Growth and structural damages of trees hosting lianas in semi-evergreen tropical forests in Northeastern Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) [Elektronische Ressource] / vorgelegt von Edgardo Israel Garrido Pérez

Egarrid

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• Naturwissenschaften

Informations

• Publié par: georg-august-universitat_gottingen
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 23
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

GROWTH AND STRUCTURAL DAMAGES OF TREES HOSTING LIANAS IN
SEMI-EVERGREEN TROPICAL FORESTS IN NORTHEASTERN YUCATAN
PENINSULA (MEXICO)





Dissertation
zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades
der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultäten
der Georg-August-Universität zu Göttingen


vorgelegt von

Edgardo Israel Garrido Pérez

aus Panama, Panama


Göttingen 2008





































D 7

Referent: Prof. Dr. Gerhard Gerold

Korreferent: P.D. Dr. Michael Kessler

Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: (05.05.2008)



2


















To Paulina, Kathrin, Magnolia and Virgilio
(My Daugther, Wife, Mother and Father)
with all of the Love that fits in a Soul


To the Memory of Ingrid Olmsted
and Camilo Ancona


To the Honour of all the Men and Women
who, like the Mayans of Today,
developed a Culture of
respect to The Nature
and The Mankind


















3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Less than four weeks before dying due to a painful disease, Dr. Ingrid Olmsted
introduced me to the Peasants Community of Ejido Solferino in order to look for ideas for a
Research. I really thank Ingrid for such an effort. I am indebted to the inhabitants of Solferino
for their sincere friendship, specially the land owners: Mr. José “Pepe” Quintal, Saúl Ancona,
Roberto Antonio Lara, Rosendo Can and Mario Ucan May. Mario himself provided the most
valuable help in the field and gave me the honor of us to call Brother to each other. Miguel
Angel Canul, Balbina Ancona, and more than six other persons helped in the field too. I am
also deeply indebt with my personal, old maya friends Chak Mool and Alux Ob because of
their help in the field.
As my Advisor, Prof. Dr. Gerhard Gerold provided me all the academic and logistic
advantages he supplies to his students. Before my arrival to Prof. Gerold’s Laboratory, my
research was consuming all my energy, and advancing too slow. Once there, the job
continued to consume my energy, but proceeded very fast and was as fun as the field work
itself thanks to the efficiency of the crew of the department. An emergent reputable botanist,
Prof. Dr. Michael Kessler, filtered the final quality of this work¸ Rebecca Benez reviewed the
language and made important comments. For identifying plants, I was helped by some
taxonomers of the Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán (Mexico): José Luis Tapia,
Filogonio May-Pat and Paulino Simá. The criticisms and friendship that Dr. Juan Manuel
Dupuy gave me during the whole project were not less important. Colleagues of him supplied
valuable criticisms too: Doctors José Luis Andrade, Rafael Durán, Víctor Parra, Luz María
Calvo, and Roger Orellana. A world wide famous liana expert, Prof. Stefan Schnitzer
(University of Winscosin) made valuable comments. Many pictures were kindly supplied or
borrowec from K.Fletcher and C. Baylis (http://www.wildsidephotography.ca/), Gabriel
Araújo dos Santos and Cecilia Costa, John Stone, Arthur Gibson, Center for Tropical Forest
Sciences (Smithsonian Institution), Vrindavana foundation and National Oceanic
4 Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Winfried Pahl and his wife Annegreth supplied
important logistic and moral help during the writing of the report. Anne le Mellec and all
Students of Prof. Gerold honoured me with their friendship and exchange of ideas. Some
sponsors were: the Organization of American States (OAS), the Mexican National Council for
Science and Technology (CONACYT), and the German Service of Academic Exchange
(DAAD). Last but by no means less important is my debt with Kathrin Pahl. Since August
2005 Kathrin became the only sponsor of this research. She tolerated me to transform our
small apartment into a noisy, nocturnal office. She even accepted to marry me and to have a
baby (Paulina). The best prize after a hard, but always fun work.

















