Title
Hyperdominance in Amazonian forest carbon cycling
Date Issued
28 April 2015
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Fauset S.
Johnson M.O.
Gloor M.
Baker T.R.
Brienen R.J.W.
Feldpausch T.R.
Lopez-Gonzalez G.
Malhi Y.
Ter Steege H.
Pitman N.C.A.
Baraloto C.
Engel J.
Pétronelli P.
Andrade A.
Camargo J.L.C.
Laurance S.G.W.
Laurance W.F.
Chave J.
Allie E.
Terborgh J.W.
Ruokolainen K.
Silveira M.
Aymard C. G.A.
Arroyo L.
Bonal D.
Ramirez-Angulo H.
Araujo-Murakami A.
Neill D.
Hérault B.
Dourdain A.
Torres-Lezama A.
Marimon B.S.
Salomão R.P.
Comiskey J.A.
Réjou-Méchain M.
Toledo M.
Licona J.C.
Alarcón A.
Prieto A.
Rudas A.
Van Der Meer P.J.
Killeen T.J.
Marimon Junior B.H.
Poorter L.
Boot R.G.A.
Stergios B.
Torre E.V.
Costa F.R.C.
Levis C.
Schietti J.
Souza P.
Groot N.
Arets E.
Castro W.
Peña-Claros M.
Stahl C.
Barroso J.
Talbot J.
Vieira I.C.G.
Van Der Heijden G.
Thomas R.
Vos V.A.
Almeida E.C.
Davila E.Á.
Aragão L.E.O.C.
Erwin T.L.
Morandi P.S.
De Oliveira E.A.
Valadão M.B.X.
Zagt R.J.
Van Der Hout P.
Loayza P.A.
Pipoly J.J.
Wang O.
Alexiades M.
Cerón C.E.
Di Fiore A.
Peacock J.
Umetsu R.K.
De Camargo P.B.
Burnham R.J.
Herrera R.
Quesada C.A.
Stropp J.
Vieira S.A.
Steininger M.
Restrepo Z.
Muelbert A.E.
Lewis S.L.
Pickavance G.C.
Phillips O.L.
Publisher(s)
Nature Publishing Group
Abstract
While Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, the abundance of trees is skewed strongly towards relatively few â € hyperdominantâ €™ species. In addition to their diversity, Amazonian trees are a key component of the global carbon cycle, assimilating and storing more carbon than any other ecosystem on Earth. Here we ask, using a unique data set of 530 forest plots, if the functions of storing and producing woody carbon are concentrated in a small number of tree species, whether the most abundant species also dominate carbon cycling, and whether dominant species are characterized by specific functional traits. We find that dominance of forest function is even more concentrated in a few species than is dominance of tree abundance, with only â ‰1% of Amazon tree species responsible for 50% of carbon storage and productivity. Although those species that contribute most to biomass and productivity are often abundant, species maximum size is also influential, while the identity and ranking of dominant species varies by function and by region.
Volume
6
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ciencias de las plantas, Botánica
Geografía física
Conservación de la Biodiversidad
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84928901690
Source
Nature Communications
ISSN of the container
20411723
Sponsor(s)
This paper is a product of the RAINFOR network, supported by a Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation grant, the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (283080, ‘GEOCARBON’; 282664, ‘AMAZALERT’; ERC grant ‘Tropical Forests in the Changing Earth System’), and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urgency Grant and NERC Consortium Grants ‘AMAZONICA’ (NE/F005806/1), ‘TROBIT’ (NE/ D005590/1) and ‘Niche evolution of South American trees’ (NE/I028122/1). Additional data were included from the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring network (a collaboration between Conservation International, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Smithsonian Institution and the Wildlife Conservation Society, and partly funded by these institutions, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and other donors), the Alwyn H. Gentry Forest Transect Dataset (Missouri Botanical Garden), the PPBio network (supported by PRONEX—FAPEAM/CNPq (1600/2006), Hidroveg FAPESP/ FAPEAM, Universal/CNPq (473308/2009-6) and INCT-CENBAM), the PPBio Biota do Cerrado network (Fitogeografia da Transic¸ão Amazônia/Cerrado CNPq 457602/2012-0), and the CNPq/PELD network (Transic¸ão Amazônia/Cerrado 403725/2012-7). Additional data collection was funded by Investissement d’Avenir grants of the French ANR (CEBA: ANR-10-LABX-0025; TULIP: ANR-10-LABX-0041) and a productivity grant funded by CNPq to BHMJr and BSM. S.F., M.G., M.O.J., G.L.-G. and O.L.P. are partly funded by the NERC project grant ‘ECOFOR’ (grant ref: NE/K01644X/1). O.L.P. is supported by an ERC Advanced Grant and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. R.J.W.B. is funded independently by a research fellowship from NERC (grant ref: NE/I021160/1). L.P., M.P.C. E.A., and M.T. are partially funded by the EU FP7 project ‘ROBIN’ (283093), with co-funding for E.A. from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs (KB-14-003-030). This is study 653 of the technical series of the BDFFP (INPA/ STRI). The field data summarized here involve contributions from numerous field assistants and rural communities, many of whom have been specifically acknowledged in Mitchard et al. (2014, Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr.). We also thank Jon Lloyd, Rodolfo Vásquez Martínez, Olaf Banki, Paul Berry, Wemo Beitan, Lilian Blanc, Foster Brown, Alvaro Cogollo, Fernando Cornejo Valverde, Massiel Corrales Medina, Nallaret Davila Cardozo, Lola da Costa, Renske Ek, Washington Galiano, René Guillén Villaroel, Niro Higuchi, Eliana Jimenez, Antonio S. Lima, João Lima de Freitas Júnior, Adriano Nogueira Lima, Casimiro Mendoza, Walter A. Palacios, Alexander Parada Gutierrez, Guido Pardo, Maria Cristina Peñuela, Freddy Ramirez Arevalo, Victor Rojas, Anand Roopsind, Mario Saldias, James Singh, Daniel Soto, Luis Valenzuela Gamarra, Gorky Villa and Barbara Vinceti. We further thank those colleagues who contributed in many ways but who are no longer with us: Alwyn Gentry, Jean Pierre Veillon, Samuel Almeida, Sandra Patiño and Rai-mundo Saraiva.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus