Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T04:04:54.077Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Modular, hollow culms of rain-forest bamboos explain their persistence across a wide range of light environments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2018

Junichi Fujinuma Open the ORCID record for Junichi Fujinuma [Opens in a new window] ,
Matthew D. Potts ,
Abd Rahman Kassim ,
Rhett D. Harrison ,
Abd Razak O.  and
Takashi S. Kohyama
Junichi Fujinuma*
Affiliation:
Tropical Biosphere Research Center, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa, Japan903-0213 Department of Forest Sciences, P.O. Box 27, FI-00014, University of Helsinki, Finland Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan060-0810
Matthew D. Potts
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Abd Rahman Kassim
Affiliation:
Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, 52109, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Rhett D. Harrison
Affiliation:
World Agroforestry Centre, East and Southern Africa Region, 13 Elm Road, Woodlands, Lusaka, Zambia
Abd Razak O.
Affiliation:
Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, 52109, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Takashi S. Kohyama
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan060-0810
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Tropical bamboos persist in a wide range of light conditions and quickly respond to changes in light availability. However, the mechanisms underpinning this ability remain unknown. In order to test the hypothesis that the modular and hollow culm architecture of bamboos explains their performance in a wide range of light environments, we determined the allometric relationships of two dominant bamboo species of the upper hill dipterocarp forests of Malaysia, Gigantochloa ligulata (n = 29) and Schizostachyum grande (n = 25), via destructive sampling. We also monitored biomass turnover of bamboos and woody trees in 24 permanent plots (1.92 ha in total) over a one-year period. Compared with woody trees, bamboo culms attained 1.5 times the height and their clumps supported four times as much total leaf area at the same above-ground biomass. In addition, at a given height, bamboo clumps had six times larger crown projection area than trees while having a similar amount of total leaf area per unit of crown projection area. Finally, bamboos’ biomass turnover rate was three times higher than trees, and G. ligulata increased its specific rate of biomass increase after canopy disturbance, while trees decreased. We conclude that the unique architecture of bamboos allows them to persist under closed forest canopy light conditions and to respond to gap formation via high biomass turnover rate.

Keywords

allocationallometryclonal plantclumping bamboocoexistencedemographymorphologysympodial branchingtropical forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 1 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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

AZMI, R. & SUKUMARAN, J. 2002. Biodiversity assessments and conservation planning for sustainable production forestry in high-conservation value: Perak Integrated Timber Complex, Temengor Forest Reserve, Perak, Peninsular Malaysia. WWF Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. 145 pp.Google Scholar
BAI, K., JIANG, D., CAO, K., LIAO, D. & WAN, X. 2011. The physiological advantage of an ecological filter species, Indocalamus longiauritus, over co-occurring Fagus lucida and Castanopsis lamontii seedlings. Ecological Research 26:15–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BELLAIRS, S. M., FRANKLIN, D. C. & HOGARTH, N. J. 2008. A tropical, gregariously semelparous bamboo shows no seed dormancy. Biotropica 40:28–31.Google Scholar
BYSTRIAKOVA, N., KAPOS, V., LYSENKO, I. & STAPLETON, C. M. A. 2003. Distribution and conservation status of forest bamboo biodiversity in the Asia-Pacific Region. Biodiversity and Conservation 12:1833–1841.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BYSTRIAKOVA, N., KAPOS, V. & LYSENKO, I. 2004. Bamboo biodiversity: Africa, Madagascar and the Americas. UNEP-WCMC/INBAR, Cambridge. 88 pp.Google Scholar
