Abstract
QuestionsLong‐term community response to disturbance can follow manifold successional pathways depending on the interplay between various recruitment processes. Analyzing the succession of recruited communities provides a long‐term perspective on forest response to disturbance. Specifically, postdisturbance recruitment trajectories assess (a) the successive phases of postdisturbance response and the role of deterministic recruitment processes, and (b) the return to predisturbance state of recruits taxonomic/functional diversity/composition.LocationAmazonian rainforest, Paracou station, French Guiana.MethodsWe analyzed trajectories of recruited tree communities, from twelve forest plots of 6.25 ha each, during 30 years following a disturbance gradient that ranged from 10% to 60% of aboveground biomass removed. We measured recruited community taxonomic composition turnover, compared to whole predisturbance community, and assessed their functional composition by measuring the community weighted means for seven leaf, stem, and life‐history functional traits. We also measured recruited community taxonomic richness, taxonomic evenness, and functional diversity and compared them to the diversity values from a random recruitment process.ResultsWhile control plots trajectories resembled random recruitment trajectories, postdisturbance trajectories diverged significantly. This divergence corresponded to an enhanced recruitment of light‐demanding species that became dominant above a disturbance intensity threshold. After breakpoints in time, though, recruitment trajectories returned to diversity values and composition similar to those of predisturbance and control plots community.ConclusionsFollowing disturbance, recruitment processes specific to undisturbed community were first replaced by the emergence of more restricted, deterministic recruitment processes favoring species with efficient light use and acquisition. Then, a second phase corresponded to a decades‐long recovery of recruits predisturbance taxonomic and functional diversity and composition that remained unachieved after 30 years.
Highlights
Determining the response of tropical forests to disturbance is key for predicting their fate in the context of global climate change
We aimed here to focus on recruitment processes driving a Neotropical forest response to disturbance: We assessed the successional phases of postdisturbance recruitment (Chazdon, 2008; Norden et al, 2015) and determined whether they allow the recovery of community predisturbance state
Postdisturbance recruitment trajectories revealed a two-phase deterministic successional pathway driven by the emergence of trait- based deterministic processes favoring light-acquisitive species
Summary
To cite this version: Eric Marcon, Ariane Mirabel, Bruno Hérault. 30 Years of postdisturbance recruitment in a Neotropical forest. To cite this version: Eric Marcon, Ariane Mirabel, Bruno Hérault. 30 Years of postdisturbance recruitment in a Neotropical forest. Ecology and Evolution, Wiley Open Access, 2021, 11 (21), pp.14448-14458. HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Funding information Our work benefited from an “Investissement d’Avenir” grant managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (LABEX CEBA, ref ANR-10-LBX-25)
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