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Radiocarbon Dating Informs Tree Fern Population Dynamics and Disturbance History of Temperate Forests in Southeast Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2018

Melissa Fedrigo ,
Stephen B Stewart ,
Sabine Kasel ,
Vladimir Levchenko ,
Raphael Trouvé  and
Craig R Nitschke Open the ORCID record for Craig R Nitschke [Opens in a new window]
Melissa Fedrigo
Affiliation:
School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 500 Yarra Blvd, Richmond, VIC, 3121, Australia
Stephen B Stewart
Affiliation:
School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 500 Yarra Blvd, Richmond, VIC, 3121, Australia
Sabine Kasel
Affiliation:
School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 500 Yarra Blvd, Richmond, VIC, 3121, Australia
Vladimir Levchenko
Affiliation:
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation New Illawarra Road, Lucas Heights, NSW, 2234, Australia
Raphael Trouvé
Affiliation:
School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 500 Yarra Blvd, Richmond, VIC, 3121, Australia
Craig R Nitschke*
Affiliation:
School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 500 Yarra Blvd, Richmond, VIC, 3121, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Tree ferns are slow-growing and long-lived components of temperate forests; however, these characteristics make determining size-age and population dynamics through mensuration approaches problematic while dendroecological approaches cannot be used. In this study, we use radiocarbon (14C) dating of Cyathea australis and Dicksonia antarctica to (1) determine their age-to-size relationships, (2) reconstruct the age distribution of tree fern species, and (3) test if predicted ages align with the ages of the co-occurring tree community and observed disturbance history. We used the best age-size models to reconstruct the population structure of tree ferns sampled in five paired rainforest and old-growth eucalypt stands and compared these to the age structure of co-occurring tree species. The species had similar growth allometry; however, C. australis grew four times faster than D. antarctica. The age class structures of tree ferns were congruent with the associated tree species and reflected known fire history and snowfall events in the region. Tree fern abundance increased with increasing time-since-fire and post canopy disturbance. The study demonstrates that 14C dating of tree ferns provides a means of investigating tree fern demographics and the role of disturbance in shaping their population structure in forests of southeast Australia.

Keywords

14CCyathea australisDicksonia antarcticaplant demographypopulation dynamics
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , April 2019 , pp. 445 - 460
Copyright
© 2018 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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