Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T11:30:56.726Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Radiocarbon Dating Informs Tree Fern Population Dynamics and Disturbance History of Temperate Forests in Southeast Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2018

Melissa Fedrigo ,
Stephen B Stewart ,
Sabine Kasel ,
Vladimir Levchenko ,
Raphael Trouvé  and
Craig R Nitschke Open the ORCID record for Craig R Nitschke [Opens in a new window]
Melissa Fedrigo
Affiliation:
School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 500 Yarra Blvd, Richmond, VIC, 3121, Australia
Stephen B Stewart
Affiliation:
School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 500 Yarra Blvd, Richmond, VIC, 3121, Australia
Sabine Kasel
Affiliation:
School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 500 Yarra Blvd, Richmond, VIC, 3121, Australia
Vladimir Levchenko
Affiliation:
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation New Illawarra Road, Lucas Heights, NSW, 2234, Australia
Raphael Trouvé
Affiliation:
School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 500 Yarra Blvd, Richmond, VIC, 3121, Australia
Craig R Nitschke*
Affiliation:
School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 500 Yarra Blvd, Richmond, VIC, 3121, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Tree ferns are slow-growing and long-lived components of temperate forests; however, these characteristics make determining size-age and population dynamics through mensuration approaches problematic while dendroecological approaches cannot be used. In this study, we use radiocarbon (14C) dating of Cyathea australis and Dicksonia antarctica to (1) determine their age-to-size relationships, (2) reconstruct the age distribution of tree fern species, and (3) test if predicted ages align with the ages of the co-occurring tree community and observed disturbance history. We used the best age-size models to reconstruct the population structure of tree ferns sampled in five paired rainforest and old-growth eucalypt stands and compared these to the age structure of co-occurring tree species. The species had similar growth allometry; however, C. australis grew four times faster than D. antarctica. The age class structures of tree ferns were congruent with the associated tree species and reflected known fire history and snowfall events in the region. Tree fern abundance increased with increasing time-since-fire and post canopy disturbance. The study demonstrates that 14C dating of tree ferns provides a means of investigating tree fern demographics and the role of disturbance in shaping their population structure in forests of southeast Australia.

Keywords

14CCyathea australisDicksonia antarcticaplant demographypopulation dynamics
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , April 2019 , pp. 445 - 460
Copyright
© 2018 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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

REFERENCES

Abrams, MD, Copenheaver, CA. 1999. Temporal variation in species recruitment and dendroecology of an old-growth white oak forest in the Virginia Piedmont, USA. Forest Ecology and Management 124:275–284.Google Scholar
Ashton, DH. 1976. The development of even-aged stands of Eucalyptus regnans F. Muell in Central Victoria. Australian Journal of Botany 24:397–414.Google Scholar
Ashton, DH. 2000. The Big Ash Forest, Wallaby Creek, Victoria – Changes during one lifetime. Australian Journal of Botany 48:1–26.Google Scholar
Ashton, DH. 1986. Ecology of bryophytic communities in mature Eucalyptus regnans F Muell forest at Wallaby Creek, Victoria. Australian Journal of Botany:34:107–129.Google Scholar
Ashton, DH, Bassett, OD.1997. The effects of foraging by the superb lyrebird (Menura novae-hollandiae) in Eucalyptus regnans forests at Beenak, Victoria. Australian Journal of Ecology 22:383–394.Google Scholar
Benaglia, T, Chauveau, D, Hunter, DR, Young, D. 2009. mixtools: An R Package for analyzing finite mixture models. Journal of Statistical Software 32:1–29.Google Scholar
Bergeron, Y. 2000. Species and stand dynamics in the mixed woods of Quebec’s southern boreal forest. Ecology 81:1500–1516.Google Scholar
Blair, DB, Blanchard, W, Banks, SC, Lindenmayer, DB. 2017. Non-linear growth in tree ferns, Dicksonia antarctica and Cyathea australis . PLoS ONE 12:e0176908.Google Scholar
Brock, JMR, Perry, GLW, Lee, WG, Burns, BR. 2016. Tree fern ecology in New Zealand: a model for southern temperate rainforests. Forest Ecology and Management 375:112–126.Google Scholar
Butler, SM, White, AS, Elliot, KJ, Seymour, RS. 2014. Disturbance history and stand dynamics in secondary and old-growth forests of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, USA. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 141:189–204.Google Scholar
Bystriakova, NM, Bader, M, Coomes, DA. 2011. Long-term tree fern dynamics linked to disturbance and shade tolerance. Journal of Vegetation Science 22:72–84.Google Scholar
Chuter, A. 2003. Regeneration of Dicksonia antarctica after logging [unpublished honors thesis]. University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania.Google Scholar
Chuter, AE, Jordan, GJ, Dalton, PJ, Wapstra, M. 2008. Spore germination and early gametophyte development of the soft tree fern Dicksonia antarctica . Tasforests 17:1–8.Google Scholar
Duncan, R. 1989. An evaluation of errors in tree age estimates based on increment cores in kahikatea (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides). New Zealand Natural Science 16:31–37.Google Scholar
Fairman, T, Nitschke, C, Bennett, L. 2016. Too much, too soon? A review of the impacts of increasing wildfire frequency on tree mortality and regeneration in temperate eucalypt forests. International Journal of Wildland Fire 25:831–848.Google Scholar
Fedrigo, M, Kasel, S, Bennett, LT, Roxburgh, SH, Nitschke, CR. 2014. Carbon stocks in temperate forests of south-eastern Australia reflect large tree distribution and edaphic conditions. Forest Ecology and Management 334:129–143.Google Scholar
Fichtler, E, Clark, DA, Worbes, M. 2003. Age and long-term growth of trees in an old-growth tropical rain forest, based on analyses of tree rings and 14C. Biotropica 35:306–317.Google Scholar
Fink, D, Hotchkis, M, Hua, Q, Jacobsen, G, Smith, AM, Zoppi, U, Child, D, Mifsud, C, van der Gaast, H, Williams, A, Williams, M. 2004. The ANTARES AMS facility at ANSTO. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 223–224:109–115.Google Scholar
Floyed, A, Gibson, M. 2006. Epiphytic bryophytes of Dicksonia antarctica Labill. from selected pockets of cool temperate rainforest, Central Highlands, Victoria. Victorian Naturalist 123:229–235.Google Scholar
Fritts, HC, Swetnam, TW. 1989. Dendroecology: a tool for evaluating variations in past and present forest environments. Advances in Ecological Research 19:111–189.Google Scholar
Gaxiola, A, Burrows, LE, Coomes, DA. 2008.Tree fern trunks facilitate seedling regeneration in a productive lowland temperate rain forest. Oecologia 155:325–335.Google Scholar
Hart, PJ. 2010. Tree growth and age in an ancient Hawaiian wet forest: vegetation dynamics at two spatial scales. Journal of Tropical Ecology 26:1–11.Google Scholar
Hautier, Y, Hector, A, Vojtech, E, Purves, D, Turnbull, LA. 2010. Modelling the growth of parasitic plants. Journal of Ecology 98:857–866.Google Scholar
Heinrich, I, Allen, K. 2013. Current issues and recent advances in Australian dendrochronology: where to next? Geographical Research 51:180–191.Google Scholar
Hijmans, RJ, Cameron, SE, Parra, JL, Jones, PG, Jarvis, A. 2005. Very high resolution interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas. International Journal of Climatology 25:1965–1978.Google Scholar
