Protecting structural features, such as tree‐related microhabitats (TreMs), is a cost‐effective tool crucial for biodiversity conservation applicable to large forested landscapes. Although the ...development of TreMs is influenced by tree diameter, species, and vitality, the relationships between tree age and TreM profile remain poorly understood. Using a tree‐ring‐based approach and a large data set of 8038 trees, we modeled the effects of tree age, diameter, and site characteristics on TreM richness and occurrence across some of the most intact primary temperate forests in Europe, including mixed beech and spruce forests. We observed an overall increase in TreM richness on old and large trees in both forest types. The occurrence of specific TreM groups was variably related to tree age and diameter, but some TreM groups (e.g., epiphytes) had a stronger positive relationship with tree species and elevation. Although many TreM groups were positively associated with tree age and diameter, only two TreM groups in spruce stands reacted exclusively to tree age (insect galleries and exposed sapwood) without responding to diameter. Thus, the retention of trees for conservation purposes based on tree diameter appears to be a generally feasible approach with a rather low risk of underrepresentation of TreMs. Because greater tree age and diameter positively affected TreM development, placing a greater emphasis on conserving large trees and allowing them to reach older ages, for example, through the establishment of conservation reserves, would better maintain the continuity of TreM resource and associated biodiversity. However, this approach may be difficult due to the widespread intensification of forest management and global climate change.
Importancia de conservar los árboles viejos y grandes para la continuidad de los microhábitats relacionados
Resumen
La protección de las características estructurales, como los microhábitats relacionados a los árboles (MhAr), es una herramienta económica importante para la conservación de la biodiversidad que puede aplicarse en los paisajes boscosos extensos. Aunque el diámetro, especie y vitalidad del árbol influyen sobre el desarrollo de los MhAr, todavía se sabe poco sobre las relaciones entre la edad del árbol y el perfil. Modelamos los efectos de la edad y diámetro del árbol y las características del sitio sobre la riqueza y presencia de los MhAr en algunos de los bosques primarios más preservados de Europa, incluyendo los bosques mixtos de hayas y abetos, con una estrategia basada en los anillos de crecimiento y un conjunto con datos de 8038 árboles. Observamos un incremento generalizado en la riqueza de MhAr en los árboles viejos y grandes en ambos tipos de bosques. La presencia de grupos específicos de MhAr tuvo una relación variada con el diámetro y la edad del árbol, aunque algunos grupos de MhAr (p. ej.: epífitas) tuvieron una relación positiva más fuerte con la elevación y la especie del árbol. Mientras que muchos grupos de MhAr estuvieron asociados positivamente con la edad y diámetro del árbol, sólo dos grupos de MhAr en los abetos reaccionaron exclusivamente a la edad del árbol (galerías de insectos y savia expuesta) sin responder al diámetro. Por lo tanto, la retención de los árboles con fines de conservación basada en los diámetros parece ser una estrategia plausible con un riesgo bajo de subrepresentación de los MhAr. Ya que a mayor edad y diámetro del árbol hubo efectos positivos en el desarrollo de los MhAr, poner un mayor énfasis sobre la conservación de los árboles grandes y permitirles alcanzar una edad mayor, por ejemplo, a través del establecimiento de reservas de conservación, mantendría de mejor manera la continuidad del MhAr y de la biodiversidad asociada. Sin embargo, esta estrategia puede ser complicada debido a la intensificación generalizada de la gestión forestal y el cambio climático mundial.
