Journal article
Effects of Climate, Soil, Topography and Disturbance on Liana Prevalence
Ecology and evolution, Vol.14(10), pp.1-15
2024
PMCID: PMC11464752
PMID: 39391818
Appears in UniSC Supported Open Access Outputs
Abstract
Lianas (woody vines and climbing monocots) are increasing in abundance in many tropical forests with uncertain consequences for forest functioning and recovery following disturbances. At a global scale, these increases are likely driven by disturbances and climate change. Yet, our understanding of the environmental variables that drive liana prevalence at regional scales is incomplete and geographically biased towards Latin America. To address this gap, we present a comprehensive study evaluating the combined effects of climate, soil, disturbance and topography on liana prevalence in the Australian Wet Tropics. We established 31 20 × 20 m vegetation plots along an elevation gradient in low disturbance (canopy closure ≥ 75%) and high disturbance (canopy closure ≤ 25%) forest stands. In these plots, all tree and liana (defined as all woody dicot vines and climbing monocots, i.e., rattans) stems ≥ 1 cm DBH were measured and environmental data were collected on climate, soil and topography. Generalised linear models were used with multi-model averaging to quantify the relative effects of the environmental variables on measures of liana prevalence (liana–tree basal area ratio, woody vine basal area and stem density and rattan stem density). Liana prevalence decreased with elevation but increased with disturbance and mean annual precipitation. The increase in the liana–tree ratio with precipitation was more pronounced for highly disturbed sites. Like other tropical regions, disturbance is an important driver of liana prevalence in Australian rainforests and appears to interact with climate to increase liana–tree ratios. The observed increase in liana–tree ratio with precipitation contrasts findings from elsewhere but is confounded by correlated changes in elevation and temperature, which highlights the importance of regional studies. Our findings show that forests with high disturbance and climatic conditions favourable to lianas are where lianas most likely to outcompete trees and impede forest recovery.
Details
- Title
- Effects of Climate, Soil, Topography and Disturbance on Liana Prevalence
- Authors
- Emma J. Mackintosh (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Research InstituteCatherine E. Waite (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Research InstituteFrancis E. Putz (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Research InstituteMarion Pfeifer - Newcastle UniversityChengrong Chen - Griffith UniversityZhongming Lan - Griffith UniversitySophie Brennan - Murdoch UniversityAndrew R. Marshall - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Research Institute
- Publication details
- Ecology and evolution, Vol.14(10), pp.1-15
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.1002/ece3.70374
- ISSN
- 2045-7758
- PMID
- 39391818; PMC11464752
- Copyright note
- © 2024 The Author(s). Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Data Availability
- All data used in this study is openly available at: https://datadryad.org/stash/share/2BZodMvI8tCNggnVJcxJBQ9S-PHA6xjA243T9r4rT-Q.
- Grant note
- CAT11904 / University of the Sunshine Coast Research Training Scholarship
- Organisation Unit
- Tropical Forests and People Research Centre; School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Forest Research Institute
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991066163802621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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