Hogg, AG, Hua, Q, Blackwell, PG, Niu, M, Buck, CE, Guilderson, TP, Heaton, TJ, Palmer, JG, Reimer, PJ, Reimer, RW, Turney, CSM, Zimmerman, SRH. 2013 SHCal13 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55:1889–1903.Google Scholar
Horvitz, CC, Sternberg, LSLO. 1999. 14C dating of tree falls on Barro Colorado Island (Panama): a new method to study tropical rain forest gap dynamics. Journal of Tropical Ecology 15:723–735.Google Scholar
Hua, Q. 2009. Radiocarbon: A chronological tool for the recent past. Quaternary Geochronology 4:378–390.Google Scholar
Hua, Q, Barbetti, M, Jacobsen, GE, Zoppi, U, Lawson, EM. 2000. Bomb radiocarbon in annual tree rings from Thailand and Australia. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 172:359–365.Google Scholar
Hua, Q, Jacobsen, GE, Zoppi, U, Lawson, EM, Williams, AA, Smith, AM, McGann, MJ. 2001. Progress in radiocarbon target preparation at the ANTARES AMS centre. Radiocarbon 43(2A):275–282.Google Scholar
Hua, Q, Barbetti, M, Zoppi, U, Fink, D, Watanasak, M, Jacobsen, GE. 2004a. Radiocarbon in tropical tree rings during the Little Ice Age. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 223–224:489–494 Google Scholar
Hua, Q, Zoppi, U, Williams, AA, Smith, AM. 2004b. Small-mass AMS radiocarbon analysis at ANTARES. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 223–224:284–292.Google Scholar
Hua, Q, Barbetti, M, Rakowski, AZ. 2013. Atmospheric radiocarbon for the period 1950–2010. Radiocarbon 55:2059–2072.Google Scholar
Isbell, RF. 2016. The Australian Soil Classification. Collingwood: CSIRO Publishing.Google Scholar
Kasel, S, Bennett, LT, Aponte, C, Fedrigo, M, Nitschke, CR. 2017. Environmental heterogeneity promotes floristic turnover in temperate forests of south-eastern Australia more than dispersal limitation and disturbance. Landscape Ecology 32:1613–1629.Google Scholar
Linares, R, Santos, HC, Brandes, AFN, Barros, CF, Lisi, CS, Balieiro, FC, de Faria, SM. 2017. Exploring the 14C bomb peak with tree rings of tropical species from the Amazon forest. Radiocarbon 59(2):303–313.Google Scholar
Middendorp, RS, Vlam, M, Rebel, KT, Baker, PJ, Bunyavejchewin, S, Zuidema, PA. 2013. Disturbance history of a seasonal tropical forest in Western Thailand: A spatial dendroecological analysis. Biotropica 45:578–586.Google Scholar
Moura, IR, Simões-Costa, MC, Garcia, J, Silva, MJ, Duarte, MC. 2012. In vitro culture of tree fern spores from Cyatheaceae and Dicksoniaceae families. Acta Horticulture 937:455–461.Google Scholar
Mueck, SG, Ough, K, Banks, JCG. 1996. How old are wet forest understories? Australian Journal of Ecology 21:345–348.Google Scholar
Nielsen, J, Hedeholm RB, , Heinemeier, J, Bushnell, PG, Christiansen, JA, Olsen, J, Bronk Ramsey, C, Brill, RW, Simon, M, Steffensen, KF, Steffensen, JF. 2016. Eye lens radiocarbon reveals centuries of longevity in the Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus). Science 353 (6300):702–704.Google Scholar
Nitschke, CR, Nichols, S, Allen, K, Dobbs, C, Livesley, SJ, Baker, PJ, Lynch, Y. 2017. The influence of climate and drought on urban tree growth in southeast Australia and the implications for future growth under climate change. Landscape and Urban Planning 167:275–287.Google Scholar
Oddi, FJ, Ghermandi, L. 2015. Dendroecological potential of shrubs for reconstructing fire history at landscape scale in Mediterranean-type climate grasslands: The case of Fabiana imbricata . Dendrochronologia 33:16–24.Google Scholar
Ogden, J, Braggins, J, Stretton, K, Anderson, S. 1997. Plant species richness under Pinus radiata stands on the Central North Island Volcanic Plateau, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 21:17–29.Google Scholar
Ough, K. 2001. Regeneration of Wet Forest flora a decade after clear-felling or wildfire—is there a difference? Australian Journal of Botany 49:645–664.Google Scholar
Ough, K, Murphy, A. 2004. Decline in tree-fern abundance after clearfell harvesting. Forest Ecology and Management 199:153–163.Google Scholar
Paine, CET, Mathews, TR, Vogt, DR, Purves, D, Rees, M, Hector, A, Turnbull, LA. 2012. How to fit nonlinear plant growth models and calculate growth rates: an update for ecologists. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 3:245–256.Google Scholar
Pearson, S, Huan, Q, Allen, K, Bowman, DMJS. 2011. Validating putatively cross-dated Callitris tree-ring chronologies using bomb-pulse radiocarbon analysis. Australian Journal of Botany 59:7–17.Google Scholar
R Core Team. 2016. R:A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/.Google Scholar
