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Forests
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Forest Succession: Natural and Anthropogenic Drivers of Ecological Change
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Forest Succession: Natural and Anthropogenic Drivers of Ecological Change

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2023) | Viewed by 9456

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Valentí Rull

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Botanic Institute of Barcelona, Spanish Scientific Research Council (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain
Interests: palynology and paleoecology applied to plant ecology; evolution and biogeography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing human impact of the last millennium and the acceleration of this anthropogenic incidence experienced during the last few centuries have changed the successional trajectories of many forest communities around the world. The study of forest succession before and after human inception may help to disentangle the effects of natural (climatic) and anthropogenic factors on forested ecosystems, which can be helpful in terms of anticipating future successional trajectories and informing forest conservation. This Special Issue aims to provide an overview of forest successional processes and their main external forcings under a wide spatiotemporal perspective. Biogeographically, all biomes are considered, from coasts to high elevations and from tropical to near-polar latitudes. Chronologically, any temporal scale is contemplated, from short-term ecological studies on living forests to millennial-scale paleoecological surveys using a variety of proxies (pollen, macrofossils, tree rings, stable isotopes, molecular biomarkers, etc.) for forest and environmental reconstruction. The main topic of the Special Issue is the influence of climatic and anthropogenic drivers, as well as potential feedbacks and synergies among them, on forest succession. Manuscripts should emphasize functional ecological aspects rather than simply describe forest successional stages.

Dr. Valentí Rull
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • climate forcing
  • human impact
  • ecology
  • paleoecology
  • global change
  • conservation

