Functional traits shape ontogenetic growth trajectories of rain forest tree species

Hérault, Bruno; Bachelot, Bénédicte; Poorter, Lourens; Rossi, Vivien; Bongers, Frans; Chave, Jérôme; Paine, C. E. Timothy; Wagner, Fabien; Baraloto, Christopher

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2745.2011.01883.x

Cited by 191 publications

(255 citation statements)

References 55 publications

(69 reference statements)

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“…We confirmed that the vigor index is negatively related to mortality: trees that grow more than expected have a lower probability of dying, and trees with lower-thanexpected growth have a higher probability of dying. Moreover, the posterior values for obtained the functional trait parameters are coherent with results of Hérault et al (2011) and Aubry-Kientz et al (2013), increasing our confidence in (i) the developed algorithm and (ii) the biological determinism of the ecological processes we want to model. This confirms that the functional trait-based approach could be successfully used to predict climate-induced tree dynamics in highly diverse tropical forests for which taxonomic data may be lacking but functional trait data are available.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…Life-history strategies describe how trees allocate resources to different organs and how these allocations translate into a species' ability to compete for resources and finally to grow, survive, reproduce and disperse (Rüger et al, 2012). Some of these functional traits are accurate proxies of growth trajectories (Herault et al, 2010;Hérault et al, 2011) and mortality rates .…”

Section: Functional Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Identifying climatic drivers of tropical forest dynamics

et al. 2015

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Abstract. In the context of climate change, identifying and then predicting the impacts of climatic drivers on tropical forest dynamics is becoming a matter of urgency. To look at these climate impacts, we used a coupled model of tropical tree growth and mortality, calibrated with forest dynamic data from the 20-year study site of Paracou, French Guiana, in order to introduce and test a set of climatic variables. Three major climatic drivers were identified through the variable selection procedure: drought, water saturation and temperature. Drought decreased annual growth and mortality rates, high precipitation increased mortality rates and high temperature decreased growth. Interactions between key functional traits, stature and climatic variables were investigated, showing best resistance to drought for trees with high wood density and for trees with small current diameters. Our results highlighted strong long-term impacts of climate variables on tropical forest dynamics, suggesting potential deep impacts of climate changes during the next century.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Functional Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying climatic drivers of tropical forest dynamics

et al. 2015

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“…2, β 1 ). The link between traits and average survival is not surprising given that the traits that we studied are closely associated with resource acquisition, storage, and defense (32,33,35,(39)(40)(41). Among the traits considered, WSG was the strongest predictor of species average survival, independent of variation in neighborhood crowding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Trait-mediated assembly processes predict successional changes in community diversity of tropical forests

Lasky

Uriarte

Boukili

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

180

269

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Interspecific differences in relative fitness can cause local dominance by a single species. However, stabilizing interspecific niche differences can promote local diversity. Understanding these mechanisms requires that we simultaneously quantify their effects on demography and link these effects to community dynamics. Successional forests are ideal systems for testing assembly theory because they exhibit rapid community assembly. Here, we leverage functional trait and long-term demographic data to build spatially explicit models of successional community dynamics of lowland rainforests in Costa Rica. First, we ask what the effects and relative importance of four trait-mediated community assembly processes are on tree survival, a major component of fitness. We model trait correlations with relative fitness differences that are both density-independent and -dependent in addition to trait correlations with stabilizing niche differences. Second, we ask how the relative importance of these trait-mediated processes relates to successional changes in functional diversity. Tree dynamics were more strongly influenced by trait-related interspecific variation in average survival than trait-related responses to neighbors, with wood specific gravity (WSG) positively correlated with greater survival. Our findings also suggest that competition was mediated by stabilizing niche differences associated with specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf dry matter content (LDMC). These drivers of individual-level survival were reflected in successional shifts to higher SLA and LDMC diversity but lower WSG diversity. Our study makes significant advances to identifying the links between individual tree performance, species functional traits, and mechanisms of tropical forest succession.community turnover | hierarchical Bayes | individual variation | secondary forest | species interactions Q uantifying the relative importance of mechanisms that drive community assembly remains a central challenge in ecology. Interspecific variation in ecological strategies is considered a major driver of community assembly and has been classified by Chesson (1) into relative fitness (i.e., per capita population growth rate) differences and stabilizing niche differences (2). These processes act concurrently, and their importance may vary over space and time (3). However, the simultaneous effects of different assembly mechanisms on community dynamics have not been wellcharacterized, particularly in diverse communities such as tropical forests. High dynamism of vegetation composition during tropical forest succession creates an ideal opportunity to investigate the drivers of community assembly.Interspecific niche and fitness differences can be characterized through the lens of interspecific functional trait variation, an approach that can shed light on drivers of community functional composition and dynamics (2, 4, 5). Traits may mediate niche and fitness differences in at least four ways (Fig. 1). First, interspecific trait variation can be correlated with fitnes...

