Functional composition of the Amazonian tree flora and forests

ter Steege, Hans ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8738-2659 , Poorter, Lourens, Aguirre-Gutiérrez, Jesús, Fortunel, Claire, Magnusson, William, Phillips, Oliver, Pos, Edwin, Luize, Bruno Garcia, Baraloto, Chris, Guevara, Juan Ernesto, Endara, María-José, Baker, Tim, Umaña, Maria Natalia, van der Sande, Masha, Pombo, Maihyra Marina, McGlone, Matt, Draper, Freddie, do Amaral, Iêda Leão, Coelho, Luiz de Souza, Wittmann, Florian, Almeida Matos, Francisca Dionízia de, Lima Filho, Diógenes de Andrade, Salomão, Rafael, Castilho, Carolina, Carim, Marcelo de Jesus Veiga, Piedade, Maria Teresa Fernandez, Sabatier, Daniel, Molino, Jean-François, Demarchi, Layon, Cardenas Revilla, Juan David, Schöngart, Jochen, Irume, Mariana Victória, Martins, Maria Pires, da Silva Guimarães, José Renan, Ramos, José Ferreira, Bánki, Olaf S., Quaresma, Adriano Costa, Pitman, Nigel, Peres, Carlos, de Jesus Rodrigues, Domingos, Hawes, Joseph ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0053-2018 , Almeida, Everton José, Barbosa, Luciane Ferreira, Cavalheiro, Larissa, Santos, Márcia Cléia Vilela dos, Leão Novo, Evlyn Márcia Moraes de, Vargas, Percy Núñez, Silva, Thiago Sanna Freire, Venticinque, Eduardo Martins, Manzatto, Angelo Gilberto, Reis, Neidiane Farias Costa, Terborgh, John, Casula, Katia Regina, Honorio Coronado, Euridice, Monteagudo Mendoza, Abel, Carlos Montero, Juan, De Souza, Cintia Rodrigues, Oliveira, Marcus Vinicio Neves de, Costa, Flávia, Engel, Julien, Feldpausch, Ted, Castaño Arboleda, Nicolás, Durgante, Flávia Machado, Zartman, Charles Eugene, Killeen, Timothy, Marimon, Beatriz, Marimon-Junior, Ben Hur, Vasquez, Rodolfo, Mostacedo, Bonifacio, Assis, Rafael, Amaral, Dário Dantas do, Castellanos, Hernán, Householder, John Ethan, de Medeiros, Marcelo Brilhante, Simon, Marcelo Fragomeni, Andrade, Ana, Camargo, José Luís, Laurance, Susan, Laurance, William, Rincón, Lorena Maniguaje, Mori, Gisele Biem, Schietti, Juliana, Sousa, Thaiane, de Sousa Farias, Emanuelle, Lopes, Maria Aparecida, Magalhães, José Leonardo Lima, Nascimento, Henrique Eduardo Mendonça, de Queiroz, Helder Lima, Vasconcelos, Caroline, Aymard C, Gerardo, Brienen, Roel, Sousa Assis, Pâmella Leite de, Gris, Darlene, Ribeiro, Karoline Aparecida Felix, Stevenson, Pablo, Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro, Cintra, Bruno Barçante Ladvocat, Feitosa, Yuri Oliveira, Mogollón, Hugo, Silman, Miles, Ferreira, Leandro Valle, Lozada, José Rafael, Comiskey, James, de Toledo, José Julio, Damasco, Gabriel, García-Villacorta, Roosevelt, Lopes, Aline, Rios Paredes, Marcos, Vicentini, Alberto, Vieira, Ima Célia Guimarães, Cornejo Valverde, Fernando, Alonso, Alfonso, Arroyo, Luzmila, Dallmeier, Francisco, Gomes, Vitor, Huari, William Nauray, Neill, David, Peñuela Mora, Maria Cristina, de Aguiar, Daniel, Barbosa, Flávia Rodrigues, Bredin, Yennie, de Sá Carpanedo, Rainiellen, Carvalho, Fernanda Antunes, de Souza, Fernanda Coelho, Feeley, Kenneth, Gribel, Rogerio, Haugaasen, Torbjørn, Noronha, Janaína Costa, Pansonato, Marcelo Petratti, Pipoly, John, Barlow, Jos, Berenguer, Erika, Silva, Izaias Brasil da, Ferreira, Joice, Ferreira, Maria Julia, Fine, Paul, Guedes, Marcelino Carneiro, Levis, Carolina, Carlos Licona, Juan, Zegarra, Boris Eduardo Villa, Vos, Vincent Antoine, Cerón, Carlos, Fonty, Émile, Henkel, Terry, Huamantupa-Chuquimaco, Isau, Silveira, Marcos, Stropp, Juliana, Thomas, Raquel, Daly, Doug, Dexter, Kyle, Milliken, William, Molina, Guido Pardo, Pennington, Toby, Albuquerque, Bianca Weiss, Campelo, Wegliane, Claros, Alfredo Fuentes, Klitgaard, Bente, Pena, José Luis Marcelo, Montenegro, Luis Torres, Tello, J. Sebastián, Vriesendorp, Corine, Chave, Jerome, Di Fiore, Anthony, Hilário, Renato Richard, de Oliveira Pereira, Luciana, Phillips, Juan Fernando, Rivas-Torres, Gonzalo, van Andel, Tinde, Hildebrand, Patricio von, Balee, William, Barbosa, Edelcilio Marques, Bonates, Luiz Carlos de Matos, Dávila Doza, Hilda Paulette, Zárate Gómez, Ricardo, Gonzales, George Pepe Gallardo, Gonzales, Therany, Hoffman, Bruce, Junqueira, André Braga, Malhi, Yadvinder, Miranda, Ires Paula de Andrade, Pinto, Linder Felipe Mozombite, Prieto, Adriana, Rudas, Agustín, Ruschel, Ademir, Silva, Natalino, Vela, César, Zent, Egleé, Zent, Stanford, Cano, Angela, Carrero Márquez, Yrma Andreina, Correa, Diego, Costa, Janaina Barbosa Pedrosa, Flores, Bernardo Monteiro, Galbraith, David, Holmgren, Milena, Kalamandeen, Michelle, Lobo, Guilherme, Mori Vargas, Tony, Nascimento, Marcelo Trindade, Oliveira, Alexandre, Ramirez-Angulo, Hirma, Rocha, Maira, Scudeller, Veridiana Vizoni, Heijden, Geertje van der, Torre, Emilio Vilanova, Baider, Cláudia, Balslev, Henrik, Cárdenas, Sasha, Casas, Luisa Fernanda, Farfan-Rios, William, Linares-Palomino, Reynaldo, Mendoza, Casimiro, Mesones, Italo, Parada, Germaine Alexander, Torres-Lezama, Armando, Villarroel, Daniel, Zagt, Roderick, Alexiades, Miguel, de Oliveira, Edmar Almeida, Fortier, Riley, Garcia-Cabrera, Karina, Hernandez, Lionel, Cuenca, Walter Palacios, Pansini, Susamar, Pauletto, Daniela, Arevalo, Freddy Ramirez, Sampaio, Adeilza Felipe, Valderrama Sandoval, Elvis, Gamarra, Luis Valenzuela, Levesley, Aurora and Pickavance, Georgia (2025) Functional composition of the Amazonian tree flora and forests. Communications Biology, 8 . article no. 355.

