Weak competition among tropical tree seedlings: Implications for species coexistence

Biotropica

Volumn 40, Issue 4, 2008, Pages 432-440

  Paine, C E Timothy ^a,e   Harms, Kyle E ^a,b   Schnitzer, Stefan A ^b,c   Carson, Walter P ^d  

^a LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b SMITHSONIAN TROPICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE   (Panama)

^c UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MILWAUKEE   (United States)

^d UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH   (United States)

^e AGROPARISTECH   (France)

Author keywords

Brosimum alicastrum; Competitive irrelevance; Maintenance of biodiversity; Matisia cordata; Panama; Peru; Pouteria reticulata; Resource competition; Zone of influence

Indexed keywords

COEXISTENCE; DICOTYLEDON; DOMINANCE; GROWTH RESPONSE; INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION; NEOTROPIC ECOZONE; RAINFOREST; RECRUITMENT (POPULATION DYNAMICS); RESOURCE USE; SPECIES DIVERSITY; SURVIVAL; TROPICAL FOREST; UNDERSTORY;

CENTRAL AMERICA; PANAMA [CENTRAL AMERICA]; PERU; SOUTH AMERICA;

BROSIMUM ALICASTRUM; MATISIA CORDATA; POUTERIA; POUTERIA RETICULATA;

EID: 63849099193     PISSN: 00063606     EISSN: 17447429     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00390.x     Document Type: Article

References (50)

