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| Titel |
Effects of topography, soil type and forest age on the frequency and size distribution of canopy gap disturbances in a tropical forest |
| VerfasserIn |
E. Lobo, J. W. Dalling |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1726-4170
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Biogeosciences ; 10, no. 11 ; Nr. 10, no. 11 (2013-11-01), S.6769-6781 |
| Datensatznummer |
250085381
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/bg-10-6769-2013.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Treefall gaps are the major source of disturbance in most tropical forests.
The frequency and size of these gaps have important implications for forest
ecosystem processes as they can influence the functional trait distribution
of tree communities, stand-level aboveground biomass and productivity.
However, we still know little about the relative importance of environmental
drivers of gap disturbance regimes because existing studies vary greatly in
criteria used for defining gaps, in the spatial extent of the study area, and
the spatial resolution of canopy height measurements. Here we use lidar
(light detecting and ranging) to explore how forest age, topography and soil
type affect canopy disturbance patterns across a 1500 ha tropical forest
landscape in central Panama. We characterize disturbance based on the
frequency distribution of gap sizes (the "gap size distribution"), and the
area of the forest affected by gaps (the "gap area fraction"). We found
that slope and forest age had significant effects on the gap size
distribution, with a higher frequency of large gaps associated with
old-growth forests and more gentle slopes. Slope and forest age had similar
effects on the gap area fraction, however gap area fraction was also affected
by soil type and by aspect. We conclude that variation in disturbance
patterns across the landscape can be linked to factors that act at the fine
scale (such as aspect or slope), and factors that show heterogeneity at
coarser scales (such as forest age or soil type). Awareness of the role of
different environmental factors influencing gap formation can help scale up
the impacts of canopy disturbance on forest communities measured at the plot
scale to landscape and regional scales. |
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