Abstract
The Amazon rain forest sustains the world's highest tree diversity, but it remains unclear why some clades of trees are hyperdiverse, whereas others are not. Using dated phylogenies, estimates of current species richness and trait and demographic data from a large network of forest plots, we show that fast demographic traits – short turnover times – are associated with high diversification rates across 51 clades of canopy trees. This relationship is robust to assuming that diversification rates are either constant or decline over time, and occurs in a wide range of Neotropical tree lineages. This finding reveals the crucial role of intrinsic, ecological variation among clades for understanding the origin of the remarkable diversity of Amazonian trees and forests.
Highlights
Amazonian forests are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth, sustaining approximately 16 000 species of trees or % 30% of global tree diversity (Fine et al 2009; ter Steege et al 2013) with some communities containing over 300 species of at least 10 cm diameter at breast height within a single hectare (Gentry 1988)
This pattern emerges because there is no correlation between clade age and species richness in these data; an exponentially declining model of diversification provides a better fit in this case (Fig. 2)
Our results demonstrate that short turnover times are linked to higher diversification rates and higher levels of species richness among multiple clades of tropical rain forest canopy trees
Summary
Amazonian forests are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth, sustaining approximately 16 000 species of trees or % 30% of global tree diversity (Fine et al 2009; ter Steege et al 2013) with some communities containing over 300 species of at least 10 cm diameter at breast height (dbh) within a single hectare (Gentry 1988) This diversity is a result of an interaction between extrinsic factors – historical events that have caused extinction or provided opportunities for speciation – and the intrinsic characteristics of different lineages that have influenced how they respond to these events (Vamosi & Vamosi 2011). These patterns suggest that the intrinsic characteristics of clades should be considered when trying to understand why some clades are so species rich (Marzluff & Dial 1991)
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