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Soil-related variations in the population dynamics of six dipterocarp tree species with strong habitat preferences

  • Population ecology - Original research
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Abstract

Differences in the density of conspecific tree individuals in response to environmental gradients are well documented for many tree species, but how such density differences are generated and maintained is poorly understood. We examined the segregation of six dipterocarp species among three soil types in the Pasoh tropical forest, Malaysia. We examined how individual performance and population dynamics changed across the soil types using 10-year demographic data to compare tree performance across soil types, and constructed population matrix models to analyze the population dynamics. Species showed only minor changes in mortality and juvenile growth across soil types, although recruitment differed greatly. Clear, interspecific demographic trade-offs between growth and mortality were found in all soil types. The relative trade-offs by a species did not differ substantially among the soil types. Population sizes were projected to remain stable in all soil types for all species with one exception. Our life-table response experiment demonstrated that the population dynamics of a species differed only subtly among soil types. Therefore, species with strong density differences across soil types do not necessarily differ greatly in their population dynamics across the soil types. In contrast, interspecific differences in population dynamics were large. The trade-off between mortality and growth led to a negative correlation between the contributions of mortality and growth to variations in the population growth rate (λ) and thus reduced their net contributions. Recruitment had little impact on the variation in λ. The combination of these factors resulted in little variation in λ among species.

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Acknowledgments

The 50-ha forest dynamics plot in the Pasoh Forest Reserve, Malaysia, is an ongoing project of the Malaysian Government and was initiated by Forest Research Institute Malaysia through its former Director General, Doto’ Dr. S.H. Mor, and under the leadership of Drs. N. Manokaran, P.S. Ashton, and S.P. Hubbell. Supplementary funding was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation; by the Conservation, Food, and Health Foundation, Inc. (USA); by the United Nations, through its Man and the Biosphere program (UNESCO-MAB grants and UNESCO-ROSTSEA); and by the continuing support of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan. This study was supported by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (D-1005) of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest and that the study complies with the current laws of Japan and Malaysia.

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  1. Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-8521, Japan

    Toshihiro Yamada, Yuko Yamada & Toshinori Okuda

  2. Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Kepong, 52109, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Christine Fletcher

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  1. Toshihiro Yamada
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  2. Yuko Yamada
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  3. Toshinori Okuda
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Correspondence to Toshihiro Yamada.

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Communicated by Walt Carson.

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Yamada, T., Yamada, Y., Okuda, T. et al. Soil-related variations in the population dynamics of six dipterocarp tree species with strong habitat preferences. Oecologia 172, 713–724 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2529-z

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