Jason Vleminckx

Université Libre de Bruxelles

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Olivier J. Hardy

Université Libre de Bruxelles

Jean‐Louis Doucet

University of Liège

Christopher Baraloto

Florida International University

Hans Beeckman

Royal Museum for Central Africa

Oliver L. Phillips

University of Leeds

Yadvinder Malhi

University of Oxford

Claire Fortunel

UMR Botanique et Modélisation de l’Architecture des Plantes et des végétations

Ted R. Feldpausch

University of Exeter

Simon L. Lewis

University College London

Thomas Drouet

Université Libre de Bruxelles

Cooperative Institutions

National Institute of Amazonian Research

Université du Québec à Montréal

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

University of Leeds

Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement

University of Edinburgh

John Wiley & Sons (United States)

Institut de Recherche pour le Développement

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Amazon tree dominance across forest strata

Nature Ecology & Evolution (2021)

Freddie C. Draper Flávia R. C. Costa Gabriel Arellano Oliver L. Phillips Álvaro Duque

Understory

Dominance (genetics)

Biodiversity hotspot

10.1038/s41559-021-01418-y

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Citations (40)

Supplementary material for the manuscript "Decreasing flower production coincides with warmer and more humid atmospheric conditions in a Western Amazonian forest" (Vleminckx et al. 2023)

Harvard Dataverse (2023)

Jason Vleminckx

Appendix S1. List of species with their family and additional sampling information. Appendix S2. Phenological data Appendix S3. Climate data. Appendix S4. Flowering species composition data for each census. Appendix S5. List of species names with corresponding acronyms. Appendix S6. R code used to perform our data analysis. Figure S1. Patterns of missing values among climate variables before imputation. Figure S2. Post-Hoc analyses evaluating the reliability of the imputations of the missing climate variable values. Figure S3. Observed and imputed mean monthly values of each climate variable across the study period. Figure S4. Visual comparison of the temporal variation of irradiance before and after MSR-randomisation. Figure S5. Slope coefficients examining the relative effects of two climate variables (TMIN and irradiance, and TMAX and irradiance) on the annual community flower production (Fcom).

10.7910/dvn/u9vmze

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Niche breadth of Amazonian trees increases with niche optimum across broad edaphic gradients

Ecology (2023)

Jason Vleminckx Oscar Valverde Barrantes Claire Fortunel C. E. Timothy Paine D.E. Bauman

Understanding how biotic interactions and environmental filtering mediated by soil properties shape plant community assembly is a major challenge in ecology, especially when studying complex and hyperdiverse ecosystems like tropical forests. To shed light on the influence of both factors, we examined how the edaphic optimum of species (their niche position) related to their edaphic range (their niche breadth) along different environmental gradients and how this translates into functional strategies. Here we tested four scenarios describing the shape of the niche breadth-niche position relationship, including one neutral scenario and three scenarios proposing different relative influences of abiotic and biotic factors on community assembly along a soil resource gradient. To do so, we used soil concentration data for five key nutrients (N, P, Ca, Mg, and K), along with accurate measurements of 14 leaf, stem, and root traits for 246 tree species inventoried in 101 plots located across Eastern (French Guiana) and Western (Peru) Amazonia. We found that species niche breadth increased linearly with species niche position along each soil nutrient gradient. This increase was associated with more resource acquisitive traits in the leaves and the roots for soil N, Ca, Mg, and K concentration, while it was negatively associated with wood density for soil P concentration. These observations agreed with one of our hypothetical scenarios in which species with resource conservation traits are confined to the most nutrient-depleted soils (abiotic filter), but they are outperformed by faster-growing species in more fertile conditions (biotic filter). Our results refine and strengthen support for niche theories of species assembly while providing an integrated approach to improving forest management policies.

Edaphic

Niche differentiation

Environmental gradient

Biotic component

10.1002/ecy.4053

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Soil Charcoal to Assess the Impacts of Past Human Disturbances on Tropical Forests

PLoS ONE (2014)

Jason Vleminckx Julie Morin‐Rivat Achille Bernard Biwôlé Kasso Daïnou Jean‐François Gillet

