Examining boreal forest resilience to temperature variability using bryophytes: forest type matters

. The capacity of individual species to tolerate environmental changes is a major driver of ecosystem resilience. This subject has been a hot topic in boreal forests due to the greater effect of climate change anticipated at northern latitudes. However, to date it has been mainly examined for trees, with comparatively little emphasis on other species groups. In this study, bryophytes were sampled in the boreal forest of Qu (cid:1) ebec (Canada) using a strati fi ed sampling design allowing us to separate the effect of dominant canopy composition (two types: coniferous and mixedwood) and of the spatial climatic gradient (relatively warm and relatively cold sites) on bryophyte community structure (species richness and compo-sition). The results indicated that bryophyte composition was different between coniferous and mixedwood stands. The impacts of spatial variation in climate were more visible in mixedwood than coniferous stands, indicating an interaction between stand type and climate. Speci fi cally, bryophytes from mixedwood stands, and particularly specialist communities associated with deadwood and live tree bases, were cli-mate-sensitive and represent a potential target group to investigate the effects of climate change. In con-trast, bryophyte communities from coniferous stands are stand structure-sensitive, with little response to climate, presumably partly because coniferous canopies buffer climatic variations. Since bryophyte community sensitivity to regional variations in climatic conditions depends on dominant canopy characteristics and microhabitat availability, we suggest that adapted forest management practices could play a role in attenuating climate change impacts on these organisms.

• Publication year

  2020

• Venue

  Ecosphere

• Publication date

  2020-08-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Geography, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1002/ecs2.3232
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Northeastern North America as a potential refugium for boreal forests in a warming climate

  2016cited by this paper
• Deadwood abundance in post-harvest and post-fire residual patches: An evaluation of patch temporal dynamics in black spruce boreal forest

  2016cited by this paper
• Article: Planetary Boundaries: Guiding Human Development on a Changing Planet

  2015cited by this paper
• Boreal forest health and global change

  2015cited by this paper
• The common sense of P values.

  2014cited by this paper
• Disentangling the trajectories of alpha, beta and gamma plant diversity of North American boreal ecoregions since 15,500 years

  2014cited by this paper
• New Policies for Old Trees: Averting a Global Crisis in a Keystone Ecological Structure

  2014cited by this paper
• The common sense of P values

  2014cited by this paper
• Anticipating the consequences of climate change for Canada’s boreal forest ecosystems1

  2013cited by this paper
• Factors influencing epiphytic bryophyte and lichen species richness at different spatial scales in managed temperate forests

  2012cited by this paper
• Epiphyte metapopulation dynamics are explained by species traits, connectivity, and patch dynamics.

  2012cited by this paper
• The resilience and functional role of moss in boreal and arctic ecosystems.

  2012cited by this paper
• Numerical Ecology with R

  2011cited by this paper
• Resilience of Alaska's Boreal Forest to Climatic Change

  2010cited by this paper
• Fire, climate change, and forest resilience in interior Alaska.

  2010cited by this paper
• Dying for knowledge

  2009cited by this paper
• Simultaneous Inference in General Parametric Models

  2008cited by this paper
• THE USE AND ABUSE OF VEGETATIONAL CONCEPTS AND TERMS

  2008cited by this paper
• Influence of tree species on understory vegetation diversity and mechanisms involved—A critical review for temperate and boreal forests

  2008cited by this paper
• Climate change 2007: What They're Saying

  2007cited by this paper
• Environmental fluctuations facilitate species co-existence and increase decomposition in communities of wood decay fungi

  2006cited by this paper
• Global temperature change

  2006cited by this paper
• Reconciling Salvage Logging of Boreal Forests with a Natural‐Disturbance Management Model

  2006cited by this paper
• Factors Influencing Bryophyte Assemblage at Different Scales in the Western Canadian Boreal Forest

  2005cited by this paper
• Niche properties and geographical extent as predictors of species sensitivity to climate change