【摘要】
保护结构特征, 如与树有关的微生境 (TreM), 是适用于大型森林景观生物多样性保护且具有成本效益的重要工具。虽然 TreM 的发展受到树木直径、物种和生存力的影响, 但人们对树龄和 TreM 基本特征之间的关系仍知之甚少。本研究利用基于树木年轮的方法和包含8038棵树的大型数据集, 模拟了树龄、直径和位点特征对欧洲一些最完整的温带原始森林 (包括山毛榉和云杉混交林) TreM 丰富度和出现率的影响。我们发现在这两种森林类型中, 古树和大树的 TreM 丰富度总体上有所增加。特定 TreM 类型的出现率与树龄和直径有不一致的关系, 但一些 TreM 类型 (如附生植物) 与树种和海拔有较强的正相关关系。虽然许多 TreM 类型与树龄和直径呈正相关关系, 但云杉林中只有2种 TreM 类型只与树龄有相关性 (昆虫孔道和裸露的白木质), 而与直径没有相关性。因此, 为了保护目的而根据树木直径保留树木似乎是一种普遍可行的方法, 这种方法对 TreMs 代表性不足的风险相当低。 由于更大的树龄和直径对 TreMs 的发展有积极作用, 因此更应强调对大树的保护, 使其生长到更大树龄, 来更好地保持 TreM 资源和相关生物多样性的连续性 (如通过建立保护区) 。然而, 由于森林管理和全球气候变化问题的普遍加剧, 这种方法可能也面临困难。【翻译: 胡怡思; 审校: 聂永刚】
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
With accelerating environmental change, understanding forest disturbance impacts on trade-offs between biodiversity and carbon dynamics is of high socio-economic importance. Most studies, however, ...have assessed immediate or short-term effects of disturbance, while long-term impacts remain poorly understood. Using a tree-ring-based approach, we analysed the effect of 250 years of disturbances on present-day biodiversity indicators and carbon dynamics in primary forests. Disturbance legacies spanning centuries shaped contemporary forest co-benefits and trade-offs, with contrasting, local-scale effects. Disturbances enhanced carbon sequestration, reaching maximum rates within a comparatively narrow post-disturbance window (up to 50 years). Concurrently, disturbance diminished aboveground carbon storage, which gradually returned to peak levels over centuries. Temporal patterns in biodiversity potential were bimodal; the first maximum coincided with the short-term post-disturbance carbon sequestration peak, and the second occurred during periods of maximum carbon storage in complex old-growth forest. Despite fluctuating local-scale trade-offs, forest biodiversity and carbon storage remained stable across the broader study region, and our data support a positive relationship between carbon stocks and biodiversity potential. These findings underscore the interdependencies of forest processes, and highlight the necessity of large-scale conservation programmes to effectively promote both biodiversity and long-term carbon storage, particularly given the accelerating global biodiversity and climate crises.
•First study comparing disturbance history of adjacent forest types in primary state.•Natural disturbance history was synchronous among different forest types.•Severe disturbances were infrequent, ...but a key part of their dynamics.•Moderate- and low-severity disturbances were asynchronous and random.•A range of natural disturbances ensure spatiotemporal heterogeneity and resilience.
Understanding temporal and spatial variations in historical disturbance regimes across intact, continuous, and altitudinally diverse primary forest landscapes is imperative to help forecast forest development and adapt forest management in an era of rapid environmental change. Because few complex primary forest landscapes remain in Europe, previous research has largely described disturbance regimes for individual forest types and smaller isolated stands. We studied the largest but still largely unprotected mountain primary forest landscape in temperate Europe, the Făgăraș Mountains of Romania. To describe historical disturbance regimes and synchronicity in disturbance activity and trends between two widespread forest community types, dominated by Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), we established 191 permanent study plots (70 beech; 121 spruce) across 11 valleys, thereby providing information at both stand and landscape levels. We used a dendrochronological approach to reconstruct and describe the spatiotemporal patterns of historical disturbances. We observed a diverse spectrum of disturbance severities and timing across the forest landscape. High-severity disturbances created periods of synchrony in disturbance activity at the landscape scale, while moderate- and low-severity disturbances were asynchronous and random in both spruce- and beech-dominated primary forests. We detected a peak of canopy disturbance across the region at the end of the nineteenth century, with the most important periods of disturbance between the 1890s and 1910s. At the stand scale, we observed periods of synchronised disturbances with varying severities across both forest types. The level of disturbance synchrony varied widely among the stands. The beta regression showed that spruce forests had significantly higher average synchrony and higher between-stand variability of synchrony than the beech-dominated forests. Synchronised disturbances with higher severity were infrequent, but they were critical as drivers of subsequent forest development pathways and dynamics across both forest types.
Our results provide valuable insight into future resilience to climate-driven alterations of disturbance regimes in spruce- and beech-dominated mountain temperate forests in the Carpathians. We suggest that conservation efforts should recognize strictly protecting large continuous and altitudinally diversified forest landscapes such as Făgăraș Mts. as a necessary measure to tackle climate change and ensure temporal and spatial structural heterogeneity driven by a wide range of disturbances. The diverse and synchronous disturbance activity among two interconnected forest vegetation types highlights the need for complex spatiotemporal forest management approaches that emulate disturbance synchronicity to foster biodiversity across multiple forest vegetation types within forest landscapes.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Assessing the impacts of natural disturbance on the functioning of complex forest systems are imperative in the context of global change. The unprecedented rate of contemporary species extirpations, ...coupled with widely held expectations that future disturbance intensity will increase with warming, highlights a need to better understand how natural processes structure habitat availability in forest ecosystems. Standardised typologies of tree-related microhabitats (TreMs) have been developed to facilitate assessments of resource availability for multiple taxa. However, natural disturbance effects on TreM diversity have never been assessed. We amassed a comprehensive dataset of TreM occurrences and a concomitant 300-year disturbance history reconstruction that spanned large environmental gradients in temperate primary forests. We used nonlinear analyses to quantify relations between past disturbance parameters and contemporary patterns of TreM occurrence. Our results reveal that natural forest dynamics, characterised by fluctuating disturbance intervals and variable severity levels, maintained structurally complex landscapes rich in TreMs. Different microhabitat types developed over time in response to divergent disturbance histories. The relative abundance of alternate TreMs was maximised by unique interactions between past disturbance severity and elapsed time. Despite an unequal distribution of individual TreMs, total microhabitat diversity was maintained at constant levels, suggesting that spatially heterogeneous disturbances maintained a shifting mosaic of habitat types over the region as a whole. Our findings underscore the fundamental role of natural processes in promoting conditions that maximise biodiversity potential. Strict conservation and management systems that preserve natural disturbance outcomes, including associated biological legacies, may therefore safeguard biodiversity at large scales.
