Regular Article

ECOLOGICAL DETERMINISM IN PLANT COMMUNITY STRUCTURE ACROSS A TROPICAL FOREST LANDSCAPE

  1. J.-C. Svenning1,†,
  2. D. A. Kinner2,3,
  3. R. F. Stallard1,2,
  4. B. M. J. Engelbrecht1 and
  5. S. J. Wright1

Version of Record online: 1 SEP 2004

DOI: 10.1890/03-0396

Issue

Ecology

Ecology

Volume 85, Issue 9, pages 2526–2538, September 2004


Additional Information

How to Cite

Svenning, J.-C., Kinner, D. A., Stallard, R. F., Engelbrecht, B. M. J. and Wright, S. J. (2004), ECOLOGICAL DETERMINISM IN PLANT COMMUNITY STRUCTURE ACROSS A TROPICAL FOREST LANDSCAPE. Ecology, 85: 2526–2538. doi: 10.1890/03-0396

Author Information

  1. 1

    Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072, Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panamá

  2. 2

    U.S. Geological Survey—Water Resources Discipline, 3215 Marine Street, Suite E-127, Boulder, Colorado 80303-1066, USA

  3. 3

    INSTAAR (Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research), University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0450, USA

  1. †

    Present address: Department of Systematic Botany, University of Aarhus, Herbarium, Building 137, Universitetsparken, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. E-mail: svenning@biology.au.dk

Publication History

  1. Issue online: 1 SEP 2004
  2. Version of Record online: 1 SEP 2004
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 23 FEB 2004
  4. Manuscript Revised: 11 FEB 2004
  5. Manuscript Received: 9 JUN 2003

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Keywords:

  • Barro Colorado Island;
  • dispersal limitation;
  • mesoscale plant distributions;
  • niche differences;
  • oligarchy hypothesis;
  • partial RDA;
  • plant community assembly;
  • redundancy analysis;
  • shade tolerance;
  • spatial autocorrelation;
  • tropical forest;
  • variance decomposition

The ecological mechanisms hypothesized to structure species-rich communities range from strict local determinism to neutral ecological drift. We assessed the degree of ecological determinism in tropical plant community structure by analyses of published demographic data; a broad range of spatial, historical, and environmental variables; and the distributions of 33 herbaceous species (plot size = 0.02 ha) and 61 woody species (plot size = 0.09 ha) among 350 plots in a 16-km2 forest landscape (Barro Colorado Island, Panamá). We found a strong degree of cross-landscape dominance by a subset of species whose identities were predictable from sapling survivorship rates under shade. Using canonical ordination we found that spatial and environmental–historical factors were of comparable importance for controlling within-landscape variability in species composition. Past land use had a strong impact on species composition despite ceasing 100–200 years ago. Furthermore, edaphic–hydrological factors, treefall gaps, and an edge effect all had unique impacts on species composition. Hence, ecological determinism was evident in terms of both cross-landscape dominance and within-landscape variability in species composition. However, at the latter scale, the large portion of the explained variance in species composition among plots uniquely attributed to spatial location pointed to an equally important role for neutral processes.

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