Neighborhood Analyses Of Canopy Tree Competition Along Environmental Gradients In New England Forests

Canham, Charles D.; Papaik, Michael J.; Uriarte, María; McWilliams, William H.; Jenkins, Jennifer C.; Twery, Mark J.

doi:10.1890/1051-0761(2006)016[0540:naoctc]2.0.co;2

Cited by 251 publications

(320 citation statements)

References 55 publications

(80 reference statements)

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“…It is well known that not all species of competitors have equivalent effects on a target species [44,45]. Speciesspecific differences in competitive effects have been found in many neighbourhood analyses [44,46 -49].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic relatedness as a tool in restoration ecology: a meta-analysis

2011

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Biotic interactions assembling plant communities can be positive (facilitation) or negative (competition) and operate simultaneously. Facilitative interactions and posterior competition are among the mechanisms triggering succession, thus representing a good scenario for ecological restoration. As distantly related species tend to have different phenotypes, and therefore different ecological requirements, they can coexist, maximizing facilitation and minimizing competition. We suggest including phylogenetic relatedness together with phenotypic information as a predictor for the net effects of the balance between facilitation and competition in nurse-based restoration experiments. We quantify, by means of a Bayesian meta-analysis of nurse-based restoration experiments performed worldwide, the importance of phylogenetic relatedness and life-form disparity in the survival, growth and density of facilitated plants. We find that the more similar the life forms of neighbouring plants are the greater the positive effect of phylogenetic distance is on survival and density. This result suggests that other characteristics beyond life form are also contained in the phylogeny, and the larger the phylogenetic distance, the less is the niche overlap, and therefore the less is the competition. As a general rule, we can maximize the success of the nurse-based practices by increasing life-form disparity and phylogenetic distances between the neighbour and the facilitated plant.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic relatedness as a tool in restoration ecology: a meta-analysis

2011

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“…To examine the link between competition and traits, we used a neighbourhood modelling framework 8,29 to model the growth of a focal tree of species (f) as a product of its maximum growth (determined by its traits and size) together with reductions due to competition from individuals growing in the local neighbourhood (see definition below). Specifically, we assumed a relationship of the form , data set (s) and census (t).…”

Section: Model and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant functional traits have globally consistent effects on competition

Künstler

Falster

Coomes

et al. 2015

Nature

752

728

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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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“…Like other measures of competition intensity, this index does, however, not take into account that species often differ in their competitive abilities. For most of the investigated mixed forest stands, interspecific competition between different tree species has been reported to be asymmetric (Yoshida and Kamitani 2000;Canham et al 2004Canham et al , 2006. Niche complementarity can reduce the intensity of interspecific competition in comparison with intraspecific competition (Kelty 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

δ13C signature of tree rings and radial increment of Fagus sylvatica trees as dependent on tree neighborhood and climate

Mölder

Leuschner

2010

Trees

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We conducted dendroecological analyses in 80-year-long tree ring chronologies to detect neighborhood effects (competition intensity, species identity) on the d 13 C signature of tree rings and radial stem increment of Fagus sylvatica trees growing either in monospecific or mixed patches of a temperate forest. We hypothesized that tree ring d 13 C is a more sensitive indicator of neighborhood effects and the impact of climate variability on growth than is ring width. We found a closer correlation of summer precipitation to d 13 C than to ring width. While the ring width showed a decline over the test period , the mean curve of d 13 C increased until the mid of the 1970s, remained high until about 1990, and markedly decreased thereafter. Possible explanations related to ontogeny and environmental change ('age effect' due to canopy closure; elevated atmospheric SO 2 concentrations in the 1960s-1980s) are discussed. Beech target trees surrounded by many allospecific trees had a significantly lower mean d 13 C in the period 1926-1975 than beech with predominantly or exclusively conspecific neighborhood, possibly indicating a more favorable water supply of beech in diverse stands. Contrary to expectation, trees subject to more intense competition by neighboring trees (measured by Hegyi's competition index) had lower d 13 C values in their tree rings, which is thought to reflect denser canopies being linked to increased shading. We conclude that tree ring d 13 C time series represent combined archives of climate variability, stand history and neighborhood effects on tree physiology and growth that may add valuable information to that obtained from conventional tree ring analysis.

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Neighborhood Analyses Of Canopy Tree Competition Along Environmental Gradients In New England Forests

Cited by 251 publications

References 55 publications

Phylogenetic relatedness as a tool in restoration ecology: a meta-analysis

Phylogenetic relatedness as a tool in restoration ecology: a meta-analysis

Plant functional traits have globally consistent effects on competition

δ13C signature of tree rings and radial increment of Fagus sylvatica trees as dependent on tree neighborhood and climate

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