TY - JOUR
T1 - Hemiparasite-host plant interactions in a fragmented landscape assessed via imaging spectroscopy and Li DAR
AU - Barbosa, Jomar M.
AU - Sebastián-González, Esther
AU - Asner, Gregory P.
AU - Knapp, David E.
AU - Anderson, Christopher
AU - Martin, Roberta E.
AU - Dirzo, Rodolfo
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank P. Jordano for his valuable comments on the initial stage of this work. J. M. Barbosa was supported by CAPES Foundation, Ministry of Education, Brazil (grant number 11725/13-3). E. Sebastián-González was supported by the FAPESP Research Foundation, Brazil (grant number 2011/17968-2). Carnegie Airborne Observatory data acquisition, processing, and analysis were supported by a grant to G. P. Asner from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The Carnegie Airborne Observatory is made possible by the Avatar Alliance Foundation, Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, W.M. Keck Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Mary Anne Nyburg Baker and G. Leonard Baker Jr., and William R. Hearst III.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - Species interactions are susceptible to anthropogenic changes in ecosystems, but this has been poorly investigated in a spatially explicit manner in the case of plant parasitism, such as the omnipresent hemiparasitic mistletoe-host plant interactions. Analyzing such interactions at a large spatial scale may advance our understanding of parasitism patterns over complex landscapes. Combining high-resolution airborne imaging spectroscopy and Li DAR, we studied hemiparasite incidence within and among tree host stands to examine the prevalence and spatial distribution of hemiparasite load in ecosystems. Specifi-cally, we aimed to assess: (1) detection accuracy of mistletoes on their oak hosts; (2) hemiparasitism prevalence within host tree canopies depending on tree height, and (3) spatial variation in hemiparasitism across fragmented woodlands, in a low-diversity mediterranean oak woodland in California, USA. We identifi ed mistletoe infestations with 55-96% accuracy, and detected signifi cant differences in remote-sensed spectra between oak trees with and without mistletoe infestation. We also found that host canopy height had little Influence on infestation degree, whereas landscape-level variation showed consistent, nonrandom patterns: isolated host trees had twice the infestation load than did trees located at the core of forest fragments. Overall, we found that canopy exposure (i.e., lower canopy density or proximity to forest edge) is more important than canopy height for mistletoe infestation, and that by changing landscape structure, parasitic prevalence increased with woodland fragmentation. We conclude that reducing fragmentation in oak woodlands will minimize anthropogenic impact on mistletoe infestation at the landscape level. We argue that advanced remote sensing technology can provide baselines to quantitatively analyze and monitor parasite-host trajectories in light of global environmental change, and that this is a promising approach to be further tested in other temperate and tropical forests.
AB - Species interactions are susceptible to anthropogenic changes in ecosystems, but this has been poorly investigated in a spatially explicit manner in the case of plant parasitism, such as the omnipresent hemiparasitic mistletoe-host plant interactions. Analyzing such interactions at a large spatial scale may advance our understanding of parasitism patterns over complex landscapes. Combining high-resolution airborne imaging spectroscopy and Li DAR, we studied hemiparasite incidence within and among tree host stands to examine the prevalence and spatial distribution of hemiparasite load in ecosystems. Specifi-cally, we aimed to assess: (1) detection accuracy of mistletoes on their oak hosts; (2) hemiparasitism prevalence within host tree canopies depending on tree height, and (3) spatial variation in hemiparasitism across fragmented woodlands, in a low-diversity mediterranean oak woodland in California, USA. We identifi ed mistletoe infestations with 55-96% accuracy, and detected signifi cant differences in remote-sensed spectra between oak trees with and without mistletoe infestation. We also found that host canopy height had little Influence on infestation degree, whereas landscape-level variation showed consistent, nonrandom patterns: isolated host trees had twice the infestation load than did trees located at the core of forest fragments. Overall, we found that canopy exposure (i.e., lower canopy density or proximity to forest edge) is more important than canopy height for mistletoe infestation, and that by changing landscape structure, parasitic prevalence increased with woodland fragmentation. We conclude that reducing fragmentation in oak woodlands will minimize anthropogenic impact on mistletoe infestation at the landscape level. We argue that advanced remote sensing technology can provide baselines to quantitatively analyze and monitor parasite-host trajectories in light of global environmental change, and that this is a promising approach to be further tested in other temperate and tropical forests.
KW - Carnegie Airborne Observatory
KW - Detection of host-parasite interactions
KW - Forest fragmentation
KW - Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve
KW - Mistletoes
KW - Oak forest
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84959552370&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1890/14.2429.1/suppinfo
DO - 10.1890/14.2429.1/suppinfo
M3 - Article
C2 - 27039509
AN - SCOPUS:84959552370
SN - 1051-0761
VL - 26
SP - 55
EP - 66
JO - Ecological Appplications
JF - Ecological Appplications
IS - 1
ER -