Legume abundance along successional and rainfall gradients in Neotropical forests

Citation

Gei M, Rozendaal DMA, Poorter L, Bongers F, Sprent JI, Garner MD, Aide TM, Andrade JL, Balvanera P, Becknell JM, Brancalion PHS, Cabral GAL, Cesar RG, Chazdon RL & Dent DH (2018) Legume abundance along successional and rainfall gradients in Neotropical forests. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 2 (7), pp. 1104-1111. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0559-6

Abstract
The nutrient demands of regrowing tropical forests are partly satisfied by nitrogen-fixing legume trees, but our understanding of the abundance of those species is biased towards wet tropical regions. Here we show how the abundance of Leguminosae is affected by both recovery from disturbance and large-scale rainfall gradients through a synthesis of forest inventory plots from a network of 42 Neotropical forest chronosequences. During the first three decades of natural forest regeneration, legume basal area is twice as high in dry compared with wet secondary forests. The tremendous ecological success of legumes in recently disturbed, water-limited forests is likely to be related to both their reduced leaflet size and ability to fix N2, which together enhance legume drought tolerance and water-use efficiency. Earth system models should incorporate these large-scale successional and climatic patterns of legume dominance to provide more accurate estimates of the maximum potential for natural nitrogen fixation across tropical forests.

Keywords
Ecosystem ecology; Element cycles; Forest ecology; Plant ecology; Plant symbiosis

Notes
Additional co-authors: Rebecca J. Cole, Gabriel Dalla Colletta, Ben de Jong, Julie S. Denslow, Saara J. DeWalt, Juan Manuel Dupuy, Sandra M. Durán, Mário Marcos do Espírito Santo, G. Wilson Fernandes, Yule Roberta Ferreira Nunes, Bryan Finegan, Vanessa Granda Moser, Jefferson S. Hall, José Luis Hernández-Stefanoni, André B. Junqueira, Deborah Kennard, Edwin Lebrija-Trejos, Susan G. Letcher, Madelon Lohbeck, Erika Marín-Spiotta, Miguel Martínez-Ramos, Jorge A. Meave, Duncan N. L. Menge, Francisco Mora, Rodrigo Muñoz, Robert Muscarella, Susana Ochoa-Gaona, Edith Orihuela-Belmonte, Rebecca Ostertag, Marielos Peña-Claros, Eduardo A. Pérez-García, Daniel Piotto, Peter B. Reich, Casandra Reyes-García, Jorge Rodríguez-Velázquez, I. Eunice Romero-Pérez, Lucía Sanaphre-Villanueva, Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa, Naomi B. Schwartz, Arlete Silva de Almeida, Jarcilene S. Almeida-Cortez, Whendee Silver, Vanessa de Souza Moreno, Benjamin W. Sullivan, Nathan G. Swenson, Maria Uriarte, Michiel van Breugel, Hans van der Wal, Maria das Dores Magalhães Veloso, Hans F. M. Vester, Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira, Jess K. Zimmerman & Jennifer S. Powers

Journal
Nature Ecology and Evolution: Volume 2, Issue 7