Dataset Information

Modelling understorey dynamics in temperate forests under global change-Challenges and perspectives.

ABSTRACT: The understorey harbours a substantial part of vascular plant diversity in temperate forests and plays an important functional role, affecting ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling and overstorey regeneration. Global change, however, is putting these understorey communities on trajectories of change, potentially altering and reducing their functioning in the future. Developing mitigation strategies to safeguard the diversity and functioning of temperate forests in the future is challenging and requires improved predictive capacity. Process-based models that predict understorey community composition over time, based on first principles of ecology, have the potential to guide mitigation endeavours but such approaches are rare. Here, we review fourteen understorey modelling approaches that have been proposed during the last three decades. We evaluate their inclusion of mechanisms that are required to predict the impact of global change on understorey communities. We conclude that none of the currently existing models fully accounts for all processes that we deem important based on empirical and experimental evidence. Based on this review, we contend new models are needed to project the complex impacts of global change on forest understoreys. Plant functional traits should be central to such future model developments, as they drive community assembly processes and provide valuable information on the functioning of the understorey. Given the important role of the overstorey, a coupling of understorey models to overstorey models will be essential to predict the impact of global change on understorey composition and structure, and how it will affect the functioning of temperate forests in the future.

SUBMITTER: Landuyt D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5884426 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Modelling understorey dynamics in temperate forests under global change-Challenges and perspectives.

Landuyt D D Perring M P MP Seidl R R Taubert F F Verbeeck H H Verheyen K K

Perspectives in plant ecology, evolution and systematics 20180131

The understorey harbours a substantial part of vascular plant diversity in temperate forests and plays an important functional role, affecting ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling and overstorey regeneration. Global change, however, is putting these understorey communities on trajectories of change, potentially altering and reducing their functioning in the future. Developing mitigation strategies to safeguard the diversity and functioning of temperate forests in the future is challengin ...[more]

PMID: 29628800

Similar Datasets

Project description:AimForest understorey microclimates are often buffered against extreme heat or cold, with important implications for the organisms living in these environments. We quantified seasonal effects of understorey microclimate predictors describing canopy structure, canopy composition and topography (i.e., local factors) and the forest patch size and distance to the coast (i.e., landscape factors).LocationTemperate forests in Europe.Time period2017-2018.Major taxa studiedWoody plants.MethodsWe combined data from a microclimate sensor network with weather-station records to calculate the difference, or offset, between temperatures measured inside and outside forests. We used regression analysis to study the effects of local and landscape factors on the seasonal offset of minimum, mean and maximum temperatures.ResultsThe maximum temperature during the summer was on average cooler by 2.1 °C inside than outside forests, and the minimum temperatures during the winter and spring were 0.4 and 0.9 °C warmer. The local canopy cover was a strong nonlinear driver of the maximum temperature offset during summer, and we found increased cooling beneath tree species that cast the deepest shade. Seasonal offsets of minimum temperature were mainly regulated by landscape and topographic features, such as the distance to the coast and topographic position.Main conclusionsForest organisms experience less severe temperature extremes than suggested by currently available macroclimate data; therefore, climate-species relationships and the responses of species to anthropogenic global warming cannot be modelled accurately in forests using macroclimate data alone. Changes in canopy cover and composition will strongly modulate the warming of maximum temperatures in forest understories, with important implications for understanding the responses of forest biodiversity and functioning to the combined threats of land-use change and climate change. Our predictive models are generally applicable across lowland temperate deciduous forests, providing ecologically important microclimate data for forest understories.

Project description:Northern bog lemmings, Mictomys (Synaptomys) borealis, are currently being assessed for protections under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. A major impediment to comprehensive evaluation is a deficiency of data towards understanding the biology of these rodents. Inherent rarity and scarce specimen sampling, despite a continent-wide distribution, has precluded our ability to implement modern methods for resolving taxonomy, evolutionary history, and investigating multiple other species traits. Here we use a maternally inherited locus (mitochondrial cytochrome b) and between 5,939 and 11,513 nuclear loci from reduced representation sequencing (ddRADseq) to investigate the evolutionary history of northern bog lemmings. We 1) qualify evidence based on morphological and early molecular studies for the genus assignment of Mictomys, 2) test the validity of multiple sub-species designations, 3) provide spatial and temporal historical biogeographic perspectives, and 4) discuss how incomplete sampling might influence conservation efforts. Both mitochondrial and nuclear datasets exhibit deep divergence and paraphyly between two recognized species, the northern (Mictomys borealis) and southern (Synaptomys cooperi) bog lemmings. Based on mtDNA, the geographically isolated subspecies (M. b. sphagnicola) was found to be divergent from all other specimens. The remainder of the species exhibited shallow intra-specific differentiation in mtDNA, however nuclear data supports genetic distinction consistent with four geographic subspecies. Recent coalescence of all northern bog lemmings (except for M. b. sphagnicola) reflects divergence in multiple refugia through the last glacial cycle, including a well-known coastal center of endemism and multiple regions south of continental ice-sheets. Regional lineages across North America suggest strong latitudinal displacement with global climate change, coupled with isolation-reconnection dynamics. This taxon suffers from a lack of modern samples through most of its distribution, severely limiting interpretation of ongoing evolutionary processes, particularly in southern portions of the species' range. Limited voucher specimen sampling of vulnerable populations could aid in rigorous conservation decision-making.

Dataset Information

Modelling understorey dynamics in temperate forests under global change-Challenges and perspectives.

Publications

Modelling understorey dynamics in temperate forests under global change-Challenges and perspectives.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets