Thresholds of biodiversity and ecosystem function in a forest ecosystem undergoing dieback

Abstract Ecological thresholds, which represent points of rapid change in ecological properties, are of major scientific and societal concern. However, very little research has focused on empirically testing the occurrence of thresholds in temperate terrestrial ecosystems. To address this knowledge...

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Autores principales:	P. M. Evans, A. C. Newton, E. Cantarello, P. Martin, N. Sanderson, D. L. Jones, N. Barsoum, J. E. Cottrell, S. W. A’Hara, L. Fuller
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/07d466a20f9a4ae59e590b202be94018
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:07d466a20f9a4ae59e590b202be940182021-12-02T16:06:45ZThresholds of biodiversity and ecosystem function in a forest ecosystem undergoing dieback10.1038/s41598-017-06082-62045-2322https://doaj.org/article/07d466a20f9a4ae59e590b202be940182017-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-06082-6https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Ecological thresholds, which represent points of rapid change in ecological properties, are of major scientific and societal concern. However, very little research has focused on empirically testing the occurrence of thresholds in temperate terrestrial ecosystems. To address this knowledge gap, we tested whether a number of biodiversity, ecosystem functions and ecosystem condition metrics exhibited thresholds in response to a gradient of forest dieback, measured as changes in basal area of living trees relative to areas that lacked recent dieback. The gradient of dieback was sampled using 12 replicate study areas in a temperate forest ecosystem. Our results provide novel evidence of several thresholds in biodiversity (namely species richness of ectomycorrhizal fungi, epiphytic lichen and ground flora); for ecological condition (e.g. sward height, palatable seedling abundance) and a single threshold for ecosystem function (i.e. soil respiration rate). Mechanisms for these thresholds are explored. As climate-induced forest dieback is increasing worldwide, both in scale and speed, these results imply that threshold responses may become increasingly widespread.P. M. EvansA. C. NewtonE. CantarelloP. MartinN. SandersonD. L. JonesN. BarsoumJ. E. CottrellS. W. A’HaraL. FullerNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q P. M. Evans A. C. Newton E. Cantarello P. Martin N. Sanderson D. L. Jones N. Barsoum J. E. Cottrell S. W. A’Hara L. Fuller Thresholds of biodiversity and ecosystem function in a forest ecosystem undergoing dieback
description	Abstract Ecological thresholds, which represent points of rapid change in ecological properties, are of major scientific and societal concern. However, very little research has focused on empirically testing the occurrence of thresholds in temperate terrestrial ecosystems. To address this knowledge gap, we tested whether a number of biodiversity, ecosystem functions and ecosystem condition metrics exhibited thresholds in response to a gradient of forest dieback, measured as changes in basal area of living trees relative to areas that lacked recent dieback. The gradient of dieback was sampled using 12 replicate study areas in a temperate forest ecosystem. Our results provide novel evidence of several thresholds in biodiversity (namely species richness of ectomycorrhizal fungi, epiphytic lichen and ground flora); for ecological condition (e.g. sward height, palatable seedling abundance) and a single threshold for ecosystem function (i.e. soil respiration rate). Mechanisms for these thresholds are explored. As climate-induced forest dieback is increasing worldwide, both in scale and speed, these results imply that threshold responses may become increasingly widespread.
format	article
author	P. M. Evans A. C. Newton E. Cantarello P. Martin N. Sanderson D. L. Jones N. Barsoum J. E. Cottrell S. W. A’Hara L. Fuller
author_facet	P. M. Evans A. C. Newton E. Cantarello P. Martin N. Sanderson D. L. Jones N. Barsoum J. E. Cottrell S. W. A’Hara L. Fuller
author_sort	P. M. Evans
title	Thresholds of biodiversity and ecosystem function in a forest ecosystem undergoing dieback
title_short	Thresholds of biodiversity and ecosystem function in a forest ecosystem undergoing dieback
title_full	Thresholds of biodiversity and ecosystem function in a forest ecosystem undergoing dieback
title_fullStr	Thresholds of biodiversity and ecosystem function in a forest ecosystem undergoing dieback
title_full_unstemmed	Thresholds of biodiversity and ecosystem function in a forest ecosystem undergoing dieback
title_sort	thresholds of biodiversity and ecosystem function in a forest ecosystem undergoing dieback
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/07d466a20f9a4ae59e590b202be94018
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Thresholds of biodiversity and ecosystem function in a forest ecosystem undergoing dieback

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