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Odonne, G., van den Bel, M., Burst, M., Brunaux, O., Bruno, M., Dambrine, E., et al. (2019). Long-term influence of early human occupations on current forests of the Guiana Shield. Ecology, 100(10), e02806.
Abstract: To decipher the long-term influences of pre-Columbian land occupations on contemporary forest structure, diversity, and functioning in Amazonia, most of the previous research focused on the alluvial plains of the major rivers of the Amazon basin. Terra firme, that is, nonflooded forests, particularly from the Guiana Shield, are yet to be explored. In this study, we aim to give new insights into the subtle traces of pre-Columbian influences on present-day forests given the archaeological context of terra firme forests of the Guiana Shield. Following archaeological prospects on 13 sites in French Guiana, we carried out forest inventories inside and outside archaeological sites and assessed the potential pre-Columbian use of the sampled tree species using an original ethnobotanical database of the Guiana Shield region. Aboveground biomass (320 and 380 T/ha, respectively), basal area (25–30 and 30–35 m2/ha, respectively), and tree density (550 and 700 stem/ha, respectively) were all significantly lower on anthropized plots (As) than on nonanthropized plots (NAs). Ancient human presence shaped the species composition of the sampled forests with Arecaceae, Burseraceae, and Lauraceae significantly more frequent in As and Annonaceae and Lecythidaceae more frequent in NAs. Although alpha diversity was not different between As and NAs, the presence of pre-Columbian sites enhances significantly the forest beta diversity at the landscape level. Finally, trees with edible fruits are positively associated with pre-Columbian sites, whereas trees used for construction or for their bark are negatively associated with pre-Columbian sites. Half a millennium after their abandonment, former occupied places from the inner Guiana Shield still bear noticeable differences with nonanthropized places. Considering the lack of data concerning archaeology of terra firme Amazonian forests, our results suggest that pre-Columbian influences on the structure (lower current biomass), diversity (higher beta diversity), and composition (linked to the past human tree uses) of current Amazonian forests might be more important than previously thought. © 2019 by the Ecological Society of America
Keywords: Amazonian forest; archaeology; ethnobotany; Guiana Shield; historical ecology; pre-Columbian settlements; ring-ditched hills; alluvial plain; anthropogenic effect; archaeology; basal area; database; ethnobotany; forest ecosystem; historical ecology; occupation; paleoecology; species diversity; Amazonia; French Guiana; Guyana Shield; Annonaceae; Arecaceae; Burseraceae; Lauraceae; Lecythidaceae; Brazil; forest; French Guiana; human; occupation; tree; Brazil; Forests; French Guiana; Humans; Occupations; Trees
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Grossiord, C., Christoffersen, B., Alonso-Rodríguez, A. M., Anderson-Teixeira, K., Asbjornsen, H., Aparecido, L. M. T., et al. (2019). Precipitation mediates sap flux sensitivity to evaporative demand in the neotropics. Oecologia, 191(3), 519–530.
Abstract: Transpiration in humid tropical forests modulates the global water cycle and is a key driver of climate regulation. Yet, our understanding of how tropical trees regulate sap flux in response to climate variability remains elusive. With a progressively warming climate, atmospheric evaporative demand [i.e., vapor pressure deficit (VPD)] will be increasingly important for plant functioning, becoming the major control of plant water use in the twenty-first century. Using measurements in 34 tree species at seven sites across a precipitation gradient in the neotropics, we determined how the maximum sap flux velocity (vmax) and the VPD threshold at which vmax is reached (VPDmax) vary with precipitation regime [mean annual precipitation (MAP); seasonal drought intensity (PDRY)] and two functional traits related to foliar and wood economics spectra [leaf mass per area (LMA); wood specific gravity (WSG)]. We show that, even though vmax is highly variable within sites, it follows a negative trend in response to increasing MAP and PDRY across sites. LMA and WSG exerted little effect on vmax and VPDmax, suggesting that these widely used functional traits provide limited explanatory power of dynamic plant responses to environmental variation within hyper-diverse forests. This study demonstrates that long-term precipitation plays an important role in the sap flux response of humid tropical forests to VPD. Our findings suggest that under higher evaporative demand, trees growing in wetter environments in humid tropical regions may be subjected to reduced water exchange with the atmosphere relative to trees growing in drier climates. © 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
Keywords: Evapotranspiration; Plant functional traits; Transpiration; Vapor pressure deficit; drought; evapotranspiration; flux measurement; hydrological cycle; Neotropical Region; precipitation (chemistry); precipitation (climatology); tree; tropical forest; tropical region; vapor pressure; water; drought; evapotranspiration; forest; tree; vapor pressure; Droughts; Forests; Plant Transpiration; Trees; Vapor Pressure; Water
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Ter Steege, H., Henkel, T. W., Helal, N., Marimon, B. S., Marimon-Junior, B. H., Huth, A., et al. (2019). Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests. Scientific reports, 9(1), 13822.
