『Abstract
Understanding and predicting the response of plant communities
to multiple ocerlapping disturbances remains a challenging task.
Hurricane Wilma represents a large, yet infrequent type of disturbance
that was superimposed on an existing disturbance gradient of time
since fire. We examined disturbance and recovery patterns in response
to these overlapping disturbances by measuring how canopy structure,
fine roots, mycorrhizae, and soil nitrogen dynamics, varied along
a fire chronosequence in the 2 years after Hurricane Wilma. Hurricane
damage increased canopy openness in all seral stages. In the early-seral
stage, canopy openness returned to pre-hurricane conditions within
2 years, whereas canopy openness in the late-seral stage remained
significantly higher throughout the study. We observed no significant
change in root length density in the early- and mid-seral stages.
However, in the late-seral stage, root length density was significantly
reduced immediately after the hurricane and remained so 2 years
after the hurricane. In the late-seral stage, we also observed
a significant reduction in percent soil nitrogen and a significant
increase in soil nitrogen isotopic composition (δ15N)
values, indicating a loss of soil nitrogen. In contrast, in the
early- and mid-seral stages, there were no significant changes
in percent nitrogen or soil δ15N values. Results from
this study suggest that forest fire disturbance history influences
responses to hurricane damage. Moreover, feedbacks between aboveground
and belowground processes have the potential to influence forest
recovery.
Keywords: Large-infrequent disturbance; Hurricane Wilma; Nitrogen
dynamics; Secondary succession; Stable isotopes; Yucatan Peninsula』
Introduction
Materials and methods
Study site
Hurricane Wilma
Aboveground hurricane damage
Effects of hurricane damage on soil factors
Mycorrhizal infection
Statistical analysis
Results
Aboveground damage
Hurricane damage on soil factors
Discussion
Acknowledgments
Open Access
References