Linking canopy leaf area and light environments with tree size distributions to explain Amazon forest demography |
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| Authors: | Scott C Stark Brian J Enquist Scott R Saleska Veronika Leitold Juliana Schietti Marcos Longo Luciana F Alves Plinio B Camargo Raimundo C Oliveira |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA;2. Department of Forestry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA;3. The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA;4. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), S?o Paulo, Brazil;5. Coordena??o de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amaz?nia (INPA), Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil;6. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA;7. Centro de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento de Recursos Genéticos Vegetais, Instituto Agron?mico de Campinas (IAC), CP 28, Campinas, S?o Paulo, Brazil;8. Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), CP 6109, Campinas, S?o Paulo, Brazil;9. Laboratório de Ecologia Isotópica, Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA), Universidade de S?o Paulo, Piracicaba, S?o Paulo, Brazil;10. NAPT Médio Amazonas, Embrapa Amaz?nia Oriental, Santarém, Pará, Brazil |
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| Abstract: | Forest biophysical structure – the arrangement and frequency of leaves and stems – emerges from growth, mortality and space filling dynamics, and may also influence those dynamics by structuring light environments. To investigate this interaction, we developed models that could use LiDAR remote sensing to link leaf area profiles with tree size distributions, comparing models which did not (metabolic scaling theory) and did allow light to influence this link. We found that a light environment‐to‐structure link was necessary to accurately simulate tree size distributions and canopy structure in two contrasting Amazon forests. Partitioning leaf area profiles into size‐class components, we found that demographic rates were related to variation in light absorption, with mortality increasing relative to growth in higher light, consistent with a light environment feedback to size distributions. Combining LiDAR with models linking forest structure and demography offers a high‐throughput approach to advance theory and investigate climate‐relevant tropical forest change. |
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| Keywords: | Amazon forest canopy plasticity canopy structure forest dynamics leaf area profiles LiDAR light competition metabolic scaling theory remote sensing tree demography |
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