Abstract: Tropical forests are known for their high diversity. Yet, forest patches do occur in the tropics where a single tree species is dominant. Such “monodominant” forests are known from all of the main tropical regions. For Amazonia, we sampled the occurrence of monodominance in a massive, basin-wide database of forest-inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN). Utilizing a simple defining metric of at least half of the trees over 10cm diameter belonging to one species, we found only a few occurrences of monodominance in Amazonia, and the phenomenon was not significantly linked to previously hypothesized life history traits such wood density, seed mass, ectomycorrhizal associations, or Rhizobium nodulation. In our analysis, coppicing (the formation of sprouts at the base of the tree or on roots) was the only trait significantly linked to monodominance. While at specific locales coppicing or ectomycorrhizal associations may confer a considerable advantage to a tree species and lead to its monodominance, very few species have these traits. Mining of the ATDN dataset suggests that monodominance is quite rare in Amazonia, and may be linked primarily to edaphic factors.
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Yguel, B., Piponiot, C., Mirabel, A., Dourdain, A., Hérault, B., Gourlet-Fleury, S., et al. (2019). Beyond species richness and biomass: Impact of selective logging and silvicultural treatments on the functional composition of a neotropical forest. Forest Ecology and Management, 433, 528–534.
Abstract: Tropical forests harbor the greatest terrestrial biodiversity and provide various ecosystem services. The increase of human activities on these forests, among which logging, makes the conservation of biodiversity and associated services strongly dependent on the sustainability of these activities. However the indicators commonly used to assess the impact of forest exploitation, namely species richness and biomass, provide a limited understanding of their sustainability. Here, we assessed the sustainability of common forest exploitation in the Guiana Shield studying the recovery of two ecosystem services i.e. carbon storage and wood stock, and an ecosystem function i.e. seed dispersal by animals. Specifically, we compared total and commercial biomass, as well as functional composition in seed size of animal-dispersed species in replicated forest plots before and 27 years after exploitation. Species richness is also studied to allow comparison. While species richness was not affected by forest exploitation, total and commercial biomass as well as seed size of animal-dispersed species decreased 27 years after exploitation, similarly to forests affected by hunting. These results show that ecosystem services and function likely did not recover even at the lowest intensity of forest exploitation studied, questioning the sustainability of the most common rotation-cycle duration applied in the tropics.
Keywords: Selective logging; Humid tropical forest; Functional composition; Seed dispersal; Carbon storage; Commercial stock; Anthropogenic pressure; Sustainability
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Zinger, L., Taberlet, P., Schimann, H., Bonin, A., Boyer, F., De Barba, M., et al. (2019). Body size determines soil community assembly in a tropical forest. Mol Ecol, 28(3), 528–543.
Abstract: Tropical forests shelter an unparalleled biological diversity. The relative influence of environmental selection (i.e., abiotic conditions, biotic interactions) and stochastic?distance-dependent neutral processes (i.e., demography, dispersal) in shaping communities has been extensively studied for various organisms, but has rarely been explored across a large range of body sizes, in particular in soil environments. We built a detailed census of the whole soil biota in a 12-ha tropical forest plot using soil DNA metabarcoding. We show that the distribution of 19 taxonomic groups (ranging from microbes to mesofauna) is primarily stochastic, suggesting that neutral processes are prominent drivers of the assembly of these communities at this scale. We also identify aluminium, topography and plant species identity as weak, yet significant drivers of soil richness and community composition of bacteria, protists and to a lesser extent fungi. Finally, we show that body size, which determines the scale at which an organism perceives its environment, predicted the community assembly across taxonomic groups, with soil mesofauna assemblages being more stochastic than microbial ones. These results suggest that the relative contribution of neutral processes and environmental selection to community assembly directly depends on body size. Body size is hence an important determinant of community assembly rules at the scale of the ecological community in tropical soils and should be accounted for in spatial models of tropical soil food webs.
Keywords: DNA metabarcoding; eDNA; French Guiana; multitaxa; neutral assembly; niche determinism; propagule size; soil diversity
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Bréchet, L., Courtois, E. A., Saint-Germain, T., Janssens, I. A., Asensio, D., Ramirez-Rojas, I., et al. (2019). Disentangling Drought and Nutrient Effects on Soil Carbon Dioxide and Methane Fluxes in a Tropical Forest. Front. Environ. Sci., 7(180).
Abstract: Tropical soils are a major contributor to the balance of greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in the atmosphere. Models of tropical GHG fluxes predict that both the frequency of drought events and changes in atmospheric deposition of nitrogen (N) will significantly affect dynamics of soil carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) production and consumption. In this study, we examined the combined effect of a reduction in precipitation and an increase in nutrient availability on soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes in a primary French Guiana tropical forest. Drought conditions were simulated by intercepting precipitation falling through the forest canopy with tarpaulin roofs. Nutrient availability was manipulated through application of granular N and/or phosphorus (P) fertilizer to the soil. Soil water content (SWC) below the roofs decreased rapidly and stayed at continuously low values until roof removal, which as a consequence roughly doubled the duration of the dry season. After roof removal, SWC slowly increased but remained lower than in the control soils even after 2.5 months of wet-season precipitation. We showed that drought-imposed reduction in SWC decreased the CO2 emissions (i.e., CO2 efflux), but strongly increased the CH4 emissions. N, P, and N × P (i.e., NP) additions all significantly increased CO2 emission but had no effect on CH4 fluxes. In treatments where both fertilization and drought were applied, the positive effect of N, P, and NP fertilization on CO2 efflux was reduced. After roof removal, soil CO2 efflux was more resilient in the control plots than in the fertilized plots while there was only a modest effect of roof removal on soil CH4 fluxes. Our results suggest that a combined increase in drought and nutrient availability in soil can locally increase the emissions of both CO2 and CH4 from tropical soils, for a long term.
Keywords: carbon dioxide; drought; fertilization; methane; nitrogen; phosphorus; soil GHG fluxes; tropical forest
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Bodin, S. C., Scheel-Ybert, R., Beauchene, J., Molino, J. - F., & Bremond, L. (2019). CharKey: An electronic identification key for wood charcoals of French Guiana. Iawa J., 40(1), 75–91.
Abstract: Tropical tree floras are highly diverse and many genera and species share similar anatomical patterns, making the identification of tropical wood charcoal very difficult. Appropriate tools to characterize charcoal anatomy are thus needed to facilitate and improve identification in such species-rich areas. This paper presents the first computer-aided identification key designed for charcoals from French Guiana, based on the wood anatomy of 507 species belonging to 274 genera and 71 families, which covers respectively 28%, 67% and 86% of the tree species, genera and families currently listed in this part of Amazonia. Species of the same genus are recorded together except those described under a synonym genus in Détienne et al. (1982) that were kept separately. As a result, the key contains 289 'items' and mostly aims to identify charcoals at the genus level. It records 26 anatomical features leading to 112 feature states, almost all of which are illustrated by SEM photographs of charcoal. The descriptions were mostly taken from Détienne et al.'s guidebook on tropical woods of French Guiana (1982) and follow the IAWA list of microscopic features for hardwood identification (Wheeler et al. 1989). Some adjustments were made to a few features and those that are unrelated to charcoal identification were excluded. The whole tool, named CharKey, contains the key itself and the associated database including photographs. It can be downloaded on Figshare at https://figshare.com/s/d7d40060b53d2ad60389 (doi: 10.6084/m9.figshare.6396005). CharKey is accessible using the free software Xper 2 , specifically conceived for taxonomic description and computer aided-identification.
