Ecological Archives E094-109-A1

Madelon Lohbeck, Lourens Poorter, Edwin Lebrija-Trejos, Miguel Martínez-Ramos, Jorge A. Meave, Horacio Paz, Eduardo A. Pérez-García, I. Eunice Romero-Pérez, Alejandra Tauro, Frans Bongers. 2013. Successional changes in functional composition contrast for dry and wet tropical forest. Ecology 94:1211–1216. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/12-1850.1

Appendix A. Additional details on functional traits, methods, and results.

Table A1. Traits included in the study, the trait category (L = leaf trait, S = stem trait, W = whole-plant trait, R = regenerative trait), the functional strategy that high values of this trait refer to (A = acquisitive, C = conservative, R = reproductive effort), description of the functional role, and references used.

Trait

Cat.

Strategy

Functional role

References

Leaf area (cm²)

L

A

Light intercepting area, dry matter production, respiration, leaf cooling, gas exchange

Bazzaz and Picket 1980, Popma et al. 1992

Specific Leaf Area
SLA (m²/kg)

L

A

Light capture economics, net assimilation rate, relative growth rate, leaf life span, photosynthetic capacity

Reich et al. 1997, Poorter and Garnier 1999, Poorter and Bongers 2006, Sterck et al. 2006

Leaf Dry Matter Content
LDMC (g/g)

L

C

Level of assimilative compounds and transfer conductance to CO2, construction costs, nutrient retention, tolerance against water limitations and mechanical and herbivore damage

Poorter and Garnier 1999, Niinemets 2001, Garnier et al. 2004, Poorter and Markesteijn 2008

Leaf density (g/cm3)

L

C

Leaf tissue density, leaf structure, water balance

Niinemets 1999, Lebrija-Trejos et al. 2010

Leaf thickness (mm)

L

C

Construction costs, leaf life span, photosynthetic rates per unit leaf area, against mechanical and herbivore damage, gas exchange and leaf cooling

Popma and Bongers 1991, Reich et al. 1991, Díaz et al. 2004, Loranger and Shipley 2010

Petiole length (cm)

L

A

Light capture efficiency, leaf support costs

Black 1960, Takenaka 1994, Niinemets et al. 2007

 

 

 

 

 

Leaf compoundness (0 = simple
1 = compound)

L

A

Leaf cooling, light capture economics

Niinemets 1998, Markesteijn and Poorter 2009, Lebrija-Trejos et al. 2010

Wood density WD (g/cm3)

S

C

Construction costs, growth rate, stem vulnerability, mortality rate, resistance against cavitation,
drought tolerance

Augspurger and Kelly 1984, Hacke et al. 2001, Poorter et al. 2008, Chave et al. 2009, Poorter et al. 2010, Markesteijn et al. 2011

Deciduousness (0 = evergreen
1= deciduous)

W

C

Drought avoidance, survival during drought

Poorter and Markesteijn 2008, Bohlman 2010, Lebrija-Trejos et al. 2010

Seed volume (mm3)

R

R

Investment in reproduction, germination success, number of seeds

Foster and Janson 1985, Westoby et al. 1996, Moles and Westoby 2004

Dispersal type (0 = abiotic
1 = biotic)

R

R

Distance of dispersal, colonization chance, food source for animals

Hammond and Brown 1995

 

FigA1

Fig. A1. Stand basal area increases logarithmically with fallow age during secondary succession in (a) dry forest deciduous forest and (b) wet evergreen forest. Coefficients of determination are given in the figures.


Table A2. Results of the linear regression analysis of the community-weighted mean trait values (weighted by relative basal area) against successional variables time since abandonment and stand basal area for secondary forests in Mexico. These secondary forests include a dry forest chronosequence in Nizanda, Oaxaca (N = 15) and a wet forest chronosequence in Loma Bonita, Chiapas (N = 17). The traits used for community-weighted mean values are leaf area (LA), specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), leaf density (LD), leaf thickness (LT), petiole length (PL), proportion of species with compound leaves (LC), wood density (WD), proportion of species that is deciduous (De), seed volume (SV), proportion of species that is biotically dispersed (Di). (For explanation of traits see also Table A1). For the significant relations a + or – is added to summarize a positive or negative trend with the successional variable. See also Fig. 1 in the main article.

