Patterns of woody plant species abundance and diversity in the seedling layer of a tropical forest

Journal of Vegetation Science

Volumn 18, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 163-174

  Comita, Liza S ^a   Aguilar, Salomón ^b   Pérez, Rolando ^b   Lao, Suzanne ^b   Hubbell, Stephen P ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA   (United States)

^b SMITHSONIAN TROPICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE   (Panama)

Author keywords

Advanced regeneration; Barro Colorado Island; Forest dynamics plot; Life history strategy; Recruitment limitation; Seedling bank; Shade tolerance

Indexed keywords

EID: 34548631471     PISSN: 11009233     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1658/1100-9233(2007)18[163:POWPSA]2.0.CO;2     Document Type: Article

References (58)

1. Anon. (R Development Core Team) 2005. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, R Development Core Team, Vienna, AT.
2. Antos, J.A., Guest, H.J. & Parish, R. 2005. The tree seedling bank in an ancient montane forest: stress tolerators in a productive habitat. J. Ecol. 93: 536-543.
3. Augspurger, C.K. 1984. Seedling survival of tropical tree species - interactions of dispersal distance, light-gaps, and pathogens. Ecology 65: 1705-1712.
4. Brokaw, N. & Busing, R.T. 2000. Niche versus chance and tree diversity in forest gaps. Trends Ecol. Evol. 15: 183-188.
5. Brokaw, N.V.L. & Scheiner, S.M. 1989. Species composition in gaps and structure of a tropical forest. Ecology 70: 538-541.
6. Condit, R. 1998. Tropical forest census plots. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, DE.
7. Condit, R., Hubbell, S.P. & Foster, R.B. 1995. Mortality rates of 205 neotropical tree and shrub species and the impact of a severe drought. Ecol. Monogr. 65: 419-439.
8. Condit, R., Hubbell, S.P. & Foster, R.B. 1996. Changes in tree species abundance in a neotropical forest: Impact of climate change. J. Trop. Ecol. 12: 231-256.
9. Condit, R., Ashton, P.S., Baker, P., Bunyavejchewin, S., Gunatilleke, S., Gunatilleke, N., Hubbell, S.P., Foster, R.B., Itoh, A., LaFrankie, J.V., Lee, H.S., Losos, E., Manokaran, N., Sukumar, R. & Yamakura, T. 2000. Spatial patterns in the distribution of tropical tree species. Science 288: 1414-1418.
10. Connell, J.H. 1989. Some processes affecting the species composition in forest gaps. Ecology 70: 560-562.
11. Connell, J.H., Tracey, J.G. & Webb, L.J. 1984. Compensatory recruitment, growth, and mortality as factors maintaining rain-forest tree diversity. Ecol. Monogr. 54: 141-164.
12. Correa, M.D.A., Galdames, C. & Stapt, M. 2004. Catálogo de las plantas vasculares de Panamá. Quebecor World Bogotá, S.A., Bogotá, CO.
13. Croat, T.B. 1978. Flora of Barro Colorado Island. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, US.
14. Dalling, J.W., Hubbell, S.P. & Silvera, K. 1998a. Seed dispersal, seedling establishment and gap partitioning among tropical pioneer trees. J. Ecol. 86: 674-689.
15. Dalling, J.W., Swaine, M.D. & Garwood, N.C. 1998b. Dispersal patterns and seed bank dynamics of pioneer trees in moist tropical forest. Ecology 79: 564-578.
16. Dalling, J.W., Muller-Landau, H.C., Wright, S.J. & Hubbell, S.P. 2002. Role of dispersal in the recruitment limitation of neotropical pioneer species. J. Ecol. 90: 714-727.
17. De Steven, D. 1994. Tropical tree seedling dynamics - recruitment patterns and their population consequences for 3 canopy species in Panama. J. Trop. Ecol. 10: 369-383.
18. De Steven, D. & Wright, S.J. 2002. Consequences of variable reproduction for seedling recruitment in three neotropical tree species. Ecology 83: 2315-2327.
