Abstract
Functional traits are morphological and physiological characteristics that determine growth, reproduction, and survival strategies. The leaf economics spectrum proposes two opposing life history strategies: species with an “acquisitive” strategy grow fast and exploit high-resource environments, while species with a “conservative” strategy emphasize survival and slow growth under low resource conditions. We analyzed intra and interspecific variation in nine functional traits related to biomass allocation and tissue quality in seven Neotropical palm species from understory and canopy strata. We expected that the level of resources of a stratum that a species typically exploits would determine the dominance of either the exploitative or conservative strategy, as well as degree of divergence in functional traits between species. If this is correct, then canopy species will show an acquisitive strategy emphasizing traits targeting a larger size, whereas understory species will show a conservative strategy with traits promoting efficient biomass allocation and survival in the shade. Two principal components (57.22% of the variation) separated palm species into: (a) canopy species whose traits were congruent with the acquisitive strategy and emphasized large size (i.e., diameter, height, carbon content, and leaf area), and (b) understory species whose traits were associated with efficient biomass allocation (i.e., dry mass fraction -DMF- and tissue density). As we unravel the variation in functional traits in palms, which make up a substantial proportion of the tropical flora, we gain a deeper understanding of how plants adapt to environmental gradients.
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The data was deposited in Mendeley repository under the reference number Avalos, Gerardo; camb, mile; Alvarez-Vernagni, Carolina (2022), “Functional traits of 7 spp of tropical palms in Costa Rica”, Mendeley Data, V1, https://doi.org/10.17632/yw9tffmwjf.1.
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Acknowledgements
Orlando Vargas facilitated field work at La Selva. Juan Manuel Ley facilitated field work at Tirimbina. Nutrient analyses were facilitated by Floria Bertsch at the Centro de Investigaciones Agronómicas, University of Costa Rica, and by Steven Jansen at the Department of Systematic Botany and Ecology, University of Ulm. The Alpízar Chaves family of El Progreso facilitated work in their property.
Funding
This investigation was supported by a research grant from the International Palm Society to MC, and scholarships from the Organization for Tropical Studies (MC and CAV), the University of Costa Rica (MC), and Tirimbina Biological Reserve (CAV). The School for Field Studies provided logistic support.
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GA: conceived and designed the experiments with assistance from MC and CA-V. MC and CA-V: conducted the fieldwork with assistance from GA. GA, MC, and CA-V: analyzed the data. GA: wrote the manuscript.
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Communicated by Hermann Heilmeier.
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Avalos, G., Cambronero, M. & Alvarez-Vergnani, C. Divergence in functional traits in seven species of neotropical palms of different forest strata. Oecologia 203, 323–333 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05466-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05466-y