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Fig. 1 in A new spider genus (Araneae: Linyphiidae: Erigoninae) from a tropical montane cloud forest of Mexico

Fig. 1. Xim trenzado gen. et sp. nov. A–C, G. ♁ (ECOTAAR-004950). D–F, H. ♀ (ECOTAAR-005063). A–F. Habitus. A, D. Dorsal view. B, E. Lateral view. C, F. Ventral view. G, H. Carapace in frontal view. Scale bars: A–F = 0.25 mm.

Fig. 4 in A new spider genus (Araneae: Linyphiidae: Erigoninae) from a tropical montane cloud forest of Mexico

Fig. 4. Xim trenzado gen. et sp. nov. A–B. ECOTAAR-004950. C–F, H–I. ECOTAAR-004962. G. ECOTAAR-004952. A–G. Male left femur I. D–G. Details of macrosetae. A, D. Dorsal view. B, E. Prolateral view. C, F. Ventral view. G. Apical view. H. Tarsal organ of leg I. I. Trichobothrium of retrolateral palpal tibia. Scale bars: A–C = 70 μm; D–F = 30 μm; H = 5 μm; I = 10 μm.

Fig. 2 in A new spider genus (Araneae: Linyphiidae: Erigoninae) from a tropical montane cloud forest of Mexico

Fig. 2. Xim trenzado gen. et sp. nov., male left palpus. A–C. ECOTAAR-004974. D–E, G–I. ECOTAAR-004950. F. ECOTAAR-004952. A, D. Mesal view. B, E. Ventral view. C, F. Ectal view. G. Dorsal view. H. Apical view. I. Detail of E showing radix and embolus. Scale bars: A–E = 50 μm; F = 20 μm.

Fig. 7 in A new spider genus (Araneae: Linyphiidae: Erigoninae) from a tropical montane cloud forest of Mexico

Fig. 7. Strict consensus tree of the eight most parsimonious trees, showing only the distal clades where Xim trenzado gen. et sp. nov. is situated. Tree with unambiguous character optimization; character and character-state numbers given above and below marks, respectively; color of marks denotes homoplasious (white) or non-homoplasious (black) character-state changes.

Fig. 5 in A new spider genus (Araneae: Linyphiidae: Erigoninae) from a tropical montane cloud forest of Mexico

Fig. 5. Xim trenzado gen. et sp. nov., ♀, epigynum. A–B. ECOTAAR-005063. C–F. ECOTAAR-005183. A, G. Ventral view. B. Posterior view. C–D, H. Dorsal view. D. Detail of C showing left copulatory duct and spermatheca. E. Antero-dorsal view. F. Detail of E showing left copulatory duct and spermatheca. Scale bars: A–C, E, G–H = 40 μm; D, F = 20 μm.

Fig. 6 in A new spider genus (Araneae: Linyphiidae: Erigoninae) from a tropical montane cloud forest of Mexico

Fig. 6. Strict consensus tree of the eight most parsimonious trees, showing only the distal clades where Xim trenzado gen. et sp. nov. is situated. Tree with Bremer support values noted beside nodes.

opencc-zeroJun 2022View details →

dryad40/100

Functional assembly of tropical montane tree islands in the Atlantic Forest is shaped by stress-tolerance, bamboo-presence and facilitation

