Plant diversity increases with the strength of negative density dependence at the global scale

Joseph A LaManna; Scott A Mangan; Alfonso Alonso; Norman A Bourg; Warren Y Brockelman; Sarayudh Bunyavejchewin; Li-Wan Chang; Jyh-Min Chiang; George B Chuyong; Keith Clay; Richard Condit; Susan Cordell; Stuart J Davies; Tucker J Furniss; Christian P Giardina; I A U Nimal Gunatilleke; C V Savitri Gunatilleke; Fangliang He; Robert W Howe; Stephen P Hubbell; Chang-Fu Hsieh; Faith M Inman-Narahari; David Janík; Daniel J Johnson; David Kenfack; Lisa Korte; Kamil Král; Andrew J Larson; James A Lutz; Sean M McMahon; William J McShea; Hervé R Memiaghe; Anuttara Nathalang; Vojtech Novotny; Perry S Ong; David A Orwig; Rebecca Ostertag; Geoffrey G Parker; Richard P Phillips; Lawren Sack; I-Fang Sun; J Sebastián Tello; Duncan W Thomas; Benjamin L Turner; Dilys M Vela Díaz; Tomáš Vrška; George D Weiblen; Amy Wolf; Sandra Yap; Jonathan A Myers

doi:10.1126/science.aam5678

Plant diversity increases with the strength of negative density dependence at the global scale

Science. 2017 Jun 30;356(6345):1389-1392. doi: 10.1126/science.aam5678.

Authors

Joseph A LaManna^{1

2}, Scott A Mangan², Alfonso Alonso³, Norman A Bourg^{4

5}, Warren Y Brockelman^{6

7}, Sarayudh Bunyavejchewin⁸, Li-Wan Chang⁹, Jyh-Min Chiang¹⁰, George B Chuyong¹¹, Keith Clay¹², Richard Condit¹³, Susan Cordell¹⁴, Stuart J Davies^{15

16}, Tucker J Furniss¹⁷, Christian P Giardina¹⁴, I A U Nimal Gunatilleke¹⁸, C V Savitri Gunatilleke¹⁸, Fangliang He^{19

20}, Robert W Howe²¹, Stephen P Hubbell²², Chang-Fu Hsieh²³, Faith M Inman-Narahari¹⁴, David Janík²⁴, Daniel J Johnson²⁵, David Kenfack^{15

16}, Lisa Korte³, Kamil Král²⁴, Andrew J Larson²⁶, James A Lutz¹⁷, Sean M McMahon^{27

28}, William J McShea⁴, Hervé R Memiaghe²⁹, Anuttara Nathalang⁶, Vojtech Novotny^{30

31

32}, Perry S Ong³³, David A Orwig³⁴, Rebecca Ostertag³⁵, Geoffrey G Parker²⁸, Richard P Phillips¹², Lawren Sack²², I-Fang Sun³⁶, J Sebastián Tello³⁷, Duncan W Thomas³⁸, Benjamin L Turner¹³, Dilys M Vela Díaz², Tomáš Vrška²⁴, George D Weiblen³⁹, Amy Wolf^{21

40}, Sandra Yap⁴¹, Jonathan A Myers^{42

2}

Affiliations

¹ Tyson Research Center, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA. [email protected].
² Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
³ Center for Conservation and Sustainability, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, Washington, DC, USA.
⁴ Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, Front Royal, VA, USA.
⁵ National Research Program - Eastern Branch, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA, USA.
⁶ Ecology Laboratory, BIOTEC, National Science and Technology Development Agency, Science Park, Pathum Thani, Thailand.
⁷ Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Mahidol University, Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand.
⁸ Research Office, Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, Bangkok, Thailand.
⁹ Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, Taipei 10066, Taiwan.
¹⁰ Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.
¹¹ Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon.
¹² Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
¹³ Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancon, Republic of Panama.
¹⁴ Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Hilo, HI, USA.
¹⁵ Center for Tropical Forest Science-Forest Global Earth Observatory, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City, Republic of Panama.
¹⁶ Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA.
¹⁷ Wildland Resources Department, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
¹⁹ Joint Lab for Biodiversity Conservation, Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU)-University of Alberta, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, SYSU, Guangzhou 510275, China.
²⁰ Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
²¹ Department of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Green Bay, WI, USA.
²² Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
²³ Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
²⁴ Department of Forest Ecology, Silva Tarouca Research Institute, Brno, Czech Republic.
²⁵ Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
²⁶ Department of Forest Management, College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA.
²⁷ Center for Tropical Forest Science-Forest Global Earth Observatory, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD, USA.
²⁸ Forest Ecology Group, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD, USA.
²⁹ Institut de Recherche en Ecologie Tropicale, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique, Libreville, Gabon.
³⁰ New Guinea Binatang Research Centre, P.O. Box 604, Madang, Papua New Guinea.
³¹ Biology Centre, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic.
³² Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska 31, Ceske Budejovice 370 05, Czech Republic.
³³ Institute of Biology, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.
³⁴ Harvard Forest, Harvard University, Petersham, MA, USA.
³⁵ Department of Biology, University of Hawaii, Hilo, HI, USA.
³⁶ Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, National Dong Hwa University, Hualian, Taiwan.
³⁷ Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development, Missouri Botanical Gardens, St. Louis, MO, USA.
³⁸ School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Vancouver, WA, USA.
³⁹ Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA.
⁴⁰ Department of Biology, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Green Bay, WI, USA.
⁴¹ Institute of Arts and Sciences, Far Eastern University Manila, Manila, Philippines.
⁴² Tyson Research Center, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.

PMID: 28663501
DOI: 10.1126/science.aam5678

Abstract

Theory predicts that higher biodiversity in the tropics is maintained by specialized interactions among plants and their natural enemies that result in conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD). By using more than 3000 species and nearly 2.4 million trees across 24 forest plots worldwide, we show that global patterns in tree species diversity reflect not only stronger CNDD at tropical versus temperate latitudes but also a latitudinal shift in the relationship between CNDD and species abundance. CNDD was stronger for rare species at tropical versus temperate latitudes, potentially causing the persistence of greater numbers of rare species in the tropics. Our study reveals fundamental differences in the nature of local-scale biotic interactions that contribute to the maintenance of species diversity across temperate and tropical communities.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Antibiosis
Biodiversity*
Ecosystem
Forests
Geography
Models, Biological
Trees / classification*
Trees / physiology
Tropical Climate