Functional composition of the Amazonian tree flora and forests

ter Steege, Hans and Poorter, Lourens and Aguirre-Gutiérrez, Jesús and Fortunel, Claire and Magnusson, William E. and Phillips, Oliver L. and Pos, Edwin and Luize, Bruno Garcia and Baraloto, Chris and Guevara, Juan Ernesto and Endara, María-José and Baker, Tim R. and Umaña, Maria Natalia and van der Sande, Masha and Pombo, Maihyra Marina and McGlone, Matt and Draper, Freddie C. and do Amaral, Iêda Leão and Coelho, Luiz de Souza and Wittmann, Florian and Almeida Matos, Francisca Dionízia de and Lima Filho, Diógenes de Andrade and Salomão, Rafael P. and Castilho, Carolina V. and Carim, Marcelo de Jesus Veiga and Piedade, Maria Teresa Fernandez and Sabatier, Daniel and Molino, Jean-François and Demarchi, Layon O. and Cardenas Revilla, Juan David and Schöngart, Jochen and Irume, Mariana Victória and Martins, Maria Pires and da Silva Guimarães, José Renan and Ramos, José Ferreira and Bánki, Olaf S. and Quaresma, Adriano Costa and Pitman, Nigel C. A. and Peres, Carlos A. and de Jesus Rodrigues, Domingos and Hawes, Joseph E. and Almeida, Everton José and Barbosa, Luciane Ferreira and Cavalheiro, Larissa and Santos, Márcia Cléia Vilela dos and Leão Novo, Evlyn Márcia Moraes de and Vargas, Percy Núñez and Silva, Thiago Sanna Freire and Venticinque, Eduardo Martins and Manzatto, Angelo Gilberto and Reis, Neidiane Farias Costa and Terborgh, John and Casula, Katia Regina and Honorio Coronado, Euridice N. and Monteagudo Mendoza, Abel and Carlos Montero, Juan and De Souza, Cintia Rodrigues and Oliveira, Marcus Vinicio Neves de and Costa, Flávia R. C. and Engel, Julien and Feldpausch, Ted R. and Castaño Arboleda, Nicolás and Durgante, Flávia Machado and Zartman, Charles Eugene and Killeen, Timothy J. and Marimon, Beatriz S. and Marimon-Junior, Ben Hur and Vasquez, Rodolfo and Mostacedo, Bonifacio and Assis, Rafael L. and Amaral, Dário Dantas do and Castellanos, Hernán and Householder, John Ethan and de Medeiros, Marcelo Brilhante and Simon, Marcelo Fragomeni and Andrade, Ana and Camargo, José Luís and Laurance, Susan G. W. and Laurance, William F. and Rincón, Lorena Maniguaje and Mori, Gisele Biem and Schietti, Juliana and Sousa, Thaiane R. and de Sousa Farias, Emanuelle and Lopes, Maria Aparecida and Magalhães, José Leonardo Lima and Nascimento, Henrique Eduardo Mendonça and de Queiroz, Helder Lima and Vasconcelos, Caroline C. and Aymard C, Gerardo A. and Brienen, Roel and Sousa Assis, Pâmella Leite de and Gris, Darlene and Ribeiro, Karoline Aparecida Felix and Stevenson, Pablo R. and Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro and Cintra, Bruno Barçante Ladvocat and Feitosa, Yuri Oliveira and Mogollón, Hugo F. and Silman, Miles R. and Ferreira, Leandro Valle and Lozada, José Rafael and Comiskey, James A. and de Toledo, José Julio and Damasco, Gabriel and García-Villacorta, Roosevelt and Lopes, Aline and Rios Paredes, Marcos and Vicentini, Alberto and Vieira, Ima Célia Guimarães and Cornejo Valverde, Fernando and Alonso, Alfonso and Arroyo, Luzmila and Dallmeier, Francisco and Gomes, Vitor H. F. and Huari, William Nauray and Neill, David and Peñuela Mora, Maria Cristina and de Aguiar, Daniel P. P. and Barbosa, Flávia Rodrigues and Bredin, Yennie K. and de Sá Carpanedo, Rainiellen and Carvalho, Fernanda Antunes and de Souza, Fernanda Coelho and Feeley, Kenneth J. and Gribel, Rogerio and Haugaasen, Torbjørn and Noronha, Janaína Costa and Pansonato, Marcelo Petratti and Pipoly, John J. and Barlow, Jos and Berenguer, Erika and Silva, Izaias Brasil da and Ferreira, Joice and Ferreira, Maria Julia and Fine, Paul V. A. and Guedes, Marcelino Carneiro and Levis, Carolina and Carlos Licona, Juan