Habitat Quality Differentiation and Consequences for Ecosystem Service Provision of an Amazonian Hyperdominant Tree Species

Abstract

Ecosystem services of Amazonian forests are disproportionally produced by a limited set of hyperdominant tree species. Yet the spatial variation in the delivery of ecosystem services by individual hyperdominant species across their distribution ranges and corresponding environmental gradients is poorly understood. Here, we use the concept of habitat quality to unravel the effect of environmental gradients on seed production and aboveground biomass (AGB) of the Brazil nut, one of Amazonia’s largest and most long-lived hyperdominants. We find that a range of climate and soil gradients create trade-offs between density and fitness of Brazil nut trees. Density responses to environmental gradients were in line with predictions under the Janzen–Connell and Herms–Mattson hypotheses, whereas tree fitness responses were in line with resource requirements of trees over their life cycle. These trade-offs resulted in divergent responses in area-based seed production and AGB. While seed production and AGB of individual trees (i.e., fitness) responded similarly to most environmental gradients, they showed opposite tendencies to tree density for almost half of the gradients. However, for gradients creating opposite fitness-density responses, area-based seed production was invariable, while trends in area-based AGB tended to mirror the response of tree density. We conclude that while the relation between environmental gradients and tree density is generally indicative of the response of AGB accumulation in a given area of forest, this is not necessarily the case for fruit production.

Conservation of Tree Biodiversity and Sustainable Forest Management

“…Thompson et al 2012 also indicate that spatial planning for biodiversity conservation objectives in tropical and sub-tropical forests needs to be more area-specific than for carbon management, given the uniqueness of some species assemblages. In addition, research findings focused on Brazil nut (Thomas et al 2018;Thomas et al 2021) revealed that both fine-scale structuring and environmental gradients across the distribution range of hyperdominant trees species -which contribute most to ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and production of nuts -influence the quantity of ecosystem services delivered. Novel forest ecosystems were observed, but it is not clear whether they will be able to sustain the provision of ecosystem goods and services in the future (Thompson et al 2012).…”

“…This indicates that the local knowledge that guides Brazil nut extraction and keeps it within sustainability levels is robust, and that productivity estimates could be entrusted to harvesters, since taking actual measurements is very expensive and labour-intensive (ibid.). Two other research papers demonstrate the value of productivity data collected from local harvesters for testing complex hypotheses, including fine-scale processes that shape the provision of ecosystem services (Thomas et al 2018;Thomas et al 2021), such as the distance from individuals of the same species and density-dependence mechanisms that seem to regulate the spatial distribution of tree diversity in natural forests (Thomas et al 2018).…”

Evaluating Spatiotemporal Patterns and Integrated Driving Forces of Habitat Quality in the Northern Sand-Prevention Belt of China

“…Habitat quality is generally defined as the potential of ecosystems to provide suitable conditions for biological conservation, which has fundamental importance to biodiversity maintenance and ecosystem service functions [1][2][3]. Over the decades, land use changes have dramatically affected habitat quality [4].…”

Response of temperate forest ecosystem services to rainfall: A case study in the forest nature reserves of northern China

“…In water-scarce temperate drylands, more attention has been paid to the dynamic interactions between rainfall and vegetation coverage and the ESs they provide (Wang et al, 2011;Rohatyn et al, 2018;Wang H. et al, 2022). In areas with abundant hydrothermal conditions, studies have revealed the effects of forest supply and support services on precipitation gradients (Alamgir et al, 2016;Thomas et al, 2021). In addition, the influence of temporal variation in precipitation on forest ESs is also one of the hotspots, e.g., the effects of inter-annual and intra-annual temporal dynamics of precipitation on forest area and regulation services (soil erosion, nutrient retention and etc.)…”