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AOBPreview originally published online on October 17, 2007
Annals of Botany 2008 101(1):103-109; doi:10.1093/aob/mcm259
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Do Interspecific Differences in Sapling Growth Traits Contribute to the Co-dominance of Acer saccharum and Fagus grandifolia?

Koichi Takahashi* and Martin J. Lechowicz

Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Docteur Penfield, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 1B1, Canada

* For correspondence. Present address: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Shinshu University, Matsumoto, 390-8621, Japan. E-mail koichit{at}shinshu-u.ac.jp

Received: 12 June 2007    Returned for revision: 31 July 2007    Accepted: 7 September 2007    Published electronically: 17 October 2007

Background and Aims Acer saccharum: and Fagus grandifolia are among the most dominant late-successional tree species in North America. The influence of sapling growth responses to canopy gaps on the co-dominance of the two species in an old-growth forest in southern Quebec, Canada was examined. Two predictions were evaluated: (a) F. grandifolia is more shade tolerant than A. saccharum due to greater sapling leaf area and net production per sapling in closed-canopy conditions; and (b) the height growth rate of A. saccharum in canopy gaps is greater than that of F. grandifolia due to increased net production per sapling.

Methods: Sapling crown allometry, net production and height growth rates were compared between and within the two species in closed canopy vs. canopy gaps. Standardized major axis regression was used to analyse differences in crown allometry.

Key Results F. grandifolia: had greater crown projection, sapling leaf area and net production rate per sapling than A. saccharum in closed-canopy conditions. In response to canopy gaps, net production per sapling increased to the same degree in both species. The net production per sapling of F. grandifolia thus was much greater than that of A. saccharum in both canopy gap and closed-canopy conditions. The height growth rate of both species increased in canopy gaps, but the degree of increase was greater in F. grandifolia than in A. saccharum.

Conclusions F. grandifolia: regenerated more successfully than A. saccharum in both closed-canopy conditions and canopy gaps, which indicates that the co-dominance of the two species cannot be maintained simply by interspecific differences in shade tolerance and growth in gaps. Previous research showed that although Fagus and Acer shared dominance at this site, their relative dominance shifted with edaphic conditions. This suggests that the widespread co-dominance of the two species in eastern North American forests is maintained by the joint influence of canopy disturbance and species-specific responses to the heterogeneity of moisture and fertility regimes within forested landscapes.

Key words: American beech, crown architecture, crown allometry, height growth rate, net production rate, saplings, sugar maple


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