Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Biopress Limited
Résumé : International audience
Obligately epizoic diatoms (Bacillariophyta) on vertebrates were first described from cetaceans, but turtles, both freshwater and marine, also host very specific floras. Several scrapings of juvenile Chelonia mydas have allowed the description of two new diatom taxa whose valves are asymmetrical about the transapical axis, Tripterion societatis sp. nov. and Chelonicola caribeana sp. nov. These taxa are very small and show some morphological plasticity. Such plasticity might suggest their inclusion in genera with slightly different characteristics from Tripterion and Chelonicola as originally delimited. Based on our observations, an emended diagnosis is proposed for Chelonicola.
ISSN: 2159-8347

hal-01500418
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01500418
DOI : 10.1080/0269249X.2017.1299042

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag
Résumé : Growth defense tradeoff theory predicts that plants in low-resource habitats invest more energy in defense mechanisms against natural enemies than growth, whereas plants in high-resource habitats can afford higher leaf loss rates. A less-studied defense against herbivores involves the synchrony of leaf production, which can be an effective defense strategy if leaf biomass production exceeds the capacity of consumption by insects. The aim of this study was to determine whether leaf synchrony varied across habitats with different available resources and whether insects were able to track young leaf production among tree habitat specialists in a tropical forest of French Guiana. We predicted that high-resource habitats would exhibit more synchrony in leaf production due to the low cost and investment to replace leaf tissue. We also expected closer patterns of leaf synchrony and herbivory within related species, assuming that they shared herbivores. We simultaneously monitored leaf production and herbivory rates of five pairs of tree species, each composed of a specialist of terra firme or white-sand forests within the same lineage. Our prediction was not supported by the strong interaction of habitat and lineage for leaf synchrony within individuals of the same species; although habitat specialists differed in leaf synchrony within four of five lineages, the direction of the effect was variable. All species showed short time lags for the correlation between leaf production and herbivory, suggesting that insects are tightly tracking leaf production, especially for the most synchronous species. Leaf synchrony may provide an important escape defense against herbivores, and its expression appears to be constrained by both evolutionary history and environmental factors.
ISSN: 1385-0237

hal-01204221
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01204221
DOI : 10.1007/s11258-013-0290-y
PRODINRA : 288500

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Evoluzione 2013. 5th congress of the Italian Society for Evolutionary Biology, Italie, 28-30 août
Trento, Italy

hal-01627541
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01627541

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley/Blackwell
Résumé : 4 pages
International audience
This article documents the addition of 268 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Alburnoides bipunctatus, Chamaerops humilis, Chlidonias hybrida, Cyperus papyrus, Fusarium graminearum, Loxigilla barbadensis, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, Odontesthes bonariensis, Pelteobagrus vachelli, Posidonia oceanica, Potamotrygon motoro, Rhamdia quelen, Sarotherodon melanotheron heudelotii, Sibiraea angustata, Takifugu rubripes, Tarentola mauritanica, Trimmatostroma sp. and Wallago attu. These loci were cross-tested on the following species: Alburnoides fasciatus, Alburnoides kubanicus, Alburnoides maculatus, Alburnoides ohridanus, Alburnoides prespensis, Alburnoides rossicus, Alburnoides strymonicus, Alburnoides thessalicus, Alburnoides tzanevi, Carassius carassius, Fusarium asiaticum, Leucaspius delineatus, Loxigilla noctis dominica, Pelecus cultratus, Phoenix canariensis, Potamotrygon falkneri, Trachycarpus fortune and Vimba vimba.
ISSN: 1755-098X

hal-00823716
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00823716
DOI : 10.1111/1755-0998.12095
PUBMED : 23521844

