The effect of soil on the growth performance of tropical species with contrasting distributions

Brenes-Arguedas, Tania; Ríos, Marcos; Rivas‐Torres, Gonzalo; Blundo, Cecilia; Coley, Phyllis D.; Kursar, Thomas A.

doi:10.1111/j.0030-1299.2008.16903.x

Cited by 27 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…; Brenes‐Arguedas et al . , ; Brenes‐Arguedas, Coley & Kursar ), support the idea that increasing dry season length towards the Pacific contributes strongly to plant species turnover by filtering out species without adaptations to drought. This implies that floristic responses to climate change may be sudden if critical thresholds in water availability are altered.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

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Strong congruence in tree and fern community turnover in response to soils and climate in central Panama

et al. 2013

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Summary1. Plant species turnover in central Panamanian forests has been principally attributed to the effects of dispersal limitation and a strong Caribbean to Pacific gradient in rainfall seasonality. Despite marked geological heterogeneity, the role of soil variation has not been rigorously examined. 2. We modelled the compositional turnover of trees and ferns in the Panama Canal watershed as a function of soil chemistry, climate and geographical separation, using generalized dissimilarity models (GDMs). 3. Predictability in both plant groups was strong, with 74% of turnover explained in trees and 49% in ferns. Major trends in the two plant groups were strikingly similar. The independent effects of soils, and of climate for trees, were sizeable, but those of geographical distance were minor. In both plant groups, distance and climatic effects on species turnover covaried strongly. 4. Including floristic dissimilarity of the other taxon as a predictor increased explained deviance to 81% in trees and 59% in ferns. Controlling for differences in plant density among plots reduced deviance explained by climate and distance, while soil effects remained strong. Limiting the analyses to soils of volcanic origin increased deviance explained by climate, soils and distance, but their effects covaried strongly. Independent soil effects on tree turnover were reduced, but their effects on fern turnover remained pronounced. 5. Dry season length was the most important climatic predictor for both taxa, and P and pH were the most important soil predictors. Particularly, rapid species turnover was associated with the driest end of the seasonality gradient, linked to declining individual densities and species richness, and with the low end of the phosphorus gradient. 6. Synthesis. While changes in rainfall and seasonality undoubtedly limit plant distributions in this region, soil effects are at least as important, and interactions between the two are sizeable. This is likely to hold elsewhere in the Caribbean region, where mosaics of marine and volcanic soils combined with pronounced rainfall gradients are common. Strong congruence between our focal taxa suggests that our results can be extrapolated to other plant groups, particularly as trees and ferns are distantly related and represent different life-forms.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

“…Brenes‐Arguedas et al . ). Lower rainfall sites are not necessarily more fertile than sites with higher rainfall.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Strong congruence in tree and fern community turnover in response to soils and climate in central Panama

et al. 2013

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“…Other studies have shown that low-nutrient soil specialists have conservative functional trait values, but do not necessarily show home-soil performance advantages (Palmiotto et al 2004, Baltzer et al 2005, Russo et al 2005, Brenes-Arguedas et al 2008. Overall, seedling performance differed between naturally occurring and locally absent species, but the strength and direction of that difference depended on site.…”

Section: Species Distribution In Relation To Seedling Performancementioning

confidence: 79%

Seedling performance trade‐offs influencing habitat filtering along a soil nutrient gradient in a tropical forest

Andersen

Turner

Dalling

2014

Ecology

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Recent studies have provided evidence that trade-offs in biomass allocation, resource-use efficiency, and anti-herbivore defense influence seedling performance and distribution across soil types. Our previous research suggested that soil nutrient availability acted as a filter for understory palm community assembly and species coexistence in a lower montane forest in western Panama. Here, we experimentally tested three potential mechanisms that could be driving this filtering of palm communities along a soil nutrient gradient. We examined seedling performance of 13 understory palm taxa with differing distribution patterns transplanted to five sites, where they were both exposed to and protected from herbivores. We found the strongest evidence for habitat filtering at the lowest-nutrient site, where seedlings of locally occurring species had significant performance advantages over those of locally absent species, regardless of protection from herbivores. When transplanted to the lowest-nutrient site, seedlings of naturally occurring species maintained high above-to belowground biomass ratios, maximized photosynthetic nitrogen-use efficiency, and minimized leaf area loss to herbivores and pathogens. Species from low-fertility sites were therefore able to maintain higher survival and relative growth rates (RGR) at the lowest-nutrient site than species from more fertile sites. Similar patterns were found for a high-nutrient site, where naturally occurring species had higher RGR compared to species from lower-fertility sites. However, the functional traits associated with the differences in performance at high-nutrient sites were less clear, perhaps due to increased light limitation in the understory of these sites. At highernutrient sites, protection from herbivores significantly reduced leaf area damage and mortality rates in seedlings, particularly for naturally occurring species. Overall, morphological and physiological traits were more strongly coupled with soil nutrient availability than were leaf damage or seedling performance across the sites. Nonetheless, the coordination of all three trade-offs was related to the strongest performance advantage and, therefore, ecological filtering along the soil nutrient gradient in this lower montane forest.

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“…2). This was true even when controlling for light variation (T. Brenes-Arguedas, P. D. Coley, and T. A. Kursar, unpublished data) and soil quality (Brenes-Arguedas et al 2008b). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…In the wet site, seedling growth was generally lower, partly due to lower soil quality (Brenes-Arguedas et al 2008b) and to lower understory light (T. BrenesArguedas, P. D. Coley, and T. A. Kursar, unpublished data). Mortality was also higher, mostly due to pathogen attack.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pests vs. drought as determinants of plant distribution along a tropical rainfall gradient

Brenes-Arguedas

Coley

Kursar

2009

Ecology

Self Cite

121

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Abstract. Understanding the mechanisms that shape the distribution of organisms can help explain patterns of local and regional biodiversity and predict the susceptibility of communities to environmental change. In the species-rich tropics, a gradient in rainfall between wet evergreen and dry seasonal forests correlates with turnover of plant species. The strength of the dry season has previously been shown to correlate with species composition. Herbivores and pathogens (pests) have also been hypothesized to be important drivers of plant distribution, although empirical evidence is lacking. In this study we experimentally tested the existence of a gradient in pest pressure across a rainfall gradient in the Isthmus of Panama and measured the influence of pests relative to drought on species turnover. We established two common gardens on the dry and wet sides of the Isthmus using seedlings from 24 plant species with contrasting distributions along the Isthmus. By experimentally manipulating water availability and insect herbivore access, we showed that pests are not as strong a determinant of plant distributions as is seasonal drought. Seasonal drought in the dry site excluded wetdistribution species by significantly increasing their seedling mortality. Pathogen mortality and insect herbivore damage were both higher in the wet site, supporting the existence of a gradient in pest pressure. However, contrary to predictions, we found little evidence that drydistribution species suffered significantly more pest attack than wet-distribution species. Instead, we hypothesize that dry-distribution species are limited from colonizing wetter forests by their inherently slower growth rates imposed by drought adaptations. We conclude that mechanisms limiting the recruitment of dry-distribution species in wet forests are not nearly as strong as those limiting wet-distribution species from dry forests.

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The effect of soil on the growth performance of tropical species with contrasting distributions

Cited by 27 publications

References 31 publications

Strong congruence in tree and fern community turnover in response to soils and climate in central Panama

Strong congruence in tree and fern community turnover in response to soils and climate in central Panama

Seedling performance trade‐offs influencing habitat filtering along a soil nutrient gradient in a tropical forest

Pests vs. drought as determinants of plant distribution along a tropical rainfall gradient

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