Interactive effects of drought and edge exposure on old-growth forest understory species.

ABSTRACT:

Context

Both climatic extremes and land-use change constitute severe threats to biodiversity, but their interactive effects remain poorly understood. In forest ecosystems, the effects of climatic extremes can be exacerbated at forest edges.

Objectives

We explored the hypothesis that an extreme summer drought reduced the richness and coverage of old-growth forest species, particularly in forest patches with high edge exposure.

Methods

Using a high-resolution spatially explicit precipitation dataset, we could detect variability in drought intensity during the summer drought of 2018. We selected 60 old-growth boreal forest patches in central Sweden that differed in their level of drought intensity and amount of edge exposure. The year after the drought, we surveyed red-l

SUBMITTER: Koelemeijer IA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9250463 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature