Content area
Full Text
About the Authors:
David B. Lindenmayer
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliations Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, and The National Environment Research Program, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Wade Blanchard
Affiliation: Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Lachlan McBurney
Affiliation: Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
David Blair
Affiliation: Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Sam Banks
Affiliation: Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Gene E. Likens
Affiliation: Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, New York, United States of America
Jerry F. Franklin
Affiliation: School of Environmental and Forest Science, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
William F. Laurance
Affiliation: Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science and School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
John A. R. Stein
Affiliation: Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Philip Gibbons
Affiliations Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, and The National Environment Research Program, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Introduction
Large trees with cavities play critical roles in forest, agricultural and urban ecosystems worldwide [1]–[6]. These roles include: storing carbon [7]–[10]; creating distinct microenvironments characterized by high levels of soil nutrients, plant species richness and structural complexity [7], [11]; and providing nesting and sheltering habitat for numerous animal species (>350 mammal species globally) [12], [13] including up to 30% of the vertebrate biota in a given vegetation type [3], [14], [15]. Large trees with cavities can take a prolonged time to develop – more than century in Douglas-fir (Pseudostuga menziesii) trees in western North America [3] and the vast majority of Australian eucalypt species [14] and 200 years in European Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robus). However, many ecosystems worldwide are increasingly characterized by the rapid loss of large trees with cavities, a failure...