Compensatory Recruitment, Growth, and Mortality as Factors Maintaining Rain Forest Tree Diversity

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<jats:p>One general hypothesis to explain how forest tree diversity is maintained is that rarer species are favored over commoner species in their reproduction, growth, and/or mortality. Mechanisms acting in this way would continually compensate for the tendency of some species to increase at the expense of others, and would reduce the chance of local extinction of rare species. Two hypotheses concerning such compensatory mechanisms were tested in subtropical and tropical evergreen rain forests in Queensland, Australia.</jats:p><jats:p>Hypothesis 1: on the scale of 1—2 ha, commoner species have lower rates of recruitment and growth and higher rates of mortality than do rarer ones. This hypothesis was tested using abundances either of adults or of members of the same size—class, and was rejected for growth and mortality and for recruitment of over—story species, but not rejected for recruitment in subcanopy and understory species in either forest.</jats:p><jats:p>Hypothesis 2: the close proximity of other individuals is more deleterious (i.e., causes slower growth or higher mortality) if they are the same species than if they are different species. This hypothesis was accepted for growth or survival of nearest neighbors in several of the seedling size—classes in both forests. In contrast, increased densities of the same species in quadrats had no more deleterious effect on growth and survival than did increased densities of different species. At the scale of proximity to adults, hypothesis 2 predicts that young trees have higher mortality nearer conspecific adults than farther away. In both forests, 90% of the species tested showed no such pattern of mortality of seedlings or saplings, nor was the strength or direction of the deviation from equal mortality correlated with the abundance of adults of that species. Field experiments gave the same results.</jats:p><jats:p>In summary, tests of both hypotheses showed that some compensatory trends occurred and that these were very similar in the two forests. The mechanisms producing these compensatory trends may be attacks by natural enemies (grazers, pathogenic fungi, etc.), interference, or, less likely, competition for resources.</jats:p>

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