How tree communities respond to distance to edges and canopy openness

About | Contact | Mongabay on Facebook | Mongabay on Twitter | Subscribe

SHARE:

How tree communities respond to distance to edges and canopy openness
mongabay.com
December 06, 2009

Tropical forests frequently experience the opening and closing of canopy gaps as part of their natural dynamics. When an edge is created, and the area outside the boundary is a disturbed or unnatural system, forests can be seriously affected even at some distance from the fragmented edge, since sunlight and wind penetrate to a much greater extent. This increases tree mortality and, consequently, canopy openness close to the edge. Thus, canopy openness can be both part of a natural gap-dynamics cycle and the direct manifestation of human edge effects.

A new study, published in Tropical Conservation Science, investigates how tree communities respond to both distance to edges and canopy openness in a tropical montane forest at Las Cruces Biological Station, SW Costa Rica. Luis Cayuela of the Universidad de Granada in Spain and colleagues found that proximity to the forest edge does not increase the rate of canopy openness. When looking closely at the separate effects of edges and natural canopy gaps, a small or even negligible effect of edges on tree structure, diversity and composition was found, whereas natural canopy gaps exerted a stronger influence on these variables. The study concluded that edge effects may be minimized — or even suppressed — in older fragments through the sealing of edges by a thick growth of thin stems and through lateral growth of tree crowns; whereas canopy gap formation remains an active force that can create micro-environmental conditions that have significant effects on plant communities.

CITATION: Luis Cayuela, Carolina Murcia, Anjanette A. Hawk, Javier Fernández-Vega, Federico Oviedo-Brenes 2009. Tree responses to edge effects and canopy openness in a tropical montane forest fragment in southern Costa Rica Full Text PDF. Tropical Conservation Science Vol.2(4):425-436.

CITATION:
mongabay.com (December 06, 2009). How tree communities respond to distance to edges and canopy openness. http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1207-edge_effects_costa_rica_tcs.html

Tags:
ecology Costa Rica trees plants biodiversity green environment central america latin america tropical forests tropical conservation science tcs

print

News index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home

Advertisements:

Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing

Mongabay Store
Wildlife of Madagascar T-shirt		Bold and Dangerous - Pygmy tyrant
Love me before I'm gone - Gladiator frog		Licking this frog may make you crazy

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

SUPPORT
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)

Help support mongabay.com when you buy from Amazon.com

Photos

Alaska	Argentina	Australia
Belize	Brazil	Cambodia
China	Colombia	Costa Rica
Deforestation	Frog	Gabon
Grand Canyon	Honduras	India
Indonesia	Kenya	Laos
Lemur	Madagascar	Malaysia
Monkey	New Zealand	Panama
Peru	Rainforest	Sunset
Suriname	Tanzania	Thailand
Uganda	United States	Venezuela

HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS / PRINTS

CALENDARS

Mount Kenya

East Africa Safari Wildlife

Kenya's Turkana People

Madagascar Chameleons

CANVAS BAGS

Hallucinogenic frog bag

Madagascar wildlife bag

Mongabay.com's Fan Page on Facebook

Copyright mongabay 2010

Carbon dioxide gas emissions generated from mongabay.com operations (server, data transfer, travel) are mitigated through an association with Anthrotect,
an organization working with Afro-indigenous and Embera communities to protect forests in Colombia's Darien region.
Anthrotect is protecting the habitat of mongabay's mascot: the scale-crested pygmy tyrant.