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Demographic composition, not demographic diversity, predicts biomass and turnover across temperate and tropical forests

Journal Article · · Global Change Biology
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16100· OSTI ID:1843989
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  1. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City (Panama); Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)
  3. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City (Panama); Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Front Royal, VA (United States)
  4. Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Front Royal, VA (United States)
  5. Forest Research Office, Bangkok (Thailand)
  6. Univ. of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD (Australia)
  7. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Yunnan (China)
  8. Amazonian Scientific Research Institute SINCHI, Bogota (Colombia)
  9. Sun Yat-Sen Univ., Kaohsiung (China)
  10. National Dong Hwa Univ., Hualien (Taiwan)
  11. University of Buea, (Cameroon)
  12. Indian Inst. of Science, Bangalore (India)
  13. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City (Panama); Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Washington, DC (United States)
  14. National University of Colombia at Medellín (Colombia)
  15. Univ. of Kisangani (Democratic Republic of Congo)
  16. University of the Philippines, Los Banos (Philippines); University of the Philippines, Quezon City (Philippines)
  17. Center for International Climate Research, Oslo (Norway)
  18. Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Selangor (Malaysia)
  19. Field Museum, Chicago. IL (United States)
  20. Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an (China)
  21. Lukuru Wildlife Research Foundation, Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo)
  22. National Taiwan Univ., Taipei (Taiwan)
  23. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City (Panama)
  24. Osaka City Univ. (Japan)
  25. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  26. Univ. of Montana, Missoula, MT (United States)
  27. Utah State Univ., Logan, UT (United States)
  28. Univ. of Oxford (United Kingdom)
  29. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford (United Kingdom)
  30. Sarawak Forestry Department, Kuching (Malaysia)
  31. Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute, Bogota (Columbia)
  32. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD (United States)
  33. Washington State Univ., Vancouver, WA (United States)
  34. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Penicuik (United Kingdom)
  35. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
  36. Pontifical Catholic Univ. of Ecuador, Quito (Ecuador)
  37. Far Eastern Univ., Manila (Philippines)
  38. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shenyang (China)
  39. Univ. of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras (Puerto Rico)
  40. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City (Panama); Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The growth and survival of individual trees determine the physical structure of a forest with important consequences for forest function. However, given the diversity of tree species and forest biomes, quantifying the multitude of demographic strategies within and across forests and the way that they translate into forest structure and function remains a significant challenge. Here, we quantify the demographic rates of 1961 tree species from temperate and tropical forests and evaluate how demographic diversity (DD) and demographic composition (DC) differ across forests, and how these differences in demography relate to species richness, aboveground biomass (AGB), and carbon residence time. We find wide variation in DD and DC across forest plots, patterns that are not explained by species richness or climate variables alone. There is no evidence that DD has an effect on either AGB or carbon residence time. Rather, the DC of forests, specifically the relative abundance of large statured species, predicted both biomass and carbon residence time. Our results demonstrate the distinct DCs of globally distributed forests, reflecting biogeography, recent history, and current plot conditions. Linking the DC of forests to resilience or vulnerability to climate change, will improve the precision and accuracy of predictions of future forest composition, structure, and function.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
U.S. Department of Energy; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1843989
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1844213
OSTI ID: 1846673
Journal Information:
Global Change Biology, Journal Name: Global Change Biology Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 28; ISSN 1354-1013
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
aboveground biomass
carbon residence time
forest GEO
forest dynamics
size-dependent survival
species richness
tree demography