Return to search

Consistency of demographic trade-offs across 13 (sub)tropical forests

1. Organisms of all species must balance their allocation to growth, survival and
recruitment. Among tree species, evolution has resulted in different life-history
strategies for partitioning resources to these key demographic processes.Life-history strategies in tropical forests have often been shown to align along
a trade-off between fast growth and high survival, that is, the well-known
fast–slow continuum. In addition, an orthogonal trade-off has been proposed
between tall stature—resulting from fast growth and high survival— and recruit-
ment success, that is, a stature−recruitment trade-off. However, it is not clear
whether these two independent dimensions of life-history variation structure
tropical forests worldwide.
2. We used data from 13 large-scale and long-term tropical forest monitoring plots
in three continents to explore the principal trade-offs in annual growth, sur-
vival and recruitment as well as tree stature. These forests included relatively
undisturbed forests as well as typhoon-disturbed forests. Life-history variation
in 12 forests was structured by two orthogonal trade-offs, the growth−survival
trade-off and the stature−recruitment trade- off. Pairwise Procrustes analysis
revealed a high similarity of demographic relationships among forests. The small
deviations were related to differences between African and Asian plots.
3. Synthesis. The fast–slow continuum and tree stature are two independent di-
mensions structuring many, but not all tropical tree communities. Our discovery
of the consistency of demographic trade-offs and life-history strategies across
different forest types from three continents substantially improves our ability to
predict tropical forest dynamics worldwide.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:88850
Date04 January 2024
CreatorsKambach, Stephan, Condit, Richard, Aguilar, Salomon, Bruelheide, Helge, Bunyavejchewin, Sarayudh, Chang-Yang, Chia-Hao, Chen, Yu-Yun, Chuyong, George, Davies, Stuart J., Ediriweera, Sisira, Ewango, Corneille E.N., Fernando, Edwino S., Gunatilleke, Nimal, Gunatilleke, Savitri, Hubbell, Stephen P., Itoh, Akira, Kenfack, David, Kiratiprayoon, Somboon, Lin, Yi-Ching, Makana, Jean-Remy, Mohamad, Mohizah Bt., Pongpattananurak, Nantachai, Perez, Rolando, Rodriguez, Lillian Jennifer V., Sun, I-Fang, Tan, Sylvester, Thomas, Duncan, Thompson, Jill, Uriarte, Maria, Valencia, Renato, Wirth, Christian, Wright, S. Joseph, Wu, Shu-Hui, Yamakura, Takuo, Yao, Tze Leong, Zimmerman, Jess, Rüger, Nadja
PublisherWiley
Source SetsHochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Page generated in 0.0019 seconds