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. 2021 Jun;5(6):757-767.
doi: 10.1038/s41559-021-01418-y. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

Amazon tree dominance across forest strata

Frederick C Draper  1   2   3 Flavia R C Costa  4 Gabriel Arellano  5 Oliver L Phillips  6 Alvaro Duque  7 Manuel J Macía  8   9 Hans Ter Steege  10   11 Gregory P Asner  12 Erika Berenguer  13   14 Juliana Schietti  4 Jacob B Socolar  15 Fernanda Coelho de Souza  4 Kyle G Dexter  16 Peter M Jørgensen  17 J Sebastian Tello  17 William E Magnusson  4 Timothy R Baker  6 Carolina V Castilho  18 Abel Monteagudo-Mendoza  19 Paul V A Fine  20 Kalle Ruokolainen  21 Euridice N Honorio Coronado  22 Gerardo Aymard  23   24 Nállarett Dávila  22 Mauricio Sánchez Sáenz  7 Marcos A Rios Paredes  22 Julien Engel  25 Claire Fortunel  25 C E Timothy Paine  26 Jean-Yves Goret  27 Aurelie Dourdain  28 Pascal Petronelli  28 Elodie Allie  27 Juan E Guevara Andino  29 Roel J W Brienen  6 Leslie Cayola Pérez  30 Ângelo G Manzatto  31 Narel Y Paniagua Zambrana  30 Jean-François Molino  25 Daniel Sabatier  25 Jerôme Chave  32 Sophie Fauset  33 Roosevelt Garcia Villacorta  34 Maxime Réjou-Méchain  25 Paul E Berry  5 Karina Melgaço  4 Ted R Feldpausch  35 Elvis Valderamma Sandoval  36 Rodolfo Vasquez Martinez  37 Italo Mesones  20 André B Junqueira  4   38 Katherine H Roucoux  39 José J de Toledo  40 Ana C Andrade  4 José Luís Camargo  4 Jhon Del Aguila Pasquel  22 Flávia D Santana  4 William F Laurance  41 Susan G Laurance  41 Thomas E Lovejoy  42 James A Comiskey  43   44 David R Galbraith  6 Michelle Kalamandeen  45   46 Gilberto E Navarro Aguilar  36 Jim Vega Arenas  36 Carlos A Amasifuen Guerra  47 Manuel Flores  36 Gerardo Flores Llampazo  22 Luis A Torres Montenegro  48 Ricardo Zarate Gomez  22 Marcelo P Pansonato  49 Victor Chama Moscoso  19   37 Jason Vleminckx  12 Oscar J Valverde Barrantes  12 Joost F Duivenvoorden  50 Sidney Araújo de Sousa  51 Luzmila Arroyo  52 Ricardo O Perdiz  4 Jessica Soares Cravo  4 Beatriz S Marimon  53 Ben Hur Marimon Junior  53 Fernanda Antunes Carvalho  54 Gabriel Damasco  55 Mathias Disney  56 Marcos Salgado Vital  51 Pablo R Stevenson Diaz  57 Alberto Vicentini  4 Henrique Nascimento  4 Niro Higuchi  4 Tinde Van Andel  10 Yadvinder Malhi  14 Sabina Cerruto Ribeiro  58 John W Terborgh  59 Raquel S Thomas  60 Francisco Dallmeier  61 Adriana Prieto  62 Renato R Hilário  40 Rafael P Salomão  63   64 Richarlly da Costa Silva  58 Luisa F Casas  65 Ima C Guimarães Vieira  64 Alejandro Araujo-Murakami  52 Fredy Ramirez Arevalo  66 Hirma Ramírez-Angulo  67 Emilio Vilanova Torre  67   68 Maria C Peñuela  69 Timothy J Killeen  70 Guido Pardo  71 Eliana Jimenez-Rojas  72 Wenderson Castro  58 Darcy Galiano Cabrera  19 John Pipoly  73   74 Thaiane Rodrigues de Sousa  4 Marcos Silvera  75 Vincent Vos  71 David Neill  76 Percy Núñez Vargas  19 Dilys M Vela  77 Luiz E O C Aragão  78 Ricardo Keichi Umetsu  53 Rodrigo Sierra  79 Ophelia Wang  80 Kenneth R Young  81 Nayane C C S Prestes  53 Klécia G Massi  82 José Reyna Huaymacari  22 Germaine A Parada Gutierrez  52 Ana M Aldana  57 Miguel N Alexiades  83 Fabrício Baccaro  84 Carlos Céron  85 Adriane Esquivel Muelbert  86 Julio M Grandez Rios  22 Antonio S Lima  64 Jonathan L Lloyd  87 Nigel C A Pitman  88 Luis Valenzuela Gamarra  37 Cesar J Cordova Oroche  22 Alfredo F Fuentes  30 Walter Palacios  89 Sandra Patiño  90 Armando Torres-Lezama  67 Christopher Baraloto  91
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Free article

Amazon tree dominance across forest strata

Frederick C Draper et al. Nat Ecol Evol. 2021 Jun.
Free article

Abstract

The forests of Amazonia are among the most biodiverse plant communities on Earth. Given the immediate threats posed by climate and land-use change, an improved understanding of how this extraordinary biodiversity is spatially organized is urgently required to develop effective conservation strategies. Most Amazonian tree species are extremely rare but a few are common across the region. Indeed, just 227 'hyperdominant' species account for >50% of all individuals >10 cm diameter at 1.3 m in height. Yet, the degree to which the phenomenon of hyperdominance is sensitive to tree size, the extent to which the composition of dominant species changes with size class and how evolutionary history constrains tree hyperdominance, all remain unknown. Here, we use a large floristic dataset to show that, while hyperdominance is a universal phenomenon across forest strata, different species dominate the forest understory, midstory and canopy. We further find that, although species belonging to a range of phylogenetically dispersed lineages have become hyperdominant in small size classes, hyperdominants in large size classes are restricted to a few lineages. Our results demonstrate that it is essential to consider all forest strata to understand regional patterns of dominance and composition in Amazonia. More generally, through the lens of 654 hyperdominant species, we outline a tractable pathway for understanding the functioning of half of Amazonian forests across vertical strata and geographical locations.

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