Download (PDF 2.43 MB): https://research.fs.usda.gov/download/treesearch/64652.pdf
Abstract
Disturbances alter biodiversity via their specific characteristics, including severity and extent in the landscape, which actat different temporal and spatial scales. Biodiversity response to disturbance also depends on the community characteristicsand habitat requirements of species. Untangling the mechanistic interplay of these factors has guided disturbanceecology for decades, generating mixed scientific evidence of biodiversity responses to disturbance. Understanding theimpact of natural disturbances on biodiversity is increasingly important due to human-induced changes in natural disturbanceregimes. In many areas, major natural forest disturbances, such as wildfires, windstorms, and insect outbreaks, arebecoming more frequent, intense, severe, and widespread due to climate change and land-use change. Conversely, thesuppression of natural disturbances threatens disturbance-dependent biota. Using a meta-analytic approach, we analyseda global data set (with most sampling concentrated in temperate and boreal secondary forests) of species assemblagesof 26 taxonomic groups, including plants, animals, and fungi collected from forests affected by wildfires,windstorms, and insect outbreaks. The overall effect of natural disturbances on α-diversity did not differ significantlyfrom zero, but some taxonomic groups responded positively to disturbance, while others tended to respond negatively.
Citation
Viljur, Mari‐Liis; Abella, Scott R.; Adámek, Martin; Alencar, Janderson Batista Rodrigues; Barber, Nicholas A.; Beudert, Burkhard; Burkle, Laura A.; Cagnolo, Luciano; Campos, Brent R.; Chao, Anne; Chergui, Brahim; Choi, Chang‐Yong; Cleary, Daniel F. R.; Davis, Thomas Seth; Dechnik‐Vázquez, Yanus A.; Downing, William M.; Fuentes‐Ramirez, Andrés; Gandhi, Kamal J. K.; Gehring, Catherine; Georgiev, Kostadin B.; Gimbutas, Mark; Gongalsky, Konstantin B.; Gorbunova, Anastasiya Y.; Greenberg, Cathryn H.; Hylander, Kristoffer; Jules, Erik S.; Korobushkin, Daniil I.; Köster, Kajar; Kurth, Valerie; Lanham, Joseph Drew; Lazarina, Maria; Leverkus, Alexandro B.; Lindenmayer, David; Marra, Daniel Magnabosco; Martín‐Pinto, Pablo; Meave, Jorge A.; Moretti, Marco; Nam, Hyun‐Young; Obrist, Martin K.; Petanidou, Theodora; Pons, Pere; Potts, Simon G.; Rapoport, Irina B.; Rhoades, Paul R.; Richter, Clark; Saifutdinov, Ruslan A.; Sanders, Nathan J.; Santos, Xavier; Steel, Zachary; Tavella, Julia; Wendenburg, Clara; Wermelinger, Beat; Zaitsev, Andrey S.; Thorn, Simon. 2022. The effect of natural disturbances on forest biodiversity: an ecological synthesis. Biological Reviews. 21(2): 789-. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12876.