  2005cited by this paper
• FIRE REGIMES AT THE TRANSITION BETWEEN MIXEDWOOD AND CONIFEROUS BOREAL FOREST IN NORTHWESTERN QUEBEC

  2004cited by this paper
• Phorophyte preferences of epiphytic bryophytes in a stream valley in the Carpathian Basin

  2004cited by this paper
• Model selection and multimodel inference : a practical information-theoretic approach

  2003cited by this paper
• Responses of ‘resistant’ vertebrates to habitat loss and fragmentation: the importance of niche breadth and range boundaries

  2003cited by this paper
• Conifer Regeneration Problems in Boreal and Temperate Forests with Ericaceous Understory: Role of Disturbance, Seedbed Limitation, and Keytsone Species Change

  2003cited by this paper
• INFLUENCE OF LOGGING, FIRE, AND FOREST TYPE ON BIODIVERSITY AND PRODUCTIVITY IN SOUTHERN BOREAL FORESTS

  2001cited by this paper
• Decaying logs and habitat heterogeneity: implications for bryophyte diversity in Western Oregon forests

  2001cited by this paper
• Effects of overstory and understory vegetation on the understory light environment in mixed boreal forests

  1998cited by this paper
• Ecological classification of bryophytes and lichens

  1992cited by this paper
• Wildlife, Forests and Forestry: Principles of Managing Forests for Biological Diversity

  1989cited by this paper
• Development and structure of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System

  1987cited by this paper
• Metric and Euclidean properties of dissimilarity coefficients

  1986cited by this paper
• Seasonal and successional changes in light quality and quantity in the understory of boreal forest ecosystems

  1986cited by this paper
• Plant and invertebrate physiology: The growth and reproduction of Polytrichum alpestre Hoppe on South Georgia

  1967cited by this paper
• The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts and Terms

  1935cited by this paper

• Effects of canopy-mediated microclimate and object characteristics on deadwood temperature

  2025cites this paper
• Forest Composition Drives Bryophyte Biomass, Carbon, and Nitrogen Storage in the Boreal‐Temperate Ecotone

  2025cites this paper
• Urban vegetation types and bryophyte diversity: why woodlands matter

  2025cites this paper
• Enhanced bryophyte communities, but challenges for lichens following translocation of deadwood in ecological compensation.

  2025cites this paper
• Leaf size variations in four ground-floor bryophytes and their environmental drivers across the forests of the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

  2025cites this paper
• Patch level boreal bryophyte diversity driven by landscape heterogeneity

  2024cites this paper
• Soil organic carbon stocks in native forest of Argentina: a useful surrogate for mitigation and conservation planning under climate variability

  2024cites this paper
• Functional responses of understory plants to natural disturbance-based management in eastern and western Canada.

  2024cites this paper
• Macroclimate modulates the positive dead-wood influence on bryophyte diversity in managed and unmanaged temperate lowland forests.

  2024cites this paper
• Host tree availability shapes potential distribution of a target epiphytic moss species more than direct climate effects

  2024cites this paper
• Drivers of contrasting boreal understory vegetation in coniferous and broadleaf deciduous alternative states

  2023cites this paper
• How does understory vegetation diversity and composition differ between monocultures and mixed plantations of hybrid poplar and spruce?

  2023cites this paper
• Bryophyte Community Responses 20 Years after Forest Management in Boreal Mixedwood Forest

  2023cites this paper
• Disentangling climate change from air pollution effects on epiphytic bryophytes

  2023cites this paper
• Synergistic effects in mine offsite landscapes: Predicted ecosystem shifts could exacerbate mining effects on bryophyte community structure

  2022cites this paper
• Homogenization of bryophyte species after alpine grassland restoration.

  2022cites this paper
• Projected shifts in deadwood bryophyte communities under national climate and forestry scenarios benefit large competitors and impair small species

  2021cites this paper
• Factors explaining the composition and diversity of vascular plant understories along a transcontinental gradient in the Canadian boreal forest

  2021cites this paper