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The accumulation of species and recovery of species composition along a 70 year successional gradient in a tropical secondary forest

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posted on 2023-06-09, 18:15 authored by Sawaid Abbas, Janet E Nichol, Jinlong Zhang, Gunter A Fischer
The majority of global forests are secondary and are at different stages of succession. Assessing the dynamics of species richness and similarity, and quantifying the importance of environmental filtering, dispersal limitation and other stochastic processes are essential to understanding the mechanisms of succession for forest restoration. In this article, we explored the accumulation of species, the relative importance of spatial distance, environmental factors and stand age in determining species composition of a tropical secondary forest succession in Hong Kong. Twenty-eight plots with median age of 7, 20, 39, 61 and over 70?years in the secondary forest were established and surveyed, and the indicator species for each age class were identified. Species composition shows large variation both within and between age classes, while species richness in the old growth forest (>70?yr) was significantly lower than in the mid-age classes. Rarefied species richness showed a rapid accumulation during early succession, but species richness levelled off from 20?yrs onwards. Variation partitioning indicated that spatial distance alone explained 33% of the variation in species composition, followed by environmental distance (8%) and stand age (1%). The results of Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling suggested that idiosyncratic successional pathways and alternative stable states might be prevalent. Our results suggested dispersal limitation was the main limiting factor in explaining the turnover of species during forest succession, while environmental filtering played a lesser role in shaping species distributions. Our results highlight the importance of active restoration in overcoming the barriers of succession in secondary vegetation in the tropics.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Ecological Indicators

ISSN

1470-160X

Publisher

Elsevier

Issue

105524

Volume

106

Page range

1-10

Department affiliated with

  • Geography Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2019-07-02

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2020-06-29

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2019-07-01

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