Soil characteristics are important drivers of variation in wet tropical forest structure and diversity, but few studies have evaluated these relationships in drier forest types. Using tree and soil data from 48 and 32 1 ha plots, respectively, in a Bolivian moist and dry forest, we asked how soil conditions affect forest structure and diversity within each of the two forest types. After correcting for spatial effects, soil‐vegetation relationships differed between the dry and the moist forest, being strongest in the dry forest. Furthermore, we hypothesized that soil nutrients would play a more important role in the moist forest than in the dry forest because vegetation in the moist forest is less constrained by water availability and thus can show its full potential response to soil fertility. However, contrary to our expectations, we found that soil fertility explained a larger number of forest variables in the dry forest (50 percent) than in the moist forest (17 percent). Shannon diversity declined with soil fertility at both sites, probably because the most dominant, shade‐tolerant species strongly increased in abundance as soil fertility increased.
This study explores potential adaptation approaches in planning and management that the United States Forest Service might adopt to help achieve its goals and objectives in the face of climate change. Availability of information, vulnerability of ecological and socio-economic systems, and uncertainties associated with climate change, as well as the interacting non-climatic changes, influence selection of the adaptation approach. Resource assessments are opportunities to develop strategic information that could be used to identify and link adaptation strategies across planning levels. Within a National Forest, planning must incorporate the opportunity to identify vulnerabilities to climate change as well as incorporate approaches that allow management adjustments as the effects of climate change become apparent. The nature of environmental variability, the inevitability of novelty and surprise, and the range of management objectives and situations across the National Forest System implies that no single approach will fit all situations. A toolbox of management options would include practices focused on forestalling climate change effects by building resistance and resilience into current ecosystems, and on managing for change by enabling plants, animals, and ecosystems to adapt to climate change. Better and more widespread implementation of already known practices that reduce the impact of existing stressors represents an important ''no regrets'' strategy. These management opportunities will require agency consideration of its adaptive
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.