Aims: Amidst the Campos de Altitude (Highland Grasslands) in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, woody communities grow either clustered in tree islands or interspersed within the herbaceous matrix. The functional ecology, diversity and biotic processes shaping these plant communities are largely unstudied. We characterised the functional assembly and diversity of these tropical montane woody communities and investigated how they fit within Grime's CSR (C – competitor, S – stress-tolerant, R – ruderal) scheme, what functional trade-offs they exhibit and how traits and functional diversity vary in response to bamboo presence/absence. Methods: To characterize the functional composition of the community, we sampled five leaf traits and wood density along transects covering the woody communities both inside tree islands and outside (i.e. isolated woody plants in the grasslands community) . Then, we used Mann Whitney test, t-test and variation partitioning to determine the effects of inside vs outside tree island and bamboo presence on community weighted means, woody species diversity and functional diversity. Results: We found a general SC/S strategy with drought-related functional trade-offs. Woody plants in tree islands had more acquisitive traits than those within the grasslands. Trait variation was mostly taxonomically than spatially driven, and species composition varied between inside and outside tree islands. Leaf thickness, wood density and foliar water uptake were unrelated to CSR-strategies, suggesting independent trait dimensions and multiple drought-coping strategies within the predominant S-strategy. Islands with bamboo presence showed lower Simpson diversity, lower functional dispersion, lower foliar water uptake and greater leaf thickness than in tree islands without bamboo. Conclusions: The observed functional assembly hints towards large-scale environmental abiotic filtering shaping stress-tolerant community strategy, and small-scale biotic interactions driving small-scale trait variation. We recommend experimental studies with fire, facilitation treatments, eco-physiological and recruitment traits to elucidate on tree island expansion and communities response to climate change.

opencc-by-4.0Jun 2016View details →

Figs. 2–4 in Myrmecofauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) response to habitat characteristics of tropical montane cloud forests in central Veracruz, Mexico

Figs. 2–4. Species richness, diversity profiles, and rank–abundance curves. Fig. 2. Comparison of the richness of woody plants at a sampling coverage of 90% and of ants at 85% coverage, among 5 fragments of tropical montane cloud forest in central Veracruz, Mexico. Statistical differences are considered when 95% confidence intervals do not overlap, whereas no differences are assumed when they do overlap, with an α = 0.05. Fig. 3. Diversity profiles of the ant assemblages of F1–F5 based on the equivalent species number. Statistical differences are considered when 95% confidence intervals do not overlap, whereas no differences are assumed when they do overlap, with an α = 0.05. Fig. 4. Rank–abundance curves of the ant assemblages of F1–F5. Total number of ant incidences in each fragment is 60 traps. Only those species with a relative abundance equal to or higher than 10% in a given fragment are shown. Ant species are numbered in accordance with Table 2.

opencc-by-4.0Jun 2016View details →

Figs. 5 and 6. Results from cluster and linkage tree analyses. Fig. 5 in Myrmecofauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) response to habitat characteristics of tropical montane cloud forests in central Veracruz, Mexico

Figs. 5 and 6. Results from cluster and linkage tree analyses. Fig. 5. Dendrogram of hierarchical standardized clustering based on the SØrensen similarity index of the studied fragments. The cophenetic correlation coefficient of the cluster is 0.89. The dendrogram displays with continuous lines the divisions for which the SIMPROF test rejects the null hypothesis (where assemblages in that group have no further structure to explore) and with dashed lines the groups of assemblages not separated (at P <0.05) by SIMPROF. Fig. 6. Linkage tree analysis (LINKTREE) showing divisive clustering of fragments (F1–F5) from species compositions constrained by inequalities on one or more environmental variables. Only binary partitions of uncorrelated environmental variables are shown in the cluster. The dendrogram displays with continuous lines the divisions for which the SIMPROF test rejects the null hypothesis (where assemblages in that group have no further structure to explore) and with dashed lines the groups of assemblages not separated (at P <0.05) by SIMPROF.

opencc-by-4.0Jun 2016View details →

Fig. 1 in Myrmecofauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) response to habitat characteristics of tropical montane cloud forests in central Veracruz, Mexico

Fig. 1. Location of the study area in central Veracruz, Mexico. The black polygons indicate the selected fragments (F1–F5) of tropical montane cloud forest.

