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Regeneration of Different Plant Functional Types in a Masson Pine Forest Following Pine Wilt Disease

Pine wilt disease is a severe threat to the native pine forests in East Asia. Understanding the natural regeneration of the forests disturbed by pine wilt disease is thus critical for the conservation of biodiversity in this realm. We studied the dynamics of composition and structure within differen...

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Autores principales: Hu, Guang, Xu, Xuehong, Wang, Yuling, Lu, Gao, Feeley, Kenneth J., Yu, Mingjian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3341345/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22563499
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0036432
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author Hu, Guang
Xu, Xuehong
Wang, Yuling
Lu, Gao
Feeley, Kenneth J.
Yu, Mingjian
author_facet Hu, Guang
Xu, Xuehong
Wang, Yuling
Lu, Gao
Feeley, Kenneth J.
Yu, Mingjian
author_sort Hu, Guang
collection PubMed
description Pine wilt disease is a severe threat to the native pine forests in East Asia. Understanding the natural regeneration of the forests disturbed by pine wilt disease is thus critical for the conservation of biodiversity in this realm. We studied the dynamics of composition and structure within different plant functional types (PFTs) in Masson pine forests affected by pine wilt disease (PWD). Based on plant traits, all species were assigned to four PFTs: evergreen woody species (PFT1), deciduous woody species (PFT2), herbs (PFT3), and ferns (PFT4). We analyzed the changes in these PFTs during the initial disturbance period and during post-disturbance regeneration. The species richness, abundance and basal area, as well as life-stage structure of the PFTs changed differently after pine wilt disease. The direction of plant community regeneration depended on the differential response of the PFTs. PFT1, which has a higher tolerance to disturbances, became dominant during the post-disturbance regeneration, and a young evergreen-broad-leaved forest developed quickly after PWD. Results also indicated that the impacts of PWD were dampened by the feedbacks between PFTs and the microclimate, in which PFT4 played an important ecological role. In conclusion, we propose management at the functional type level instead of at the population level as a promising approach in ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation.
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spelling pubmed-33413452012-05-04 Regeneration of Different Plant Functional Types in a Masson Pine Forest Following Pine Wilt Disease Hu, Guang Xu, Xuehong Wang, Yuling Lu, Gao Feeley, Kenneth J. Yu, Mingjian PLoS One Research Article Pine wilt disease is a severe threat to the native pine forests in East Asia. Understanding the natural regeneration of the forests disturbed by pine wilt disease is thus critical for the conservation of biodiversity in this realm. We studied the dynamics of composition and structure within different plant functional types (PFTs) in Masson pine forests affected by pine wilt disease (PWD). Based on plant traits, all species were assigned to four PFTs: evergreen woody species (PFT1), deciduous woody species (PFT2), herbs (PFT3), and ferns (PFT4). We analyzed the changes in these PFTs during the initial disturbance period and during post-disturbance regeneration. The species richness, abundance and basal area, as well as life-stage structure of the PFTs changed differently after pine wilt disease. The direction of plant community regeneration depended on the differential response of the PFTs. PFT1, which has a higher tolerance to disturbances, became dominant during the post-disturbance regeneration, and a young evergreen-broad-leaved forest developed quickly after PWD. Results also indicated that the impacts of PWD were dampened by the feedbacks between PFTs and the microclimate, in which PFT4 played an important ecological role. In conclusion, we propose management at the functional type level instead of at the population level as a promising approach in ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation. Public Library of Science 2012-05-01 /pmc/articles/PMC3341345/ /pubmed/22563499 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0036432 Text en Hu et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hu, Guang
Xu, Xuehong
Wang, Yuling
Lu, Gao
Feeley, Kenneth J.
Yu, Mingjian
Regeneration of Different Plant Functional Types in a Masson Pine Forest Following Pine Wilt Disease
title Regeneration of Different Plant Functional Types in a Masson Pine Forest Following Pine Wilt Disease
title_full Regeneration of Different Plant Functional Types in a Masson Pine Forest Following Pine Wilt Disease
title_fullStr Regeneration of Different Plant Functional Types in a Masson Pine Forest Following Pine Wilt Disease
title_full_unstemmed Regeneration of Different Plant Functional Types in a Masson Pine Forest Following Pine Wilt Disease
title_short Regeneration of Different Plant Functional Types in a Masson Pine Forest Following Pine Wilt Disease
title_sort regeneration of different plant functional types in a masson pine forest following pine wilt disease
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3341345/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22563499
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0036432
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