Architectural differences associated with adult stature and wood density in 30 temperate tree species

Tree death drives population dynamics, nutrient cycling, and evolution within plant communities. Mortality variation across species is thought to be influenced by different factors relative to variation within species. The unified model provided here separates mortality rates into growth-dependent and growth-independent hazards. This model creates the opportunity to simultaneously estimate these hazards both across and within species. Moreover, it provides the ability to examine how species traits affect growth-dependent and growth-independent hazards. We derive this unified mortality model using cross-validated Bayesian methods coupled with mortality data collected over three census intervals for 203 tropical rainforest tree species at Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama. We found that growth-independent mortality tended to be higher in species with lower wood density, higher light requirements, and smaller maximum diameter at breast height (dbh). Mortality due to marginal carbon budget as measured by near-zero growth rate tended to be higher in species with lower wood density and higher light demand. The total mortality variation attributable to differences among species was large relative to variation explained by these traits, emphasizing that much remains to be understood. This additive hazards model strengthens our capacity to parse and understand individual-level mortality in highly diverse tropical forests and hence to predict its consequences.

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Wood day capacitance is related to water content, wood density, and anatomy across 30 temperate tree species

Plant Cell & Environment ◽

10.1111/pce.13891 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 43 (12) ◽

pp. 3048-3067 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kasia Ziemińska ◽

Emily Rosa ◽

Sean M. Gleason ◽

N. Michele Holbrook

Keyword(s):

Water Content ◽

Wood Density ◽

Tree Species

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Wood diurnal capacitance, water storage and their anatomical drivers across 30 temperate angiosperm tree species.

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-10517 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Kasia Zieminska ◽

Emily Rosa ◽

Sean Gleason ◽

N. Michele Holbrook

Keyword(s):

Water Content ◽

Wood Density ◽

Tree Species ◽

Water Storage ◽

Fresh Sample ◽

Common Assumption ◽

Relative Water ◽

Saturated Sample ◽

The Common ◽

Structure Water

Water released from storage into the transpiration stream (termed: capacitance) can play an important role in tree every day hydraulic functioning as well as in tree drought response. However, anatomical underpinnings of capacitance and water storage remain unclear, impeding better understanding of capacitance mechanisms. Across 30 temperate angiosperm tree species, we measured in natura twig wood diurnal capacitance and water content, wood density and anatomical properties: vessel dimensions, tissue fractions and vessel-tissue contact fractions (proportion of vessel circumference in contact with other tissues). We found that wood density and predawn lumen volumetric water content (proportion of wood volume that is occupied by water in lumen) together were the strongest predictors of capacitance (radj2=0.44***). Vessel-tissue contact fractions&#8212;vessel-ray, vessel-axial parenchyma and vessel-fibre&#8212;each explained an additional &#8764;10% of variation in capacitance. Parenchyma fraction did not correlate with capacitance challenging the common assumption that parenchyma acts as the main source of capacitance water. Anatomical structure, water content and capacitance relationships differed significantly between diffuse-porous and ring-porous species. Predawn relative water content (water in a fresh sample relative to saturated sample) was on average 0.65&#177;0.13 implying that parts of wood were devoid of water.

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Wood density explains architectural differentiation across 145 co-occurring tropical tree species

Functional Ecology ◽

10.1111/j.1365-2435.2011.01921.x ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 274-282 ◽

Cited By ~ 67

Author(s):

Yoshiko Iida ◽

Lourens Poorter ◽

Frank J. Sterck ◽

Abd R. Kassim ◽

Takuya Kubo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Wood Density ◽

Tree Species ◽

Tropical Tree ◽

Tropical Tree Species

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Ring width, climate and wood density relationships in two long-lived Tasmanian tree species

Dendrochronologia ◽

10.1016/j.dendro.2010.12.006 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 167-177 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Kathryn Allen ◽

David M. Drew ◽

Geoffrey M. Downes ◽

Robert Evans ◽

Patrick Baker ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Wood Density ◽

Tree Species ◽

Ring Width

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Decayed Wood Affecting the Attraction of the Pest Arboretum Termite Nasutitermes corniger (Isoptera: Termitidae) to Resource Foods

Sociobiology ◽

10.13102/sociobiology.v59i1.684 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 59 (1) ◽

pp. 287 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Vinicius Gazal ◽

Omar Bailez ◽

Ana Maria Viana-Bailez ◽

Elen De Lima Aguiar Menezes ◽

Euripedes Barsanulfo Menezes

Keyword(s):

Foraging Behavior ◽

Wood Density ◽

Tree Species ◽

Eucalyptus Grandis ◽

Pinus Elliottii ◽

Decayed Wood ◽

Decomposition Rates ◽

Nasutitermes Corniger ◽

Recruitment Behavior ◽

Preferential Feeding

Nasutitermes corniger shows preferential feeding for the wood of different tree species, but it is not known whether attractiveness is a function of the state of decay. This study examined the foraging behavior of N. corniger towards wood in different stages of decay. Wood was exposed to weather for durations of 0, 3, 6 or 9 months. Then the wood was placed in a standard foraging arena with termites. Exploration and recruitment behavior were recorded for 1 h. Separate bioassays were conducted for three species: Pinus elliottii, Eucalyptus grandis and Manilkara huberi. In the tests with P. elliottii and E. grandis, more individuals were recruited to wood decayed for 6 months (191 and 185, respectively) than to undecayed wood (12 and 69, respectively). Similarly, more individuals were recruited to decayed M. huberi wood than undecayed, but only after 9 months (249 and 7, respectively). Decayed wood has therefore been demonstrated to be more attractive to N. corniger than undecayed wood. The different decomposition rates necessary to increase attractiveness may be explained by differences in wood density.