19. Delissio, L.J., Primack, R.B., Hall, P. & Lee, H.S. 2002. A decade of canopy-tree seedling survival and growth in two Bornean rain forests: Persistence and recovery from suppression. J. Trop. Ecol. 18: 645-658.
20. Farris-Lopez, K., Denslow, J.S., Moser, B. & Passmore, H. 2004. Influence of a common palm, Oenocarpus mapora, on seedling establishment in a tropical moist forest in Panama. J. Trop. Ecol. 20: 429-438.
21. Foster, R.B. 1982. The seasonal rhythm of fruitfall on Barro Colorado Island. In: Leigh, E.G.J., Rand, S.A. & Windsor, D.M. (eds.) The ecology of a tropical forest: Seasonal rhythms and long-term changes, pp. 151-172. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, US.
22. Gentry, A.H. 1991. The distribution and evolution of climbing plants. In: Putz, F.E. & Mooney, H.A. (eds.) The biology of vines, pp. 3-49. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
23. Harms, K.E., Wright, S.J., Calderon, O., Hernandez, A. & Herre, E.A. 2000. Pervasive density-dependent recruitment enhances seedling diversity in a tropical forest. Nature 404: 493-495.
24. Harms, K.E., Condit, R., Hubbell, S.P. & Foster, R.B. 2001. Habitat associations of trees and shrubs in a 50-ha neotropical forest plot. J. Ecol. 89: 947-959.
25. Harms, K.E., Powers, J.S. & Montgomery, R.A. 2004. Variation in small sapling density, understorey cover, and resource availability in four neotropical forests. Biotropica 36: 40-51.
26. Hubbell, S.P. 1998. The maintenance of diversity in a neotropical tree community: conceptual issues, current evidence, and challenges ahead. In: Dallmeier, F. & Comiskey, J.A. (eds.) Forest biodiversity research, monitoring and modeling: Conceptual background and old world case studies, pp. 17-44. Parthenon Publishing, Pearl River, NY, US.
27. Hubbell, S.P. & Foster, R.B. 1983. Diversity of canopy trees in a neotropical forest and implications for conservation. In: Sutton, S.L., Whitmore, T.C. & Chadwick, A.C. (eds.) Tropical rain forest: ecology and management, pp. 25-41. Blackwell Scientific, Oxford, UK.
28. Hubbell, S.P. & Foster, R.B. 1986. Commonness and rarity in a neotropical forest: implications for tropical tree conservation. In: Soulé, M.E. (ed.) Conservation biology: the science of scarcity and diversity, pp. 205-231. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA, US.
29. Hubbell, S.P. & Foster, R.B. 1987. Large-scale spatial structure of a neotropical forest. Rev. Biol. Trop. 35: 7-22.
30. Hubbell, S.P. & Foster, R.B. 1992. Short-term dynamics of a neotropical forest - Why ecological research matters to tropical conservation and management. Oikos 63: 48-61.
31. Hubbell, S.P., Foster, R.B., O'Brien, S.T., Harms, K.E., Condit, R., Wechsler, B., Wright, S.J. & de Lao, S.L. 1999. Light-gap disturbances, recruitment limitation, and tree diversity in a neotropical forest. Science 283: 554-557.
32. Hurlbert, S.H. 1971. The nonconcept of species diversity: a critique and alternative parameters. Ecology 52: 577-586.
33. Hurtt, G.C. & Pacala, S.W. 1995. The consequences of recruitment limitation - reconciling chance, history and competitive differences between plants. J. Theor. Biol. 176: 1-12.
34. Lambers, J.H.R., Clark, J.S. & Beckage, B. 2002. Density-dependent mortality and the latitudinal gradient in species diversity. Nature 417: 732-735.
35. Leigh, E.G.J. 1999. Tropical forest ecology: a view from Barro Colorado Island. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
36. Leigh, E.G.J., Rand, S.A. & Windsor, D.M. 1982. The ecology of a tropical forest: Seasonal rhythms and long-term changes. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, US.
37. Magurran, A.E. 1988. Ecological diversity and its measurement. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, US.
38. Molofsky, J. & Augspurger, C.K. 1992. The effect of leaf litter on early seedling establishment in a tropical forest. Ecology 73: 68-77.
39. Muller-Landau, H.C., Wright, S.J., Calderon, O., Hubbell, S.P. & Foster, R.B. 2002. Assessing recruitment limitation: concepts, methods, and case-studies from a tropical forest. In: Levey, D.J., Silva, W.R. & Galetti, M. (eds.) Seed dispersal and frugivory: ecology, evaluation and conservation, pp. 35-53. CAB International, Wallingford, UK.
40. Nathan, R. & Muller-Landau, H.C. 2000. Spatial patterns of seed dispersal, their determinants and consequences for recruitment. Trends Ecol. Evol. 15: 278-285.
41. Olszewski, T.D. 2004. A unified mathematical framework for the measurement of richness and evenness within and among multiple communities. Oikos 104: 377-387.
42. Schnitzer, S.A. & Bongers, F. 2002. The ecology of lianas and their role in forests. Trends Ecol. Evol. 17: 223-230.
43. Schnitzer, S.A. & Carson, W.P. 2001. Treefall gaps and the maintenance of species diversity in a tropical forest. Ecology 82: 913-919.
44. Svenning, J.C. & Wright, S.J. 2005. Seed limitation in a Panamanian forest. J. Ecol. 93: 853-862.
45. Uhl, C., Clark, K., Dezzeo, N. & Maquirino, P. 1988. Vegetation dynamics in Amazonian treefall gaps. Ecology 69: 751-763.
46. Vazquezyanes, C. & Orozcosegovia, A. 1993. Patterns of seed longevity and germination in the tropical rain-forest. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 24: 69-87.
47. Wang, B.C. & Smith, T.B. 2002. Closing the seed dispersal loop. Trends Ecol. Evol. 17: 379-385.
48. Webb, C.O. 1997. Seedling ecology and tree diversity in a Bornean rainforest. Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, US.
49. Welden, C.W., Hewett, S.W., Hubbell, S.P. & Poster, R.B. 1991. Sapling survival, growth, and recruitment - Relationship to canopy height in a neotropical forest. Ecology 72: 35-50.
50. Westoby, M., Jurado, E. & Leishman, M. 1992. Comparative evolutionary ecology of seed size. Trends Ecol. Evol. 7: 368-372.
51. Westoby, M., Leishman, M. & Lord, J. 1996. Comparative ecology of seed size and dispersal. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London Ser. B- 351: 1309-1318.
52. Whitmore, T.C. 1989. Canopy gaps and the 2 major groups of forest trees. Ecology 70: 536-538.
53. Whitmore, T.C. 1998. An introduction to tropical rainforests. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
54. Windsor, D.M. 1990. Climate and moisture variability in a tropical forest: long-term records from Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, US.
55. Wright, S.J. 2002. Plant diversity in tropical forests: a review of mechanisms of species coexistence. Oecologia 130: 1-14.
56. Wright, S.J., Muller-Landau, H.C., Condit, R. & Hubbell, S.P. 2003. Gap-dependent recruitment, realized vital rates, and size distributions of tropical trees. Ecology 84: 3174-3185.
57. Wright, S.J., Muller-Landau, H.C., Calderon, O. & Hernandez, A. 2005a. Annual and spatial variation in seedfall and seedling recruitment in a neotropical forest. Ecology 86: 848-860.
58. Wright, S.J., Jaramillo, M.A., Pavon, J., Condit, R., Hubbell, S.P. & Foster, R.B. 2005b. Reproductive size thresholds in tropical trees: variation among individuals, species and forests. J. Trop. Ecol. 21: 307-315.