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23 results for “understory vegetation”
Understory Vegetation in Hemlock Removal Experiment at Harvard Forest since 2003
Hemlock decline in New England is caused by direct and indirect effects of invasion of the hemlock woolly adelgid. Direct damage from the insect is causing gradual mortality of hemlock, and widespread harvesting of hemlock in advance of mortality, in contrast, causes immediate mortality and removal of biomass from the site. Although both processes affect thousands of acres of forest annually we have only a limited understanding of their effects on forest ecosystem function and productivity and the nature of the subsequent forest community. We anticipate that harvesting will yield different consequences than gradual mortality from the insect. Therefore we designed an experiment to simulate these contrasting impacts, by logging or girdling hemlock stands. Results from the experimental treatments are compared to the changes observed in forests that are being infested by the adelgid, and can also be included in integrated analyses of a suite of large experiments that form a core component of the Harvard Forest LTER program.
Hemlock Understory Vegetation Plots at Harvard Forest since 2002
Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) forests in New England are changing rapidly with the invasion of the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA, Adelges tsugae), a non-native insect pest that kills hemlock trees. As the adelgid invades hemlock stands at Harvard Forest, we are monitoring how forest structure and function changes. We surveyed community vegetation structure and composition prior to adelgid infestation, and are repeating this survey as infestation progresses. These measurements will allow us to link the long-term history of these hemlock stands to other current studies of hemlock response to adelgid infestation.
Baltimore forest patch point-sample overstory and understory vegetation, 2018-2020
Urban forest patches, including woodland interiors and bounding edge habitat, result from secondary succession and fragmentation of more extensive forested landscapes in the eastern USA. Management regimes, surrounding land use, and successional processes lead to distinct environments and contribute to local and regional heterogeneity. However, many woodlands are degraded due to frequent disturbance, aggressive exotic species, and heavy browsing, which stress canopies, reduce regeneration, and may reduce ecosystem services. Effective management requires rapid, repeatable assessment of forest composition, structure, and condition at the scale of local decision-making. We present and apply a protocol for characterizing urban woodlands that generates new insight into the status of urban woodlands and baseline data for change detection over time. Samples of overstory composition, ground cover, surface soil measurements, and the Schumacher Vine Encroachment Index were collected at 845 points across each of 47 patches across Baltimore, Maryland. Simple citywide summaries allowed characterization of Baltimore’s urban overstories as overwhelmingly native, though dominated by a range of successional conditions. By contrast, we found that ground layers were predominantly exotic, with abundant invasives or ruderal native species benefitting from disturbed conditions. Seven overstory types were distinguished, the majority under threat from aggressive vines. Most soils showed little evidence of compaction, but variable organic content. Distributed data allowed crosspatch comparison as well as within-patch analyses along edge-to-interior gradients. Species diversity, nativity, and overstory basal area all increased towards woodland interiors, whereas soil compaction and vine encroachment decreased. Structural and compositional shifts in both overstory and ground layer species revealed indicators of edge (15.2-18.7 m) and interior (> 41.5 m) conditions, as well as evidence of tran
Riparian and upland understory vegetation lifeforms and leaf-litterfall ordination analyses in the Luquillo Forest Dynamics Plot
Riparian areas are proportionally a small component of the forested landscape, they are significant contributors to ecosystem process, terrestrial and aquatic linkages, plant community composition, as well to basal energy resources for aquatic fauna. We describe vegetation and leaf-litterfall composition in relation to past land use in riparian and upland locations in tropical wet forest, Luquillo Forest Dynamics Plot (LFDP), Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. Data collected from 2003 to 2005. Stratified sampling was conducted in riparian and upland areas of LFDP with high and low past land use. Understory vegetation life-form composition were sampled in plots. \<para\> Support for this work was provided by grants BSR-8811902, DEB-9411973, DEB-9705814 , DEB-0080538, DEB-0218039 , DEB-0620910 , DEB-1239764, DEB-1546686, and DEB-1831952 from the National Science Foundation to the University of Puerto Rico as part of the Luquillo Long-Term Ecological Research Program. Additional support provided by the University of Puerto Rico and the International Institute of Tropical Forestry, USDA Forest Service.\</para\>
Variation in the Composition of Understory Vegetation in a Tropical Rain Forest as a Function of Soil and Topographic Position. 1986 - 1990
Understory plants are a major contribution to the high plant species diversity of Neotropical rain forests. Shrubs, understory trees, saplings of overstory trees, and herbs occupy a habitat of generally low light levels and high humidity in which there seem to be few obvious mechanisms to support habitat partitioning. Moreover several plant families are characterized by a high number of co-occurring understory species. In 1987-1989 we sampled understory vegetation in 18 sites at the La Selva Biological Station of the Organization for Tropical Studies in Heredia Province, Costa Rica. At each site we used 20 nested quadrats to investigate the effects of soil type on replicated sites of mapped alluvial and residual volcanic soils (5 map units) and topographic positions (ridges, midslopes and flats) on composition, density and diversity of small (1m tall to 5cm dbh, 25 m2 quadrat) and large(5-10cm dbh, 100 m2 quadrat) understory plants. We also measured fine litter dry mass, extractable P, total organic matter, percent slope and percent incident light radiation in each quadrat.
