The response of lichens inhabiting exposed wood of spruce logs to post-hurricane disturbances in Western Carpathian forests

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We investigated which of the following environmental factors: the number of years since the windthrow of the tree (the age of dead wood), the phytocenosis (the type of forest community), altitude, exposure, wood hardness and the spatial scale of forest disturbances (small gaps with a few fallen spruces vs large-area windthrows) contributed to the diversity and abundance of lichens inhabiting the exposed wood of windthrown spruce trees in Polish Western Carpathian forests. Both Shannon H index and sum of coverage coefficients rose with increasing age of the wood, levelling off after 11–14 y (diversity) and 14–17 y (abundance). This factor appeared to be the most important for this group of lichens, but the significant positive impact of large-area windthrows on the lichen abundance was also demonstrated by using a GLM model. The age of the wood we precisely determined on the basis of data on Norway spruce mortality collected annually in permanent plots of the Gorce National Park since 2000. Using the Shore durometer we linked the course of the wood-inhabiting lichen succession with wood decay more precisely than before. The largest number of species was associated with medium hard wood, i.e., 51
Author:
Tanona M. & Czarnota P.
Year:
2023
Journal:
Fungal Ecology
Pages:
63: 101228 [11 p.]
Pdf:
1
Id:
35201
Submitter:
zpalice
Post_time:
Wednesday, 08 March 2023 14:57