1. Crown fragmentation assessment in tropical trees: method, insights and perspectives
- Author
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Daniel Barthélémy, Lilian Blanc, Ervan Rutishauser, Nicolini Eric-André, Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations (UMR AMAP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [France-Sud]), Ecologie des forêts de Guyane (ECOFOG), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université des Antilles et de la Guyane (UAG)-AgroParisTech-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [France-Sud])
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Canopy ,Viabilité ,F62 - Physiologie végétale - Croissance et développement ,forêt tropicale ,Mortalité ,Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Forest dynamics ,Tree mortality ,stomatognathic system ,K01 - Foresterie - Considérations générales ,Forest ecology ,Croissance ,Nature and Landscape Conservation ,Tree canopy ,U10 - Informatique, mathématiques et statistiques ,Ecology ,Crown (botany) ,Fragmentation (computing) ,Tropics ,Forestry ,15. Life on land ,Houppier ,Geography ,Liana ,[SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology ,Crown fragmentation ,Crown assessment ,010606 plant biology & botany - Abstract
International audience; Decreasing growth rate (Feeley et al., 2007) and large die-back due to drought (Phillips et al., 2009) suggest that tropical forests are suffering recent climate changes. Forest vulnerability to external factors (e.g. air pollution, acid rain) is widely studied in northern countries, while only a few attempts have investigated crown integrity in the Tropics. The method needs to be generic enough to account for the large number of species and crown shapes encountered in tropical forests. In the present study, we developed and tested a novel field method that estimates crown fragmentation (main branch mortality (MB) and secondary branch mortality (SB)), liana infestation (LI) and crown position (CP) in the canopy. The relationship between crown fragmentation and annual growth rate (agr) was investigated through multiple regression. Six out of eight canopy tree species showed significant growth decline with increasing crown fragmentation. Higher probability of death was also found in trees with severe crown fragmentation. The capacity of such crown assessment to depict tree vitality in a forest stand is discussed along with potential applications in both forest science and management
- Published
- 2011
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