Abstract
Forest cover and light availability comprise key factors for plant establishment in tropical forests. In the Brazilian Atlantic Forest (AF), Euterpe edulis (Areacaceae) is an endangered and keystone food resource contributing to forest functionality. We investigated the influence of forest loss and light availability on leaf traits and acclimatization of young individuals of E. edulis in AF fragments. We aimed to understand (i) how canopy openness and transmitted light are affected by forest cover at the landscape scale and the individual palm level; and (ii) how local and landscape features, combined and separately, affect key leaf traits widely known to be related to plant growth. The study was carried out in 15 forest fragments, ranging from 16 to 97% of surrounding forest cover. In each fragment, we sampled 10–20 individuals of E. edulis and analyzed nine leaf traits related to morphological, biochemical and chemical aspects. We also took hemispherical photographs to estimate canopy openness on the top of each E. edulis and also within fragment plots. We found that young plants predominantly occurred in more shaded environments. Additionally, E. edulis succeeded to acclimate in six of the nine traits analyzed, with most traits being affected by local and landscape features. It is likely that the lack of variation in traits related to protection against herbivory are limiting the species establishment in highly deforested landscapes. Our results provide novel evidence that both landscape and local contexts affect the leaf traits of E. edulis young plants leading to biochemical, chemical and morphological adjustments.
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Acknowledgments
This study was financed by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development CNPq; 563216/2010-7), by the Coordination of Superior Level Staff Improvement—Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001, and by Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (PROPP 00220.1100.1800). The authors thank the landowners for allowing us to work on their properties and to all who helped in the map processing and field work, mainly MSc Elisa Sodré for hemispherical photographs. We are grateful to Deborah Faria for coordinating the Rede SISBIOTA project (CNPq 563216 / 2010-7), in which this study is inserted, being the publication number 38 of this project. Marcelo S. Mielke gratefully acknowledge CNPq (Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) for the award of fellowship of scientific productivity (305477/2018-8).
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A.F.C. and M.S.M. conceived this study. A.F.C. collected the data. A.F.C analyzed the data with contributions from L.R.S., and M. B. and A.F.C. wrote the manuscript with all co- authors contributing to the final version.
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Communicated by Gerardo Avalos.
We have combined the perspectives from plant ecophysiology and landscape ecology to examine leaf trait spectra for an endangered palm species in Brazil. Our research has shown that dynamic community and ecosystem processes, which affect canopy structure and microclimate, exert significant influences on trait expression, and likely determine important fitness and persistence outcomes at the organismic scale. Conservation of endangered species like Euterpe edulis will benefit from the incorporation of such cross-scale perspectives on plant adaptation.
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Cerqueira, A.F., Rocha-Santos, L., Benchimol, M. et al. Habitat loss and canopy openness mediate leaf trait plasticity of an endangered palm in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Oecologia 196, 619–631 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04879-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04879-x