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dc.contributor.authorChave, Jérôme
dc.contributor.authorCondit, Richard
dc.contributor.authorMuller-Landau, Helene C.
dc.contributor.authorThomas, Sean C.
dc.contributor.authorBunyavejchewin, Sarayudh
dc.contributor.authorCo, Leonardo L.
dc.contributor.authorDattaraja, Handanakere S.
dc.contributor.authorEsufali, Shameema
dc.contributor.authorEwango, Corneille E. N.
dc.contributor.authorFeeley, Kenneth J.
dc.contributor.authorFoster, Robin B.
dc.contributor.authorGunatilleke, Nimal
dc.contributor.authorGunatilleke, Savitri
dc.contributor.authorHall, Pamela
dc.contributor.authorHart, Terese B.
dc.contributor.authorHernández, Consuelo
dc.contributor.authorHubbell, Stephen P.
dc.contributor.authorItoh, Akira
dc.contributor.authorKiratiprayoon, Somboon
dc.contributor.authorLaFrankie, James V.
dc.contributor.authorLoo de Lao, Suzanne
dc.contributor.authorMakana, Jean-Rémy
dc.contributor.authorNoor, Md. Nur Supardi
dc.contributor.authorKassim, Abdul Rahman
dc.contributor.authorSamper, Cristián
dc.contributor.authorSukumar, Raman
dc.contributor.authorSuresh, Hebbalalu S.
dc.contributor.authorTan, Sylvester
dc.contributor.authorThompson, Jill
dc.contributor.authorTongco, Ma. Dolores C.
dc.contributor.authorValencia, Renato
dc.contributor.authorVallejo, Martha
dc.contributor.authorVilla, Gorky
dc.contributor.authorYamakura, Takuo
dc.contributor.authorZimmerman, Jess K.
dc.contributor.authorLosos, Elizabeth C.
dc.contributor.authorAshton, Peter Shaw
dc.contributor.authorDavies, Stuart J.
dc.date.accessioned2010-10-06T17:35:52Z
dc.date.issued2008
dc.identifier.citationChave, Jérôme, Richard Condit, Helene C. Muller-Landau, Sean C. Thomas, Peter S. Ashton, Sarayudh Bunyavejchewin, Leonardo L. Co, et al. 2008. Assessing evidence for a pervasive alteration in tropical tree communities. PLoS Biology 6(3): e45.en_US
dc.identifier.issn1544-9173en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4459988
dc.description.abstractIn Amazonian tropical forests, recent studies have reported increases in aboveground biomass and in primary productivity, as well as shifts in plant species composition favouring fast-growing species over slow-growing ones. This pervasive alteration of mature tropical forests was attributed to global environmental change, such as an increase in atmospheric \(CO_2\) concentration, nutrient deposition, temperature, drought frequency, and/or irradiance. We used standardized, repeated measurements of over 2 million trees in ten large (16–52 ha each) forest plots on three continents to evaluate the generality of these findings across tropical forests. Aboveground biomass increased at seven of our ten plots, significantly so at four plots, and showed a large decrease at a single plot. Carbon accumulation pooled across sites was significant \((+0.24 MgC ha^{−1} y^{−1}\), 95% confidence intervals \([0.07, 0.39] MgC ha^{−1} y^{−1})\), but lower than reported previously for Amazonia. At three sites for which we had data for multiple census intervals, we found no concerted increase in biomass gain, in conflict with the increased productivity hypothesis. Over all ten plots, the fastest-growing quartile of species gained biomass (+0.33 [0.09, 0.55] % \(y^{−1})\) compared with the tree community as a whole (+0.15 % \(y^{−1})\); however, this significant trend was due to a single plot. Biomass of slow-growing species increased significantly when calculated over all plots (+0.21 [0.02, 0.37] % \(y^{−1})\), and in half of our plots when calculated individually. Our results do not support the hypothesis that fast-growing species are consistently increasing in dominance in tropical tree communities. Instead, they suggest that our plots may be simultaneously recovering from past disturbances and affected by changes in resource availability. More long-term studies are necessary to clarify the contribution of global change to the functioning of tropical forests.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipOrganismic and Evolutionary Biologyen_US
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_US
dc.relation.isversionofdoi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060045en_US
dc.relation.hasversionhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2270308/en_US
dash.licenseLAA
dc.titleAssessing Evidence for a Pervasive Alteration in Tropical Tree Communitiesen_US
dc.typeJournal Articleen_US
dc.description.versionVersion of Recorden_US
dc.relation.journalPLoS Biologyen_US
dash.depositing.authorAshton, Peter Shaw
dc.date.available2010-10-06T17:35:52Z
dc.identifier.doi10.1371/journal.pbio.0060045*
dash.authorsorderedfalse
dash.contributor.affiliatedAshton, Peter
dash.contributor.affiliatedDavies, Stuart J.


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