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Functional assembly of tropical montane tree islands in the Atlantic Forest is shaped by stress-tolerance, bamboo-presence and facilitation

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publicJun 2022View details →

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Variability in tree water uptake determined with stable water isotopes in an African tropical montane forest

Dataset supporting the study Variability in tree water uptake determined with stable water isotopes in an African tropical montane forest. We investigated relative contributions of different soil depths to tree water uptake of 83 trees and possible species-specific differences in a 50x50 m forest plot at four dates in a tropical montane forest in Kenya using stable water isotopes and the Bayesian mixing model framework MixSIAR. The dataset contains raw isotope data of tree xylem, soil and throughfall water sampled on different dates in a tropical montane forest in Kenya as well as interpolated model input data for the Bayesian mixing model. Further information can be found in the soon to be published article in Ecohydrology.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2020View details →

opencc-zeroDec 2017View details →

Data from: High specialization and limited structural change in plant‐herbivore networks along a successional chronosequence in tropical montane forest

Secondary succession is well‐understood, to the point of being predictable for plant communities, but the successional changes in plant‐herbivore interactions remains poorly explored. This is particularly true for tropical forests, despite the increasing importance of early successional stages in tropical landscapes. Deriving expectations from successional theory, we examine properties of plant‐herbivore interaction networks while accounting for host phylogenetic structure along a succession chronosequence in montane rainforest in Papua New Guinea. We present one of the most comprehensive successional investigations of interaction networks, equating to >40 person years of field sampling, and one of the few focused on montane tropical forests. We use a series of nine 0.2ha forest plots across young secondary, mature secondary and primary montane forest, sampled almost completely for woody plants and larval leaf chewers (Lepidoptera), using forest felling. These networks comprised of 12,357 plant‐herbivore interactions and were analysed using quantitative network metrics, a phylogenetically controlled host‐use index and a qualitative network beta diversity measure. Network structural changes were low and specialisation metrics surprisingly similar throughout succession, despite high network beta diversity. Herbivore abundance was greatest in the earliest stages, and hosts here had more species‐rich herbivore assemblages, presumably reflecting higher palatability due to lower defensive investment. All herbivore communities were highly specialised, using a phylogenetically narrow set of hosts, while host phylogenetic diversity itself decreased throughout the chronosequence. Relatively high phylogenetic diversity, and thus high diversity of plant defenses, in early succession forest may result in herbivores feeding on fewer hosts than expected. Successional theory, derived primarily from temperate systems, is limited in predicting tropical host‐herbivore interactions. All succession stages harbour diverse and unique interaction networks, which together with largely similar network structures and consistent host use patterns, suggests general rules of assembly may apply to these systems.

opencc-zeroJun 2022View details →

Litter decomposition rates across tropical montane and lowland forests are controlled foremost by climate

The "hierarchy of factors" hypothesis states that decomposition rates are controlled primarily by climatic, followed by biological and soil variables. Tropical montane forests (TMF) are globally important ecosystems, yet there have been limited efforts to provide a biome-scale characterization of litter decomposition. We designed a common litter decomposition experiment replicated in 23 tropical montane sites across the Americas, Asia, and Africa and combined these results with a previous study of 23 sites in tropical lowland forests (TLF). Specifically, we investigated (1) spatial heterogeneity in decomposition, (2) the relative importance of biological factors that affect leaf and wood decomposition in TMF and, (3) the role of climate in determining leaf litter decomposition rates within and across the TMF and TLF biomes. Litterbags of two mesh sizes containing Laurus nobilis leaves or birchwood popsicle sticks were spatially dispersed and incubated in TMF sites, for 3 and 7 months on the soil surface and at 10-15 cm depth. The within-site replication demonstrated spatial variability in mass loss. Within TMF, litter type was the predominant biological factor influencing decomposition (leaves > wood), with mesh and burial effects playing a minor role. When comparing across TMF and TLF, climate was the predominant control over decomposition, but the Yasso07 global model (based on mean annual temperature and precipitation) only modestly predicted decomposition rate. Differences in controlling factors between biomes suggest that TMF, with their high rates of carbon storage, must be explicitly considered when developing theory and models to elucidate carbon cycling rates in the tropics.

