Big‐sized trees overrule remaining trees' attributes and species richness as determinants of aboveground biomass in tropical forests

Ali, Arshad; Lin, Siliang; Kong, Fan-Mao; Yu, Jingfang; Jiang, Haisheng

doi:10.1111/gcb.14707

Cited by 94 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 54 publications

(207 reference statements)

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“…Emerging evidence suggests that AGB is influenced by the action of soil on stand characteristics such as structural diversity (Ali et al 2019, Aponte et al 2020), stand density (Ali et al 2019), species richness (Ali et al 2019, b2019), functional diversity (Aponte et al 2020, Cheng et al 2020) and the number of large trees (Aldana et al 2017, Navarrete‐Segueda et al 2018, Ali et al 2019). This has been demonstrated at broad spatial scales for temperate (Aponte et al 2020), tropical (Ali et al 2019, c2019), and moist temperate, semi‐humid and semi‐arid forests (Ali et al 2020). Soil characteristics have the potential to directly determine the type of vegetation that can be supported (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As do disturbances such as prescribed fire (Bennett et al 2013), wildfire (Bowman et al 2013, Keith et al 2014) and harvest (Norris et al 2010). Further, climate and soil may act indirectly on AGB by affecting these biotic factors (Aldana et al 2017, Ali et al 2019, c2019, Aponte et al 2020). Hence, the traits of dominant species, and the structural and functional composition of the forest, together with disturbance history (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Climate more important than soils for predicting forest biomass at the continental scale

et al. 2020

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Above‐ground biomass in forests is critical to the global carbon cycle as it stores and sequesters carbon from the atmosphere. Climate change will disrupt the carbon cycle hence understanding how climate and other abiotic variables determine forest biomass at broad spatial scales is important for validating and constraining Earth System models and predicting the impacts of climate change on forest carbon stores. We examined the importance of climate and soil variables to explaining above‐ground biomass distribution across the Australian continent using publicly available biomass data from 3130 mature forest sites, in 6 broad ecoregions, encompassing tropical, subtropical and temperate biomes. We used the Random Forest algorithm to test the explanatory power of 14 abiotic variables (8 climate, 6 soil) and to identify the best‐performing models based on climate‐only, soil‐only and climate plus soil. The best performing models explained ~50% of the variation (climate‐only: R2 = 0.47 ± 0.04, and climate plus soils: R2 = 0.49 ± 0.04). Mean temperature of the driest quarter was the most important climate variable, and bulk density was the most important soil variable. Climate variables were consistently more important than soil variables in combined models, and model predictive performance was not substantively improved by the inclusion of soil variables. This result was also achieved when the analysis was repeated at the ecoregion scale. Predicted forest above‐ground biomass ranged from 18 to 1066 Mg ha−1, often under‐predicting measured above‐ground biomass, which ranged from 7 to 1500 Mg ha−1. This suggested that other non‐climate, non‐edaphic variables impose a substantial influence on forest above‐ground biomass, particularly in the high biomass range. We conclude that climate is a strong predictor of above‐ground biomass at broad spatial scales and across large environmental gradients, yet to predict forest above‐ground biomass distribution under future climates, other non‐climatic factors must also be identified.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate more important than soils for predicting forest biomass at the continental scale

et al. 2020

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“…High-value timber species play important ecological and economic roles in forest management [1,2]. Trees with high economic value are often large in size [3] contributing to structural heterogeneity, dynamics, and functions of the forest ecosystem [4,5], and make up a large fraction of aboveground biomass [6]. They play an important role in the rate and pattern of regeneration and forest succession [7] and provide habitats for wildlife species [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing Individual Tree Height Information Derived from Field Surveys, LiDAR and UAV-DAP for High-Value Timber Species in Northern Japan

Moe

Owari

Furuya

et al. 2020

Forests

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High-value timber species such as monarch birch (Betula maximowicziana Regel), castor aralia (Kalopanax septemlobus (Thunb.) Koidz), and Japanese oak (Quercus crispula Blume) play important ecological and economic roles in forest management in the cool temperate mixed forests in northern Japan. The accurate measurement of their tree height is necessary for both practical management and scientific reasons such as estimation of biomass and site index. In this study, we investigated the similarity of individual tree heights derived from conventional field survey, digital aerial photographs derived from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV-DAP) data and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data. We aimed to assess the applicability of UAV-DAP in obtaining individual tree height information for large-sized high-value broadleaf species. The spatial position, tree height, and diameter at breast height (DBH) were measured in the field for 178 trees of high-value broadleaf species. In addition, we manually derived individual tree height information from UAV-DAP and LiDAR data with the aid of spatial position data and high resolution orthophotographs. Tree heights from three different sources were cross-compared statistically through paired sample t-test, correlation coefficient, and height-diameter model. We found that UAV-DAP derived tree heights were highly correlated with LiDAR tree height and field measured tree height. The performance of individual tree height measurement using traditional field survey is likely to be influenced by individual species. Overall mean height difference between LiDAR and UAV-DAP derived tree height indicates that UAV-DAP could underestimate individual tree height for target high-value timber species. The height-diameter models revealed that tree height derived from LiDAR and UAV-DAP could be better explained by DBH with lower prediction errors than field measured tree height. We confirmed the applicability of UAV-DAP data for obtaining the individual tree height of large-size high-value broadleaf species with comparable accuracy to LiDAR and field survey. The result of this study will be useful for the species-specific forest management of economically high-value timber species.

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“…However, growth slows with increasing age/height and is limited to a certain maximum size (currently reported to be 115 m) most likely due to hydraulic limitations of photosynthetic carbon gain (Koch, Sillett, Jennings, & Davis, ; Larjavaara, ). Even in the downsized setting of our modern world, megatrees play a major role in global carbon storage (Ali et al, ; Moles et al, ), with large‐sized trees accounting for up to 50% of above‐ground live biomass in current forests (Lutz et al, ).…”

Section: The Ecological Consequences Of Analogous Downsizingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lindenmayer & Laurance, ) and representing the largest 1% of trees (cf. Ali et al, ; Lutz et al, ) in a given ecosystem in the absence of strong past downsizing. Knowledge about past downsizing can be obtained from the collective memory of local communities or other sources of historical or pre‐historic information.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analogous losses of large animals and trees, socio‐ecological consequences, and an integrative framework for rewilding‐based megabiota restoration

Schweiger

Svenning

2019

People and Nature

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Large‐sized animals (megafauna) and trees (megatrees) are key ecosystem components with high cultural and economic importance going back millennia. Once common, both groups of megabiota have been massively reduced in pre‐historic and historic times, with human‐induced downsizing still ongoing. Key ecosystem services provided by megafauna and megatrees include nutrient and seed transfer, carbon allocation, climate regulation and biodiversity facilitation. Socio‐cultural services include food and timber provisioning and the ‘charisma’ of large‐sized organisms, with its associated high cultural, recreational and nature conservation values for human societies worldwide. Conservation and restoration of megafauna and—trees in a socio‐ecological framework are needed to counteract past and ongoing analogous downsizing of both groups of megabiota and the loss of important ecosystem services in a human‐dominated world. Importantly, synergistic megatree–megafauna restoration promotes self‐regulating biodiverse ecosystems across the full range of land use intensities ranging from current downsized wildlands to highly human‐modified landscapes. We propose an integrative rewilding‐based restoration framework applicable across the whole range of human land use intensity. This includes individual‐based protection, assisted colonisation and facilitation of urban wildlife. Active management of megafauna and ‐trees can be economically beneficial and necessary to minimize human–wildlife conflicts in highly human‐dominated landscapes. Societal acceptance and adaptation to old big trees and wild megafauna are prerequisites for successful megabiota restoration in human‐modified landscapes and elsewhere where human–wildlife conflicts are hard to avoid. The prime goal of such integrative rewilding activities should be a proactive facilitation of the self‐regulation potential of natural and novel ecosystems for which large‐sized trees and animals would be some of the most important components for enhancing biodiversity and societal value in the Anthropocene. Such megabiota restoration needs to be done on a wide scale to restore functional effects on the biosphere. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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Big‐sized trees overrule remaining trees' attributes and species richness as determinants of aboveground biomass in tropical forests

Cited by 94 publications

References 54 publications

Climate more important than soils for predicting forest biomass at the continental scale

Climate more important than soils for predicting forest biomass at the continental scale

Comparing Individual Tree Height Information Derived from Field Surveys, LiDAR and UAV-DAP for High-Value Timber Species in Northern Japan

Analogous losses of large animals and trees, socio‐ecological consequences, and an integrative framework for rewilding‐based megabiota restoration

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