title: Linking canopy leaf area and light environments with tree size distributions to explain Amazon forest demography.
abstract: Forest biophysical structure - the arrangement and frequency of leaves and stems - emerges from growth, mortality and space filling dynamics, and may also influence those dynamics by structuring light environments. To investigate this interaction, we developed models that could use LiDAR remote sensing to link leaf area profiles with tree size distributions, comparing models which did not (metabolic scaling theory) and did allow light to influence this link. We found that a light environment-to-structure link was necessary to accurately simulate tree size distributions and canopy structure in two contrasting Amazon forests. Partitioning leaf area profiles into size-class components, we found that demographic rates were related to variation in light absorption, with mortality increasing relative to growth in higher light, consistent with a light environment feedback to size distributions. Combining LiDAR with models linking forest structure and demography offers a high-throughput approach to advance theory and investigate climate-relevant tropical forest change.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.|Department of Forestry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA.
authors.forename: Scott C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Stark
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.|The Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM, 87501, USA.
authors.forename: Brian J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Enquist
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.
authors.forename: Scott R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Saleska
authors.affiliation: Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), São José dos Campos, São Paulo, 12201-970, Brazil.
authors.forename: Veronika
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Leitold
authors.affiliation: Coordenação de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), Manaus, Amazonas, 69011-970, Brazil.
authors.forename: Juliana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schietti
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Marcos
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Longo
authors.affiliation: Centro de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento de Recursos Genéticos Vegetais, Instituto Agronômico de Campinas (IAC), CP 28, Campinas, São Paulo, 13012-970, Brazil.|Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), CP 6109, Campinas, São Paulo, 13093-970, Brazil.
authors.forename: Luciana F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Ecologia Isotópica, Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA), Universidade de São Paulo, Piracicaba, São Paulo, 13400-970, Brazil.
authors.forename: Plinio B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Camargo
authors.affiliation: NAPT Médio Amazonas, Embrapa Amazônia Oriental, Santarém, Pará, 68035-110, Brazil.
authors.forename: Raimundo C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Oliveira
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D065928:Forests; D008027:Light; D008954:Models, Biological; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000254:growth & development*; D063809:Satellite Imagery; D014197:Trees / Q000254:growth & development*; D014329:Tropical Climate
keywords: Amazon forest; LiDAR; canopy plasticity; canopy structure; forest dynamics; leaf area profiles; light competition; metabolic scaling theory; remote sensing; tree demography