Abstract
•We studied 32 physical, chemical and physiological traits from 284 tree species in eight 1 ha plots and measured long-term soil nutrient supplies and plant-available nutrients.
•Logged plots had greater values for traits that drive carbon capture and growth, whilst old-growth forests had greater values for structural and persistence traits. Although disturbance was the primary driver of trait expression, soil nutrients explained a statistically independent axis of variation linked to leaf size and nutrient concentration. Soil characteristics influenced trait expression via nutrient availability, nutrient pools, and pH.
•Our finding, that traits have dissimilar responses to land use and soil resource availability, provides robust evidence for the need to consider the abiotic context of logging when predicting plant functional diversity across human-modified tropical forests. The detection of two independent axes was facilitated by the measurement of many more functional traits than have
been examined in previous studies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1853-1865 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | New Phytologist |
| Volume | 221 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 20 Sep 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2019 |
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Keywords
- anthropogenic disturbance
- Borneo
- functional diversity
- functional traits
- and use
- Rao’s Q
- tropical rainforest
- variance partitioning
Cite this
Logging and soil nutrients independently explain plant trait expression in tropical forests. / Both, Sabine (Corresponding Author); Riutta, Terhi; Paine, C. E. Timothy; Elias, Dafydd M. O.; Chino, Rudi; Jain, Annuar; Johnson, David; Kritzler, Ully H.; Kuntz, Marianne; Majalap-Lee, Noreen ; Mielke, Nora; Pillco, Milenka X. Montoya; Ostle, Nicholas J.; Teh, Yit A.; Malhi, Yadvinder ; Burslem, David F. R. P.
In: New Phytologist, Vol. 221, No. 4, 03.2019, p. 1853-1865.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Logging and soil nutrients independently explain plant trait expression in tropical forests
AU - Both, Sabine
AU - Riutta, Terhi
AU - Paine, C. E. Timothy
AU - Elias, Dafydd M. O.
AU - Chino, Rudi
AU - Jain, Annuar
AU - Johnson, David
AU - Kritzler, Ully H.
AU - Kuntz, Marianne
AU - Majalap-Lee, Noreen
AU - Mielke, Nora
AU - Pillco, Milenka X. Montoya
AU - Ostle, Nicholas J.
AU - Teh, Yit A.
AU - Malhi, Yadvinder
AU - Burslem, David F. R. P.
N1 - We acknowledge financial support by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NE/K016253/1), with additional support through an ERC Advanced Investigator Award to YM (GEM-TRAIT; 321131). We are indebted to the Sabah Biodiversity Council, Yayasan Sabah, the Maliau Basin and Danum Valley Management Committees, the Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation at the University of Malaysia, Sabah, and the Sabah Forest Research Centre at Sepilok. We thank Glen Reynolds and the South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership (SEARRP). This study was supported by funding from the Sime Darby Foundation to the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) Project. This project would not have been possible without the indispensable support from dozens of research assistants in Sabah. The support from Laura Kruitbos, Unding Jami, Lisa P. Bentley, Benjamin Blonder, Puikiat Hoo, Palasiah Jotan, Alexander Shenkin and Chun Xing Wong is gratefully acknowledged. We thank Bernadus Bala Ola, Bill McDonald, Alexander Karolus and MinSheng Khoo for species identification. This publication is a contribution from the UK NERC-funded Biodiversity And Land-use Impacts on Tropical Ecosystem Function (BALI) consortium (http://bali.hmtf.info) through its Human Modified Tropical Forests thematic programme.
PY - 2019/3
Y1 - 2019/3
N2 - Plant functional traits regulate ecosystem functions but little is known about how co-occurring gradients of land use and edaphic conditions influence their expression. We test how gradients of logging disturbance and soil properties relate to community-weighted mean traits in logged and old-growth tropical forests in Borneo. •We studied 32 physical, chemical and physiological traits from 284 tree species in eight 1 ha plots and measured long-term soil nutrient supplies and plant-available nutrients. •Logged plots had greater values for traits that drive carbon capture and growth, whilst old-growth forests had greater values for structural and persistence traits. Although disturbance was the primary driver of trait expression, soil nutrients explained a statistically independent axis of variation linked to leaf size and nutrient concentration. Soil characteristics influenced trait expression via nutrient availability, nutrient pools, and pH. •Our finding, that traits have dissimilar responses to land use and soil resource availability, provides robust evidence for the need to consider the abiotic context of logging when predicting plant functional diversity across human-modified tropical forests. The detection of two independent axes was facilitated by the measurement of many more functional traits than have been examined in previous studies.
AB - Plant functional traits regulate ecosystem functions but little is known about how co-occurring gradients of land use and edaphic conditions influence their expression. We test how gradients of logging disturbance and soil properties relate to community-weighted mean traits in logged and old-growth tropical forests in Borneo. •We studied 32 physical, chemical and physiological traits from 284 tree species in eight 1 ha plots and measured long-term soil nutrient supplies and plant-available nutrients. •Logged plots had greater values for traits that drive carbon capture and growth, whilst old-growth forests had greater values for structural and persistence traits. Although disturbance was the primary driver of trait expression, soil nutrients explained a statistically independent axis of variation linked to leaf size and nutrient concentration. Soil characteristics influenced trait expression via nutrient availability, nutrient pools, and pH. •Our finding, that traits have dissimilar responses to land use and soil resource availability, provides robust evidence for the need to consider the abiotic context of logging when predicting plant functional diversity across human-modified tropical forests. The detection of two independent axes was facilitated by the measurement of many more functional traits than have been examined in previous studies.
KW - anthropogenic disturbance
KW - Borneo
KW - functional diversity
KW - functional traits
KW - and use
KW - Rao’s Q
KW - tropical rainforest
KW - variance partitioning
U2 - 10.1111/nph.15444
DO - 10.1111/nph.15444
M3 - Article
C2 - 30238458
VL - 221
SP - 1853
EP - 1865
JO - New Phytologist
JF - New Phytologist
SN - 0028-646X
IS - 4
ER -