Abstract
Context
Understanding the variability of vegetation distribution and its determinants is a central issue for addressing the effects of edges on ecological processes. Recent studies have revealed inconsistencies in the patterns of responses to edge effects that raise important questions about their determinants. We investigated the edge effect response patterns by adapting a recently proposed continuous approach to the case of small forest fragments in southwestern France.
Methods
We surveyed forest understory vegetation (composition, species richness, and percent cover) and abiotic variables (soil temperature, moisture, pH, and canopy openness) along 28 transects across hard forest edges. We tested five statistical models to describe the response pattern of each variable (1) over all transects and (2) per transect. We then compared the response patterns as a function of the attributes of the edge (orientation, topography, and adjacent land cover) and forest patch size.
Results
Over all transects, a general decreasing trend was observed for all variables as the distance from the edge increased. In the individual transects, we evidenced a large variability in the response patterns that was not related to edge attributes or to patch size.
Conclusion
It is difficult to assess the depth of edge influence in highly fragmented forests and to identify the determinants of edge effects. We recommend that care should be taken with studies using pool of transects, and that further studies should be carried out including situations with neutral patterns, in order to gain a broader understanding of edge effects on vegetation.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Laurent Burnel, Jérôme Willm, and Marc Fakorellis for their assistance in the field. We are also grateful to Alain Cabanettes and Michel Goulard for providing comments on statistical analysis. We thank Huw ap Thomas (Axtrad) for thorough editorial advice in English. We thank the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. Funding for this study was provided by the French Ministry of Research and Education.
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Handling Editor: Jean-Luc Dupouey
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AA and MD conceived and designed the experiments. AA performed the experiments and data analysis. AA and MD analyzed results. AA and MD wrote the manuscript.
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Online Resource 1
Summary of the best mixed effect models selected by AIC weights amongst the five statistical models tested (null, linear, exponential, logistic, and unimodal), for each variable (n = 7) over all transects (n = 28). F and p value (p) from ANOVA type III error tests are given. S south, N neutral, and M meadow. (DOCX 22 kb)
Online Resource 2
Summary of best models selected by AIC weights for each variable (n = 7) and each transect (n = 28). ∆ AIC between the best model and alternative statistical models were given. Can. Open canopy openness, Exp exponential, Uni unimodal, nc nonconvergence of models (DOCX 76 kb)
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Alignier, A., Deconchat, M. Patterns of forest vegetation responses to edge effect as revealed by a continuous approach. Annals of Forest Science 70, 601–609 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-013-0301-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-013-0301-0