1. Barberis, I. M., and E. V. J. Tanner. 2005. Gaps and root trenching increase tree seedling growth in Panamanian semi-evergreen forest. Ecology 86: 667-674.
2. Bell, T., R. P. Freckleton, and O. T. Lewis. 2006. Plant pathogens drive density-dependent seedling mortality in a tropical tree. Ecol. Lett. 9: 569-574.
3. Brown, N. D., and T. C. W hitmore. 1992. Do dipterocarp seedlings really partition rainforest gaps? Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 335: 369-378.
4. Canham, C. D., J. S. Denslow, W. J. Platt, J. R. Runkle, T. A. Spies, and P. S. White. 1990. Light regimes beneath closed canopies and tree-fall gaps in temperate and tropical forests. Can. J. For. Res. 20: 620-631.
5. Capers, R. S., R. L. Chazdon, A. Redondo Brenes, and B. Vilchez Alvarado. 2005. Successional dynamics of woody seedling communities in wet tropical secondary forests. J. Ecol. 93: 1071-1084.
6. Casper, B. B., J. F. Cahill, and L. A. Hyatt. 1998. Above-ground competition does not alter biomass allocated to roots in Abutilon theophrasti. New Phytol. 140: 231-238.
7. Casper, B. B., and R. B. Jackson. 1997. Plant competition underground. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 28: 545-570.
8. Casper, B. B., H. J. Schenk, and R. B. Jackson. 2003. Defining a plant's belowground zone of influence. Ecology 84: 2313-2321.
9. Caswell, H. 1976. Community structure-neutral model analysis. Ecol. Monogr. 46: 327-354.
10. Chase, J. M., and M. A. Leibold. 2003. Ecological niches: Linking classical and contemporary approaches. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois.
11. Chesson, P. 2000. Mechanisms of maintenance of species diversity. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 31: 343-366.
12. Clark, D. B., and D. A. Clark. 1989. The role of physical damage in the seedling mortality regime of a Neotropical rain forest. Oikos 55: 225-230.
13. Connell, J. H., T. P. Hughes, and C. C. Wallace. 1997. A 30-year study of coral abundance, recruitment, and disturbance at several scales in space and time. Ecol. Monogr. 67: 461-488.
14. Coomes, D. A., and P. J. G rubb. 2000. Impacts of root competition in forests and woodland: A theoretical framework and review of experiments. Ecol. Monogr.70: 171-208.
15. Croat, T. B. 1978. Flora of Barro Colorado Island. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.
16. Foster, S. A., and C. H. Janson. 1985. The relationship between seed size and establishment conditions in tropical woody plants. Ecology 66: 773-780.
17. Freckleton, R. P., and O. T. Lewis. 2006. Pathogens, density dependence and the coexistence of tropical trees. Proc. R. Soc. B 273: 2909-2916.
18. Gentry, A. H. 1990. Four Neotropical forests. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.
19. Harms, K. E., J. S. Powers, and R. A. Montgomery. 2004. Variation in small sapling density, understory cover and resource availability in four Neotropical forests. Biotropica 36: 40-51.
20. Harms, K. E., S. J. Wright, O. Calderon, A. Hernandez, and E. A. Herre. 2000. Pervasive density-dependent recruitment enhances seedling diversity in a tropical forest. Nature 404: 493-495.
21. Haw kes, C. V., and B. B. Casper. 2002. Lateral root function and root overlap among mycorrhizal and nonmycorrhizal herbs in a Florida shrubland measured using rubidium as a nutrient analog. Am. J. Bot. 89: 1289-1294.
22. Holt, R. D. 1977. Predation, apparent competition, and structure of prey communities. Theor. Popul. Biol. 12: 197-229.
23. Hubbell, S. P. 2006. Neutral theory and the evolution of ecological equivalence. Ecology 87: 1387-1398.
24. Huston, M. A., and D. L. DeAngelis. 1994. Competition and coexistence- the effects of resource transport and supply rates. Am. Nat. 144: 954-977.
25. Kitajima, K. 1994. Relative importance of photosynthetic traits and allocation patterns as correlates of seedling shade tolerance of 13 tropical trees. Oecologia 98: 419-428.
26. Klein, J. P., and M. L. Moeschberger. 1997. Survival analysis techniques for censored and truncated data. Springer-Verlag, New York, New York.
27. Klironomos, J. N. 2002. Feedback with soil biota contributes to plant rarity and invasiveness in communities. Nature 417: 67-70.
28. Lewis, S. L., and E. V. J. Tanner. 2000. Effects of above- and belowground competition on growth and survival of rain forest tree seedlings. Ecology 81: 2525-2538.
29. Marquis, R. J., H. J. Young, and H. E. Braker. 1986. The influence of understory vegetation cover on germination and seedling establishment in a tropical lowland wet forest. Biotropica 18: 273-278.
30. Moles, A. T., and M. Westoby. 2004. What do seedlings die from and what are the implications for evolution of seed size? Oikos 106: 193-199.
31. Montgomery, R. A., and R. L. Chazdon. 2002. Light gradient partitioning by tropical tree seedlings in the absence of canopy gaps. Oecologia 131: 165-174.
32. Nicotra, A. B., R. L. Chazdon, and S. V. B. Iriarte. 1999. Spatial heterogeneity of light and woody seedling regeneration in tropical wet forests. Ecology 80: 1908-1926.
33. Obeid, M., D. Machin, and J. L. Harper. 1967. Influence of density on plant to plant variation in fiber flax, Linum usitatissimum L. Crop Sci. 7: 471-473.
34. Osher, L. J., and S. W. Buol. 1998. Relationship of soil properties to parent material and landscape position in eastern Madre de Dios, Peru. Geoderma 83: 143-166.
35. Pacala, S. W. 1988. Competitive equivalence-the coevolutionary consequences of sedentary habit. Am. Nat. 132: 576-593.
36. Pacala, S. W., C. D. Canham, J. Saponara, J. A. Silander, R. K. Kobe, and E. Ribbens. 1996. Forest models defined by field measurements: Estimation, error analysis and dynamics. Ecol. Monogr. 66: 1-43.
37. Paine, C. E. T., and H. Beck. 2007. Seed predation by Neotropical rainforest mammals increases diversity in seedling recruitment. Ecology. 88: 3076-3087.
38. Platt, W. J., and J. H. Connell. 2003. Natural disturbances and directional replacement of species. Ecol. Monogr. 73: 507-522.
39. Poorter, L. 2007. Are species adapted to their regeneration niche, adult niche, or both? Am. Nat. 169: 433-442.
40. R Development Core Team. 2006. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.
41. Rasband, W. S. 1997-2005. Image J. U. S. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA, http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/
42. Roldan, A. I., and J. A. Simonetti. 2001. Plant-mammal interactions in tropical Bolivian forests with different hunting pressures. Conserv. Biol. 15: 617-623.
43. Sala, O. E., R. A. Golluscio, W. K. Lauenroth, and A. Soriano. 1989. Resource partitioning between shrubs and grasses in the Patagonian steppe. Oecologia 81: 510-505.
44. Schnitzer, S. A., M. Kuzee, and F. B ongers. 2005. Disentangling above-and below-ground competition between lianas and trees in a tropical forest. J. Ecol. 93: 1115-1125.
45. Stohlgren, T. 1993. Intra-specific competition (crowding) of giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum). Forest Ecol. Manage. 59: 127-148.
46. Taylor, K. M., and L. W. Aarssen. 1989. Neighbor effects in mast year seedlings of Acer saccharum. Am. J. Bot. 76: 546-554.
47. Tilman, D. 1982. Resource competition and community structure. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
48. Webb, C. O., and D. R. Peart. 1999. Seedling density dependence promotes coexistence of Bornean rain forest trees. Ecology 80: 2006-2017.
49. Wright, S. J. 2002. Plant diversity in tropical forests: A review of mechanisms of species coexistence. Oecologia 130: 1-14.
50. Yoda, K., T. Kira, H. Ogawa, and K. Hozumi. 1963. Self-thinning in overcrowded pure stands under cultivated and natural conditions. J. Biol. 14: 107-129.