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Tree Mortality may Drive Landscape Formation: Comparative Study from Ten Temperate Forests

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Abstract

Tree mortality can fundamentally affect soils, which in turn shape forest regeneration and dynamics. Here, we quantify the dynamics of soil volumes associated with tree mortality, parsing effects by mode of tree death (broken vs uprooted) and species. The concept of ecosystem biogeomorphic succession was also tested. We used repeated tree censuses carried out in ten European and North American forests, differing in species composition, climate, and disturbance regimes. Development of more than 172,000 individual trees was recorded over periods of up to 48 years, during which more than one-third of the trees died. Biogeomorphic impact of deaths was modeled using allometry and field measurements. Tree uprooting-related soil volumes accounted annually for 0.01–13.5 m3ha−1, reaching maximum values on sites with infrequent strong windstorms (European mountains). The redistribution of soils related to trees that died standing ranged annually between 0.17 and 20.7 m3ha−1 and were highest in the presence of non-stand-replacing fire (Yosemite National Park, USA). Comparison of the results with known long-term erosion rates suggests that on certain sites over the last few millennia, tree uprooting may represent a significant driver of landscape erosion. Despite the key role of severe disturbances, the data showed potential for future increases in the intensity of biogeomorphic processes. The high biogeomorphic potential in some USA sites that has not yet been realized can be activated by external changes in the disturbance regime. Forests in Central Europe, on the other hand, are more sensitive to changes in biogeomorphic processes due to species turnover.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (project no. 19-09427S) and by the intra-university student project IGA-LDF-VP_2019/017. The authors would like to thank the Blue Cat team for help with data collection. For details of site-specific support, see Appendix 7.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Ecology, The Silva Tarouca Research Institute, Lidická 25/27, 602 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    P. Šamonil, P. Daněk, J. Jaroš, J. D. Phillips, A. Rousová, D. Adam, J. Kašpar, D. Janik & I. Vašíčková

  2. Department of Forest Botany, Dendrology and Geobiocoenology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 1, 613 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    P. Šamonil, J. Jaroš & A. Rousová

  3. Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 267/2, 611 37, Brno, Czech Republic

    P. Daněk

  4. Wildland Resources Department, Utah State University, 5230 Old Main Hill, Logan, Utah, 84322-5230, USA

    J. A. Lutz

  5. Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, 1500 Remount Rd. MRC 5535, Front Royal, Virginia, 22630, USA

    K. J. Anderson-Teixeira & E. Gonzalez-Akre

  6. Forest Global Earth Observatory, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, Republic of Panama

    K. J. Anderson-Teixeira

  7. Department of Geography, Earth Surface Systems Program, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 40508, USA

    J. D. Phillips

  8. Wilderness Institute and Department of Forest Management, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, 59812, USA

    A. J. Larson

  9. Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland

    M. Egli

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  1. P. Šamonil
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Correspondence to P. Šamonil.

Additional information

Pavel Šamonil and Pavel Daněk share first authorship.

Author's contribution

PS conceived the main ideas; PS and PD designed methodology; all authors collected the data and participated in basal data processing; PS led the writing of the manuscript; PD led the processing of data; all authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.

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Šamonil, P., Daněk, P., Lutz, J.A. et al. Tree Mortality may Drive Landscape Formation: Comparative Study from Ten Temperate Forests. Ecosystems 26, 257–276 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-022-00755-8

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