Deadwood is a large global carbon store with its store size partially determined by biotic decay. Microbial wood decay rates are known to respond to changing temperature and precipitation. Termites are also important decomposers in the tropics but are less well studied. An understanding of their climate sensitivities is needed to estimate climate change effects on wood carbon pools. Using data from 133 sites spanning six continents, we found that termite wood discovery and consumption were highly sensitive to temperature (with decay increasing >6.8 times per 10°C increase in temperature)—even more so than microbes. Termite decay effects were greatest in tropical seasonal forests, tropical savannas, and subtropical deserts. With tropicalization (i.e., warming shifts to tropical climates), termite wood decay will likely increase as termites access more of Earth’s surface.
We evaluated how tree community floristic composition, forest structure and dynamics varied over a period of 13 years across a topographic gradient of ravines created by anthropic disturbance in Brazilian Atlantic Forest. The study area is located within a fragment of Atlantic Forest (21° 09' S, 44° 54' W), in Minas Gerais state, Brazil. This work was based on data of tree diameter at 1.3 m from the soil, collected in four inventories. Each individual was recorded as being in one of three stratified topographic classes: hilltop, slope and bottom. We used direct gradient analysis to evaluate floristic compositional changes, phytosociological analysis to evaluate structural variations, and assessed demographic and biomass changes over time through analysis of rates of forest dynamics. The results did not reflect modifications in the patterns of floristic composition and species diversity along the topographic gradient, while differences in forest structural attributes and dynamics may be detected at these smaller spatial scales. Thus, the same species group may employ different strategies against different restrictive environmental factors. Finally, we suggest that floristic composition and species diversity may be less sensitive parameters for post-disturbance responses than forest dynamics and structure.
The objective of this work was to evaluate if the soil heterogeneity expressed by the different soil classes would condition tree communities with different dynamic behaviors. The data were collected from 25 plots sized 20 × 20 (400 m²), 10 of them with Inceptisols, 9 with Ultisols, 5 with Entisols B and 1 with Entisols A. All individuals with DBH ≥ 5.0 cm in the plots were sampled in 2000, 2005, 2009 and 2015. Rates of mortality, recruitment, gain, loss and turnover dynamics in number of individuals and basal area were estimated for each soil class. The tree communities present in the soil classes showed no differences in the dynamic behavior to the point of expressing edaphic fragment heterogeneity. The differences are associated with stochastic fluctuations in rates caused by small disturbances, suggesting little influence of the soils on the dynamics of small-scale communities.
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