Regeneration of Rhizophora mucronata (Lamk.) in degraded mangrove forest: Lessons from point pattern analyses of local tree interactions |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Federal University of Technology, Department of Forestry and Wood Technology, P.M.B. 704, Akure, Nigeria;2. Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), P.O. Box 81651, Mombasa, Kenya;3. Department of Forest Biometry and Systems Analysis, Institute of Forest Growth and Forest Computer Sciences, Technische Universitaet Dresden, Postfach 1117, 01735 Tharandt, Germany;1. Centre for Mathematical Medicine and Biology, School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, UK;2. College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, UK;1. Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PW, UK;2. Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (Museo Geominero), C/Cirilo Amorós 42, 46004, Valencia, Spain;3. Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY, 10024, USA;4. Division of Entomology, Natural History Museum, and Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, 1501 Crestline Drive – Suite 140, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA;1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Biologia Vegetal), Instituto de Biociências de Rio Claro, Universidade Estadual Paulista, UNESP, Av. 24A, 1515, Rio Claro, SP, 13506-900, Brazil;2. Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências de Rio Claro, Universidade Estadual Paulista, UNESP, Av. 24A, 1515, Rio Claro, SP, 13506-900, Brazil;1. Department of Mathematics, University Jaume I of Castellón, Spain;2. Department of Statistics, Mathematical Analysis and Optimization, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain;3. Department of Mathematics and Applications, University of Minho, Portugal;4. Department of Statistics and O.R., University of Valencia, Spain |
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| Abstract: | Spatial structural patterns emerging from local tree interactions influence growth, mortality and regeneration processes in forest ecosystems, and decoding them enhance the understanding of ecological mechanisms affecting forest regeneration. Point-Patterns analysis was applied for the very first time to mangrove ecology to explore the spatial structure of Rhizophora mucronata regeneration in a disturbed mangrove forest; and the pattern of associations of juvenile–adult trees. R. mucronata trees were mapped in plots of 50 m × 10 m located at the seaward, central and landward edge along 50 m wide transect in the forest, and the mapped patterns were analysed with pair correlation and mark-connection functions. The population density of R. mucronata differed along the tidal gradient with the highest density in the central region, and the least near the shoreline. The study revealed that short distance propagule dispersal, resulting in the establishment of juveniles in closed distance to the mother trees, might not be the driving force for distribution of this species. The spatial structural pattern of R. mucronata population along tidal gradient showed a characteristic spatial aggregation at small scale, but randomly distributed as the distances become larger. There was a distinct spatial segregation between recruits and adult trees, and hence spatially independent. Though, adult–adult trees associations did not show a clear spatial segregation pattern; the recruit–recruit species associations exhibited significant clustering in space. Although habitat heterogeneity might be responsible for the local scale aggregation in this population, the effect of plant–plant conspecific interactions is more probable to inform the long-term structure and dynamics of the population of R. mucronata, and ditto for the entire forest. |
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| Keywords: | Degraded mangrove Point pattern analysis Propagule dispersal Spatial structure Regeneration |
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