Limber Pine (Pinus flexilis James), a Flexible Generalist of Forest Communities in the Intermountain West
Limber Pine (Pinus flexilis James), a Flexible Generalist of Forest Communities in the Intermountain West
复制标题
林伯松（Pinus flexilis James），西部山间森林社区的灵活多面手
作者：
M. Windmuller;J. Long
随着森林群落继续经历气候变化和不断变化的干扰制度之间的相互作用，越来越需要将生态理解与应用管理联系起来。软松 (Pinus flexilis James.) 是北美洲西部的一种未被研究的物种，已被记录在恶劣的环境中占主导地位，并被认为被竞争性地排除在中等环境之外。使用森林清查和分析数据库 (FIAD) 进行了一项观察性研究，以测试美国西部山间广阔海拔和地理区域的竞争排斥假设。我们预计竞争排斥将导致中海拔森林群落中软松的消失，从而形成双峰分布。使用 FIAD 数据库，观察到软松与 22 种不同的上层树种一起出现，这代表了西部山间常见的木本上层树种的数量惊人。年降水量、年温度或气候指数（即温热指数）与软松优势度之间没有生物学上的显着关系。据观察，软松是不同海拔等级森林群落的一致组成部分。在含有软松再生的地块中，近一半的上层林木没有活或死的软松。然而，在熟松断面积较高和年平均降水量较高的地块中，熟松再生量更大。我们的研究结果表明，软松是一种重要的栖息地通才，在森林群落中发挥着不止一种功能作用。像软松这样的多面手可能会变得越来越重要，因为管理者面临着建立对西部森林未来条件的抵抗力和恢复力的挑战。需要进行更多研究来了解如何使用不同的造林系统来维持多物种森林群落。
As forest communities continue to experience interactions between climate change and shifting disturbance regimes, there is an increased need to link ecological understanding to applied management. Limber pine (Pinus flexilis James.), an understudied species of western North America, has been documented to dominate harsh environments and thought to be competitively excluded from mesic environments. An observational study was conducted using the Forest Inventory and Analysis Database (FIAD) to test the competitive exclusion hypothesis across a broad elevational and geographic area within the Intermountain West, USA. We anticipated that competitive exclusion would result in limber pine’s absence from mid-elevation forest communities, creating a bi-modal distribution. Using the FIAD database, limber pine was observed to occur with 22 different overstory species, which represents a surprising number of the woody, overstory species commonly observed in the Intermountain West. There were no biologically significant relationships between measures of annual precipitation, annual temperature, or climatic indices (i.e. Ombrothermic Index) and limber pine dominance. Limber pine was observed to be a consistent component of forest communities across elevation classes. Of the plots that contained limber pine regeneration, nearly half did not have a live or dead limber pine in the overstory. However, limber pine regeneration was greater in plots with higher limber pine basal area and higher average annual precipitation. Our results suggest limber pine is an important habitat generalist, playing more than one functional role in forest communities. Generalists, like limber pine, may be increasingly important, as managers are challenged to build resistance and resilience to future conditions in western forests. Additional research is needed to understand how different silvicultural systems can be used to maintain multi-species forest communities.