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Modeling Tropical Forest Dynamics through Their Functional Traits in a...
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Modeling Tropical Forest Dynamics through Their Functional Traits in a Climate Change Century

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Inventory, Modeling and Remote Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2018) | Viewed by 20271

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Bruno Herault

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Cirad, RU Forests & Societies, INPHB, Dpt Forest & Environment, BP 1093, Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast
Interests: tropical forests; ecological modeling; forest simulation; hard- and soft- traits

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleauges,

The response of tropical forests to climate change has received increasing attention during recent years, highlighting the sensitivity of tropical forest ecosystems to temperature rise and precipitation regime modifications. Understanding of the diversity of responses to climate alterations is challenging because of the high number of tree species in most tropical tree communities, often above 100 species.ha-1. Functional trait-based approaches offer a promising way to bypass, or not, species when modeling forest dynamics of highly-diverse communities by (i) strongly decreasing the number of model parameters to be inferred and (ii) allowing robust biological and ecological interpretations of and predictions on the demographic trajectories. Handling species by their appropriate morphological, physiological, and phenological characteristics is the cornerstone of this approach. Climate changes are expected to continue all over the world. As we already identified the key climate variables as forcing drivers of tropical forest dynamics, there is now urgent needs to use forest simulators to explore the possible forest ecosystem trajectories over the next coming decades under different climate scenarios. Climate-driven processes observed at the tree- or species-scale are not directly transposable at the community level because of factors such as compensatory effects between demographic processes (growth, mortality) or non-linear response with ontogeny. We will therefore welcome methodological works aiming to scale the current semi-empirical models to be able to go beyond pure analytical forest simulation results.

In this Special Issue, we will thus welcome works:

(1) identifying key functional traits involved in the response of tropical tree communities to climate changes

(2) modeling community dynamics using functional traits under environmental forcing

(3) simulating ecosystem trajectories of various tree functional trait assemblages under various climate scenarios

Dr. Bruno Herault
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • tropical forests
  • ecological modeling
  • forest simulation
  • hard- and soft- traits