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 81168 KiB  
Article
A 1640-Year Vegetation and Fire History of the Lake Haixihai Catchment in Northwestern Yunnan, Southwest China
by Qian Shi, Caiming Shen, Hongwei Meng, Linpei Huang and Qifa Sun
Forests 2023, 14(5), 990; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f14050990 - 11 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1451
Abstract
Vegetation and fire archives of the late Holocene are essential for understanding the importance of natural and anthropogenic forcings on past and future vegetation successions as well as climate changes. Here we present a 1640-year record of vegetation and fire history of the [...] Read more.
Vegetation and fire archives of the late Holocene are essential for understanding the importance of natural and anthropogenic forcings on past and future vegetation successions as well as climate changes. Here we present a 1640-year record of vegetation and fire history of the Lake Haixihai catchment in northwestern Yunnan, southwest China. Pollen and charcoal analyses as well as XRF (X-ray fluorescence) analysis of lacustrine sediments from Lake Haixihai were employed to reveal its regional vegetation, forest fire, and soil erosion intensity changes over the last 1640 years. The results show their significant changes attributed to both climatic conditions and human activities: The lake catchment witnessed the densest forests (including pine and hemlock forests, and evergreen broadleaved forests) and the weakest soil erosion of the last 1640 years as well as relatively frequent forest fires at 380–880 AD, when vegetation succession, forest fire, and soil erosion were mainly driven by natural forcings, i.e., climatic conditions. A significant and abrupt drop in forest density, minor changes in abundance of forest components, and gradually strengthening soil erosion occurred at the transition from 880 to 1040 AD, when anthropogenic forcings such as the development of agriculture and systematic deforestation gradually became dominant ones driving vegetation succession and soil erosion. After this transition, forest density and soil erosion intensity never returned to the level before 880 AD, implying that the modern landscape in the lake catchment was already established approximately at as early as ca. 1040 AD. No significant changes in forest component and density as well as forest fire and soil erosion occurred until 1940 AD. The most frequent forest fires, the strongest soil erosion, and low forest density after 1940 AD might be attributed partially to climatic conditions and partially to extensive deforestation around 1960 AD. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Succession: Natural and Anthropogenic Drivers of Ecological Change)
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32 pages, 2624 KiB  
Article
Disturbance and Succession in Early to Mid-Holocene Northern English Forests: Palaeoecological Evidence for Disturbance of Woodland Ecosystems by Mesolithic Hunter-Gatherers
by James B. Innes and Jeffrey J. Blackford
Forests 2023, 14(4), 719; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f14040719 - 31 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2501
Abstract
Forest succession can be monitored in the present, modelled for the future, but also reconstructed in the past on the records of forest history, including through the use of palaeo-ecological techniques. Longer-term records from pollen data can show changes over centennial and millennial [...] Read more.
Forest succession can be monitored in the present, modelled for the future, but also reconstructed in the past on the records of forest history, including through the use of palaeo-ecological techniques. Longer-term records from pollen data can show changes over centennial and millennial timescales that are impacted by climate, migration or soil development. Having knowledge of previous phases of post-disturbance seral stages of woodland regeneration however, as after fire, can provide insights regarding successional process and function over short-term decadal timescales. The aim of this paper is to test the high-resolution pollen record as a source of new insights into processes of succession, assisted by the supplementary data of microscopic charcoal analyses. On short-term timescales, multiple phases of forest disturbance and then recovery have been identified in early to mid-Holocene peat records in northern England, many from the uplands but also from lowland areas. We identify and describe a typology of recovery patterns, including the composition and rate of recovery, and then test the processes and factors that impacted on different seral trajectories, concentrating on fire disturbance which might have had a natural origin, or might have been caused by pre-agricultural Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Factors considered include the spatial location and intensity of the fire event, the duration of the disturbance phase, the structure and dynamics of the successional regeneration vegetation communities and the pre-disturbance tree cover. Data from examples of fire disturbance of woodland have been examined from both upland and lowland sites in northern England and indicate that they had different successional pathways after disturbance. Fire disturbances in the denser lowland forests were mostly single burn events followed by natural successions and regeneration to forest, whereas fire disturbances in the upland woods usually showed continued or repetitive fire pressure after the initial burning, arresting succession so that vegetation was maintained in a shrub phase, often dominated by Corylus, for an extended period of time until disturbance ceased. This creation of a kind of prolonged, almost plagioclimax, ‘fire-coppice’ hazel stage suggests controlled rather than natural successional pathways, and strongly suggests that Mesolithic foragers were the fire starters in the upland English woodlands where hazel was naturally common and could be maintained in abundance in later-stage successions, along with other edible plants, for human use. All post-fire seral stages would have been attractive to game animals, providing a reliable food source that would have been of great benefit to hunter-gatherer populations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Succession: Natural and Anthropogenic Drivers of Ecological Change)
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18 pages, 6052 KiB  
Article
Pyrenean Silver Fir Forests Retain Legacies of Past Disturbances and Climate Change in Their Growth, Structure and Composition
by Antonio Gazol, Ester González de Andrés, Michele Colangelo, Cristina Valeriano and Jesús Julio Camarero
Forests 2023, 14(4), 713; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f14040713 - 30 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1191
Abstract
