IIBYT   23944
INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES BIOLOGICAS Y TECNOLOGICAS
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Effects of vegetation and herbivores on regeneration of two tree species in a seasonally dry forest.
Autor/es:
TORRES, R. C.; RENISON D.
Revista:
JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS
Editorial:
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
Referencias:
Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2015 vol. 121 p. 59 - 66
ISSN:
0140-1963
Resumen:
Tree establishment in harsh environments such as seasonally dry forests has traditionally been described as facilitated by existing shrubs and trees, which ameliorate harsh abiotic conditions; however, an alternative explanation postulates that facilitation is mediated by reduced herbivore damage, especially under shrubs. We established seeding and planting trials using two tree species in a full factorial design that includes three vegetation types and two herbivore treatments at three sites (234 plots per species). Six months after seeding, seedling counts represented 0.95 and 0.47% of the sown seeds, depending on the target study species, survival at year 3 was 81% and 46%, and average growth was negative due to over winter diebacks. Vegetation never influenced theThe performance of our target species was not influenced by vegetation in a pattern which would suggest a purely abiotic mediated facilitation by shrubs and trees; rather, depending on the species and the response variable, the resulting patterns suggested either mixed abiotic and herbivore mediated facilitation or entirely herbivore mediated facilitation. We conclude that in dry mountain forests, remnant woody vegetation patches are important for the effective establishment of our study species in sites with livestock presence, whereas effective establishment is feasible outside of woody patches, in sites without livestock presence.