Foliar trait contrasts between African forest and savanna trees: genetic versus environmental effects

Schrodt, Franziska; Domingues, Tomas F.; Feldpausch, Ted R.; Saiz, Gustavo; Quesada, Carlos Alberto; Schwarz, Michael P.; Ishida, Françoise Yoko; Compaoré, Halidou; Diallo, Adamo; Djagbletey, Gloria; Hien, F.; Sonké, Bonaventure; Toedoumg, Herman; Zapfack, L.; Hiernaux, Pierre; Mougin, E.; Bird, Michael I.; Grace, J.; Lewis, Simon L.; Veenendaal, E.M.

doi:10.1071/fp14040

Cited by 25 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…4 shows the associations between A sat(a) , M a , N a and P a where-noting that all savanna species were deciduous—we have further differentiated forest species according to their leaf habit (evergreen vs. deciduous) as in Schrodt et al (2014). …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Biome-specific effects of nitrogen and phosphorus on the photosynthetic characteristics of trees at a forest-savanna boundary in Cameroon

et al. 2015

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Photosynthesis/nutrient relationships of proximally growing forest and savanna trees were determined in an ecotonal region of Cameroon (Africa). Although area-based foliar N concentrations were typically lower for savanna trees, there was no difference in photosynthetic rates between the two vegetation formation types. Opposite to N, area-based P concentrations were—on average—slightly lower for forest trees; a dependency of photosynthetic characteristics on foliar P was only evident for savanna trees. Thus savanna trees use N more efficiently than their forest counterparts, but only in the presence of relatively high foliar P. Along with some other recent studies, these results suggest that both N and P are important modulators of woody tropical plant photosynthetic capacities, influencing photosynthetic metabolism in different ways that are also biome specific. Attempts to find simple unifying equations to describe woody tropical vegetation photosynthesis-nutrient relationships are likely to meet with failure, with ecophysiological distinctions between forest and savanna requiring acknowledgement.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00442-015-3250-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Biome-specific effects of nitrogen and phosphorus on the photosynthetic characteristics of trees at a forest-savanna boundary in Cameroon

et al. 2015

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“…, Schrodt et al. ), thereby altering the recycling and supply of nutrients within a landscape. The traits of plant species can also determine the demand for nutrients because of different growth rates, allometries, and tissue stoichiometries (Fig.…”

Section: Scales At Which Nutrient Limitation May Operatementioning

confidence: 99%

“…, Schrodt et al. ) and when combined with their high investment in leaf biomass, require greater amounts of nutrients to grow than savanna species (Silva et al. ).…”

Section: Quantifying Nutrient Limitation Of Savanna–forest Biome Tranmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrient limitation in tropical savannas across multiple scales and mechanisms

Pellegrini

2016

Ecology

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Nutrients have been hypothesized to influence the distribution of the savanna biome through two possible mechanisms. Low nutrient availability may restrict growth rates of trees, thereby allowing for intermittent fires to maintain low tree cover; alternatively, nutrient deficiency may even place an absolute constraint on the ability of forests to form, independent of fire. However, we have little understanding of the scales at which nutrient limitation operates, what nutrients are limiting, and the mechanisms that influence how nutrient limitation regulates savanna–forest transitions. Here, I review literature, synthesize existing data, and present a simple calculation of nutrient demand to evaluate how nutrient limitation may regulate the distribution of the savanna biome. The literature primarily supports the hypothesis that nutrients may interact dynamically with fire to restrict the transition of savanna into forest. A compilation of indirect metrics of nutrient limitation suggest that nitrogen and phosphorus are both in short supply and may limit plants. Nutrient demand calculations provided a number of insights. First, trees required high rates of nitrogen and phosphorus supply relative to empirically determined inputs. Second, nutrient demand increased as landscapes approached the transition point between savanna and forest. Third, the potential for fire‐driven nutrient losses remained high throughout transitions, which may exaggerate limitation and could be a key feedback stabilizing the savanna biome. Fourth, nutrient limitation varied between functional groups, with fast‐growing forest species having substantially greater nutrient demand and a higher susceptibility to fire‐driven nutrient losses. Finally, African savanna trees required substantially larger amounts of nutrients supplied at greater rates, although this varied across plant functional groups. In summary, the ability of nutrients to control transitions emerges at individual and landscape scales, and is regulated through different mechanisms based on spatial (differences in underlying geology), temporal (stage in biome transition) and biological (species traits and community composition) variability.

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“…Functional trait measurements and analyses have been the focus of numerous studies in recent decades (e.g. Reich et al, 1997;Wright et al, 2004;Chave et al, 2009;Schrodt et al, 2015). However, due to the time and resources required and the sheer number of species on earth, only a small number of species and their traits could be captured to date, especially in tropical and remote ecosystems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

BHPMF – a hierarchical Bayesian approach to gap‐filling and trait prediction for macroecology and functional biogeography

Schrodt

Kattge

Shan

et al. 2015

Global Ecology and Biogeography

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164

181

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Aim Functional traits of organisms are key to understanding and predicting biodiversity and ecological change, which motivates continuous collection of traits and their integration into global databases. Such trait matrices are inherently sparse, severely limiting their usefulness for further analyses. On the other hand, traits are characterized by the phylogenetic trait signal, trait-trait correlations and environmental constraints, all of which provide information that could be used to statistically fill gaps. We propose the application of probabilistic models which, for the first time, utilize all three characteristics to fill gaps in trait databases and predict trait values at larger spatial scales.Innovation For this purpose we introduce BHPMF, a hierarchical Bayesian extension of probabilistic matrix factorization (PMF). PMF is a machine learning technique which exploits the correlation structure of sparse matrices to impute missing entries. BHPMF additionally utilizes the taxonomic hierarchy for trait prediction and provides uncertainty estimates for each imputation. In combination with multiple regression against environmental information, BHPMF allows for extrapolation from point measurements to larger spatial scales. We demonstrate the applicability of BHPMF in ecological contexts, using different plant functional trait datasets, also comparing results to taking the species mean and PMF.Main conclusions Sensitivity analyses validate the robustness and accuracy of BHPMF: our method captures the correlation structure of the trait matrix as well as the phylogenetic trait signal -also for extremely sparse trait matrices -and provides a robust measure of confidence in prediction accuracy for each missing entry. The combination of BHPMF with environmental constraints provides a promising concept to extrapolate traits beyond sampled regions, accounting for intraspecific trait variability. We conclude that BHPMF and its derivatives have a high potential to support future trait-based research in macroecology and functional biogeography.

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Foliar trait contrasts between African forest and savanna trees: genetic versus environmental effects

Cited by 25 publications

References 61 publications

Biome-specific effects of nitrogen and phosphorus on the photosynthetic characteristics of trees at a forest-savanna boundary in Cameroon

Biome-specific effects of nitrogen and phosphorus on the photosynthetic characteristics of trees at a forest-savanna boundary in Cameroon

Nutrient limitation in tropical savannas across multiple scales and mechanisms

BHPMF – a hierarchical Bayesian approach to gap‐filling and trait prediction for macroecology and functional biogeography

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