Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-fqc5m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T08:40:09.741Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Successional dynamics shape tree diversity in evergreen forests of Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

Constant Yves Adou Yao*
Affiliation:
UFR Biosciences, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, 22 BP 582 Abidjan 22, Côte d’Ivoire
François Munoz
Affiliation:
Université Grenoble-Alpes, LECA, 2233 Rue de la Piscine, 38041Grenoble Cedex 9, France
*
Author for correspondence: *Constant Yves Adou Yao, Email: adouyaocy@gmail.com

Abstract

Disturbances and successional dynamics shape the composition of tree communities, but data remain scarce for tropical forests of West Africa. We assessed the imprint of past disturbances on the composition of evergreen forests in an Ivorian National Park. We hypothesized that (i) Pioneer indices (PI) based on the relative proportion of pioneer and non-pioneer trees relate to changing floristic composition due to successional dynamics, (ii) local community richness peaks at an intermediate value of PI under the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis (IDH) and (iii) early successional communities have higher beta diversity due to erratic founder effects. We performed a Correspondence Analysis of tree composition of 38 plots and examined how the main components of floristic variation related to environmental factors and PI. In addition, we tested the relationship between PI, local richness and beta diversity. The variation of PI better explained the main components of floristic variation than abiotic environmental variation, supporting a primary role of successional dynamics in shaping tree communities. We found a peak of richness at intermediate values of PI, supporting the IDH, with a mixture and earlier and later-successional species and more even abundances. The communities were very diverse and included many endemics and rare species. The results underline that the composition of early successional forests greatly varies depending on chance colonization events, while more similar old-growth communities are eventually observed after several decades. The findings should guide management practices for forest restoration, and for conservation of endangered species depending on their successional status.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature cited

