ogle, K., M. Uriarte, J. Thompson, J. Johnstone, A. Jones, Y. Lin, E. McIntire, and J. Zimmerman. 2006. Implications of vulnerability to hurricane damage for long-term survival of tropical tree species: a Bayesian hierarchical analysis. Pages 198-117 in J. S. Clark and A. E. Gelfand, editors. Applications of computational statistics in the environmental sciences: hierarchical Bayes and MCMC methods. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
47. Oksanen, J., R. Kindt, P. Legendre, B. O'Hara, G. L. Simpson, P. Solymos, M. H. H. Stevens, and H. Wagner. 2009. vegan: community ecology package. R package version 1.15-2. (http://cran.r-project.org/)
48. Ostertag, R., F. N. Scatena, and W. L. Silver. 2003. Forest floor decomposition following hurricane litter inputs in several Puerto Rican forests. Ecosystems 6:261-273. (Pubitemid 36619087)
49. Ostertag, R., W. L. Silver, and A. E. Lugo. 2005. Factors affecting mortality and resistance to damage following hurricanes in a rehabilitated subtropical moist forest. Biotropica 37:16-24. (Pubitemid 40561115)
50. Paine, R. T., M. J. Tegner, and E. A., Johnson. 1998. Compounded perturbations yield ecological surprises. Ecosystems 1:535-545.
51. Pascarella, J. B., T. M. Aide, and J. K. Zimmerman. 2004. Short-term response of secondary forests to hurricane disturbance in Puerto Rico, USA. Forest Ecology and Management 199:379-393.
52. Pickett, S. T. A., and P. S. White. 1985. The ecology of natural disturbance and patch dynamics. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida, USA.
53. R Development Core Team. 2009. R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical. Computing, Vienna, Austria.
54. Rhemtulla, J. M., D. J. Mladenoff, and M. K. Clayton. 2009. Legacies of historical land use on regional forest composition and structure in Wisconsin, USA (mid-1800s-1930s-2000s). Ecological Applications 19:1061-1078.
55. Rivera, L. W., J. K. Zimmerman, and T. M. Aide. 2000. Forest recovery in abandoned agricultural lands in a karst region of the Dominican Republic. Plant Ecology 148:115-125.
56. Scatena, F. N., and M. C. Larsen. 1991. Physical, aspects of Hurricane Hugo in Puerto Rico. Biotropica 23:317-323.
57. Silver, W. L., L. M. Kueppers, A. E. Lugo, R. Ostertag, and V. Matzek. 2004. Carbon sequestration and plant community dynamics following reforestation of tropical pasture. Ecological Applications 14:1115-1127.
58. Silver, W. L., R. Ostertag, and A. E. Lugo. 2000. The potential for carbon sequestration through reforestation of abandoned tropical agricultural and pasture lands. Restoration Ecology 8:394-407.
59. Sousa, W. P. 1984. The role of disturbance in natural communities. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 15:353-391.
60. Sustache, J. A. 2004. Post-hurricane growth and recruitment of plant species used by birds in northern Puerto Rico. Thesis. University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.
61. Swaine, M. D., and T. C. Whitmore. 1988. On the definition of ecological species groups in tropical rain forest. Vegetatio 75: 81-86.
62. Thompson, J., N. Brokaw, J. K. Zimmerman, R. B. Waide, E. M. Everham III, D. J. Lodge, C. M. Taylor, D. GarciaMontiel, and M. Fluet. 2002. Land use history, environment, and tree composition in a tropical forest. Ecological Applications 12:1344-1363. (Pubitemid 36521711)
63. Thompson, J., N. Brokaw, J. K., Zimmerman, R. B. Waide, E. M. Everham III, and D. A. Schaefer. 2004. Luquillo Forest Dynamics Plot, Puerto Rico, United States. Pages 540-550 in E. Losos and E. G. Leigh, editors. Tropical forest diversity and dynamism: findings from a large-scale plot network. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
64. Uriarte, M., C. D. Canham, J. Thompson, and J. K. Zimmerman. 2004a. A neighborhood analysis of tree growth and survival in a hurricane-driven tropical forest. Ecological Monographs 74:591-614. (Pubitemid 40551627)
65. Uriarte, M., C. D. Canham, J. Thompson, J. K. Zimmerman, and N. Brokaw. 2005. Seedling recruitment in a hurricanedriven tropical forest: light limitation, density-dependence and the spatial distribution of parent trees. Journal, of Ecology 93:291-304. (Pubitemid 40492118)
66. Uriarte, M., C. D. Canham, J. Thompson, J. K. Zimmerman, L. Murphy, A. M. Sabat, N. Fetcher, and B. L. Haines. 2009. Understanding disturbance and human land use as determinants of tropical forest dynamics: results from a forest simulator. Ecological Monographs 79:423-443.
67. Uriarte, M., L. W. Rivera, J. K. Zimmerman, T. M. Aide, A. G. Power, and A. S. Flecker. 20046. Effects of land use history on hurricane damage and recovery in a Neotropical forest. Plant Ecology 174:49-58.
68. Venables, W. N., and B. D. Ripley. 2002. Modern applied statistics with S. Springer-Verlag, New York, New York, USA.
69. Walker, L. R. 1991. Tree damage and recovery from Hurricane Hugo in Luquillo Experimental. Forest, Puerto Rico. Biotropica 23:379-385.
70. Walker, L. R., D. J. Lodge, S. M. Guzman-Grajales, and N. Fetcher. 2003. Species-specific seedling responses to hurricane disturbance in a Puerto Rican rain forest. Biotropica 35: 472-485.
71. Walsh, R. P. D. 1996. Climate. Pages 159-205 in P. W. Richards, editor. The tropical rainforest: an ecological study. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
72. Weaver, P. L., and R. A. Birdsey. 1986. Tree succession and management opportunities in coffee shade stands. Turrialba 36:47-58.
73. Webster, P. J., G. J. Holland, J. A. Curry, and H. R. Chang. 2005. Changes in tropical cyclone number, duration, and intensity in a warming environment. Science 309:1844-1846.
74. Whitmore, T. C., and D. F. R. P. Burslem, 1998. Major disturbances in tropical rainforests. Pages 549-565 in D. M. Newbery, H. H. T. Prins, and. N. D. Brown, editors. Dynamics of tropical communities. Blackwell Science, Oxford, UK.
75. Wolda, H. 1981. Similarity indices, sample size and diversity. Oecologia 50:296-302.
76. Wright, S. J. 2005. Tropical forests in a changing environment. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20:553-560.
77. Zens, M. S., and D. R. Peart. 2003. Dealing with death data: individual hazards, mortality and bias. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18:366-373.
78. Zimmerman, J. K., E. M. Everham III, R. B. Waide, D. J. Lodge, C. M. Taylor, and N. V. L. Brokaw. 1994. Responses of tree species to hurricane winds in subtropical wet forest in Puerto Rico: implications for tropical tree life-histories. Journal of Ecology 82:911-922.
79. Zimmerman, J. K. H., and A. P. Covich. 2007. Damage and recovery of riparian sierra palms after Hurricane Georges: influence of topography and biotic characteristics. Biotropica 39:43-49