Can I read Competition for Light and Persistence of Rare Light‐demanding Species Within Tree‐fall Gaps in a Moist Tropical Forest on EtoBox?

Competition for Light and Persistence of Rare Light‐demanding Species Within Tree‐fall Gaps in a Moist Tropical Forest by Eduardo Velázquez; Thorsten Wiegand is a Environmental Science article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Competition for Light and Persistence of Rare Light‐demanding Species Within Tree‐fall Gaps in a Moist Tropical Forest about?

## Abstract Current evidence suggests that tree‐fall gaps can influence forest structure and dynamics by enabling certain species guilds to persist over the long term. Here we assessed the development of local size hierarchies and asymmetric competition for light in tree‐fall gaps, and the role played by these two processes for the persistence of rare light‐demanding species in the Barro Colorado Island Forest Dynamics Plot (Panama). We performed spatial point pattern analysis, considering both the spatial locations (x,y) and the diameter at breast height (DBH) of all the woody plant recruits from the 1985 and 2000 censuses located in tree‐fall gaps, and followed their fate up to the 1990–2010 and 2005–2010 censuses, respectively. For these two recruit cohorts, we found that, from the initial census until 5–10 yr later, close neighbors presented a larger DBH than the mean DBH of all individuals within gaps, which points to a positive growth response of recruits to the increased light levels in the gap centers. However, close neighbors of the 1985 cohort also showed larger than expected DBH differences that disappeared in subsequent censuses, indicating an enhancement of size differ

Who reads Competition for Light and Persistence of Rare Light‐demanding Species Within Tree‐fall Gaps in a Moist Tropical Forest?

Author

Eduardo Velázquez; Thorsten Wiegand

Publisher

Ecological Society of America; Wiley (John Wiley & Sons); Wiley-Blackwell; Wiley (ISSN 0012-9658)

Published

2020

Language

EN

Field

Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)