Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T17:12:31.416Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Monodominance of Parashorea chinensis on fertile soils in a Chinese tropical rain forest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2014

Nic van der Velden ,
J. W. Ferry Slik ,
Yue-Hua Hu ,
Guoyu Lan ,
Luxian Lin ,
XiaoBao Deng  and
Lourens Poorter
Nic van der Velden
Affiliation:
Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands
J. W. Ferry Slik
Affiliation:
Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China Faculty of Science, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Jln Tungku Link, Gadong, BE1410, Brunei Darussalam
Yue-Hua Hu
Affiliation:
Keylab of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China
Guoyu Lan
Affiliation:
Keylab of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China
Luxian Lin
Affiliation:
Keylab of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China
XiaoBao Deng
Affiliation:
Keylab of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China
Lourens Poorter*
Affiliation:
Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands
*
1Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Monodominance in the tropics is often seen as an unusual phenomenon due to the normally high diversity in tropical rain forests. Here we studied Parashorea chinensis H. Wang (Dipterocarpaceae) in a seasonal tropical forest in south-west China, to elucidate the mechanisms behind its monodominance. Twenty-eight 20 × 20-m plots were established in monodominant and mixed forest in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan province. All individuals ≥1 cm stem diameter and 16 soil variables were measured. Parashorea chinensis forest had a significantly higher mean tree dbh compared with mixed forest. Diversity did not differ significantly between the two forest types. However, within monodominant patches, all diversity indices decreased with an increase in P. chinensis dominance. Floristic composition of P. chinensis forest did differ significantly from the mixed forest. These differences were associated with more fertile soils (significantly higher pH, Mn, K and lower carbon pools and C:N ratio) in the P. chinensis forest than the mixed forest. In contrast to current paradigms, this monodominant species is not associated with infertile, but with fertile soils. Parashorea chinensis seems to be especially associated with high manganese concentrations which it can tolerate, and with edaphic conditions (water, K) that allow this tall and exposed emergent species to maintain its water balance. This is in contrast with most previous studies on monodominance in the tropics that found either no effect of soil properties, or predict associations with nutrient-poor soils.

Keywords

diversitymanganesemonodominanceParashorea chinensispopulation structuresoil fertilitytropical forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , July 2014 , pp. 311 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

