The global abundance of tree palms

Abstract

Aim

Palms are an iconic, diverse and often abundant component of tropical ecosystems that provide many ecosystem services. Being monocots, tree palms are evolutionarily, morphologically and physiologically distinct from other trees, and these differences have important consequences for ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration and storage) and in terms of responses to climate change. We quantified global patterns of tree palm relative abundance to help improve understanding of tropical forests and reduce uncertainty about these ecosystems under climate change.

Location

Tropical and subtropical moist forests.

Time period

Current.

Major taxa studied

Palms (Arecaceae).

Methods

We assembled a pantropical dataset of 2,548 forest plots (covering 1,191 ha) and quantified tree palm (i.e., ≥10 cm diameter at breast height) abundance relative to co‐occurring non‐palm trees. We compared the relative abundance of tree palms across biogeographical realms and tested for associations with palaeoclimate stability, current climate, edaphic conditions and metrics of forest structure.

Results

On average, the relative abundance of tree palms was more than five times larger between Neotropical locations and other biogeographical realms. Tree palms were absent in most locations outside the Neotropics but present in >80% of Neotropical locations. The relative abundance of tree palms was more strongly associated with local conditions (e.g., higher mean annual precipitation, lower soil fertility, shallower water table and lower plot mean wood density) than metrics of long‐term climate stability. Life‐form diversity also influenced the patterns; palm assemblages outside the Neotropics comprise many non‐tree (e.g., climbing) palms. Finally, we show that tree palms can influence estimates of above‐ground biomass, but the magnitude and direction of the effect require additional work.

Conclusions

Tree palms are not only quintessentially tropical, but they are also overwhelmingly Neotropical. Future work to understand the contributions of tree palms to biomass estimates and carbon cycling will be particularly crucial in Neotropical forests.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Muscarella, R Emilio, T Phillips, OL https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8993-6168 Lewis, SL Slik, F Baker, WJ Couvreur, TLP Eiserhardt, WL Svenning, J Affum‐Baffoe, K Aiba, S Almeida, EC Almeida, SS de Oliveira, EA Álvarez‐Dávila, E Alves, LF Alvez‐Valles, CM Carvalho, FA Guarin, FA Andrade, A Aragão, LEOC Murakami, AA Arroyo, L Ashton, PS Corredor, GAA Baker, TR Camargo, PB Barlow, J Bastin, J Bengone, NN Berenguer, E Berry, N Blanc, L Böhning‐Gaese, K Bonal, D Bongers, F Bradford, M Brambach, F Brearley, FQ Brewer, SW Camargo, JLC Campbell, DG Castilho, CV Castro, W Catchpole, D Cerón Martínez, CE Chen, S Chhang, P Cho, P Chutipong, W Clark, C Collins, M Comiskey, JA Medina, MNC Costa, FRC Culmsee, H David‐Higuita, H Davidar, P Aguila‐Pasquel, J Derroire, G Di Fiore, A Van Do, T Doucet, J Dourdain, A Drake, DR Ensslin, A Erwin, T Ewango, CEN Ewers, RM Fauset, S Feldpausch, TR Ferreira, J Ferreira, LV Fischer, M Franklin, J Fredriksson, GM Gillespie, TW Gilpin, M https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5539-8277 Gonmadje, C Gunatilleke, AUN Hakeem, KR Hall, JS Hamer, KC https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2158-2420 Harris, DJ Harrison, RD Hector, A Hemp, A Herault, B Pizango, CGH Coronado, ENH Hubau, W Hussain, MS Ibrahim, F Imai, N Joly, CA Joseph, S K, A Kartawinata, K Kassi, J Killeen, TJ Kitayama, K Klitgård, BB Kooyman, R Labrière, N Larney, E Laumonier, Y Laurance, SG Laurance, WF Lawes, MJ Levesley, A Lisingo, J Lovejoy, T Lovett, JC Lu, X Lykke, AM Magnusson, WE Mahayani, NPD Malhi, Y Mansor, A Peña, JLM Marimon‐Junior, BH Marshall, AR Melgaco, K Bautista, CM Mihindou, V Millet, J Milliken, W Mohandass, D Mendoza, ALM Mugerwa, B Nagamasu, H Nagy, L Seuaturien, N Nascimento, MT Neill, DA Neto, LM Nilus, R Vargas, MPN Nurtjahya, E Araújo, RNO Onrizal, O Palacios, WA Palacios‐Ramos, S Parren, M Paudel, E Morandi, PS Pennington, RT Pickavance, G Pipoly III, JJ Pitman, NCA Poedjirahajoe, E Poorter, L Poulsen, JR Rama Chandra Prasad, P Prieto, A Puyravaud, J Qie, L Quesada, CA Ramírez‐Angulo, H Razafimahaimodison, JC Reitsma, JM Requena‐Rojas, EJ Correa, ZR Rodriguez, CR Roopsind, A Rovero, F Rozak, A Lleras, AR Rutishauser, E Rutten, G Punchi‐Manage, R Salomão, RP Van Sam, H Sarker, SK Satdichanh, M Schietti, J Schmitt, CB Marimon, BS Senbeta, F Nath Sharma, L Sheil, D Sierra, R Silva‐Espejo, JE Silveira, M Sonké, B Steininger, MK Steinmetz, R Stévart, T Sukumar, R Sultana, A Sunderland, TCH Suresh, HS Tang, J Tanner, E Steege, HT Terborgh, JW Theilade, I Timberlake, J Torres‐Lezama, A Umunay, P Uriarte, M Gamarra, LV van de Bult, M van de Hout, P Martinez, RV Vieira, ICG Vieira, SA Vilanova, E Cayo, JV Wang, O Webb, CO Webb, EL White, L Whitfeld, TJS Wich, S Willcock, S Wiser, SK Young, KR Zakaria, R Zang, R Zartman, CE Zo‐Bi, IC Balslev, H
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© 2020 The Authors. Global Ecology and Biogeography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords:	above‐ground biomass; abundance patterns; Arecaceae; local abiotic conditions; Neotropics; pantropical biogeography; tropical rainforest; wood density
Dates:	Accepted: 4 May 2020 Published (online): 8 July 2020
Institution:	The University of Leeds
Academic Units:	The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biology (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Ecology & Global Change (Leeds)
Depositing User:	Symplectic Publications
Date Deposited:	29 Jul 2020 14:08
Last Modified:	29 Jul 2020 14:08
Status:	Published online
Publisher:	Wiley
Identification Number:	10.1111/geb.13123
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:163787

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The global abundance of tree palms

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