Journal
ECOLOGY
Volume 98, Issue 3, Pages 712-720Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/ecy.1683
Keywords
arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi; coexistence; community compensatory trend; Janzen Connell hypothesis; seedling mortality; tropical forest
Categories
Funding
- Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University
- Columbia University
- NSF [BSR-8811902, DEB 9411973, DEB 0080538, DEB 0218039, DEB 0620910, DEB 0963447]
- NERC [ceh020002] Funding Source: UKRI
- Natural Environment Research Council [ceh020002] Funding Source: researchfish
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [1122325] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Negative population feedbacks mediated by natural enemies can promote species coexistence at the community scale through disproportionate mortality of numerically dominant (common) tree species. Simultaneously, associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can result in positive effects on tree populations. Coupling data on seedling foliar damage from herbivores and pathogens and DNA sequencing of soil AMF diversity, we assessed the effects of these factors on tree seedling mortality at local (1 m(2)) and community (16 ha plot) scales in a tropical rainforest in Puerto Rico. At the local scale, AMF diversity in soil counteracted negative effects from foliar damage on seedling mortality. At the community scale, mortality of seedlings of common tree species increased with foliar damage while rare tree species benefited from soil AMF diversity. Together, the effects of foliar damage and soil AMF diversity on seedling mortality might foster tree species coexistence in this forest.
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