5 CONTENTS


Summary 8
Chapter 1: General Introduction 13

1.1. Justification 14
1.2. General Objectives and General Question 15
1.3. General Hypothesis and works supporting it 15
1.4. Limitations of the Hypothesis 17
The paradigm of lianas as competitors of trees 17
Lianas as structural parasites of trees: another paradigm
and its limitations 18
1.5. Study site and reconstruction of its Land Use History:
from Traditions to Satellites 21
1.6. General Methods 27
Selection of forest stands for plots 27
1.7. Chapters of this Dissertation, their specific objectives
and Specific Hypothesis 28


Chapter 2: Growth of co-existing tree species in response to hosted lianas in
Northern Quintana Roo, Mexico 33

2.1. Introduction 34
2.2. Materials and Methods 35
Study site and settlement of plots 35
Field work 36
Data analysis 39
Averaged effect of lianas on different tree species 41
2.3. Results 42
2.4. Discussion 53


Chapter 3: Growth of saplings after cutting lianas in Semi-Evergreen
Tropical Forests of different ages and Land Use Histories 60
3.1. Introduction 61
3.2. Materials and Methods 63
Study site 63
Field work 63
Data analysis 64
a) Comparing and grouping plots 66
b) Growth of saplings 67
3.3. Results 68
3.4. Discussion 78




6 Chapter 4: Structural Effects of Lianas and Hurricane Wilma on Trees
in a Semi-Evergreen Tropical Forest in Quintana Roo, Mexico 84

4.1. Introduction 85
4.2. Materials and Methods 87
Study site, location and land use history of the plots 87
Field work 87
Data analysis 91
4.3. Results 91
Damages according to girth of trees and their numbers
of hosted lianas 96
Liana-cutting and other causes of damage 99
4.4. Discussion 102
Structural damages within forest stands: when the lianas
play no-role 102
Where are lianas harmful, where they protect trees, and how 103
Structural damages between stands: what lianas are
harmful for trees? 104
Tree-size and other risk factors 104
Hurricanes, gap dynamics and the role of lianas in forest dynamics 106


Chapter 5: General Discussion and General Conclusions 108
5.1. Neither do Lianas generally delay the growth of trees nor do Lianas
generally enhance hurricane damage 109
5.2. Studies on liana-tree interactions require larger spatio-temporal scales 109
5.3. Lianas affect succession in North-Eastern Yucatan Peninsula 110
5.4. Do lianas influence tree species turnover within functional groups of trees? 110
5.5. Do lianas drive tree-species turn-over within guilds?: an Evolutioinary
point of view 112
5.6. To cut or not to cut: where and when? 113
5.7. General Conclusions 115

References 116
APPENDIX I: Species list and numbers of individuals per species per plot 15
months after liana-cutting (2 months before Hurricane Wilma) 123

APPENDIX II: Indexes of liana-effect ( ) on the growth of different tree species
after a liana-cut experiment 128

APPENDIX III: Fallen debris (leaf-litter and woody debris) in liana-cut and
liana-un-cut plots 130

APPENDIX IV: Contingency tables exploring the effects of tree location (forest
stand), lianas, and tree-sloping on risks of trees to get damaged
during Hurricane Wilma 134

Lebenslauf 140
7
WWWWSUMMARY
Lianas are woody vines that reach the canopy by climbing trees. Their vascular tissues
are able to conduct more water than those of trees. Consequently lianas are considered to be
competitors for water and soil resources delaying the growth of trees, which was
demonstrated by many studies. Other studies suggest that lianas are structural parasites
reducing the reproduction of trees. Some tree species have been reported to be more affected
than others. Therefore ecologists propose that lianas are a driving force in detremining the
relative abundance of tree-species through time. According to different reports, lianas
represent about 25% of the tropical forests flora, where 33% to 79% of all trees host lianas.