Nonrandom processes maintain diversity in tropical forests

Wills, C and Harms, KE and Condit, R and King, D and Thompson, J and LaFrankie, J (2006) Nonrandom processes maintain diversity in tropical forests. In: Science, 311 (5760). pp. 527-531.

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Abstract

An ecological community's species diversity tends to erode through time as a result of stochastic extinction, competitive exclusion, and unstable host-enemy dynamics. This erosion of diversity can be prevented over the short term if recruits are highly diverse as a result of preferential recruitment of rare species or, alternatively, if rare species survive preferentially, which increases diversity as the ages of the individuals increase. Here, we present census data from seven New and Old World tropical forest dynamics plots that all show the latter pattern. Within local areas, the trees that survived were as a group more diverse than those that were recruited or those that died. The larger (and therefore on average older) survivors were more diverse within local areas than the smaller survivors. When species were rare in a local area, they had a higher survival rate than when they were common, resulting in enrichment for rare species and increasing diversity with age and size class in these complex ecosystems.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Science
Publisher:	American Association For The Advancement Science
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to American Association For The Advancement Science.
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	02 Apr 2009 06:22
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:59
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/17987

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