Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-8-2020
Publication Title
Global Ecology and Biogeography
Keywords
Above-ground biomass, Abundance patterns, Arecaceae, Local abiotic conditions, Neotrpics, Pantropical biogeography, Tropical rainforest, Wood density
ISSN
1466-8238
First Page
1
Last Page
20
Abstract
Aim
Palms are an iconic, diverse and often abundant component of tropical ecosystems that provide many ecosystem services. Being monocots, tree palms are evolutionarily, morphologically and physiologically distinct from other trees, and these differences have important consequences for ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration and storage) and in terms of responses to climate change. We quantified global patterns of tree palm relative abundance to help improve understanding of tropical forests and reduce uncertainty about these ecosystems under climate change.
Location
Tropical and subtropical moist forests.
Time period
Current.
Major taxa studied
Palms (Arecaceae).
Methods
We assembled a pantropical dataset of 2,548 forest plots (covering 1,191 ha) and quantified tree palm (i.e., ≥10 cm diameter at breast height) abundance relative to co‐occurring non‐palm trees. We compared the relative abundance of tree palms across biogeographical realms and tested for associations with palaeoclimate stability, current climate, edaphic conditions and metrics of forest structure.
Results
On average, the relative abundance of tree palms was more than five times larger between Neotropical locations and other biogeographical realms. Tree palms were absent in most locations outside the Neotropics but present in >80% of Neotropical locations. The relative abundance of tree palms was more strongly associated with local conditions (e.g., higher mean annual precipitation, lower soil fertility, shallower water table and lower plot mean wood density) than metrics of long‐term climate stability. Life‐form diversity also influenced the patterns; palm assemblages outside the Neotropics comprise many non‐tree (e.g., climbing) palms. Finally, we show that tree palms can influence estimates of above‐ground biomass, but the magnitude and direction of the effect require additional work.
Conclusions
Tree palms are not only quintessentially tropical, but they are also overwhelmingly Neotropical. Future work to understand the contributions of tree palms to biomass estimates and carbon cycling will be particularly crucial in Neotropical forests.
Additional Comments
Grant/Award Number: 4181-00158; H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, Grant/Award Number: 706011; Brazilian National Research Council, Grant/Award Number: CNPq/PELD 403710/2012-0 and Universal 459941/2014-3; Natural Environment Research Council, Grant/Award Number: NE/N012542/1; H2020 European Research Council, Grant/Award Number: 291585; Vetenskapsrådet, Grant/ Award Number: 2019-03758; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Grant/Award Number: Finance Code 001; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, Grant/Award Number: 2003/12595-7 and 2012/51509- 8; Villum Fonden, Grant/Award Number: 00025354 and 16549
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
NSUWorks Citation
Robert Muscarella, Thaise Emilio, Oliver L. Phillips, Simon L. Lewis, Ferry Slik, William J. Baker, Thomas L. P. Couvreur, Wolf L. Eiserhardt, Jens-Christian Svenning, Kofi Affum-Baffoe, Shin-Ichiro Aiba, Everton C. de Almeida, Samuel S. de Almeida, Edmar Almeida de Oliveira, Esteban Alvarez-Davila, Luciana F. Alves, Carlos Mariano Alvez-Valles, Fabricio Alvim Carvalho, Fernando Alzate Guarin, Ana Andrade, Luis E. O. C. Aragao, Alejandro Araujo Murakami, Luzmila Arroyo, Peter S. Ashton, Gerardo A. Aymard Corredor, Timothy R. Baker, Plinio Barbosa de Camargo, Jos Barlow, Jean-Francois Bastin, Natacha Nssi Bengone, Erika Berenguer, Nicholas Berry, Lilian Blanc, Katrin