Phylodiversity-dependent seedling mortality, size structure, and disease in a Bornean rain forest.

Density-dependent models that partition neighbors into conspecifics and heterospecifics ignore the great variation in effect of heterospecifics on focal plants. Both evolutionary theory and empirical results suggest that the negative effect of other plants on a focal plant should be higher for closely related neighbors than for less related neighbors. Using community-wide seedling mortality data from a forest where density dependence has previously been found, we searched for significant phylogenetic neighborhood effects (the "phylodiversity" neighborhood) on seedling (<50 cm tall) survival at various spatial scales. Logistic regression models were used, with 19-mo survival of individual seedlings as the response. We found a significant positive effect of nearest taxon phylodiversity on seedling survival at the 36-m2 scale and the 4-m2 scale, indicating that seedling survival is enhanced by being in a neighborhood where heterospecifics are not closely related. At all scales there was a strong negative effect of conspecific seedling density on focal survival, and at small scales there was also an effect of heterospecific density, indicating generalized competition. We place these results (for seedling dynamics over a relatively short period of time) in the context of changes in phylodiversity between different size classes of plants in the same forest, which integrate the effects of dynamics of all size classes over long time periods. At the 36-m2 scale, there was an increase in nearest taxon phylodiversity (i.e., a decrease in phylogenetic clustering) from the seedlings (<50 cm tall) to the poles (1-5 cm diameter), consistent with the positive effect of local phylodiversity on seedling survival. In contrast, there was a marked decrease in average phylodiversity from seedlings to saplings at the same scale. The trees in the 1600 m2 surrounding the seedling plots had much lower phylodiversity than either the seedlings or saplings. Taken together, these results suggest that (1) over short time and spatial scales, local seedling phylodiversity has a positive effect on seedling survival, possibly via interaction with pathogens (which we discuss in detail), but (2) over longer time periods and larger spatial scales the effect of abiotic-related mortality results in habitat filtering for phylogenetically conserved traits.

[1]  C. Webb,et al.  Phylogenetic dispersion of host use in a tropical insect herbivore community. , 2006, Ecology.

[2]  Michael J. Papaik,et al.  Neighborhood analyses of canopy tree competition along environmental gradients in New England forests. , 2006, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[3]  David F. R. P. Burslem,et al.  Biotic interactions in the tropics: their role in the maintenance of species diversity. , 2005 .

[4]  Campbell O. Webb,et al.  Phylomatic: tree assembly for applied phylogenetics , 2005 .

[5]  Campbell O. Webb,et al.  A Brief History of Seed Size , 2005, Science.

[6]  G. Gilbert.  Biotic Interactions in the Tropics: Dimensions of plant disease in tropical forests , 2005 .

[7]  G. Gilbert,et al.  The Evolutionary Ecology of Novel Plant-Pathogen Interactions , 2004 .

[8]  J. Cavender-Bares,et al.  Phylogenetic Overdispersion in Floridian Oak Communities , 2004, The American Naturalist.

[9]  S. Hubbell,et al.  A spatially explicit model of sapling growth in a tropical forest: does the identity of neighbours matter? , 2004 .

[10]  C. Canham,et al.  A neighborhood analysis of canopy tree competition : effects of shading versus crowding , 2004 .

[11]  D. Peart,et al.  DENSITY‐DEPENDENT POPULATION DYNAMICS OF A DOMINANT RAIN FOREST CANOPY TREE , 2004 .

[12]  G. Gilbert,et al.  Polypore fungal diversity and host density in a moist tropical forest , 2002, Biodiversity & Conservation.

[13]  K. Hyde,et al.  Biodiversity of palm fungi in the tropics: are global fungal diversity estimates realistic? , 1999, Biodiversity & Conservation.

[14]  S. Hubbell,et al.  Density and distance-to-adult effects of a canker disease of trees in a moist tropical forest , 1994, Oecologia.

[15]  J. Lundberg,et al.  An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants : APG II THE ANGIOSPERM PHYLOGENY GROUP * , 2003 .

[16]  R. Chazdon,et al.  COMMUNITY AND PHYLOGENETIC STRUCTURE OF REPRODUCTIVE TRAITS OF WOODY SPECIES IN WET TROPICAL FORESTS , 2003 .