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“…The data sets collated fell into two broad categories: (1) national forest inventories (NFI), in which trees above a given diameter were sampled in a network of small plots (often on a regular grid) covering the country (references for NFI data used [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] ); (2) large permanent plots (LPP) ranging in size from 0.5 to 50 ha, in which the x-y coordinates of all trees above a given diameter were recorded (references for LPP data used refs [49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56]. LPP were mostly located in tropical regions.…”

Section: Model and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant functional traits have globally consistent effects on competition

Künstler

Falster

Coomes

et al. 2015

Nature

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Phenotypic traits and their associated trade-offs have been shown to have globally consistent effects on individual plant physiological functions 1-3 , but how these effects scale up to influence competition, a key driver of community assembly in terrestrial vegetation, has remained unclear 4 . Here we use growth data from more than 3 million trees in over 140,000 plots across the world to show how three key functional traits-wood density, specific leaf area and maximum height-consistently influence competitive interactions. Fast maximum growth of a species was correlated negatively with its wood density in all biomes, and positively with its specific leaf area in most biomes. Low wood density was also correlated with a low ability to tolerate competition and a low competitive effect on neighbours, while high specific leaf area was correlated with a low competitive effect. Thus, traits generate trade-offs between performance with competition versus performance without competition, a fundamental ingredient in the classical hypothesis that the coexistence of plant species is enabled via differentiation in their successional strategies 5 . Competition within species was stronger than between species, but an increase in trait dissimilarity between species had little influence in weakening competition. No benefit of dissimilarity was detected for specific leaf area or wood density, and only a weak benefit for maximum height. Our traitbased approach to modelling competition makes generalization possible across the forest ecosystems of the world and their highly diverse species composition.Phenotypic traits are considered fundamental drivers of community assembly and thus species diversity 1,6 . The effects of traits on individual plant physiologies and functions are increasingly understood, and have been shown to be underpinned by well-known and globally consistent trade-offs 1-3 . For instance, traits such as wood density and specific leaf area capture trade-offs between the construction cost and longevity or strength of wood and leaf tissues 2,3 . By contrast, we still have a limited understanding of how such trait-based trade-offs translate into competitive interactions between species, particularly for long-lived organisms such as trees. Competition is a key filter through which ecological and evolutionary success is determined 4 . A long-standing hypothesis is that the intensity of competition decreases as two species diverge in trait values 7 (trait dissimilarity). The few studies [8][9][10][11][12][13] that have explored links between traits and competition have shown that linkages were more complex than this, as particular trait values may also confer competitive advantage independently from trait dissimilarity 9,13,14 . This distinction is fundamental for species coexistence and the local mixture of traits. If neighbourhood competition is driven mainly by trait dissimilarity, this will favour a wide spread of trait values at a local scale. By contrast, if neighbourhood interactions are mainly driven by the c...

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Functional traits shape ontogenetic growth trajectories of rain forest tree species

Cited by 191 publications

References 55 publications

Identifying climatic drivers of tropical forest dynamics

Identifying climatic drivers of tropical forest dynamics

Trait-mediated assembly processes predict successional changes in community diversity of tropical forests

Plant functional traits have globally consistent effects on competition

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