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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
Habitat filtering across tree life stages in tropical forest communities
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Volume 280, No. 1766, Article 20130548, Year 2013
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Description
Tropical tree communities are shaped by local-scale habitat heterogeneity in the form of topographic and edaphic variation, but the life-history stage at which habitat associations develop remains poorly understood. This is due, in part, to the fact that previous studies have not accounted for the widely disparate sample sizes number of stems that result when trees are divided into size classes. We demonstrate that the observed habitat structuring of a community is directly related to the number of individuals in the community. We then compare the relative importance of habitat heterogeneity to tree community structure for saplings, juveniles and adult trees within seven large 24-50 ha tropical forest dynamics plots while controlling for sample size. Changes in habitat structuring through tree life stages were small and inconsistent among life stages and study sites. Where found, these differences were an order of magnitude smaller than the findings of previous studies that did not control for sample size. Moreover, community structure and composition were very similar among tree sub-communities of different life stages. We conclude that the structure of these tropical tree communities is established by the time trees are large enough to be included in the census 1 cm diameter at breast height, which indicates that habitat filtering occurs during earlier life stages. © 2013 The Authors Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.
Authors & Co-Authors
Baldeck, Claire A.
United States, Urbana
University of Illinois Urbana-champaign
Harms, Kyle E.
United States, Washington, D.c.
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
United States, Baton Rouge
Louisiana State University
Yavitt, Joseph B.
United States, Ithaca
Cornell University
John, Robert
India, Mohanpur
Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya
Turner, Benjamin L.
United States, Washington, D.c.
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Valencia, Renato L.
Ecuador, Quito
Pontificia Universidad Católica Del Ecuador
Navarrete, Hugo
Ecuador, Quito
Pontificia Universidad Católica Del Ecuador
Bunyavejchewin, Sarayudh
Thailand, Bangkok
National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, Thailand
Kiratiprayoon, Somboon
Thailand, Pathum Thani
Thammasat University
Yaacob, Adzmi Bin
Malaysia, Shah Alam
Universiti Teknologi Mara
Supardi, M. N.N.
Malaysia, Kepong
Institut Penyelidikan Perhutanan Malaysia
Davies, Stuart James
United States, Washington, D.c.
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
United States, Cambridge
Harvard University
Hubbell, Stephen P.
United States, Washington, D.c.
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
United States, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
Chuyong, George Bindeh
Cameroon, Buea
University of Buea
Kenfack, David
United States, Cambridge
Harvard University
Thomas, Duncan W.
United States, Corvallis
Oregon State University
Dalling, James William
United States, Urbana
University of Illinois Urbana-champaign
United States, Washington, D.c.
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Statistics
Citations: 118
Authors: 17
Affiliations: 14
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1098/rspb.2013.0548
ISSN:
09628452
e-ISSN:
14712954
Research Areas
Genetics And Genomics