Klein, Julian and Low, Matthew and Thor, Göran and Sjögren, Jörgen and Lindberg, Eva and Eggers, Sönke
(2021).
Tree species identity and composition shape the epiphytic lichen community of structurally simple boreal forests over vast areas.
PLoS ONE. 16
, e0257564
[Research article]
![]() |
PDF
1MB |
Abstract
Greatly simplified ecosystems are often neglected for biodiversity studies. However, these simplified systems dominate in many regions of the world, and a lack of understanding of what shapes species occurrence in these systems can have consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem services at a massive scale. In Fennoscandia, ~90% of the boreal forest (~21Mha) is structurally simplified with little knowledge of how forest structural elements shape the occurrence and diversity of for example epiphytic lichens in these managed forests. One form of structural simplification is the reduction of the number and frequency of different tree species. As many lichen species have host tree preferences, it is particularly likely that this simplification has a huge effect on the lichen community in managed forests. In a 40–70 years old boreal forest in Sweden, we therefore related the occurrence and richness of all observed epiphytic lichens to the host tree species and beta and gamma lichen diversity at the forest stand level to the stand’s tree species composition and stem diameter. Picea abies hosted the highest lichen richness followed by Pinus sylvestris, Quercus robur, Alnus glutinosa, Betula spp., and Populus tremula. However, P. tremula hosted twice as many uncommon species as any of the other tree species. Stand level beta and gamma diversity was twice as high on stands with four compared to one tree species, and was highest when either coniferous or deciduous trees made up 40–50% of the trees. The stem diameter was positively related to lichen richness at the tree and stand level, but negatively to beta diversity. For biodiversity, these findings imply that leaving a few trees of a different species during forest thinning is unlikely as effective as combining life-boat trees for endangered species with an even tree species mixture.
Authors/Creators: | Klein, Julian and Low, Matthew and Thor, Göran and Sjögren, Jörgen and Lindberg, Eva and Eggers, Sönke | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Title: | Tree species identity and composition shape the epiphytic lichen community of structurally simple boreal forests over vast areas | ||||
Series Name/Journal: | PLoS ONE | ||||
Year of publishing : | 2021 | ||||
Volume: | 16 | ||||
Article number: | e0257564 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 17 | ||||
ISSN: | 1932-6203 | ||||
Language: | English | ||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||
Version: | Published version | ||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 401 Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries > Forest Science | ||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-113846 | ||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-113846 | ||||
Additional ID: |
| ||||
ID Code: | 25876 | ||||
Faculty: | NJ - Fakulteten för naturresurser och jordbruksvetenskap S - Faculty of Forest Sciences | ||||
Department: | (NL, NJ) > Dept. of Ecology (S) > Dept. of Ecology (NL, NJ) > Swedish Species Information Centre (S) > Dept. of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies (S) > Dept. of Forest Resource Management (NL, NJ) > Dept. of Forest Resource Management | ||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||
Deposited On: | 20 Oct 2021 07:25 | ||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 20 Oct 2021 07:31 |
Repository Staff Only: item control page