Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-19T00:22:58.780Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The long-term effect of typhoons on vascular epiphytes in Taiwan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2018

Rebecca C.-C. Hsu ,
Jan H.D. Wolf ,
Jer-Min Tsai  and
Yi-Chin Lin
Rebecca C.-C. Hsu*
Affiliation:
Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, No. 67, SanYuan Street, 10079 Taipei, Taiwan
Jan H.D. Wolf
Affiliation:
University of Amsterdam, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), PO Box 94248, 1090 GE Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Jer-Min Tsai
Affiliation:
Department of Information Communication, Kun Shan University, No. 195, Kunda Rd., 710 Tainan, Taiwan
Yi-Chin Lin
Affiliation:
Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, 1727, Taiwan Blvd. Sec. 4, Taichung, Taiwan
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

We used all 167 typhoon warnings issued by the Taiwanese Central Weather Bureau from 1958–2006 to assess the long-term effect of cyclone disturbance on vascular epiphytes. Tracks and eyes of past typhoons were plotted as circles with radii of Beaufort scale 7 and 10, and the frequency of each cohort in 1-km2 grid cells was calculated. The presence of vascular epiphytes in the same grid cells was predicted using species distribution models (SDMs). First, we used herbarium specimens and other sources to compile a comprehensive georeferenced vascular epiphyte database that contained 39084 records in 331 species. Next, we assigned each epiphyte record to a cell in the same 1-km2 grid as above. Finally, we used SDMs (MaXent), based on 30 environmental variables except typhoon frequency, to predict the potential presence of each species in the grid cells. For our analysis we only considered cells east of the central mountain ridge where typhoons hit with full force. After elimination of rare species and species that could not be validated in the SDMs, we were left with 156 epiphyte species in 10725 1-km2 cells. The number of projected species in the cells was 36.5 on average, varying between two and 82 species. Correlation analyses showed that, over time, typhoons led to a decrease in epiphyte richness at Beaufort scale 7 and 10 (Pearson's r = −0.07 and −0.08 respectively). Ferns, orchids, hemiepiphytes and dicotyledons generally showed the same pattern, except hemiepiphytes that showed a positive correlation at B7 (Pearson's r = 0.15). A partial canonical correspondence ordination analysis showed that, independent of temperature- and rainfall-related variables, Beaufort scale 7 and 10 typhoons also had significant influence on the species composition of the vascular epiphyte communities in the landscape. We recommend in situ monitoring of epiphytes over a long period to corroborate the suggestion from this indirect study that typhoons have a long-term effect on the distribution of epiphytes in Taiwan.

Keywords

disturbancehurricaneislandPacific Asiaspecies distribution models
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 34 , Issue 5 , September 2018 , pp. 308 - 315
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

