Dynamics of the forest communities at Pasoh and Barro Colorado: comparing two 50-ha plots.
Richard Condit,Peter S. Ashton,N. Manokaran,James V. LaFrankie,Stephen P. Hubbell,Stephen P. Hubbell,Robin B. Foster,Robin B. Foster +7 more
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The Pasoh forest is more stable than BCI's in another way: few of its tree populations changed much over the eight-year census interval; the faster species turnover at BCI can probably be attributed to severe droughts that have plagued the forest periodically over the past 30 years; Pasoh has not suffered such extreme events recently.Abstract:
Dynamics of the Pasoh forest in Peninsular Malaysia were assessed by drawing a comparison with a forest in Panama, Central America, whose dynamics have been thoroughly described. Census plots of 50 ha were established at both sites using standard methods. Tree mortality at Pasoh over an eight-year interval was 1.46% yr(-1) for all stems > or = 10 mm diameter at breast height (dbh), and 1.48% yr(-1) for stems > or = 100 mm dbh. Comparable figures at the Barro Colorado Island site in Panama (BCI) were 2.55% and 2.03%. Growth and recruitment rates were likewise considerably higher at BCI than at Pasoh. For example, in all trees 500-700 mm in dbh, mean BCI growth over the period 1985-1995 was 6 mm yr(-1), whereas mean Pasoh growth was about 3.5 mm yr(-1). Examining growth and mortality rates for individual species showed that the difference between the forests can be attributed to a few light-demanding pioneer species at BCI, which have very high growth and mortality; Pasoh is essentially lacking this guild. The bulk of the species in the two forests are shade-tolerant and have very similar mortality, growth and recruitment. The Pasoh forest is more stable than BCI's in another way as well: few of its tree populations changed much over the eight-year census interval. In contrast, at BCI, over 10% of the species had populations increasing or decreasing at a rate of >0.05 yr(-1) compared to just 2% of the species at Pasoh). The faster species turnover at BCI can probably be attributed to severe droughts that have plagued the forest periodically over the past 30 years; Pasoh has not suffered such extreme events recently. The dearth of pioneer species at Pasoh is associated with low-nutrient soil and slow litter breakdown, but the exact mechanisms behind this association remain poorly understood.read more
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Plant diversity in tropical forests: a review of mechanisms of species coexistence
TL;DR: Infrequent competition among suppressed understory plants, niche differences, and Janzen-Connell effects may facilitate the coexistence of the many rare plant species found in tropical forests while negative density dependence regulates the few most successful and abundant species.
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Tolerance to shade, drought, and waterlogging of temperate northern hemisphere trees and shrubs
TL;DR: Common scales of shade, drought, and waterlogging tolerance for 806 North American, European/West Asian, and East Asian temperate shrubs and trees were constructed to test the hypotheses that shade tolerance is negatively related to drought andWaterlogging tolerances, and that these correlations vary among continents and plant functional types.
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Neutral theory and community ecology
TL;DR: The mathematical and biological aspects of Hubbell’s (2001) neutral theory of species abundance for ecological communities are reviewed, and its historical connections with closely related approaches in population genetics are clarified.
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Variation in wood density determines spatial patterns in Amazonian forest biomass
Timothy R. Baker,Timothy R. Baker,Oliver L. Phillips,Yadvinder Malhi,Samuel Almeida,Luzmila Arroyo,Anthony Di Fiore,Terry L. Erwin,Timothy J. Killeen,Susan G. Laurance,William F. Laurance,Simon L. Lewis,Jon Lloyd,Abel Monteagudo,David A. Neill,S. Patiño,Nigel C. A. Pitman,J. Natalino M. Silva,J. Natalino M. Silva,Rodolfo Vásquez Martínez +19 more
TL;DR: In this article, the relative roles of species composition (wood specific gravity) and forest structure (basal area) in determining variation in aboveground biomass (AGB) of trees greater than 10cm diameter within Amazonia have been compared.
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Spatial and temporal variation of biomass in a tropical forest: results from a large census plot in Panama
Jérôme Chave,Jérôme Chave,Richard Condit,Suzanne Lao,John P. Caspersen,John P. Caspersen,Robin B. Foster,Stephen P. Hubbell,Stephen P. Hubbell +8 more
TL;DR: To test whether the AGB of tropical forests is increasing due to climate change, it is proposed that in each forest type, at least 10 hectares of forest be inventoried, and that measurements of the small classes (< 10 cm diameter) as well as large size classes be included.
References
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Light-Gap Disturbances, Recruitment Limitation, and Tree Diversity in a Neotropical Forest
Stephen P. Hubbell,Robin B. Foster,Sean T. O'Brien,Kyle E. Harms,Richard Condit,B. Wechsler,S. J. Wright,S. Loo de Lao +7 more
TL;DR: Strong recruitment limitation appears to decouple the gap disturbance regime from control of tree diversity in this tropical forest, where the species composition of gaps was unpredictable even for pioneer tree species.
Journal ArticleDOI
Biomass Estimation Methods for Tropical Forests with Applications to Forest Inventory Data
TL;DR: In this paper, a strategie d'estimation de la biomasse totale au-dessus du sol a ete elaboree pour les forets tropicales is presented.
Book
Estimating biomass and biomass change of tropical forests: A primer
TL;DR: In this article, the authors estimated biomass and biomass change of tropical forests and found that the biomass change was faster than the change in the number of trees in the tropical forests of the world.
Journal ArticleDOI
Gap-phase regeneration in a tropical forest.
TL;DR: Gap-phase regeneration of trees was described for the first 5-6 yr of regrowth in 30 treefall gaps in tropical moist forest on Barro Colorado Island, Panama to foster regeneration of pioneer and primary species and produces patches that differ markedly in tree population dynamics, species composition, and growth rate.