Forest structure in low-diversity tropical forests: a study of Hawaiian wet and dry forests.

The potential influence of diversity on ecosystem structure and function remains a topic of significant debate, especially for tropical forests where diversity can range widely. We used Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) methodology to establish forest dynamics plots in montane wet forest and...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Rebecca Ostertag, Faith Inman-Narahari, Susan Cordell, Christian P Giardina, Lawren Sack
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/1370ebc74b5d4e71b3a00f6a452127fa
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:1370ebc74b5d4e71b3a00f6a452127fa
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:1370ebc74b5d4e71b3a00f6a452127fa2021-11-25T06:02:54ZForest structure in low-diversity tropical forests: a study of Hawaiian wet and dry forests.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0103268https://doaj.org/article/1370ebc74b5d4e71b3a00f6a452127fa2014-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/25162731/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203The potential influence of diversity on ecosystem structure and function remains a topic of significant debate, especially for tropical forests where diversity can range widely. We used Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) methodology to establish forest dynamics plots in montane wet forest and lowland dry forest on Hawai'i Island. We compared the species diversity, tree density, basal area, biomass, and size class distributions between the two forest types. We then examined these variables across tropical forests within the CTFS network. Consistent with other island forests, the Hawai'i forests were characterized by low species richness and very high relative dominance. The two Hawai'i forests were floristically distinct, yet similar in species richness (15 vs. 21 species) and stem density (3078 vs. 3486/ha). While these forests were selected for their low invasive species cover relative to surrounding forests, both forests averaged 5->50% invasive species cover; ongoing removal will be necessary to reduce or prevent competitive impacts, especially from woody species. The montane wet forest had much larger trees, resulting in eightfold higher basal area and above-ground biomass. Across the CTFS network, the Hawaiian montane wet forest was similar to other tropical forests with respect to diameter distributions, density, and aboveground biomass, while the Hawai'i lowland dry forest was similar in density to tropical forests with much higher diversity. These findings suggest that forest structural variables can be similar across tropical forests independently of species richness. The inclusion of low-diversity Pacific Island forests in the CTFS network provides an ∼80-fold range in species richness (15-1182 species), six-fold variation in mean annual rainfall (835-5272 mm yr(-1)) and 1.8-fold variation in mean annual temperature (16.0-28.4°C). Thus, the Hawaiian forest plots expand the global forest plot network to enable testing of ecological theory for links among species diversity, environmental variation and ecosystem function.Rebecca OstertagFaith Inman-NarahariSusan CordellChristian P GiardinaLawren SackPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 8, p e103268 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Rebecca Ostertag Faith Inman-Narahari Susan Cordell Christian P Giardina Lawren Sack Forest structure in low-diversity tropical forests: a study of Hawaiian wet and dry forests.
description	The potential influence of diversity on ecosystem structure and function remains a topic of significant debate, especially for tropical forests where diversity can range widely. We used Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) methodology to establish forest dynamics plots in montane wet forest and lowland dry forest on Hawai'i Island. We compared the species diversity, tree density, basal area, biomass, and size class distributions between the two forest types. We then examined these variables across tropical forests within the CTFS network. Consistent with other island forests, the Hawai'i forests were characterized by low species richness and very high relative dominance. The two Hawai'i forests were floristically distinct, yet similar in species richness (15 vs. 21 species) and stem density (3078 vs. 3486/ha). While these forests were selected for their low invasive species cover relative to surrounding forests, both forests averaged 5->50% invasive species cover; ongoing removal will be necessary to reduce or prevent competitive impacts, especially from woody species. The montane wet forest had much larger trees, resulting in eightfold higher basal area and above-ground biomass. Across the CTFS network, the Hawaiian montane wet forest was similar to other tropical forests with respect to diameter distributions, density, and aboveground biomass, while the Hawai'i lowland dry forest was similar in density to tropical forests with much higher diversity. These findings suggest that forest structural variables can be similar across tropical forests independently of species richness. The inclusion of low-diversity Pacific Island forests in the CTFS network provides an ∼80-fold range in species richness (15-1182 species), six-fold variation in mean annual rainfall (835-5272 mm yr(-1)) and 1.8-fold variation in mean annual temperature (16.0-28.4°C). Thus, the Hawaiian forest plots expand the global forest plot network to enable testing of ecological theory for links among species diversity, environmental variation and ecosystem function.
format	article
author	Rebecca Ostertag Faith Inman-Narahari Susan Cordell Christian P Giardina Lawren Sack
author_facet	Rebecca Ostertag Faith Inman-Narahari Susan Cordell Christian P Giardina Lawren Sack
author_sort	Rebecca Ostertag
title	Forest structure in low-diversity tropical forests: a study of Hawaiian wet and dry forests.
title_short	Forest structure in low-diversity tropical forests: a study of Hawaiian wet and dry forests.
title_full	Forest structure in low-diversity tropical forests: a study of Hawaiian wet and dry forests.
title_fullStr	Forest structure in low-diversity tropical forests: a study of Hawaiian wet and dry forests.
title_full_unstemmed	Forest structure in low-diversity tropical forests: a study of Hawaiian wet and dry forests.
title_sort	forest structure in low-diversity tropical forests: a study of hawaiian wet and dry forests.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/1370ebc74b5d4e71b3a00f6a452127fa
work_keys_str_mv	AT rebeccaostertag foreststructureinlowdiversitytropicalforestsastudyofhawaiianwetanddryforests AT faithinmannarahari foreststructureinlowdiversitytropicalforestsastudyofhawaiianwetanddryforests AT susancordell foreststructureinlowdiversitytropicalforestsastudyofhawaiianwetanddryforests AT christianpgiardina foreststructureinlowdiversitytropicalforestsastudyofhawaiianwetanddryforests AT lawrensack foreststructureinlowdiversitytropicalforestsastudyofhawaiianwetanddryforests
_version_	1718414206866292736

Forest structure in low-diversity tropical forests: a study of Hawaiian wet and dry forests.

Ejemplares similares