opencc-zeroOct 2022View details →

Resilience of a tropical montane pine forest to fire and severe droughts

1. Higher temperatures, declining precipitation, changing cloud cover, and increased wildfires threaten tropical montane pine forests by overriding the environmental heterogeneity that typically buffers these systems from catastrophic fires. Severe fires threaten to overwhelm forest resilience and tip this biome into alternate vegetation states. 2. This study focused on long-term dynamics of montane Pinus occidentalis forests in the Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic, after a ~1000 km2 fire in 2005, the largest since 1965. We used long-term records to investigate climate before and after the fire and a 19-year dataset of pre- and post-fire vegetation change from a network of 55 permanent plots (20 small 0.05 ha plots and 35 large 0.1 ha plots) established in 1999 to model overstorey and understorey vegetation dynamics. 3. The 2005 fire was synchronized with the most extreme drought in the region in over 60 years. The fire burned from < 1600 to > 3000 m a.s.l. in elevation across windward and leeward slopes, creating a mosaic of low-, moderate-, and high-severity patches. Lower elevations, leeward slopes, and stands with a higher proportion of smaller pine trees all burned at higher severities. 4. Growth rates of trees that survived the fire remained lower than pre-fire rates 13 years after the fire. The highest mortality rates were soon after the fire and in the census immediately after the post-fire droughts. Post-fire pine seedling abundance was significantly greater in stands with higher basal area of live canopy trees and significantly reduced by increased shrub abundance in the understorey. Understorey composition recovered rapidly to pre-fire states in sites affected by low- and moderate-severity fires, but sites affected by high-severity fires remained dissimilar to pre-fire composition 13 years after the fire. Even though high-severity patches had persistently low pine regeneration, 100% of small plots and 96% of large plots had at least one pine sapling or canopy tree recruit by 2018. Shrub taxa survived the fire in higher numbers and recovered to pre-fire densities much faster than the pine, especially in high-severity burns. 5. Synthesis. Climate change has increased the likelihood of wildfires in tropical montane pine forests, with long-lasting effects on vegetation dynamics. However, this biome may prove resilient to increasingly severe fires in the near future, given the ongoing recovery of Pinus occidentalis forests in Hispaniola despite repeated severe droughts. Nevertheless, highly drought- and fire-resistant taxa (e.g. shrubs) may form alternate stable states in drier portions of tropical montane landscapes in the future as droughts and high-severity fires become more common.

opencc-zeroJun 2024View details →

Data from: Environmental conditions differently shape leaf, seed and seedling trait composition between and within elevations of tropical montane forests

The composition of plant functional traits varies in response to environmental conditions due to processes of community assembly and species sorting. However, there is a lack of understanding of how plant trait composition responds to environmental conditions at different spatial scales and across the plant life cycle. We investigated the trait composition of leaves (specific leaf area), seeds (seed mass) and seedlings (initial seedling height) across elevations and within elevations in relation to soil and light conditions in a tropical montane forest in southern Ecuador. We surveyed traits and communities of adult trees, seeds and seedlings on nine plots at three elevations (1000-3000 m a.s.l.) and calculated community-weighted mean trait values to analyse trait variation across and within elevations. In addition, we measured two environmental factors (soil C/N ratio and canopy openness) to quantify local-scale variation in environmental conditions within elevations. We found that community-weighted means of specific leaf area, seed mass and initial seedling height decreased consistently with increasing elevation. Within elevations, mean trait values of trees, seeds and seedlings responded differently to local-scale environmental conditions. Specific leaf area decreased with increasing soil C/N ratio, and initial seedling height decreased with increasing canopy openness. Seed mass was associated neither with soil nor with light conditions. Our findings show that broad-scale and local-scale processes differently shape the composition of leaf, seed and seedling traits in tropical forests, indicating a scale-dependence in trait-environment associations. Furthermore, plant traits corresponding to different life stages were related differently to environmental conditions within elevations. Community assembly processes may therefore lead to differences in species sorting at early and late plant life stages.

opencc-zeroJun 2021View details →

Landslide age, elevation and residual vegetation determine tropical montane forest canopy recovery and biomass accumulation after landslide disturbances in the Peruvian Andes