Adou Yao, CY, Blom, EC, Denguéadhé, KTS, Van Rompaey, RSAR, N’Guessan, EK, Wittebolle, G and Bongers, F (2005) Diversité Floristique et Végétation dans le Sud du Parc National de Taï, Côte- d’Ivoire. Wageningen: Tropenbos International.Google Scholar
Alexandre, DY (1982) Aspects de la régénération naturelle des forêts en basse Côte d’Ivoire. Candollea 37, 579588.Google Scholar
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2016) An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG IV. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. https://doi.org/10.1111/boj.12385.Google Scholar
Arroyo-Rodríguez, V, Melo, FPL, Martínez-Ramos, M, Bongers, F, Chazdon, RL, Meave, JA, Norden, N, Santos, BA, Leal, IR and Tabarelli, M (2017) Multiple successional pathways in human-modified tropical landscapes: new insights from forest succession, forest fragmentation and landscape ecology research. Biological Reviews 92, 326340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Belyea, LR and Lancaster, J (1999) Assembly rules within a contingent ecology. Oikos 86, 402416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bongers, F, Poorter, L, Hawthorne, WD and Sheil, D (2009) The intermediate disturbance hypothesis applies to tropical forests, but disturbance contributes little to tree diversity. Ecology Letters 12, 798805.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boukili, VK and Chazdon, RL (2017) Environmental filtering, local site factors and landscape context drive changes in functional trait composition during tropical forest succession. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 24, 3747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chatelain, C, Gautier, L and Spichiger, R (1996) A recent history of forest fragmentation in southwestern Ivory Coast. Biodiversity & Conservation 5, 3753.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connell, JH (1971) On the role of natural enemies in preventing competitive exclusion in some marine animals and in rain forest trees. In Den Boer, PJ and Gradwell, GR (eds), Dynamics of Populations. Wageningen: Centre for Agricultural Publishing and Documentation, pp. 298312.Google Scholar
Connell, JH (1978) Diversity in tropical rain forests and coral reefs: high diversity of trees and corals is maintained only in a nonequilibrium state. Science 199, 13021310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denguéadhé, KTS, Decocq, G, Adou Yao, CY, Blom, E and Van Rompaey, R (2006) Plant species diversity in the southern part of the Taï National Park (Côte d’Ivoire). Biodiversity and Conservation 15, 21232142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denslow, JS (1987) Tropical rainforest gaps and tree species diversity. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 18, 431451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dent, DH, DeWalt, SJ and Denslow, JS (2013) Secondary forests of central Panama increase in similarity to old-growth forest over time in shade tolerance but not species composition. Journal of Vegetation Science 24, 530542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dray, S, Pélissier, R, Couteron, P, Fortin, M-J, Legendre, P, Peres-Neto, PR, Bellier, E, Bivand, R, Blanchet, FG, De Cáceres, M, Dufour, A-B, Heegaard, E, Jombart, T, Munoz, F, Oksanen, J, Thioulouse, J and Wagner, HH (2012) Community ecology in the age of multivariate multiscale spatial analysis. Ecological Monographs 82, 257275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fauset, S, Baker, TR, Lewis, SL, Feldpausch, TR, Affum-Baffoe, K, Foli, EG, Hamer, KC and Swaine, MD (2012) Drought-induced shifts in the floristic and functional composition of tropical forests in Ghana. Ecology Letters 15, 11201129.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grime, JP (1988) The C-S-R model of primary plant strategies: origins, implications and tests. In Gottlieb, LD and Jain, SK (eds), Plant Evolutionary Biology. Amsterdam: Springer, pp. 371393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guillaumet, J-L (1967) Recherches sur la végétation et la flore de la région du Bas-Cavally, Côte d’Ivoire. Mémoire ORSTOM 20.Google Scholar
Guitet, S, Sabatier, D, Brunaux, O, Couteron, P, Denis, T, Freycon, V, Gonzalez, S, Hérault, B, Jaouen, G, Molino, J-F, Pélissier, R, Richard-Hansen, C and Vincent, G (2018) Disturbance regimes drive the diversity of regional floristic pools across Guianan rainforest landscapes. Scientific Reports 8, 3872.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hawthorne, WD (1996) Holes and the sums of parts in Ghanaian forest: regeneration, scale and sustainable use. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Section B: Biological Sciences 104, 75176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holl, KD (1999) Factors limiting tropical rain forest regeneration in abandoned pasture: seed rain, seed germination, microclimate, and soil. Biotropica 31, 229242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hubbell, SP (2001) The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography (MPB-32), Vol. 32. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hurlbert, SH (1971) The nonconcept of species diversity: a critique and alternative parameters. Ecology 52, 577586.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jans, L, Poorter, L, van Rompaey, RSAR and Bongers, F (1993) Gaps and forest zones in tropical moist forest in Ivory Coast. Biotropica 25, 258269. https://doi.org/10.2307/2388784.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, DG and Buikema, AL (1998) Do similar communities develop in similar sites? A test with zooplankton structure and function, Ecological Monographs 68, 421443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kraft, NJB, Adler, PB, Godoy, O, James, EC, Fuller, S and Levine, JM (2015) Community assembly, coexistence and the environmental filtering metaphor. Functional Ecology 29, 592599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lasky, JR, Uriarte, M, Boukil, VK, Erickson, DL, John Kress, W and Chazdon, RL (2014) The relationship between tree biodiversity and biomass dynamics changes with tropical forest succession. Ecology Letters 17, 11581167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lortie, CJ, Brooker, RW, Choler, P, Kikvidze, Z, Michalet, R, Pugnaire, FI and Callaway, RM (2004) Rethinking plant community theory. Oikos 107, 433438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maley, J (1996) The African rain forest – main characteristics of changes in vegetation and climate from the Upper Cretaceous to the Quaternary. In Alexander, IJ, Swaine, MD and Watling, R (eds), Essays on the Ecology of the Guinea-Congo Rain Forest. Edinburgh: Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, pp. 3174.Google Scholar
Mesquita, RCG, Massoca, P, Jakovac, C, Bentos, T and Williamson, GB (2015) Amazon rain forest succession: stochasticity or land-use legacy? Bioscience 65, 849861.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molino, JF and Sabatier, D (2001) Tree diversity in tropical rain forests: a validation of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. Science 294, 17021704.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Munoz, F, Couteron, P and Ramesh, BR (2008) Beta-diversity in spatially implicit neutral models: a new way to assess species migration. American Naturalist 172, 116127.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Myers, N, Mittermeier, RA, Mittermeier, CG, da Fonseca, GAB and Kent, J (2000) Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403, 853858.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Norden, N, Boukili, V, Chao, A, Ma, KH, Letcher, SG and Chazdon, RL (2017) Opposing mechanisms affect taxonomic convergence between tree assemblages during tropical forest succession. Ecology Letters 20, 14481458.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poorter, L (2007) Are species adapted to their regeneration niche, adult niche, or both? American Naturalist 169, 433442.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poorter, L, Hawthorne, W, Bongers, F and Sheil, D (2008) Maximum size distributions in tropical forest communities: relationships with rainfall and disturbance. Journal of Ecology 96, 495504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
R_Development_Core_Team (2016) A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.Google Scholar
Raevel, V, Violle, C and Munoz, F (2012) Mechanisms of ecological succession: insights from plant functional strategies. Oikos 121, 17611770.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheil, D and Burslem, DFRP (2013) Defining and defending Connell’s intermediate disturbance hypothesis: a response to Fox. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 28, 571572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shipley, B (2010) Community assembly, natural selection and maximum entropy models. Oikos 119, 604609.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swaine, MD and Hall, JB (1983) Early succession on cleared forest land in Ghana. Journal of Ecology 71, 601627.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Breugel, M, Martinez-Ramos, M and Bongers, F (2006) Community dynamics during early secondary succession in Mexican tropical rain forests. Journal of Tropical Ecology 22, 663674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wills, C, Condit, R, Foster, RB and Hubbell, SP (1997) Strong density- and diversity-related effects help to maintain tree species diversity in a neotropical forest. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 94, 12521257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, SJ and Muller-Landau, HC (2006) The future of tropical forest species. Biotropica 38, 287301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yohai, VJ (1987) High breakdown-point and high efficiency robust estimates for regression. Annals of Statistics 15, 642656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar