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Buttress form of the central African rain forest tree Microberlinia bisulcata, and its possible role in nutrient acquisition

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Abstract

Buttressing is a trait special to tropical trees but explanations for its occurrence remain inconclusive. The two main hypotheses are that they provide structural support and/or promote nutrient acquisition. Studies of the first are common but the second has received much less attention. Architectural measurements were made on adult and juvenile trees of the ectomycorrhizal species Microberlinia bisulcata, in Korup (Cameroon). Buttressing on this species is highly distinctive with strong lateral extension of surface roots of the juveniles leading to a mature buttress system of a shallow spreading form on adults. This contrasts with more vertical buttresses, closer to the stem, found on many other tropical tree species. No clear relationship between main buttress and large branch distribution was found. Whilst this does not argue against the essential structural role of buttresses for these very large tropical trees, the form on M. bisulcata does suggest a likely second role, that of aiding nutrient acquisition. At the Korup site, with its deep sandy soils of very low phosphorus status, and where most nutrient cycling takes place in a thin surface layer of fine roots and mycorrhizas, it appears that buttress form could develop from soil-surface root exploration for nutrients by juvenile trees. It may accordingly allow M. bisulcata to attain the higher greater competitive ability, faster growth rate, and maximum tree size that it does compared with other co-occurring tree species. For sites across the tropics in general, the degree of shallowness and spatial extension of buttresses of the dominant species is hypothesized to increase with decreasing nutrient availability.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Ministries of Forests and Environment (MINEF) and Education, Scientific and Technical Research (MINREST) for permission to conduct this research in Korup National Park; the Conservator of KNP, Albert Kembou, for his kind facilitation and support; our host institute, the Institute of Agronomic Research (IRAD) at Ekona (Head, Simon Zok); Wolfgang Bischoff and Fabienne Zeugin for assistance with tree architecture and relascope survey measurements, respectively, and T. W. Henkel for his valuable comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant #3100-066655, 2002–2005) to D.M.N.

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Author notes

  1. Xander M. van der Burgt

    Present address: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Berne, Altenbergrain 21, 3013, Berne, Switzerland

    David M. Newbery, Sarah Schwan & Xander M. van der Burgt

  2. Department of Plant and Animal Sciences, University of Buea, P. O. Box 63, Buea, S. W. Province, Cameroon

    George B. Chuyong

Authors
  1. David M. Newbery
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  2. Sarah Schwan
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  3. George B. Chuyong
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  4. Xander M. van der Burgt
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David M. Newbery.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 4 Mean and 95% confidence limits to buttress variables of adult and juvenile trees and plantation saplings of Microberlinia bisulcata based on logarithmic transformation
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Newbery, D.M., Schwan, S., Chuyong, G.B. et al. Buttress form of the central African rain forest tree Microberlinia bisulcata, and its possible role in nutrient acquisition. Trees 23, 219–234 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-008-0270-3

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