Legume abundance along successional and rainfall gradients in Neotropical forests.
Nat Ecol Evol
; 2(7): 1104-1111, 2018 07.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-29807995
The nutrient demands of regrowing tropical forests are partly satisfied by nitrogen-fixing legume trees, but our understanding of the abundance of those species is biased towards wet tropical regions. Here we show how the abundance of Leguminosae is affected by both recovery from disturbance and large-scale rainfall gradients through a synthesis of forest inventory plots from a network of 42 Neotropical forest chronosequences. During the first three decades of natural forest regeneration, legume basal area is twice as high in dry compared with wet secondary forests. The tremendous ecological success of legumes in recently disturbed, water-limited forests is likely to be related to both their reduced leaflet size and ability to fix N2, which together enhance legume drought tolerance and water-use efficiency. Earth system models should incorporate these large-scale successional and climatic patterns of legume dominance to provide more accurate estimates of the maximum potential for natural nitrogen fixation across tropical forests.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Chuva
/
Árvores
/
Florestas
/
Fabaceae
País/Região como assunto:
America central
/
America do sul
/
Caribe
/
Puerto rico
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Nat Ecol Evol
Ano de publicação:
2018
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos
País de publicação:
Reino Unido