Presence of bark influences the succession of cryptogamic wood-inhabiting communities on conifer fallen logs

Predictors of cryptogamic wood-inhabiting communities need to be examined to understand the drivers of forest biodiversity. We estimated the influence of bark cover on the wood-inhabiting vegetation on conifer logs in early stages of epixylic succession in mature European boreal and hemi-boreal fore...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Folia geobotanica 2018-06, Vol.53 (2), p.175-190
Main Authors: Kushnevskaya, Helena, Shorohova, Ekaterina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abundance
Bark
Biodiversity
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Boreal forests
Bryophytes
Communities
Ecological succession
Epiphytes
Forests
Life Sciences
Multidimensional scaling
Plant Ecology
Plant Sciences
Plant Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography
Scaling
Species
Statistical models
Substrate specificity
Substrates
Taiga
Vegetation
Wood
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Summary:Predictors of cryptogamic wood-inhabiting communities need to be examined to understand the drivers of forest biodiversity. We estimated the influence of bark cover on the wood-inhabiting vegetation on conifer logs in early stages of epixylic succession in mature European boreal and hemi-boreal forests. Abundance of substrate groups with respect to log attributes was estimated with generalized linear and generalized linear mixed models. The structure and composition of epixylic communities was analysed using non-metric multidimensional scaling with subsequent environmental fitting. The abundance of true epixylics was inversely related to bark cover. In the first stage, bark cover did not influence the abundance of epiphytes and epigeous species; positively influenced the abundance of facultative epixylics on spruce logs and negatively influenced it on pine logs. In the second stage, the effect of bark cover was positive for epiphytes and epigeous species on spruce logs and for facultative epixylics independent of log species identity and negative for epigeous species on pine logs. Generalist species did not depend on bark cover. Total cover of wood-inhabiting vegetation was marginally influenced by bark cover. The effect of bark cover on epixylic vegetation at community level was negligible. In general, bark cover favours the establishment and growth of species with low substrate specificity. This preference may lead to either burial of logs by epigeous bryophytes, or facilitation of succession towards the dominance of ground vegetation.
ISSN:1211-9520
1874-9348
DOI:10.1007/s12224-018-9310-y