Spatial ecology, biodiversity, and abiotic determinants of Congo's bai ecosystem

Canopy gaps are foundational features of rainforest biodiversity and successional processes. The bais of Central Africa are among the world's largest natural forest clearings and thought to be critically important islands of open‐canopy habitat in an ocean of closed‐canopy rainforest. However,...

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Published in:Ecology (Durham) 2024-11, Vol.105 (11), p.e4419-n/a
Main Authors: Hockridge, Evan G., Bradford, Ella M., Angier, Katherine I. W., Youd, Beatrice H., McGill, Elijah B. M., Ngouma, Sylvain Y., Ognangue, Roger L., Gibbon, Gwili E. M., Davies, Andrew B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abundance
Animals
Biodiversity
Canopies
Canopy gaps
Clearings (openings)
Community composition
community ecology
Congo
Conservation of Natural Resources
Ecosystem
Ecosystems
forest clearings
Hydrology
Landscape preservation
LiDAR
Moisture content
National parks
nutrient hotspots
open canopy ecosystems
Plant communities
Plants - classification
Position measurement
Rainforest
Rainforests
Remote sensing
salines
savannas
Soil - chemistry
Soil moisture
Soil properties
Soil structure
Spatial distribution
Vegetation
Water content
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Summary:Canopy gaps are foundational features of rainforest biodiversity and successional processes. The bais of Central Africa are among the world's largest natural forest clearings and thought to be critically important islands of open‐canopy habitat in an ocean of closed‐canopy rainforest. However, while frequently denoted as a conservation priority, there are no published studies on the abundance or distribution of bais across the landscape, nor on their biodiversity patterns, limiting our understanding of their ecological contribution to Congolese rainforests. We combined remote sensing and field surveys to quantify the abundance, spatial distribution, shape, size, biodiversity, and soil properties of bais in Odzala‐Kokoua National Park (OKNP), Republic of the Congo (hereafter, Congo). We related bai spatial distribution to variation in hydrology and topography, compared plant community composition and 3D structure between bais and other open ecosystems, quantified animal diversity from camera traps, and measured soil moisture content in different bai types. We found bais to be more numerous than previously thought (we mapped 2176 bais in OKNP), but their predominantly small size (80.7% of bais were
ISSN:0012-9658
1939-9170
1939-9170
DOI:10.1002/ecy.4419