Drought sensitivity shapes species distribution patterns in tropical forests
Drought sensitivity shapes species distribution patterns in tropical forests
复制标题
DOI：
10.1038/nature05747
复制
发表时间：
2007-05-03
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Hubbell, Stephen P.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Engelbrecht, Bettina M. J.;Comita, Liza S.;Hubbell, Stephen P.
尽管在热带森林中，树种分布的模式沿着环境梯度已经有了充分的文献记载（1-7），但造成这些模式的机制却鲜为人知。由于缺乏物种对环境变化相关轴的反应的比较数据，评估拟议机制的努力受到阻碍（1）。在这里，我们表明，不同的干旱敏感性形状植物分布在热带森林在区域和局部尺度。我们的分析是基于对48种树木和灌木的干旱敏感性的实验性实地评估，以及它们在巴拿马地峡降雨梯度的122个库存站点网络内的局部和区域分布。我们的结果表明，土壤水分可用性方面的生态位分化是热带树木局部和区域尺度分布的直接决定因素。因此，全球气候变化和森林破碎化造成的土壤湿度变化可能改变热带物种分布、群落组成和多样性。
Although patterns of tree species distributions along environmental gradients have been amply documented in tropical forests(1-7), mechanisms causing these patterns are seldom known. Efforts to evaluate proposed mechanisms have been hampered by a lack of comparative data on species' reactions to relevant axes of environmental variation(1). Here we show that differential drought sensitivity shapes plant distributions in tropical forests at both regional and local scales. Our analyses are based on experimental field assessments of drought sensitivity of 48 species of trees and shrubs, and on their local and regional distributions within a network of 122 inventory sites spanning a rainfall gradient across the Isthmus of Panama. Our results suggest that niche differentiation with respect to soil water availability is a direct determinant of both local- and regional-scale distributions of tropical trees. Changes in soil moisture availability caused by global climate change and forest fragmentation are therefore likely to alter tropical species distributions, community composition and diversity.