Leaf, root and wood properties of tree species in tropical montane forests are adaptations to soil fertility and determine which tree species grows where

Kerstin Pierick, Christoph Leuschner, Roman M. Link, Selene Báez, Andre Velescu, Wolfgang Wilcke, Jürgen Homeier

This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here.

Tropical montane forests in the Ecuadorian Andes are one of the regions with the most tree species per area on earth. By measuring certain properties of trees, so called functional traits, one can learn more about their strategies and adaptations to different environmental conditions. These functional traits include for example leaf size, or the tissue densities or nutrient concentrations of different plant organs. Species with large leaves, soft tissues and high nutrient concentrations are usually fast-growing but less resistant to damage, and vice versa for species with small leaves, hard tissues and low nutrient concentrations. The former is called an acquisitive strategy, and the latter a conservative strategy.

Species-rich tropical montane forest in the Podocarpus National Park, Ecuador (Credit: Kerstin Pierick)

We measured these functional traits for more than 400 trees from 52 species and found out that whether species had conservative or acquisitive strategies was consistent for their wood, leaves, and fine roots. We furthermore found that these strategies were associated with the nitrogen availability directly measured at each tree, even for trees that grew in close proximity to each other in one forest patch.