The importance of large-diameter trees in the wet tropical rainforests of Australia

Abstract

Large trees are keystone structures in many terrestrial ecosystems. They contribute disproportionately to reproduction, recruitment and succession, and influence the structure, dynamics, and diversity of forests. Recently, researchers have become concerned about evidence showing rapid declines in large, old trees in a range of ecosystems across the globe. We used [≥]10cm diameter at breast height (DBH) stem inventory data from 20, 0.5 ha forest plots spanning the wet tropical rainforest of Queensland, Australia to examine the contribution of large-diameter trees to above ground biomass (AGB), richness, dominance, mortality and recruitment. We show consistencies with tropical rainforest globally in that large-diameter trees ([≥]70 cm DBH) contribute much of the biomass (33%) from few trees (2.4% of stems [≥]10cm DBH) with the density of the largest trees explaining much of the variation (62%) in AGB across plots. Measurement of AGB in the largest 5% of trees allows plot biomass to be predicted with ~85% precision. In contrast to rainforest in Africa and America, we show that a high proportion of species are capable of reaching a large-diameter in Australian wet tropical rainforest resulting in weak biomass hyperdominance (~10% of species account for 50% of the biomass) and high potential resilience to regional disturbances and global environmental change. We show that the high AGB in Australian tropical forests is driven primarily by the relatively high density of large trees coupled with contributions from significantly higher densities of medium size trees. Australian wet tropical rainforests are well positioned to maintain the current densities of large-diameter trees and high AGB into the future due to the species richness of large trees and a high density of replacement smaller trees.