CLARK, D. A., BROWN, S., KICKLIGHTER, D. W., CHAMBERS, J. Q., THOMLINSON, J. R., NI, J. & HOLLAND, E. A. 2001. Net primary production in tropical forests: an evaluation and synthesis of existing field data. Ecological Applications 11:371–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DIERICK, D., HÖLSCHER, D. & SCHWENDENMANN, L. 2010. Water use characteristics of a bamboo species (Bambusa blumeana) in the Philippines. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 150:1568–1578.Google Scholar
DRANSFIELD, S. 1992. The bamboos of Sabah. Forestry Department, Sabah. 94 pp.Google Scholar
FRANKLIN, D.C., KANEKO, S., YAMASAKI, N. & ISAGI, Y. 2008. Some wild bamboo clumps contain more than one genet. Australian Journal of Botany 56:433–436.Google Scholar
FRANKLIN, D. C., PRIOR, L. D., HOGARTH, N. J. & MCMAHON, C. R. 2010. Bamboo, fire and flood: consequences of disturbance for the vegetative growth of a clumping, clonal plant. Plant Ecology 208:319–332.Google Scholar
GAGNON, P. R. 2009. Fire in floodplain forests in the Southeastern USA: insights from disturbance ecology of native bamboo. Wetlands 29:520–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GAGNON, P. R., PLATT, W. J. & MOSER, E. B. 2007. Response of a native bamboo [Arundinaria gigantea (Walt.) Muhl.] in a wind-disturbed forest. Forest Ecology and Management 241:288–294.Google Scholar
HURVICH, C. M. & TSAI, C. 1989. Regression and time series model selection in small samples. Biometrika 76:297–307.Google Scholar
JANZEN, D. H. 1976. Why bamboos wait so long to flower. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 7:347–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KATO, R., TADAKI, Y. & OGAWA, H. 1978. Plant biomass and growth increment studies in Pasoh forest. Malayan Nature Journal 30:211–224.Google Scholar
KING, D. A. 1990. Allometry of saplings and understorey trees of a Panamanian forest. Functional Ecology 4:27–32.Google Scholar
KING, D. A. 1991. Correlations between biomass allocation, relative growth rate and light environment in tropical forest saplings. Functional Ecology 5:485–492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KING, D. A., DAVIES, S. J., TAN, S. & NUR SUPARDI, M. N. 2009. Trees approach gravitational limits to height in tall lowland forests of Malaysia. Functional Ecology 23:284–291.Google Scholar
KIRA, T. 1978. Community architecture and organic matter dynamics in tropical lowland rain forests of Southeast Asia with special reference to Pasoh Forest, West Malaysia. Pp. 561–590 in Tomlinson, P. B. & Zimmermann, M. H. (eds.). Tropical trees as living systems. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
KLEINHENZ, V. & MIDMORE, D.J. 2001. Aspects of bamboo agronomy. Advances in Agronomy 74:99–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KOHYAMA, T. 1987. Significance of architecture and allometry in saplings. Functional Ecology 1:399–404.Google Scholar
KOHYAMA, T. & HOTTA, M. 1990. Significance of allometry in tropical saplings. Functional Ecology 4:515–521.Google Scholar
KOHYAMA, T. S., KOHYAMA, T. I. & SHEIL, D. in press. Definition and estimation of vital rates from repeated censuses: choices, comparisons and bias corrections focusing on trees. Methods in Ecology and Evolution.Google Scholar
KOHYAMA, T. & TAKADA, T. 2009. The stratification theory for plant coexistence promoted by one-sided competition. Journal of Ecology 97:463–471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KOHYAMA, T. S. & TAKADA, T. 2012. One-sided competition for light promotes coexistence of forest trees that share the same adult height. Journal of Ecology 100:1501–1511.Google Scholar
LARJAVAARA, M. 2015. Trees and shrubs differ biomechanically. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 30:499–500.Google Scholar