Keywords: anthracology; Charcoal anatomy; computeraided identification; Note: Supplementary material can be accessed in the online edition of this journal via brill.com/iawa.; tropical flora; Xper 2
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Hartke, J., Sprenger, P. P., Sahm, J., Winterberg, H., Orivel, J., Baur, H., et al. (2019). Cuticular hydrocarbons as potential mediators of cryptic species divergence in a mutualistic ant association. Ecology and Evolution, 9(16), 9160–9176.
Abstract: Upon advances in sequencing techniques, more and more morphologically identical organisms are identified as cryptic species. Often, mutualistic interactions are proposed as drivers of diversification. Species of the neotropical parabiotic ant association between Crematogaster levior and Camponotus femoratus are known for highly diverse cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profiles, which in insects serve as desiccation barrier but also as communication cues. In the present study, we investigated the association of the ants’ CHC profiles with genotypes and morphological traits, and discovered cryptic species pairs in both genera. To assess putative niche differentiation between the cryptic species, we conducted an environmental association study that included various climate variables, canopy cover, and mutualistic plant species. Although mostly sympatric, the two Camponotus species seem to prefer different climate niches. However in the two Crematogaster species, we could not detect any differences in niche preference. The strong differentiation in the CHC profiles may thus suggest a possible role during speciation itself either by inducing assortative mating or by reinforcing sexual selection after the speciation event. We did not detect any further niche differences in the environmental parameters tested. Thus, it remains open how the cryptic species avoid competitive exclusion, with scope for further investigations. © 2019 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Keywords: environmental association; integrative taxonomy; niche differentiation; population structure; sexual selection; speciation
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Chaves, C. L., Blanc-Jolivet, C., Sebbenn, A. M., Mader, M., Meyer-Sand, B. R. V., Paredes-Villanueva, K., et al. (2019). Nuclear and chloroplastic SNP markers for genetic studies of timber origin for Hymenaea trees. Conserv. Gen. Res., 11(3), 329–331.
Abstract: We developed nuclear and chloroplastic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and INDEL (insertion/deletion) markers using restriction associated DNA sequencing (RADSeq) and low coverage MiSeq genome sequencing to set up a genetic tracking method of the geographical origin of Hymenaea sp. From two initial sets of 358 and 32 loci used to genotype at least 94 individuals, a final set of 75 nSNPs, 50 cpSNPs and 6 INDELs identifying significant population structure was developed. © 2018, Springer Nature B.V.
Keywords: DNA fingerprints; Geographical origin; MiSeq; RADSeq
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Honorio Coronado, E. N., Blanc-Jolivet, C., Mader, M., García-Dávila, C. R., Sebbenn, A. M., Meyer-Sand, B. R. V., et al. (2019). Development of nuclear and plastid SNP markers for genetic studies of Dipteryx tree species in Amazonia. Conserv. Genet. Res., 11(3), 333–336.
Abstract: We developed nuclear and plastid single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and insertion/deletion (INDEL) markers for Dipteryx species using a combination of restriction associated DNA sequencing (RADSeq) and low coverage MiSeq genome sequencing. Of the total 315 loci genotyped using a MassARRAY platform, 292 loci were variable and polymorphic among the 73 sampled individuals from French Guiana, Brasil, Peru, and Bolivia. A final set of 56 nuclear SNPs, 26 chloroplast SNPs, 2 chloroplast INDELs, and 32 mitochondrial SNPs identifying significant population structure was developed. This set of loci will be useful for studies on population genetics of Dipteryx species in Amazonia.
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