title: The importance of demographic niches to tree diversity.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, 735 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, USA. condit@ctfs.si.edu
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Condit
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ashton
authors.forename: Sarayudh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bunyavejchewin
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Dattaraja
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: Shameema
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Esufali
authors.forename: Corneille
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ewango
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.forename: I A U N
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Gunatilleke
authors.forename: C V S
authors.initials: CV
authors.lastname: Gunatilleke
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: Kyle E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Harms
authors.forename: Terese
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hart
authors.forename: Consuelo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hernandez
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hubbell
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Itoh
authors.forename: Somboon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kiratiprayoon
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lafrankie
authors.forename: Suzanne Loo
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: de Lao
authors.forename: Jean-Remy
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Makana
authors.forename: Md Nur Supardi
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Noor
authors.forename: Abdul Rahman
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Kassim
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.forename: Raman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sukumar
authors.forename: Cristián
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Samper
authors.forename: Hebbalalu S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Suresh
authors.forename: Sylvester
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Valencia
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vallejo
authors.forename: Gorky
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Villa
authors.forename: Tommaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zillio
mesh_terms: 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