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Life on deadwood: cut stumps as a model system for the succession and management of lichen diversity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2014

Vérèna BLASY  and
Christopher J. ELLIS
Vérèna BLASY
Affiliation:
Mount Revelstoke and Glacier Field Unit, Parks Canada, P.O. Box 350, Revelstoke, B.C., V0E 2S0, Canada
Christopher J. ELLIS*
Affiliation:
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR, UK. Email: c.ellis@rbge.org.uk
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Abstract

Coarse deadwood provides an important habitat for a suite of niche-specialist lichens in old-growth forests, for example, snags (standing dead trees) and fallen logs. Conversely, the scarcity of deadwood in managed forests is a limiting factor to lichen diversity, though cut stumps may provide an alternative habitat for deadwood species. The surface of cut stumps is an ecologically useful study system, facilitating standardized sampling with which to determine the pattern and process of deadwood succession. This study examined vegetation patterns for the surface of cut stumps at Abernethy RSPB Reserve in northern Scotland. We demonstrate the interrelationship between key topographic, management and edaphic factors during a successional process of terrestrialization. Consequently, we recommend that deadwood diversity might be maximized by 1) creating managed plots with varying degrees of canopy openness for sites with different levels of topographic exposure, and 2) providing cut stumps at different heights within plots, to ensure that during a rotational period the process of terrestrialization operates at different speeds among individual microhabitats. The study examined successional processes on cut stumps using two recently accessible and powerful statistical methods: 1) nonparametric multiplicative regression (NPMR), and 2) multivariate regression trees (MRT). The principles on which these techniques are based are becoming the preferred statistical framework with which to provide robust interpretation of field-sampled data; they are unconstrained by prior assumptions as to the form of a species' niche response, and are data-led models evaluated based on cross-validated performance, thereby avoiding the complication of multiple hypothesis tests.

Keywords

bryophytedeadwood managementmultivariate regression treesnonparametric multiplicative regressionterrestrialization
Type
Articles
Information
The Lichenologist , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , May 2014 , pp. 455 - 469
Copyright
Copyright © British Lichen Society 2014 

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