The importance of demographic niches to tree diversity.
Most ecological hypotheses about species coexistence hinge on species differences, but quantifying trait differences across species in diverse communities is often unfeasible. We examined the variation of demographic traits using a global tropical forest data set covering 4500 species in 10 large-scale tree inventories. With a hierarchical Bayesian approach, we quantified the distribution of mortality and growth rates of all tree species at each site. This allowed us to test the prediction that demographic differences facilitate species richness, as suggested by the theory that a tradeoff between high growth and high survival allows species to coexist. Contrary to the prediction, the most diverse forests had the least demographic variation. Although demographic differences may foster coexistence, they do not explain any of the 16-fold variation in tree species richness observed across the tropics.
Condit
Richard
R
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, 735 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, USA. condit@ctfs.si.edu
Ashton
Peter
P
Bunyavejchewin
Sarayudh
S
Dattaraja
H S
HS
Davies
Stuart
S
Esufali
Shameema
S
Ewango
Corneille
C
Foster
Robin
R
Gunatilleke
I A U N
IA
Gunatilleke
C V S
CV
Hall
Pamela
P
Harms
Kyle E
KE
Hart
Terese
T
Hernandez
Consuelo
C
Hubbell
Stephen
S
Itoh
Akira
A
Kiratiprayoon
Somboon
S
Lafrankie
James
J
de Lao
Suzanne Loo
SL
Makana
Jean-Remy
JR
Noor
Md Nur Supardi
MN
Kassim
Abdul Rahman
AR
Russo
Sabrina
S
Sukumar
Raman
R
Samper
Cristián
C
Suresh
Hebbalalu S
HS
Tan
Sylvester
S
Thomas
Sean
S
Valencia
Renato
R
Vallejo
Martha
M
Villa
Gorky
G
Zillio
Tommaso
T
D000349:Africa; D000569:Americas; D001208:Asia; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D044822:Biodiversity; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D007194:India; D015233:Models, Statistical; D016011:Normal Distribution; D012621:Seasons; D014197:Trees / Q000254:growth & development; D014887:Weather