Minimum temperature drives community leaf trait variation in secondary montane forests along a 3000-m elevation gradient in the tropical Andes

ABSTRACT

Background: Leaf functional traits (LFT) influence resource acquisition and are important for understanding ecosystem processes. Climate and land use are key filters of community composition and LFT, however, how the relative importance of these filter changes with elevation has been little studied in the Andes.

Aims: To gain insight into the functional response of Andean forests to climate and disturbance in naturally regenerated forest stands.

Methods: We measured leaf blade thickness (LBT), leaf area (LA), specific leaf area (SLA), and leaf dry matter content (LDMC) from 13 secondary forest communities, along a 3000-m elevation transect. We derived basal area-weighted mean community (CWM) trait values to assess the effect of climate and disturbance on the functional structure of regenerating tree communities.

Results: Community LFT progressively shifted along the elevation gradient driven by changes in temperature and successional stages towards communities with thicker leaves with low SLA. Reduction in LDMC with elevation suggested that both succulence and sclerophylly were important strategies in these forests.

Conclusions: Our findings reinforce the validity of LFT as a powerful predictor to explore the ecological strategies of tree species in climate scenarios. Warmer conditions could result in a shift from slower to faster resource acquisition strategies at higher elevations.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate
• disturbance
• functional diversity
• leaf morphology
• mountains
• trees
• redundancy analysis
• tropical Andes

Acknowledgements

This study was carried out under permit No. N029-2019 IC-FLO-DNB/MA of the Ministry of Environment, Ecuador. We would like to express our gratitude to the owners and administrators of the private reserves where the forest dynamics permanent plots are established: Alejandro Solano, María Emilia Arcos and Oliver Torres from Mashpi Shungo and Pambiliño; Mateo Roldán and Carolina Proaño from Mashpi Lodge/Fundación Futuro, Sonia Saltos from Río Bravo, Juan Diego Ortíz and Sol Acosta from Sacha Urcu, Inti Arcos and Nina Duarte from Intyllacta, Richard Parson and Favio Fernández from Bellavista Cloud Forest, Germán Toasa from El Cedral Ecolodge, María Elisa Vizuete and Enrique Maldonado from Verdecocha and the Jocotoco foundation from Yanacocha Reserve. We thank the Universidad de las Americas for financially supporting this research (Grant No. FGE.FCC.19.15). F.C., M.LL-Z. and E.P. received additional funding from the EcoAndes Project of CONDESAN and UNEP GEF (Grant No. 4750) and the Andean Forest Program of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Grant No. 81028631). MvdS was supported by the Veni research programme with project number VI. Veni.192.027, of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Data availability statement

Species trait data are available from the Dryad Digital Repository: Species trait data are available upon request to [email protected].

Authors’ contributions

F.C. funding acquisition, conceived the idea and designed the methodology; M.LL-Z., E.P. and F.C. collected the trait and environmental data; M.LL-Z., F.C., J.O. and L.D.LL. analyzed the data; F.C., M.LL-Z. and J.O. led the writing of the manuscript. M.v.S. and L.S. reviewed & edited the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) [81028631]; Global Environment Fund [4750]; Universidad de Las Americas [FGE.FCC.19.15]; Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

Notes on contributors

Melissa Llerena-Zambrano

Mellisa Llerena-Zambrano is an environmental biologist specialised in the analysis of leaf functional traits in tropical mountain ecosystems.

Jenny C. Ordoñez

Jenny Ordoñez is an interdisciplinary scientist working in understanding the relationship of plant diversity in natural and agricultural systems to ecosystem services provision.

Luis D. Llambí

Luis D. Llambí is a Professor and specialises in plant community dynamics and plant–plant interactions in tropical mountain ecosystems.

Masha van der Sande

Masha van der Sande is a scientist interested in understanding the drivers of resilience of tropical forests to droughts, fires, and human disturbances, from local to continental spatial scales.

Esteban Pinto

Esteban Pintois an ecologist interested in plant and carbon dynamics and the drivers that influence different patterns in mountainous ecosystems in the tropical Andes.

Laura Salazar

Laura Salazar is a plant ecologist interested in the patterns of diversity and distribution with a special focus in tropical plants along environmental gradients.

Francisco Cuesta

Francisco Cuesta is a scientist interested in study plant community dynamics and ecosystem function in tropical ecosystems.