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Multivariate path analysis of the relationships between seedling regeneration and environmental factors beneath a dwarf bamboo understory

Seedling emergence and establishment are fragile processes that determine the direction and structure of forest succession and regeneration. However, seedling emergence and establishment are easily affected by biotic and abiotic (environmental) factors. A dense and expanding understory of dwarf bamb...

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Autores principales: Qian, Feng, Song, Haiyan, Chen, Miao, Zeng, Jiaqin, Dang, Chenqiang, Tao, Jianping
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6787829/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31624551
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5548
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author Qian, Feng
Song, Haiyan
Chen, Miao
Zeng, Jiaqin
Dang, Chenqiang
Tao, Jianping
author_facet Qian, Feng
Song, Haiyan
Chen, Miao
Zeng, Jiaqin
Dang, Chenqiang
Tao, Jianping
author_sort Qian, Feng
collection PubMed
description Seedling emergence and establishment are fragile processes that determine the direction and structure of forest succession and regeneration. However, seedling emergence and establishment are easily affected by biotic and abiotic (environmental) factors. A dense and expanding understory of dwarf bamboo is one such important factor that can seriously hinder the seedling regeneration. We conducted a field experiment to investigate the emergence and establishment of canopy tree seedlings under artificially controlled densities of dwarf bamboo. We found that understory dwarf bamboo obstructed seedling emergence but reduced the death of seedlings. Although understory dwarf bamboo reduced the median retention time of seedlings, dense bamboo increased the mean survival time of seedlings. Our results suggest that understory dwarf bamboo has multiple selectivities for tree seedling emergence and establishment: high‐density dwarf bamboo was beneficial to evergreen species but lower‐density of bamboo was conducive to the survival of deciduous species, it means the dwarf bamboo potentially alters successional trajectories of forest communities. Path analysis revealed that the most important factors affecting tree seedling emergence and death were the abundance of seeds in the seed bank and the density of emerged seedlings, and that the soil temperature promoted seedling emergence but increased seedling death, the thickness of litter limited seedling emergence, and the leaf area index of the bamboo canopy limited seedling death. The present study suggests that dwarf bamboo can directly alter the microenvironment, significantly reducing light levels and soil temperature but increasing the thickness of litter and soil humus, thereby indirectly impacting the regeneration of tree seedlings. Our results indicate that various factors affected seedling emergence, and there were complex indirect relationships among these factors. In general, biological factors had a stronger influence on tree seedling regeneration than environmental factors.
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spelling pubmed-67878292019-10-17 Multivariate path analysis of the relationships between seedling regeneration and environmental factors beneath a dwarf bamboo understory Qian, Feng Song, Haiyan Chen, Miao Zeng, Jiaqin Dang, Chenqiang Tao, Jianping Ecol Evol Original Research Seedling emergence and establishment are fragile processes that determine the direction and structure of forest succession and regeneration. However, seedling emergence and establishment are easily affected by biotic and abiotic (environmental) factors. A dense and expanding understory of dwarf bamboo is one such important factor that can seriously hinder the seedling regeneration. We conducted a field experiment to investigate the emergence and establishment of canopy tree seedlings under artificially controlled densities of dwarf bamboo. We found that understory dwarf bamboo obstructed seedling emergence but reduced the death of seedlings. Although understory dwarf bamboo reduced the median retention time of seedlings, dense bamboo increased the mean survival time of seedlings. Our results suggest that understory dwarf bamboo has multiple selectivities for tree seedling emergence and establishment: high‐density dwarf bamboo was beneficial to evergreen species but lower‐density of bamboo was conducive to the survival of deciduous species, it means the dwarf bamboo potentially alters successional trajectories of forest communities. Path analysis revealed that the most important factors affecting tree seedling emergence and death were the abundance of seeds in the seed bank and the density of emerged seedlings, and that the soil temperature promoted seedling emergence but increased seedling death, the thickness of litter limited seedling emergence, and the leaf area index of the bamboo canopy limited seedling death. The present study suggests that dwarf bamboo can directly alter the microenvironment, significantly reducing light levels and soil temperature but increasing the thickness of litter and soil humus, thereby indirectly impacting the regeneration of tree seedlings. Our results indicate that various factors affected seedling emergence, and there were complex indirect relationships among these factors. In general, biological factors had a stronger influence on tree seedling regeneration than environmental factors. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019-09-03 /pmc/articles/PMC6787829/ /pubmed/31624551 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5548 Text en © 2019 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Qian, Feng
Song, Haiyan
Chen, Miao
Zeng, Jiaqin
Dang, Chenqiang
Tao, Jianping
Multivariate path analysis of the relationships between seedling regeneration and environmental factors beneath a dwarf bamboo understory
title Multivariate path analysis of the relationships between seedling regeneration and environmental factors beneath a dwarf bamboo understory
title_full Multivariate path analysis of the relationships between seedling regeneration and environmental factors beneath a dwarf bamboo understory
title_fullStr Multivariate path analysis of the relationships between seedling regeneration and environmental factors beneath a dwarf bamboo understory
title_full_unstemmed Multivariate path analysis of the relationships between seedling regeneration and environmental factors beneath a dwarf bamboo understory
title_short Multivariate path analysis of the relationships between seedling regeneration and environmental factors beneath a dwarf bamboo understory
title_sort multivariate path analysis of the relationships between seedling regeneration and environmental factors beneath a dwarf bamboo understory
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6787829/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31624551
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5548
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