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

Resumo

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.

Citação

Lima RB, Görgens EB, Silva DAS, Oliveira CP, Batista APB, Caraciolo Ferreira RL, Costa FRC, Ferreira de Lima RA, Silva Aparício P, Abreu JC, Silva JAA, Guimarães AF, Fearnside PM, Sousa TR, Perdiz R, Higuchi N, Berenguer E, Resende AF, Elias F, Castilho CV, Medeiros MB, Matos Filho JR, Sardinha MA, Freitas MAF, Silva JJ, Cunha AP, Santos RM, Muelbert AE, Guedes MC, Imbrózio R, Sousa CSC, Silva Aparício WC, Silva e Silva BM, Silva CA, Marimon BS, Junior BHM, Morandi PS, Storck-Tonon D, Vieira ICG, Schietti J, Coelho F, Alves de Almeida DR, Castro W, Carvalho SPC, Silva RSA, Silveira J, Camargo JL, Melgaço K, Freitas LJM, Vedovato L, Benchimol M, Oliveira de Almeida G, Prance G, Silveira AB, Simon MF, Garcia ML, Silveira M, Vital M, Andrade MBT, Silva N, Araújo RO, Cavalheiro L, Carpanedo R, Fernandes L, Manzatto AG, Andrade RTG, Magnusson WE, Laurance B, Nelson BW, Peres C, Daly DC, Rodrigues D, Zopeletto AP, Oliveira EA, Dugachard E, Barbosa FR, Santana F, Amaral IL, Ferreira LV, Charão LS, Ferreira J, Barlow J, Blanc L, Aragão L, Sist P, Paiva Salomão R, Silva ASL, Laurance S, Feldpausch TR, Gardner T, Santiago W, Balee W, Laurance WF, Malhi Y, Phillips OL (2023). “Giants of the Amazon: How does environmental variation drive the diversity patterns of large trees?” Global Change Biology, 29(17), 4861-4879. doi:10.1111/gcb.16821 https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16821, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/gcb.16821, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gcb.16821.

Formato .bib:

@Article{Limaetal2023,
  author = {Robson Borges Lima and Eric Bastos Görgens and Diego Armando S. Silva and Cinthia Pereira Oliveira and Anderson Pedro B. Batista and Rinaldo L. {Caraciolo Ferreira} and Flavia R. C. Costa and Renato A. {Ferreira de Lima} and Perseu {Silva Aparício} and Jadson Coelho Abreu and José Antônio Aleixo Silva and Aretha Franklin Guimarães and Philip M. Fearnside and Thaiane R. Sousa and Ricardo Perdiz and Niro Higuchi and Erika Berenguer and Angélica F. Resende and Fernando Elias and Carolina Volkmer Castilho and Marcelo Brilhante Medeiros and João Ramos {Matos Filho} and Maurício Alves Sardinha and Márcio André Furtado Freitas and José Jussian Silva and Aldemir Pereira Cunha and Renan Mendes Santos and Adriane Esquivel Muelbert and Marcelino Carneiro Guedes and Reinaldo Imbrózio and Carla Samara Campelo Sousa and Wegliane Campelo {Silva Aparício} and Breno Marques {Silva e Silva} and Celice Alexandre Silva and Beatriz Schwantes Marimon and Ben Hur Marimon Junior and Paulo S. Morandi and Danielle Storck-Tonon and Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira and Juliana Schietti and Fernanda Coelho and Danilo R. {Alves de Almeida} and Wendeson Castro and Samuel P. C. Carvalho and Robson Santos A. Silva and Juliana Silveira and José Luís Camargo and Karina Melgaço and Lucas Jose Mazzei Freitas and Laura Vedovato and Maíra Benchimol and Gabriel {Oliveira de Almeida} and Ghillean Prance and Alan Bernardes Silveira and Marcelo Fragomeni Simon and Marcos Leandro Garcia and Marcos Silveira and Marcos Vital and Maryane B. T. Andrade and Natalino Silva and Raimunda Oliveira Araújo and Larissa Cavalheiro and Rainiellen Carpanedo and Letícia Fernandes and Angelo Gilberto Manzatto and Ricardo T. G. Andrade and William E. Magnusson and Bill Laurance and Bruce Walker Nelson and Carlos Peres and Douglas C. Daly and Domingos Rodrigues and Ana Paula Zopeletto and Edmar Almeida Oliveira and Estelle Dugachard and Flávia Rodrigues Barbosa and Flavia Santana and Iêda Leão Amaral and Leandro V. Ferreira and Leandro S. Charão and Joice Ferreira and Jos Barlow and Lilian Blanc and Luiz Aragão and Plinio Sist and Rafael {Paiva Salomão} and Antônio Sérgio Lima Silva and Susan Laurance and Ted R. Feldpausch and Toby Gardner and Wagner Santiago and William Balee and William F. Laurance and Yadvinder Malhi and Oliver L. Phillips},
  journal = {Global Change Biology},
  title = {Giants of the Amazon: How does environmental variation drive the diversity patterns of large trees?},
  year = {2023},
  number = {17},
  pages = {4861--4879},
  volume = {29},
  abstract = {Abstract 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.},
  doi = {10.1111/gcb.16821},
  eprint = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/gcb.16821},
  keywords = {big trees, diversity map, forest ecology, forest inventory, remote sensing, species richness},
  url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gcb.16821},
}