CWM traits

Dry forest

Wet forest

Time since abandonment

Stand basal area

Time since  abandonment

Stand basal area

R²

p

 

R²

p

 

R²

P

 

R²

p

 

LA*

0.31

0.031

-

0.32

0.027

-

0.002

0.874

 

0.18

0.087

 

SLA

0.47

0.005

-

0.37

0.016

-

0.78

<0.001

-

0.38

0.009

-

LDMC

0.19

0.109

 

0.18

0.115

 

0.061

0.338

 

0.23

0.049

+

LD

0.21

0.085

 

0.19

0.103

 

0.16

0.117

 

0.51

0.001

+

LT*

0.48

0.004

+

0.43

0.007

+

0.56

<0.001

+

0.07

0.318

 

PL*

0.18

0.113

 

0.18

0.113

 

0.06

0.355

 

0.08

0.270

 

LC§

0.27

0.049

-

0.34

0.024

-

0.01

0.658

 

0.18

0.095

 

WD*

0.27

0.045

-

0.31

0.032

-

0.05

0.415

 

0.06

0.345

 

De

0.65

<0.001

-

0.53

0.002

-

0.00

0.977

 

0.06

0.356

 

SV*

0.60

<0.001

+

0.57

0.001

+

0.11

0.189

 

0.00

0.985

 

Di

0.52

0.002

+

0.42

0.009

+

0.04

0.427

 

0.01

0.648

 

* variable ln transformed, § variable exponentially transformed

 

Detailed methods on trait measurements

Leaf traits - In the wet forest sites, leaf traits were measured for two sun-lit leaves for 10 adult trees per species (5 individuals for specific force to punch) of ca. 5 m high, and in dry forest for 5 sun-lit leaves for 5 adult trees per species with a DBH of 10–30 cm. After collection the leaves were rehydrated for at least half an hour after which fresh weight was determined. Petiole length (cm) was measured and leaf thickness (mm) was determined with a calliper (0.01 mm accuracy) in the middle of the leaf avoiding the main and secondary veins. Leaves were photographed on a light box (wet forest) or scanned (dry forest) after which leaf area was calculated using pixel counting software ImageJ (Rasband 2008). For composite leaves the entire leaf was used in leaf trait analysis and the rachis was considered part of the leaf (Cornelissen et al. 2003). The petiole was excluded in leaf trait measurements for wet forest species, because here petioles can be very long (up to 90 cm), for dry forest leaf traits did include the petiole, and in general, they tend to be small compared to wet forest petioles. Leaves were dried to constant weight and weighed. Specific Leaf Area (SLA, m²/kg) was calculated as leaf area divided by oven-dried mass, Leaf Dry Matter Content (g/g) as leaf oven-dry weight divided by fresh weight, Leaf Density (g/cm3) was calculated as leaf dry mass divided by leaf volume (leaf area multiplied by thickness). Leaf-compoundness was included as a dummy variable (0 = simple, 1 = compound). Stem trait- Wood density was based on wood cores taken with an increment borer from the outer bark up to the heart of the tree, or alternatively based on stem slices in case stems did not reach sufficient size (< 5 cm DBH). The fresh volume was determined with the water replacement method and after dry weight measurement the wood density was obtained (WD, g/cm3). For wet forest, this measurement was taken in the study area for 66 of the 81 species studied, data on WD for remaining species were taken from comparable studies in Mexican wet forests by the authors (unpublished data) in Las Margaritas (8 species) and Los Tuxlas (7 species). Whole plant trait - Species’ deciduousness was included as dummy variable based on field observations or accounts from local informants (0 = evergreen, 1 = deciduous). Regenerative traits - Dispersal mode (0 = abiotic, 1 = biotic) was taken from literature, field observations, or inferred from fruit shapes as found in literature, field or herbaria. Seed volume was measured from seed collections (for wet forest pecies; Martínez-Ramos and Ibarra-Manríquez unpublished results), collections in the field, literature and from herbarium specimen (National Herbarium of Mexico (MEXU, UNAM), herbaria of the Instituto de Ecología A.C. in Pátzcuaro and in Xalapa). In wet forest, data for some species for seed volume (14 species) and dispersal mode (13 species) were missing and average wet forest trait values were used in the analyses. Relative to the total community functional spectrum in the plots these missing values made up for 6% (range 0–8.7%) in the case of seed volume and 2% (range 0–29%) in the case of dispersal mechanism.

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