Effects of environmental filters on early establishment of cloud forest trees along elevation gradients: Implications for assisted migration

García-Hernández, María de los Ángeles; Toledo‐Aceves, Tarin; López‐Barrera, Fabiola; Sosa, Vinicio J.; Paz, Horacio

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2018.09.042

Cited by 37 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 77 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Ex situ conservation of long-term suitable areas that have been predicted by the ESMs is also urgently required for Q. arbutifolia. Recently, a successful case of a climate change mitigation strategy of cloud forest trees with narrow distributions was reported, using socalled assisted migration (García-Hernández et al, 2019). Thus, it would be very important to consider such assisted migration of this species to areas with suitable climatic conditions.…”

Section: Ex Situ Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting climate change impacts on the threatened Quercus arbutifolia in montane cloud forests in southern China and Vietnam: Conservation implications

Song

Petitpierre²,

Deng³

et al. 2019

Forest Ecology and Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A B S T R A C TTrees of montane cloud forests (MCFs) often have small and isolated populations and face numerous threats. Due to limited conservation resources, management decisions are often based on scarce biological information. This study investigated the current status of populations of the critically endangered oak species Quercus arbutifolia in southern China, including its distribution, threats, population structure, and area of occupancy (AOO). Additionally, by using ensembles of small models (ESMs), the present and future (2050) distributions of climatically suitable habitats were predicted throughout south China and Vietnam. The present distribution of Q. arbutifolia is extremely fragmented, with only eight confirmed populations and a very small number of individuals (ca. 1200 in total). The results presented here show that Q. arbutifolia populations suffer from habitat destruction and fragmentation, small population size, unbalanced population structure, and pressure from strong competitor species, even though all known occurrences of Q. arbutifolia are in already established nature reserves. Based on the utilized models, the current potential distribution is limited to MCFs, and 17 new areas were predicted to have complete habitats suitability for Q. arbutifolia. However, only a small area in Fujian province will remain suitable for Q. arbutifolia in the future. The current AOO of Q. arbutifolia is very small (8.49 km 2 ), with one-third of all populations predicted to be extinct by 2050, even under the minimum emission assumption. Finally, various actions and conservation measures, such as search for new unknown populations as well as ex situ and in situ conservation, are introduced and discussed in this paper.

show abstract

Section: Ex Situ Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting climate change impacts on the threatened Quercus arbutifolia in montane cloud forests in southern China and Vietnam: Conservation implications

Song

Petitpierre²,

Deng³

et al. 2019

Forest Ecology and Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Similarly, in British Columbia, Canada, a commercial system of large-scale assisted migration was recently introduced using a migration distance that accounts for climate change in the last 70 years and for the change anticipated in the next 20 years (O'Neill et al, 2017). In Mexico, however, there are no experiences of assisted migration conducted on commercial or large scale conservation programs-only those at small experimental scale, where germplasm migration has generally been successful where it did not exceed 400 m upward elevation shift (e.g., Valle-Díaz et al, 2009;Castellanos-Acuña et al, 2015;García-Hernández et al, 2019;Gómez-Ruiz et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological Restoration of Abies religiosa Forests Using Nurse Plants and Assisted Migration in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…germana , and Q. sartorii also displayed high survival, regardless of elevation, 2 years post‐transplanting, and this trend was maintained. However, in the case of O. disjuncta and P. rhamnoides , the previous evaluation shows that survival was unaffected by elevation (García‐Hernández et al 2019). These results stress the importance of long‐term monitoring to determine the species‐specific response to new conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Enrichment plantings were established in seven forest sites sharing the following characteristics: a forest fragment with a minimum area of 1 ha, presence of forest cover for at least the last 40 years, absence of cattle grazing inside the forest and a slope of ≤40°. The forest characteristics for each site are shown in Table 2 and a more detailed description of the forest sites is available in a previous publication (García‐Hernández et al 2019). For four species, the upper reported elevation limit lies below the elevation of the three highest forest sites (Tables 1 & 2).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do plant‐herbivore interactions persist in assisted migration plantings?

Toledo‐Aceves

del‐Val

2020

Restoration Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biotic interactions are expected to be impacted by rising temperatures due to climate change, particularly in climate-threatened ecosystems such as the tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF). In assisted migration plantings, novel interactions between previously non-overlapping species may emerge while other interactions may disappear. However, these processes require study. Herbivory is particularly important in tree early stages, and can vary with elevation and plant species traits. We assessed whether leaf herbivory occurs in translocated tree saplings and varies with elevation, and whether herbivory affects sapling growth in six shade-tolerant TMCF tree species translocated to seven enrichment plantings along an elevation gradient (1,250-2,500 m a.s.l.), including sites located above the reported distributional limit of the species, in eastern Mexico. Given the conservative strategy of the studied plant species, limited damage was expected. Since insects are ectothermic, we expected decreasing herbivory pressure with increased elevation. After 4 years, sapling survival was high (77.9-92.1%). Moderate herbivory was recorded in all species and at all sites (1.0-6.6%), with no effect on growth in any of the species. Herbivory decreased with elevation in three species and was unaffected in the other three. The results indicate that plant-herbivore interactions can continue at new locations; however, the contribution of generalist and specialist insect herbivores requires further study. The reduced herbivory at higher elevation in some species supports the expected trend, which could represent an advantage for upward assisted migration of endangered TMCF tree species in restoration plantings to mitigate climate change effects.

show abstract

Effects of environmental filters on early establishment of cloud forest trees along elevation gradients: Implications for assisted migration

Cited by 37 publications

References 77 publications

Predicting climate change impacts on the threatened Quercus arbutifolia in montane cloud forests in southern China and Vietnam: Conservation implications

Predicting climate change impacts on the threatened Quercus arbutifolia in montane cloud forests in southern China and Vietnam: Conservation implications

Ecological Restoration of Abies religiosa Forests Using Nurse Plants and Assisted Migration in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

Do plant‐herbivore interactions persist in assisted migration plantings?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About