The canopy of many central African forests is dominated by light-demanding tree species that do not regenerate well under themselves. The prevalence of these species might result from ancient slash-and-burn agricultural activities that created large openings, while a decline of these activities since the colonial period could explain their deficit of regeneration. To verify this hypothesis, we compared soil charcoal abundance, used as a proxy for past slash-and-burn agriculture, and tree species composition assessed on 208 rainforest 0.2 ha plots located in three areas from Southern Cameroon. Species were classified in regeneration guilds (pioneer, non-pioneer light-demanding, shade-bearer) and characterized by their wood-specific gravity, assumed to reflect light requirement. We tested the correlation between soil charcoal abundance and: (i) the relative abundance of each guild, (ii) each species and family abundance and (iii) mean wood-specific gravity. Charcoal was found in 83% of the plots, indicating frequent past forest fires. Radiocarbon dating revealed two periods of fires: "recent" charcoal were on average 300 years old (up to 860 BP, n = 16) and occurred in the uppermost 20 cm soil layer, while "ancient" charcoal were on average 1900 years old (range: 1500 to 2800 BP, n = 43, excluding one sample dated 9400 BP), and found in all soil layers. While we expected a positive correlation between the relative abundance of light-demanding species and charcoal abundance in the upper soil layer, overall there was no evidence that the current heterogeneity in tree species composition can be explained by charcoal abundance in any soil layer. The absence of signal supporting our hypothesis might result from (i) a relatively uniform impact of past slash-and-burn activities, (ii) pedoturbation processes bringing ancient charcoal to the upper soil layer, blurring the signal of centuries-old Human disturbances, or (iii) the prevalence of other environmental factors on species composition.

Charcoal

10.1371/journal.pone.0108121

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Citations (42)

Field methods for sampling tree height for tropical forest biomass estimation

Methods in Ecology and Evolution (2018)

Martin J. P. Sullivan Simon L. Lewis Wannes Hubau Lan Qie Timothy R. Baker

Abstract Quantifying the relationship between tree diameter and height is a key component of efforts to estimate biomass and carbon stocks in tropical forests. Although substantial site‐to‐site variation in height–diameter allometries has been documented, the time consuming nature of measuring all tree heights in an inventory plot means that most studies do not include height, or else use generic pan‐tropical or regional allometric equations to estimate height. Using a pan‐tropical dataset of 73 plots where at least 150 trees had in‐field ground‐based height measurements, we examined how the number of trees sampled affects the performance of locally derived height–diameter allometries, and evaluated the performance of different methods for sampling trees for height measurement. Using cross‐validation, we found that allometries constructed with just 20 locally measured values could often predict tree height with lower error than regional or climate‐based allometries (mean reduction in prediction error = 0.46 m). The predictive performance of locally derived allometries improved with sample size, but with diminishing returns in performance gains when more than 40 trees were sampled. Estimates of stand‐level biomass produced using local allometries to estimate tree height show no over‐ or under‐estimation bias when compared with biomass estimates using field measured heights. We evaluated five strategies to sample trees for height measurement, and found that sampling strategies that included measuring the heights of the ten largest diameter trees in a plot outperformed (in terms of resulting in local height–diameter models with low height prediction error) entirely random or diameter size‐class stratified approaches. Our results indicate that even limited sampling of heights can be used to refine height–diameter allometries. We recommend aiming for a conservative threshold of sampling 50 trees per location for height measurement, and including the ten trees with the largest diameter in this sample.

Tree (set theory)

Tropical forest

10.1111/2041-210x.12962

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Low-intensity logging alters species and functional composition, but does not negatively impact key ecosystem services in a Central African tropical forest

Global Ecology and Conservation (2024)

Megan K. Sullivan Jason Vleminckx Prince Armel Mouguiama Bissiemou Raoul Niangadouma Manoushka Ilambi Mayoungou

