Produção Nacional
Revisado por pares
Seasonal drought limits tree species across the Neotropics
2016; Wiley; Volume: 40; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/ecog.01904
ISSN1600-0587
AutoresAdriane Esquivel‐Muelbert, Timothy R. Baker, Kyle G. Dexter, Simon L. Lewis, Hans ter Steege, Gabriela López‐González, Abel Monteagudo Mendoza, Roel Brienen, Ted R. Feldpausch, Nigel C. A. Pitman, Alfonso Alonso, Geertje van der Heijden, Marielos Peña‐Claros, Manuel Ahuite, Miguel Alexiaides, Esteban Álvarez‐Dávila, Alejandro Araujo Murakami, Luzmila Arroyo, Milton Aulestia, Henrik Balslev, Jorcely Barroso, René Boot, Ángela Cano, Víctor Chama Moscoso, James A. Comiskey, Fernando Cornejo Valverde, Francisco Dallmeier, Douglas C. Daly, Nállarett Dávila, Joost F. Duivenvoorden, Álvaro Javier Duque Montoya, Terry L. Erwin, Anthony Di Fiore, Todd S. Fredericksen, A C., Roosevelt García‐Villacorta, Therany Gonzales, Juan Ernesto Guevara, Eurídice N. Honorio Coronado, Isau Huamantupa‐Chuquimaco, E. Jiménez, Timothy J. Killeen, Yadvinder Malhi, Casimiro Mendoza, Hugo F. Mogollón, Peter M. Jørgensen, Juan Carlos Montero, Bonifacio Mostacedo, William Nauray, David Neill, Percy Núñez Vargas, Sonia Palacios‐Ramos, Walter Palacios Cuenca, Nadir Pallqui Camacho, Julie Peacock, Juan Fernando Phillips, Georgia Pickavance, Carlos Alberto Quesada, Hirma Ramírez‐Angulo, Zorayda Restrepo, Carlos Reynel, Marcos Ríos Paredes, María Cristina Peñuela-Mora, Rodrigo Sierra, Marcos Silveira, Pablo R. Stevenson, Juliana Stropp, John Terborgh, Milton Tirado, Marisol Toledo, Armando Torres‐Lezama, María Natalia Umaña, Ligia E. Urrego, Rodolfo Vásquez Martínez, Luis Valenzuela Gamarra, César I. A. Vela, Emilio Vilanova, Vincent Antoine Vos, Patricio von Hildebrand, Corine Vriesendorp, Ophelia Wang, Kenneth R. Young, Charles E. Zartman, Oliver L. Phillips,
Tópico(s)Species Distribution and Climate Change
ResumoWithin the tropics, the species richness of tree communities is strongly and positively associated with precipitation. Previous research has suggested that this macroecological pattern is driven by the negative effect of water‐stress on the physiological processes of most tree species. This implies that the range limits of taxa are defined by their ability to occur under dry conditions, and thus in terms of species distributions predicts a nested pattern of taxa distribution from wet to dry areas. However, this ‘dry‐tolerance’ hypothesis has yet to be adequately tested at large spatial and taxonomic scales. Here, using a dataset of 531 inventory plots of closed canopy forest distributed across the western Neotropics we investigated how precipitation, evaluated both as mean annual precipitation and as the maximum climatological water deficit, influences the distribution of tropical tree species, genera and families. We find that the distributions of tree taxa are indeed nested along precipitation gradients in the western Neotropics. Taxa tolerant to seasonal drought are disproportionally widespread across the precipitation gradient, with most reaching even the wettest climates sampled; however, most taxa analysed are restricted to wet areas. Our results suggest that the ‘dry tolerance' hypothesis has broad applicability in the world's most species‐rich forests. In addition, the large number of species restricted to wetter conditions strongly indicates that an increased frequency of drought could severely threaten biodiversity in this region. Overall, this study establishes a baseline for exploring how tropical forest tree composition may change in response to current and future environmental changes in this region.
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