Plant Succession and Soil Development in Coastal Sand Dunes of Subtropical Eastern Australia

Walker, J.; Thompson, C. H.; Fergus, I. F.; Tunstall, Brian

doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-5950-3_9

Cited by 162 publications

(79 citation statements)

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“…Clearly, land surfaces for which this criterion might apply must have sufficient age to reflect this moderating influence by vegetation but not so old as to develop severe limitations owing to limitations other than water. A significant example of the latter phenomenon was described by Walker et al (1981), in which productivity decreased with increasing age of very old dune systems owing to a progressive loss of nutrients from the system. Although the hydrological equilibrium idea for vegetation cover is attributed in recent literature (e.g.…”

Section: Relationship To Other Ideas In Hydrology and Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Eagleson’s optimality theory of an ecohydrological equilibrium: quo vadis?

Hatton

Salvucci

1997

Functional Ecology

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Section: Relationship To Other Ideas In Hydrology and Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Eagleson’s optimality theory of an ecohydrological equilibrium: quo vadis?

Hatton

Salvucci

1997

Functional Ecology

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“…This occurs through the gradual loss of total phosphorus via leaching and erosion (Hedin et al 2003) as well as chemical transformations of phosphorus compounds in the soil, including a depletion of primary mineral phosphate and an accumulation of phosphorus bound in secondary minerals and organic compounds (Crews et al 1995;Parfitt et al 2005;Turner et al 2007). In the absence of rejuvenating disturbance, the decline in phosphorus availability leads to a corresponding decline in the biomass of the vegetation, termed 'retrogression' (Wardle et al 2004), as well as changes in the diversity and composition of the plant community (Mark et al 1988;Richardson et al 2005;Walker et al 1981;Wardle et al 2008). Soil chronosequences therefore provide opportunities to obtain information on long-term drivers of plant community assembly (Peltzer et al 2010;Walker et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of tree community composition along a coastal dune chronosequence in lowland temperate rain forest in New Zealand

et al. 2012

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Soil chronosequences provide an opportunity to examine the influence of long-term pedogenesis on the biomass and composition of associated tree communities. We assessed variation in the species composition of trees, saplings, and seedlings, and the basal area of adult trees, in lowland temperate rain forest along the Haast chronosequence on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand. The sequence consists of Holocene dune ridges formed following periodic earthquake disturbance and is characterized by rapid podzol development, including a marked decline in phosphorus concentrations, accumulation of a thick organic horizon, and formation of a cemented iron pan. Tree basal area increased for the first few hundred years and then declined in parallel with the decline in total soil phosphorus, consistent with the concept of forest retrogression. There were also marked changes in the composition of the tree community, from dominance by conifers on young soils to a mixed conifer-angiosperm forest on old soils. Although a variety of factors could account for these changes, partial Mantel tests revealed strong correlations between tree community composition and soil nutrients. The relationships differed among life history stages, however, because the adult tree community composition was correlated strongly with nutrients in the mineral soil, whereas the seedling community composition was correlated with nutrients in the organic horizon, presumably reflecting differences in rooting depth. The changes in the tree community at Haast are consistent with disturbancerelated succession in conifer-angiosperm forests in the region, but the opposite of patterns along the nearby Franz Josef post-glacial chronosequence, where conifers are most abundant on old soils. The Haast chronosequence is therefore an important additional example of forest retrogression linked to long-term soil phosphorus depletion, and provides evidence for the role of soil nutrients in determining the distribution of tree species during long-term succession in lowland temperate rain forests in New Zealand.

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“…However, these groups have developed their conceptual frameworks somewhat independently (but see Walker et al 1981, Vitousek 2004. Therefore the available information on retrogression is dispersed through a broad spectrum of the scientific literature.…”

Section: What Is Ecosystem Retrogression?mentioning

confidence: 99%