COMPETITION AMONG EUCALYPTUS TREES DEPENDS ON GENETIC VARIATION AND RESOURCE SUPPLY


Autoria(s): BOYDEN, Suzanne; BINKLEY, Dan; STAPE, Jose Luiz
Contribuinte(s)

UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO

Data(s)

18/10/2012

18/10/2012

2008

Resumo

Genetic variation and environmental heterogeneity fundamentally shape the interactions between plants of the same species. According to the resource partitioning hypothesis, competition between neighbors intensifies as their similarity increases. Such competition may change in response to increasing supplies of limiting resources. We tested the resource partitioning hypothesis in stands of genetically identical (clone-origin) and genetically diverse (seed-origin) Eucalyptus trees with different water and nutrient supplies, using individual-based tree growth models. We found that genetic variation greatly reduced competitive interactions between neighboring trees, supporting the resource partitioning hypothesis. The importance of genetic variation for Eucalyptus growth patterns depended strongly on local stand structure and focal tree size. This suggests that spatial and temporal variation in the strength of species interactions leads to reversals in the growth rank of seed-origin and clone-origin trees. This study is one of the first to experimentally test the resource partitioning hypothesis for intergenotypic vs. intragenotypic interactions in trees. We provide evidence that variation at the level of genes, and not just species, is functionally important for driving individual and community-level processes in forested ecosystems.

International Paper of Brazil

Brazil Eucalyptus Productivity Potential project

University of Sao Paulo in Piracicaba (USP/ESALQ)

Colorado State University[DGE-0221595003]

Identificador

ECOLOGY, v.89, n.10, p.2850-2859, 2008

0012-9658

http://producao.usp.br/handle/BDPI/18980

10.1890/07-1733.1

http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/07-1733.1

Idioma(s)

eng

Publicador

ECOLOGICAL SOC AMER

Relação

Ecology

Direitos

restrictedAccess

Copyright ECOLOGICAL SOC AMER

Palavras-Chave #competition #intergenotypic or intragenotypic #Eucalyptus #genetic variability #individual tree-growth models #neighborhood interactions #resource availability #resource partitioning hypothesis #NEIGHBOR RELATEDNESS #ARABIDOPSIS-THALIANA #IMPATIENS-CAPENSIS #SPECIES-DIVERSITY #SIB-COMPETITION #PLANT COMMUNITY #SOIL FERTILITY #TRADE-OFFS #PERFORMANCE #GROWTH #Ecology
Tipo

article

original article

publishedVersion