Data from: Legume abundance along successional and rainfall gradients in neotropical forests

Daniel Piotto, Centro de Formação em Ciências Agroflorestais, Universidade Federal Do sul da Bahia
Janet I. Sprent, Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh
Pedro H. S. Brancalion, Department of Forest Sciences, Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo
Julie S. Denslow, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University
Madelon Lohbeck, Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University and Research
Whendee Silver, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California
Juan Manuel Dupuy, Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán, Unidad de Recursos Naturales
Yule Roberta Ferreira Nunes, Departamento de Biologia Geral, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros
Benjamin W. Sullivan, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, University of Nevada
Sandra M. Durán, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department, University of Alberta
Vanessa Granda Moser, Graduate School, Tropical Agricultural Centre for Research and Higher Education (CATIE)
T. Mitchell Aide, Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras
Susan G. Letcher, Department of Plant Biology, College of the Atlantic
Eduardo A. Pérez-García, Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department, University of Alberta
José Luis Andrade, Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán, Unidad de Recursos Naturales
Rebecca J. Cole, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Bryan Finegan, Forests, Biodiversity and Climate Change Programme, Tropical Agricultural Centre for Research and Higher Education (CATIE)
Edith Orihuela-Belmonte, National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change
Marielos Peña-Claros, Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University and Research
André B. Junqueira, Department of Soil Quality, Wageningen University
Jorge A. Meave, Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
José Luis Hernández-Stefanoni, Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán, Unidad de Recursos Naturales
Lourens Poorter, Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University and Research
Frans Bongers, Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University and Research
Peter B. Reich, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University
Maria Uriarte, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University
Danaë M. A. Rozendaal, Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University and Research
Michiel Van Breugel, Yale-NUS College Singapore, Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore
Ben De Jong, Department of Sustainability Science, El Colegio de la Frontera sur

Description

The nutrient demands of regrowing tropical forests are partly satisfied by nitrogen (N)-fixing legume trees, but our understanding of the abundance of those species is biased towards wet tropical regions. Here we show how the abundance of Leguminosae is affected by both recovery from disturbance and large-scale rainfall gradients through a synthesis of forest-inventory plots from a network of 42 Neotropical forest chronosequences. During the first three decades of natural forest regeneration, legume basal area is twice as high in dry compared to wet secondary forests. The tremendous ecological success of legumes in recently disturbed, water-limited forests is likely related to both their reduced leaflet size and ability to fix N2, which together enhance legume drought tolerance and water-use efficiency. Earth system models should incorporate these large-scale successional and climatic patterns of legume dominance to provide more accurate estimates of the maximum potential for natural N fixation across tropical forests.

Publication Date

4-27-2019

Publisher

Zenodo

DOI

10.5061/dryad.3p1k5d2

Document Type

Data Set

Identifier

5000507

Embargo Date

4-27-2019

Version

1

Link to Full Text

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