Natural Disturbances are Essential Determinants of Tree-Related Microhabitat Availability in Temperate Forests

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60460709%3A41320%2F23%3A97048" target="_blank" >RIV/60460709:41320/23:97048 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10021-023-00830-8" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10021-023-00830-8</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10021-023-00830-8" target="_blank" >10.1007/s10021-023-00830-8</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Natural Disturbances are Essential Determinants of Tree-Related Microhabitat Availability in Temperate Forests

Original language description

Assessing the impacts of natural disturbance on the functioning of complex forest systems are imperative in the context of global change. The unprecedented rate of contemporary species extirpations, coupled with widely held expectations that future disturbance intensity will increase with warming, highlights a need to better understand how natural processes structure habitat availability in forest ecosystems. Standardised typologies of tree-related microhabitats (TreMs) have been developed to facilitate assessments of resource availability for multiple taxa. However, natural disturbance effects on TreM diversity have never been assessed. We amassed a comprehensive dataset of TreM occurrences and a concomitant 300-year disturbance history reconstruction that spanned large environmental gradients in temperate primary forests. We used nonlinear analyses to quantify relations between past disturbance parameters and contemporary patterns of TreM occurrence. Our results reveal that natural forest dynamics, characterised by fluctuating disturbance intervals and variable severity levels, maintained structurally complex landscapes rich in TreMs. Different microhabitat types developed over time in response to divergent disturbance histories. The relative abundance of alternate TreMs was maximised by unique interactions between past disturbance severity and elapsed time. Despite an unequal distribution of individual TreMs, total microhabitat diversity was maintained at constant levels, suggesting that spatially heterogeneous disturbances maintained a shifting mosaic of habitat types over the region as a whole. Our findings underscore the fundamental role of natural processes in promoting conditions that maximise biodiversity potential. Strict conservation and management systems that preserve natural disturbance outcomes, including associated biological legacies, may therefore safeguard biodiversity at large scales.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10618 - Ecology

Project

Result was created during the realization of more than one project. More information in the Projects tab.

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2023

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

ECOSYSTEMS

ISSN

1432-9840

e-ISSN

1432-9840

Volume of the periodical

26

Issue of the periodical within the volume

6

Country of publishing house

CZ - CZECH REPUBLIC

Number of pages

15

Pages from-to

1260-1274

UT code for WoS article

000956834600001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85151075260