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Abstract

Plants cope with the environment by displaying large phenotypic variation. Two spectra of global plant form and function have been identified: a size spectrum from small to tall species with increasing stem tissue density, leaf size, and seed mass; a leaf economics spectrum reflecting slow to fast returns on investments in leaf nutrients and carbon. When species assemble to communities it is assumed that these spectra are filtered by the environment to produce community level functional composition. It is unknown what are the main drivers for community functional composition in a large area such as Amazonia. We use 13 functional traits, including wood density, seed mass, leaf characteristics, breeding system, nectar production, fruit type, and root characteristics of 812 tree genera (5211 species), and find that they describe two main axes found at the global scale. At community level, the first axis captures not only the ‘fast-slow spectrum’, but also most size-related traits. Climate and disturbance explain a minor part of this variance compared to soil fertility. Forests on poor soils differ largely in terms of trait values from those on rich soils. Trait composition and soil fertility exert a strong influence on forest functioning: biomass and relative biomass production.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	Communications Biology
Publisher:	Nature Research
ISSN:	2399-3642
Departments:	Institute of Science and Environment > Forestry and Conservation
Additional Information:	Joseph E. Hawes, Lecturer in Ecology and Conservation, University of Cumbria, UK. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material.
Depositing User:	Insight Administrator
SWORD Depositor:	Insight Administrator
Date Deposited:	05 Mar 2025 10:03
Last Modified:	12 Mar 2025 09:30
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/8672

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