Functional traits behind the association between climbers and subordinate woody species

Garbin, Mário Luís; Sánchez‐Tapia, Andrea; Carrijo, Tatiana Tavares; Sansevero, Jerônimo Boelsums Barreto; Scarano, Fábio Rúbio

doi:10.1111/jvs.12140

Cited by 16 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…For instance, the LNC of dominant species increased in response to higher soil mineral N while that of subordinate/rare species decreased. Together, these results not only make a strong case that different components of the same plant community can be under the influence of contrasting environmental variables, but also support recent findings that environmental filters are the principal drivers of dominant species abundance while niche differentiation acts strongly on subordinate species (Maire et al 2012;Garbin et al 2013).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Plant assemblages do not respond homogenously to local variation in environmental conditions: functional responses differ with species identity and abundance

Kumordzi

Wardle

Freschet

2014

J Vegetation Science

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Questions We investigated some commonly held assumptions of community assembly theory needed to provide accurate predictions of changes in plant species assemblages across environmental gradients or following environmental change. Do (1) dominant and subordinate species respond in the same way to changes in environmental variables; (2) plant species assemblages show higher interspecific than intraspecific trait responses; and (3) co‐existing dominant species differ in their responses to the same environmental variables? Location Islands in Lakes Uddjaure and Hornavan, northern Sweden. Methods We explored the responses of forest understorey vegetation assemblages to variation in environmental resources across a chronosequence of 30 lake islands that differ in fire history, above‐ground and below‐ground resource availability and species diversity. For one plot on each island, we measured specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content and foliar N and P of all dominant and subordinate understorey plant species to assess species‐specific and weighted and non‐weighted community‐level trait responses to variation across islands in all major local environmental drivers. Results Consistent with our expectations, we found that species responses to environmental conditions were not homogenous within assemblages, and that responses of dominant and subordinate species differed. Further, intraspecific variation was often an important component of local‐scale plant community‐level responses. Responses were often relatively consistent across species, but dominant species sometimes showed contrasting responses of the same trait to the same environmental factor. Finally, environmental factors that influenced community average trait values also affected functional diversity. Conclusions This study has shown that several common assumptions that underpin community assembly theory do not necessarily hold, and this can cause inaccuracies in predicting plant functional composition responses to changes in environmental variables. Because these assumptions are central to current models that predict vegetation responses to environmental change, it is crucial to further test in which particular environmental context and to what extent these assumptions are critical for model accuracy.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Plant assemblages do not respond homogenously to local variation in environmental conditions: functional responses differ with species identity and abundance

Kumordzi

Wardle

Freschet

2014

J Vegetation Science

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“…It is known that species traits and abundance can both influence the mutualistic (Stang et al 2006(Stang et al , 2009V azquez et al 2009a,b;Chamberlain et al 2010;Gonz alez-Castro et al 2015;Olito & Fox 2015) and antagonistic interactions (Canard et al 2014). Despite that some tree species are more prone to carry lianas with some particular traits (Garbin et al 2014), our results do not give evidence of liana traits influencing liana-tree interaction. In fact, our results give support to the fact that lianas are opportunistic and tend to climb taller trees in their neighbourhood (Carrasco-Urra & Gianoli 2009;Sfair et al 2013Sfair et al , 2016Roeder et al 2015), which can be determinant on the structure of networks between both growth forms.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 65%

