Amazon tree dominance across forest strata

Abstract

The forests of Amazonia are among the most biodiverse plant communities on Earth. Given the immediate threats posed by climate and land-use change, an improved understanding of how this extraordinary biodiversity is spatially organized is urgently required to develop effective conservation strategies. Most Amazonian tree species are extremely rare but a few are common across the region. Indeed, just 227 ‘hyperdominant’ species account for >50% of all individuals >10 cm diameter at 1.3 m in height. Yet, the degree to which the phenomenon of hyperdominance is sensitive to tree size, the extent to which the composition of dominant species changes with size class and how evolutionary history constrains tree hyperdominance, all remain unknown. Here, we use a large floristic dataset to show that, while hyperdominance is a universal phenomenon across forest strata, different species dominate the forest understory, midstory and canopy. We further find that, although species belonging to a range of phylogenetically dispersed lineages have become hyperdominant in small size classes, hyperdominants in large size classes are restricted to a few lineages. Our results demonstrate that it is essential to consider all forest strata to understand regional patterns of dominance and composition in Amazonia. More generally, through the lens of 654 hyperdominant species, we outline a tractable pathway for understanding the functioning of half of Amazonian forests across vertical strata and geographical locations.

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Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	This paper has 143 authors. You can scroll the list below to see them all or them all. Draper, FC https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7568-0838 Costa, FRC Arellano, G Phillips, OL https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8993-6168 Duque, A Macía, MJ ter Steege, H Asner, GP Berenguer, E Schietti, J Socolar, JB Coelho De Souza, F Dexter, KG Jørgensen, PM Tello, JS Magnusson, WE Baker, TR https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3251-1679 Castilho, CV Monteagudo-Mendoza, A Fine, PVA Ruokolainen, K Honorio Coronado, EN Aymard, G Dávila, N Sánchez Sáenz, M Rios Paredes, MA Engel, J Fortunel, C Paine, CET Goret, J-Y Dourdain, A Petronelli, P Allie, E Guevara Andino, JE Brienen, RJW https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5397-5755 Pérez, LC Manzatto, ÂG Paniagua Zambrana, NY Molino, J-F Sabatier, D Chave, J Fauset, S Villacorta, RG Réjou-Méchain, M Berry, PE Melgaço, K Feldpausch, TR Sandoval, EV Martinez, RV Mesones, I Junqueira, AB Roucoux, KH de Toledo, JJ Andrade, AC Camargo, JL del Aguila Pasquel, J Santana, FD Laurance, WF Laurance, SG Lovejoy, TE Comiskey, JA Galbraith, DR https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5555-4823 Kalamandeen, M Navarro Aguilar, GE Arenas, JV Amasifuen Guerra, CA Flores, M Flores Llampazo, G Torres Montenegro, LA Gomez, RZ Pansonato, MP Moscoso, VC Vleminckx, J Valverde Barrantes, OJ Duivenvoorden, JF Araújo de Sousa, S Arroyo, L Perdiz, RO Cravo, JS Marimon, BS Marimon Junior, BH Carvalho, FA Damasco, G Disney, M Salgado Vital, M Stevenson Diaz, PR Vicentini, A Nascimento, H Higuchi, N Van Andel, T Malhi, Y Ribeiro, SC Terborgh, JW Thomas, RS Dallmeier, F Prieto, A Hilário, RR Salomão, RP da Costa Silva, R Casas, LF Guimarães Vieira, IC Araujo-Murakami, A Ramirez Arevalo, F Ramírez-Angulo, H Vilanova Torre, E Peñuela, MC Killeen, TJ Pardo, G Jimenez-Rojas, E Castro, W Galiano Cabrera, D Pipoly, J Rodrigues de Sousa, T Silvera, M Vos, V Neill, D Núñez Vargas, P Vela, DM Aragão, LEOC Umetsu, RK Sierra, R Wang, O Young, KR Prestes, NCCS Massi, KG Huaymacari, JR Parada Gutierrez, GA Aldana, AM Alexiades, MN Baccaro, F Céron, C Esquivel Muelbert, A Grandez Rios, JM Lima, AS Lloyd, JL Pitman, NCA Valenzuela Gamarra, L Cordova Oroche, CJ Fuentes, AF Palacios, W Patiño, S Torres-Lezama, A Baraloto, C
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2021. This is an author produced version of an article published in Nature Ecology and Evolution. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.
Dates:	Published: June 2021 Published (online): 1 April 2021 Accepted: 18 February 2021
Institution:	The University of Leeds
Academic Units:	The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Ecology & Global Change (Leeds)
Funding Information:	Funder Grant number NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/C517484/1 NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/I028122/1
Depositing User:	Symplectic Publications
Date Deposited:	24 Mar 2021 12:28
Last Modified:	01 Oct 2021 00:38
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Nature Research
Identification Number:	10.1038/s41559-021-01418-y
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:172421

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Amazon tree dominance across forest strata

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