Tower-based remote sensing data for understory vegetation at Delta Junction, Alaska 2019-2020
<p> Data includes remote sensing products from PhotoSpec (a scanning spectrometer) from August 2019-December 2020. We provide daily averaged vegetation indices for a mix of understory lichen and moss species in a black spruce dominated forest. We compute near-infrared vegetation index (NIRv), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), photochemical reflectance index (PRI), and chlorophyll-carotenoid index (CCI) averaged for three understory targets at NEON Delta Junction. We also provide daily averaged photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and solar zenith angle (SZA). Finally, we provide the average diurnal profiles of all the aforementioned metrics for 4 20-day windows in winter, spring, summer, and fall. </p>
Spatial patterns of understory vegetation and soil in an Alaskan upland boreal forest fire chronosequence. Three sites located in Delta Junction Alaska. Soil sampled during summer 2007
In this study we used geostatistics to characterize the spatial heterogeneity of soil carbon and nitrogen pools, microbial respiration, microbial biomass, nitrogen mineralization, soil moisture, soil pH, depth of organic horizon and forest floor covers and understory vegetation abundances in three sites (1999, 1987 and 1920 wildfires) of a boreal forest chronosequence of Interior Alaska (near Delta Junction). Soil sampling and vegetation measurements occured during summer 2007.
Do harvest retention patches in the boreal forest emulate those resulting from wildfire? A comparison of understory vegetation a decade after disturbance
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Data from: The leaf economic and plant size spectra of European forest understory vegetation
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Understory vegetation response to post-tornado salvage logging
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Urban runoff and stream channel incision interact to influence riparian soils and understory vegetation
<p>Riparian soil processes and vegetation are sensitive to water availability. Urbanization can alter riparian water availability by modifying stream flows and stream channel morphology. In cities, runoff from impervious surfaces tends to increase stormflow magnitudes, causing stream channels to incise, or downcut. This change in channel morphology has been linked to lowered water tables and drier conditions in temperate urban riparian zones, leading to shifts in riparian nitrogen (N) cycling and vegetation communities. In Mediterranean climates with distinct wet and dry periods, there is an additional dynamic to consider: runoff from urban water use can cause streams to flow when they would otherwise be dry. This dry-season stream flow could create increased, rather than decreased, water availability in urban riparian zones. However, channel incision may counteract this effect. We asked whether dry-season stream flow interacted with channel incision to influence riparian soil characteristics and understory vegetation along streams in Sacramento, California, which has a Mediterranean climate with an intense summer dry season. At 40 stream reaches that varied by severity of downcutting and presence of dry-season flow, we sampled soils and vegetation on top of stream banks and at the margin of the low-flow channel, an important location for nutrient cycling in dry climates. We measured soil moisture, organic matter, and ∂15N, as well as total and perennial understory vegetation cover. We found that channel characteristics associated with incision limited the influence of dry-season stream flow on soil moisture, and this interaction appears to have lasting effects on soil organic matter and perennial vegetation on bank tops. At the stream margin, channel downcutting was associated with reduced soil organic matter and vegetation cover, while dry-season flow was associated with increased vegetation cover. Values of soil ∂15N pointed to limited hydrologic linkage between stream flows and riparian bank soils along incised streams. Our findings suggest that channel incision could limit the ability of urban riparian ecosystems to mitigate low-flow water quality. However, where streams are not incised in Mediterranean climates, dry-season flows from urban runoff may actually increase riparian productivity and N cycling above historical levels. </p>
Removing understory vegetation in oil palm agroforestry reduces ground-foraging ant abundance but not species richness
