The role of recruitment and dispersal limitation in tree community assembly in Amazonian forests

ABSTRACTBackground: Species composition of plant communities is shaped by the interplay between dispersal limitation, environmental filters and stochastic events.Aims: The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of dispersal limitation and environmental filtering on tree recruitment. To accomplish this, we employed the unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography to examine migration within the metacommunity, defined as a set of interacting local communities linked by the dispersal of multiple potentially interacting species.Methods: We sampled 12,975 individuals with dbh ≥ 1 cm in 26 1-ha permanent plots, including habitats of terra firme, transitional forests, varzea and campinarana, on the upper Madeira River, Brazilian Amazon.Results: Campinarana drew individuals from outside the metacommunity species pool at a mean probability of recruitment of 0.06, a much lower probability than terra firme (0.31), transitional (0.21) and varzea forests (0.22). Environmental variables, such as wat...