Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The role of species composition in the emergence of alternate vegetation states in a temperate rainforest system

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Landscape Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Context

Forest systems are dynamic and can alternate between alternative stable states in response to climate, disturbance and internal abiotic and biotic conditions. Switching between states depends on the crossing of critical thresholds and the establishment of feedbacks that drive (and maintain) changes in ecosystem functioning. The nature of these thresholds and the workings of these feedbacks have been well-researched, however, the factors that instigate movement toward and across a threshold remain poorly understood.

Objectives

In this paper, we explore the role of species composition in initiating ecosystem state change in a temperate landscape mosaic of fire-prone and fire-sensitive vegetation systems.

Methods

We construct two 12-kyr palaeocecological records from two proximal (230 m apart) sites in Tasmania, Australia, and apply the Alternative Stable States model as a framework to investigate ecosystem feedbacks and resilience threshold dynamics.

Results

Our results indicate that, in this system, invasion by pyrogenic Eucalyptus species is a key factor in breaking down negative (stabilising) feedbacks that maintain pyrophobic sub-alpine rainforest.

Conclusions

We conclude that the emergence of an alternative stable pyrogenic state in these relic rainforest systems depends on the extent of pyrophytic species within the system. These findings are critical for understanding resilience in forest ecosystems under future climate and land management changes and are relevant to fire-adapted cool-temperate ecosystems globally.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Beck KK, Fletcher M-S, Gadd PS, Heijnis H, Jacobsen GE (2017) An early onset of ENSO influence in the extra-tropics of the southwest Pacific inferred from a 14,600-year high resolution multi-proxy record from Paddy’s Lake, northwest Tasmania. Quat Sci Rev 157:164–175

    Google Scholar 

  • Blaauw M (2010) Methods and code for ‘classical’ age-modelling of radiocarbon sequences. Quat Geochronol 5:512–518

    Google Scholar 

  • Blaauw M, Christen JA (2011) Flexible paleoclimate age-depth models using an autoregressive gamma process. Bayesian Anal 6:457–474

    Google Scholar 

  • Borgogno F, D’Odorico P, Laio F, Ridolfi L (2007) Effect of rainfall interannual variability on the stability and resilience of dryland plant ecosystems. Water Resour Res. https://doi.org/10.1029/2006WR005314

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowman DMJS (1998) Tansley review no. 101: the impact of Aboriginal landscape burning on the Australian biota. New Phytol 140:385–410

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowman DMJS (2000) Australian rainforests: islands of green in a land of fire, 1st edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowman DM, Perry GL, Marston J (2015) Feedbacks and landscape-level vegetation dynamics. Trends Ecol Evol 30:255–260

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks ML, Antonio CMD, Richardson DM, Grace JB, Keeley JE, DiTomaso JM, Hobbs RJ, Pellant M, Pyke D (2004) Effects of invasive alien plants on fire regimes. Bioscience 54:677–689

    Google Scholar 

  • Cadd H, Fletcher M-S, Mariani M, Heijnis H, Gadd PS (2019) The influence of fine-scale topography on the impacts of Holocene fire in a Tasmanian montane landscape. J Quat Sci 34:491–498

    Google Scholar 

  • Cochrane MA (2003) Fire science for rainforests. Nature 421:913

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Connell JH, Sousa WP (1983) On the evidence needed to judge ecological stability or persistence. Am Nat 121:789–824

    Google Scholar 

  • Cullen P (1991) Regeneration of Athrotaxis selaginoides and other rainforest tree species on landslide faces in Tasmania. Pap Proc R Soc Tasman 124:191–200

    Google Scholar 

  • Cullen PJ (1987) Regeneration patterns in populations on Athrotaxis selaginoides D. Don. from Tasmania. J Biogeogr 14:39–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Diggle PJ (1990) Time series; a biostatistical introduction. Clarendon Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Enright NJ, Fontaine JB, Bowman DM, Bradstock RA, Williams RJ (2015) Interval squeeze: altered fire regimes and demographic responses interact to threaten woody species persistence as climate changes. Front Ecol Environ 13:265–272

    Google Scholar 

  • Faegri K, Iversen J (1989) Textbook of pollen analysis. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher M-S, Benson A, Heijnis H, Gadd PS, Cwynar LC, Rees ABH (2015) Changes in biomass burning mark the onset an ENSO-influenced climate regime at 42°S in southwest Tasmania, Australia. Quat Sci Rev 122:222–232

    Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher M-S, Bowman D, Whitlock C, Mariani M, Stahle L (2018) The changing role of fire in conifer-dominated temperate rainforest through the last 14,000 years. Quat Sci Rev 182:37–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher M-S, Moreno PI (2012) Have the Southern Westerlies changed in a zonally symmetric manner over the last 14,000 years? A hemisphere-wide take on a controversial problem. Quat Int 253:32–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher M-S, Thomas I (2010) The origin and temporal development of an ancient cultural landscape. J Biogeogr 37:2183–2196

    Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher M-S, Wolfe BB, Whitlock C, Pompeani DP, Heijnis H, Haberle SG, Gadd PS, Bowman DMJS (2014) The legacy of mid-Holocene fire on a Tasmanian montane landscape. J Biogeogr 41:476–488

    Google Scholar 

  • Folke C, Carpenter S, Walker B, Scheffer M, Elmqvist T, Gunderson L, Holling C (2004) Regime shifts, resilience, and biodiversity in ecosystem management. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 35:557–581

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert JM (1959) Forest succession in the Florentine Valley, Tasmania. Pap Proc R Soc Tasman 93:129–151

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill AM (1975) Fire and the Australian flora: a review. Aust For 38:4–25

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill AM, Stephens SL, Cary GJ (2013) The worldwide “wildfire” problem. Ecol Appl 23:438–454

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hill RS (1982) Rainforest fire in Western Tasmania. Aust J Bot 30:583–589

    Google Scholar 

  • Holz A, Wood SW, Veblen TT, Bowman DM (2015) Effects of high severity fire drove the population collapse of the subalpine Tasmanian endemic conifer Athrotaxis cupressoides. Glob Change Biol 21:445–458

    Google Scholar 

  • Iglesias V, Whitlock C (2020) If the trees burn, is the forest lost? Past dynamics in temperate forests help inform management strategies. Philos Trans R Soc B 375:20190115

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson WD (1968) Fire, air, water and earth—an elemental ecology of Tasmania. Proc Ecol Soc Aust 3:9–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Lough JM, Fritts H (1987) An assessment of the possible effects of volcanic eruptions on North American climate using tree-ring data, 1602-1900 A.D. Clim Change 10:219–239

    Google Scholar 

  • Macphail MK (1979) Vegetation and climates in southern Tasmania since the last glaciation. Quat Res 11:306–341

    Google Scholar 

  • Macphail MK, Colhoun EA (1985) Late last glacial vegetation, climates and fire activity in southwest Tasmania. Search 16:43–45

    Google Scholar 

  • Mariani M, Conner SE, Fletcher M-S, Theuerkauf M, Kunes P, Jacobson G, Saunders KM, Zawadzki A (2017) How old is the Tasmanian cultural landscape? A test of landscape openness using quantitative land-cover reconstructions. J Biogeogr 44:2410–2420

    Google Scholar 

  • Mariani M, Fletcher M-S (2016) The Southern Annular Mode determines inter-annual and centennial-scale fire activity in temperate southwest Tasmania, Australia. Geophys Res Lett 43:1702–1709

    Google Scholar 

  • Mariani M, Fletcher M-S (2017) Long-term climate dynamics in the extra-tropics of the South Pacific revealed from sedimentary charcoal analysis. Quat Sci Rev 173:181–192

    Google Scholar 

  • Mariani M, Fletcher M-S, Haberle S, Chin H, Zawadzki A, Jacobsen G (2019a) Climate change reduces resilience to fire in subalpine rainforests. Glob Change Biol 25:2030–2042

    Google Scholar 

  • Mariani M, Fletcher M-S, Holz A, Nyman P (2016) ENSO controls interannual fire activity in southeast Australia. Geophys Res Lett 43:10891–10900

    Google Scholar 

  • Mariani M, Tibby J, Barr C, Moss P, Marshall JC, McGregor GB (2019b) Reduced rainfall drives biomass limitation of long-term fire activity in Australia’s subtropical sclerophyll forests. J Biogeogr 46:1974–1987

    Google Scholar 

  • McCune B and Mefford MJ (2011) PC-ORD. Multivariate analysis of Ecological Data, Version 6.0 for Windows. MjM Software, Gleneden Beach, Oregon, U.S.A

  • McWethy DB, Whitlock C, Wilmshurst JM, McGlone MS, Fromont M, Li X, Dieffenbacher-Krall A, Hobbs WO, Fritz SC, Cook ER (2010) Rapid landscape transformation in South Island, New Zealand, following initial Polynesian settlement. Proc Natl Acad Sci 107:21343–21348

