TY - JOUR
T1 - The Roles of Climate Variability and Habitat Heterogeneity in Structuring a Forested System
T2 - An Integrated Accumulation Function of Species Richness
AU - Trotter, R. Talbot
AU - Whitham, Thomas G.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank N. Cobb for providing the data used in the analyses, and J. Betancourt, C. Gehring, M. Kearsley, and G. Koch for comments on the manuscript. We also thank R. Colwell for the use of EstimateS V7.5. P. O’Leary provided critical guidance in the selection of a programming environment, and provided key help and guidance in the early phases of the development of the Integrated Accumulation Function analysis. Financial support was provided by NSF grants DEB-0236204, DEB-0415563, DEB-0425908, the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research, the Phoenix Chapter of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation, and the USDA Forest Service.
PY - 2011/12
Y1 - 2011/12
N2 - As forested systems are impacted by both natural and anthropogenic factors such as climate change, the biodiversity supported by those forests is likely to change. Quantifying that change, however, remains a difficult task due to variations in the sizes and conditions of forested systems. Species accumulation curves are a commonly used tool to scale estimates of species richness and provide an avenue for comparing biodiversity among habitats through rarefaction. However, we found that the ranked biodiversity among forested systems depends on the sample unit used, and there is a need to integrate landscape heterogeneity in spatially scaleable estimates of biodiversity. Both of these biodiversity assessment issues can be addressed using a new approach we term the Integrated Accumulation Function (IAF), a method based on combining component species accumulation curves. Using this approach on communities of canopy arthropods found in pinyon pine forests in the southwestern United States, we found three major patterns. First, in small stands, trees growing under low environmental stress support the greatest species richness. Second, when stands are large, stands growing under higher environmental stress support greater species richness, and species richness is resilient to change over a broad range of the stress gradient. Third, there are threshold levels of stress at both ends of the stress spectrum beyond which species are rapidly lost. This analysis reveals unexpected patterns and suggests that conservation practices should consider the inclusion of forests growing under suboptimal conditions to maximize the preservation of biodiversity.
AB - As forested systems are impacted by both natural and anthropogenic factors such as climate change, the biodiversity supported by those forests is likely to change. Quantifying that change, however, remains a difficult task due to variations in the sizes and conditions of forested systems. Species accumulation curves are a commonly used tool to scale estimates of species richness and provide an avenue for comparing biodiversity among habitats through rarefaction. However, we found that the ranked biodiversity among forested systems depends on the sample unit used, and there is a need to integrate landscape heterogeneity in spatially scaleable estimates of biodiversity. Both of these biodiversity assessment issues can be addressed using a new approach we term the Integrated Accumulation Function (IAF), a method based on combining component species accumulation curves. Using this approach on communities of canopy arthropods found in pinyon pine forests in the southwestern United States, we found three major patterns. First, in small stands, trees growing under low environmental stress support the greatest species richness. Second, when stands are large, stands growing under higher environmental stress support greater species richness, and species richness is resilient to change over a broad range of the stress gradient. Third, there are threshold levels of stress at both ends of the stress spectrum beyond which species are rapidly lost. This analysis reveals unexpected patterns and suggests that conservation practices should consider the inclusion of forests growing under suboptimal conditions to maximize the preservation of biodiversity.
KW - Pinus edulis
KW - arthropods
KW - community
KW - pinyon pine
KW - species richness
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U2 - 10.1080/10549811.2011.567963
DO - 10.1080/10549811.2011.567963
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84859074008
SN - 1054-9811
VL - 30
SP - 721
EP - 735
JO - Journal of Sustainable Forestry
JF - Journal of Sustainable Forestry
IS - 8
ER -