Bohning-Gaese, Damien Bonal, Frans Bongers, Matt Bradford, Fabian Brambach, Francis Q. Brearley, Steven W. Brewer, Jose L. C. Camargo, David G. Campbell, Carolina V. Castilho, Wendeson Castro, Damien Catchpole, Carlos E. Ceron Martinez, Shengbin Chen, Phourin Chhang, Percival Cho, Wanlop Chutipong, Connie Clark, Murray Collins, James A. Comiskey, Massiel Nataly Corrales Medina, Flavia R. C. Costa, Heike Culmsee, Heriberto David-Higuita, Pirya Davidar, Jhon del Aguila-Pasquel, Geraldine Derroire, Anthony Di Fiore, Tran Van Do, Jean-Louis Doucet, Aurelie Dourdain, Donald R. Drake, Andreas Ensslin, Terry Erwin, Corneille E. N. Ewango, Robert M. Ewers, Sophie Fauset, Ted R. Feldpausch, Joice Ferreira, Leandro Valle Ferreira, Markus Fischer, Janet Franklin, Gabriella M. Fredriksson, Thomas W. Gillespie, Martin Gilpin, Christelle Gonmadje, Arachchige Upali Nimal Gunatilleke, Khalid Rehman Hakeem, Jefferson S. Hall, Keith C. Hamer, David J. Harris, Rhett D. Harrison, Andrew Hector, Andreas Hemp, Bruno Herault, Carlos Gabriel Hidalgo Pizango, Euridice N. Honorio Corando, Wannes Hubau, Mohammad Shah Hussain, Faridah-Hanum Ibrahim, Nobuo Imai, Carlos A. Joly, Shijo Joseph, Anitha K, Kuswata Kartawinata, Justin Kassi, Timothy J. Killeen, Kanehiro Kitayama, Bente Bang Klitgard, Robert Kooyman, Nicolas Labriere, Eileen Larney, Yves Laumonier, Susan G. Laurance, William F. Laurance, Michael J. Lawes, Aurora Levesley, Janvier Lisingo, Thomas Lovejoy, Jon C. Lovett, Xinghui Lu, Anne Mette Lykke, William E. Magnusson, Ni Putu Diana Mahayani, Yadvinder Malhi, Asyraf Mansor, Jon Luis Marcelo Peña, Ben Hur Marimon Jr., Andrew R. Marshall, Karina Melgaco, Casimiro Mendoza Bautista, Vianet Mihindou, Jerome Millet, William Milliken, D. Mohandass, Abel Lorenzo Monteagudo Mendoza, Badru Mugerwa, Hidetoshi Nagamasu, Laszlo Nagy, Naret Seuaturien, Marcelo T. Nascimento, David A. Neill, Luiz Menini Neto, Rueben Nilus, Mario Percy Nuñez Vargas, Eddy Nurtjahya, R. Nazare O. de Araujo, Onrizal Onrizal, Walter A. Palacios, Sonia Palacios-Ramos, Marc Parren, Ekanada Paudel, Paulo S. Morandi, R. Toby Pennington, Georgia Picavance, John J. Pipoly III, Nigel C. A. Pitman, Erny Poedjirahajoe, Lourens Poorter, John R. Poulsen, P. Rama Chandra Prasad, Adriana Prieto, Jean-Philippe Puyravaud, Lan Qie, Carlos A. Quesada, Hirma Ramirez-Angulo, Jean Claude Razafimahaimodison, Jan Meindert Reitsma, Edilson J. Requena-Rojas, Zoraya Restrepo Correa, Carlos Reynel Rodriguez, Anand Roopsind, Francesco Rovero, Andes Rozak, Agustin Rudas Lleras, Ervan Rutishauser, Gemma Rutten, Ruwan Punchi-Manage, Rafael P. Salomao, Hoang Van Sam, Swapan Kumar Sarker, Manichanh Satdichanh, Juliana Schietti, Christine B. Schmitt, Beatriz Schwantes Marimon, Feyera Senbeta, Lila Nath Sharma, Douglas Sheil, Rodrigo Sierra, Javier E. Silva-Espejo, Marcos Silveira, Bonaventure Sonke, Marc K. Steininger, Robert Steinmetz, Tariq Stevart, Raman Sukumar, Aisha Sultana, Terry C. H. Sunderland, Hebbalalu Satyanarayana Suresh, Jianwei Tang, Edmund Tanner, Hans ter Steege, John W. Terborgh, Ida Theilade, Jonathan Timberlake, Armando Torres-Lezama, Peter Umunay, Maria Uriarte, Luis Valenzuela Gamarra, Martin van de Bult, Peter van der Hout, Rodolfo Vasquez Martinez, Ima Celia Guimaraes Vieira, Simone A. Vieira, Emilio Vilanova, Jeanneth Villalobos Cayo, Ophelia Wang, Campbell O. Webb, Edward L. Webb, Lee White, Timothy J. S. Whitfeld, Serge Wich, Simon Willcock, Susan K. Wiser, Kenneth R. Young, Rahmad Zakaria, Runguo Zang, Charles E. Zartman, Irie Casimir Zo-Bi, and Henrik Balslev. 2020. The Global Abundance of Tree Palms .Global Ecology and Biogeography : 1 -20. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/1115.
ORCID ID
0000-0002-7977-9496
ResearcherID
C-6533-2012
DOI
10.1111/geb.13123
Comments
© 2020 The Authors. Global Ecology and Biogeography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.