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Dispersal mode, shade tolerance, and phytogeographical affinity of tree species during secondary succession in tropical montane cloud forest

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Abstract

Secondary succession following land abandonment, represented by a chronosequence of 15 old fields (0–80 years old) and two old-growth forests, was studied in the tropical montane cloud forest region of Veracruz, Mexico. The objective was to determine successional trajectories in forest structure and species richness of trees ≥5 cm DBH, in terms of differences in seed dispersal mode, shade tolerance, and phytogeographical affinity. Data were analyzed using AIC model selection and logistic regressions. Mean and maximum canopy height reached values similar to old-growth forest at 35 and 80 years, respectively. Species richness and diversity values were reached earlier (15 and 25 years, respectively) while basal area and stem density tended to reach old-growth forest values within 80 years. Along the chronosequence, the proportion of species and individuals of wind-dispersed trees declined, that of bird dispersed small seeded trees remained constant, while that of gravity and animal dispersed large seeded trees increased; shade-intolerant species and individuals declined, while intermediate and shade-tolerant trees increased. Shade-tolerant canopy trees were rare during succession, even in the old-growth forest. Tropical tree species were more frequent than temperate ones throughout the chronosequence, but temperate tree individuals became canopy dominants at intermediate and old-growth forest stages.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Mike Lawes and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments that improved this article, Rosario Landgrave and Arturo Piña for their help in the preparation of Figs. 1 and 3. MMR acknowledges sabbatical fellowships from PASPA-DGAP (UNAM) and CONACyT to work on this article in the Department of Integrative Biology, UC-Berkeley. We appreciate the support provided by CONACyT (through Scholarship 159002 to MAMC), Instituto de Ecología, A.C., and the European Community under the INCO IV program, contract ICA4-CT-2001-10095.

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Author notes

  1. Miguel Angel Muñiz-Castro

    Present address: Departamento de Botánica y Zoología, CUCBA, Universidad de Guadalajara, Km 15.5 carretera Guadalajara-Nogales, Las Agujas, 45110, Zapopan, JAL, Mexico

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecología Funcional, Instituto de Ecología, A.C., Carretera Antigua a Coatepec No. 351, 91070, Xalapa, VER, Mexico

    Miguel Angel Muñiz-Castro & Guadalupe Williams-Linera

  2. Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro 8701, 58190, Morelia, MICH, Mexico

    Miguel Martínez-Ramos

Authors
  1. Miguel Angel Muñiz-Castro
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  2. Guadalupe Williams-Linera
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  3. Miguel Martínez-Ramos
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guadalupe Williams-Linera.

Appendix

Appendix

See Appendix Table 3.

Table 3 Changes along the chronosequence in terms of number of species, number of individuals, and basal area of groups of dispersal mode (anemochorous or species with wind-dispersed seeds, endozoochorous or species with small seeds dispersed by birds and small mammals, and barochorous-zynzoochorous or species with large seeds dispersed by gravity or animals that do not ingest the seeds), shade tolerance (intolerant, intermediate, and shade tolerant) and phytogeographical affinity (temperate and tropical)
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Muñiz-Castro, M.A., Williams-Linera, G. & Martínez-Ramos, M. Dispersal mode, shade tolerance, and phytogeographical affinity of tree species during secondary succession in tropical montane cloud forest. Plant Ecol 213, 339–353 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-011-9980-5

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