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Coelho de Souza, Fernanda and Dexter, Kyle G. and Phillips, Oliver L. and Brienen, Roel J.W. and Chave, Jerome and Galbraith, David R. and Lopez Gonzalez, Gabriela and Monteagudo Mendoza, Abel and Pennington, R. Toby and Poorter, Lourens and Alexiades, Miguel and Álvarez-Dávila, Esteban and Andrade, Ana and Aragão, Luis E.O.C. and Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro and Arets, Eric J.M.M. and Aymard C, Gerardo A. and Baraloto, Christopher and Barroso, Jorcely G. and Bonal, Damien and Boot, Rene G.A. and Camargo, José L.C. and Comiskey, James A. and Valverde, Fernando Cornejo and de Camargo, Plínio B. and Di Fiore, Anthony and Elias, Fernando and Erwin, Terry L. and Feldpausch, Ted R. and Ferreira, Leandro and Fyllas, Nikolaos M. and Gloor, Emanuel and Herault, Bruno and Herrera, Rafael and Higuchi, Niro and Honorio Coronado, Eurídice N. and Killeen, Timothy J. and Laurance, William F. and Laurance, Susan and Lloyd, Jon and Lovejoy, Thomas E. and Malhi, Yadvinder and Maracahipes, Leandro and Marimon, Beatriz S. and Marimon-Junior, Ben H. and Mendoza, Casimiro and Morandi, Paulo and Neill, David A. and Vargas, Percy Núñez and Oliveira, Edmar A. and Lenza, Eddie and Palacios, Walter A. and Peñuela-Mora, Maria C. and Pipoly, John J. and Pitman, Nigel C.A. and Prieto, Adriana and Quesada, Carlos A. and Ramirez-Angulo, Hirma and Rudas, Agustin and Ruokolainen, Kalle and Salomão, Rafael P. and Silveira, Marcos and Stropp, Juliana and ter Steege, Hans and Thomas-Caesar, Raquel and van der Hout, Peter and van der Heijden, Geertje M.F. and van der Meer, Peter J. and Vasquez, Rodolfo V. and Vieira, Simone A. and Vilanova, Emilio and Vos, Vincent A. and Wang, Ophelia and Young, Kenneth R. and Zagt, Roderick J. and Baker, Timothy R. (2016) Evolutionary heritage influences Amazon tree ecology. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283 (1844). p. 20161587. ISSN 1471-2954

Abstract

Lineages tend to retain ecological characteristics of their ancestors through time. However, for some traits, selection during evolutionary history may have also played a role in determining trait values. To address the relative importance of these processes requires large-scale quantification of traits and evolutionary relationships among species. The Amazonian tree flora comprises a high diversity of angiosperm lineages and species with widely differing life-history characteristics, providing an excellent system to investigate the combined influences of evolutionary heritage and selection in determining trait variation. We used trait data related to the major axes of life-history variation among tropical trees (e.g. growth and mortality rates) from 577 inventory plots in closed-canopy forest, mapped onto a phylogenetic hypothesis spanning more than 300 genera including all major angiosperm clades to test for evolutionary constraints on traits. We found significant phylogenetic signal (PS) for all traits, consistent with evolutionarily related genera having more similar characteristics than expected by chance. Although there is also evidence for repeated evolution of pioneer and shade tolerant life-history strategies within independent lineages, the existence of significant PS allows clearer predictions of the links between evolutionary diversity, ecosystem function and the response of tropical forests to global change.

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