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Dryad

Feral pig (Sus scrofa) disturbance facilitates establishment of resource-acquisitive species in Hawaiian forest understories

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Dec 06, 2023 version files 89.57 KB

Abstract

In this study, we quantify the effects of leaf traits and dispersal attributes on species responses to pig soil disturbance at two spatial scales – 0.5 m2 patches embedded along 20 m transects within sites – across a gradient of pig density in a Hawaiian montane wet forest using Bayesian mixed models. 

Native and non-native species demonstrated divergent responses, with increasing presence and abundance of non-native species in the understory as soil disturbance within patches and sites increased. Dominant patterns in measured traits tracked the leaf economic spectrum (LES), with non-native species tending toward resource-acquisitive traits. Species with resource-acquisitive traits, regardless of identity, were favored with disturbance and responded positively to light availability in disturbed sites. Models showed species primarily dispersed by wind were more prevalent in disturbed patches and sites than those dispersed by endozoochory, while seed mass had no effect.