CREAF

Despite being instrumental in forest ecology, the definition and nature of shade tolerance are complex and not beyond controversies. Moreover, the role it can play in the trait – demography relationship remains unclear. We hypothesized that shade tolerance can be achieved by alternative combinations of traits depending on the species’ functional group (evergreen gymnosperms vs. deciduous angiosperms), and that its ability to explain the array of traits involved in demography in low light environments would also vary between these two groups.

We tested these hypotheses using 48 tree species– dispersed across 21 genera and 13 families – from temperate and boreal forests worldwide, and we assessed the relationship between functional traits, shade tolerance and demographic performance at high and low light. The results support the existence of a divergence between evergreen gymnosperms and deciduous angiosperms in the way shade tolerance relates to the demography of species along light gradients. We will discuss the implications of these findings, which affect the utilization of shade tolerance as predictor of forest dynamics and species coexistence, and the nature of shade tolerance itself.

Note: the seminar will be given in Spanish, with slides in English. Hope to see you all there!