Details zur Publikation

Kategorie Textpublikation
Referenztyp Zeitschriften
DOI 10.1016/j.actao.2014.09.001
Titel (primär) Changes in spatial point patterns of pioneer woody plants across a large tropical landslide
Autor Velázquez, E.; De la Cruz, M.; Gómez-Sal, A.
Quelle Acta Oecologica-International Journal of Ecology
Erscheinungsjahr 2014
Department OESA
Band/Volume 61
Seite von 9
Seite bis 18
Sprache englisch
Keywords Stress-gradient hypothesis; Negative and positive interactions; Disturbances; Pair-correlation function; Random labelling; Independence
UFZ Querschnittsthemen RU5;
Abstract We assessed whether the relative importance of positive and negative interactions in early successional communities varied across a large landslide on Casita Volcano (Nicaragua). We tested several hypotheses concerning the signatures of these processes in the spatial patterns of woody pioneer plants, as well as those of mortality and recruitment events, in several zones of the landslide differing in substrate stability and fertility, over a period of two years (2001 and 2002). We identified all woody individuals with a diameter >1 cm and mapped them in 28 plots measuring 10 × 10-m. On these maps, we performed a spatial point pattern analysis using univariate and bivariate pair-correlation functions; g (r) and g12 (r), and pairwise differences of univariate and bivariate functions. Spatial signatures of positive and negative interactions among woody plants were more prevalent in the most and least stressful zones of the landslide, respectively. Natural and human-induced disturbances such as the occurrence of fire, removal of newly colonizing plants through erosion and clearcutting of pioneer trees were also identified as potentially important pattern-creating processes. These results are in agreement with the stress-gradient hypothesis, which states that the relative importance of facilitation and competition varies inversely across gradients of abiotic stress. Our findings also indicate that the assembly of early successional plant communities in large heterogeneous landslides might be driven by a much larger array of processes than previously thought.
dauerhafte UFZ-Verlinkung https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=15420
Velázquez, E., De la Cruz, M., Gómez-Sal, A. (2014):
Changes in spatial point patterns of pioneer woody plants across a large tropical landslide
Acta Oecol. - Int. J. Ecol. 61 , 9 - 18 10.1016/j.actao.2014.09.001