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Forest dynamics of a subtropical monsoon forest in Dinghushan, China: recruitment, mortality and the pace of community change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2013

Yong Shen ,
Louis S. Santiago ,
Lei Ma ,
Guo-Jun Lin ,
Ju-Yu Lian ,
Hong-Lin Cao  and
Wan-Hui Ye
Yong Shen
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, PR China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 10049, China
Louis S. Santiago
Affiliation:
Botany and Plant Sciences Department, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancon, Panama, Republic of Panama
Lei Ma
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, PR China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 10049, China
Guo-Jun Lin
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, PR China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 10049, China
Ju-Yu Lian
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, PR China
Hong-Lin Cao
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, PR China
Wan-Hui Ye*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, PR China
*
1Corresponding author. Email: why@scbg.ac.cn
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Abstract:

Structure and demographics in many tropical forests is changing, but the causes of these changes remain unclear. We studied 5 y (2005–2010) of species turnover, recruitment, mortality and population change data from a 20-ha subtropical forest plot in Dinghushan, China, to identify trends in forest change, and to test whether tree mortality is associated with intraspecific or interspecific competition. We found the Dinghushan forest to be more dynamic than one temperate and two tropical forests in a comparison of large, long-term forest dynamics plots. Within Dinghushan, size-class distributions were bell-shaped only for the three most dominant species and reverse J-shaped for other species. Bell-shaped population distributions can indicate a population in decline, but our data suggest that these large and long-lived species are not in decline because the pattern is driven by increasing probabilities of transition to larger size class with increasing size and fast growth in saplings. Spatially aggregated tree species distributions were common for surviving and dead individuals. Competitive associations were more frequently intraspecific than interspecific. The competition that induced tree mortality was more associated with intraspecific than interspecific interactions. Intraspecific competitive exclusion and density-dependence appear to play important roles in tree mortality in this subtropical forest.

Keywords

forest dynamicspopulation trendssize-class distributionsspatial patternssubtropical foresttree mortality

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , March 2013 , pp. 131 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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