Seasonality of Climate Drives the Number of Tree Hollows in Eastern Australia: Implications of a Changing Climate

Title
Seasonality of Climate Drives the Number of Tree Hollows in Eastern Australia: Implications of a Changing Climate
Publication Date
2015
Author(s)
Hunter, John T
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Place of publication
United States of America
DOI
10.1155/2015/190637
UNE publication id
une:17728
Abstract
Tree hollow number is investigated across an altitudinal and climatic gradient in eastern Australia. The relationship between seasonal climate and local site factors to hollow number at a regional scale was investigated. Moisture retention, rainfall, and solar radiation during the summer period were the highest contributing factors to hollow number in the model presented. The relationship of hollow number with the significant variables was unimodal in nature with either extreme causing a decline within the region.The results indicate that increased seasonality of rainfall, solar radiation, and temperatures as predicted by anthropogenic climate change will cause a shift in the optimal location for hollow number. Change in tree hollows is reliant on taxonomic replacement through dispersal and establishment and subsequently time to allow individuals to mature. The reduction in this resource stimulated by changes in seasonality predicted within the ensuing decades is likely to cause a loss of hollows across the landscape with the resource not being replaced for hundreds of years. The number of hollows within a landscape may drastically reduce due to climate change alone irrespective of tree clearing rates.
Link
Citation
International Journal of Ecology, p. 1-10
ISSN
1687-9716
1687-9708
Start page
1
End page
10

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