Abstract: Tropical canopies are complex, with multiple canopy layers and pronounced gap dynamics contributing to their high species diversity and productivity. An important reason for this complexity is the large variation in shade tolerance among different tree species. At present, we lack a clear understanding of which plant traits control this variation, e.g., regarding the relative contributions of whole-plant versus leaf traits or structural versus physiological traits. We investigated a broad range of traits in six tropical montane rainforest tree species with different degrees of shade tolerance, grown under three different radiation regimes (under the open sky or beneath sparse or dense canopies). The two distinct shade-tolerant species had higher fractional biomass in leaves and branches while shade-intolerant species invested more into stems, and these differences were greater under low radiation. Leaf respiration and photosynthetic light compensation point did not vary with species shade tolerance, regardless of radiation regime. Leaf temperatures in open plots were markedly higher in shade-tolerant species due to their low transpiration rates and large leaf sizes. Our results suggest that interspecific variation in shade tolerance of tropical montane trees is controlled by species differences in whole-plant biomass allocation strategy rather than by difference in physiological leaf traits determining leaf carbon balance at low radiation. © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press.

Abstract: Tropical forests shelter the highest species diversity worldwide, although genus diversity is lower than expected. In the species-rich genera, species complexes are composed of closely-related species that share large amounts of genetic variation. Despite the key role of species complexes in diversification, evolution and functioning of ecological communities, little is known on why species complexes arise and how they are maintained in Neotropical forests. Examining how individual phenotypes vary along environmental gradients, within and among closely-related species within species complexes, can reveal processes allowing species coexistence within species complexes. We examined leaf functional trait variation with topography in a hyperdiverse tropical forest of the Guiana Shield. We collected leaf functional traits from 766 trees belonging to five species in two species complexes in permanent plots encompassing a diversity of topographic positions. We tested the role of topography on leaf functional trait variation with a hierarchical Bayesian model, controlling for individual tree diameter effect. We show that, mirroring what has been previously observed among species and communities, individual leaf traits covary from acquisitive to conservative strategy within species. Moreover, decreasing wetness from bottomlands to plateaus was associated with a shift of leaf traits from an acquisitive to a conservative strategy both across and within closely-related species. Our results suggest that intraspecific trait variability widens species’ niches and converges at species’ margins where niches overlap, potentially implying local neutral processes. Intraspecific trait variability favors local adaptation and divergence of closely-related species within species complexes. It is potentially maintained through interspecific sharing of genetic variation through hybridization. © 2020 Nordic Society Oikos. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Abstract: Understanding the relative importance of habitat and biotic drivers on community assembly across food web components is an important step towards predicting the consequences of environmental changes. Because documenting entire food webs is often impractical, this question has been only partially investigated. Here, we partitioned variation in species assemblages of the major components of tank bromeliad food webs (bacteria, algae, protozoans, detritivorous and predatory invertebrates) into habitat and biotic determinants and examined the influence of habitat variables and predator or prey abundance on all taxonomic assemblages. Ecological determinism of assemblage structure ranged from weak in bacteria (< 10% of the explained variance) to strong in predatory invertebrates (90%). Habitat features and canopy openness significantly influenced species assemblages; however, prey or predator density had far and away the most significant structuring effects. If biotic forces are at least as important as the abiotic forces while the importance of stochasticity declines towards upper trophic levels, then trophic levels could respond differently to natural or anthropogenic disturbance and to shifts in species distributions. The effects of such differential responses on food web reconfiguration, however, remain to be elucidated. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Abstract: We observed strong positive relationships between soil properties and forest dynamics of growth and mortality across twelve primary lowland tropical forests in a phosphorus-poor region of the Guiana Shield. Average tree growth (diameter at breast height) increased from 0.81 to 2.1 mm yr-1 along a soil texture gradient from 0 to 67% clay, and increasing metal-oxide content. Soil organic carbon stocks in the top 30 cm ranged from 30 to 118 tons C ha-1, phosphorus content ranged from 7 to 600 mg kg-1 soil, and the relative abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi ranged from 0 to 50%, all positively correlating with soil clay, and iron and aluminum oxide and hydroxide content. In contrast, already low extractable phosphorus (Bray P) content decreased from 4.4 to <0.02 mg kg-1 in soil with increasing clay content. A greater prevalence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in more clayey forests that had higher tree growth and mortality, but not biomass, indicates that despite the greater investment in nutrient uptake required, soils with higher clay content may actually serve to sustain high tree growth in tropical forests by avoiding phosphorus losses from the ecosystem. Our study demonstrates how variation in soil properties that retain carbon and nutrients can help to explain variation in tropical forest growth and mortality, but not biomass, by requiring niche specialization and contributing to biogeochemical diversification across this region.