Successional habitat filtering of rainforest trees is explained by potential growth more than by functional traits

Species along successional gradients differ in functional traits, which may function as environmental filters and also explain differences in growth rates. Alternatively, species might be filtered by growth rates and these are explained by differences in other traits. We explored the relationships between leaf and wood traits, growth and successional habitat, and asked if growth is related to habitat because both are driven by a similar set of traits or if growth is the main trait explaining habitat and relationships with other traits are indirect.
Tropical trees are often classified as second-growth (SG) or old-growth (OG) specialists, and generalists. Since succession is a continuous process and lumping species into three groups may not do justice to gradual differences, we tested if a continuous variable based on relative tree abundance in OG and SG forests might be a better predictor than classifying trees’ habitat preferences into categories.
We measured height growth of 47 ...

沿演替梯度分布的物种在功能性状上存在差异，这些性状既可作为环境过滤因素，也能解释生长速率的不同。或者，物种可能被生长速率过滤，而生长速率的差异由其他性状的不同解释。我们探究了叶性状、木材性状、生长与演替生境之间的关系，并探讨生长与生境相关是因为两者均由一组相似的性状驱动，还是生长是解释生境的主要性状且其与其他性状的关系是间接的。
热带树木常被分为次生林（SG）专性种、原始林（OG）专性种和广适种。由于演替是一个连续过程，将物种归为三类可能无法体现其渐进差异，因此我们测试了基于原始林和次生林树木相对多度的连续变量是否比将树木生境偏好分类更能有效预测。
我们测量了47种……的高度生长