Spatial structure of the abiotic environment and its association with sapling community structure and dynamics in a cloud forest |
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Authors: | Nancy R Mejía-Domínguez Jorge A Meave Carlos Díaz-Ávalos |
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Institution: | 1.Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias,Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México,México,Mexico;2.Departamento de Probabilidad y Estadística, Instituto de Investigaciones en Matemáticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas,Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México,México,Mexico |
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Abstract: | Analyzing the relationship between the spatial structures of environmental variables and of the associated seedling and sapling
communities is crucial to understanding the regeneration processes in forest communities. The degree of spatial structuring
(i.e., spatial autocorrelation) of environmental and sapling community variables in the cloud forest of Teipan, S Mexico,
were analyzed at a 1-ha scale using geostatistical analysis; after fitting semivariogram models for each set of variables,
the association between the two sets was examined through cross-variograms. Kriging maps of the sapling community variables
(density, cover, species richness, and mortality and recruitment rates) were obtained through conditional simulation method.
Canopy openness, total solar radiation, litter depth, soil temperature and soil moisture were spatially structured, as were
sapling density, species richness and sapling mortality rate. Mean range in semivariograms for environmental and sapling community
variables were 13.14 ± 3.67 and 12.68 ± 5.71 m (±SE), respectively. The spatial structure of litter depth was negatively associated
with the spatial structures of sapling density, species richness, and sapling community cover; in turn, the spatial structure
of soil moisture was positively associated with the spatial structure of recruitment rate. These associations of the spatial
structures of abiotic and sapling community variables suggest that the regeneration processes in this cloud forest is driven
by the existence of different microsites, largely characterized by litter depth variations, across which saplings of tree
species encounter a range of opportunities for successful establishment and survival. |
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