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

26 pages, 4851 KiB  
Article
Refining Species Traits in a Dynamic Vegetation Model to Project the Impacts of Climate Change on Tropical Trees in Central Africa
by Marie Dury, Lenni Mertens, Adeline Fayolle, Hans Verbeeck, Alain Hambuckers and Louis François
Forests 2018, 9(11), 722; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9110722 - 20 Nov 2018
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4659
Abstract
African tropical ecosystems and the services they provide to human society suffer from an increasing combined pressure of land use and climate change. How individual tropical tree species respond to climate change remains relatively unknown. In this study, we refined the species characterization [...] Read more.
African tropical ecosystems and the services they provide to human society suffer from an increasing combined pressure of land use and climate change. How individual tropical tree species respond to climate change remains relatively unknown. In this study, we refined the species characterization in the CARAIB (CARbon Assimilation In the Biosphere) dynamic vegetation model by replacing plant functional type morpho-physiological traits by species-specific traits. We focus on 12 tropical tree species selected for their importance in both the plant community and human society. We used CARAIB to simulate the current species net primary productivity (NPP), biomass and potential distribution and their changes in the future. Our results indicate that the use of species-specific traits does not necessarily result in an increase of predicted current NPPs. The model projections for the end of the century highlight the large uncertainties in the future of African tropical species. Projected changes in species distribution vary greatly with the general circulation model (GCM) and, to a lesser extent, with the concentration pathway. The question about long-term plant response to increasing CO2 concentrations also leads to contrasting results. In absence of fertilization effect, species are exposed to climate change and might lose 25% of their current distribution under RCP8.5 (12.5% under RCP4.5), considering all the species and climatic scenarios. The vegetation model projects a mean biomass loss of −21.2% under RCP4.5 and −34.5% under RCP8.5. Potential range expansions, unpredictable due to migration limitations, are too limited for offsetting range contraction. By contrast, if the long-term species response to increasing [CO2] is positive, the range reduction is limited to 5%. However, despite a mean biomass increase of 12.2%, a positive CO2 feedback might not prevent tree dieback. Our analysis confirms that species will respond differently to new climatic and atmospheric conditions, which may induce new competition dynamics in the ecosystem and affect ecosystem services. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling Tropical Forest Dynamics through Their Functional Traits in a Climate Change Century)
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19 pages, 3802 KiB  
Article
Climate Sensitivity of Tropical Trees Along an Elevation Gradient in Rwanda
by Myriam Mujawamariya, Aloysie Manishimwe, Bonaventure Ntirugulirwa, Etienne Zibera, Daniel Ganszky, Elisée Ntawuhiganayo Bahati, Brigitte Nyirambangutse, Donat Nsabimana, Göran Wallin and Johan Uddling
Forests 2018, 9(10), 647; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9100647 - 17 Oct 2018
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 5706
Abstract
Elevation gradients offer excellent opportunities to explore the climate sensitivity of vegetation. Here, we investigated elevation patterns of structural, chemical, and physiological traits in tropical tree species along a 1700–2700 m elevation gradient in Rwanda, central Africa. Two early-successional (Polyscias fulva, [...] Read more.
Elevation gradients offer excellent opportunities to explore the climate sensitivity of vegetation. Here, we investigated elevation patterns of structural, chemical, and physiological traits in tropical tree species along a 1700–2700 m elevation gradient in Rwanda, central Africa. Two early-successional (Polyscias fulva, Macaranga kilimandscharica) and two late-successional (Syzygium guineense, Carapa grandiflora) species that are abundant in the area and present along the entire gradient were investigated. We found that elevation patterns in leaf stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration (E), net photosynthesis (An), and water-use efficiency were highly season-dependent. In the wet season, there was no clear variation in gs or An with elevation, while E was lower at cooler high-elevation sites. In the dry season, gs, An, and E were all lower at drier low elevation sites. The leaf-to-air temperature difference was smallest in P. fulva, which also had the highest gs and E. Water-use efficiency (An/E) increased with elevation in the wet season, but not in the dry season. Leaf nutrient ratios indicated that trees at all sites are mostly P limited and the N:P ratio did not decrease with increasing elevation. Our finding of strongly decreased gas exchange at lower sites in the dry season suggests that both transpiration and primary production would decline in a climate with more pronounced dry periods. Furthermore, we showed that N limitation does not increase with elevation in the forests studied, as otherwise most commonly reported for tropical montane forests. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling Tropical Forest Dynamics through Their Functional Traits in a Climate Change Century)
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18 pages, 2181 KiB  
Article
Tree Community Phenodynamics and Its Relationship with Climatic Conditions in a Lowland Tropical Rainforest
by Jakeline P. A. Pires, Nicholas A. C. Marino, Ary G. Silva, Pablo J. F. P. Rodrigues and Leandro Freitas
Forests 2018, 9(3), 114; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9030114 - 2 Mar 2018
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4383
Abstract
The timing, duration, magnitude and synchronicity of plant life cycles are fundamental aspects of community dynamics and ecosystem functioning, and information on phenodynamics is essential for accurate vegetation classification and modeling. Here, we recorded the vegetative and reproductive phenodynamics of 479 individuals belonging [...] Read more.
The timing, duration, magnitude and synchronicity of plant life cycles are fundamental aspects of community dynamics and ecosystem functioning, and information on phenodynamics is essential for accurate vegetation classification and modeling. Here, we recorded the vegetative and reproductive phenodynamics of 479 individuals belonging to 182 tree species monthly over two years in a lowland Atlantic Forest in southeastern Brazil, and assessed the relationship between local climatic conditions and the occurrence and intensity of phenophases. We found a constant but low intensity of occurrence of both leaf fall and leaf flush with respect to canopy cover, resulting in an evergreen cover throughout the year. The timing of the reproductive phenophases was irregular between the two years of observation, and their amplitude was low. In addition, flowering and fruiting phenograms of activity, intensity and intensity corrected by the basal area did not overlap. These results suggest that a combination of phenological records and community-structure parameters allows for the obtainment of more accurate estimates of resource availability over time. We found that differences in growing degree-days (GDD), photoperiod and precipitation over time were related to temporal variation in leaf fall, leaf flush and flowering, with a large consistency in responses across tree species in this lowland Atlantic Forest. Moreover, there was only a weak relationship between climatic conditions and the dynamics of fruit formation and ripening, which were more strongly related to flowering phenodynamics, which is suggestive of indirect effects of climatic conditions on fruiting. Finally, the association we found between the number of days with precipitation and leaf fall dynamics agrees with the view that the greater potential for extreme events may impair plant growth in tropical forests. This reinforces the growing concerns regarding the risk of ecological collapse of tropical forests due to fragmentation and global climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling Tropical Forest Dynamics through Their Functional Traits in a Climate Change Century)
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15 pages, 3168 KiB  
Article
Drought Effects on Photosynthesis and Implications of Photoassimilate Distribution in 11C-Labeled Leaves in the African Tropical Tree Species Maesopsis eminii Engl.
by Jackie Epila, Michiel Hubeau and Kathy Steppe
Forests 2018, 9(3), 109; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9030109 - 28 Feb 2018
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4970
Abstract
Photoassimilate distribution inside leaves is less studied than photosynthesis, and yet the topic is important as it gives insights into the vital roles played by leaves in plant survival. We combined greenhouse measurements of light response curves with 11C-labelling using leaves of [...] Read more.
Photoassimilate distribution inside leaves is less studied than photosynthesis, and yet the topic is important as it gives insights into the vital roles played by leaves in plant survival. We combined greenhouse measurements of light response curves with 11C-labelling using leaves of 3-year-old potted Maesopsis eminii Engl. trees to improve our understanding of its leaf carbon physiology. This fast-growing pioneer tree species showed low photosynthetic rates for a common tropical pioneer during well-watered reference conditions (5.0 ± 0.7 µmol m−2 s−1), which further decreased in response to drought. 11C-autoradiography indicated active phloem loading and/or rapid phloem transport rates. Active loading is uncommon in tree species, but might be related to deciduousness traits and continuous investment in growth, like in herbaceous active loaders. Active loading involves higher carbon allocation to growth, which might explain why low photosynthetic rates were observed in this fast-growing species. These findings suggest that examining photoassimilate distribution and transport may be critical for understanding the role tree physiology plays in terrestrial carbon cycling. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modeling Tropical Forest Dynamics through Their Functional Traits in a Climate Change Century)
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