“…In spite of these negative effects, our results showed that the lianas traits are less important in predicting their occupation on a tree species than their abundance and, consequently, their contribution to nestedness. On the other hand, twiner lianas are found more frequently on larger trees (Carsten et al 2002) and tend to be more specialized than tendril ones (Garbin et al 2014). For example, lianas with tendrils tend to occupy mid-sized and small trees because these trees offer thinner branches that tendrils may easily encircle (Carsten et al 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, lianas with tendrils tend to occupy mid-sized and small trees because these trees offer thinner branches that tendrils may easily encircle (Carsten et al 2002). On the other hand, twiner lianas are found more frequently on larger trees (Carsten et al 2002) and tend to be more specialized than tendril ones (Garbin et al 2014). Despite the fact that structural features of lianas may influence their climbing on particular tree individuals, these features seem not to be associated with particular tree species; some tree species reside mainly in the understory, such as Psychotria capitata Ruiz & Pav (Rubiaceae), but generally the height of a tree varies with ontogeny.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, trees with spiny (Maier 1982) or exfoliating bark (Campanello et al 2007), pioneers and smaller trees (Clark & Clark 1990;Homeier et al 2010) are less prone to carry lianas. On the other hand, lianas dispersed by wind, with latex and twining-climbing strategies, are more prone to climb a particular species of shrub (Garbin et al 2014). In spite of the importance of these traits, recent studies showed that light can be the main factor influencing liana occupancy (Sfair et al 2013(Sfair et al , 2016.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Species traits and abundance influence the organization of liana–tree antagonistic interaction

et al. 2017

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The interaction among species can be influenced by neutral processes, in which more abundant species have high effect on the structure of interaction, or can be influenced by trait matching. Despite both variables (abundance and species traits) influencing the interaction of species in mutualistic networks, few studies showed their importance in antagonistic networks. Here, we posed the question: what are the main predictors of the liana-tree interactions: species abundance, biological traits or both? In a savanna woodland fragment in south-eastern Brazil, we sampled lianas and trees in 1 ha, where we recorded the abundance, maximum height and bark roughness of tree species, as well as abundance, maximum diameter and climbing system of liana species. For each species, we calculated their contribution to nestedness (n i ), which is a measure of network structure, and performed simple linear regressions between n i and abundance and species traits. Abundant species contribute more to n i than rare species, indicating that neutral processes affect interactions between lianas and trees, probably because lianas are opportunistic and climb trees in their neighbourhood. The only trait related to n i was tree height, which can indicate that light availability can have a considerable role on network structure between both growth forms. Therefore, the importance of species abundance and tree height can be related to opportunism of lianas on climbing the most suitable tree in their neighbourhood.

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Long‐term regeneration of a tropical plant community after sand mining

Garbin

Misaki

Ferreira

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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Sandy coastal plant communities in tropical regions have been historically under strong anthropic pressure. In Brazil, these systems shelter communities with highly plastic plant species. However, the potential of these systems to regenerate without human assistance after disturbances has hardly been examined. We determined the natural regeneration of a coastal sandy plain vegetation (restinga) in Brazil, 16 years after the end of sand removal. We inventoried 38 plots: 20 within a sand‐mined site and 18 in an adjacent undisturbed site. We expected lower diversity values in the sand‐mined site compared to the undisturbed site, but similar species composition between the two sites due to the spatial proximity of the two sites and the high plasticity of restinga species. Species were ranked using abundance and importance value index in both sites, and comparisons were performed using Rényi entropy profiles, rarefaction curves, principal component analysis, and redundancy analysis. Species composition and dominant species differed markedly between the two sites. Bromeliads and Clusia hilariana, well‐known nurse plants, dominated the undisturbed site but were almost absent in the regenerating site. Species richness did not differ between both sites, but diversity was higher in the undisturbed site. Within‐site composition differences in the mined area were associated with field characteristics. Interestingly, species classified as subordinate or rare in the undisturbed site became dominants in the regenerating site. These newer dominants in the sand‐mined site are not those known as nurse plants in other restingas, thus yielding strong implications for restoration.

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Functional traits behind the association between climbers and subordinate woody species

Abstract: NomenclatureLista de espé cies da Flora do Brasil (2012)

Cited by 16 publications

References 48 publications

Plant assemblages do not respond homogenously to local variation in environmental conditions: functional responses differ with species identity and abundance

Plant assemblages do not respond homogenously to local variation in environmental conditions: functional responses differ with species identity and abundance

Species traits and abundance influence the organization of liana–tree antagonistic interaction

Long‐term regeneration of a tropical plant community after sand mining

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