Journal Article

Directional changes in the species composition of a tropical forest

Feeley, Kenneth J., Hubbell, Stephen P., Perez, Rolando, Davies, Stuart J., Foster, Robin B.

2011

نظرة عامة

Long-term studies have revealed that the structure and dynamics of many tropical forests are changing, but the causes and consequences of these changes remain debated. To learn more about the forces driving changes within tropical forests, we investigated shifts in tree species composition over the past 25 years within the 50-ha Forest Dynamics Plot on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama, and examined how observed patterns relate to predictions of (1) random population fluctuations, (2) carbon fertilization, (3) succession from past disturbance, (4) recovery from an extreme El Niñño drought at the start of the study period, and (5) long-term climate change. We found that there have been consistent and directional changes in the tree species composition. These shifts have led to increased relative representations of drought-tolerant species as determined by the species' occurrence both across a gradient of soil moisture within BCI and across a wider precipitation gradient from a dry forest near the Pacific coast of Panama to a wet forest near its Caribbean coast. These nonrandom changes cannot be explained by stochastic fluctuations or carbon fertilization. They may be the legacy of the El Niñño drought, or alternatively, potentially reflect increased aridity due to long-term climate change. By investigating compositional changes, we increased not only our understanding of the ecology of tropical forests and their responses to large-scale disturbances, but also our ability to predict how future global change will impact some of the critical services provided by these important ecosystems.

• الناشر: Ecological Society of America
• موضوع: Animal and plant ecology / Animal, plant and microbial ecology / Barro Colorado Island / Biological and medical sciences / Carbon / carbon fertilization / Censuses / Center for Tropical Forest Science / Climate change / coasts / Drought / drought tolerance / dry environmental conditions / Dry forests / Ecology / Ecosystem / ecosystems / El Nino / El Nino-Southern Oscillation / El Niño Southern Oscillation / El Niñño Southern Oscillation / ENSO / Forest ecology / Forest succession / Forestry / Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology / General aspects / General forest ecology / Generalities. Production, biomass. Quality of wood and forest products. General forest ecology / Geography / islands / Models, Biological / Moisture / Ocean currents / Panama / Plant ecology / prediction / Rainforests / soil water / species diversity / Species Specificity / Synecology / Time Factors / Trees / Tropical Climate / tropical forest / Tropical forests