CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Subtropical forest ecosystems are under constant pressure due to drastic changes in land use, fragmentation, and natural disturbances. These impacts can alter the composition and functional characteristics of the communities, affecting the resilience of the forest to recover. The objective of this study was to assess whether changes in the composition of liana communities in disturbed forests promoted changes in the functional properties of the community. For this purpose, 6 plots of 1 ha were established, located in disturbed and undisturbed forest environments. Trees and lianas (larger than 10 cm DBH and 2.5 cm DBH, respectively) were measured on 25 10 x 10 m subplots per plot. In addition, plant material was collected to determine specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content and wood density of 21 species of lianas that comprised more than 80% of the individuals in the area. The results indicated that the abundance and basal area of lianas were significantly higher in the more disturbed areas (with less tree basal area) than in the more conserved areas. This increase was primarily the result of a higher abundance of lianas with scrambling ascent mechanisms. The liana Pisonia aculeata represented 50% of the total stems in the disturbed areas, regardless of its size category. Disturbance did not generate differences at the community level (community weight mean) in the assessed traits. Dominant species had values of functional traits similar to the community average. In the same way, the use of functional indices (functional diversity, functional richness) showed an overlapping of the functional spaces of the communities of disturbed and undisturbed areas. Therefore, characteristics chosen to determine the functionality of liana communities did not reflect the structural changes observed.