MCCLURE, F. A. 1966. The bamboos – a fresh perspective. Harvard University Press, Cambridge. 347 pp.Google Scholar
MCMAHON, T. 1973. Size and shape in biology. Science 179:1201–1204.Google Scholar
MONTTI, L., VILLAGRA, M., CAMPANELLO, P. I., GATTI, M. G. & GOLDSTEIN, G. 2014. Functional traits enhance invasiveness of bamboos over co-occurring tree saplings in the semideciduous Atlantic forest. Acta Oecologica 54:36–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NIKLAS, K. J. 2007. Maximum plant height and the biophysical factors that limit it. Tree Physiology 27:433–440.Google Scholar
PEARSON, A. K., PEARSON, O. P. & GOMEZ, I. A. 1994. Biology of the bamboo Chusquea culeou (Poaceae: Bambusoideae) in southern Argentina. Vegetatio 111:93–126.Google Scholar
PHILLIPS, O. L., HALL, P., GENTRY, A. H., SAWYER, S. A. & VÁSQUEZ, R. 1994. Dynamics and species richness of tropical rain forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 91:2805–2809.Google Scholar
REES, M., CONDIT, R., CRAWLEY, M., PACALA, S. & TILMAN, D. 2001. Long-term studies of vegetation dynamics. Science 293:650–655.Google Scholar
SAHA, S., HOLBROOK, N. M., MONTTI, L., GOLDSTEIN, G. & CARDINOT, G. K. 2009. Water relations of Chusquea ramosissima and Merostachys claussenii in Iguazu National Park, Argentina. Plant Physiology 149:1992–1999.Google Scholar
SMITH, M. & NELSON, B. W. 2011. Fire favours expansion of bamboo-dominated forests in the south-west Amazon. Journal of Tropical Ecology 27:59–64.Google Scholar
SODERSTROM, T. R. & CALDERON, C. E. 1979. A commentary on the bamboos (Poaceae: Bambusoideae). Biotropica 11:161–172.Google Scholar
SUZUKI, J. & STUEFER, J. F. 1999. On the ecological and evolutionary significance of storage in clonal plants. Plant Species Biology 14:11–17.Google Scholar
SVENSSON, B. M., RYDIN, H. & CARLSSON, B. Å. 2005. Clonal plants in the community. Pp. 129–146 in van der Maarel, E. (ed.). Vegetation ecology. Blackwell Science, Oxford.Google Scholar
SWAINE, M. D. & WHITMORE, T. C. 1988. On the definition of ecological species groups in tropical rain forests. Vegetatio 75:81–86.Google Scholar
TANG, Y., KACHI, N., FURUKAWA, A. & AWANG, M. 1999. Heterogeneity of light availability and its effects on simulated carbon gain of tree leaves in a small gap and the understory in a tropical rain forest. Biotropica 31:268–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VAN GROENENDAEL, J. M., KLIMEŠ, L., KLIMEŠOVÁ, J. & HENDRIKS, R. J. J. 1996. Comparative ecology of clonal plants. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 351:1331–1339.Google Scholar
WIDMER, Y. 1998. Pattern and performance of understory bamboos (Chusquea spp.) under different canopy closures in old-growth oak forests in Costa Rica. Biotropica 30:400–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WONG, K. M. 1995. The bamboos of Peninsular Malaysia. Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. 200 pp.Google Scholar
WRIGHT, I. J., FALSTER, D. S. & WESTOBY, M. 2006. Bivariate line-fitting methods for allometry. Biological Reviews 81:259–291.Google Scholar
YAMADA, T., YAMAKURA, T. & LEE, H. S. 2000. Architectural and allometric differences among Scaphium species are related to microhabitat preferences. Functional Ecology 14:731–737.Google Scholar
YANG, S., SUN, M., ZHANG, Y., COCHARD, H. & CAO, K. 2014. Strong leaf morphological, anatomical, and physiological responses of a subtropical woody bamboo (Sinarundinaria nitida) to contrasting light environments. Plant Ecology 215:97–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
YAP, S. K. 2010. Forest management and stump-to-forest gate chain-of-custody certification re-evaluation report for the: Perak Integrated Timber Complex (Perak ITC). Scientific Certification Systems. Emeryville, Canada. 51 pp.Google Scholar
ZHANG, J. & CAO, M. 1995. Tropical forest vegetation of Xishuangbanna, SW China and its secondary changes, with special reference to some problems in local nature conservation. Biological Conservation 73:229–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar