Abstract
Tree diameter growth is sensitive to environmental fluctuations and tropical dry forests experience high seasonal and inter-annual environmental variation. Tree growth rates in a large permanent plot at Mudumalai, southern India, were examined for the influences of rainfall and three intrinsic factors (size, species and growth form) during three 4-year intervals over the period 1988–2000.
Most trees had lowest growth during the second interval when rainfall was lowest, and skewness and kurtosis of growth distributions were reduced during this interval. Tree diameter generally explained <10% of growth variation and had less influence on growth than species identity or time interval. Intraspecific variation was high, yet species identity accounted for up to 16% of growth variation in the community. There were no consistent differences between canopy and understory tree growth rates; however, a few subgroups of species may potentially represent canopy and understory growth guilds. Environmentally-induced temporal variations in growth generally did not reduce the odds of subsequent survival.
Growth rates appear to be strongly influenced by species identity and environmental variability in the Mudumalai dry forest. Understanding and predicting vegetation dynamics in the dry tropics thus also requires information on temporal variability in local climate.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Baker T R, Afflum-Baffoe K, Burslem D F R P and Swaine M D 2002 Phenological differences in tree water use and the timing of tropical forest inventories: Conclusions from patterns of dry season diameter change;For. Ecol. Manage. 171 261–274
Baker T R, Burslem D F R P and Swaine M D(2003a) Associations between tree growth, soil fertility and water availability at local and regional scales in Ghanaian tropical rain forest;J. Trop. Ecol. 19 109–125
Baker T R, Swaine M D and Burslem D F R P (2003b) Variation in tropical forest growth rates: combined effects of functional group composition and resource availability;Persp. Pl. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 6 21–36
Bradshaw A D 1972 Some of the evolutionary consequences of being a plant;Evol. Biol. 5 25–47
Breitsprecher A and Bethel J S 1990 Stem-growth periodicity of trees in a tropical wet forest of Costa Rica;Ecology 71 1156–1164
Clark D A and Clark D B 1992 Life history diversity of canopy and emergent trees in a neotropical rain forest;Ecol. Monogr. 62 315–344
Clark D A and Clark D B 1994 Climate-induced annual variation in canopy tree growth in a Costa Rican tropical rain forest;J. Ecol. 82 865–872
Clark D A and Clark D B 1999 Assessing the growth of tropical rain forest trees: issues for forest modeling and management;Ecol. Appl. 9 981–997
Condit R, Hubbell S P and Foster R B (1993a) Mortality and growth of a commercial hardwood ’el cativo’, itPrioria copaifera, in Panama;For. Ecol. Manage. 62 107–122
Condit R, Hubbell S P and Foster R B (1993b) Identifying fast-growing native trees from the Neotropics using data from a large, permanent census plot;For. Ecol. Manage. 62 123–143
Condit R, Hubbell S P and Foster R B 1996 Assessing the response of plant functional types to climatic change in tropical forests;J. Veg. Sci. 7 405–416
Condit R, Aguilar S, Hernandez A, Perez R, Lao S, Angehr G, Hubbell S P and Foster R B 2004 Tropical forest dynamics across a rainfall gradient and the impact of an El Nino dry season;J. Trop. Ecol. 20 51–72
Daubenmire R 1972 Phenology and other characteristics of tropical semi-deciduous forest in north-western Costa Rica;J. Ecol. 60 147–170
Dobbertin M 2005 Tree growth as indicator of tree vitality and of tree reaction to environmental stress: a review;Eur. J. For. Res. 124 319–333
Enquist B J and Leffler A J 2001 Long-term tree ring chronologies from sympatric tropical dry-forest trees: individualistic responses to climatic variation;J. Trop. Ecol. 17 41–60
Gamble J S 1935Flora of the Presidency of Madras (London: Adlard)
Gentry A H 1995 Diversity and floristic composition of neotropical dry forests; inSeasonally dry tropical forests (eds) S H Bullock, H A Mooney and E Medina (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) pp 146–194
Gerhardt K and Hytteborn H 1992 Natural dynamics and regeneration methods in tropical dry forests: an introduction;J. Veg. Sci. 3 361–364
Gignoux J, Clobert J and Menaut J-C 1997 Alternative fire resistance strategies in savanna trees;Oecologia 110 576–583
Harper J L 1977Population biology of plants (London: Academic Press)
Hubbell S P and Foster R B 1992 Short-term dynamics of a neotropical forest: Why ecological research matters to tropical conservation and management;Oikos 63 48–61
Huey R B, Carlson M, Crozier L, Frazier M, Hamilton H, Harley C, Hoang A and Kingsolver J G 2002 Plants Versus Animals: Do They Deal with Stress in Different Ways?;Integ. Compar. Biol. 42 415–423
King D A, Davies S J, Supardi M N N and Tan S 2005 Tree growth is related to light interception and wood density in two mixed dipterocarp forests of Malaysia;Func. Ecol. 19 445–453
King D A, Davies S J and Noor N S M 2006 Growth and mortality are related to adult tree size in a Malaysian mixed dipterocarp forest;For. Ecol. Manage. 223 152–158