Landslides are common natural disturbances in tropical montane forests. While the geomorphic drivers of landslides in the Andes have been studied, factors controlling post-landslide forest recovery across the steep climatic and topographic gradients characteristic of tropical mountains are poorly understood. Here we use a LiDAR-derived canopy height map coupled with a 25-year landslide time series map to examine how landslide, topographic, and biophysical factors, along with residual vegetation, affect canopy height and heterogeneity in regenerating landslides. We also calculate aboveground biomass accumulation rates and estimate the time for landslides to recover to mature forest biomass levels. We find that age and elevation are the biggest determinants of forest recovery, and that the jump-start in regeneration that residual vegetation provides lasts for at least 18 years. Our estimates of time to biomass recovery (31.6-37.1 years) are surprisingly rapid, and as a result we recommend that future research pair LiDAR with hyperspectral imagery to estimate forest aboveground biomass in frequently disturbed landscapes. Synthesis: Using a high-resolution LiDAR dataset and a time-series inventory of 608 landslides distributed across a wide elevational gradient in Andean montane forest, we show that age and elevation are the most influential predictors of forest canopy height and canopy variability. Other features of landslides, in particular the presence of residual vegetation, shape post-landslide regeneration trajectories. LiDAR allows for a detailed analysis of forest structural recovery across large landscapes and numbers of disturbances, and provides a reasonable upper bound on aboveground biomass accumulation rates. However, because this method does not capture the effect of compositional change through succession on aboveground biomass, wherein high-wood density species gradually replace light-wooded pioneer species, it overestimates aboveground biomass. Given previously estimated stem turnover rates along this elevational gradient, we posit that aboveground biomass recovery takes at least three times as long as our recovery time estimates based on LiDAR-derived structure alone.

opencc-zeroNov 2022View details →

Global distribution and climate sensitivity of the tropical montane forest nitrogen cycle

Tropical forests are pivotal to global climate and biogeochemical cycles, yet the geographic distribution of nutrient limitation to plants and microbes across the biome is unresolved. One long-standing generalization is that tropical montane forests are nitrogen (N)-limited whereas lowland forests tend to be N-rich. However, empirical tests of this hypothesis have yielded equivocal results. Here we evaluate the topographic signature of the ecosystem-level tropical N cycle by examining climatic and geophysical controls of surface soil N content and stable isotopes (δ15N) from elevational gradients distributed across tropical mountains globally. We document steep increases in soil N concentration and declining δ15N with increasing elevation, consistent with decreased microbial N processing and lower gaseous N losses. Temperature explained much of the change in N, with an apparent temperature sensitivity (Q10) of ~1.9. Although montane forests make up 11% of forested tropical land area, we estimate they account for > 17% of the global tropical forest soil N pool. Our findings support the existence of widespread microbial N limitation across tropical montane forest ecosystems and high sensitivity to climate warming.

opencc-zeroJan 2023View details →

Climate and microhabitat shape the prevalence of endozoochory in the seed rain of tropical montane forests

Endozoochory, the dispersal of seeds by animal ingestion, is the most dominant mode of seed dispersal in tropical forests and is a key process shaping current and future forest dynamics. However, it remains largely unknown how endozoochory is associated with environmental conditions at regional and local scales. Here, we investigated the effects of elevation, climate and microhabitat conditions on the proportion of endozoochorous plant species in the seed rain of the tropical Andes of southern Ecuador. Over one year, we measured seed rain in 162 seed traps on nine 1-ha forest plots located at 1000 m, 2000 m, and 3000 m a.s.l. We recorded climatic conditions (mean annual temperature and rainfall) in each plot and microhabitat conditions (leaf area index and soil moisture) adjacent to each seed trap. In total, we recorded 331,838 seeds belonging to 323 morphospecies. Overall, the proportion of endozoochorous species in the seed rain decreased with elevation. Relative biomass of endozoochorous species decreased with increasing rainfall, whereas the relative seed richness of endozoochorous species increased with increasing temperature and leaf area index. These findings suggest an interplay between climate factors and microhabitat conditions in shaping the importance of endozoochorous plant species in the seed rain of tropical montane forests. We conclude that changing climatic and microhabitat conditions are likely to cause changes in the dominant dispersal modes of plant communities which may trigger changes in current and future dynamics of tropical forests.