Thermophilization – changes in community composition towards greater relative abundances of species associated with warmer environments – has been described for plants and animals in many locations around the world. Disturbances of various kinds have increased rates of thermophilization in temperate sites, and this has been proposed, but not demonstrated, for some tropical environments. In this study, we tested whether disturbance by a category 4 hurricane in 1988 (Hurricane Gilbert) increased thermophilization in a Jamaican montane forest by using pre- and post-hurricane data collected over four decades (1974–2014). We analysed tree species composition in permanent plots at ca 1580 m above sea level in Jamaica's Blue Mountains. There were 66 tree species with stem diameters ≥ 3 cm at breast height. We used published data on the altitudinal distribution of 62 species (94% of genetic individuals (genets)) to calculate the mean community altitude scores (MCAS) of the trees recorded in each census, as well as the MCAS of the survivors, recruits and dead trees after each decade. We found that thermophilization did occur (i.e. MCAS decreased significantly over time), and that this was due both to a decreasing MCAS of recruits through the four decades (significantly lower than expected in the last three decades) as well as a high MCAS of trees that died. Thermophilization was fastest in the post-hurricane decade, during which time there was marked and significant increase in the MCAS of dead trees; this change was above and beyond expectations of long-term successional dynamics. The rate of compositional change equates to an overall decrease in MCAS of 1.6 m yr⁻¹ over the forty-year study period. We conclude that this Jamaican montane forest is undergoing thermophilization (likely due to rising temperature) and that the hurricane-caused disturbance accelerated thermophilization through differential mortality.

中文翻译：

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飓风扰动加速了牙买加山地森林的嗜热化

嗜热化——群落组成向与温暖环境相关的物种相对丰度的变化——已经在世界许多地方的植物和动物中得到描述。各种干扰增加了温带地区的嗜热化率，对于某些热带环境，这已被提出，但未得到证实。在这项研究中，我们使用 40 年（1974-2014 年）收集的飓风前后数据，测试了 1988 年 4 级飓风（吉尔伯特飓风）的干扰是否增加了牙买加山地森林的嗜热化。我们分析了牙买加蓝山海拔约 1580 米的永久地块中的树种组成。胸高≥3cm的树种有66种。我们使用已发表的 62 个物种（94% 的遗传个体（基因））的海拔分布数据来计算每次人口普查中记录的树木的平均群落海拔得分（MCAS），以及幸存者、新兵和新兵的 MCAS。每十年后枯树。我们发现确实发生了嗜热化（即 MCAS 随着时间的推移显着下降），这既是由于过去 40 年中新兵的 MCAS 下降（显着低于过去 30 年的预期）以及树木的 MCAS 高那死了。在飓风过后的十年中，高温化速度最快，在此期间，死树的 MCAS 显着增加；这一变化超出了长期连续动态的预期。^-1在四十年的研究期间。我们得出的结论是，这片牙买加山地森林正在经历嗜热化（可能是由于温度升高），飓风引起的干扰通过不同的死亡率加速了嗜热化。