Traits and growth of liana regeneration in primary and secondary forests of Central Amazonia

Abstract

Question: Do traits of liana regeneration differ among secondary forest types of varying land‐use history and primary forest? Location: Eighty kilometers north of Manaus, Brazil. Methods: We compared plant functional traits and growth rates of liana regeneration (<1.7‐m length) among two secondary forest types and primary forest. Secondary forest types were: Vismia (on land formerly clear‐cut, used for pasture and intensively burned) and Cecropia (no pasture usage or intensive fires after clear‐cut). Results: A principal components analysis indicated that most of the primary forest species exhibited a similar habit and were characterized by short shoots and small, round leaves with low specific leaf area, whereas secondary forest species had a broad range of trait values. At the plot level, primary and secondary forest communities were separated mainly by plant length and leaf size. Plant size varied more within secondary than within primary forest plots. The two secondary forest types could not be separated based on the traits of liana regeneration. Relative growth rate (RGR) did not correlate significantly with any measured plant trait, except for a negative relation to initial length. RGR increased with decreasing canopy cover and was highest in Vismia forest plots. Conclusion: Plant functional traits of liana regeneration were more similar in the primary forest and differed substantially from secondary forests, yet canopy cover only partly explained the observed differences.

Functional traits behind the association between climbers and subordinate woody species

“…; Carrasco‐Urra & Gianoli ; Roeder et al. ), and there is also evidence pointing to a complementary role between tree/shrub species identity and trellis availability (Garbin et al. ).…”

“…Climbing strategies differ during succession, with a higher proportion of stem twiners present in early successional stages as compared to tendril climbers (Letcher & Chazdon ), but other traits, such as leaf size and plant length, may become important during succession (Roeder et al. ). Moreover, stem twiners are less favoured by the presence of trees with larger trunk diameter (Carrasco‐Urra & Gianoli ).…”

Abundance of liana species in an Amazonian forest of Brazil reflects neither adventitious root nor foliar sprout production

“…Vegetative propagation capacity may also be an important biological factor, because clonality increases the local abundance of individuals, especially after natural or anthropogenic disturbances (Ledo & Schnitzer 2014, Roeder et al . 2012). In many plant species, vegetative reproduction may have a greater effect on local and regional abundance than seed reproduction, and is thus considered an important predictor of species abundance (Herben et al .…”

“…Aspects of liana (woody climber) community structure that can be affected by natural or anthropogenic forest disturbance include the aggregation of individuals or age structuring in a liana community (Ledo & Schnitzer 2014, Roeder et al . 2012, Schnitzer et al . 2012).…”

Liana density declined and basal area increased over 12 y in a subtropical montane forest in Argentina

“…However, this does not mean that all liana species are shade-intolerant (Gianoli et al 2010), and in fact they appear to show different shade-tolerance levels (Gilbert et al 2006). It has been suggested that with the increase of disturbances, light-demanding liana species might benefit (Roeder et al 2012), while shade-tolerant species may decrease. In addition, a density increase of shade-tolerant species is expected when a decrease in disturbance occurs and the forest understorey becomes darker.…”