Abstract
Although produced by meristems that are continuous along the stem length, marked differences in bark morphology and in microenvironment would suggest that main stem and twig bark might differ ecologically. Here, we examined: (1) how closely associated main stem and twig bark traits were, (2) how these associations varied across sites, and (3) used these associations to infer functional and ecological differences between twig and main stem bark. We measured density, water content, photosynthesis presence/absence, total, outer, inner, and relative thicknesses of main stem and twig bark from 85 species of angiosperms from six sites of contrasting precipitation, temperature, and fire regimes. Density and water content did not differ between main stems and twigs across species and sites. Species with thicker twig bark had disproportionately thicker main stem bark in most sites, but the slope and degree of association varied. Disproportionately thicker main stem bark for a given twig bark thickness in most fire-prone sites suggested stem protection near the ground. The savanna had the opposite trend, suggesting that selection also favors twig protection in these fire-prone habitats. A weak main stem-twig bark thickness association was observed in non fire-prone sites. The near-ubiquity of photosynthesis in twigs highlighted its likely ecological importance; variation in this activity was predicted by outer bark thickness in main stems. It seems that the ecology of twig bark can be generalized to main stem bark, but not for functions depending on the amount of bark, such as protection, storage, or photosynthesis.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología grant no. 237061, Programa de Apoyo a Proyectos de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica (UNAM) grant no. IA201415, a Young Scientist Award from the MAB program (Unesco) awarded to J. A. R., the Australian Research Council through a Laureate Fellowship awarded to M. W., and the Daintree Rainforest Observatory. We thank Mark Olson, Sherwin Carlquist, Wade Tozer, Yvonne Chang, Nicole Vella, Debra Birch, Sean Gleason, Andrew Ford, Peter Byrnes, Andrew Thompson, Julia Cooke, Marina Scalon, Alicia Cook, Christopher Blackman, Ashleigh Brice, Michael Brand, Lindsay Hutley, Martha García, Enrique García, Jorge Vega, and Antonio Lot for their kind help with field work and helpful discussions. We thank two anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly helped improve the manuscript.
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Communicated by Allan T. G. Green.
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Rosell, J.A., Castorena, M., Laws, C.A. et al. Bark ecology of twigs vs. main stems: functional traits across eighty-five species of angiosperms. Oecologia 178, 1033–1043 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3307-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3307-5