Acorn Removal, Seedling Survivorship, and Seedlings Growth of Quercus crispipilis in Successional Forests of the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico

1992 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro F. Quintana-Ascencio ◽  
Mario Gonzalez-Espinosa ◽  
Neptali Ramirez-Marcial
1993 ◽  
Vol 80 (10) ◽  
pp. 1137-1145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron M. Ellison ◽  
Elizabeth J. Farnsworth

Solid Earth ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 1085-1094 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiao Tang ◽  
Carlos Alberto Busso ◽  
Deming Jiang ◽  
Ala Musa ◽  
Dafu Wu ◽  
...  

Abstract. As a native tree species, Ulmus pumila var. sabulosa (sandy elm) is widely distributed in the Horqin Sandy Land, China. However, seedlings of this species have to withstand various depths of sand burial after emergence because of increasing soil degradation, which is mainly caused by overgrazing, climate change, and wind erosion. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the changes in its survivorship, morphological traits, and biomass allocation when seedlings were buried at different burial depths: unburied controls and seedlings buried vertically up to 33, 67, 100, or 133 % of their initial mean seedling height. The results showed that partial sand burial treatments (i.e., less than 67 % burial) did not reduce seedling survivorship, which still reached 100 %. However, seedling mortality increased when sand burial was equal to or greater than 100 %. In comparison with the control treatment, seedling height and stem diameter increased at least by 6 and 14 % with partial burial, respectively. In the meantime, seedling taproot length, total biomass, and relative mass growth rates were at least enhanced by 10, 15.6, and 27.6 %, respectively, with the partial sand burial treatment. Furthermore, sand burial decreased total leaf area and changed biomass allocation in seedlings, partitioning more biomass to aboveground organs (e.g., leaves) and less to belowground parts (roots). Complete sand burial after seedling emergence inhibited its re-emergence and growth, even leading to death. Our findings indicated that seedlings of sandy elm showed some resistance to partial sand burial and were adapted to sandy environments from an evolutionary perspective. The negative effect of excessive sand burial after seedling emergence might help in understanding failures in recruitments of sparse elm in the study region.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-17
Author(s):  
Gabriela Jones ◽  
Josep M. Bas ◽  
Pere Pons

The seed fate in early successional habitats can determine plant composition and regeneration capacity after disturbance. Predispersalseed removal has been poorly studied in Mediterranean habitats, especially in burned and logged habitats. We assessed it for two years in pine forests with experiments excluding vertebrates from fleshy fruits (infructescences of Smilax aspera and Rubia peregrina) and acorns (branches of Quercus coccifera). We compared one unburned and one burned area (control). Acorn removal was nil in the burned area while in the unburned habitat seed removal occurred from the beginning of the experiments. It is suggested that the greater vegetation cover in the unburned area shelter rodents from predators and increased their activity. In contrast, reduced cover in the burned area and the occurrence of gnawed acorns on the ground suggest acorn removalby rodents mainly in the post-dispersive stage. Smilax aspera seed removal was slower, and total loss of fruits due to senescence higher,in the burned area. Seed removal appears to be conditioned by interannualvariations related to the activity and density of granivores and frugivores, the availability of fleshy fruits, and the maturation of fruits.In post-fire managed areas the role of granivores and frugivores in the regeneration process should be taken into account.


1992 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 968-973 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles M. Nixon ◽  
Lonnie P. Hansen ◽  
Paul A. Brewer ◽  
James E. Chelsvig

Stability and retention of parturition sites were examined for 17 white-tailed does (Odocoileus virginianus) radio-marked on an 800-ha forested area in Piatt County, east-central Illinois. Pre- and post-natal home range sizes were not significantly correlated with density of females, age of doe, litter size (postnatal range only), or sex of litter. As females aged, parturition sites moved closer to prenatal centers of home range activity (P < 0.02), and overlap of both pre- and post-natal home range boundaries increased in consecutive years (P < 0.001). Postnatal core areas of related females evidenced considerable overlap, whereas those of unrelated does were discrete. Breeding does used upland successional forests (< 60 years old) more than expected and bottomland forests less than expected (P < 0.05) as sites for parturition. Through seasonal movements, including migratory and dispersal behaviors, does in east-central Illinois, where forests are scarce, use all available sites suitable for parturition. Selection and retention of these parturition sites promote the development of matriarchal social groups, which ensures continued use of these sites by related females.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Eguiguren ◽  
Tatiana Ojeda Luna ◽  
Bolier Torres ◽  
Melvin Lippe ◽  
Sven Günter