Lang G E and Knight D H 1983 Tree growth, mortality, recruitment, and canopy gap formation during a 10-year period in a tropical moist forest;Ecology 64 1075–1080
Lieberman D, Lieberman M, Hartshorn G and Peralta R 1985 Growth rates and age-size relationships of tropical wet forest trees in Costa Rica;J. Trop. Ecol. 1 97–109
Lieberman D and Lieberman M 1987 Forest tree growth and dynamics at La Selva, Costa Rica (1969–1982);J. Trop. Ecol. 3 347–358
Losos E C and Leigh E G Jr 2004Tropical forest diversity and dynamism: Findings from a large-scale plot network (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)
Ludwig J A and Reynolds J F 1988Statistical ecology: A primer on methods and computing (New York: John Wiley)
Mabberley D J 2005The plant-book: A portable dictionary of the vascular plants (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Manokaran N, Quah E S, Ashton P S, Lafrankie J V, Nur Supardi M N, Wan Mohd Shukri W A and Okuda T 2004 Pasoh forest dynamics plot, peninsular malaysia; inTropical forest diversity and dynamism: Findings from a large-scale plot network (eds) E C Losos and E G Leigh Jr (Chicago: University of Chicago Press) pp 585–598
Meinzer F C, Andrade J L, Goldstein G, Holbrook N M, Cavelier J and Wright S J 1999 Partitioning of soil water among canopy trees in a seasonally dry forest;Oecologia 121 293–301
Murphy P G and Lugo A E 1986 Ecology of tropical dry forest;Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 17 67–88
Nascimento HEM, Laurance W F, Condit R, Laurance G S, D’Angelo S and Andrade A 2005 Demographic and life-history correlates for Amazonian trees;J. Veg. Sci. 16 625–634
Nicotra A B, Chazdon R L and Schlichting C D 1997 Patterns of genotypic variation and phenotypic plasticity of light response in two tropicalPiper (Piperaceae) Species;Am. J. Bot. 84 1542–1552
Pelissier R and Pascal J-P 2000 Two-year tree growth patterns investigated from monthly growth records using dendrometer bands in a wet evergreen forest in India;J. Trop. Ecol. 16 429–446
Primack R B, Ashton P S, Chai P and Lee H S 1985 Growth rates and population structure of Moraceae trees in Sarawak, East Malaysia;Ecology 66 577–588
Reich P B and Borchert R 1984 Water stress and tree phenology in a tropical dry forest in the lowlands of Costa Rica;J. Ecol. 72 61–74
Schlichting C D 1986 The evolution of phenotypic plasticity in plants;Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 17 667–693
Sheil D 1995 A critique of permanent plot methods and analysis with examples from Budongo Forest, Uganda;For. Ecol. Manage. 77 11–34
Sokal, R R and Rohlf F J 1998Biometry: The principles and practice of statistics in biological research (New York: W H Freeman)
Sukumar R, Dattaraja H S, Suresh H S, Radhakrishnan J, Vasudeva R, Nirmala S and Joshi N V 1992 Long-term monitoring of vegetation in a tropical deciduous forest in Mudumalai, southern India;Curr. Sci. 62 608–616
Sukumar R, Suresh H S, Dattaraja H S, John R and Joshi N V 2004 Mudumalai forest dynamics plot, India; inTropical forest diversity and dynamism: Findings from a large-scale plot network (eds) E C Losos and E GLeigh Jr (Chicago: University of Chicago Press) pp 551–563
Sukumar R, Suresh H S, Dattaraja H S, Srinidhi S and Nath C 2005 The dynamics of a tropical dry forest in India: Climate, fire, elephants and the evolution of life-history strategies; inBiotic interactions in the tropics: Their role in the maintenance of species diversity (eds) D Burslem, M Pinard and S Hartley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) pp 510–529
Sultan S E, Wilczek AM, Bell D L and Hand G 1998 Physiological response to complex environments in annual Polygonum species of contrasting ecological breadth;Oecologia 115 564–578
Sultan S E 2000 Phenotypic plasticity for plant development, function and life history;Trends Pl. Sci. 5 537–542
Swaine M D, Hall J B and Alexander I J 1987 Tree population dyna-mics at Kade, Ghana (1968–1982);J. Trop. Ecol. 3 331–345
Swaine M D, Lieberman D and Hall J B 1990 Structure and dynamics of a tropical dry forest in Ghana;Vegetatio 88 31–51
Turner I M 2001The ecology of trees in the tropical rain forest (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Vretare V, Weisner S E B, Strand J A and Granéli W 2001 Phenotypic plasticity in Phragmites australis as a functional response to water depth;Aq. Bot. 69 127–145
Welden C W, Hewett S W, Hubbell S P and Foster R B 1991 Sapling survival, growth, and recruitment: relationship to canopy height in a neotropical forest;Ecology 72 35–50
Wright S J, Carrasco C, Calderon O and Paton S 1999 The El Nino southern oscillation, variable fruit production, and famine in a tropical forest;Ecology 80 1632–1647
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nath, C.D., Dattaraja, H.S., Suresh, H.S. et al. Patterns of tree growth in relation to environmental variability in the tropical dry deciduous forest at Mudumalai, southern India. J. Biosci. 31, 651–669 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02708418
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02708418