Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T10:09:46.997Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Growth of tree seedlings in tropical rain forests of North Queensland, Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Olusegun O. Osunkoya ,
Julian E. Ash ,
Andrew W. Graham  and
Mike S. Hopkins
Olusegun O. Osunkoya
Affiliation:
Division of Botany & Zoology, School of Life Sciences, The Australian National University, GPO Box 4, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
Julian E. Ash
Affiliation:
Division of Botany & Zoology, School of Life Sciences, The Australian National University, GPO Box 4, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
Andrew W. Graham
Affiliation:
CSIRO, Division of Wildlife & Ecology, Tropical Forest Research Centre, PO Box 780, Atherton, North Queensland, Australia
Mike S. Hopkins
Affiliation:
CSIRO, Division of Wildlife & Ecology, Tropical Forest Research Centre, PO Box 780, Atherton, North Queensland, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The effects of forest habitat, canopy light condition, vertebrate herbivory and species mean seed size on growth of tree seedlings were evaluated for six widely different species of North Queensland tropical rain forests. Two forest localities differing in size and rainfall intensity were used for the trial. In each forest, seedlings were transplanted three weeks after germination into small to medium-sized canopy gaps and into the forest interiors, with half protected by cages and the other half unprotected. Growth measurements were made over a period of 16 months. All growth parameters examined differed significantly between the six species. At the end of the study period, for most species, forest site and protection from vertebrates did not affect seedling biomass. For all species, growth was higher in gaps than in forest interior, but most biomass allocation patterns did not differ between the two habitats. This was attributed to the small difference in photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) levels between the two habitats (interior, 0.48–2.53% PAR; gap, 3.58–7.09% PAR). Between species, seedling growth in the forest interior and sensitivity to increasing light were significantly correlated with initial mean seed size. The growth ability of the six species in and out of canopy gaps is discussed in terms of regeneration status of forest tree species.

Keywords

Australiabiomass ratioscanopy gapsclimaxpioneerlightseed sizeseedlingtropical rain forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , February 1993 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

