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Biotropica - 2024 - Mackintosh - Lianas associated with continued forest biomass losses following large‐scale disturbances1.33 MB
Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Lianas associated with continued forest biomass losses following large‐scale disturbances
Biotropica, Vol.56(5), pp.1-12
2024
Appears in UniSC Supported Open Access Outputs
Abstract
Lianas are important to rainforest ecosystems but often impede tree growth and increase tree mortality and stem damage after disturbances that favor their growth. Understanding how lianas affect biomass recovery and rates of carbon sequestration following disturbance is therefore of crucial importance. In this study, we determine how a tropical forest recovers biomass following a large‐scale disturbance, and test how this varies with liana dominance and stem damage. We use remote sensing methods to develop a model, validated by field data from 40 20 × 20 m vegetation plots, to measure the change in tree aboveground biomass 8 years after Tropical Cyclone Yasi damaged logged forests in the Australian Wet Tropics. We related tree biomass changes to field measures of current liana dominance over trees, expressed as liana: tree basal area ratio, and assessed how these measures related to tree stem damage. Biomass declined in 34 of the 40 plots during the 8 years post‐disturbance, with loss rates and proportions of damaged tree stems increasing with the liana: tree ratio. From spatial upscaling, we found a net loss in biomass across the study landscape over the same period. Our results show that, following disturbances, lianas not only limit tree biomass recovery but also are associated with further biomass declines, most likely through their contribution to stem damage and delayed mortality. Furthermore, our finding of net biomass loss across the landscape since the cyclone shows that, post‐disturbance, rainforests can act as a carbon source with consequences for the global carbon sink.
Details
- Title
- Lianas associated with continued forest biomass losses following large‐scale disturbances
- Authors
- Emma J. Mackintosh (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Research InstituteCatherine E. Waite - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Research InstituteFrancis E. Putz - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Research InstituteSophie Brennan - Murdoch UniversityMarion Pfeifer - Newcastle UniversityAndrew R. Marshall - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Research Institute
- Publication details
- Biotropica, Vol.56(5), pp.1-12
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.1111/btp.13348
- ISSN
- 1744-7429; 0006-3606
- Copyright note
- © 2024 The Author(s). Biotropica published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation 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
- The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in the Dryad Digital Repository: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.prr4xgxvh.
- Grant note
- University of the Sunshine Coast Research Training Program Scholarship: CAT11904
- Organisation Unit
- Tropical Forests and People Research Centre; Indigenous Services - Legacy; School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Forest Research Institute
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991048852002621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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