Skip Navigation



AOBPreview published online on June 8, 2005
Annals of Botany, doi:10.1093/aob/mci179
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Content Select
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
96/2/313    most recent
mci179v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by AIBA, M.
Right arrow Articles by NAKASHIZUKA, T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by AIBA, M.
Right arrow Articles by NAKASHIZUKA, T.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by AIBA, M.
Right arrow Articles by NAKASHIZUKA, T.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org
Received December 1, 2004
Revised February 15, 2005
Accepted April 27, 2005

Article

Sapling Structure and Regeneration Strategy in 18 Shorea Species Co-occuring in a Tropical Rainforest

MASAHIRO AIBA 1* and TOHRU NAKASHIZUKA 2

1 Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Hirano, Otsu 520-2113, Japan
2 Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Takashima 335, Kamigyo, Kyoto 602-0878, Japan

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
MASAHIRO AIBA, E-mail: aiba{at}ecology.kyoto-u.ac.jp


  Abstract

• Background and Aims Inevitable trade-offs in structure may be a basis for differentiation in plant strategies. Juvenile trees in different functional groups are characterized by specific suites of structural traits such as crown architecture and biomass distribution. The relationship between juvenile tree structure and function was tested to find out if it is robust among functionally and taxonomically similar species of the genus Shorea that coexist sympatrically in a tropical rain forest in Borneo.

• Methods The sapling structures of 18 species were compared for standardized dry masses of 5 and 30 g. Pairwise simple correlation and multiple correlation patterns among structural traits of juveniles (0·1-1·5 m in height) of 18 Shorea species were examined using Pearson's correlation and principal component analysis (PCA), respectively. The correlation was then tested between the PCA results and three indices of shade tolerance: the net photosynthetic rate, the wood density of mature trees and seed size.

• Key Results The structural variation in saplings of the genus Shorea was as large as that found in sets of species with much more diverse origins. The PCA showed that both crown architecture and allocation to leaves are major sources of variation in the structures of the 18 species investigated. Of these two axes, allocation to leaves was significantly correlated with wood density and showed a limited correlation with photosynthetic rate, whereas crown architecture was significantly correlated to seed size.

• Conclusions Overall, the results suggest that an allocation trade-off between leaves and other organs, which co-varied with wood density and to a certain extent with photosynthetic capacity, accounts for the difference in shade tolerance among congeneric, functionally similar species. In contrast, the relationship between the architecture and regeneration strategy differed from the pattern found between functional groups, and the function of crown architecture was ambiguous.

Keywords: Allocation, architecture, Borneo, dipterocarps, regeneration strategy, sapling, shade tolerance, seedling, Shorea.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.