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Evaluation of stem rot in 339 Bornean tree species: implications of size, taxonomy, and soil-related variation for aboveground biomass estimates

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-12-5735-2015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 12 (19) ◽

pp. 5735-5751 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

K. D. Heineman ◽

S. E. Russo ◽

I. C. Baillie ◽

J. D. Mamit ◽

P. P.-K. Chai ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Tropical Forests ◽

Wood Density ◽

Aboveground Biomass ◽

Tree Species ◽

Tree Size ◽

Stem Rot ◽

Stem Volume ◽

Data Sets ◽

Related Variation ◽

Source Of Error

Abstract. Fungal decay of heart wood creates hollows and areas of reduced wood density within the stems of living trees known as stem rot. Although stem rot is acknowledged as a source of error in forest aboveground biomass (AGB) estimates, there are few data sets available to evaluate the controls over stem rot infection and severity in tropical forests. Using legacy and recent data from 3180 drilled, felled, and cored stems in mixed dipterocarp forests in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, we quantified the frequency and severity of stem rot in a total of 339 tree species, and related variation in stem rot with tree size, wood density, taxonomy, and species' soil association, as well as edaphic conditions. Predicted stem rot frequency for a 50 cm tree was 53 % of felled, 39 % of drilled, and 28 % of cored stems, demonstrating differences among methods in rot detection ability. The percent stem volume infected by rot, or stem rot severity, ranged widely among trees with stem rot infection (0.1–82.8 %) and averaged 9 % across all trees felled. Tree taxonomy explained the greatest proportion of variance in both stem rot frequency and severity among the predictors evaluated in our models. Stem rot frequency, but not severity, increased sharply with tree diameter, ranging from 13 % in trees 10–30 cm DBH to 54 % in stems ≥ 50 cm DBH across all data sets. The frequency of stem rot increased significantly in soils with low pH and cation concentrations in topsoil, and stem rot was more common in tree species associated with dystrophic sandy soils than with nutrient-rich clays. When scaled to forest stands, the maximum percent of stem biomass lost to stem rot varied significantly with soil properties, and we estimate that stem rot reduces total forest AGB estimates by up to 7 % relative to what would be predicted assuming all stems are composed strictly of intact wood. This study demonstrates not only that stem rot is likely to be a significant source of error in forest AGB estimation, but also that it strongly covaries with tree size, taxonomy, habitat association, and soil resources, underscoring the need to account for tree community composition and edaphic variation in estimating carbon storage in tropical forests.

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Inter-specific variations in tree stem methane and nitrous oxide exchanges in a tropical rainforest

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13260 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Warren Daniel ◽

Clément Stahl ◽

Benoît Burban ◽

Jean-Yves Goret ◽

Jocelyn Cazal ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Nitrous Oxide ◽

Tropical Forest ◽

Tropical Forests ◽

Wood Density ◽

Tree Species ◽

Pore Space ◽

Tree Size ◽

Tropical Tree ◽

Wet Season ◽

Ghg Fluxes

Tropical forests are the most productive terrestrial ecosystems, global centres of biodiversity and important participants in the global carbon and water cycles. The Amazon, which is the most extensive tropical forest, can contain more than 600 trees (diameter at breast height above 10 cm) and up to 200 tree species in only one hectare of forest. In upland forest, tropical soils are known to be a methane (CH4) sink and a weak source of nitrous oxide (N2O), which are both major greenhouse gases (GHG). Most of researches on GHG fluxes have been conducted on the soil compartment but recent works reported that tree stems of some tropical forests can be a substantial source of CH4 and, a to lesser extend of N2O. Tropical tree stems can act as conduits of soil-produced GHG but biophysical mechanisms controlling GHG fluxes and differences among tree species are not yet fully understood.In order to quantify CH4 and N2O fluxes of different tropical tree species, we took gas samples in 101 mature tree stems of twelve species with the manual chamber technique during the wet season 2020, in a French Guiana forest. Tree species were selected because of their abundance and their habitat preference. We chose trees belonging to two contrasted forest habitats, the hill-top and hill-bottom, which are respectively characterized by aerobic conditions and seasonal anaerobic conditions. Simultaneously with sampling GHG, we measured bark moisture and tree diameter. Four tree species were found in both habitats whereas the eight others were only present in one of these two habitats.Among the 101 tree stems, 78.6% were net sources of CH4 with a greater proportion in hill-bottom than hill-top. Overall, stem CH4 fluxes were significantly and positively correlated with the wood density (&#967;2 = 28.0; p < 0.01; N = 75) but neither with the habitat, bark moisture or tree size. We found a significant effect of the tree species on stem CH4 fluxes (F = 3.7, p < 0.001) but no interactions between the tree species and habitats.Among 43.0% of the stem N2O fluxes that were different from zero, half were from trees that were net sources of N2O mainly located in hill-top. Stem N2O fluxes are not significantly correlated with habitat, as also with the tree size, wood density or bark moisture. Unlike stem CH4 fluxes, tree species did not significantly influence stem N2O fluxes.Our study revealed that, in tropical forest, spatial variations in GHG fluxes would not only depend on soil water conditions, but also on tree species. Specific tree traits such as the wood density can favour stem CH4 emissions by providing more or less effective pore space for CH4 diffusion but seems to have a limited influence on stem N2O fluxes maybe because of the lower diffusive and ebullitive transport of N2O compared to CH4. Further investigation linking tree species traits and tree GHG fluxes are, however, necessary to elucidate the processes and mechanisms behind tree CH4 and N2O exchanges.

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