Nutrient limitation and metrosideros forest dieback in Hawaii
- Author:
-
Gerrish, G., Mueller-Dombois, D., Bridges, K.W.
- Title:
- Nutrient limitation and metrosideros forest dieback in Hawaii
- Periodical:
- Ecology
- Year:
- 1988
- Volume:
- 69
- Pages:
- 723-727
- Subject:
-
Fertilization
Montane tropical forest
Rain forests
Ohia dieback
Metrosideros polymorpha
- Summary:
- While large numbers of Ohia (Metrosideros polymorpha), trees have died in the montane rain forest on the Island of Hawaii in the 1960s and 1970s, previous research failed to identify a main cause. As a result, this paper describes an experiment that tested the hypothesis that nutrient deficiency was the principal cause of tree death in the stand-level dieback. The treatments that were used to test this theory were fertilizing, stand thinning, and a combination of both. The experiment revealed that these treatments caused no significant change in the mortality rate of the trees. However, it was found that the stem diameter growth of the surviving trees were nutrient limited at all sites. It was, therefore, concluded that while nutrient deficiency may be a contributing factor, it is not the principal cause of most the Metrosideros dieback.
- Label:
- Botany - Ohia
- URL:
- http://cletus.uhh.hawaii.edu:2074/10.2307/1941020
- Date:
- 1988
- Collection:
- Periodicals