Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T14:55:01.466Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pre-dispersal and early post-dispersal demography, and reproductive litter production, in the tropical tree Dicymbe altsonii in Guyana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Roderick J. Zagt
Roderick J. Zagt
Affiliation:
The Tropenbos-Guyana Programme, 12E Garnett Street, Campbellville, Georgetown, Guyana; and Department of Plant Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80084, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The demographic history of a flower-cohort of the tropical tree Dicymbe altsonii (Caesalpiniaceae) was studied by collecting litter from flowers, fruits and seeds, and by monitoring seedling survival. Flower production was estimated at 137 to 172 m−2 in a plot of 1 ha. Four percent of the flowers yielded a pod, which contained an average of 2.0 seeds. Post-dispersal mortality over 3 mo was 39% of the initial number of dispersed seeds. Most flowers and fruits were aborted. Insect and vertebrate predation in the tree and on the ground was very low. Reproductive litter production of this species was estimated to be equal to leaf litter production. The amount of phosphorus lost in litter from fruits and flowers was much larger than in leaf litter. This implies that the impact of the biennial flowering events on the nutrient dynamics of the trees and of the ecosystem may be large. It is argued that the reproductive cycle and the pre-dispersal demography of Dicymbe seem to be determined by a scarcity of nutrient resources, and possibly by pollinator limitation.

Keywords

Dicymbe altsoniiflower abortionfruitingGuyanaLeguminosaelitterfallphosporusnutrient dynamicsseed-demographytropical rainforest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , July 1997 , pp. 511 - 526
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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

Bawa, K. S. 1974. Breeding systems of tree species of a lowland tropical community. Evolution 28:85–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bawa, K. S. & Webb, C. J. 1984. Flower, fruit and seed abortion in tropical forest trees: implications for the evolution of paternal and maternal reproductive patterns. American Journal of Botany 71:736–751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brouwer, L. C. 1996. Nutrient cycling in pristine and logged tropical rain forest. A study in Guyana. PhD. Thesis University of Utrecht. Tropenbos-Guyana Series 1. Tropenbos-Guyana Programme/Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Chan, H. T. & Appanah, S. 1980. Reproductive biology of some Malaysian dipterocarps. I. Flowering biology. Malaysian Forester 43:132–143.Google Scholar
Cowan, R. S. & Lindeman, J. C. 1989. Caesalpiniaceae. Pp. 19–34 in Görts-van Rijn, A. R. A. (ed.). Flora of the Guianas, Series A. 88. Koeltz, Königstein.Google Scholar
Crawley, M. J. 1992. Seed predators and plant population dynamics. Pp. 157–191 in Fenner, M. (ed.). Seeds: the ecology of regeneration in plant communities. CAB International, Wallingford, U.K.Google Scholar
Crawley, M. J. & Long, C. R. 1995. Alternate bearing, predator satiation and seedling recruitment in Quercus robur L. Journal of Ecology 83:683–696.Google Scholar
Davis, L. D. 1957. Flowering and alternate bearing. Proceedings of the American Society of Horticultural Science 70:545–556.Google Scholar
Eis, S., Garman, E. H. & Ebel, L. F. 1965. Relation between cone production and diameter increment of Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco), grand fir (Abies grandis Dougl.), and western white pine (Pinus monticola Dougl.). Canadian Journal of Botany 43:1553–1559.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fanshawe, D. B. 1952. The vegetation of British Guiana. A preliminary review. Institute Paper No 29. Imperial Forestry Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.Google Scholar
Fanshawe, D. B. 1954. Forest types of British Guiana. Caribbean Forester 15:73–111.Google Scholar
Franken, M. 1979. Major nutrient and energy contents of the litterfall of a riverine forest of Central Amazonia. Tropical Ecology 20:211–224.Google Scholar
Grimm, C. 1995. Seed predators and the fruiting phenology of Pithecellobium pallens (Leguminosae) in thornscrub, north-eastern Mexico. Journal of Tropical Ecology 11:321–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, T. B. 1995. Seed, seedling and subcanopy survival in monodominant and mixed forests of the Ituri Forest, Africa. Journal of Tropical Ecology 11:443–459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmsgaard, E. 1956. Effect of seed-bearing on increment of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst). Proceedings of the International University Forestry Research Organisation 12:158–161.Google Scholar
Isaacs, R., Gillman, M. P., Johnston, M., Marsh, F. & Wood, B. C. 1996. Size structure of a dominant neotropical forest tree species, Dicymbe altsonii, in Guyana and some factors reducing seedling leaf area. Journal of Tropical Ecology 12:599–606.Google Scholar
Janzen, D. H. 1969. Seed-eaters versus seed size, number, toxicity and dispersal. Evolution 23:1–27.Google ScholarPubMed
Janzen, D. H. 1971. Seed predation by animals. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 2:465–492.Google Scholar
Janzen, D. H. 1974. Tropical black water rivers, animals and mast-fruiting by the Dipterocarpaceae. Biotropica 6:69–103.Google Scholar
Jetten, V. G. 1994. Modelling the effects of logging on the water balance of a tropical rainforest. PhD Thesis, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands. 196 pp.Google Scholar
Jones, C. B. 1983. Do howler monkeys feed upon legume flowers preferentially at flower opening time? Brenesia 21:41–46.Google Scholar
Khan, Z., Paul, S. & Cummings, D. 1980. Mabura Hill, Upper Demerara Forestry Project. Soils investigation report no. 1. National Agricultural Research Institute, Mon Repos, Guyana.Google Scholar
Kozlowski, T. T. 1973. Extent and significance of shedding of plant parts. Pp. 1–44 in Kozlowski, T. T. (ed.). Shedding of plant parts. Academic Press, New York, U.S.A.Google Scholar
Lloyd, D. G. 1980. Sexual strategies in plants. I. An hypothesis of serial adjustment of maternal investment during one reproductive session. New Phytologist 86:69–79.Google Scholar
Proctor, J. 1983. Tropical forest litterfall. I. Problems of data comparison. Pp. 267–273 in Sutton, S. L., Whitmore, T. C. & Chadwick, A. C. (eds). Tropical rain forest: ecology and management. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, U.K.Google Scholar
Proctor, J. 1984. Tropical forest litterfall. II. The data set. Pp. 83–113 in Chadwick, A. C. and Sutton, S. L. (eds). Tropical rain forest: the Leeds symposium. Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, Leeds, U.K.Google Scholar
Raaimakers, D. 1994. Growth of tropical rainforest trees as dependent on phosporus supply. Tropenbos Series nr. 11. The Tropenbos Foundation, Wageningen. 97 pp.Google Scholar
Ramírez, N. 1993. Producción y costo de frutos y semillas entre formas de vida. Biotropica 25:46–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhoades, C. C., Sanford, R. L. & Clark, D. B. 1994. Gender dependent influences on soil phosphorus by the dioecious lowland tropical tree Simarouba amara. Biotropica 26:362–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silver, W. L. 1994. Is nutrient availability related to plant nutrient use in humid tropical forests? Oecologia 98:336–343.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scott, D. A., Proctor, J. & Thompson, J. 1992. Ecological studies on a lowland evergreen rain forest on Maracá Island, Roraima, Brazil. II. Litter and nutrient cycling. Journal of Ecology 80:705–717.Google Scholar
Stephenson, A. G. 1981. Flower and fruit abortion: proximate causes and ultimate functions. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 12:253–279.Google Scholar
Sutherland, S. 1986. Patterns of fruit-set: what constrols fruit-flowers ratios in plants? Evolution 40:117–128.Google Scholar
Sutherland, S. & Delph, L. F. 1984. On the importance of male fitness in plants: patterns of fruit-set. Ecology 65:1093–1104.Google Scholar
Ter Steege, H. & Persaud, C. A. 1991. The phenology of Guyanese timber species: a compilation of a century of observations. Vegetatio 95:177–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ter Steege, H., Jetten, V. G., Polar, M. & Werger, M. J. A. 1993. Tropical rain forest types and soils of a watershed in Guyana. Journal of Vegetation Science 4:705–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Kekem, A. J., Pulles, J. H. M. & Khan, Z. (in press). Soils of the rain forest of Guyana. Tropenbos-Guyana Series 2. Tropenbos-Guyana Programme/Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Veneklaas, E. J. 1991. Litterfall and nutrient fluxes in two montane tropical rain forests, Colombia. Journal of Tropical Ecology 7:319–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vitousek, P. M. 1984. Litterfall, nutrient cycling and nutrient limitation in tropical forests. Ecology 65:285–298.Google Scholar