Seedling biomass allocation and vital rates of cloud forest tree species: Responses to light in shade house conditions
Patterns of above- and below-ground biomass allocation in seedlings of nine common cloud forest (CF) tree species of western Mexico were examined under varying controlled light conditions using artificial shade houses. We analysed the relationships between vital rates (growth and survival) and four...
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Published in | Forest ecology and management Vol. 258; no. 7; pp. 1650 - 1659 |
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Main Authors | , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Kidlington
Elsevier B.V
15.09.2009
[Amsterdam]: Elsevier Science Elsevier |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Patterns of above- and below-ground biomass allocation in seedlings of nine common cloud forest (CF) tree species of western Mexico were examined under varying controlled light conditions using artificial shade houses. We analysed the relationships between vital rates (growth and survival) and four morphological traits (SLA, biomass allocation to stems, leaves and roots). We hypothesised that these traits represent differentiation axes in the way seedlings face the heterogeneous light regime typical of the CF understorey. For all species, traits between the different light levels, i.e. allocation to leaves, roots and stems differed among light levels. Five species had the largest SLA in the lowest light levels at the end of the experiment (
Citharexylum,
Dendropanax,
Fraxinus,
Quercus and
Magnolia).
Juglans was the only species with a large SLA at the highest light level (377.47
cm
2
g
−1). In contrast, light levels did not cause any significant variation in SLA of
Persea and
Simplococarpon at the end of the experiment. The relative height growth rates (RHGR) of the seedlings of five species were significantly different between light levels (
P
<
0.05). Overall, all species grew better in the highest light levels. The RHGR of three species were correlated positively with SLA. In turn, allocation to stem, leaves and root biomass were strongly correlated with the RHGR of five species (e.g.
Citharexylum,
Dendropanax and
Fraxinus). Survival did not vary significantly between treatments in any species, only in the case of
Simplococarpon (
P
<
0.05) and was correlated with all morphological variables. For this species, Peto and Peto's test showed a significantly larger survival of seedlings in the highest light level. The mean responses of these species based on all traits to the controlled light variation did not differed significantly. Our results show that these species display a wide range of resource allocation patterns when exposed to the varying light conditions that may be found in the forest understorey and highlight the role of morphological traits in this variation. |
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Bibliography: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2009.07.027 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-2 ObjectType-Feature-1 |
ISSN: | 0378-1127 1872-7042 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.foreco.2009.07.027 |