期刊
ECOLOGY LETTERS
卷 13, 期 7, 页码 849-857出版社
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01480.x
关键词
Barro Colorado Nature Monument; diversity maintenance; gap-phase regeneration; lianas; Panama; treefall gaps; tropical forests
类别
资金
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [0845071, 1019436] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
P>Treefall gaps are hypothesized to maintain diversity by creating resource-rich, heterogeneous habitats necessary for species coexistence. This hypothesis, however, is not supported empirically for shade-tolerant trees, the dominant plant group in tropical forests. The failure of gaps to maintain shade-tolerant trees remains puzzling, and the hypothesis implicated to date is dispersal limitation. In central Panama, we tested an alternative 'biotic interference' hypothesis: that competition between growth forms (lianas vs. trees) constrains shade-tolerant tree recruitment, survival and diversity in gaps. We experimentally removed lianas from eight gaps and monitored them for 8 years, while also monitoring nine un-manipulated control gaps. Removing lianas increased tree growth, recruitment and richness by 55, 46 and 65%, respectively. Lianas were particularly harmful to shade-tolerant species, but not pioneers. Our findings demonstrate that competition between plant growth forms constrains diversity in a species-rich tropical forest. Because lianas are abundant in many tropical systems, our findings may apply broadly.
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