Beyond the fast–slow continuum: demographic dimensions structuring a tropical tree community

Rüger, Nadja; Comita, Liza S.; Condit, Richard; Purves, Drew W.; Rosenbaum, Benjamin; Visser, Marco D.; Wright, S. Joseph; Wirth, Christian

doi:10.1111/ele.12974

Cited by 137 publications

(235 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…It is remarkable that, despite the lack of communication, macroecological studies aimed at describing variation in functional traits and life‐history traits have found similar drivers of this variation (Díaz et al., ; Salguero‐Gómez, Jones, Jongejans, et al., ). Recently, both approaches have found a common ground through relationships between specific leaf area and generation time (Rüger et al., ; Salguero‐Gómez, ). We anticipate that the next decade will witness a fruitful marriage between trait‐based and demographic approaches, not only because the functionality of traits must be evaluated with respect to their effects on fitness components (Adler, Fajardo,et al., ; Adler, Salguero‐Gómez, et al., ; Lande, ), but also, perhaps most importantly, because many of the current needs of functional ecology and population ecology may be satiated with the theoretical frameworks and methodological strengths of the other.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The prospect that these and other recent macroecological studies (e.g. Rüger et al, 2018) might have just scratched the surface of functional trait-vital rate relationships has motivated this special feature.…”

Section: Motivation and Goalsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…The prospect that these and other recent macroecological studies (e.g. Rüger et al., ) might have just scratched the surface of functional trait–vital rate relationships has motivated this special feature. Our motivation is further fuelled by the possibility that the promise of both approaches can greatly boost progress in functional ecology and population ecology (Section 2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Delivering the promises of trait‐based approaches to the needs of demographic approaches, and vice versa

et al. 2018

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Few facets of biology vary more than functional traits and life‐history traits. To explore this vast variation, functional ecologists and population ecologists have developed independent approaches that identify the mechanisms behind and consequences of trait variation.Collaborative research between researchers using trait‐based and demographic approaches remains scarce. We argue that this is a missed opportunity, as the strengths of both approaches could help boost the research agendas of functional ecology and population ecology.This special feature, which spans three journals of the British Ecological Society due to its interdisciplinary nature, showcases state‐of‐the‐art research applying trait‐based and demographic approaches to examine relationships between organismal function, life history strategies and population performance across multiple kingdoms. Examples include the exploration of how functional trait × environment interactions affect vital rates and thus explain population trends and species occurrence; the coordination of seed traits and dispersal ability with the pace of life in plants; the incorporation of functional traits in dynamic energy budget models; or the discovery of linkages between microbial functional traits and the fast–slow continuum.Despite their historical isolation, collaborative work between functional ecologists and population ecologists could unlock novel research pathways. We call for an integrative research agenda to evaluate which and when traits are functional, as well as their ability to describe and predict life history strategies and population dynamics. We highlight promising, complementary research avenues to overcome current limitations. These include a more explicit linkage of selection gradients in the context of functional trait–vital rate relationships, and the implementation of standardised protocols to track changes in traits and vital rates over time at the same location and individuals, thus allowing for the explicit incorporation of trade‐offs in analyses of covariation of functional traits and life‐history traits.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Motivation and Goalsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

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Delivering the promises of trait‐based approaches to the needs of demographic approaches, and vice versa

et al. 2018

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“…, Rüger et al. ). We measured specific leaf area (SLA) on randomly selected, censused individuals within the Yasuní plot (Kraft et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Topography and neighborhood crowding can interact to shape species growth and distribution in a diverse Amazonian forest

Fortunel

Lasky

Uriarte

et al. 2018

Ecology

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Abiotic constraints and biotic interactions act simultaneously to shape communities. However, these community assembly mechanisms are often studied independently, which can limit understanding of how they interact to affect species dynamics and distributions. We develop a hierarchical Bayesian neighborhood modeling approach to quantify the simultaneous effects of topography and crowding by neighbors on the growth of 124,704 individual stems ≥1 cm DBH for 1,047 tropical tree species in a 25-ha mapped rainforest plot in Amazonian Ecuador. We build multi-level regression models to evaluate how four key functional traits (specific leaf area, maximum tree size, wood specific gravity and seed mass) mediate tree growth response to topography and neighborhood crowding. Tree growth is faster in valleys than on ridges and is reduced by neighborhood crowding. Topography and crowding interact to influence tree growth in ~10% of the species. Specific leaf area, maximum tree size and seed mass are associated with growth responses to topography, but not with responses to neighborhood crowding or with the interaction between topography and crowding. In sum, our study reveals that topography and neighborhood crowding each influence tree growth in tropical forests, but act largely independently in shaping species distributions. While traits were associated with species response to topography, their role in species response to neighborhood crowding was less clear, which suggests that trait effects on neighborhood dynamics may depend on the direction (negative/positive) and degree of symmetry of biotic interactions. Our study emphasizes the importance of simultaneously assessing the individual and interactive role of multiple mechanisms in shaping species dynamics in high diversity tropical systems.

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“…'Fast' species grow quickly but survive poorly and dominate early successional stages, while 'slow' species grow slow but survive well and reach dominance in later successional stages. In addition, 50 several studies suggest that tropical tree communities are also structured along a second major tradeoff axis that is orthogonal to the growth-survival tradeoff: the stature-recruitment tradeoff (8,9). The stature-recruitment tradeoff distinguishes long-lived pioneers (LLPs) from short-lived breeders (SLBs).…”

Section: Main Text 35mentioning

confidence: 99%

Demographic tradeoffs predict tropical forest dynamics

Rüger

Condit

Dent

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Assessing vegetation feedbacks with the climate system and planning sustainable management in tropical forests requires efficient, yet accurate, predictions of the joint dynamics of hundreds of 25 tree species. With increasing information on tropical tree life-histories, our predictive understanding is no longer limited by species data, but by the ability of existing models to make use of it. Using a demographic forest model, we show that the basal area and compositional changes during forest succession in a Neotropical forest can be accurately predicted by representing tropical tree diversity (hundreds of species) with only five functional groups 30 spanning two essential tradeoffsthe growth-survival and stature-recruitment tradeoffs. This data-driven modeling framework substantially improves our ability to predict consequences of anthropogenic impacts on tropical forests.

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Beyond the fast–slow continuum: demographic dimensions structuring a tropical tree community

Cited by 137 publications

References 58 publications

Delivering the promises of trait‐based approaches to the needs of demographic approaches, and vice versa

Delivering the promises of trait‐based approaches to the needs of demographic approaches, and vice versa

Topography and neighborhood crowding can interact to shape species growth and distribution in a diverse Amazonian forest

Demographic tradeoffs predict tropical forest dynamics

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