Fire effects and ecological recovery pathways of tropical montane cloud forests along a time chronosequence

Global Change Biology
Imma OliverasYadvinder Malhi

Abstract

Tropical montane cloud forests (TMCFs) harbour high levels of biodiversity and large carbon stocks. Their location at high elevations make them especially sensitive to climate change, because a warming climate is enhancing upslope species migration, but human disturbance (especially fire) may in many cases be pushing the treeline downslope. TMCFs are increasingly being affected by fire, and the long-term effects of fire are still unknown. Here, we present a 28-year chronosequence to assess the effects of fire and recovery pathways of burned TMCFs, with a detailed analysis of carbon stocks, forest structure and diversity. We assessed rates of change of carbon (C) stock pools, forest structure and tree-size distribution pathways and tested several hypotheses regarding metabolic scaling theory (MST), C recovery and biodiversity. We found four different C stock recovery pathways depending on the selected C pool and time since last fire, with a recovery of total C stocks but not of aboveground C stocks. In terms of forest structure, there was an increase in the number of small stems in the burned forests up to 5-9 years after fire because of regeneration patterns, but no differences on larger trees between burned and unburned plots ...Continue Reading

References

Mar 8, 2000·Nature·N MyersJ Kent
Apr 5, 2001·Nature·B J Enquist, K J Niklas
Jan 27, 2007·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Kenneth R Young, Blanca León
Mar 3, 2007·Oecologia·Timothy R BakerJavier Silva Espejo
Feb 13, 2008·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Jos Barlow, Carlos A Peres
Apr 14, 2009·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Brian J EnquistJames H Brown
Jun 5, 2010·Science·Luiz E O C Aragão, Yosio E Shimabukuro
May 22, 2013·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Jessica L BloisSimon Ferrier
May 29, 2014·Global Change Biology·Erika BerenguerJos Barlow
Jun 17, 2015·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Natalia NordenRobin L Chazdon
Mar 14, 2017·Global Biogeochemical Cycles·Margreet J E van MarleKostas Tsigaridis
Apr 18, 2017·Carbon Balance and Management·Rafael B de AndradeJanette Bulkan

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Citations

Dec 29, 2020·Ecological Applications : a Publication of the Ecological Society of America·Hyeyoung WooVicente J Monleon
Aug 31, 2021·Frontiers in Plant Science·Norma SalinasYadvinder Malhi

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Cell Migration

Cell migration is involved in a variety of physiological and pathological processes such as embryonic development, cancer metastasis, blood vessel formation and remoulding, tissue regeneration, immune surveillance and inflammation. Here is the latest research.