Why we<i>still</i>need permanent plots for vegetation science

Bello, Francesco de; Valencia, Enrique; Ward, David; Hallett, Lauren M.

doi:10.1111/jvs.12928

Cited by 34 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 73 publications

(103 reference statements)

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“…Environmental drivers work over longer time periods, and therefore long‐term data are critically needed (de Bello et al., 2020; Cusser et al., 2021; Hollister et al., 2005; Luo et al., 2011). In longer‐term studies, the effect of year‐to‐year variation is reduced, directional changes become clearer and slow responses of species with long generation times and slow life cycles can become visible (de Bello et al., 2020). Indeed, thermophilization of forest floor communities often lags behind the warming trends measured by weather stations (Bertrand et al., 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid thermophilization of understorey plant communities in a 9 year‐long temperate forest experiment

et al. 2021

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The vast majority of plant biodiversity associated with temperate forests is harboured by the understorey layer. This layer also plays crucial roles in ecosystem functions such as tree regeneration, nutrient cycling and carbon dynamics. Research using space‐for‐time substitutions and resurveys of vegetation plots has shown that climate warming, changes in forest management and resource availability are key determinants of forest understorey biodiversity change and functioning. However, long‐term experiments are needed to better unravel their complex interactive effects. Here we study the influence of nearly a decade of experimental warming, light addition using fluorescent tubes (as a proxy for management‐driven changes in forest‐floor light levels) and nitrogen input on understorey plant communities of temperate broadleaved forest. Plant communities shifted towards a higher dominance of warm‐adapted species, a process referred to as thermophilization. We detected a marked community shift in all treatments including the control plots, reflecting ongoing ambient environmental changes. This reordering over time was greater than the shift induced by the treatments. Thermophilization was, however, greatest when temperature and/or light availability were enhanced. Communities were also taller in response to warming and increased light availability. Synthesis. Our experiment provides important insights into 9 years of vegetation changes in a temperate forest and how canopy density and forest management can be adapted to limit thermophilization of forest understorey biodiversity under climate change. [Correction added on 27 April 2021, after first online publication: The Synthesis section in the abstract has been updated to reflect the original text supplied.]

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid thermophilization of understorey plant communities in a 9 year‐long temperate forest experiment

et al. 2021

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“…High‐rainfall periods can trigger long‐lasting shifts in vegetation, and thus have been presented as a window of opportunity for restoration (Anadon et al., 2014; Holmgren & Scheffer, 2001; Rietkerk et al, 1997). At the same time, they present a challenge for quantitative resilience evaluation because the response of the vegetation to land‐use exclusion has to be disentangled from the responses to changes in rain conditions (de Bello et al., 2020; Ward et al., 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low resilience at the early stages of recovery of the semi‐arid Chaco forest—Evidence from a field experiment

et al. 2021

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1. Resilience-the capacity of an ecosystem to recover from disturbance-is a popular concept but quantitative empirical studies are still uncommon. This lack of empirical evidence is especially true for semi-arid ecosystems in the face of the combined and often confounding impacts of land use and climate changes.2. We designed a methodology to disentangle vegetation responses to land-use exclusion and weather variability, and piloted it at the southern extreme of the Gran Chaco forest, the most extensive seasonally dry forest in South America.We established 16 pairs of neighbouring fenced and unfenced plots in four ecosystem types resulting from different long-term land-use regimes under the same climate and on highly similar soil parental material. From lower to higher land-use intensity, related with logging and livestock grazing and trampling, these types were: primary forest (no land use in the last 50 years), secondary forest, closed species-rich shrubland and open shrubland. In each plot we monitored plant species composition during the first 5 years following land-use exclusion, and evaluated the resilience as the rate of change of vegetation towards the primary forest, considered as the reference ecosystem.3. We found that during the first 5 years of exclusion and despite the high rainfall, only grass cover in the secondary forest showed positive resilience (recovery towards the reference ecosystem). The rest of the variables in the other ecosystem types showed either no significant change (null resilience) or even transitioned away from the reference state (negative resilience). 4.Synthesis. The lack of detectable recovery after 5 years of exclusion suggests that (a) long-term land use, even at lower intensities, has affected the sources of resilience of this ecosystem; (b) rainy periods do not necessarily speed up recovery as suggested in the literature; and (c) study designs should incorporate the variation of the reference ecosystem in order to differentiate the effect of land use from other factors in a context of climate change. Although still confined to the early post-disturbance stages, our findings suggest that recovery of these systems may be slower and more complicated than predicted in the literature on the basis of space-for-time substitutions.

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“…The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted March 9, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.08.434383 doi: bioRxiv preprint 4 Although regeneration and growth are crucial processes in population dynamics (Mondoni et al, 2015), range shifts (Myers-Smith & Hik, 2018), and ecosystem functioning (Büntgen et al, 2015), accurate identification of the environmental factors that control these processes remains elusive. In most global change studies related to herbs, the responses and long-term trends are derived from snapshot plant cover resurveys with long intervals between discrete sampling dates (Staude et al, 2020) without knowing what happened in-between (e.g., cyclical fluctuation, linear shift, quadratic relationship; de Bello et al, 2020). Such approaches do not necessarily lead to identifying the real trends and main mechanisms through which the changing environment limits or boosts plant performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate fluctuations drive the recruitment and growth of temperate grassland plants

Doležal

Altman

Jandová

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Recent climate warming is associated with the increasing magnitude and frequency of extreme events, including heatwaves and drought periods worldwide. Such events can have major effects on the species composition of plant communities, hence on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Here we studied responses of Central European dry grassland plants to fluctuating temperature and precipitation over the last thirty years with monthly temporal resolution. We assessed the seasonal and annual dynamics of plant recruitment and growth based on the analysis of annual growth rings from the root collar. Although most studies so far applied such methods to trees and shrubs, we focused on typical grassland plants, two forbs and two chamaephytes. We related the recruitment and annual growth to monthly and annual precipitation, temperature and aridity between 1991 and 2019. We revealed species-specific responses, namely the (i) recruitment of deep-rooted, heavy-seeded species was positively affected by precipitation in both late winter-early spring and summer, whereas recruitment of shallow-rooted, light-seeded species was weakly influenced by climate fluctuations; (ii) growth of shallow-rooted species was more adversely affected by high summer temperature and drought than the growth of deep-rooted species. The population age structure of all the studied species was affected by the climate of the past decades. Most individuals established in the wet period of the 2000s, fewer in the precipitation-poorer 1990s, and the establishment was considerably reduced in the dry and warm period of the 2010s. Our findings indicate that the change towards warmer and drier climate has a profound effect even on drought-adapted ecosystems such as temperate dry grasslands. However, plant responses to various climatic extremes are species-specific, depending on their characteristics, such as life form or rooting depth. Consequently, the ongoing and anticipated climate warming will likely result in complex changes in species composition and other ecosystem properties of temperate grasslands.

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Why westillneed permanent plots for vegetation science

Cited by 34 publications

References 73 publications

Rapid thermophilization of understorey plant communities in a 9 year‐long temperate forest experiment

Rapid thermophilization of understorey plant communities in a 9 year‐long temperate forest experiment

Low resilience at the early stages of recovery of the semi‐arid Chaco forest—Evidence from a field experiment

Climate fluctuations drive the recruitment and growth of temperate grassland plants

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