[17]  Campbell O. Webb,et al.  Phylogenies and Community Ecology , 2002 .

[18]  G. Gilbert.  Evolutionary ecology of plant diseases in natural ecosystems. , 2002, Annual review of phytopathology.

[19]  A. Arnold,et al.  Fungal endophytes in dicotyledonous neotropical trees: patterns of abundance and diversity , 2001 .

[20]  Mark W. Chase,et al.  Evolution of the angiosperms: calibrating the family tree , 2001, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[21]  M E Woolhouse,et al.  Population Biology of Multihost Pathogens , 2001, Science.

[22]  M. C. Heath,et al.  The evolutionary significance of variation in infection behavior in two species of rust fungi on their hosts and related nonhost plant species , 2001 .

[23]  Brian D. Farrell,et al.  Evolutionary assembly of the milkweed fauna: cytochrome oxidase I and the age of Tetraopes beetles. , 2001, Molecular phylogenetics and evolution.

[24]  Campbell O. Webb,et al.  Exploring the Phylogenetic Structure of Ecological Communities: An Example for Rain Forest Trees , 2000, The American Naturalist.

[25]  P. Coley,et al.  Are tropical fungal endophytes hyperdiverse , 2000 .

[26]  Campbell O. Webb,et al.  Habitat associations of trees and seedlings in a Bornean rain forest , 2000 .

[27]  I. Lindblad.  Host specificity of some wood-inhabiting fungi in a tropical forest , 2000 .

[28]  Kyle E. Harms,et al.  Pervasive density-dependent recruitment enhances seedling diversity in a tropical forest , 2000, Nature.

[29]  Campbell O. Webb,et al.  SEEDLING DENSITY DEPENDENCE PROMOTES COEXISTENCE OF BORNEAN RAIN FOREST TREES , 1999 .

[30]  D. Faith,et al.  Comparative phylogeography and the identification of genetically divergent areas for conservation , 1998 .

[31]  R. Holt,et al.  The interaction between plant competition and disease , 1998 .

[32]  S. Hubbell,et al.  Strong density- and diversity-related effects help to maintain tree species diversity in a neotropical forest. , 1997, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[33]  S. Pacala,et al.  Forest models defined by field measurements : Estimation, error analysis and dynamics , 1996 .

[34]  R. N. Mack,et al.  Biotic barriers to plant naturalization. , 1996 .

[35]  S. Hubbell,et al.  Density Dependence in Two Understory Tree Species in a Neotropical Forest , 1994 .

[36]  Dolph Schluter,et al.  Species diversity in ecological communities: historical and geographical perspectives. , 1993 .

[37]  D. Faith.  Conservation evaluation and phylogenetic diversity , 1992 .

[38]  M. Pagel,et al.  The comparative method in evolutionary biology , 1991 .

[39]  Paul H. Williams,et al.  What to protect?—Systematics and the agony of choice , 1991 .

[40]  S. Hubbell,et al.  Presence and Absence of Density Dependence in a Neotropical Tree Community , 1990 .

[41]  M. Westoby,et al.  Parasite-Mediated Competition: Some Predictions and Tests , 1988, The American Naturalist.

[42]  M. Martínez‐Ramos.  The demography of tropical trees in the context of forest gap dynamics : the case of Astrocaryum mexicanum at Los Tuxtlas tropical rain forest , 1988 .

[43]  Gretna Weste,et al.  THE BIOLOGY OF PHYTOPHTHORA CINNAMOMI IN AUSTRALASIAN FORESTS , 1987 .

[44]  J. Felsenstein.  Phylogenies and the Comparative Method , 1985, The American Naturalist.

[45]  C. Augspurger.  Seedling Survival of Tropical Tree Species: Interactions of Dispersal Distance, Light-Gaps, and Pathogens , 1984 .

[46]  L. Webb,et al.  Compensatory Recruitment, Growth, and Mortality as Factors Maintaining Rain Forest Tree Diversity , 1984 .

[47]  J. Burdon,et al.  Host Density as a Factor in Plant Disease Ecology , 1982 .

[48]  S. Hubbell.  Seed predation and the coexistence of tree species in tropical forests , 1980 .

[49]  G. Gilbert.  chapter six Dimensions of plant disease in tropical forests , 2022 .