<p>Ants are known to provide valuable ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes, including oil palm plantations. Their communities are less diverse and more uneven in oil palm compared with forest, and this may increase their vulnerability to disturbance. This study quantifies ant communities in oil palm agroforestry and experimentally tests their robustness to a common-practice high-disturbance management intervention: removing understory vegetation.</p> <p>Fieldwork was based at the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function in Tropical Agriculture (BEFTA) Understory Vegetation Project in Sumatra, Indonesia, where three treatments varying in their degree of understory vegetation management were established in 2014: (1) widespread herbicide was applied removing all understory vegetation (Reduced); (2) herbicide was applied to the harvesting paths and circles, and other vegetation was allowed to grow (Normal – control); (3) no herbicide was applied (Enhanced). We measured ground-foraging ant communities before and after the treatments were implemented, using pitfall traps over 324 trap-nights (a trap-night is one trap set for one night). We investigated how ant abundance, species richness, species evenness, beta diversity, and community composition differed between the treatments.</p> <p>We found 3507 ants across 68 species or morphospecies. Seven of these were highly abundant and accounted for 78% of individuals. Post-treatment ant abundance was lower in the reduced treatment (mean per plot: 84) than in the normal (159) and enhanced (131) treatments, which did not differ from each other. Species richness, species evenness, beta diversity and community composition were not affected by the vegetation treatments.</p> <p>We recommend that oil palm growers maintain understory vegetation in oil palm plantations to support ground-foraging ants. Though not tested here, this may also improve ant-mediated ecosystem services, such as pest control, seed dispersal, nutrient redistribution, and the maintenance of soil health. This study demonstrates that enhancing habitat complexity through management practices can support biodiversity in monocrop landscapes.</p>
Interactions between local and global drivers determine long-term trends in boreal forest understory vegetation
Aim: Global change effects on forest ecosystems are increasingly claimed to be context dependent, indicated by interactions between global and local environmental drivers. Most examples of such context dependencies originate from temperate systems, while limited research comes from the boreal biome. Here we set out to test if interactions between climate warming, nitrogen deposition, land-use change resulting in increasing forest density and soil pH drive long-term changes of understory vegetation in boreal forests. Location: Sweden Time period: 1953-2012 Major taxa studied: Vascular plants Methods: We used long-term (50 years) National Forest Inventory data on forest understory vegetation in Sweden to model the combined effects of climate warming, nitrogen deposition, increase in forest density (tree basal area) and soil pH. Results: Our results identify increasing temperature, nitrogen deposition and denser, shadier forest conditions as main drivers of understory vegetation changes during this time period. More importantly, we found that these effects varied with local conditions, i.e. that the change towards a more nitrophilic understory vegetation was more pronounced at low than high soil pH. Forest density was an important modulator of nitrogen deposition and temperature increase, with effects generally decreasing with density. Decreased cover of ericaceous dwarf shrubs was driven by both forest density and nitrogen deposition, with a stronger effect at low than at high pH. Main conclusions: Our results highlight that to understand forest ecosystems´ response to global change, and to make adequate management decisions to mitigate the effects of global change, we need to understand how changes in local environmental factors (forest density and soil pH) interact with global-scale drivers (nitrogen deposition and climate warming). Neglecting such interactions will lead to incorrect estimations of effects. In our case, we would e.g. have underestimated the eutrophication effects on acid soils, which constitute a considerable part of the boreal biome. --
Urban runoff and stream channel incision interact to influence riparian soils and understory vegetation
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Recent changes in mountain birch forest structure and understory vegetation depend on the seasonal timing of reindeer grazing
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Interactions between local and global drivers determine long-term trends in boreal forest understory vegetation
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Removing understory vegetation in oil palm agroforestry reduces ground-foraging ant abundance but not species richness
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Data from: Linkage of plant trait space to successional age and species richness in boreal forest understory vegetation
