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Sources of Canopy Chemical and Spectral Diversity in Lowland Bornean Forest

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Abstract

Sources of variation among the chemical and spectral properties of tropical forest canopies are poorly understood, yet chemical traits reveal potential ecosystem and phylogenetic controls, and spectral linkages to chemical traits are needed for remote sensing of functional and biological diversity. We analyzed 21 leaf traits in 395 fully sunlit canopies, representing 232 species and multiple growth forms, in a lowland mixed dipterocarp forest of Sarawak, Malaysia. Leaf traits related to light capture and growth (for example, photosynthetic pigments, nutrients) were up to 55% lower, and defense traits (for example, phenols, lignin) were 15–40% higher, in the dominant family Dipterocarpaceae and in its genus Shorea, as compared to all other canopy species. The chemical variation within Dipterocarpaceae and Shorea was equivalent to that of all other canopy species combined, highlighting the role that a single phylogenetic branch can play in creating canopy chemical diversity. Seventeen of 21 traits had more than 50% of their variation explained by taxonomic grouping, and at least 16 traits show a connection to remotely sensed spectroscopic signatures (RMSE < 15%). It is through these chemical-to-spectral linkages that studies of functional and biological diversity interactions become possible at larger spatial scales, thereby improving our understanding of the role of species in tropical forest ecosystem dynamics.

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Acknowledgements

We thank D. Knapp, F. Sinca, L. Carranza, C. Anderson, M. Houcheime, K. Smith, and A. Enjah, and colleagues from the Forest Department Sarawak, University Malaysia Sarawak, and University Putra Malaysia for assistance with logistics, field work and laboratory analyses. We thank S. Davies and the Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) for programmatic assistance. The Carnegie Spectranomics Project (http://spectranomics.ciw.edu) is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and activities in the field campaign were made possible through the development project of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE), Malaysia.

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  1. Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, 260 Panama Street, Stanford, California, 94305, USA

    Gregory P. Asner & Roberta E. Martin

  2. Forest Department Sarawak, 6th Floor Wisma Sumber Alam, Petra Jaya, 93660, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

    Affendi Bin Suhaili

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  1. Gregory P. Asner
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Correspondence to Gregory P. Asner.

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Asner and Martin conceived of or designed study, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper; Bin Suhaili conceived of or designed study and performed research.

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Asner, G.P., Martin, R.E. & Suhaili, A.B. Sources of Canopy Chemical and Spectral Diversity in Lowland Bornean Forest. Ecosystems 15, 504–517 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-012-9526-2

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