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Taxonomic, structural diversity and carbon stocks in a gradient of island forests

Assessment of forest ecosystems and their services is seen as a key action for the advancement of biodiversity objectives, and to inform the development and implementation of related policies and planning. The Azorean forest is important for timber production, the protection of soil and water resour...

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Autores principales: Borges Silva, Lurdes C., Pavão, Diogo C., Elias, Rui B., Moura, Mónica, Ventura, Maria A., Silva, Luís
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8776957/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35058518
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05045-w
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author Borges Silva, Lurdes C.
Pavão, Diogo C.
Elias, Rui B.
Moura, Mónica
Ventura, Maria A.
Silva, Luís
author_facet Borges Silva, Lurdes C.
Pavão, Diogo C.
Elias, Rui B.
Moura, Mónica
Ventura, Maria A.
Silva, Luís
author_sort Borges Silva, Lurdes C.
collection PubMed
description Assessment of forest ecosystems and their services is seen as a key action for the advancement of biodiversity objectives, and to inform the development and implementation of related policies and planning. The Azorean forest is important for timber production, the protection of soil and water resources, and for its recreational and aesthetic value. However, its role in carbon accumulation has not been fully addressed. We assessed plant diversity, forest structure and carbon stocks in a gradient of three forest types (Natural Forest-NF; Exotic Woodland-EW and Production Forest-PF) in three of the Azores islands. We used biodiversity indices and found that NF harbored the highest plant diversity levels and PF the lowest. Diversity levels were lower for structural than for taxonomic data, particularly for PF. The highest tree carbon stock was found at EW in one of the islands, while PF consistently exhibited relatively high tree carbon stocks in the three islands. The largest soil carbon stocks were found at EW, while leaf litter carbon stocks were higher at PF. We concluded that NF play a fundamental role as plant diversity hotspots but have lower relevance as carbon stocks what might be associated with montane environmental conditions. PFs provide economic assets and act as carbon sinks, while EWs play a major role as carbon sinks in soil, but also at tree level in the oldest forests.
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spelling pubmed-87769572022-01-24 Taxonomic, structural diversity and carbon stocks in a gradient of island forests Borges Silva, Lurdes C. Pavão, Diogo C. Elias, Rui B. Moura, Mónica Ventura, Maria A. Silva, Luís Sci Rep Article Assessment of forest ecosystems and their services is seen as a key action for the advancement of biodiversity objectives, and to inform the development and implementation of related policies and planning. The Azorean forest is important for timber production, the protection of soil and water resources, and for its recreational and aesthetic value. However, its role in carbon accumulation has not been fully addressed. We assessed plant diversity, forest structure and carbon stocks in a gradient of three forest types (Natural Forest-NF; Exotic Woodland-EW and Production Forest-PF) in three of the Azores islands. We used biodiversity indices and found that NF harbored the highest plant diversity levels and PF the lowest. Diversity levels were lower for structural than for taxonomic data, particularly for PF. The highest tree carbon stock was found at EW in one of the islands, while PF consistently exhibited relatively high tree carbon stocks in the three islands. The largest soil carbon stocks were found at EW, while leaf litter carbon stocks were higher at PF. We concluded that NF play a fundamental role as plant diversity hotspots but have lower relevance as carbon stocks what might be associated with montane environmental conditions. PFs provide economic assets and act as carbon sinks, while EWs play a major role as carbon sinks in soil, but also at tree level in the oldest forests. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-01-20 /pmc/articles/PMC8776957/ /pubmed/35058518 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05045-w Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Borges Silva, Lurdes C.
Pavão, Diogo C.
Elias, Rui B.
Moura, Mónica
Ventura, Maria A.
Silva, Luís
Taxonomic, structural diversity and carbon stocks in a gradient of island forests
title Taxonomic, structural diversity and carbon stocks in a gradient of island forests
title_full Taxonomic, structural diversity and carbon stocks in a gradient of island forests
title_fullStr Taxonomic, structural diversity and carbon stocks in a gradient of island forests
title_full_unstemmed Taxonomic, structural diversity and carbon stocks in a gradient of island forests
title_short Taxonomic, structural diversity and carbon stocks in a gradient of island forests
title_sort taxonomic, structural diversity and carbon stocks in a gradient of island forests
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8776957/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35058518
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05045-w
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