and Zegarra, Boris Eduardo Villa and Vos, Vincent Antoine and Cerón, Carlos and Fonty, Émile and Henkel, Terry W. and Huamantupa-Chuquimaco, Isau and Silveira, Marcos and Stropp, Juliana and Thomas, Raquel and Daly, Doug and Dexter, Kyle G. and Milliken, William and Molina, Guido Pardo and Pennington, Toby and Albuquerque, Bianca Weiss and Campelo, Wegliane and Claros, Alfredo Fuentes and Klitgaard, Bente and Pena, José Luis Marcelo and Montenegro, Luis Torres and Tello, J. Sebastián and Vriesendorp, Corine and Chave, Jerome and Di Fiore, Anthony and Hilário, Renato Richard and de Oliveira Pereira, Luciana and Phillips, Juan Fernando and Rivas-Torres, Gonzalo and van Andel, Tinde R. and Hildebrand, Patricio von and Balee, William and Barbosa, Edelcilio Marques and Bonates, Luiz Carlos de Matos and Dávila Doza, Hilda Paulette and Zárate Gómez, Ricardo and Gonzales, George Pepe Gallardo and Gonzales, Therany and Hoffman, Bruce and Junqueira, André Braga and Malhi, Yadvinder and Miranda, Ires Paula de Andrade and Pinto, Linder Felipe Mozombite and Prieto, Adriana and Rudas, Agustín and Ruschel, Ademir R. and Silva, Natalino and Vela, César I. A. and Zent, Egleé L. and Zent, Stanford and Cano, Angela and Carrero Márquez, Yrma Andreina and Correa, Diego F. and Costa, Janaina Barbosa Pedrosa and Flores, Bernardo Monteiro and Galbraith, David and Holmgren, Milena and Kalamandeen, Michelle and Lobo, Guilherme and Mori Vargas, Tony and Nascimento, Marcelo Trindade and Oliveira, Alexandre A. and Ramirez-Angulo, Hirma and Rocha, Maira and Scudeller, Veridiana Vizoni and Heijden, Geertje van der and Torre, Emilio Vilanova and Baider, Cláudia and Balslev, Henrik and Cárdenas, Sasha and Casas, Luisa Fernanda and Farfan-Rios, William and Linares-Palomino, Reynaldo and Mendoza, Casimiro and Mesones, Italo and Parada, Germaine Alexander and Torres-Lezama, Armando and Villarroel, Daniel and Zagt, Roderick and Alexiades, Miguel N. and de Oliveira, Edmar Almeida and Fortier, Riley P. and Garcia-Cabrera, Karina and Hernandez, Lionel and Cuenca, Walter Palacios and Pansini, Susamar and Pauletto, Daniela and Arevalo, Freddy Ramirez and Sampaio, Adeilza Felipe and Valderrama Sandoval, Elvis H. and Gamarra, Luis Valenzuela and Levesley, Aurora and Pickavance, Georgia (2025) Functional composition of the Amazonian tree flora and forests. Communications Biology, 8 (1): 355. ISSN 2399-3642

Abstract

Plants cope with the environment by displaying large phenotypic variation. Two spectra of global plant form and function have been identified: a size spectrum from small to tall species with increasing stem tissue density, leaf size, and seed mass; a leaf economics spectrum reflecting slow to fast returns on investments in leaf nutrients and carbon. When species assemble to communities it is assumed that these spectra are filtered by the environment to produce community level functional composition. It is unknown what are the main drivers for community functional composition in a large area such as Amazonia. We use 13 functional traits, including wood density, seed mass, leaf characteristics, breeding system, nectar production, fruit type, and root characteristics of 812 tree genera (5211 species), and find that they describe two main axes found at the global scale. At community level, the first axis captures not only the ‘fast-slow spectrum’, but also most size-related traits. Climate and disturbance explain a minor part of this variance compared to soil fertility. Forests on poor soils differ largely in terms of trait values from those on rich soils. Trait composition and soil fertility exert a strong influence on forest functioning: biomass and relative biomass production.