Can small-scale altitudinal gradients predict spatial and temporal patterns in tropical forests?

Morelli, Mariana Caroline Moreira; Souza, Cléber Rodrigo de; Morel, Jean Daniel; Maia, Vinícius Andrade; Santos, Alisson Borges Miranda; Miranda, Kaline Fernandes; Santos, Rubens Manoel dos

doi:10.1007/s11676-020-01259-8

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Our results showed that elevational habitats exhibit significant differences in local scale of phylogenetic structures. The results sustain that local scale variations can promote phylogenetics diversity (Kembel & Hubbell 2006;Morelli et al 2021;Campos et al 2022), showing that phylogenetic diversity and structure could present a altitudinal patterns at local scale topographic gradient (Kembel & Hubbell 2006;Morelli et al 2021), the increase of altitude tend to decrease PD (Morelli et al 2021). Lower elevation areas showed higher phylogenetic diversity and higher distances between species and lower distances between species of closely related taxa (Morelli et al 2021).…”

Section: Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Structure At Local Scale Topographysupporting

confidence: 63%

“…The soil fertility gradient tends to be influenced by topographic variables, such as elevation and convexity, which influence species distribution at a local scale . The increase in the altitude tend to decrease the soil fertility (Rodrigues et al 2021a;Morelli et al 2021) and the fertility tend to increase the phylogenetic diversity (Morelli et al 2021), indicating that the niche differentiation at local scale effects on phylogenetic structure (Baldeck et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Phylogenetic and functional community structure of trees in a seasonal tropical forest

Gomes

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Habitat partitioning is important for understanding the drivers that influence the assembly of tropical forest communities. Understanding the local-scale effects of environmental gradients on diversity (taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic) involves understanding the role of each species within the plant communities. In this context, our objectives were as follows: (1) to understand how topography can influence taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity and which variables most influence community assembly on a local scale; (2) to understand how the topographic gradient shapes the functional identity of species, and how they contribute to understanding the mechanisms of community assembly on a local scale; (3) and to verify the functional trait composition of vertical strata and whether the strategies adopted by trees along vertical stratification are related to functional groups, leaf phenology and dispersal syndrome. The study was conducted in three permanent plots of 1 ha within a fragment of the Atlantic Forest. From the floristic list, a phylogenetic tree was created based on 211 species, and phylogenetic diversity was calculated: the average paired distance between all the taxa in the community, the average distance of the closest taxon in the community, and the standardized effect size for these metrics. We calculated the metrics of community weighted average, functional richness, functional uniformity, functional divergence, and metrics of phylogenetic diversity for each plot. Four leaf traits and two wood traits were selected: leaf area (cm²), specific leaf area (cm²/g), dry mass content (g/g), wood density (mg/m³), maximum height (m), and leaf thickness (cm). Multiple linear and generalized linear models were used to evaluate the effects of environmental variables on taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity. We analyzed the functional identity and diversity across topographic habitats. To analyze the relationship between leaf phenology and dispersal syndrome with the vertical stratification we performed the Qui-square test. We compared the mean values of the traits to understand the functional patterns within the functional groups of leaf phenology, dispersal syndrome, and vertical strata. The MRT grouped the subplots of the whole community into three habitats: lower, intermediate, and high topographic habitats. The diversity of the elevation habitats was significantly different; the intermediate habitats showed higher diversity than the other habitats, and the high habitats had the lowest diversity values. The Low habitats were always different from the other habitats, indicating that PD and MPD decreased with increasing altitude. The regression results showed that richness was negatively influenced by elevation and SB and positively influenced by soil moisture, coarse sand, and organic matter. The topographic gradients showed different functional compositions along the habitats; a high habitat was characterized by species with conservative leaf traits, higher functional divergence, and lower functional richness. The low habitat was characterized for acquisitive leaf traits, less functional divergence, and higher functional richness. Functional richness and functional divergence were the categorical traits that were best explained; at the local scale, edaphic variables appeared to be more important for the variation of the traits and functional diversity, and the texture of the soil was the main driver. Leaf phenology showed a functional pattern of trait mean values of acquisitive-conservative traits between deciduous and evergreen species. The traits mean values of dispersal syndrome shows that zoochory species are correlated with conservative traits and non-zoochory species are correlated with acquisitive traits. Our study demonstrates the importance of local-scale studies, showing that habitats found on local gradients can affect plant diversity at the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional levels. This result is very important for understanding how Seasonal Tropical Forests are structured horizontally and vertically and the patterns of functional composition. Keywords: Topography, community assembly, habitats, environmental variables, vertical stratification

