Giants of the Amazon: How does environmental variation drive the diversity patterns of large trees?

For more than three decades, major efforts in sampling and analyzing tree diversity in South America have focused almost exclusively on trees with stems of at least 10 and 2.5 cm diameter, showing highest species diversity in the wetter western and northern Amazon forests. By contrast, little attention has been paid to patterns and drivers of diversity in the largest canopy and emergent trees, which is surprising given these have dominant ecological functions. Here, we use a machine learning approach to quantify the importance of environmental factors and apply it to generate spatial predictions of the species diversity of all trees (dbh ≥ 10 cm) and for very large trees (dbh ≥ 70 cm) using data from 243 forest plots (108,450 trees and 2832 species) distributed across different forest types and biogeographic regions of the Brazilian Amazon. The diversity of large trees and of all trees was significantly associated with three environmental factors, but in contrasting ways across regions and forest types. Environmental variables associated with disturbances, for example, the lightning flash rate and wind speed, as well as the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation, tend to govern the diversity of large trees. Upland rainforests in the Guiana Shield and Roraima regions had a high diversity of large trees. By contrast, variables associated with resources tend to govern tree diversity in general. Places such as the province of Imeri and the northern portion of the province of Madeira stand out for their high diversity of species in general. Climatic and topographic stability and functional adaptation mechanisms promote ideal conditions for species diversity. Finally, we mapped general patterns of tree species diversity in the Brazilian Amazon, which differ substantially depending on size class.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Borges de Lima, Robson, Bastos Gorgens, Eric, da Silva, Diego Armando S., Pereira de Oliveira, Cinthia, Batista, Anderson Pedro B., Caraciolo Ferreira, Rinaldo Luiz, Costa, Flávia R.C, Ferreira de Lima, Renato A., Da Silva Aparício, Perseu, de Abreu, Jadson Coelho, Da Silva, José Antonio Alberto, Guimaraes, Aretha Franklin, Fearnside, Philip M., Sousa, Thaiane R., Perdiz, Ricardo, Higuchi, Niro, Berenguer, Erika, Resende, Angélica F., Elias, Fernando, Volkmer de Castilho, Carolina, Brilhante de Medeiros, Marcelo, de Matos Filho, João Ramos, Alves Sardinha, Maurício, Furtado Freitas, Márcio André, da Silva, José Jussian, Pereira da Cunha, Aldemir, Mendes Santos, Renan, Esquivel Muelbert, Adriane, Carneiro Guedes, Marcelino, Imbrózio, Reinaldo, Campelo de Sousa, Carla Samara, Campelo da Silva Aparício, Wegliane, Marques da Silva e Silva, Breno, Silva, Celice Alexandre, Schwantes Marimon, Beatriz, Marimon Junior, Ben Hur, Morandi, Paulo, Storck-Tonon, Danielle, Guimarães Vieira, Ima Célia, Schietti, Juliana, Coelho, Fernanda, Alves de Almeida, Danilo Roberti, Castro, Wendeson, Carvalho, Samuel P. C., da Silva, Robson dos Santos A., Silveira, Juliana M., Camargo, Jose Luis C., Melgaço, Karina, Mazzei de Freitas, Lucas Jose, Vedovato, Laura, Benchimol, Maíra, de Oliveira de Almeida, Gabriel, Prance, Ghillean, da Silveira, Alan Bernardes, Fragomeni Simon, Marcelo, Garcia, Marcos Leandro, Silveira, Marcos, Vital, Marcos, Andrade, Maryane B. T., Silva, Natalino, Oliveira de Araújo, Raimunda, Cavalheiro, Larissa, Carpanedo, Rainiellen, Fernandes, Letícia, Manzatto, Angelo Gilberto, de Andrade, Ricardo T. G., Magnusson, William E, Laurance, Bill, Nelson, Bruce Walker, Peres, Carlos, Daly, Douglas C., Rodrigues, Domingos, Zopeletto, Ana Paula, Almeida de Oliveira, Edmar, Dugachard, Estelle, Rodrigues Barbosa, Flávia, Santana, Flavia, do Amaral, Iêda Leão, Ferreira, Leandro V., Charão, Leandro S., Ferreira, Joice Nunes, Barlow, Jos, Blanc, Lilian, Aragao, Luiz E.O.C., Sist, Plinio, et al.
Format:	article biblioteca
Language:	eng
Subjects:	F40 - Écologie végétale, P01 - Conservation de la nature et ressources foncières, forêt tropicale humide, biodiversité, forêt tropicale, changement climatique, arbre forestier, télédétection, inventaire forestier, éclair, écologie forestière, distribution spatiale, impact sur l'environnement, forêt, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_7976, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_33949, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_24904, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_1666, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_3052, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_6498, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_24174, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_4327, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_3044, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_36230, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_24420, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_3062, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_32372, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_3081, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_3093,
Online Access:	http://agritrop.cirad.fr/607385/ http://agritrop.cirad.fr/607385/1/Giants%20of%20the%20Amazon%20How%20does%20environmental%20variation%20drive.pdf
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