Régent Instruments Inc. 2009. WindDendro. Quebec: Régent Instruments.Google Scholar
Rentch, JS, Fajvan, MA, Hicks, RR. 2003. Spatial and temporal disturbance characteristics of oak-dominated old-growth stands in the central hardwood forest region. Forest Science 49:778–789.Google Scholar
Richardson, SJ, Holdaway, RJ, Carswell, FE. 2014. Evidence for arrested successional processes after fire in the Waikare River catchment, Te Urewera. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 38:221–229.Google Scholar
Roberts, NR, Dalton, PJ, Jordan, GJ. 2005. Epiphytic ferns and bryophytes of Tasmanian tree ferns: A comparison of diversity and composition between two hosts. Austral Ecology 30:146–154.Google Scholar
Rozendaal, DMA, Brienen, RJW, Soliz-Gamboa, CC, Zuidema, PA. 2010. Tropical tree rings reveal preferential survival offast-growing juveniles and increased juvenile growth rates over time. New Phytologist 185:759–769.Google Scholar
Schleppi, P, Conedera, M, Sedivy, I, Thimonier, A. 2007. Correcting non-linearity and slope effects in the estimation of the leaf area index of forests from hemispherical photographs. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 144:236–242.Google Scholar
Simkin, R, Baker, PJ. 2008. Disturbance history and stand dynamics in tall open forest and riparian forest in the Central Highlands of Victoria. Austral Ecology 33:747–760.Google Scholar
Smale, MC, Burns, BR, Smale, PN, Whaley, PT. 1997. Dynamics of upland podocarp/broadleaved forest on Mamaku Plateau, central North Island, New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 27:513–532.Google Scholar
Snowdon, P. 1991. A ratio estimator for bias correction in logarithmic regressions. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 21:720–724.Google Scholar
Speight, JG. 2009. Australian soil and land survey field handbook. Collingwood: CSIRO Publishing.Google Scholar
Spiess, A-N. 2014. propagate: Propagation of Uncertainty. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=propagate (accessed 1 June 2016).Google Scholar
Steenkamp, CJ, Vogel, JC, Fuls, A, van Rooyen, N, van Rooyen, MW. 2008. Age determination of Acacia erioloba trees in the Kalahari. Journal of Arid Environments 72:302–313.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Polach, HA. 1977. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19:355–363.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, PJ. 1993. Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program. Radiocarbon 35:215–230.Google Scholar
Thimonier, A, Sedivy, I, Schleppi, P. 2010. Estimating leaf area index in different types of mature forest stands in Switzerland: a comparison of methods. European Journal of Forest Research 129:543–562.Google Scholar
Trouvé, R, Nitschke, CR, Robinson, AP, Baker, PJ. 2017. Estimating the self-thinning line from mortality data. Forest Ecology and Management 402:122–134.Google Scholar
Turnbull, LA, Paul-Victor, C, Schmid, B, Purves, DW. 2008. Growth rates, seed size, and physiology:do small-seeded species really grow faster? Ecology 89:1352–1363.Google Scholar
Turner, PAM, Pharo, EJ. 2005. Influence of Substrate Type and Forest Age on Bryophyte Species Distribution in Tasmanian Mixed Forest. The Bryologist 180:67–85.Google Scholar
Volkova, L, Bennett, LT, Tausz, M. 2009a. Effects of sudden exposure to high light on two tree fern species Dicksonia antarctica (Dicksoniaceae) and Cyathea australis (Cyatheaceae) acclimated to different light intensities. Australian Journal of Botany 57:562–571.Google Scholar
Volkova, L, Tausz, M, Bennett, LT, Dreyer, E. 2009b. Interactive effects of high irradiance and moderate heat on photosynthesis, pigments, and tocopherol in the tree-fern Dicksonia antarctica . Functional Plant Biology 36:1046–1056.Google Scholar
Volkova, L, Bennett, LT, Merchant, A, Tausz, M. 2010. Shade does not ameliorate drought effects on the tree fern species Dicksonia antarctica and Cyathea australis . Trees 24: 351–352.Google Scholar
Volkova, L, Bennett, LT, Tausz, M. 2011. Diurnal and seasonal variations in photosynthetic and morphological traits of the tree ferns Dicksonia antarctica (Dicksoniaceae) and Cyathea australis (Cyatheaceae) in wet sclerophyll forests of Australia. Environmental and Experimental Botany 70:11–19.Google Scholar
Wood, SW, Huan, Q, Allen, K, Bowman, DMJS. 2010. Age and growth of a fire prone Tasmanian temperate old-growth forest stand dominated by Eucalyptus regnans, the world’s tallest angiosperm. Forest Ecology and Management 260:438–447.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Fedrigo et al. supplementary material

Fedrigo et al. supplementary material 1

Download Fedrigo et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 946.9 KB