Natural Disturbances are Essential Determinants of Tree-Related Microhabitat Availability in Temperate Forests

Assessing the impacts of natural disturbance on the functioning of complex forest systems are imperative in the context of global change. The unprecedented rate of contemporary species extirpations, coupled with widely held expectations that future disturbance intensity will increase with warming, h...

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Published in:	Ecosystems (New York) Vol. 26; no. 6; pp. 1260 - 1274
Main Authors:	Zemlerová, Veronika, Kozák, Daniel, Mikoláš, Martin, Svitok, Marek, Bače, Radek, Smyčková, Marie, Buechling, Arne, Martin, Maxence, Larrieu, Laurent, Paillet, Yoan, Roibu, Catalin-Constantin, Petritan, Ion Catalin, Čada, Vojtěch, Ferenčík, Matej, Frankovič, Michal, Gloor, Rhiannon, Hofmeister, Jeňýk, Janda, Pavel, Kameniar, Ondrej, Majdanová, Linda, Markuljaková, Katka, Matula, Radim, Mejstřík, Marek, Rydval, Miloš, Vostarek, Ondřej, Svoboda, Miroslav
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	New York Springer US 01-09-2023 Springer Springer Nature B.V Springer Verlag
Subjects:	Analysis Availability Biodiversity Biological diversity Biological diversity conservation Biomedical and Life Sciences Disturbance Disturbances Ecology Ecosystems Environmental gradient Environmental Management Forest ecosystems Forests Forests and forestry Geoecology/Natural Processes Habitat availability Habitats Hydrology/Water Resources Life Sciences Management systems Microenvironments Microhabitats Natural disturbance Original Article Plant Sciences Relative abundance Resource availability Temperate forests Terrestrial ecosystems Wildlife conservation Zoology TreM primary forests biodiversity dendroecology disturbance history carpathians
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Summary:	Assessing the impacts of natural disturbance on the functioning of complex forest systems are imperative in the context of global change. The unprecedented rate of contemporary species extirpations, coupled with widely held expectations that future disturbance intensity will increase with warming, highlights a need to better understand how natural processes structure habitat availability in forest ecosystems. Standardised typologies of tree-related microhabitats (TreMs) have been developed to facilitate assessments of resource availability for multiple taxa. However, natural disturbance effects on TreM diversity have never been assessed. We amassed a comprehensive dataset of TreM occurrences and a concomitant 300-year disturbance history reconstruction that spanned large environmental gradients in temperate primary forests. We used nonlinear analyses to quantify relations between past disturbance parameters and contemporary patterns of TreM occurrence. Our results reveal that natural forest dynamics, characterised by fluctuating disturbance intervals and variable severity levels, maintained structurally complex landscapes rich in TreMs. Different microhabitat types developed over time in response to divergent disturbance histories. The relative abundance of alternate TreMs was maximised by unique interactions between past disturbance severity and elapsed time. Despite an unequal distribution of individual TreMs, total microhabitat diversity was maintained at constant levels, suggesting that spatially heterogeneous disturbances maintained a shifting mosaic of habitat types over the region as a whole. Our findings underscore the fundamental role of natural processes in promoting conditions that maximise biodiversity potential. Strict conservation and management systems that preserve natural disturbance outcomes, including associated biological legacies, may therefore safeguard biodiversity at large scales.
ISSN:	1432-9840 1435-0629
DOI:	10.1007/s10021-023-00830-8