Ecological Disaster or the Limits of Observation? Reconciling Modern Declines with the Long-Term Dynamics of Whitebark Pine Communities
Ecological Disaster or the Limits of Observation? Reconciling Modern Declines with the Long-Term Dynamics of Whitebark Pine Communities
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1749-8198.2012.00481.x
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发表时间：
2012-04-01
影响因子：
3.1
通讯作者：
Kipfmueller, Kurt F.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Larson, Evan R.;Kipfmueller, Kurt F.
白皮松（Pinus albicaulis）森林在过去世纪的历史阐明了现代环境变化和人类观测尺度与长期生态变化之间的协调所面临的特殊挑战。许多因素都涉及驱动观察到的白皮松种群下降，包括灭火，气候变化，外来病原体Cronartium ribicola和相关的白松疱锈病，和山松甲虫（Dendroctonus ponderosae）的爆发，但这些因素的实际影响在白皮松的范围内，包括相当大的环境异质性差异很大。此外，在干扰制度和演替以几个世纪而不是几十年的规模运作的森林类型中，这些因素的具体影响很难孤立或预测。由此产生的情况非常复杂，但一些地区恢复的紧迫性导致其他地区的普遍性，而这些普遍性并不总是考虑到被视为白皮松群落的森林的多样性。我们的研究回顾了目前的知识状态的地理，干扰制度，和机制的下降白皮松社区。然后，我们使用一个扩展的时间的角度来看，树木生态学的案例研究的基础上，严格评估灭火的潜在影响白皮松社区和白皮松和山松甲虫之间的生态关系。根据我们的研究结果，看来，灭火是不是无处不在的因素，导致白皮松下降，经常牵连在已发表的文献，白皮松可能很好地适应恢复后，山松甲虫爆发的地区，没有受到太严重的影响，从白松疱锈病。
The history of whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) forests over the past century exemplifies modern environmental change and the particular challenges faced in reconciling the scales of human observation with long-term ecological changes. A number of factors are implicated in driving observed declines in whitebark pine populations including fire suppression, climate change, the exotic pathogen Cronartium ribicola and associated white pine blister rust, and mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreaks, yet the actual effects of these factors vary widely across the range of whitebark pine that encompasses considerable environmental heterogeneity. Furthermore, the specific effects of these agents are difficult to isolate or predict in a forest type where disturbance regimes and succession operate on scales of centuries rather than decades. The resulting situation is highly complex, yet the urgency for restoration in some areas is leading to generalizations elsewhere that do not always account for the diversity of forests considered as whitebark pine communities. Our research reviews the current state of knowledge on the biogeography, disturbance regimes, and mechanisms of decline in whitebark pine communities. We then use an expanded temporal perspective based on dendroecological case studies to critically assess the potential effects of fire suppression in whitebark pine communities and the ecological relationship between whitebark pine and mountain pine beetle. Based on our findings, it appears that fire suppression is not the ubiquitous factor leading to whitebark pine declines, as often implicated in the published literature, and that whitebark pine may be well adapted to recover following mountain pine beetle outbreaks in areas that have not been impacted too severely from white pine blister rust.