Journal
PLOS ONE
Volume 10, Issue 5, Pages -Publisher
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0126594
Keywords
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Categories
Funding
- Swiss International Cooperation (COSUDE)
- German International Cooperation (GIZ) through the Proyecto Tri-Nacional
- Federal Ministry of Education and Science of Germany (BMBF)
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- National Science Foundation (NSF) [0743666]
- US National Science Foundation [DEB-1257655]
- French Fund for the Environment
- NSF (USA)
- ProYungas Foundation
- Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development of Argentina (National Fund for Enrichment and Conservation of Native Forests)
- National Environment Research Council (NERC) [ESPA/NE20025291]
- European Research Council
- Royal Society
- Proyecto Prometeo, Secretaria de Educacion Superior, Ciencia, Tecnologia e Innovacion de la Republica del Ecuador (SENESCYT)
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [1257655, 0743666] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- NERC [NE/D01025X/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/B503384/1, NE/D01025X/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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General patterns of forest dynamics and productivity in the Andes Mountains are poorly characterized. Here we present the first large-scale study of Andean forest dynamics using a set of 63 permanent forest plots assembled over the past two decades. In the North-Central Andes tree turnover (mortality and recruitment) and tree growth declined with increasing elevation and decreasing temperature. In addition, basal area increased in Lower Montane Moist Forests but did not change in Higher Montane Humid Forests. However, at higher elevations the lack of net basal area change and excess of mortality over recruitment suggests negative environmental impacts. In North-Western Argentina, forest dynamics appear to be influenced by land use history in addition to environmental variation. Taken together, our results indicate that combinations of abiotic and biotic factors that vary across elevation gradients are important determinants of tree turnover and productivity in the Andes. More extensive and longer-term monitoring and analyses of forest dynamics in permanent plots will be necessary to understand how demographic processes and woody biomass are responding to changing environmental conditions along elevation gradients through this century.
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