Warming, drought, and disturbances lead to shifts in functional composition: A millennial-scale analysis for Amazonian and Andean sites


Por: van der Sande M.T., Bush M.B., Åkesson C.M., Berrio J.C., Correia Metrio A., Flantua S.G.A., Hooghiemstra H., Maezumi S.Y., McMichael C.N.H., Montoya E., Mosblech N.A.S., de Novaes Nascimento M., Peña-Claros M., Poorter L., Raczka M.F., Gosling W.D.

Publicada: 1 ene 2023
Resumen:
Tropical forests are changing in composition and productivity, probably in response to changes in climate and disturbances. The responses to these multiple environmental drivers, and the mechanisms underlying the changes, remain largely unknown. Here, we use a functional trait approach on timescales of 10,000 years to assess how climate and disturbances influence the community-mean adult height, leaf area, seed mass, and wood density for eight lowland and highland forest landscapes. To do so, we combine data of eight fossil pollen records with functional traits and proxies for climate (temperature, precipitation, and El Niño frequency) and disturbances (fire and general disturbances). We found that temperature and disturbances were the most important drivers of changes in functional composition. Increased water availability (high precipitation and low El Niño frequency) generally led to more acquisitive trait composition (large leaves and soft wood). In lowland forests, warmer climates decreased community-mean height probably because of increased water stress, whereas in highland forests warmer climates increased height probably because of upslope migration of taller species. Disturbance increased the abundance of acquisitive, disturbance-adapted taxa with small seeds for quick colonization of disturbed sites, large leaves for light capture, and soft wood to attain fast height growth. Fire had weak effects on lowland forests but led to more stress-adapted taxa that are tall with fast life cycles and small seeds that can quickly colonize burned sites. Site-specific analyses were largely in line with cross-site analyses, except for varying site-level effects of El Niño frequency and fire activity, possibly because regional patterns in El Niño are not a good predictor of local changes, and charcoal abundances do not reflect fire intensity or severity. With future global changes, tropical Amazonian and Andean forests may transition toward shorter, drought- and disturbance-adapted forests in the lowlands but taller forests in the highlands. © 2023 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Filiaciones:
van der Sande M.T.:
 Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Netherlands

Bush M.B.:
 Institute for Global Ecology, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, United States

Åkesson C.M.:
 Institute for Global Ecology, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, United States

Berrio J.C.:
 School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

Correia Metrio A.:
 Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

Flantua S.G.A.:
 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway

Hooghiemstra H.:
 Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Maezumi S.Y.:
 Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany

McMichael C.N.H.:
 Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Montoya E.:
 Institute of Geosciences Barcelona (GEO3BCN), CSIC, Barcelona, Spain

Mosblech N.A.S.:
 Institute for Global Ecology, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, United States

de Novaes Nascimento M.:
 Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Peña-Claros M.:
 Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Netherlands

Poorter L.:
 Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Netherlands

Raczka M.F.:
 Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom

Gosling W.D.:
 Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
ISSN: 13541013
Editorial
Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA, Estados Unidos America
Tipo de documento: Article
Volumen: 29 Número: 17
Páginas: 4775-4792
imagen All Open Access; Hybrid Gold

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