Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Spatial patterns reveal negative density dependence and habitat associations in tropical trees
AU - Bagchi, Robert
AU - Henrys, Peter A.
AU - Brown, Patrick E.
AU - Burslem, David F. R. P.
AU - Diggle, Peter J.
AU - Gunatilleke, C. V. Savitri
AU - Gunatilleke, I. A. U. Nimal
AU - Kassim, Abdul Rahman
AU - Law, Richard
AU - Noor, Supardi
AU - Valencia, Renato L.
PY - 2011/9
Y1 - 2011/9
N2 - Understanding how plant species coexist in tropical rainforests is one of the biggest challenges in community ecology. One prominent hypothesis suggests that rare species are at an advantage because trees have lower survival in areas of high conspecific density due to increased attack by natural enemies, a process known as negative density dependence (NDD). A consensus is emerging that NDD is important for plant-species coexistence in tropical forests. Most evidence comes from short-term studies, but testing the prediction that NDD decreases the spatial aggregation of tree populations provides a long-term perspective. While spatial distributions have provided only weak evidence for NDD so far, the opposing effects of environmental heterogeneity might have confounded previous analyses. Here we use a novel statistical technique to control for environmental heterogeneity while testing whether spatial aggregation decreases with tree size in four tropical forests. We provide evidence for NDD in 22% of the 139 tree species analyzed and show that environmental heterogeneity can obscure the spatial signal of NDD. Environmental heterogeneity contributed to aggregation in 84% of species. We conclude that both biotic interactions and environmental heterogeneity play crucial roles in shaping tree dynamics in tropical forests.
AB - Understanding how plant species coexist in tropical rainforests is one of the biggest challenges in community ecology. One prominent hypothesis suggests that rare species are at an advantage because trees have lower survival in areas of high conspecific density due to increased attack by natural enemies, a process known as negative density dependence (NDD). A consensus is emerging that NDD is important for plant-species coexistence in tropical forests. Most evidence comes from short-term studies, but testing the prediction that NDD decreases the spatial aggregation of tree populations provides a long-term perspective. While spatial distributions have provided only weak evidence for NDD so far, the opposing effects of environmental heterogeneity might have confounded previous analyses. Here we use a novel statistical technique to control for environmental heterogeneity while testing whether spatial aggregation decreases with tree size in four tropical forests. We provide evidence for NDD in 22% of the 139 tree species analyzed and show that environmental heterogeneity can obscure the spatial signal of NDD. Environmental heterogeneity contributed to aggregation in 84% of species. We conclude that both biotic interactions and environmental heterogeneity play crucial roles in shaping tree dynamics in tropical forests.
KW - environmental heterogeneity
KW - inhomogeneous K function
KW - Janzen-Connell hypothesis
KW - negative density dependence
KW - species coexistence
KW - tropical rain forest
KW - RAIN-FOREST
KW - SPECIES COEXISTENCE
KW - POINT-PROCESSES
KW - SOIL NUTRIENTS
KW - DIVERSITY
KW - RECRUITMENT
KW - DISTRIBUTIONS
KW - POPULATIONS
KW - MORTALITY
KW - INFERENCE
U2 - 10.1890/11-0335.1]
DO - 10.1890/11-0335.1]
M3 - Journal article
VL - 92
SP - 1723
EP - 1729
JO - Ecology
JF - Ecology
SN - 0012-9658
IS - 9
ER -