Love Thy Neighbour? Tropical Tree Growth and Its Response to Climate Anomalies Is Mediated by Neighbourhood Hierarchy and Dissimilarity in Carbon‐ and Water‐Related Traits
Taxonomic diversity effects on forest productivity and response to climate extremes range from positive to negative, suggesting a key role for complex interactions among neighbouring trees. To elucidate how neutral interactions, hierarchical competition and resource partitioning between neighbours' shape tree growth and climate response in a highly diverse Amazonian forest, we combined 30 years of tree censuses with measurements of water- and carbon-related traits. We modelled individual tree growth response to climate and neighbourhood to disentangle the relative effect of neighbourhood densities, trait hierarchies and dissimilarities. While neighbourhood densities consistently decreased growth, trait dissimilarity increased it, and both had the potential to influence climate response. Greater water conservatism provided a competitive advantage to focal trees in normal years, but water-spender neighbours reduced this effect in dry years. By underlining the importance of density and trait-mediated neighbourhood interactions, our study offers a way towards improving predictions of forest dynamics.
Authors
- Sébastien Levionnois (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7217-9762)
- Isabelle Maréchaux (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5401-0197)
- Elia Dardevet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0338-8955)
- Patrick Heuret (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7956-0451)
- Éric Marcon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5249-321X)
- Jason Vleminckx (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7600-9170)
- Peter Hietz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0458-6593)
- Camille Ziegler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0855-1347)
- Claire Fortunel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8367-1605)
- Wolfgang Wanek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2178-8258)
- Christopher Baraloto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7322-8581)
- Marion Boisseaux (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4998-8956)
- Clément Stahl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5411-1169)
- Géraldine Derroire (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7239-2881)
- Sabrina Coste (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3948-4375)
- Damien Bonal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9602-8603)
- Vincyane Badouard
- Daniela Nemetschek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6127-5707)
- Johanna Auer
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Vienna (AT)
- Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (FR)
- Université Libre de Bruxelles (BE)
- Université de Bordeaux (FR)
- Florida International University (US)
- Université de Montpellier (FR)
- AgroParisTech (FR)
- University of Bristol (GB)
- Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR)
- Silva (FR)
- UMR Botanique et Modélisation de l’Architecture des Plantes et des végétations (FR)
- Forests and Societies (FR)
- UMR BIOdiversity, GEnes & Communities (FR)
- Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane (GF)
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR)
- Université de Lorraine (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Ecology Letters
- Published
- 2025-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70028
- Citations
- 8
- Primary Topic
- Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 8.84
Funders
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
- UK Research and Innovation
- Centre Méditerranéen de l’Environnement et de la Biodiversité
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Universität Wien
- Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement
- Université de Montpellier
- Office Français de la Biodiversité
- FP7 International Cooperation