Species Asynchrony and Large Trees Jointly Drive Community Stability in a Montane Subtropical Forest

Community structure and species diversity dynamics of a subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest in China: 2005 to 2020

“…5 ). This finding suggests that the death of these individuals was mainly due to significant interference, including extreme weather disturbances such as freezing disasters and typhoons ( Yuan et al., 2021 ; Zhou et al., 2022 ). In addition, previous studies also found that any competition inducing tree death occurred more frequently in intraspecific rather than interspecific associations, and that most individual deaths were caused by intraspecific competition and exclusion ( Shen et al., 2013 ).…”

“…Previous studies have shown that renewal dynamics of major tree species in forests play an important role in stabilizing or changing community structure and function ( Condit et al., 1998 ). Recent studies have also found that species asynchrony and large trees jointly drive community stability in a montane subtropical forest ( Zhou et al., 2022 ). In temperate forests, an important explanation of the function of forest ecosystems (e.g.…”

“…These studies have shown that subtropical forests are not composed of stable and unchanging communities, as previously thought; instead, the community structure of these forests changes dynamically over time and space ( Condit et al., 1999 ; Neumann et al., 2012 ; Chisholm et al., 2014 ; Wiegand et al., 2017 ; Hedl and Chudomelova, 2020 ). Over long time-scales, dramatic changes in forest composition associated with climatic shifts are conspicuous ( Piperno and Becker, 1996 ; Condit et al., 2017 ; Lobel et al., 2018 ; Zhou et al., 2022 ). However, climatic shifts have also been well documented at much shorter time-scales ( Condit et al., 1999 ).…”