Climate Mediates the Relationship Between Plant Biodiversity and Forest Structure Across the United States
Hakkenberg CR and Goetz SJ. 2021. Climate Mediates the Relationship Between Plant Biodiversity and Forest Structure Across the United States. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 30(11):2245-2258
ABSTRACT/RESULTS: These findings provide evidence for broad-scale BSRs across the USA; namely, between plant/tree diversity and forest structural metrics in the vertical and horizontal planes. Vascular plant diversity was positively related to horizontally heterogeneous and bottom-skewed canopies, whereas tree diversity was positively associated with canopy cover and structural heterogeneity. In addition, climate variables related to stress (negatively), energy (positively) and seasonality (negatively) affected broad-scale patterns in diversity, with water availability (but not temperature) exerting significant effects on structural conditions. Importantly, climate and structure interact to explain variance in BSRs along coldness, mean temperature and evapotranspiration gradients.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Hakkenberg, Christopher; Goetz, Scott
- Units
- GRSM , ROMO , YELL
- Keywords
- airborne lidar, biodiversity, ecoclimatic gradients, forest structural diversity, GLMM, GRSM-01207, macrosystems ecology, microclimate, National Ecological Observatory Network, NEON, non-stationarity, vascular plant diversity