Recovering plant biodiversity

Abstract

Studying recovering plant biodiversity on Mount Pinatubo may provide valuable insights that improve our understanding of recovery of other ecosystems following disturbances of all types. Ongoing sheet and rill erosion coupled with mass waste events in the unstable pyroclastic flow deposits persist, effectively re-setting primary succession at micro-landscape scale without affecting habitat level diversity. Spatial factors and micro-habitat diversity may exert more control over continued succession as the riparian systems become more deeply dissected and complex. The number of taxa within functional groups and conservation concerns are botanical issues that deserve further research.

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Figures and Tables

Figure 1 Undercutting of the canyon walls by running water is one of the causes of ongoing mass waste events in the riparian systems of Mount Pinatubo (top left). The mass waste events that continue to occur two decades after the eruption present barren surfaces as seen in lower center (top right). These can become covered by plants rapidly due to the surrounding established vegetation. Saccharum spontaneum is the dominant large grass in the caldera as seen here (bottom) and throughout all elevations of the recovering ecosystem.

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