Functional traits that moderate tropical tree recruitment during post‐windstorm secondary succession

Lai, Hao Ran; Chong, Kwek Yan; Yee, Alex T. K.; Tan, Hugh Tiang Wah; Breugel, Michiel van

doi:10.1111/1365-2745.13347

Cited by 16 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 79 publications

(94 reference statements)

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“…It has been suggested and observed that increases in light due to canopy defoliation would promote colonization and growth of early-successional species (Myster and Walker 1997, Comita et al 2009, Hogan et al 2018, Lai et al 2020. We can support these findings post-Hurricane Maria where we saw increases in the dominance and percentage of early-successional species across all three elevations, individually, and in the forest as a whole (Appendix S1: Table S1).…”

Section: Forest Recovery: Alpha Diversitysupporting

confidence: 83%

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Site‐specific impacts of a major hurricane on alpha and beta diversity in tropical forest seedling communities

et al. 2021

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Section: Forest Recovery: Alpha Diversitysupporting

confidence: 83%

“…2018, Lai et al. 2020). We can support these findings post‐Hurricane Maria where we saw increases in the dominance and percentage of early‐successional species across all three elevations, individually, and in the forest as a whole (Appendix : Table S1).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Site‐specific impacts of a major hurricane on alpha and beta diversity in tropical forest seedling communities

et al. 2021

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“…To have a realistic initial neighbourhood composition, we used a joint species distribution model published from the same study site (Lai et al 2020) to predict the recruitment of each focal species in a given plot under 100% canopy openness and other environmental variables (i.e. leaf litter depth, soil nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and forest type) at their averages in the first census since wind disturbance.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We specifically compared ‘low’, ‘median’, and ‘high’ initial recruitment scenarios, which correspond to the 5th, 50th, and 95th percentiles of predicted recruitments. Because the Lai et al (2020) model also predicts that recruitment of other non-focal species would constitute roughly half (50.9%) of the total recruitment across species in a plot, we replaced these non-focal recruits with our focal recruits by doubling the predicted focal recruitments to obtain the focal species’ initial abundances; this resulted in 16, 26, and 46 initial stems for the ‘low’, ‘median’, and ‘high’ initial recruitment scenarios, respectively (Table S2). We assumed all recruits begin at 1-cm DBH and then used parameters inferred from both the ‘direct-interaction-only’ model (Equation 5) and the ‘HOI-inclusive’ model (Equation 6) to simulate individual diameter growth of focal species under the three recruitment scenarios at daily timesteps over two years—the time taken for canopy closure in our study site (Yee et al 2019).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To have a realistic initial neighbourhood composition, we used a joint species distribution model previously published from the same study site (Lai et al 2020) to predict the recruitment of each focal species in a given plot under fully-open canopy and other environmental variables at their averages in the first census since wind disturbance. We specifically compared 'low', 'median', and 'high' initial recruitment scenarios, which correspond to the 5th, 50th, and 95th percentiles of predicted recruitments.…”

Section: Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Non-additive biotic interactions improve predictions of tropical tree growth and impact community size structure

Lai

Chong

Yee

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Growth in individual size or biomass is a key demographic component in population models, with wide-ranging applications from quantifying species performance across abiotic or biotic conditions to assessing landscape-level dynamics under global change. In forest ecology, the responses of tree growth to biotic interactions are widely held to be crucial for understanding forest diversity, function, and structure. To date, most studies on plant–plant interaction only examine the direct competitive or facilitative interactions between species pairs; however, there is increasing evidence of indirect, higher-order interactions (HOIs) impacting species demographic rates. When HOIs are present, the dynamics of a multi-species community cannot be fully understood or accurately predicted solely from pairwise outcomes because of how additional species “interfere” with the direct, pairwise interactions. Such HOIs should be particularly prevalent where species show nonlinear functional responses to resource availability and resource-acquisition traits themselves are density dependent. With this in mind, we used data from a tropical secondary forest—a system that fulfills both of these conditions—to build a ontogenetic diameter-growth model for individuals across ten woody-plant species. We allowed both direct and indirect interactions within communities to influence the species-specific growth parameters in a generalized Lotka–Volterra model. Specifically, indirect interactions entered the model as higher-order quadratic terms, i.e. non-additive effects of conspecific and heterospecific neighbour size on the focal individual’s growth. For the whole community and for four out of ten focal species, the model that included HOIs had more statistical support than the model that included only direct interactions, despite the former containing a far greater number of parameters. HOIs had comparable effect sizes to direct interactions, and tend to further reduce the diameter growth rates of most species beyond what direct interactions had already reduced. In a simulation of successional stand dynamics, we show that such a further reduction in diameter growth by HOIs is important in reducing size asymmetry—and potentially less competitive exclusion due to shading—in a highly light-competitive forest. Our study highlights the potential role of higher-order interactions in stabilising communities in diverse forests.

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Tree recruitment is determined by stand structure and shade tolerance with uncertain role of climate and water relations

Käber

Meyer

Stillhard

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Tree regeneration is a key process for long‐term forest dynamics, determining changes in species composition and shaping successional trajectories. While tree regeneration is a highly stochastic process, tree regeneration studies often cover narrow environmental gradients only, focusing on specific forest types or species in distinct regions. Thus, the larger‐scale effects of temperature, water availability, and stand structure on tree regeneration are poorly understood. We investigated these effects in respect of tree recruitment (in‐growth) along wide environmental gradients using forest inventory data from Flanders (Belgium), northwestern Germany, and Switzerland covering more than 40 tree species. We employed generalized linear mixed models to capture the abundance of tree recruitment in response to basal area, stem density, shade casting ability of a forest stand as well as site‐specific degree‐day sum (temperature), water balance, and plant‐available water holding capacity. We grouped tree species to facilitate comparisons between species with different levels of tolerance to shade and drought. Basal area and shade casting ability of the overstory had generally a negative impact on tree recruitment, but the effects differed between levels of shade tolerance of tree recruitment in all study regions. Recruitment rates of very shade‐tolerant species were positively affected by shade casting ability. Stem density and summer warmth (degree‐day sum) had similar effects on all tree species and successional strategies. Water‐related variables revealed a high degree of uncertainty and did not allow for general conclusions. All variables had similar effects independent of the varying diameter thresholds for tree recruitment in the different data sets. Synthesis: Shade tolerance and stand structure are the main drivers of tree recruitment along wide environmental gradients in temperate forests. Higher temperature generally increases tree recruitment rates, but the role of water relations and drought tolerance remains uncertain for tree recruitment on cross‐regional scales.

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Functional traits that moderate tropical tree recruitment during post‐windstorm secondary succession

Abstract: 1. Understanding how functional traits moderate species' demographic responses along environmental gradients is a core pursuit in ecology, often to predict how | 1323

Cited by 16 publications

References 79 publications

Site‐specific impacts of a major hurricane on alpha and beta diversity in tropical forest seedling communities

Site‐specific impacts of a major hurricane on alpha and beta diversity in tropical forest seedling communities

Non-additive biotic interactions improve predictions of tropical tree growth and impact community size structure

Tree recruitment is determined by stand structure and shade tolerance with uncertain role of climate and water relations

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