Basin-wide variations in foliar properties of Amazonian forest: phylogeny, soils and climate.
By N. Fyllas, S. Patiño, Timothy R. Baker, G. B. Nardoto, L. Martinelli, C. Quesada, R. Paiva, M. Schwarz, Viviana Horna, L. Mercado and 14 more. 2009
368 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Abstract. We analysed 1040 individual trees, located in 62 plots across the Amazon Basin for leaf mass per unit area (MA), foliar carbon isotopic composition (δ13C) and leaf level concentrations of C, N, P, Ca, Mg, K and Al. All trees were identified to the species level with the dataset containing 58 families, 236 genera and 508 species, distributed across a wide range of soil types and precipitation regimes. Some foliar characteristics such as MA, [C], [N] and [Mg] emerge as highly constrained by the taxonomic affiliation of tree species, but with others such as [P], [K], [Ca] and δ13C also strongly influenced by site growing conditions. By removing the environmental contribution to trait variation, we find that intrinsic values of most trait pairs coordinate, although different species (characterised by different trait suites) are found at discrete locations along a common axis of coordination. Species that tend to occupy higher fertility soils are characterised by a lower MA and have a higher intrinsic [N], [P], [K], [Mg] and δ13C than their lower fertility counterparts. Despite this consistency, different scaling patterns were observed between low and high fertility sites. Inter-relationships are thus substantially modified by growth environment. Analysing the environmental component of trait variation, we found soil fertility to be the most important predictor, influencing all leaf nutrient concentrations and δ13C and reducing MA. Mean annual temperature was negatively associated with leaf level [N], [P] and [K] concentrations. Total annual precipitation positively influences MA, [C] and δ13C, but with a negative impact on [Mg]. These results provide a first basis for understanding the relationship between the physiological functioning and distribution of tree species across Amazonia.
Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cf0939e1a96f8b3f14be259bdad0ad53217edd88
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Citations in the corpus
- The Nitrogen Paradox in Tropical Forest Ecosystems (2009, background): “By analyzing more than 1000 trees in 63 plots across the Amazon Basin, Fyllas et al. (2009) showed that foliar P, Ca, and K were strongly influenced by local growing conditions, whereas N largely varied with taxonomic affiliation.”
- BHPMF – a hierarchical Bayesian approach to gap-filling and trait prediction for macroecology and functional biogeography (2015, methodology): “For our local example, we extracted TRY trait data contributed by the RAINFOR group (Fyllas et al., 2009), which shows a good coverage (sparsity 11%) and covers most of the Amazon (Fig.”
- Allocation of foliar phosphorus fractions and leaf traits of tropical tree species in response to decreased soil phosphorus availability on Mount Kinabalu, Borneo (2011, background): “:P ratios (mass basis mean of 40.2±2.0 in Site 1) and lower foliar P concentrations (mean of 0.30±0.02 mg g)1 in Site 1) than observed in other tropical rainforests (McGroddy, Daufresne & Hedin 2004; Paoli 2006; Townsend et al. 2007; Hättenschwiler et al. 2008; Fyllas et al. 2009).”
- Does functional trait diversity predict above‐ground biomass and productivity of tropical forests? Testing three alternative hypotheses (2015, background): “Unweighted mean trait values, for instance, vary with soil fertility and dry season length in Amazonian forests (Baker et al. 2009; Fyllas et al. 2009).”
- Optimisation of photosynthetic carbon gain and within-canopy gradients of associated foliar traits for Amazon forest trees (2010, methodology): “To the extent that foliar nutrient concentrations are related to variations in leaf photosynthesis (Domingues et al., 2005, 2010; Mercado et al., 2009), A * 0 should reflect some combination of genetic and environmental influences (Fyllas et al., 2009).”
- Species‐specific responses of foliar nutrients to long‐term nitrogen and phosphorus additions in a lowland tropical forest (2014, background): “Given the lability of this fraction within plants, it is likely that seasonal variations in foliar [P] and N/P observed in tropical forest plants (Townsend et al. 2007; Fyllas et al. 2009) could largely be due to changes in the proportion of Pi.”
- Abiotic and biotic drivers of biomass change in a Neotropical forest (2017, background): “…texture affects the trait composition of African forests (Fayolle et al. 2012) and soil fertility affects trait composition across the Amazon basin (Fyllas et al. 2009), and with studies showing that soil fertility affects species richness positively in a Guyanese tropical rainforest (van der…”
- Which is a better predictor of plant traits: temperature or precipitation? (2014, neutral): “…& Ackerly 2009) 89 (Kattge et al. 2009) 136 (van Bodegom et al. 2008) 138 (Bakker et al. 2006) 139 (Bakker et al. 2005) 140 (Baker et al. 2009; Fyllas et al. 2009; Patiño et al. 2009) 141 (Medlyn et al. 1999; Medlyn & Jarvis 1999; Medlyn et al. 2001) 151 (Wright et al. 2007) 157 (Fonseca et…”
- Branch xylem density variations across the Amazon Basin (2009, background): “Additional studies on these subjects, particularly how variations in ρx relates to other plant physiological characteristics (e.g. Fyllas et al., 2009) are needed to better understand the functional diversity of Amazonian trees.”