Pervasive density-dependent recruitment enhances seedling diversity in a tropical forest

Kyle E. Harms (), S. Joseph Wright, Osvaldo Calderón, Andrés Hernández and Edward Allen Herre
Additional contact information
Kyle E. Harms: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072
S. Joseph Wright: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072
Osvaldo Calderón: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072
Andrés Hernández: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072
Edward Allen Herre: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072

Nature, 2000, vol. 404, issue 6777, 493-495

Abstract: Abstract Negative density-dependent recruitment of seedlings, that is, seeds of a given species are less likely to become established seedlings if the density of that species is high, has been proposed to be an important mechanism contributing to the extraordinary diversity of tropical tree communities1,2,3 because it can potentially prevent any particular species from usurping all available space, either in close proximity to seed sources or at relatively larger spatial scales1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18. However, density-dependent recruitment does not necessarily enhance community diversity14. Furthermore, although density-dependent effects have been found at some life stages in some species3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13, no study has shown that density-dependent recruitment affects community diversity14,15. Here we report the results of observations in a lowland, moist forest in the Republic of Panamá in which the species identities of 386,027 seeds that arrived at 200 seed traps were compared with the species identities of 13,068 seedlings that recruited into adjacent plots over a 4-year period. Across the 200 sites, recruit seedling diversity was significantly higher than seed diversity. Part of this difference was explained by interspecies differences in average recruitment success. Even after accounting for these differences, however, negative density-dependent recruitment contributes significantly to the increase in diversity from seeds to seedling recruits.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35006630 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:404:y:2000:i:6777:d:10.1038_35006630

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35006630

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().