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Testing the competition-colonization trade-off and its correlations with functional trait variations among subtropical tree species.

ABSTRACT: The competition-colonization trade-off, by which species can partition spatial niches, is a potentially important mechanism allowing the maintenance of species diversity in plant communities. We examined whether there was evidence for this trade-off among tree species in a subtropical forest and how it correlated with eight functional traits. We developed and estimated a metric for colonization ability that incorporates both fecundity and seed dispersal based on seed trap data and the sizes and distributions of adult trees. Competitive ability was estimated as survival probability under high crowding conditions based on neighborhood models. Although we found no significant relationship between colonization and competitive abilities, there was a significant negative correlation between long distance dispersal ability and competitive ability at the 5?cm size class. Colonizers had traits associated with faster growth, such as large leaves and low leaf lamina density, whereas competitors had traits associated with higher survival, such as dense wood. Our results imply that any trade-off between competition and colonization may be more determined by dispersal ability than by fecundity, suggesting that seed dispersal is an important contributor to diversity maintenance. Future work should test how competitive ability covaries with the components of colonization ability, as we did here.

SUBMITTER: Bin Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6802185 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Testing the competition-colonization trade-off and its correlations with functional trait variations among subtropical tree species.

Bin Yue Y Lin Guojun G Russo Sabrina E SE Huang Zhongliang Z Shen Yong Y Cao Honglin H Lian Juyu J Ye Wanhui W

Scientific reports 20191018 1

The competition-colonization trade-off, by which species can partition spatial niches, is a potentially important mechanism allowing the maintenance of species diversity in plant communities. We examined whether there was evidence for this trade-off among tree species in a subtropical forest and how it correlated with eight functional traits. We developed and estimated a metric for colonization ability that incorporates both fecundity and seed dispersal based on seed trap data and the sizes and ...[more]

PMID: 31628341

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Project description:The dissimilarity and hierarchy of trait values that characterize niche and fitness differences, respectively, have been increasingly applied to infer mechanisms driving community assembly and to explain species co-occurrence patterns. Here, we predict that limiting similarity should result in the spatial segregation of functionally similar species, while functionally similar species will be more likely to co-occur either due to environmental filtering or due to competitive exclusion of inferior competitors (hereafter hierarchical competition).We used a fully mapped 50-ha subtropical forest plot in southern China to explore how pairwise spatial associations between saplings and between adult trees were influenced by trait dissimilarity and hierarchy in order to gain insight into assembly mechanisms. We assessed pairwise spatial associations using two summary statistics of spatial point patterns at different spatial scales and compared the effects of trait dissimilarity and trait hierarchy of different functional traits on the interspecific spatial associations. These comparisons allow us to disentangle the effects of limiting similarity, environmental filtering, and hierarchical competition on species co-occurrence.We found that trait dissimilarity was generally negatively related to interspecific spatial associations for both saplings and adult trees across spatial scales, meaning that species with similar trait values were more likely to co-occur and thus supporting environmental filtering or hierarchical competition. We further found that trait hierarchy outweighed trait dissimilarity in structuring pairwise spatial associations, suggesting that hierarchical competition played a more important role in structuring our forest community than environmental filtering across life stages.This study employed a novel method, by offering the integration of pairwise spatial association and trait dissimilarity as well as trait hierarchy, to disentangle the relative importance of multiple assembly mechanisms in structuring co-occurrence patterns, especially the mechanisms of environmental filtering and hierarchical competition, which lead to indistinguishable co-occurrence patterns. This study also reinforced the importance of trait hierarchy rather than trait dissimilarity in driving neighborhood competition.

Project description:Vessel traits are key in understanding trees' hydraulic efficiency, and related characteristics like growth performance and drought tolerance. While most plant hydraulic studies have focused on aboveground organs, our understanding of root hydraulic functioning and trait coordination across organs remains limited. Furthermore, studies from seasonally dry (sub-)tropical ecosystems and mountain forests are virtually lacking and uncertainties remain regarding potentially different hydraulic strategies of plants differing in leaf habit. Here, we compared wood anatomical traits and specific hydraulic conductivities between coarse roots and small branches of five drought-deciduous and eight evergreen angiosperm tree species in a seasonally dry subtropical Afromontane forest in Ethiopia. We hypothesized that largest vessels and highest hydraulic conductivities are found in roots, with greater vessel tapering between roots and equally-sized branches in evergreen angiosperms due to their drought-tolerating strategy. We further hypothesized that the hydraulic efficiencies of root and branches cannot be predicted from wood density, but that wood densities across organs are generally related. Root-to-branch ratios of conduit diameters varied between 0.8 and 2.8, indicating considerable differences in tapering from coarse roots to small branches. While deciduous trees showed larger branch xylem vessels compared to evergreen angiosperms, root-to-branch ratios were highly variable within both leaf habit types, and evergreen species did not show a more pronounced degree of tapering. Empirically determined hydraulic conductivity and corresponding root-to-branch ratios were similar between both leaf habit types. Wood density of angiosperm roots was negatively related to hydraulic efficiency and vessel dimensions; weaker relationships were found in branches. Wood density of small branches was neither related to stem nor coarse root wood densities. We conclude that in seasonally dry subtropical forests, similar-sized coarse roots hold larger xylem vessels than small branches, but the degree of tapering from roots to branches is highly variable. Our results indicate that leaf habit does not necessarily influence the relationship between coarse root and branch hydraulic traits. However, larger conduits in branches and a low carbon investment in less dense wood may be a prerequisite for high growth rates of drought-deciduous trees during their shortened growing season. The correlation of stem and root wood densities with root hydraulic traits but not branch wood points toward large trade-offs in branch xylem towards mechanical properties.

Dataset Information

Testing the competition-colonization trade-off and its correlations with functional trait variations among subtropical tree species.

Publications

Testing the competition-colonization trade-off and its correlations with functional trait variations among subtropical tree species.

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