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Section: Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Structure At Local Scale Topographysupporting

confidence: 63%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic and functional community structure of trees in a seasonal tropical forest

Gomes

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“…For example, to some extent areas located at higher altitudes can provide milder temperatures and higher humidity due to the presence of clouds and orographic rainfalls, influencing the formation of more peculiar flora (Hietz & Hietz -Seifert 1995;Ding et al 2016). Morelli et al (2020) recorded significant differences in the composition of trees in a mountain, showing that habitat heterogeneity of montane areas is conducive to species turnover.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vascular epiphytes of the Serra do Relógio: the surprising richness of the seasonal forests in the mountains of Minas Gerais, Southeastern Brazil

et al. 2022

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Studies conducted on vascular epiphytes in Minas Gerais have revealed high richness in the seasonal semi-deciduous forests (SSF) in comparison with those of other Brazilian states. This study aimed to present a vascular epiphyte checklist of the Serra do Relógio (SR) in the Atlantic Forest of Minas Gerais, in order to analyze the similarity between two areas in different altitudes, as well as to discuss the high richness recorded for this synusia in the SSFs of this state. The survey was performed in two conservation units (CUs) apart from each other approximately 6 km and with elevations varying between ~500 and 1,434 m. The data were obtained from published articles and fieldwork performed between the years 2016 and 2019. We recorded 158 species distributed in 76 genera and 22 families. This richness is greater than those found in some ombrophilous forests, which was an unexpected result due to the high moisture of this phytophysionomy. Although approximately 66% of the species found in the SR are anemochoric and the compared CUs are geographically close, the similarity was only 22%, suggesting that the difference in altitude between the areas and the history of use can impose filters that influence the floristic composition of each one area. These results highlight the importance of preserving the forest remnants in Brazil and creating and maintain CUs to protect them.

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“…The results also showed that the upstream forest and downstream forest beta diversity were quite different(P < 0.05), but the diversity was mainly composed of the richness difference 91.74% , different from other studies (He et al 2022). This may be caused by the small latitude span and insu cient altitude difference among our plots, since our survey area was not very large span in space (Morelli et al 2020). Edge effects reduced alpha diversity but not beta-diversity (Krishnadas et al 2019).…”

Section: Beta Diversity and Its Decomposition Of Karst Forest Along L...mentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Edge effects may contribute to the variation of species richness as it would increase species diversity (Krishnadas et al 2019). Meanwhile, altitude and soil factors may explain the spatial variation of tropical forest communities, and then affect the species diversity of the community (Morelli et al 2020). Therefore, we suggest to set up more environmental buffer zones in the middle reaches of the basin and plant more different kinds of trees in the plantations (Sha que et al 2021).…”

Section: Alpha Diversity Of Karst Forest Along Lijiang Rivermentioning

confidence: 99%

The study of species and phylogenetic diversity on karst forest along Lijiang River

Zhao

Zhou

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Forest community is the key point of global biodiversity conservation for its large number of species. Over the centuries, many scholars have tried to reveal the community diversity of forests such as tropical rainforests. But we know very little about karst forests because it is distributed in very few areas of the world. Lijiang river basin, a subtropical karst forest area, is a vital biodiversity hotspot in South China. In this paper, we aimed to reveal the characteristics of forestry species diversity in the karst area of Lijiang River by Hill diversity and two beta diversity partitioning method. We also studied the phylogenetic diversity and established a pedigree tree for the karst forest in the whole basin. Our findings showed that alpha diversity and beta diversity was quite different between the watershed. The alpha diversity indices in the upper reaches were significantly higher than that of the rest reaches, while the beta diversity was extreme variation among planted forest than natural forest. The decomposition of beta diversity in these karst forests showed that the diffusion limitation was the main driving force causing the beta diversity difference. The phylogenetic structure showed that the midstream karst forest had more distantly related species than other basins. We found that upstream forest was under species invasion while midstream karst forest was under factitious threatened. We suggest that the karst forests in the Lijiang River basin should be protected immediately. This study also filled the gap in the study of karst forests in subtropical regions.

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Can small-scale altitudinal gradients predict spatial and temporal patterns in tropical forests?

Cited by 5 publications

References 70 publications

Phylogenetic and functional community structure of trees in a seasonal tropical forest

Phylogenetic and functional community structure of trees in a seasonal tropical forest

Vascular epiphytes of the Serra do Relógio: the surprising richness of the seasonal forests in the mountains of Minas Gerais, Southeastern Brazil

The study of species and phylogenetic diversity on karst forest along Lijiang River

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