BASNET, K., LIKENS, G. E., SCATENA, F. N. & LUGO, A. E. 1992. Hurricane Hugo: damage to a tropical rain forest in Puerto Rico. Journal of Tropical Ecology 8:47–55.Google Scholar
BATKE, S. P. & KELLY, D. L. 2015. Changes in the distribution of mechanically dependent plants along a gradient of past hurricane impact. AoB Plants 7:plv096.Google Scholar
BENZING, D. H. 1998. Vulnerabilities of tropical forests to climate change: the significance of resident epiphytes. Climatic Change 39:519–540.Google Scholar
CASCANTE‐MARÍN, A., OOSTERMEIJER, G., WOLF, J. & FUCHS, E. J. 2014. Genetic diversity and spatial genetic structure of an epiphytic bromeliad in Costa Rican montane secondary forest patches. Biotropica 46:425–432.Google Scholar
CHANG, Y.-H. 2001. A study on the effect of wind on forest structure at Fushan Experimental Forest. Department of Geography. National Changhua University of Education, Changhua. 108 pp. (In Chinese.)Google Scholar
CHAZDON, R. L. 2003. Tropical forest recovery: legacies of human impact and natural disturbances. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 6:51–71.Google Scholar
CHU, H.-J. 2014. Spatiotemporal analysis of vegetation index after typhoons in the mountainous watershed. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 28:20–27.Google Scholar
CHU, H.-J., LIAU, C.-J., LIN, C.-H. & SU, B.-S. 2012. Integration of fuzzy cluster analysis and kernel density estimation for tracking typhoon trajectories in the Taiwan region. Expert Systems with Applications 39:9451–9457.Google Scholar
CHUANG, Y.-C. 2005. The crown disturbance of a typhoon in Nanjenshan Forest Ecosystem. Department of Forestry, National Pingtung University of Science & Technology, Pingtung. 102 pp. (In Chinese.)Google Scholar
CREESE, C., LEE, A. & SACK, L. 2011. Drivers of morphological diversity and distribution in the Hawaiian fern flora: trait associations with size, growth form, and environment. American Journal of Botany 98:956–966.Google Scholar
DAWSON, J. 1963. New Caledonia and New Zealand – a botanical comparison. Tuatara 11:178–193.Google Scholar
GENTRY, A. H. & DODSON, C. H. 1987. Diversity and biogeography of neotropical vascular epiphytes. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 74:205–233.Google Scholar
GOODE, L. K. & ALLEN, M. F. 2008. The impacts of Hurricane Wilma on the epiphytes of El Edén Ecological Reserve, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 135:377–387.Google Scholar
HILTON, R. G., GALY, A., HOVIUS, N., CHEN, M.-C., HORNG, M.-J. & CHEN, H. 2008. Tropical-cyclone-driven erosion of the terrestrial biosphere from mountains. Nature Geoscience 1:759–762.Google Scholar
HSU, R. C.-C. & WOLF, J. H. D. 2009. Diversity and phytogeography of vascular epiphytes in a tropical-subtropical transition island, Taiwan. Flora 204:612–627.Google Scholar
HSU, R. C. C., WOLF, J. H. D. & TAMIS, W. L. M. 2014. Regional and elevational patterns in vascular epiphyte richness on an East Asian Island. Biotropica 46:549–555.Google Scholar
KANG, R. L., LIN, T. C., JAN, J. F. & HWONG, J. L. 2005. Changes in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) at the Fushan Experimental Forest in relation to typhoon Bilis of 2000. Taiwan Journal of Forest Science 20:73–87.Google Scholar
KELLY, D. L., O'DONAVAN, G., FEEHAN, J., MURPHY, S., DRANGEID, S. O. & MARCANO-BERTI, L. 2004. The epiphyte communities of a montane rain forest in the Andes of Venezuela: patterns in the distribution of the flora. Journal of Tropical Ecology 20:643–666.Google Scholar
KRESS, W. J. 1986. The systematic distribution of vascular epiphytes: an update. Selbyana 9:2–22.Google Scholar
LEE, M.-F., LIN, T.-C., VADEBONCOEUR, M. A. & HWONG, J.-L. 2008. Remote sensing assessment of forest damage in relation to the 1996 strong typhoon Herb at Lienhuachi Experimental Forest, Taiwan. Forest Ecology and Management 255:3297–3306.Google Scholar
LIN, T.-C., HAMBURG, S. P., HSIA, Y.-J., LIN, T.-T., KING, H.-B., WANG, L.-J. & LIN, K.-C. 2003. Influence of typhoon disturbances on the understory light regime and stand dynamics of a subtropical rain forest in northeastern Taiwan. Journal of Forest Research 8:139–145.Google Scholar
LIN, T.-C., HAMBURG, S. P., LIN, K.-C., WANG, L.-J., CHANG, C.-T., HSIA, Y.-J., VADEBONCOEUR, M. A., MCMULLEN, C. M. M. & LIU, C.-P. 2011. Typhoon disturbance and forest dynamics: lessons from a northwest Pacific subtropical forest. Ecosystems 14:127–143.Google Scholar
LIN, Y.-H., TSAI, J.-M., LAI, J.-T. & LIN, Y.-C. 2006. The development and applications of the historical typhoon analysis system (HTAS) – the disturbance regime of typhoons in Hengchun Peninsula. National Taiwan Museum Quarterly 59:50–60. (In Chinese.)Google Scholar
LUGO, A. E. 2008. Visible and invisible effects of hurricanes on forest ecosystems: an international review. Austral Ecology 33:368–398.Google Scholar
MABRY, C. M., HAMBURG, S. P., LIN, T.-C., HORNG, F.-W., KING, H.-B. & HSIA, Y.-J. 1998. Typhoon disturbance and stand-level damage patterns at a subtropical forest in Taiwan. Biotropica 30:238–250.Google Scholar
MIGENIS, L. E. & ACKERMAN, J. D. 1993. Orchid-phorophyte relationships in a forest watershed in Puerto Rico. Journal of Tropical Ecology 9:231–240.Google Scholar
MÚJICA, E., RAVENTÓS, J., GONZÁLEZ, E. & BONET, A. 2013. Long-term hurricane effects on populations of two epiphytic orchid species from Guanahacabibes Peninsula, Cuba. Lankesteriana 13: 47–55.Google Scholar
OBERBAUER, S. F., VON KLEIST, K., WHELAN, K. R. T. & KOPTUR, S. 1996. Effects of Hurricane Andrew on epiphyte communities within cypress domes of Everglades National Park. Ecology 77:964–967.Google Scholar
PHILLIPS, S. J., ANDERSON, R. P. & SCHAPIRE, R. E. 2006. Maximum entropy modeling of species geographic distributions. Ecological Modelling 190:231–259.Google Scholar
REYES-BETANCORT, J. A., SANTOS GUERRA, A., GUMA, I. R., HUMPHRIES, C. J. & CARINE, M. A. 2008. Diversity, rarity and the evolution and conservation of the Canary Islands endemic flora. Anales del Jardin Botanico de Madrid 65:25–45.Google Scholar
SCHOTT, T., LANDSEA, C., HAFELE, G., LORENS, J., TAYLOR, A., THURM, H., WARD, B., WILLIS, M. & ZALESKI, W. 2012. The Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. NOAA/National Weather Service [Internet]:1–4.Google Scholar
TER BRAAK, C. J. F. 1986. Canonical Correspondence Analysis: a new eigenvector technique for multivariate direct gradient analysis. Ecology 67:1167–1179.Google Scholar
TSAI, F., HWANG, J.-H., CHEN, L.-C. & LIN, T.-H. 2010. Post-disaster assessment of landslides in southern Taiwan after 2009 Typhoon Morakot using remote sensing and spatial analysis. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 10:2179–2190.Google Scholar
WU, C.-C. & KUO, Y.-H. 1999. Typhoons affecting Taiwan: current understanding and future challenges. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 80:67–80.Google Scholar
ZOTZ, G. 2013. The systematic distribution of vascular epiphytes – a critical update. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 171:453–481.Google Scholar