Amazonian rainforest tree mortality driven by climate and functional traits

Aleixo, Izabela; Norris, D. Ryan; Hemerik, Lia; Barbosa, Antenor Pereira; Prata, Eduardo Magalhães Borges; Costa, Flávia R. C.; Poorter, Lourens

doi:10.1038/s41558-019-0458-0

Cited by 172 publications

(142 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…It is possible that many or most of the plots used as evidence for the B&FH O have also experienced major disturbance related to the unique history of strong El Niño events in recent decades, and also perhaps in the decades prior to plot establishment. This hypothesis is consistent with the results of Aleixo et al [13], who showed that tree mortality in the Central Amazon was strongly related to ENSO events. Although we have here focused on El Niño-related disturbance, there are also other disturbances that could produce similar effect (e.g.…”

Section: Decadal Trends In Large Tree Densitysupporting

confidence: 93%

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Diversity, distribution and dynamics of large trees across an old-growth lowland tropical rain forest landscape

et al. 2019

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Large trees, here defined as �60 cm trunk diameter, are the most massive organisms in tropical rain forest, and are important in forest structure, dynamics and carbon cycling. The status of large trees in tropical forest is unclear, with both increasing and decreasing trends reported. We sampled across an old-growth tropical rain forest landscape at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica to study the distribution and performance of large trees and their contribution to forest structure and dynamics. We censused all large trees in 238 0.50 ha plots, and also identified and measured all stems �10 cm diameter in 18 0.50 ha plots annually for 20 years (1997-2017). We assessed abundance, species diversity, and crown conditions of large trees in relation to soil type and topography, measured the contribution of large trees to stand structure, productivity, and dynamics, and analyzed the decadal population trends of large trees. Large trees accounted for 2.5% of stems and 25% of mean basal area and Estimated Above-Ground Biomass, and produced~10% of the estimated wood production. Crown exposure increased with stem diameter but predictability was low. Large tree density was about twice as high on more-fertile flat sites compared to less fertile sites on slopes and plateaus. Density of large trees increased 27% over the study interval, but the increase was restricted to the flat more-fertile sites. Mortality and recruitment differed between large trees and smaller stems, and strongly suggested that large tree density was affected by past climatic disturbances such as large El Niño events. Our results generally do not support the hypothesis of increasing biomass and turnover rates in tropical forest. We suggest that additional landscape-scale studies of large trees are needed to determine the generality of disturbance legacies in tropical forest study sites.

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Section: Decadal Trends In Large Tree Densitysupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Another interest in large trees is their use as proxies for whole-forest variables such as Estimated-Above-Ground Biomass (EAGB) [2,10,11,12,13]. Several studies have shown that measurements of large tree crown size and height based on remotely-sensed data can be generalized to forest attributes over large spatial domains, cf [12,14,15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity, distribution and dynamics of large trees across an old-growth lowland tropical rain forest landscape

et al. 2019

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“…For instance, species‐specific wood density and tree diameter are key species features in selective logging whereas species hydraulic strategies will influence drought‐induced tree mortality (Anderegg et al, ; García‐Valdés, Bugmann, & Morin, ). Although tree mortality rates appear to be increasing in tropical forests, the underlying causes remain poorly understood, and predicting tree mortality based on physiological principles and functional traits remains a formidable challenge (Aleixo et al, ; Anderegg et al, ; McDowell et al, ). For the sake of parsimony, we implemented a module of random disturbance in the TROLL model.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional diversity improves tropical forest resilience: Insights from a long‐term virtual experiment

et al. 2020

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1. Human activities modify the disturbance regimes of tropical forests. Since tropical forests host high biological diversity, understanding the role of biodiversity in ecosystem recovery pathways and the underlying ecological mechanisms is crucial to predict the fate of tropical ecosystems. Studies relying on regularly censused forest plots, rarely include disturbed forests, are not long enough to assess longterm forest dynamics and often lack repeatability.2. We used an individual-based model of tropical forest growth to assess the effect of species and functional diversity on long-term ecosystem recovery from disturbance. We manipulated the number of species and functional assemblages across a large number of simulations and simulated different levels of disturbance. To investigate the ecological mechanisms that underlie the effect of biodiversity on forest functioning along recovery pathways, we partitioned the net effect of biodiversity on ecosystem properties into complementarity and selection effects over time.3. We found that functional diversity improved tropical forest resilience after a disturbance. The complementarity effect dominated soon after the disturbance but was progressively surpassed by a selection effect as more competitive species dominated the forest community. This pattern increased with the intensity of the disturbance. Synthesis.We found that the mechanisms through which biodiversity influences forest functioning depend on the ecosystem state, shifting from a dominant complementarity effect in recently disturbed systems to a selection effect in systems disturbed a long time ago. Our results thus suggest that the time since the last disturbance is a key to understanding biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships in tropical forests and can help reconcile previous contrasting results obtained with snapshots of ecosystem state in empirical studies. 832 | biodiversity-ecosystem functioning, complementarity effect, disturbance, individual-based model, recovery, selection effect, simulation | 833 Journal of Ecology SCHMITT eT al.

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“…The tremendous biological and functional diversity found in tropical forest plant communities challenges the development of a robust theoretical framework that includes both the drivers of drought resistance and the conditions under which drought‐induced vegetation responses occur. For example, the vulnerability to drought‐induced mortality varies significantly among different species (Esquivel‐Muelbert et al, ), functional groups (Aleixo et al, ) and life forms (Nepstad, Tohver, David, Moutinho, & Cardinot, ). Interspecific differences in drought resistance can be attributed to properties of the trees water transporting tissue, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wood allocation trade‐offs between fiber wall, fiber lumen, and axial parenchyma drive drought resistance in neotropical trees

Janßen

Hölttä

Fleischer

et al. 2020

Plant Cell & Environment

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Functional relationships between wood density and measures of xylem hydraulic safety and efficiency are ambiguous, especially in wet tropical forests. In this meta‐analysis, we move beyond wood density per se and identify relationships between xylem allocated to fibers, parenchyma, and vessels and measures of hydraulic safety and efficiency. We analyzed published data of xylem traits, hydraulic properties and measures of drought resistance from neotropical tree species retrieved from 346 sources. We found that xylem volume allocation to fiber walls increases embolism resistance, but at the expense of specific conductivity and sapwood capacitance. Xylem volume investment in fiber lumen increases capacitance, while investment in axial parenchyma is associated with higher specific conductivity. Dominant tree taxa from wet forests prioritize xylem allocation to axial parenchyma at the expense of fiber walls, resulting in a low embolism resistance for a given wood density and a high vulnerability to drought‐induced mortality. We conclude that strong trade‐offs between xylem allocation to fiber walls, fiber lumen, and axial parenchyma drive drought resistance in neotropical trees. Moreover, the benefits of xylem allocation to axial parenchyma in wet tropical trees might not outweigh the consequential low embolism resistance under more frequent and severe droughts in a changing climate.

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Amazonian rainforest tree mortality driven by climate and functional traits

Cited by 172 publications

References 65 publications

Diversity, distribution and dynamics of large trees across an old-growth lowland tropical rain forest landscape

Diversity, distribution and dynamics of large trees across an old-growth lowland tropical rain forest landscape

Functional diversity improves tropical forest resilience: Insights from a long‐term virtual experiment

Wood allocation trade‐offs between fiber wall, fiber lumen, and axial parenchyma drive drought resistance in neotropical trees

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