Determining the changes in within- and between-species functional diversity in plant communities, and their contribution to overall species trait overlap, can enhance efforts at understanding mechanisms of species coexistence. However, little is known about how variation in species functional diversity influences variation in species trait overlap among contrasting environments. Here, we studied the understorey vegetation in a well-characterized 5000-year-old chronosequence involving 30 forested islands that differ greatly in size, soil fertility, and species diversity. Across this chronosequence we expected consistent changes in both within- and between-species functional diversity that would lead to decreasing overall species trait overlap with increasing successional age, species richness, understorey vegetation density and spatial heterogeneity of soil resources. For each island we measured specific leaf area (SLA) of each of ten individuals of each plant species present. Using a variance decomposition method, we partitioned the total community functional diversity of SLA on each island into within- and between-species functional diversity. Further, we estimated overall species trait overlap as the ratio of within-species functional diversity to total functional diversity. Using regression analyses we then explored relationships of within- and between-species functional diversity, and of overall species trait overlap, with several environmental variables across the 30 islands. Consistent with our hypotheses, overall species trait overlap decreased with successional age due to a statistically significant decrease in within-species functional diversity, and decreased with species richness due to a simultaneous decrease in within-species functional diversity and increase in between-species functional diversity. Against our predictions, overall species trait overlap increased in more competitive environments and did not change with increasing spatial heterogeneity of soil N or P. Synthesis: Our study suggests niche packing as a key mechanism for species coexistence in plant communities. Using SLA as an integrator of plant ecological strategy we show that community successional age and species richness are significantly linked to trait space distribution of plant individuals of boreal forest understorey vegetation and therefore to local species coexistence. Our results also suggest that the trait space of dominant and subordinate species may respond differently to local environmental variables.
Disentangling the direct and indirect effects of canopy and understory vegetation on the foraging habitat selection of the brown bear Ursus arctos
<p>Elucidating the factors affecting the foraging habitat selection of wildlife can further our understanding of the animal– habitat relationships and inform wildlife conservation and management. Canopy and understory vegetation may directly or indirectly affect the foraging habitat selection of carnivores through changes in habitat structure and prey availability, respectively; however, the relative importance of these two effects remains largely unknown. Dwarf bamboo Sasa kurilensis is a predominant understory plant that suppresses regeneration in the forests of northern Japan. The purpose of this study was to disentangle the direct and indirect effects of canopy forest type Larix kaempferi plantation versus natural mixed forest) and dwarf bamboo on foraging habitat selection of a large carnivore, the brown bear Ursus arctos. In the Shiretoko World Heritage, brown bears dig for cicada nymphs during summer. We evaluated the frequency of brown bear foraging on cicadas by investigating traces of digging for cicada nymphs. A structural equation model was used to statistically disentangle the direct and indirect effects of vegetation. Our results demonstrated that canopy and understory vegetation directly and indirectly affected foraging habitat selection of brown bears. Dwarf bamboo negatively affected cicada nymph density, which positively affected brown bear digging. This suggests that dwarf bamboo also had indirect negative effects on brown bears. Forest type had significant direct and indirect effects via change in cicada nymph density on foraging behavior in brown bears. Forestry managers in northern Japan, including the study site, try to remove dwarf bamboo for assisting natural regeneration. Removal of dwarf bamboo by scarification might not only promote natural regeneration, but also provide a beneficial foraging habitat for bears.</p>
Data from: Linkage of plant trait space to successional age and species richness in boreal forest understory vegetation
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Allen Brain Atlas
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Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
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