ASHTON, P. S. 1971. The plants and vegetation of Bako National Park. Malayan Nature Journal 24:151–162.Google Scholar
ASHTON, M. S., SINGHAKUMARA, B. M. P. & GAMAGE, H. K. 2006. Interaction between light and drought affect performance of Asian tropical tree species that have differing topographic affinities. Forest Ecology and Management 221:42–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BALTZER, J. L., THOMAS, S. C., NILUS, R. & BURSLEM, D. F. R. P. 2005. Edaphic specialization in tropical trees: physiological correlates and responses to reciprocal transplantation. Ecology 86:3063–3077.Google Scholar
BARKER, A.V. & PILBEAM, D. J. 2007. Handbook of plant nutrition. CRC Press, Boca Raton. 632 pp.Google Scholar
BONGERS, F., POPMA, J., DEL CASTILLO, J. M. & CARABIAS, J. 1988. Structure and floristic composition of the lowland rain-forest of Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. Vegetatio 74:55–80.Google Scholar
BENLLOCH-GONZÁLEZ, M., ARQUERO, O., FOURNIERA, J. M., BARRANCOA, D. & BENLLOCH, M. 2008. K+ starvation inhibits water-stress-induced stomatal closure. Journal of Plant Physiology 165:623–630.Google Scholar
BRIENEN, R. J. W. & ZUIDEMA, P. A. 2006. Lifetime growth patterns and ages of Bolivian rain forest trees obtained by tree ring analysis. Journal of Ecology 94:481–493.Google Scholar
CAO, M., ZOU, X., WARREN, M. & ZHU, H. 2006. Tropical forests of Xishuangbanna, China. Biotropica 38:306–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CAO, M., ZHU, H., WANG, H., LAN, G. Y., HU, Y. H., ZHOU, S. S., DENG, X. B. & CUI, J. Y. 2008. Xishuangbanna tropical seasonal rainforest dynamics plot: tree distribution maps, diameter tables and species documentation. Yunnan Press and Publishing Cooperation, Kunming. 266 pp.Google Scholar
CHIEN, P. D., ZUIDEMA, P. A. & NGHIA, N. A. 2008. Conservation prospects for threatened Vietnamese tree species: results from a demographic study. Population Ecology 50:227–237.Google Scholar
CONDIT, R., SUKUMAR, R., HUBBELL, S. P. & FOSTER, R. B. 1998. Predicting population trends from size distributions: a direct test in a tropical tree community. American Naturalist 152:495–509.Google Scholar
CONNELL, J. H. & LOWMAN, M. 1989. Low-diversity tropical rain forests: some possible mechanisms for their existence. American Naturalist 134:88–119.Google Scholar
COTTAM, G. & CURTIS, J. T. 1956. The use of distance measures in phytosociological sampling. Ecology 7:451–460.Google Scholar
DAVIS, T. A. W. & RICHARDS, P. W. 1934. The vegetation of Moraballi Creek, British Guiana: an ecological study of a limited area of tropical forest. Part II. Journal of Ecology 22:106–155.Google Scholar
DEGAGNE, R., WENKEL, T., STEINBERG, S. & FOX, L. 2009. Identifying Dicymbe corymbosa monodominant forests in Guyana using satellite imagery. Biotropica 41:7–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DUIVENVOORDEN, J. F. 1995. Tree species composition and rain forest-environment relationships in the middle Caqueta area, Colombia, NW Amazonia. Vegetatio 120:91–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HART, T., HART, J. & MURPHY, P. 1989. Monodominant and species-rich forests of the humid tropics: causes for their co-occurrence. American Naturalist 133:613–633.Google Scholar
HENKEL, T. W. 2003. Monodominance in the ectomycorrhizal Dicymbe corymbosa (Caesalpiniaceae) from Guyana. Journal of Tropical Ecology 19:417–437.Google Scholar
HUE, N. V., VEGA, S. & SILVA, J. A. 2001. Manganese toxicity in a Hawaiian Oxisol affected by soil pH and organic amendments. Soil Science Society of America Journal 65:153–160.Google Scholar
MARKESTEIJN, L., IRAIPI, J., BONGERS, F. & POORTER, L. 2010. Seasonal variation in soil and plant water potentials in a Bolivian tropical moist and dry forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology 26:497–508.Google Scholar
MARSCHNER, H. & MARSCHNER, P. 2012. Mineral nutrition of higher plants. Waltham, London. 651 pp.Google Scholar
MARTIJENA, N. E. 1998. Soil properties and seedling establishment in soils from monodominant and high-diversity stands of the tropical deciduous forests of Mexico. Journal of Biogeography 25:707–719.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MARTIJENA, N. E. & BULLOCK, S. H. 1994. Monospecific dominance of a tropical deciduous forest in Mexico. Journal of Biogeography 21:63–74.Google Scholar
NASCIMIENTO, M. T. & PROCTOR, J. 1997. Soil and plant changes across a monodominant rainforest boundary on Maraca Island, Roraima, Brazil. Global Ecology and Biogeography Letters 6:387–395.Google Scholar
NASCIMENTO, M. T., PROCTOR, J. & VILLELA, D. M. 1997. Forest structure, floristic composition and soils of an Amazonian monodominant forest on Maraca Island, Roraima, Brazil. Edinburgh Journal of Botany 54:1–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NEWBERY, D. M., ALEXANDER, I. J. & ROTHER, J. A. 1997. Phosphorus dynamics in a lowland African rain forest: the influence of ectomycorrhizal trees. Ecological Monographs 67:367–409.Google Scholar
NEWBERY, D. M., SONGWE, N. C. & CHUYONG, G. B. 1998. Phenology and dynamics of an African rain forest at Korup, Cameroon. Pp. 267–308 in Newbery, D. M., Prins, H. H. T. & Brown, N. D. (eds.). Dynamics of tropical communities. Blackwell Science, Oxford.Google Scholar
PEH, K. S.-H., LEWIS, S. L. & LLOYD, J. 2011a. Mechanisms of monodominance in diverse tropical tree-dominated systems. Journal of Ecology 99:891–898.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PEH, K. S.-H., SONKE, B., LLOYD, J., QUESADA, C. A. & LEWIS, S. L. 2011b. Soil does not explain monodominance in a Central African tropical forest. PLoS One 6 (2): e16996.Google Scholar
SANTIAGO, L. S., WRIGHT, S. J., HARMS, K. E., YAVITT, J. B., KORINE, C., GARCIA, M. N. & TURNER, B. L. 2012. Tropical tree seedling growth responses to nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium addition. Journal of Ecology 100:309–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TORTI, S. D. & COLEY, P. D. 1999. Tropical monodominance: a preliminary test of the ectomycorrhizal hypothesis. Biotropica 31:220–228.Google Scholar
TORTI, S. D., COLEY, P. D. & KURSAR, T. A. 2001. Causes and consequences of monodominance in tropical lowland forests. American Naturalist 157:141–153.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
VAN GEMERDEN, B., OLFF, H., PARREN, M. & BONGERS, F. 2003. The pristine rain forest? Remnants of historical human impacts on current tree species composition and diversity. Journal of Biogeography 30:1381–1390.Google Scholar
VISSER, M. D., JONGEJANS, E., VAN BREUGEL, M., ZUIDEMA, P. A., CHEN, Y. Y., KASSIM, A. R. & DE KROON, H. 2011. Strict mast fruiting for a tropical dipterocarp tree: a demographic cost-benefit analysis of delayed reproduction and seed predation. Journal of Ecology 99:1033–1044.Google Scholar
WARDLE, D. A., BARDGETT, R. D., KLIRONOMOS, J. N., SETALA, H., VAN DER PUTTEN, W. H. & WALL, D. H. 2004. Ecological linkages between aboveground and belowground biota. Science 304:1629–1633.Google Scholar
WHITMORE, T. C. 1984. Tropical rainforests of the Far East. (Second edition). Clarendon, Oxford. 352 pp.Google Scholar
WRIGHT, S. J., MULLER-LANDAU, H. C., CONDIT, R. & HUBBELL, S. P. 2003. Gap-dependent recruitment, realized vital rates, and size distributions of tropical trees. Ecology 84:3174–3185.Google Scholar
WYATT-SMITH, J. 1954. Storm forest in Kelantan. Malayan Forester 17:5–11.Google Scholar
ZAGT, R. J. & WERGER, M. J. A. 1997. Spatial components of dispersal and survival for seeds and seedlings of two codominant tree species in the tropical rain forest of Guyana. Tropical Ecology 38:343–355.Google Scholar
ZHU, H. 1992. Research of community ecology on Shorea chinensis forest in Xishuangbanna. Acta Botanica Yunnanica 14:237–258. (In Chinese)Google Scholar
ZHU, H. 2006. Forest vegetation of Xishuangbanna, South China. Forestry Studies China 8:1–58.Google Scholar
ZHU, H., CAO, M. & HU, H. 2006. Geological history, flora and vegetation of Xishuangbanna, Southern Yunnan, China. Biotropica 38:310–317.Google Scholar