TY - JOUR
T1 - Estimating disturbance effects from military training using developmental instability and physiological measures of plant stress
AU - Duda, J. J.
AU - Freeman, D. C.
AU - Brown, M. L.
AU - Graham, J. H.
AU - Krzysik, A. J.
AU - Emlen, J. M.
AU - Zak, J. C.
AU - Kovacic, D. A.
N1 - Funding Information:
Research funding was provided by SERDP (Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program), a research consortium of Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and US Environmental Protection Agency. Our field work would not have been possible without the support and logistical coordination provided by Hugh Westbury and Range Control personnel at Fort Benning. Pete Swiderek and the Natural Resources Directorate staff provided valuable information about the ecological and military history of Fort Benning. Hal Balbach and two anonymous referees provided insightful reviews of this manuscript.
PY - 2004/1
Y1 - 2004/1
N2 - We used developmental instability, water potential, and variable fluorescence to determine if populations of winged sumac (Rhus copallinum) were being negatively effected by military training disturbance. We established nine sites that represented a land-use disturbance gradient with three impact levels (low, medium, and high), the effects mostly due to mechanized infantry training maneuvers. Although mean values of developmental instability, water potential, and variable fluorescence differed significantly among sites, the patterns did not consistently differentiate sites relative to the disturbance gradient. At the population level, some measures of developmental instability and variable fluorescence were positively correlated. All nine sites consisted of habitat mosaics, with the abundance of higher quality habitat patches and canopy gaps closely related to habitat impacts. It may be that R. copallinum is selecting similar micro-environments at all sites and therefore minimizing inter-site variation in stress measures, despite large differences in overall habitat condition. Our results call for caution in developing ecological indicators using the response of physiological and morphological measures from a single plant species.
AB - We used developmental instability, water potential, and variable fluorescence to determine if populations of winged sumac (Rhus copallinum) were being negatively effected by military training disturbance. We established nine sites that represented a land-use disturbance gradient with three impact levels (low, medium, and high), the effects mostly due to mechanized infantry training maneuvers. Although mean values of developmental instability, water potential, and variable fluorescence differed significantly among sites, the patterns did not consistently differentiate sites relative to the disturbance gradient. At the population level, some measures of developmental instability and variable fluorescence were positively correlated. All nine sites consisted of habitat mosaics, with the abundance of higher quality habitat patches and canopy gaps closely related to habitat impacts. It may be that R. copallinum is selecting similar micro-environments at all sites and therefore minimizing inter-site variation in stress measures, despite large differences in overall habitat condition. Our results call for caution in developing ecological indicators using the response of physiological and morphological measures from a single plant species.
KW - Developmental instability
KW - Disturbance gradient
KW - Ecological indicators
KW - Fluctuating asymmetry
KW - Fluorescence
KW - Rhus copallinum
KW - Water potential
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=1342265398&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2003.11.003
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2003.11.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:1342265398
SN - 1470-160X
VL - 3
SP - 251
EP - 262
JO - Ecological Indicators
JF - Ecological Indicators
IS - 4
ER -