Full text
Available for:
EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
•Historical disturbances shaped the contemporary local and regional richness of fungi.•Natural disturbances had contrasting effects on fungi at different spatial scales.•Local red-listed species ...diversity increased due to higher disturbance frequency.•Regional diversity of all species was decreased by higher disturbance severity.
Understanding the processes shaping the composition of assemblages at multiple spatial scales in response to disturbance events is crucial for preventing ongoing biodiversity loss and for improving current forest management policies aimed at mitigating climate change and enhancing forest resilience. Deadwood-inhabiting fungi represent an essential component of forest ecosystems through their association with deadwood decomposition and the cycling of nutrients and carbon. Although we have sufficient evidence for the fundamental role of deadwood availability and variability of decay stages for fungal species diversity, the influence of long-term natural disturbance regimes as the main driver of deadwood quantity and quality has not been sufficiently documented. We used a dendroecological approach to analyse the effect of 250-years of historical natural disturbance and structural habitat elements on local (plot-level) and regional (stand-level) species richness of deadwood-inhabiting fungi. We used data collected from 51 study plots within nine best-preserved primary spruce forest stands distributed across the Western Carpathian Mountains. Historical disturbances shaped the contemporary local and regional species richness of fungi, with contrasting impacts of disturbance regime components at different spatial scales. While local diversity of red-listed species has increased due to higher disturbance frequency, regional diversity of all species has decreased due to higher severity historical disturbances. The volume of deadwood positively influenced the species richness of deadwood-inhabiting fungi while canopy openness had a negative impact. The high number of observed rare species highlights the important role of primary forests for biodiversity conservation. From a landscape perspective, we can conclude that the distribution of species from the regional species pool is - at least to some extent - driven by past spatiotemporal patterns of disturbance events. Natural disturbances occurring at higher frequencies that create a mosaic forest structure are necessary for fungal species - especially for rare and endangered taxa. Thus, both the protection of intact forest landscapes and forest management practises that emulate natural disturbance processes are recommended to support habitats of diverse fungal communities and their associated ecosystem functions.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
•Wood-inhabiting fungal diversity depends on habitat quantity, quality, and continuity.•Volume of lying deadwood and low snags affected the total species richness.•Red-listed species responded to ...continuity, i.e., the number of >250-years-old trees.•Forests with uninterrupted continuity should be prioritised for conservation.•Retention practices should be considered from a centuries-long time perspective.
An ongoing loss of Europe's old-growth forests urgently calls for improving our understanding of native biodiversity response to habitat changes. Studies disentangling the effects of habitat quantity, quality, and continuity on species diversity are rare, however, understanding the differences between these effects is crucial for forest management and conservation efforts. Here, we investigated the influence of habitat quantity, quality, and continuity on the total and red-listed species richness of wood-inhabiting fungi in old-growth mountain Norway spruce (Picea abies Karst.) forest in Central Europe. The fruitbody-based mycological survey conducted on permanent plots was combined with the measurements of forest structural characteristics such as deadwood volumes (indicating habitat quantity), dimensions, and decay stages (indicating habitat quality). Additionally, precise dendrochronological measurements were used to estimate the mean age of five oldest trees and the number of >250 years-old-trees (i.e., those that survived a probable logging activity about 250 years ago) as indicators of habitat continuity. Our results showed the total species richness of wood-inhabiting fungi to be best correlated with habitat quantity (volume of low snags and lying deadwood), while the red-listed species richness was best explained by habitat continuity indicated by the number of >250 years-old-trees. Our study provides novel evidence regarding uninterrupted habitat continuity being crucial in supporting red-listed fungal species. Stands with preserved habitat continuity (e.g., the absence of clearcutting and deforestation) as well as old-growth stands with long habitat history should be prioritised for conservation. Greater degree of retention forestry practices should be required in production forests to preserve habitat continuity. Our study shows that such decisions are likely to lead to positive effects that can persist for centuries.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
PDF
