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Simulating environmentally-sensitive tree recruitment in vegetation demographic models.
- Source :
-
The New phytologist [New Phytol] 2022 Jul; Vol. 235 (1), pp. 78-93. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Mar 15. - Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- Vegetation demographic models (VDMs) endeavor to predict how global forests will respond to climate change. This requires simulating which trees, if any, are able to recruit under changing environmental conditions. We present a new recruitment scheme for VDMs in which functional-type-specific recruitment rates are sensitive to light, soil moisture and the productivity of reproductive trees. We evaluate the scheme by predicting tree recruitment for four tropical tree functional types under varying meteorology and canopy structure at Barro Colorado Island, Panama. We compare predictions to those of a current VDM, quantitative observations and ecological expectations. We find that the scheme improves the magnitude and rank order of recruitment rates among functional types and captures recruitment limitations in response to variable understory light, soil moisture and precipitation regimes. Our results indicate that adopting this framework will improve VDM capacity to predict functional-type-specific tree recruitment in response to climate change, thereby improving predictions of future forest distribution, composition and function.<br /> (© 2022 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2022 New Phytologist Foundation.)
- Subjects :
- Demography
Forests
Soil
Trees
Tropical Climate
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1469-8137
- Volume :
- 235
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- The New phytologist
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 35218213
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18059