The balance between the supply of multiple ecosystem services (ES) and the fulfillment of society demands is a challenge, especially in the tropics where different land use transition phases emerge. These phases are characterized by either a decline (from intact old-growth to logged forests) or a recovery of ES (successional forests, plantations, and agroforestry systems). This highlights the importance of ecosystem service multifunctionality (M) assessments across these land use transition phases as a basis for forest management and conservation. We analyzed synergies and trade-offs of ES to identify potential umbrella ES. We also evaluated the impact of logging activities in the decline of ES and M, and the influence of three recovery phases in the supply of ES and M. We installed 156 inventory plots (1600 m2) in the Ecuadorian Central Amazon and the Chocó. We estimated indicators for provisioning, regulating, supporting services and biodiversity. M indicator was estimated using the multifunctional average approach. Our results show that above-ground carbon stocks can be considered as an umbrella service as it presented high synergetic relations with M and various ES. We observed that logging activities caused a decline of 16–18% on M, with high impacts for timber volume and above-ground carbon stocks, calling for more sustainable practices with stricter post-harvesting control to avoid a higher depletion of ES and M. From the recovery phases it is evident that, successional forests offer the highest level of M, evidencing high potential to recover multiple ES after human disturbance.


2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Carlos Almazán-Núñez ◽  
María del Coro Arizmendi ◽  
Luis E. Eguiarte ◽  
Pablo Corcuera

Abstract:Few reports have described the relationship between the distribution of frugivorous birds and vegetation successional changes in dry forests. We assessed the abundance and behaviour of frugivorous birds in early, intermediate and mature dry forests in the Balsas river basin, Guerrero, Mexico. We selected nine dry-forest fragments, three fragments per stage, in these three stages of succession. We analysed the vegetation, estimated bird abundances in 10-min count periods, and recorded the way birds process fruits in circular plots (11–15 plots per fragment, 123 plots in total). Birds were classified as seed predators (15% of all individuals in this study), pulp consumers (15%) or legitimate dispersers (70%). Bird abundance was higher in mature forests in the dry season, while abundance and richness of legitimate dispersers and seed predators were positively related to vegetation complexity. Mature forests have a high vegetation complexity and a high cover ofBurseraspecies that produce fruit during the dry season. During the rains, abundance was higher in early-successional sites when the zoochorous plants produced fruit. Legitimate disperser migrants (i.e.Tyrannus vociferans, Myiarchus cinerascensandM. tyrannulus) were widespread, helping the establishment of zoochorous trees such asBurseraspp. in early-successional forests.


2002 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry L. Sharik ◽  
David S. Buckley

Abstract We documented patterns in the removal of planted northern red oak (Quercus rubra) acorns by rodents in red pine (Pinus resinosa) stands during a field study of oak regeneration in northern Lower Michigan. Each stand contained four overstory treatments assigned at random: clearcut, 25% cover, 50% cover, and uncut (control). Each level of canopy cover contained four randomly assigned understory treatments: shrub-layer removal, herb-layer removal, litter removal, and a control. Rodents removed acorns from 59% of the seed spots in the uncut control and 12% of the seed spots in the clearcut treatment. This five-fold difference was significant. Acorns were removed from 48% and 40% of the seed spots in the 75% and 50% canopy cover treatments, respectively. Differences in acorn removal between understory treatments were not significant. These results suggest that overstory vegetation treatments can influence the removal of planted acorns by rodents, which has implications for the use of direct seeding for artificially regenerating northern red oak.


1978 ◽  
Vol 56 (14) ◽  
pp. 1702-1709 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald T. Wicklow ◽  
W. F. Whittingham

Soil dilution plates were used to isolate populations of microfungi associated with the different soil horizons of five secondary successional forests, which arose after fire or clear-cutting, and three virginal (reference) stands. Ordinations of the populations within each horizon, based on similarities in the species composition of the microfungal communities, revealed the disturbed stands differed from their respective reference stands, although there was no consistent displacement of the stands in the ordinations. Most of the differences entailed alterations in frequency and (or) density, although a few species were predominant in one forest type but not in its counterpart. The most recently disturbed areas exhibited the greatest displacements from their reference stands. The ordinations suggested there is a sequential recovery of the mycoflora in the disturbed stands on loamy sand soils which would eventually result in a population similar to that in the reference stand.


2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 1502-1506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asko Lõhmus ◽  
Piret Lõhmus

During the 20th century, large agricultural areas in Eastern Europe became forested after their abandonment. To explore the value of these new forests for biota, we assessed volumes of coarse woody debris (CWD) on random transects in mid-aged (40–75 years old) stands. In mixed and deciduous forests that were not forested in the 1930s, downed tree (log) volumes were about two times lower than in cutover sites. The effect on snag volume depended on site type and was generally nonsignificant. Large-diameter CWD showed similar proportions in the long-term and new forest areas, but large, well-decayed trunks tended to be less frequent in the latter. No reduction of dead wood volume was found in new pine stands, 98% of which had previously been classified as mires (bogs). Hence the origin of mid-aged successional forests had affected their CWD supply (particularly logs) to some extent, but the general scarcity of CWD all over the forest land indicated much larger (at least five-fold) losses due to timber harvesting. We conclude that naturally reforested areas should not be automatically excluded from reserve establishment or other CWD-related conservation programmes.


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