Soil‐related habitat specialization in dipterocarp rain forest tree species in Borneo

Abstract

Summary 1We conducted a field experiment to test whether aggregated spatial distributions were related to soil variation in locally sympatric tree species in the rain forests of Sarawak, Malaysia. Dryobalanops aromatica , Shorea laxa , and Swintonia schwenkii are naturally aggregated on low-fertility humult ultisols, Dryobalanops lanceolata and Hopea dryobalanoides on moderate-fertility udult ultisols and Shorea balanocarpoides is found on both soil types. 2 Seedlings of all six species were grown in a nested-factorial experiment for 20 months in humult and udult soils in gaps and in the understorey to test for soil-specific differences in performance. Phosphorus addition was used to test for effects due to P-limitation. 3 Four species showed significantly higher growth on their natural soils, but one humultsoil species ( D. aromatica ) and the broadly distributed species were not significantly affected by soil type. 4 One udult-soil species, D. lanceolata , had both lower relative growth rate and lower mycorrhizal colonization on humult soil. However, humult soils also had lower levels of Ca, Mg, K, N and probably water availability. 5 The overall ranking of growth rates among species was similar on the two soils. Growth rates were strongly positively correlated with leaf area ratio and specific leaf area among species in both soils. With the exception of D. aromatica , species of the higher-nutrient soils had higher growth rates on both soils. 6 Although P addition led to elevated soil-P concentrations, elevated root-and leaf-tissue P concentrations on both soils, there was no significant growth enhancement and therefore no evidence that P availability limits the growth or constrains the distribution of any of the six species in the field. Differences in soil water availability between soils may be more important. 7 Our results suggest that habitat-mediated differences in seedling performance strongly influence the spatial distributions of tropical trees and are therefore likely to play a key role in structuring tropical rain forest communities.

Phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation favor range expansion of a Neotropical palm

“…The spatial patterns of plants in tropical forests are created by a combination of environmental gradients, ecological drift, dispersal limitations, barriers allowing vicariance and dispersal events, and stable climate, which drive evolutionary processes over millions of years (Chave, 2004; Davis, Shaw, & Etterson, 2005; Dexter, Terborgh, & Cunningham, 2012; Schemske, 2002; Usinowicz et al., 2017). A narrow range distribution is typically accompanied by habitat specialization in tropical trees, in response to factors such as local environmental conditions, ecological interactions (Fine, Mesones, & Coley, 2004), and local resource availability (Condit, Engelbrecht, Pino, Perez, & Turner, 2013; Palmiotto et al., 2004; Svenning, 1999). Despite high levels of endemism in tropical forests, many species have a wide geographic distribution and can grow and reproduce in habitats with contrasting ecological conditions (Dick & Heuertz, 2008; Pennington & Lavin, 2016).…”

Estrutura demográfica e padrão espacial de uma população natural de Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze (araucariaceae), na Reserva Genética Florestal de Caçador, Estado de Santa Catarina

“…O estudo do padrão espacial, além de ser o primeiro passo para espécies que não tenham estudos detalhados, permite gerar hipóteses sobre processos que dão origem a determinado padrão (DALE, 1999). Um padrão pode ser resposta à heterogeneidade ambiental, interações intra e interespecíficas, como competição e predação, dispersão, crescimento, senescência, mortalidade e reprodução (JANZEN, 1970;BAROT et al, 1999;DALE, 1999;PERRY et al, 2002;AIBA et al, 2004;PALMIOTTO et al, 2004;STOLL e BERGIUS, 2005;RODRIGUES et al, 2007).…”

Soil nutrients influence spatial distributions of tropical tree species

“…Although the importance of edaphic factors in maintaining local diversity has long been recognized (29,30), a thorough, quantitative assessment of the importance of soil resources on tropical tree distributions for entire communities has not been undertaken. Typically, studies have either focused on a small fraction of the tree species in any community (31)(32)(33) or related community-wide tree species distributions to topographical variables whose relationships with underlying soil resources are unknown (28,34,35). To test relationships between species distributions and soil resource availability, soil resources and species distributions need to be mapped at high spatial resolution for entire communities in plots large enough to span substantial spatial heterogeneity in soil factors.…”