Understory fern community structure, growth and spore production responses to a large-scale hurricane experiment in a Puerto Rico rainforest

Abstract

Ferns are abundant in most rainforest understories yet their responses to hurricanes have not been well studied. Fern community structure, growth and spore production were monitored for two years before and five years after a large-scale experiment that simulated two key components of severe hurricane disturbance: canopy openness and debris deposition. The canopy was opened by cutting branches above 3 m and the fallen leaf and woody debris was either added to or removed from the forest floor resulting in four treatments that were replicated three times in a factorial design. Of the 16 fern species observed during the experiment 12 were present before treatments were applied. All but two of the 16 species had densities

Citation

Sharpe, Joanne M.; Shiels, Aaron B. 2014. Understory fern community structure, growth and spore production responses to a large-scale hurricane experiment in a Puerto Rico rainforest. Forest Ecology and Management. 332:75-86.