Multispecies coexistence of trees in tropical forests: spatial signals of topographic niche differentiation increase with environmental heterogeneity | Zendy

Calum Brown | Zendy; David F. R. P. Burslem | Zendy; Janine Illian | Zendy; Lijun Bao | Zendy; Warren Y. Brockelman | Zendy; Min Cao | Zendy; LiWan Chang | Zendy; H. S. Dattaraja | Zendy; Stuart J. Davies | Zendy; C. V. S. Gunatilleke | Zendy; I. A. U. N. Gunatilleke | Zendy; Jihong Huang | Zendy; Abd Rahman Kassim | Zendy; J. V. LaFrankie | Zendy; Juyu Lian | Zendy; Luxiang Lin | Zendy; Keping Ma | Zendy; X. Mi | Zendy; Anuttara Nathalang | Zendy; Supardi Noor | Zendy; Perry S. Ong | Zendy; Raman Sukumar | Zendy; ShengHsin Su | Zendy; IFang Sun | Zendy; H. S. Suresh | Zendy; Sook-Rei Tan | Zendy; Jill Thompson | Zendy; María Uriarte | Zendy; Renato Valencia | Zendy; Sandra Yap | Zendy; W. Ye | Zendy; Richard Law | Zendy

Open Access

Multispecies coexistence of trees in tropical forests: spatial signals of topographic niche differentiation increase with environmental heterogeneity

Author(s) -

Calum Brown,

David F. R. P. Burslem,

Janine Illian,

Lijun Bao,

Warren Y. Brockelman,

Min Cao,

LiWan Chang,

H. S. Dattaraja,

Stuart J. Davies,

C. V. S. Gunatilleke,

I. A. U. N. Gunatilleke,

Jihong Huang,

Abd Rahman Kassim,

J. V. LaFrankie,

Juyu Lian,

Luxiang Lin,

Keping Ma,

X. Mi,

Anuttara Nathalang,

Supardi Noor,

Perry S. Ong,

Raman Sukumar,

ShengHsin Su,

IFang Sun,

H. S. Suresh,

Sook-Rei Tan,

Jill Thompson,

María Uriarte,

Renato Valencia,

Sandra Yap,

W. Ye,

Richard Law

Publication year - 2013

Publication title -

proceedings of the royal society b biological sciences

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.342

H-Index - 253

eISSN - 1471-2954

pISSN - 0962-8452

DOI - 10.1098/rspb.2013.0502

Subject(s) - niche , spatial heterogeneity , ecology , niche differentiation , range (aeronautics) , pairwise comparison , spatial ecology , tropical forest , neutral theory of molecular evolution , spatial analysis , geography , ecological niche , biology , habitat , statistics , mathematics , remote sensing , biochemistry , materials science , gene , composite material

Neutral and niche theories give contrasting explanations for the maintenance of tropical tree species diversity. Both have some empirical support, but methods to disentangle their effects have not yet been developed. We applied a statistical measure of spatial structure to data from 14 large tropical forest plots to test a prediction of niche theory that is incompatible with neutral theory: that species in heterogeneous environments should separate out in space according to their niche preferences. We chose plots across a range of topographic heterogeneity, and tested whether pairwise spatial associations among species were more variable in more heterogeneous sites. We found strong support for this prediction, based on a strong positive relationship between variance in the spatial structure of species pairs and topographic heterogeneity across sites. We interpret this pattern as evidence of pervasive niche differentiation, which increases in importance with increasing environmental heterogeneity

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