Baker, H. J. 1972. Seed weight in relation to environmental gradients in California. Ecology 53:997–1010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bazzaz, F. A. & Carlson, R. W. 1982. Photosynthetic acclimation to variability in the light environment of early and late successional plants. Oecologia (Berlin) 54:313–316.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bazzaz, F. A. & Pickett, S. T. A. 1980. Physiological ecology of plant succession: a comparative review. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11:287–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bongers, F., Popma, J. & Iriarte-Vivar, S. 1988. Response of Cordia megalantha Blake seedlings to gap environments in a Mexican tropical rain forest. Functional Ecology 2:379–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canham, C. D. 1989. Different responses to gaps among shade tolerant tree species. Ecology 70:548–550.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chazdon, R. L. 1986. Light variation and carbon gain in rain forest undcrstorey. Journal of Ecology 74:995–1012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chazdon, R. L. & Fetcher, N. 1984. Photosynthetic light environments in a lowland tropical forest in Costa Rica. Journal of Ecology 72.553–564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coley, P. D., Bryant, J. P. & IIIChapin, F. S. 1985. Resource availability and plant antiherbivore defense. Science 230:895–899.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Connell, J. H. 1989. Some processes affecting the species composition in forest gaps. Ecology 70:560–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connell, J. H., Tracey, J. G. & Webb, L. J. 1984. Compensatory recruitment, growth and mortality as factors maintaining the rain forest tree diversity. Ecological Monographs 54:141–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denslow, J. S. 1987. Tropical rain forest gaps and tree diversity. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 18:431–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denslow, J. S., Schultz, J. C., Vitousek, P. M. & Strain, B. R. 1990. Growth responses of tropical shrubs to treefall gap environments. Ecology 71:165–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fetcher, N., Strain, B. R. & Oberbauer, S. F. 1983. Effects of light regime on the growth, leaf morphology and water relations of two species of tropical trees. Oecologia (Berlin) 58:314–319.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forget, P. M. 1991. Comparative recruitment patterns of two non-pioneer canopy tree species in French Guiana. Oecologia (Berlin) 85:434–439.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foster, S. A. 1986. On the adaptive value of large seeds for tropical moist forest trees: A review and synthesis. Botanical Review 52(3): 261–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grime, J. P. & Jeffrey, D. W. 1965. Seedling establishment in vertical gradients of sunlight. Journal of Ecology 53:621–642.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gross, K. L. & Smith, A. D. 1991. Seed mass and emergence time effects on performance of Panicum dichctomiflorum Michx. across environments. Oecologia (Berlin) 87:270–278.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harper, J. L., Lovell, P. H. & Moore, K. G. 1970. The shapes and sizes of seeds. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 1:327–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, M. S. & Graham, A. W. 1987. The variability of seeds of rain forests after experimental soil burials under tropical wet lowland forest in north-eastern Australia. Australian Journal of Ecology 12:97–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howe, H. F. 1990. Survival and growth of juvenile of Virola surinamensis in Panama: Effects of herbivory and canopy closure. Journal of Tropical Ecology 6:259–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howe, H. F., Schupp, E. W. & Westley, L. C. 1985. Early consequences of seed dispersal for a neotropical tree (Virola surinamensis). Ecology 66:781–791.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, R. 1978. Plant growth analysis. Arnold, London, England.Google Scholar
Hyland, B. P. M. 1982. A reversed card key to rain forest trees of North Queensland. CSIRO, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Jurik, T. W. & Pleasants, J. M. 1990. The effects of light and plant size on fate of seedlings of the prairie compass plant (Siphium laciniatum L.). Functional Ecology 4:661–665.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lane, P., Galwey, N. & Alvey, N. 1987. Genstat 5. An Introduction. Clarendon Press, London.Google Scholar
Martinez-Ramos, M. R., Sarukhan, J. & Pinero, D. 1988. The demography of tropical trees in the context of forest gaps: the case of Astrocaryum mexicanum at Los Tuxtlas tropical rain forest. Pp. 293–313 in Davy, D. J., Hutchings, M. J. & Watkinson, A. R. (eds). Plant population ecology. Blackwell, Oxford, England.Google Scholar
Myster, R. W. & McCarthy, B. C. 1989. Effects of herbivory and competition on survival and growth of Carya tomentosa (Juglandaceae) seedlings. Oikos 56:145–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osunkoya, O. O., Ash, J. E., Hopkins, M. S., & Graham, A. G. 1992. Factors affecting survival of tree seedlings in North Queensland rain forests. Oecologia (Berlin) 91:569–578.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oberbauer, S. F. & Strain, B. R. 1985. Effects oflight regime on growth and physiology of Pentaclethra macroloba (Mimosaceae) in Costa Rica. Journal of Tropical Ecology 1:303–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Popma, J. & Bongers, F. 1988. The effect of canopy gaps on growth and morphology of seedlings of rain forest species. Oecologia (Berlin) 75:625–632.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Popma, J., Bongers, F., Martinez-Ramos, M. & Veneklaas, E. 1988. Pioneer species distribution in treefall gaps in neotropical rain forest; a gap definition and its consequences. Journal of Tropical Ecology 4:77–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salisbury, E. J. 1942. The reproductive capacity of plants, Bell, London, England.Google Scholar
Sasaki, S. & Mori, T. 1981. Growth responses of dipterocarp seedlings to light. Malayan Forester 44:319–345.Google Scholar
Scheffe, H., 1959. The analysis of variance. John Wiley & Sons, New York, USA.Google Scholar
Schupp, E. W., Howe, H. F., Augspurger, C. K. & Levey, D. J. 1989. Arrival and survival in tropical treefall gaps. Ecology 70:562–564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sork, V. L. 1987. Effects of predation and light on seedling establishment in Gustava superba. Ecology 68:1341–1350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swaine, M. D. & Whitmore, T. C. 1988. On the definition of ecological species groups in tropical rain forest. Vegitatio 75:81–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tracey, J. G. 1982. The vegetation of the humid tropical region of North Queensland, CSIRO, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Turner, I. M: 1990. Tree seedling growth and survival in a Malaysian forest. Biotropica 22:146–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westoby, M., Barbara, R. & Howell, J. 1990. Seed size and plant growth form as factors in dispersal spectra. Ecology 77:1307–1315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitmore, T. C. 1989. Canopy gaps and two major groups of forest trees. Ecology 70:536–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zar, J. H. 1984. Biostatistical analysis. Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, USA.Google Scholar