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Successional shifts in tree demographic strategies in wet and dry Neotropical forests |
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| Authors: | Nadja Rüger Markus E Schorn Stephan Kambach Robin L Chazdon Caroline E Farrior Jorge A Meave Rodrigo Muñoz Michiel van Breugel Lucy Amissah Frans Bongers Dylan Craven Bruno Hérault Catarina C Jakovac Natalia Norden Lourens Poorter Masha T van der Sande Christian Wirth Diego Delgado Daisy H Dent Saara J DeWalt Juan M Dupuy Bryan Finegan Jefferson S Hall José L Hernández-Stefanoni Omar R Lopez |
| Institution: | 1. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany;2. Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany;3. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA;4. Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA;5. Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico;6. Yale-NUS College, Singapore, Singapore;7. CSIR-Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, Kumasi, Ghana;8. Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands;9. Centro de Modelación y Monitoreo de Ecosistemas, Facultud de Sciencias, Universidad Mayor, Santiago, Chile;10. CIRAD, UPR Forêts et Sociétés, Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire;11. Departamento de Fitotecnia, Centro de Ciências Agrárias, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil;12. Programa de Ciencias Básicas de la Biodiversidad, Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, Bogotá, Colombia;13. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity, Institute for Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany;14. Forests and Biodiversity in Productive Landscapes, CATIE, Turrialba, Costa Rica;15. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ancón, Panama;16. Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, USA;17. Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán (CICY), Unidad de Recursos Naturales, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico;18. ForestGEO, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ancón, Panama;19. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ancón, Panama Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT), Ciudad del Saber, Clayton, Panama |
| Abstract: | AimTropical forest succession and associated changes in community composition are driven by species demographic rates, but how demographic strategies shift during succession remains unclear. Our goal was to identify generalities in demographic trade-offs and successional shifts in demographic strategies across Neotropical forests that cover a large rainfall gradient and to test whether the current conceptual model of tropical forest succession applies to wet and dry forests.LocationMexico and Central America.Time period1985–2018.Major taxa studiedTrees.MethodsWe used repeated forest inventory data from two wet and two dry forests to quantify demographic rates of 781 tree species. For each forest, we explored the main demographic trade-offs and assigned tree species to five demographic groups by performing a weighted principal components analysis to account for differences in sample size. We aggregated the basal area and abundance across demographic groups to identify successional shifts in demographic strategies over the entire successional gradient from very young (<5 years) to old-growth forests.ResultsAcross all forests, we found two demographic trade-offs, namely the growth–survival trade-off and the stature–recruitment trade-off, enabling the data-driven assignment of species to five demographic strategies. Fast species dominated early in succession and were then replaced by long-lived pioneers in three forests. Intermediate and slow species increased in basal area over succession in all forests, but, in contrast to the current conceptual model, long-lived pioneers continued to dominate until the old-growth stage in all forests. The basal area of short-lived breeders was low across all successional stages.Main conclusionsThe current conceptual model of Neotropical forest succession should be revised to incorporate the dominance of long-lived pioneers in late-successional and old-growth forests. Moreover, the definition of consistent demographic strategies that show clear dominance shifts across succession substantially improves the mechanistic understanding and predictability of Neotropical forest succession. |
| Keywords: | demographic strategies growth-mortality tradeoff life-history strategies long-lived pioneer principal components analysis stature-recruitment tradeoff species classification |