Latitudinal scaling of aggregation with abundance and coexistence in forests

The search for simple principles that underlie the spatial structure and dynamics of plant communities is a long-standing challenge in ecology<sup>1-6</sup>. In particular, the relationship between species coexistence and the spatial distribution of plants is challenging to resolve in species-rich communities<sup>7-9</sup>. Here we present a comprehensive analysis of the spatial patterns of 720 tree species in 21 large forest plots and their consequences for species coexistence. We show that species with low abundance tend to be more spatially aggregated than more abundant species. Moreover, there is a latitudinal gradient in the strength of this negative aggregation-abundance relationship that increases from tropical to temperate forests. We suggest, in line with recent work<sup>10</sup>, that latitudinal gradients in animal seed dispersal<sup>11</sup> and mycorrhizal associations<sup>12-14</sup> may jointly generate this pattern. By integrating the observed spatial patterns into population models<sup>8</sup>, we derive the conditions under which species can invade from low abundance in terms of spatial patterns, demography, niche overlap and immigration. Evaluation of the spatial-invasion condition for the 720 tree species analysed suggests that temperate and tropical forests both meet the invasion criterion to a similar extent but through contrasting strategies conditioned by their spatial patterns. Our approach opens up new avenues for the integration of observed spatial patterns into ecological theory and underscores the need to understand the interaction among spatial patterns at the neighbourhood scale and multiple ecological processes in greater detail.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature
Published
2025-02-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08604-z
Citations
17
Primary Topic
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
37.01
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article

Latitudinal scaling of aggregation with abundance and coexistence in forests

Amy Wolf, Chengjin Chu, Zhanqing Hao, W. John Kress et al.
17 citations
Nature
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
37.01
article

Latitudinal scaling of aggregation with abundance and coexistence in forests

Amy Wolf, Chengjin Chu, Zhanqing Hao, W. John Kress, Buhang Li, Robert W. Howe, Min Cao, Wanhui Ye, I. A. U. N. Gunatilleke, Warren Y. Brockelman, Guochun Shen, Norman A. Bourg, Juyu Lian, Sisira Ediriweera, Guangze Jin, William J. McShea, Sheng‐Hsin Su, Jonathan A. Myers, Anuttara Nathalang, Wirong Chanthorn, Thorsten Wiegand, En‐Rong Yan, Nathan J. B. Kraft, I‐Fang Sun, C. V. S. Gunatilleke, Samuel Fischer, Xugao Wang, David A. Orwig, Stuart J. Davies, Keping Ma, Yan Zhu, Xihua Wang, Feng Liu, Guanghong Cao, Andreas Huth, Luxiang Lin, Mingxi Jiang, Xiangcheng Mi
article en
17 citations

Abstract

The search for simple principles that underlie the spatial structure and dynamics of plant communities is a long-standing challenge in ecology<sup>1-6</sup>. In particular, the relationship between species coexistence and the spatial distribution of plants is challenging to resolve in species-rich communities<sup>7-9</sup>. Here we present a comprehensive analysis of the spatial patterns of 720 tree species in 21 large forest plots and their consequences for species coexistence. We show that species with low abundance tend to be more spatially aggregated than more abundant species. Moreover, there is a latitudinal gradient in the strength of this negative aggregation-abundance relationship that increases from tropical to temperate forests. We suggest, in line with recent work<sup>10</sup>, that latitudinal gradients in animal seed dispersal<sup>11</sup> and mycorrhizal associations<sup>12-14</sup> may jointly generate this pattern. By integrating the observed spatial patterns into population models<sup>8</sup>, we derive the conditions under which species can invade from low abundance in terms of spatial patterns, demography, niche overlap and immigration. Evaluation of the spatial-invasion condition for the 720 tree species analysed suggests that temperate and tropical forests both meet the invasion criterion to a similar extent but through contrasting strategies conditioned by their spatial patterns. Our approach opens up new avenues for the integration of observed spatial patterns into ecological theory and underscores the need to understand the interaction among spatial patterns at the neighbourhood scale and multiple ecological processes in greater detail.

NatureVol. 640(8060)
Smithsonian Institution (US), University of Peradeniya (LK), University of Wisconsin–Green Bay (US), National Science and Technology Development Agency (TH), National Museum of Natural History (US), Harvard University (US), Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (DE), Sun Yat-sen University (CN), University of California, Los Angeles (US), Osnabrück University (DE), Northwestern Polytechnical University (CN), Biocon (Switzerland) (CH), Kasetsart University (TH), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Washington University in St. Louis (US), Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (US), Beijing Botanical Garden (CN), German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (DE), Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (CN), National Dong Hwa University (TW), Institute of Botany of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), ForestGEO (US), Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve (CN), Institute of Applied Ecology (CN), National Zoological Park (US), Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (TW), South China Botanical Garden (CN), Wuhan Botanical Garden (CN), Watershed (GB), State Forestry and Grassland Administration (CN), Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (US), Yunnan Academy of Forestry (CN), Conservation Biology Institute, Northeast Forestry University (CN), Uva Wellassa University (LK), East China Normal University (CN)
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Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
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