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moy CM, Seltzer GO, Rodbell DT, Anderson DM (2002) Variability of El Nino/Southern Oscillation activity at millennial timescales during the Holocene. Nature 420:162–165

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Murphy BP, Bradstock RA, Boer MM, Carter J, Cary GJ, Cochrane MA, Fensham RJ, Russell-Smith J, Williamson GJ, Bowman DM (2013) Fire regimes of Australia: a pyrogeographic model system. J Biogeogr 40:1048–1058

    Google Scholar 

  • Odion DC, Moritz MA, Dellasala DA (2010) Alternative community states maintained by fire in the Klamath Mountains, USA. J Ecol 98:96–105

    Google Scholar 

  • Petraitis PS, Dudgeon SR (2004) Detection of alternative stable states in marine communities. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 300:343–371

    Google Scholar 

  • Petraitis PS, Latham RE (1999) The importance of scale in testing the origins of alternative community states. Ecol 80:429–442

    Google Scholar 

  • Rees AB, Cwynar LC, Fletcher M-S (2015) Southern Westerly Winds submit to the ENSO regime: a multiproxy paleohydrology record from Lake Dobson, Tasmania. Quat Sci Rev 126:254–263

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodionov SN (2004) A sequential algorithm for testing climate regime shifts. Geophys Res Lett 31:L09204

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheffer M, Bascompte J, Brock WA, Brovkin V, Carpenter SR, Dakos V, Held H, Van Nes EH, Rietkerk M, Sugihara G (2009) Early-warning signals for critical transitions. Nature 461:53–59

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scheffer M, Carpenter S, Foley JA, Folke C, Walker B (2001) Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems. Nature 413:591–596

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scheffer M, Carpenter SR (2003) Catastrophic regime shifts in ecosystems: linking theory to observation. Trends Ecol Evol 18:648–656

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheffer M, Carpenter SR, Lenton TM, Bascompte J, Brock W, Dakos V, Van De Koppel J, Van De Leemput IA, Levin SA, Van Nes EH (2012) Anticipating critical transitions. Science 338:344–348

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van Nes EH, Staal A, Hantson S, Holmgren M, Pueyo S, Bernadi RE, Flores BM, Xu C, Scheffer S (2018) Fire forbids fifty-fifty forest. PLoS ONE 13:e0191027

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Warman L, Moles AT (2009) Alternative stable states in Australia’s wet tropics: a theoretical framework for the field data and a field-case for the theory. Landsc Ecol 24:1–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitlock C, Larsen C (2001) Charcoal as a fire proxy. In: Smol JP, Birks HJB, Last WM (eds) Tracking environmental change using lake sediments Vol. 3, terrestrial, algal, and siliceous indicators. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 75–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams JE, Woinarski JCZ (1997) Eucalypt ecology: individuals to ecosystems. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Willis KJ, Birks HJB (2006) What is natural? The need for a long-term perspective in biodiversity conservation. Science 314:1261

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson JB, Agnew AD (1992) Positive-feedback switches in plant communities. Adv Ecol Res 23:263–336

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood SW, Bowman DMJS (2012) Alternative stable states and the role of fire–vegetation–soil feedbacks in the temperate wilderness of southwest Tasmania. Landsc Ecol 27:13–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood SW, Murphy BP, Bowman DM (2011) Firescape ecology: how topography determines the contrasting distribution of fire and rain forest in the south-west of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. J Biogeogr 38:1807–1820

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood S, Wood MS (2007) The mgcv package. www.r-project.org

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Australian Research Council (Grants: DI110100019, IN140100050, IN170100062, IN170100063). The authors would like to thank Scott Nichols, Simon Connor, Alexa Benson, Jarred Pedro, Simon Haberle and David McWethy for assistance in the field.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia

    Michael-Shawn Fletcher & Tegan L. Hall

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

    Haidee R. Cadd

  3. School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Michela Mariani

  4. School Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia

    Samuel W. Wood

Authors
  1. Michael-Shawn Fletcher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Haidee R. Cadd
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Michela Mariani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Tegan L. Hall
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Samuel W. Wood
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael-Shawn Fletcher.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 284 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fletcher, MS., Cadd, H.R., Mariani, M. et al. The role of species composition in the emergence of alternate vegetation states in a temperate rainforest system. Landscape Ecol 35, 2275–2285 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01110-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01110-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation