Abstract
Introduction: Understanding the mechanisms of tree mortality in tropical ecosystems remains challenging, in part due to the high diversity of tree species and the inherently stochastic nature of mortality. Plant functional traits offer a mechanistic link between plant physiology and performance, yet their ability to predict growth and mortality remains poorly understood. Given recent increases in tree mortality rates in the Amazon forest following extreme drought and wind events, we tested if lower wood density and acquisitive plant functional traits were associated with increased growth and mortality for common co-occurring trees in the Central Amazon. Methods: Seventeen trees of different species with similar sizes but a range in wood density (WD) and wood traits were felled, then assessed for 27 different individual functional parameters, including whole tree architecture, stem xylem anatomical and hydraulic traits and leaf traits. Traits of the individual trees were related to stand-level growth and mortality rates collected periodically over 30 years from nearby permanent inventory plots. Results: Higher wood density was associated with smaller leaf size, lower foliar base cations, lower stem water content and sapwood fraction, in agreement with the fast-slow plant economics spectrum. Lower wood density was associated with more acquisitive characteristics with greater hydraulic capacity and foliar nutrient concentrations, correlating with greater growth and mortality rates. Discussion: Our results show that lower wood density is part of a coordinated suite of traits linked to high resource acquisition, fast growth, and increased mortality risk, providing a functional framework for predicting species performance and forest vulnerability under future climate stress.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1572767 |
| Journal | Frontiers in Plant Science |
| Volume | 16 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2025 |
Funding
The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE), Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) Program as part of the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments-Tropics (NGEE-Tropics) -Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is operated by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. DOE. Additional funding for this research was provided by INCT -Madeiras da Amazônia, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) -Processo: 403839/2021-1 Chamada CNPq/MCTI/FNDCT N° 18/2021 -Faixa A -Grupos Emergentes Universal 2021 and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas (FAPEAM). Acknowledgments The authors are thankful for the logistical and scientific support provided by the Laboratório de Manejo Florestal (LMF), the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Program (LBA) and the project “INCT Madeiras da Amazônia” at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA). We also thank to Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas – (FAPEAM)/Ph.D Candidate CFT/INPA 000284/2019, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), and NGEE-Tropics. We appreciate the detailed and thoughtful independent reviews that significantly improved the manuscript. The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE), Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) Program as part of the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments-Tropics (NGEE-Tropics) -Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is operated by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. DOE. Additional funding for this research was provided by INCT -Madeiras da Amazônia, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) -Processo: 403839/2021-1 Chamada CNPq/MCTI/FNDCT N° 18/2021 -Faixa A -Grupos Emergentes Universal 2021 and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas (FAPEAM). This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).
Keywords
- demographics
- hydraulic traits
- leaf traits
- plant economic spectrum
- tree structure
- tropical forest
- wood anatomy