title: A taxonomic comparison of local habitat niches of tropical trees.
abstract: The integration of ecology and evolutionary biology requires an understanding of the evolutionary lability in species' ecological niches. For tropical trees, specialization for particular soil resource and topographic conditions is an important part of the habitat niche, influencing the distributions of individual species and overall tree community structure at the local scale. However, little is known about how these habitat niches are related to the evolutionary history of species. We assessed the relationship between taxonomic rank and tree species' soil resource and topographic niches in eight large (24-50 ha) tropical forest dynamics plots. Niche overlap values, indicating the similarity of two species' distributions along soil or topographic axes, were calculated for all pairwise combinations of co-occurring tree species at each study site. Congeneric species pairs often showed greater niche overlap (i.e., more similar niches) than non-congeneric pairs along both soil and topographic axes, though significant effects were found for only five sites based on Mantel tests. No evidence for taxonomic effects was found at the family level. Our results indicate that local habitat niches of trees exhibit varying degrees of phylogenetic signal at different sites, which may have important ramifications for the phylogenetic structure of these communities.
authors.affiliation: Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Illinois, 505 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL, 61801, USA, baldeck2@life.illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Claire A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Baldeck
authors.forename: Steven W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Kembel
authors.forename: Kyle E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Harms
authors.forename: Joseph B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Yavitt
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: John
authors.forename: Benjamin L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: George B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Chuyong
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kenfack
authors.forename: Duncan W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Sumedha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Madawala
authors.forename: Nimal
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gunatilleke
authors.forename: Savitri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gunatilleke
authors.forename: Sarayudh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bunyavejchewin
authors.forename: Somboon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kiratiprayoon
authors.forename: Adzmi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yaacob
authors.forename: Mohd N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Nur Supardi
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Valencia
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Navarrete
authors.forename: Stuart J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: Stephen P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Hubbell
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Dalling
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D017753:Ecosystem; D010802:Phylogeny; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry; D014197:Trees / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D014329:Tropical Climate
chemical_list: D012987:Soil