Long-term resilience of above- and belowground ecosystem components among contrasting ecosystems
While several studies have explored how short-term ecological responses to disturbance vary among ecosystems, experimental studies of how contrasting ecosystems recover from disturbance in the longer term are few. We performed a simple long-term experiment on each of 30 contrasting forested islands...
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Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap
2014
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Online Access: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-92271 https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1666.1 |
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ftumeauniv:oai:DiVA.org:umu-92271 2023-10-09T21:54:37+02:00 Long-term resilience of above- and belowground ecosystem components among contrasting ecosystems Wardle, David A. Jonsson, Micael 2014 application/pdf http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-92271 https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1666.1 eng eng Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap Swedish Univ Agr Sci, Dept Forest Ecol & Management, SE-90183 Umea, Sweden Ecology, 0012-9658, 2014, 95:7, s. 1836-1849 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-92271 doi:10.1890/13-1666.1 ISI:000339470500013 Scopus 2-s2.0-84904337340 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess aboveground-belowground linkages disturbance ecosystem Empetrum hermaphroditum microbial community nitrogen resilience stability Ecology Ekologi Article in journal info:eu-repo/semantics/article text 2014 ftumeauniv https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1666.1 2023-09-22T13:59:31Z While several studies have explored how short-term ecological responses to disturbance vary among ecosystems, experimental studies of how contrasting ecosystems recover from disturbance in the longer term are few. We performed a simple long-term experiment on each of 30 contrasting forested islands in northern Sweden that vary in size; as size decreases, time since fire increases, soil fertility and ecosystem productivity declines, and plant species diversity increases. We predicted that resilience of understory plant community properties would be greatest on the larger, more productive islands, and that this would be paralleled by greater resilience of soil biotic and abiotic properties. For each island, we applied three disturbance treatments of increasing intensity to the forest understory once in 1998, i.e., light trimming, heavy trimming, and burning; a fourth treatment was an undisturbed control. We measured recovery of the understory vascular plant community annually over the following 14 years, and at that time also assessed recovery of mosses and several belowground variables. Consistent with our predictions, vascular plant whole-community variables (total cover, species richness, diversity [Shannon's HI, and community composition) recovered significantly more slowly on the smaller (least fertile) than the larger islands, but this difference was not substantial, and only noticeable in the most severely disturbed treatment. When an index of resilience was used, we were unable to detect effects of island size on the recovery of any property. We found that mosses and one shrub species (Empetrum hermaphroditum) recovered particularly slowly, and the higher abundance of this shrub on small islands was sufficient to explain any slower recovery of whole-ecosystem variables on those islands. Further, several belowground variables had not fully recovered from the most intense disturbance after 14 yr, and counter to our predictions, the degree of their recovery was never influenced by island size. While several ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Sweden Umeå University: Publications (DiVA) Ecology 95 7 1836 1849 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Umeå University: Publications (DiVA) |
op_collection_id |
ftumeauniv |
language |
English |
topic |
aboveground-belowground linkages disturbance ecosystem Empetrum hermaphroditum microbial community nitrogen resilience stability Ecology Ekologi |
spellingShingle |
aboveground-belowground linkages disturbance ecosystem Empetrum hermaphroditum microbial community nitrogen resilience stability Ecology Ekologi Wardle, David A. Jonsson, Micael Long-term resilience of above- and belowground ecosystem components among contrasting ecosystems |
topic_facet |
aboveground-belowground linkages disturbance ecosystem Empetrum hermaphroditum microbial community nitrogen resilience stability Ecology Ekologi |
description |
While several studies have explored how short-term ecological responses to disturbance vary among ecosystems, experimental studies of how contrasting ecosystems recover from disturbance in the longer term are few. We performed a simple long-term experiment on each of 30 contrasting forested islands in northern Sweden that vary in size; as size decreases, time since fire increases, soil fertility and ecosystem productivity declines, and plant species diversity increases. We predicted that resilience of understory plant community properties would be greatest on the larger, more productive islands, and that this would be paralleled by greater resilience of soil biotic and abiotic properties. For each island, we applied three disturbance treatments of increasing intensity to the forest understory once in 1998, i.e., light trimming, heavy trimming, and burning; a fourth treatment was an undisturbed control. We measured recovery of the understory vascular plant community annually over the following 14 years, and at that time also assessed recovery of mosses and several belowground variables. Consistent with our predictions, vascular plant whole-community variables (total cover, species richness, diversity [Shannon's HI, and community composition) recovered significantly more slowly on the smaller (least fertile) than the larger islands, but this difference was not substantial, and only noticeable in the most severely disturbed treatment. When an index of resilience was used, we were unable to detect effects of island size on the recovery of any property. We found that mosses and one shrub species (Empetrum hermaphroditum) recovered particularly slowly, and the higher abundance of this shrub on small islands was sufficient to explain any slower recovery of whole-ecosystem variables on those islands. Further, several belowground variables had not fully recovered from the most intense disturbance after 14 yr, and counter to our predictions, the degree of their recovery was never influenced by island size. While several ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wardle, David A. Jonsson, Micael |
author_facet |
Wardle, David A. Jonsson, Micael |
author_sort |
Wardle, David A. |
title |
Long-term resilience of above- and belowground ecosystem components among contrasting ecosystems |
title_short |
Long-term resilience of above- and belowground ecosystem components among contrasting ecosystems |
title_full |
Long-term resilience of above- and belowground ecosystem components among contrasting ecosystems |
title_fullStr |
Long-term resilience of above- and belowground ecosystem components among contrasting ecosystems |
title_full_unstemmed |
Long-term resilience of above- and belowground ecosystem components among contrasting ecosystems |
title_sort |
long-term resilience of above- and belowground ecosystem components among contrasting ecosystems |
publisher |
Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-92271 https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1666.1 |
genre |
Northern Sweden |
genre_facet |
Northern Sweden |
op_relation |
Ecology, 0012-9658, 2014, 95:7, s. 1836-1849 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-92271 doi:10.1890/13-1666.1 ISI:000339470500013 Scopus 2-s2.0-84904337340 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1666.1 |
container_title |
Ecology |
container_volume |
95 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
1836 |
op_container_end_page |
1849 |
_version_ |
1779318274161377280 |