Multispecies coexistence of trees in tropical forests: spatial signals of topographic niche differentiation increase with environmental heterogeneity
Multispecies coexistence of trees in tropical forests: spatial signals of topographic niche differentiation increase with environmental heterogeneity
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2013.0502
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发表时间：
2013-08-07
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Law, R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Brown, C.;Burslem, D. F. R. P.;Law, R.
中性理论和生态位理论对热带树种多样性的维持给出了截然不同的解释。两者都有一些实证支持，但尚未开发出解决其影响的方法。我们应用了一个统计措施的空间结构的数据从14个大型热带森林地块测试预测的生态位理论是不兼容的中性理论：物种在异质环境中应分开的空间根据他们的生态位偏好。我们选择了一系列地形异质性的地块，并测试了物种之间的成对空间关联是否在更异质的网站更多变。我们发现这种预测的强有力的支持，基于一个强有力的正相关关系，在物种对的空间结构和地形异质性的网站。我们解释这种模式的证据普遍的生态位分化，这增加了环境异质性的重要性。
Neutral and niche theories give contrasting explanations for the maintenance of tropical tree species diversity. Both have some empirical support, but methods to disentangle their effects have not yet been developed. We applied a statistical measure of spatial structure to data from 14 large tropical forest plots to test a prediction of niche theory that is incompatible with neutral theory: that species in heterogeneous environments should separate out in space according to their niche preferences. We chose plots across a range of topographic heterogeneity, and tested whether pairwise spatial associations among species were more variable in more heterogeneous sites. We found strong support for this prediction, based on a strong positive relationship between variance in the spatial structure of species pairs and topographic heterogeneity across sites. We interpret this pattern as evidence of pervasive niche differentiation, which increases in importance with increasing environmental heterogeneity.