Functional composition enhances aboveground carbon stock during tropical late-secondary forest succession

Rodrigues, Alice Cristina; Villa, Pedro Manuel; Silla, Fernando; Gomes, Lhoraynne Pereira; Meira‐Neto, João Augusto Alves; Torres, Carlos Moreira Miquelino Eleto

doi:10.1080/11263504.2022.2073394

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Our study had some limitations because ecosystem diversity, structural attributes, and processes can vary along environmental gradients [9]. First, in addition to stand characteristics, other unassessed factors may have in uenced the carbon stocks, such as stand age, successional stage, functional and phylogenetic diversity, human disturbance level, land-use history, the surrounding landscape, climate, soil, and topographical aspects [20,23,24,25,49,50]. Second, although our sampling area was large, we only investigated two sampling sites-one under protected status (national forest), the other not protected (urban forest).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers of carbon stocks in Araucaria forests

Cysneiros,

Pelissari,

Filho

2024

Preprint

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Background Understanding the drivers of variations in carbon stocks is essential for developing the effective management strategies that contribute to mitigating climate change. Although a positive relationship between biodiversity and the aboveground carbon (AGC) has been widely reported for various Brazilian forest types, representing a win–win scenario for climate change mitigation, this association has not been commonly found in Brazilian subtropical forests. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of Araucaria angustifolia populations, stand structure and species diversity in shaping AGC stocks in Brazilian subtropical mixed forests. We hypothesized that the effects on the AGC of stand structure and diversity would be mediated by A. angustifolia. We also evaluated the expectation of higher carbon stocks in protected forests as a result of their positive correlation with biodiversity conservation. Results We found that stand structure, followed by A. angustifolia population, played the most important role in shaping the AGC stock. Our hypothesis was partially confirmed, the direct and indirect effects of A. angustifolia on stand structure being found to have shaped the AGC. Similarly, our expectation was partially supported, with the higher AGC in the protected area being related not to diversity, but rather to the presence of larger trees, denser stands, and a greater abundance of A. angustifolia. Conclusion Although the win–win strategy between diversity conservation and carbon storage is not a peculiarity of Araucaria forests, we highlight the potential of these forests as a nature-based climate solution, maintaining high levels of carbon storage in harmony with the provision of keystone resources.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers of carbon stocks in Araucaria forests

Cysneiros,

Pelissari,

Filho

2024

Preprint

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“…showing that these few large-sized species can play a more prominent role in forest carbon stock than those abundant smaller-sized species (see also Rodrigues et al, 2023;Slik et al, 2013). This also shows that the non-carbon dominant species matter for ecosystem functioning as their individuals dominate these forests (67% tree community) (Lohbeck et al 2016).…”

Section: Implications For Carbon Mitigation Effortsmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…Other factors than the ones we studied, such as soil phosphorous (van der Sande et al 2017a;Waring et al 2019), or topography and taxonomic identity (see Fotis et al, 2018;Rodrigues et al, 2023Rodrigues et al, , 2019, might also influence carbon accumulation in carbon-dominant species.…”

Section: Succession and Soil Properties Are The Main Drivers Of Above...mentioning

confidence: 94%

Pro-Forest: drivers of structure, diversity, functional composition and vulnerability of brazilian atlantic rainforests : a study on functioning and processes

Safar

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Tropical forests are one of the most biodiverse, carbon-dense, but also threatened ecosystems in the world. Hence, promoting their conservation and ensuring the success of the successional process are important steps to maintain ecosystem functioning and effectively mitigate biodiversity loss and climate change. Here we aimed to determine the main drivers of forests attributes (e.g., structure, diversity and functional composition) that are informative of community assembly and ecosystem functioning and understand the functional vulnerability of high-diversity tropical rainforests situated on nutrient-poor soils and within highly fragmented human-modified landscapes. For that, we developed two independent but complementary studies: in the first (C1), we used data from 1.9 ha old-growth and 1.6 ha second-growth forest plots to assess the effects of landscape structure (matrix openness, patch density) on nine forest attributes related to structure (basal area, maximum height, structural heterogeneity), diversity (species richness, Simpson diversity, functional richness), and composition (community weighted-mean animal-dispersal shade-tolerance and seed size) over four different spatial scales (400 to 3200 m buffer radius) in three different regions (i.e., landscape contexts). We found that landscape openness negatively affected most forest attributes, but the magnitude of effect varied with i) landscape attribute, ii) forest attribute, and iii) region (i.e. landscape context): deforestation had a negative stronger effect than fragmentation; landscape openness reduced most strongly forest structure and animal-dispersed species; landscape openness had different effects in different regions, and affected forest structural attributes at all spatial scales, animal dispersed species at larger spatial scales, and seed size at small spatial scales. These findings indicate that landscape effects on forest attributes in human-modified landscapes cannot be generalized as they depend on the landscape context. In the second study (C2), we used data from 2.7 ha second-growth forest plots to assess the how stand age, landscape structure (matrix openness, patch density), seasonal water availability (climatic water deficit), and soil properties (sum of base, nitrogen, organic carbon and clay contents) predict aboveground carbon stock and functional composition (community weighted-mean maximum stem diameter, maximum stem height and species-specific wood density), redundancy, and vulnerability of second-growth Atlantic forests. We found that forest age and soil properties were the main drivers of aboveground carbon stock, functional redundancy and vulnerability; that seasonal water availability predicted species growth and wood density; while soil properties predicted species growth, but not wood density; and finally, that stands in highly fragmented and deforested landscapes can harbor carbon-dominant species. These findings advance our understanding of the factors that drive carbon stock and vulnerability in second- growth Atlantic forests and highlight the importance of considering local site conditions in forest restoration and climate change mitigation efforts. Keywords: Climate Change. Functional traits. Land use Change. Landscape context. Dispersal. Soil Properties. Spatial Scale. Succession

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Phytolith assemblages reflect variability in human land use and the modern environment

Witteveen,

White,

Sanchez Martinez

et al. 2023

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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Phytoliths preserved in soils and sediments can be used to provide unique insights into past vegetation dynamics in response to human and climate change. Phytoliths can reconstruct local vegetation in terrestrial soils where pollen grains typically decay, providing a range of markers (or lack thereof) that document past human activities. The ca. 6 million km2 of Amazonian forests have relatively few baseline datasets documenting changes in phytolith representation across gradients of human disturbances. Here we show that phytolith assemblages vary on local scales across a gradient of (modern) human disturbance in tropical rainforests of Suriname. Detrended correspondence analysis showed that the phytolith assemblages found in managed landscapes (shifting cultivation and a garden), unmanaged forests, and abandoned reforesting sites were clearly distinguishable from intact forests and from each other. Our results highlight the sensitivity and potential of phytoliths to be used in reconstructing successional trajectories after site usage and abandonment. Percentages of specific phytolith morphotypes were also positively correlated with local palm abundances derived from UAV data, and with biomass estimated from MODIS satellite imagery. This baseline dataset provides an index of likely changes that can be observed at other sites that indicate past human activities and long-term forest recovery in Amazonia.

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Functional composition enhances aboveground carbon stock during tropical late-secondary forest succession

Cited by 6 publications

References 60 publications

Drivers of carbon stocks in Araucaria forests

Drivers of carbon stocks in Araucaria forests

Pro-Forest: drivers of structure, diversity, functional composition and vulnerability of brazilian atlantic rainforests : a study on functioning and processes

Phytolith assemblages reflect variability in human land use and the modern environment

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