Overstory functional groups indicate the legacy of land use in a secondary tropical forest in southwestern China

Anthropogenic disturbances are widespread in tropical forests and influence the species composition in the overstory. However, the impacts of historical disturbance on tropical forest overstory recovery are unclear due to a lack of disturbance data, and previous studies have focused on understory sp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of forestry research 2024-12, Vol.35 (1), Article 85
Main Authors: Deng, Yun, Zhang, Wenfu, Cao, Min, Dong, Jinlong, Chen, Hui, Deng, Xiaobao, Liu, Jiajia, Song, Xiaoyang, Xia, Shangwen, Sha, Liqing, Yuan, Shengdong, Lin, Luxiang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abundance
Anthropogenic factors
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Clustering
Coefficient of variation
Composition
Disturbances
Ecological succession
Forestry
Forests
Functional groups
Human influences
Land use
Life Sciences
Original Paper
Rainforests
Regeneration
Regression analysis
Species composition
Tropical forests
Understory
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Summary:Anthropogenic disturbances are widespread in tropical forests and influence the species composition in the overstory. However, the impacts of historical disturbance on tropical forest overstory recovery are unclear due to a lack of disturbance data, and previous studies have focused on understory species. In this study, the purpose was to determine the influence of historical disturbance on the diversity, composition and regeneration of overstory species in present forests. In the 20-ha Xishuangbanna tropical seasonal rainforest dynamics plot in southwestern China, the historical disturbance boundaries were delineated based on panchromatic photographs from 1965. Factors that drove species clustering in the overstory layer (DBH ≥ 40 cm) were analyzed and the abundance, richness and composition of these species were compared among different tree groups based on multiple regression tree analysis. The coefficient of variation of the brightness value in historical panchromatic photographs from 1965 was the primary driver of species clustering in the overstory layer. The abundance and richness of overstory species throughout the regeneration process were similar, but species composition was always different. Although the proportion of large-seeded and vigorous-sprouting species showed no significant difference between disturbed and undisturbed forests in the treelet layer (DBH 
ISSN:1007-662X
1993-0607
DOI:10.1007/s11676-024-01729-3