Recent drought-induced dieback alters forest dynamics, which are also shaped by past management. In western Pyrenean silver fir (Abies alba) stands, dieback concurs in space and time with the legacies of past management, but the impacts on forest growth, structure and [...] Read more.
Recent drought-induced dieback alters forest dynamics, which are also shaped by past management. In western Pyrenean silver fir (Abies alba) stands, dieback concurs in space and time with the legacies of past management, but the impacts on forest growth, structure and composition are unknown. We aim to disentangle how dieback interacts with the legacies of past human use and modulates the recent dynamics of silver fir forests. To this end, we sampled eleven silver fir forests across wide climatic gradients and included declining and non-declining sites. We measured radial growth, structure, composition, understory cover and type and amount of deadwood. Silver fir growth declines in response to late-summer drought. In declining sites, most defoliated stands showed the lowest silver fir density and were those where growth depended more on water availability. Tree death enhanced the cover of dominant understory plants such as Buxus sempervirens. Past management activities leave an imprint in the growth of silver fir, such as releases due to past logging, but also affect the number of stumps and snags and the current tree density. A more extensive monitoring will be required to fully disentangle the multiple influences of past management legacies and current climate change on forest dynamics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Succession: Natural and Anthropogenic Drivers of Ecological Change)
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17 pages, 6184 KiB  
Article
Resilience of Pyrenean Forests after Recurrent Historical Deforestations
by Valentí Rull and Teresa Vegas-Vilarrúbia
Forests 2023, 14(3), 567; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f14030567 - 13 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1301
Abstract
The long-term resilience of Pyrenean forests in the face of historical anthropogenic clearing remains largely unknown. In this paper, a high-resolution (decadal to subdecadal) paleoecological study of mid-elevation Pyrenean forests is presented that encompasses the last two millennia. This long-term record was obtained [...] Read more.
The long-term resilience of Pyrenean forests in the face of historical anthropogenic clearing remains largely unknown. In this paper, a high-resolution (decadal to subdecadal) paleoecological study of mid-elevation Pyrenean forests is presented that encompasses the last two millennia. This long-term record was obtained after sediment coring, dating (varve counting) and pollen analysis of annually laminated (varved) sediments from Lake Montcortès, situated at 1027 m elevation, in the transition between the Mediterranean and montane forest belts. This allowed the definition of three major deforestation/recovery cycles during the Roman, Medieval and Modern times. Each DR cycle is characterized considering three different levels: overall forest trends, forest type and individual taxa. Overall, the studied forests exhibited high resilience, as they recovered almost completely after each deforestation event (bulk resilience). The critical point of no return (tipping point) beyond which forests would have irreversibly disappeared from the region was never reached, even after deforestation magnitudes above 60%. The different forest types identified (conifer, sclerophyll and deciduous) persisted over time, showing similar heterogeneous patterns with minor spatial reorganizations (mosaic resilience). Individually, the main forest taxa underwent minor variations in their relative abundances, always within the same attraction domains (community resilience). The high levels of resilience documented in these Pyrenean forests are attributed to the action of metapopulation and metacommunity processes and mechanisms in a highly dynamic patchy environment. Conservation actions should be focused on the maintenance of these spatial patterns and the associated ecological dynamics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Succession: Natural and Anthropogenic Drivers of Ecological Change)
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26 pages, 8435 KiB  
Article
Climatic and Anthropogenic Drivers of Forest Succession in the Iberian Pyrenees during the Last 500 Years: A Statistical Approach
by Valentí Rull and Teresa Vegas-Vilarrúbia
Forests 2022, 13(4), 622; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/f13040622 - 15 Apr 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1952
Abstract
Anticipating future successional forest trends in the face of ongoing global change is an essential conservation target. Mountain forests are especially sensitive to environmental shifts, and their past responses to climatic and anthropogenic (external) drivers may provide a basis for improving predictions of [...] Read more.
Anticipating future successional forest trends in the face of ongoing global change is an essential conservation target. Mountain forests are especially sensitive to environmental shifts, and their past responses to climatic and anthropogenic (external) drivers may provide a basis for improving predictions of future developments. This paper uses independent high-resolution palynological and paleoclimatic reconstructions to statistically analyze the long-term effects of external drivers on regional forest succession in the central Iberian Pyrenees during the last 500 years. The statistical methods used are Gaussian response analysis, cluster analysis, rate-of-change analysis, principal component analysis, and redundancy analysis. The dominant taxa of these forests (Quercus, Betula, Pinus) showed significant relationships with summer temperature, summer drought, and autumn precipitation. Immediate and delayed (by two or more decades) responses of these trees to climatic drivers were identified. Regional succession showed a closed path, starting at the end points around the attraction domain of pine-dominated forests. This trajectory was determined by a trend toward anthropogenic forest clearing (16th to 18th centuries) and a reverse trend of natural forest recovery (18th to 20th centuries). Forest clearing was due to burning, facilitated by drought, and was followed by the expansion of cropping and grazing lands. Forest recovery was fostered by reduced human pressure and rising temperatures. The statistical approach used in this work has unraveled ecological relationships that remained unnoticed in previous works and would be important for predicting future successional trends under changing climates. The reported response lags of individual taxa to climatic drivers may complicate the establishment of reliable ecological relationships and should be addressed in future studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Succession: Natural and Anthropogenic Drivers of Ecological Change)
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