Journal Article

Crown damage and the mortality of tropical trees

Stuart J. Davies, Gabriel Arellano, Sylvester Tan, Mohizah Mohamad, Nagore G. Medina

2019

Overview

What causes individual tree death in tropical forests remains a major gap in our understanding of the biology of tropical trees and leads to significant uncertainty in predicting global carbon cycle dynamics. We measured individual characteristics (diameter at breast height, wood density, growth rate, crown illumination and crown form) and environmental conditions (soil fertility and habitat suitability) for 26 425 trees ≥ 10 cm diameter at breast height belonging to 416 species in a 52-ha plot in Lambir Hills National Park, Malaysia. We used structural equation models to investigate the relationships among the different factors and tree mortality. Crown form (a proxy for mechanical damage and other stresses) and prior growth were the two most important factors related to mortality. The effect of all variables on mortality (except habitat suitability) was substantially greater than expected by chance. Tree death is the result of interactions between factors, including direct and indirect effects. Crown form/damage and prior growth mediated most of the effect of tree size, wood density, fertility and habitat suitability on mortality. Large-scale assessment of crown form or status may result in improved prediction of individual tree death at the landscape scale.

• Publisher: New Phytologist Trust,Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subject: Biology / Carbon cycle / Center for Tropical Forest Science / crown illumination / crown structure / Damage / Death / Density / Dynamics / Ecosystem / Environmental conditions / environmental factors / Fertility / Forests / growth / Growth rate / habitat preferences / Habitats / Height / Interactions / Lambir Hills National Park / landscapes / life‐history / lighting / Malaysia / mechanical damage / Models, Biological / Mortality / National parks / plant population and community dynamics / prediction / Predictions / Soil / Soil conditions / Soil fertility / Stress, Physiological / structural equation modeling / tree and stand measurements / tree mortality / Trees / Trees - physiology / Tropical Climate / Tropical forests / tropical plants / uncertainty / Wood / Wood - chemistry / wood density