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Item type:Publication, The Influence of Taxonomy and Environment on Leaf Trait Variation Along Tropical Abiotic Gradients(Frontiers Media S.A., 2020-03-03)Deconstructing functional trait variation and co-variation across a wide range of environmental conditions should increase the mechanistic understanding of community assembly processes and improve current parameterization of dynamic vegetation models. Here, we present a study that deconstructs leaf trait variation and co-variation to iithin-species, taxonomic-interspecific, and plot-environment components comparing three tropical environmental gradients in Peru, Brazil and Ghana. We measured photosynthetic, chemical and structural leaf traits using a standardized sampling protocol, totalling more than 1,000 individuals belonging to 367 species sampled. Variation associated with the whole interspecific taxonomic component (species+genus+family) for most traits was relatively consistent across environmental gradients, but intra-specificwithin-species variation and the plot-environment variation was strongly dependent on the environmental gradient. Trait-trait co-variation was also strongly linked to the environmental gradient where the traits were measured, although some traits had consistent co-variation components irrespective of environmental gradient. Our results demonstrate that filtering along gradients is mostly expressed through trait intra- and interspecifictaxonomic variation, but that trait co-variation is strongly dependent on the local environment, and thus global trait co-variation relationships might not always apply at smaller scales. - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Changes in oak (Quercus robur) photosynthesis after winter moth (Operophtera brumata) herbivory are not explained by changes in chemical or structural leaf traits(Public Library of Science, 2020-01-01)Insect herbivores have the potential to change both physical and chemical traits of their host plant. Although the impacts of herbivores on their hosts have been widely studied, experiments assessing changes in multiple leaf traits or functions simultaneously are still rare. We experimentally tested whether herbivory by winter moth (Operophtera brumata) caterpillars and mechanical leaf wounding changed leaf mass per area, leaf area, leaf carbon and nitrogen content, and the concentrations of 27 polyphenol compounds on oak (Quercus robur) leaves. To investigate how potential changes in the studied traits affect leaf functioning, we related the traits to the rates of leaf photosynthesis and respiration. Overall, we did not detect any clear effects of herbivory or mechanical leaf damage on the chemical or physical leaf traits, despite clear effect of herbivory on photosynthesis. Rather, the trait variation was primarily driven by variation between individual trees. Only leaf nitrogen content and a subset of the studied polyphenol compounds correlated with photosynthesis and leaf respiration. Our results suggest that in our study system, abiotic conditions related to the growth location, variation between tree individuals, and seasonal trends in plant physiology are more important than herbivory in determining the distribution and composition of leaf chemical and structural traits. - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Variation of non-structural carbohydrates across the fast-slow continuum in Amazon forest canopy trees(Wiley, 2021-11-20)Tropical tree species span a range of life‐history strategies within a fast–slow continuum. The position of a species within this continuum is thought to reflect a negative relationship between growth and storage, with fast‐growing species allocating more carbon to growth and slow‐growing species investing more in storage. For tropical species, the relationship between storage and life‐history strategies has been largely studied on seedlings and less so in adult trees. We evaluated how stored non‐structural carbohydrates (NSC) vary across adult trees spanning the fast–slow continuum in the Peruvian Amazon by: (a) analysing whole‐tree NSC in two species of contrasting growth and (b) investigating the relationships with key life‐history traits across a broader set of species. Our results are consistent with a growth–storage trade‐off. The analysis of whole‐tree NSC revealed that the slow‐growing Eschweilera coriacea stored about 2.7 times as much NSC as the fast‐growing Bixa arborea due to markedly higher storage in woody stems and roots. B. arborea also had higher seasonality in NSC, reflecting its strong seasonality in stem growth. Across a range of species, stem starch was negatively related to species growth rate and positively related to wood density. Given the role of NSC in mediating plants' response to stress, our results suggest that slow‐growing species with greater storage reserves may be more resilient to drought than fast‐growing species. - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Non-structural carbohydrates mediate seasonal water stress across Amazon forests(Nature Research, 2021-12-01)Non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) are major substrates for plant metabolism and have been implicated in mediating drought-induced tree mortality. Despite their significance, NSC dynamics in tropical forests remain little studied. We present leaf and branch NSC data for 82 Amazon canopy tree species in six sites spanning a broad precipitation gradient. During the wet season, total NSC (NSCT) concentrations in both organs were remarkably similar across communities. However, NSCT and its soluble sugar (SS) and starch components varied much more across sites during the dry season. Notably, the proportion of leaf NSCT in the form of SS (SS:NSCT) increased greatly in the dry season in almost all species in the driest sites, implying an important role of SS in mediating water stress in these sites. This adjustment of leaf NSC balance was not observed in tree species less-adapted to water deficit, even under exceptionally dry conditions. Thus, leaf carbon metabolism may help to explain floristic sorting across water availability gradients in Amazonia and enable better prediction of forest responses to future climate change. - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Woody Plant Taxonomic, Functional, and Phylogenetic Diversity Decrease Along Elevational Gradients in Andean Tropical Montane Forests: Environmental Filtering and Arrival of Temperate Taxa(Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2023-08-06)Aim Mountains are paramount for exploring biodiversity patterns and their causes due to the rich mosaic of topographies and climates encompassed over short geographical distances. Biodiversity changes along elevational gradients have traditionally been explored in terms of taxonomic diversity, but other aspects must be considered. For first time, we simultaneously assessed elevational trends in the taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity of woody plants in Andean tropical montane forests (TMFs) and explored their underlying ecological and evolutionary causing processes. Location Tropical Andes Time period 2011/2012 and 2017/2019 Tropical Andes Major Taxa Woody plants Methods We investigated taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity along four transects (traversing ca . 2,200 m altitudinal gradients) encompassing 114 0.1 ha plots across a broad latitudinal range ( ca . 10°). We used Hill numbers to quantify differences in the abundance-based diversity of 37,869 woody plant individuals with DBH ≥ 2.5 cm. Results Taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity decreased as elevation increased. The decrease was less pronounced for Hill numbers of higher orders. The only exception was a slight increase in phylogenetic diversity when more weight was given to dominant species. These results were consistent between transects. Main conclusions The decrease in taxonomic and functional diversity with elevation might be due to an environmental filtering process where the increasingly harsher conditions towards highlands exclude species and functional strategies. Besides, the differences in the steepness of the decrease between Hill orders suggest that rare species contribute disproportionately to functional diversity. The shifting elevational trend in the phylogenetic diversity between Hill orders indicates a greater than previously considered influence in central tropical Andean highlands of species originated in lowlands with strong niche conservatism relative to distantly related temperate lineages. This could be explained by a decreasing presence and abundance of extratropical taxa towards the central Andes relative to northern or southern Andes. BIOSKETCH Guillermo Bañares-de-Dios is a plant ecologist with interests in community assembly, biodiversity patterns, and global change. He completed his PhD in 2020 and belongs to “Grupo de Ecología Tropical”, an international network of researchers from different institutions with broad interests in tropical biology ( http://www.grupoecologiatropical.com/?lang=en ). Currently he works as Project Manager implementing the European Pollinator Monitoring Scheme in Spain.3