Publication Date:
2008-10-25
Description:
It is debated whether species-level differences in ecological strategy, which play a key role in much of coexistence theory, are important in structuring highly diverse communities. We examined the co-occurrence patterns of over 1100 tree species in a 25-hectare Amazonian forest plot in relation to field-measured functional traits. Using a null model approach, we show that co-occurring trees are often less ecologically similar than a niche-free (neutral) model predicts. Furthermore, we find evidence for processes that simultaneously drive convergence and divergence in key aspects of plant strategy, suggesting that at least two distinct niche-based processes are occurring. Our results show that strategy differentiation among species contributes to the maintenance of diversity in one of the most diverse tropical forests in the world.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kraft, Nathan J B -- Valencia, Renato -- Ackerly, David D -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2008 Oct 24;322(5901):580-2. doi: 10.1126/science.1160662.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18948539" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
*Biodiversity
;
*Ecosystem
;
Ecuador
;
Nitrogen/analysis
;
Plant Leaves/anatomy & histology/chemistry
;
Population Dynamics
;
Seeds
;
*Trees/anatomy & histology/growth & development/physiology
;
*Tropical Climate
;
Wood
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
