Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:16:18.662Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Acclimation of seedlings of three Mexican tropical rain forest tree species to a change in light availability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

J. Popma  and
F. Bongers
J. Popma*
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Ecology, University of Utrecht, Lange Nieuwslraat 106, 3512 PN Utrecht, The Netherlands Laboratorio de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad National Autónoma de México, 04510 México DF, México
F. Bongers
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Ecology, University of Utrecht, Lange Nieuwslraat 106, 3512 PN Utrecht, The Netherlands Laboratorio de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad National Autónoma de México, 04510 México DF, México
*
*Correspondence should be sent to J. Popma, Nijmegen.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A comparison is made of the light acclimation potential of seedlings of three canopy species of the tropical rain forest of Los Tuxtlas, Mexico: Cordia megalantha, Lonchocarpus guatemalensis, and Omphalea oleifera. These species showed similar growth rates in a range of microhabitats. Gap dynamics were simulated by transferring plants between three environments: beneath a closed canopy, a small gap, and a large gap. Plants of all three species were able to adjust their morphology and growth rates in response to changes in light availability. Growth rates increased when plants were moved to a (larger) gap, and decreased when plants were moved to a more shaded environment. Shade-grown plants were able to acclimate faster to increasing light availability than sun-grown plants to decreasing light availability. Also, plants moved from shady to sunny conditions showed higher relative growth rates than sun control plants, whereas sun-grown plants when moved to the shade showed lower relative growth rates than shade control plants. Species differed in their response to gap dynamics. Omphalea could not acclimate morphologically to shading, but reacted faster than the other species in response to the occurrence of a large gap. Acclimation potential seemed to be related to plasticity in physiological rather than in morphological traits. Suppressed seedlings of all three species performed well in the shade, and were able to acclimate rapidly to gap-conditions.

Keywords

acclimationbiomass allocationCordia megalanlhagrowthLonchocarpus guatemalensisLos TuxtlasMexicomorphologyOmphalea oleiferatreefall gapstree seedlingstropical rain forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , February 1991 , pp. 85 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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

Augspurger, C. K. 1984. Seedling survival of tropical tree species: Interactions of dispersal distance, light-gaps and pathogens. Ecology 65:1705–1712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bazzaz, F. A. 1984. Dynamics of wet tropical forests and their species strategies. Pp. 233–243 in Medina, E., Mooney, H. A. & Vazquez-Yanes, C. (eds). Physiological ecology of plants in the wet tropics. Junk, The Hague.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bazzaz, F. A. & Pickett, S. T. A. 1980. The physiological ecology of tropical succession: a comparative review. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11:287–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackman, G. E. & Wilson, G. L. 1951. Physiological and ecological studies in the analysis of plant environment. VII. An analysis of the differential effects of light intensity on the net assimilation rate, leaf area ratio and the relative growth rate of different species. Annals of Botany 15:374–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bongers, F., Popma, J., Meave Del Castillo, J. & Carabias, J. 1988a. Structure and floristic composition of the lowland rain forest of Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. Vegetalio 74:55–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bongers, F., Popma, J. & Iriarte-Vivar, S. 1988b. Response of Cordia megalantha seedlings to gap environments in tropical rain forest. Functional Ecology 2:379–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brokaw, N. V. L. 1985. Treefalls, regrowth, and community structure in tropical forests. Pp. 53–69 in Pickett, S. T. A. & White, P. S. (eds). The ecology of natural disturbance and patch dynamics. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Burton, P. J. & Muller-Dombois, M. D. 1984. Response of Metrosideros polymorpha seedlings to experimental canopy opening. Ecology 65:779–791.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chazdon, R. L. & Fetcher, N. 1984. Light environments in a lowland tropical rain forest in Costa Rica. Journal of Ecology 72:553–564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, D. & Clark, D. 1985. Seedling dynamics of a tropical tree; impacts of herbivory, and meristem damage. Ecology 66:1884–1892.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denslow, J. S. 1980. Gap partitioning among tropical rainforest trees. Biotropica 12(supplement) 47–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, G. C. 1972. The analysis of plant growth. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Fetcher, N., Strain, B. R. & Oberbauer, S. F. 1983. Effects of light regime on the growth, leaf morphology, and water relations of seedlings of two species of tropical trees. Oecologia (Berlin) 58:314–319.Google Scholar
Garwood, N. C. 1983. Seed germination in a seasonal tropical forest in Panama; a community study. Ecological Monographs 53:159–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartshorn, G. S. 1980. Neotropical forest dynamics. Biotropica 12(supplement):23–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lieberman, D., Lieberman, M., Peralta, R. & Hartshorn, G. 1985. Growth rates and agesize relationships of tropical wet forest trees in Costa Rica. Journal of Tropical Ecology 1:97–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ng, F. S. P. 1978. Strategies of establishment in Malayan forest trees. Pp. 129–162 in Tomlinson, T. B. & Zimmerman, M. H. (eds). Tropical trees as living systems. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.Google Scholar
Oberbauer, S. F. & Strain, B. R. 1985. Effects of light regime on growth and physiology of Pentaclethra macroloba (Mimosaceae) in Costa Rica. Journal of Tropical Ecology 1:303–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickett, S. T. A. 1983. Differential adaptation of tropical tree species to canopy gaps and its role in community dynamics. Tropical Ecology 24:68–84.Google 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.Google Scholar
Popma, J., Bongers, F. & Meave Del Castillo, J. 1988. Patterns in the vertical structure of the lowland tropical rain forest of Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. Vegetatio 74:81–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schulz, J. P. 1960. Ecological studies on rain forest in Northern Suriname. Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen, afd. Natuurkunde, tweede reeks, deel III, no. 1.Google Scholar
Vázquez-Yanes, C. & Orozco-Segovia, A. 1984. Ecophysiology of seed germination in the tropical humid forests of the world: a review. Pp. 37–50 in Medina, E., Mooney, H. A. & Vázquez-Yanes, C. (eds). Physiological ecology of plants in the wet tropics. Junk, The Hague.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitmore, T. C. 1982. On pattern and process in forests. Pp. 45–59 in Newman, E. I. (ed.). Special Publications of the British Ecological Society no. 1. Blackwell, London.Google Scholar
Whitmore, T. C. 1984. Tropical rainforests of the far east. (2nd edition). Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar