Resprouting is an ecological strategy widely adopted by trees in response to different restrictive factors, in which the stems can be emitted at different heights of the tree. Although the patterns of resprouting height are already known in response to some restrictive factors (such as fire), their occurrence is not well elucidated in non-fire prone dry environments where continuous resource restriction may stimulate resprouting. Here, we assessed the general ecological dominance of resprouting trees in the community and the ecological dominance of trees resprouting at different heights in response to environmental restrictions in a tropical dry forest (TDF). We used multi-stemmed trees as a proxy for resprouting in response to the local restrictive factors. Our hypotheses were: i) resprouting trees have greater ecological dominance (more trees and stems and higher biomass) in more restrictive plots; ii) the ecological dominance of lower-height resprouting trees is greater in more restrictive plots, while the dominance of upper-height resprouting trees is greater in less restrictive plots. For this, we used a dataset of 27 TDF plots where we measured and identified the trees that met the inclusion criterion (3 cm of diameter at breast height) and collected soil samples to gather data on environmental restriction. Multi-stemmed trees were classified according to the height of additional-stem emission (below-ground, ground-level, and above-ground), considering the bottom-most stem originating from the main stem. We then evaluated whether the ecological dominance of resprouting trees and trees with different resprouting heights varied significantly in response to environmental restrictiveness, and patterns of species composition in the height categories. We found a greater dominance of resprouting trees in more restrictive environments, with lower-height resprouting trees dominating the most restrictive plots (two hypotheses confirmed). This finding may be associated with physiological mechanisms of drought response because resprouting height is directly associated with the level of damage inflicted on the internal structure of trees. We also found that the species varied in their ability for stem emission at different heights, whereby the most plastic species were more dominant compared to those with just one height of emission. This finding indicates that different restrictive factors can produce similar resprouting expressions, reinforcing the need to advance the knowledge on the importance of resprouting in TDF.

重新发芽是树木为应对不同的限制因素而广泛采用的一种生态策略，其中茎可以在树的不同高度发出。尽管响应一些限制性因素（例如火），重新发芽高度的模式已经为人所知，但在非火灾多发的干燥环境中，持续的资源限制可能会刺激重新发芽，但它们的发生情况并未得到很好的阐明。在这里，我们评估了社区中重新发芽树木的一般生态优势以及在热带干旱森林 (TDF) 中响应环境限制而在不同高度重新发芽的树木的生态优势。我们使用多茎树作为响应局部限制因素重新发芽的代理。我们的假设是：i) 在更严格的地块中，重新发芽的树木具有更大的生态优势（更多的树木和茎以及更高的生物量）；ii) 在限制性较强的地块中，较低高度的再芽树的生态优势更大，而在限制性较小的地块中，高度较高的再芽树的生态优势更大。为此，我们使用了 27 个 TDF 地块的数据集，我们在其中测量并确定了符合纳入标准（胸高直径为 3 厘米）的树木，并收集了土壤样本以收集有关环境限制的数据。考虑到源自主茎的最底部茎，根据附加茎发射的高度（地下、地面和地上）对多茎树木进行分类。然后，我们评估了再生树木和不同再生高度树木的生态优势是否因环境限制和高度类别中的物种组成模式而显着变化。我们发现在更严格的环境中重新发芽树木的优势更大，低高度的重新发芽树木在最严格的地块中占主导地位（两个假设得到证实）。这一发现可能与干旱反应的生理机制有关，因为重新发芽的高度与对树木内部结构造成的损害程度直接相关。我们还发现，这些物种在不同高度的茎发射能力各不相同，因此与只有一种发射高度的物种相比，大多数塑料物种更具优势。