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Branch xylem density variations across Amazonia
1Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. Diagonal 27 No. 15-09, Bogotá D.C, Colombia
2Earth and Biosphere Institute, School of Geography, Univ. of Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
3UMR-ECOFOG, INRA, 97310 Kourou, French Guiana
4Secretrária Municipal de Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente na Prefeitura Municipal de Maués, Maués, Brazil
5Institito National de Pesquisas Amazônicas, Manaus, Brazil
6Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brazil
7Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, UK
8Oxford University, Centre for the Environment, Oxford, UK
9Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Amazonía, Leticia, Colombia
10Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belem, Brazil
11Equipo de Gestión Ambiental, Interconexión Eléctrica S.A. ISA., Medellín, Colombia
12Museo Noel Kempff Mercado, Santa Cruz, Bolivia
13Universidade Federal de Pará, Belem, Brazil
14Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
15Departamento de Biología, Universidad Distrital, Bogotá, Colombia
16Max-Planck-Institut für Biogeochemie, Jena, Germany
17Abteilung Ökologie und Ökosystemforschung, Albrecht-von-Haller-Institut für Pflanzenwissenschaften, Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
18Departamento de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín, Colombia
19Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation Int., Washington D.C., WA, USA
20School of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
21Herbario Vargas, Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Cusco, Perú
22Proyecto Flora del Perú, Jardín Botánico de Missouri, Oxampapa, Perú
23Herbario Nacional del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador
24Center for Tropical Conservation, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
25Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso, Cuiaba, Brazil
26Department of Botany, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
27Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
28CIFOR, Tapajos, Brazil
29EMBRAPA Amazonia Oriental, Belem, Brazil
30Departamento de Ciências da Natureza, Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco, Brazil
31Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Ambiental, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela
†deceased
Abstract. Measurements of branch xylem density, Dx, were made for 1466 trees representing 503 species, sampled from 80 sites across the Amazon basin. Measured values ranged from 240 kg m−3 for a Brosimum parinarioides from Tapajos in West Pará, Brazil to 1130 kg m−3 for an Aiouea sp. from Caxiuana, Central Pará, Brazil. Analysis of variance showed significant differences in average Dx across the sample plots as well as significant differences between families, genera and species. A partitioning of the total variance in the dataset showed that geographic location and plot accounted for 33% of the variation with species identity accounting for an additional 27%; the remaining "residual" 40% of the variance accounted for by tree to tree (within species) variation. Variations in plot means, were, however, hardly accountable at all by differences in species composition. Rather, it would seem that variations of xylem density at plot level must be explained by the effects of soils and/or climate. This conclusion is supported by the observation that the xylem density of the more widely distributed species varied systematically from plot to plot. Thus, as well as having a genetic component branch xylem density is a plastic trait that, for any given species, varies according to where the tree is growing and in a predictable manner. Exceptions to this general rule may be some pioneers belonging to Pourouma and Miconia and some species within the genera Brosimum, Rinorea and Trichillia which seem to be more constrained in terms of this plasticity than most species sampled as part of this study.
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Citation: Patiño, S., Lloyd, J., Paiva, R., Quesada, C. A., Baker, T. R., Santos, A. J. B., Mercado, L. M., Malhi, Y., Phillips, O. L., Aguilar, A., Alvarez, E., Arroyo, L., Bonal, D., Costa, A. C. L., Czimczik, C. I., Gallo, J., Herrera, R., Higuchi, N., Horna, V., Hoyos, E. J., Jimenez, E. M., Killeen, T., Leal, E., Luizão, F., Meir, P., Monteagudo, A., Neill, D., Núñez-Vargas, P., Palomino, W., Peacock, J., Peña-Cruz, A., Peñuela, M. C., Pitman, N., Priante Filho, N., Prieto, A., Panfil, S. N., Rudas, A., Salomão, R., Silva, N., Silveira, M., Soares de Almeida, S., Torres-Lezama, A., Turriago, J. D., Vásquez-Martínez, R., Schwarz, M., Sota, A., Schmerler, J., Vieira, I., Villanueva, B., and Vitzthum, P.: Branch xylem density variations across Amazonia, Biogeosciences Discuss., 5, 2003-2047, 2008. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager
