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Effects of lianas and Hurricane Wilma on tree damage in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2008
- Edgardo I. Garrido-Pérez*
- Affiliation:Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán (CICY), Calle 43 #130, Colonia Chuburná de Hidalgo, CP 97200, Mérida, Yucatán, MéxicoGeorg-August Universitaet Geographisches Institut Abt. Landschaftsoekologie, Goettingen, Goldschmidtstr.5, PLZ 37077, Goettingen, Germany
- Juan Manuel Dupuy
- Affiliation:Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán (CICY), Calle 43 #130, Colonia Chuburná de Hidalgo, CP 97200, Mérida, Yucatán, México
- Rafael Durán-García
- Affiliation:Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán (CICY), Calle 43 #130, Colonia Chuburná de Hidalgo, CP 97200, Mérida, Yucatán, México
- Mario Ucan-May
- Affiliation:Ejido Solferino, Municipio de Lázaro Cárdenas, Quintana Roo, México
- Stefan A. Schnitzer
- Affiliation:College of Letters and Science, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA
- Gerhard Gerold
- Affiliation:Georg-August Universitaet Geographisches Institut Abt. Landschaftsoekologie, Goettingen, Goldschmidtstr.5, PLZ 37077, Goettingen, Germany
- *
- 1Author for correspondence. Email:egarrid@gwdg.de
Extract
Climate change may increase the intensity of hurricanes (Emanuel 1987, 2003), and thus the size of disturbance in tropical forests. As a consequence, disturbance-specialist plants, such as lianas, may increase in abundance there (Phillips & Gentry 1994). Putz (1984) hypothesized that lianas create larger treefall gaps by connecting trees together and pulling down multiple trees during storms. This positive-feedback cycle may increase the prevalence of lianas in disturbed tropical forests (Schnitzer & Bongers 2002, Schnitzer & Carson 2001). Alternatively, Putz (1984) proposed that lianas tie and stabilize canopies together, resulting in less disturbance. Forest age may determine the role of lianas during disturbance because liana abundance and composition vary through secondary succession (De Waltet al. 2000, Schnitzeret al. 2000). To test the two hypotheses of Putz (1984), we evaluated the effect of liana cutting between forests of different successional ages on tree damage by hurricane Wilma.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008
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