Selective logging can impact tree composition and the long-term sustainability of forests. Studying the ecological consequences of logging practices is crucial for guiding forest management strategies aiming at maintaining ecological integrity and supporting landscape-level conservation goals. We investigated the consequences of very low-intensity selective logging in multiple tree life stages across a logged forest chronosequence in Gabon. We found that species composition differed between logged and unlogged forests at all life stages (seedlings, saplings, and adults), which were most pronounced in the understory of older forests (logged 10 years prior) compared to unlogged areas. However, logging explained a small portion of the variation in species composition (<3% alone, <8% in combination with habitat). For functional composition, we observed higher wood density in the understory of older logged forests than in unlogged forests. Light-demanding saplings and saplings with animal-dispersed seeds were more prevalent in older logged forests than in unlogged forests. Timber species were less prevalent as seedlings and adults but more prevalent as saplings in logged forests compared to unlogged forests. Our results suggest that very low-intensity logging does not negatively impact key ecosystem services like carbon storage and food availability for frugivores. However, reduced prevalence of timber species may impact logging sustainability. Our study indicates that, when considering best-case scenarios, selectively logged forests have the potential to support conservation goals by offering refugia for biodiversity and maintaining essential ecosystem services. Thus, these forests have the potential to complement protected areas and serve as a sustainable alternative to more intensive land use. L'exploitation forestière sélective pourrait avoir un impact sur la composition des arbres et la durabilité à long terme de cette exploitation. L'étude des conséquences écologiques de l'exploitation forestière peut permettre d'améliorer la gestion des écosystèmes forestiers afin de garantir que les forêts exploitées sélectivement conservent leur intégrité écologique et puissent soutenir les objectifs de conservation à l'échelle du paysage. Au Gabon, nous avons étudié les conséquences de l'exploitation sélective à très faible intensité sur plusieurs stades de vie des arbres dans une chronoséquence de forêts exploitées. Nous avons constaté que la composition des espèces différait entre les forêts exploitées et non exploitées à tous les stades de la vie (plantules, jeunes arbres, et adultes). Ces différences se sont montrées plus prononcées dans le sous-étage des forêts exploitées depuis 10 ans par rapport aux sous-étage des forêts non exploitées. Cependant, l'exploitation forestière n'explique qu'une petite partie de la variation de la composition des espèces à tous les stades de la vie (<3% à l'exploitation forestière seule, <8% en combinaison avec l'habitat). En évaluant la composition fonctionnelle, nous avons constaté que les plantules et jeunes arbres des forêts anciennement exploitées avaient une densité de bois plus élevée que dans celui des forêts non exploitées. Les jeunes arbres héliophiles et les graines dispersées par les animaux avaient tendance à être plus prévalent dans le sous-étage des forêts exploitées que dans celui des forêts non exploitées. Les espèces commercialisées étaient moins prévalentes en tant que semis et d'adultes, mais plus prévalent en tant que jeunes arbres dans les forêts exploitées que dans les forêts non exploitées. Nos résultats suggèrent que l'exploitation forestière à très faible intensité n'a pas d'impact négatif sur les services écosystémiques tels que le stockage du carbone et la disponibilité en nourriture pour les frugivores. Cependant, la prévalence réduite de bois exploitable peut avoir des implications sur la durabilité de l'exploitation forestière. Notre étude indique que l'exploitation forestière modérée constitue une alternative viable face aux méthodes plus intensives. Ces espaces forestiers faiblement exploités peuvent contribuer à la conservation en reliant les zones protégées, en offrant des refuges pour la biodiversité et en maintenant des services écosystémiques essentiels.

Tropical forest

10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e02996

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Flower production decreases with warmer and more humid atmospheric conditions in a western Amazonian forest

New Phytologist (2023)

Jason Vleminckx J. Aaron Hogan Margaret R. Metz Liza S. Comita Simon A. Queenborough

Climate models predict that everwet western Amazonian forests will face warmer and wetter atmospheric conditions, and increased cloud cover. It remains unclear how these changes will impact plant reproductive performance, such as flowering, which plays a central role in sustaining food webs and forest regeneration. Warmer and wetter nights may cause reduced flower production, via increased dark respiration rates or alteration in the reliability of flowering cue-based processes. Additionally, more persistent cloud cover should reduce the amounts of solar irradiance, which could limit flower production. We tested whether interannual variation in flower production has changed in response to fluctuations in irradiance, rainfall, temperature, and relative humidity over 18 yrs in an everwet forest in Ecuador. Analyses of 184 plant species showed that flower production declined as nighttime temperature and relative humidity increased, suggesting that warmer nights and greater atmospheric water saturation negatively impacted reproduction. Species varied in their flowering responses to climatic variables but this variation was not explained by life form or phylogeny. Our results shed light on how plant communities will respond to climatic changes in this everwet region, in which the impacts of these changes have been poorly studied compared with more seasonal Neotropical areas.

