Dataset Information

Mixed-forest species establishment in a monodominant forest in central Africa: implications for tropical forest invasibility.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Traits of non-dominant mixed-forest tree species and their synergies for successful co-occurrence in monodominant Gilbertiodendron dewevrei forest have not yet been investigated. Here we compared the tree species diversity of the monodominant forest with its adjacent mixed forest and then determined which fitness proxies and life history traits of the mixed-forest tree species were most associated with successful co-existence in the monodominant forest.

Methodology/principal findings

We sampled all trees (diameter in breast height [dbh]?10 cm) within 6×1 ha topographically homogenous areas of intact central African forest in SE Cameroon, three independent patches of G. dewevrei-dominated forest and three adjacent areas (450-800 m apart). Monodominant G. dewevrei forest had lower sample-controlled species richness, species density and population density than its adjacent mixed forest in terms of stems with dbh?10 cm. Analysis of a suite of population-level characteristics, such as relative abundance and geographical distribution, and traits such as wood density, height, diameter at breast height, fruit/seed dispersal mechanism and light requirement-revealed after controlling for phylogeny, species that co-occur with G. dewevrei tend to have higher abundance in adjacent mixed forest, higher wood density and a lower light requirement.

Conclusions/significance

Our results suggest that certain traits (wood density and light requirement) and population-level characteristics (relative abundance) may increase the invasibility of a tree species into a tropical closed-canopy system. Such knowledge may assist in the pre-emptive identification of invasive tree species.

SUBMITTER: Peh KS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4028239 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Mixed-forest species establishment in a monodominant forest in central Africa: implications for tropical forest invasibility.

Peh Kelvin S-H KS Sonké Bonaventure B Séné Olivier O Djuikouo Marie-Noël K MN Nguembou Charlemagne K CK Taedoumg Hermann H Begne Serge K SK Lewis Simon L SL

PloS one 20140520 5

<h4>Background</h4>Traits of non-dominant mixed-forest tree species and their synergies for successful co-occurrence in monodominant Gilbertiodendron dewevrei forest have not yet been investigated. Here we compared the tree species diversity of the monodominant forest with its adjacent mixed forest and then determined which fitness proxies and life history traits of the mixed-forest tree species were most associated with successful co-existence in the monodominant forest.<h4>Methodology/principa ...[more]

PMID: 24844914

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Project description:Soil characteristics have been hypothesised as one of the possible mechanisms leading to monodominance of Gilbertiodendron dewerei in some areas of Central Africa where higher-diversity forest would be expected. However, the differences in soil characteristics between the G. dewevrei-dominated forest and its adjacent mixed forest are still poorly understood. Here we present the soil characteristics of the G. dewevrei forest and quantify whether soil physical and chemical properties in this monodominant forest are significantly different from the adjacent mixed forest.We sampled top soil (0-5, 5-10, 10-20, 20-30 cm) and subsoil (150-200 cm) using an augur in 6 × 1 ha areas of intact central Africa forest in SE Cameroon, three independent patches of G. dewevrei-dominated forest and three adjacent areas (450-800 m apart), all chosen to be topographically homogeneous. Analysis--subjected to Bonferroni correction procedure--revealed no significant differences between the monodominant and mixed forests in terms of soil texture, median particle size, bulk density, pH, carbon (C) content, nitrogen (N) content, C:N ratio, C:total NaOH-extractable P ratio and concentrations of labile phosphorous (P), inorganic NaOH-extractable P, total NaOH-extractable P, aluminium, barium, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, potassium, selenium, silicon, sodium and zinc. Prior to Bonferroni correction procedure, there was a significant lower level of silicon concentration found in the monodominant than mixed forest deep soil; and a significant lower level of nickel concentration in the monodominant than mixed forest top soil. Nevertheless, these were likely to be the results of multiple tests of significance.Our results do not provide clear evidence of soil mediation for the location of monodominant forests in relation to adjacent mixed forests. It is also likely that G. dewevrei does not influence soil chemistry in the monodominant forests.

Project description:The mass of carbon contained in trees is governed by the volume and density of their wood. This represents a challenge to most remote sensing technologies, which typically detect surface structure and parameters related to wood volume but not to its density. Since wood density is largely determined by taxonomic identity this challenge is greatest in tropical forests where there are tens of thousands of tree species. Here, using pan-tropical literature and new analyses in Amazonia with plots with reliable identifications we assess the impact that species-related variation in wood density has on biomass estimates of mature tropical forests. We find impacts of species on forest biomass due to wood density at all scales from the individual tree up to the whole biome: variation in tree species composition regulates how much carbon forests can store. Even local differences in composition can cause variation in forest biomass and carbon density of 20% between subtly different local forest types, while additional large-scale floristic variation leads to variation in mean wood density of 10-30% across Amazonia and the tropics. Further, because species composition varies at all scales and even vertically within a stand, our analysis shows that bias and uncertainty always result if individual identity is ignored. Since sufficient inventory-based evidence based on botanical identification now exists to show that species composition matters biome-wide for biomass, we here assemble and provide mean basal-area-weighted wood density values for different forests across the lowand tropical biome. These range widely, from 0.467 to 0.728 g cm-3 with a pan-tropical mean of 0.619 g cm-3. Our analysis shows that mapping tropical ecosystem carbon always benefits from locally validated measurement of tree-by-tree botanical identity combined with tree-by-tree measurement of dimensions. Therefore whenever possible, efforts to map and monitor tropical forest carbon using remote sensing techniques should be combined with tree-level measurement of species identity by botanists working in inventory plots.

Dataset Information

Mixed-forest species establishment in a monodominant forest in central Africa: implications for tropical forest invasibility.

Background

Methodology/principal findings

Conclusions/significance

Publications

Mixed-forest species establishment in a monodominant forest in central Africa: implications for tropical forest invasibility.

Similar Datasets

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