The value of biodiversity for the functioning of tropical forests: insurance effects during the first decade of the Sabah biodiversity experiment

Tuck, Sean L. and O’Brien, Michael J. and Philipson, Christopher D. and Saner, Philippe and Tanadini, Matteo and Dzaeman Dzulkifli and Godfray, H. Charles J. and Elia Godoong and Reuben Nilus and Robert C. Ong and Schmid, Bernhard and Waidi Sinun and Snaddon, Jake L. and Snoep, Martijn and Hamzah Tangki and Tay Ah Min @ John Tay and Philip Ulok and Yap, Sau Wai and Weilenmann, Maja and Reynolds, Glen and Hector, Andy (2016) The value of biodiversity for the functioning of tropical forests: insurance effects during the first decade of the Sabah biodiversity experiment. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283. pp. 1-10. ISSN 0962-8452

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URL: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098...

Abstract

One of the main environmental threats in the tropics is selective logging, which has degraded large areas of forest. In southeast Asia, enrichment planting with seedlings of the dominant group of dipterocarp tree species aims to accelerate restoration of forest structure and functioning. The role of tree diversity in forest restoration is still unclear, but the ‘insurance hypothesis’ predicts that in temporally and spatially varying environments planting mixtures may stabilize functioning owing to differences in species traits and ecologies. To test for potential insurance effects, we analyse the patterns of seedling mortality and growth in monoculture and mixture plots over the first decade of the Sabah biodiversity experiment. Our results reveal the species differences required for potential insurance effects including a trade-off in which species with denser wood have lower growth rates but higher survival. This trade-off was consistent over time during the first decade, but growth and mortality varied spatially across our 500 ha experiment with species responding to changing conditions in different ways. Overall, average survival rates were extreme in monocultures than mixtures consistent with a potential insurance effect in which monocultures of poorly surviving species risk recruitment failure, whereas monocultures of species with high survival have rates of self-thinning that are potentially wasteful when seedling stocks are limited. Longer-term monitoring as species interactions strengthen will be needed to more comprehensively test to what degree mixtures of species spread risk and use limited seedling stocks more efficiently to increase diversity and restore ecosystem structure and functioning.

Item Type:	Article
Keyword:	Selective logging , Tropical forest , Forest restoration , Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning , Sabah biodiversity experiment , Dipterocarpaceae
Subjects:	Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301-705.5 Biology (General)
Department:	FACULTY > Faculty of Tropical Forestry
Depositing User:	SAFRUDIN BIN DARUN -
Date Deposited:	25 Apr 2022 11:51
Last Modified:	25 Apr 2022 11:51
URI:	https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/32472

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