10.1111/nph.19388

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Analyzing soil charcoals to assess the naturalness of tropical forest

Julie Morin‐Rivat Anaïs Gorel Kasso Daïnou Jean‐François Gillet Nils Bourland

Tropical rain forest

Tropical forest

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The influence of soil factors and anthropogenic disturbances on tree species assemblages in central African forests

Jason Vleminckx Olivier J. Hardy Thomas Drouet

La diversite vegetale exceptionnelle des forets tropicales a toujours suscite une part d’incomprehension chez les scientifiques qui tentent de comprendre les processus a l’origine de cette diversite, ainsi que les mecanismes expliquant les changements spatiaux de composition specifique. Une des cles de ce dernier mystere residerait dans l’influence de la differentiation des niches ecologiques, mais aussi de la dispersion limitee des graines et d’evenements stochastiques (purement aleatoires et non previsibles). La niche d’une espece contraint celle-ci a s’etablir dans un habitat presentant des gammes de conditions bien delimitees en termes de proprietes du sol (disponibilite en nutriments et toxicite de certains elements) et d’intensite lumineuse. Par exemple, certaines especes sont plus tolerantes a l’ombrage (especes « sciaphiles ») que d’autres qui ne peuvent s’etablir que dans des trouees forestieres offrant suffisamment de lumiere (especes « heliophiles »). En Afrique centrale, les communautes d’arbres sont aujourd’hui en grande partie composees de ces especes dites « heliophiles », alors que les ouvertures forestieres naturelles sont rares. Il est fortement suspecte que la dominance de ces especes soient la consequence de trouees generees par l’homme qui, jusqu’au debut de la periode coloniale (vers 1900), occupait de vastes surfaces de foret ou il pratiquait l’agriculture sur brulis. Cependant, peu d’etudes ont jusqu’a present determine dans quelle mesure ces pratiques agricoles ont influence la composition specifique des forets a l’echelle regionale comme a l’echelle locale.L’objectif du present travail est de faire la lumiere sur l’impact de ces perturbations humaines mais aussi plus generalement sur l’influence relative de la niche ecologique des especes d’arbres par rapport a d’autres facteurs (dispersion limitee et facteurs stochastiques) sur leur distribution spatiale. Pour cela nous avons utilise des donnees botaniques et environnementales provenant d’inventaires realises dans une foret tropicale situee en Republique Democratique du Congo (quatre transects paralleles mesurant chacun 500 a 600 m de long), ainsi que des donnees similaires complementees d’inventaires anthracologiques (estimation de la quantite de charbons de bois dans le sol, utilisee comme indicateur de feux passes d’origine anthropique) recoltees dans trois regions du sud du Cameroun (208 parcelles de 0,2 ha chacune). Les donnees recoltees nous ont permis de mettre en evidence un impact significatif des proprietes physico-chimiques du sol sur la composition en especes d’arbres. Plus precisement, nous avons pu constater une difference floristique marquee entre deux habitats tres contrastes (sol sableux vs. sol argileux, Rep. Dem. Du Congo), et cela a une echelle spatiale locale (A une echelle spatiale beaucoup plus large cette fois (de 5 a 100 km, inventaires du Sud Cameroun), nous avons demontre que la diversite floristique etait egalement influencee de maniere significative par l’heterogeneite spatiale de proprietes abiotiques du sol, notamment par les concentrations en (i) certains nutriments essentiels pouvant presenter des valeurs potentiellement limitantes (K, Mg, Ca et P) ainsi qu’en en (ii) elements pouvant etre presents en quantites toxiques (Al et Mn). Cependant, alors que le signal environmental a ete clairement detecte a l’echelle communautaire, seule les abondances d’une minorite d’especes (Enfin, les donnees floristiques et anthracologiques du Sud Cameroun ne nous ont pas permis de demontrer statistiquement l’hypothese que les perturbations humaines passees sont en partie responsables de la dominance actuelle des especes heliophiles. L’absence de correlation significative entre l’abondance relative de ces especes et la quantite de charbons de bois dans le sol peut s’expliquer par le fait que la majorite de ces charbons (60%) etaient trop vieux (1500 a 3000 ans) pour refleter des perturbations ayant influence la diversite vegetale presente. Les conclusions generales de ma these de doctorat soutiennent que la niche ecologique des especes d’arbres des forets tropicales africaines contribue de maniere significative a determiner leur assemblage dans l’espace, mais aussi que ces effets de niche dependent fortement du contexte environnemental etudie ainsi que de l’echelle spatiale d’observation. Ce travail leve donc en partie un voile sur l’ecologie des ecosystemes forestiers d’Afrique centrale qui restent largement meconnus par rapport a ceux d’Asie du Sud-Est et des regions neotropicales.

Source

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Co-limitation towards lower latitudes shapes global forest diversity gradients

Nature Ecology & Evolution (2022)

Jingjing Liang Javier G. P. Gamarra Nicolas Picard Mo Zhou Bryan C. Pijanowski

Global Change

Temperate forest

10.1038/s41559-022-01831-x

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Citations (59)