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Nature Publishing Group
Résumé : International audience
Although coral reefs support the largest concentrations of marine biodiversity worldwide, the extent to which the global system of marine-protected areas (MPAs) represents individual species and the breadth of evolutionary history across the Tree of Life has never been quantified. Here we show that only 5.7% of scleractinian coral species and 21.7% of labrid fish species reach the minimum protection target of 10% of their geographic ranges within MPAs. We also estimate that the current global MPA system secures only 1.7% of the Tree of Life for corals, and 17.6% for fishes. Regionally, the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific show the greatest deficit of protection for corals while for fishes this deficit is located primarily in the Western Indian Ocean and in the Central Pacific. Our results call for a global coordinated expansion of current conservation efforts to fully secure the Tree of Life on coral reefs.
ISSN: 2041-1723

hal-01282920
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01282920
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01282920/document
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01282920/file/ncomms10359.pdf
DOI : 10.1038/ncomms10359

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé :  
Aims: Astrocaryum sciophilum (Miq.) Pulle (Arecaceae) is an understorey palm, endemic to north-eastern South America with a patchy distribution. We tested the hypothesis that the spatial distribution of this palm species is not in equilibrium but is slowly colonizing the forest understorey. Location: Inventories and seed dispersal studies were conducted in the undisturbed tropical forest close to the Nouragues research station, French Guiana. Additional data were collected in the entire territory of French Guiana. Methods: We studied the demography of A. sciophilum on a 20-ha plot located at the edge of its distribution. The age of the palms was estimated by postulating an exponentially decreasing abundance by age class. Direct seed dispersal experiments were also conducted, to estimate dispersal parameters. The seeds of A. sciophilum were dispersed only by rodents. This information was used to parameterize a forest growth simulator, to study the spatial spread of this species. Results: Within the sampling plot, the density of A. sciophilum dropped sharply from about 500 individuals per hectare to zero. The maturation age was estimated to be 170 ± 70 years, and over 55 years with 95% confidence. Seed-dispersal experiments yielded an average seed dispersal distance of 11 m and a maximum estimated dispersal distance of 125 m across a generational span of 55 years to maturity. Therefore, the maximal estimated colonization speed is 2.3 m/y. Conclusions: Empirical results and numerical simulations suggest that the boundary of the A. sciophilum population is a colonization front, and that the range of this species is slowly expanding. The implications of this result in respect of palaeoenvironmental changes in this region are discussed.
ISSN: 1466-822X

hal-01032154
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032154
DOI : 10.1046/j.1466-822X.2003.00020.x

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : Recent evolutionary studies clearly indicate that evolution is mainly driven by changes in the complex mechanisms of gene regulation and not solely by polymorphism in protein-encoding genes themselves. After a short description of the cis-regulatory mechanism, we intend in this review to argue that by applying newly available technologies and by merging research areas such as evolutionary and developmental biology, population genetics, ecology and molecular cell biology it is now possible to study evolution in an integrative way. We contend that, by analysing the effects of promoter sequence variation on phenotypic diversity in natural populations, we will soon be able to break the barrier between the study of extant genetic variability and the study of major developmental changes. This will lead to an integrative view of evolution at different scales. Because of their sessile nature and their continuous development, plants must permanently regulate their gene expression to react to their environment, and can, therefore, be considered as a remarkable model for these types of studies. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
ISSN: 0168-9452

hal-01032399
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032399
DOI : 10.1016/j.plantsci.2010.09.009

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé : [b]Aim[/b][br/] Many tropical tree species have poorly delimited taxonomic boundaries and contain undescribed or cryptic species. We examined the genetic structure of a species complex in the tree genus Carapa in the Neotropics in order to evaluate age, geographic patterns of diversity and evolutionary relationships, and to quantify levels of introgression among currently recognized species.[br/] [br/] [b]Location[/b][br/] Lowland moist forests in the Guiana Shield, the Central and Western Amazon Basin, Chocó and Central America.[br/] [br/] [b]Methods[/b][br/] Genetic structure was analysed using seven nuclear simple sequence repeats (nuSSR), five chloroplast SSRs (cpSSR), and two chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) intergenic sequences (trnH-psbA and trnC-ycf6). Bayesian clustering analysis of the SSR data was used to infer population genetic structure and to assign 324 samples to their most likely genetic cluster. Bayesian coalescence analyses were performed on the two cpDNA markers to estimate evolutionary relationships and divergence times.[br/] [br/] [b]Results[/b][br/] Two genetic clusters (nu_guianensis and nu_surinamensis) were detected, which correspond to the Neotropical species C. guianensis (sensu latu) and C. surinamensis. Fourteen cpDNA haplotypes clustered into six haplogroups distributed between the two nuclear genetic clusters. Divergence between the haplogroups was initiated in the Miocene, with some haplotype structure evolving as recently as the Pleistocene. The absence of complete lineage sorting between the nuclear and chloroplast genomes and the presence of hybrid individuals suggest that interspecific reproductive barriers are incomplete. NuSSR diversity was highest in C. guianensis and, within C. guianensis, cpDNA diversity was highest in the Central and Western Amazon Basin. Regional genetic differentiation was strong but did not conform to an isolation-by-distance process or exhibit a phylogeographical signal.[br/] [br/] [b]Main conclusions[/b][br/] The biogeographical history of Neotropical Carapa appears to have been influenced by events that took place during the Neogene. Our results point to an Amazonian centre of origin and diversification of Neotropical Carapa, with subsequent migration to the Pacific coast of South America and Central America. Gene flow apparently occurs among species, and introgression events are supported by inconsistencies between chloroplast and nuclear lineage sorting. The absence of phylogeographical structure may be a result of the ineffectiveness of geographical barriers among populations and of reproductive isolation mechanisms among incipient and cryptic species in this species complex.
ISSN: 0305-0270

hal-01032395
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032395
DOI : 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02678.x

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley Open Access
Résumé : International audience
Plant responses to natural enemies include formation of secondary metabolites acting as direct or indirect defenses. Volatile terpenes represent one of the most diverse groups of secondary metabolites. We aimed to explore evolutionary patterns of volatile terpene emission. We measured the composition of damage-induced volatile terpenes from 202 Amazonian tree species, spanning the angiosperm phylogeny. Volatile terpenes were extracted with solid-phase micro extraction and desorbed in a gas chromatography–mass spectrometry for compound identification. The chemical diversity of the terpene blend showed a strong phylogenetic signal as closely related species emitted a similar number of compounds. Closely related species also tended to have compositionally similar blends, although this relationship was weak. Meanwhile, the ability to emit a given compound showed no significant phylogenetic signal for 200 of 286 compounds, indicating a high rate of diversification in terpene synthesis and/or great variability in their expression. Three lineages (Magnoliales, Laurales, and Sapindales) showed exceptionally high rates of terpene diversification. Of the 70 compounds found in >10% of their species, 69 displayed significant correlated evolution with at least one other compound. These results provide insights into the complex evolutionary history of volatile terpenes in angiosperms, while highlighting the need for further research into this important class of compounds.
ISSN: 2045-7758

Droits : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
hal-01296640
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01296640
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01296640/document
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01296640/file/ece31810.pdf
DOI : 10.1002/ece3.1810

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Frontiers Media
Résumé : International audience
To date 142 species have been described in the Vibrionaceae family of bacteria, classified into seven genera; Aliivibrio, Echinimonas, Enterovibrio, Grimontia, Photobacterium, Salinivibrio and Vibrio. As vibrios are widespread in marine environments and show versatile metabolisms and ecologies, these bacteria are recognized as one of the most diverse and important marine heterotrophic bacterial groups for elucidating the correlation between genome evolution and ecological adaptation. However, on the basis of 16S rRNA gene phylogeny, we could not find any robust monophyletic lineages in any of the known genera. We needed further attempts to reconstruct their evolutionary history based on multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) and/or genome wide taxonomy of all the recognized species groups. In our previous report in 2007, we conducted the first broad multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) to infer the evolutionary history of vibrios using nine housekeeping genes (the 16S rRNA gene, gapA, gyrB, ftsZ, mreB, pyrH, recA, rpoA, and topA), and we proposed 14 distinct clades in 58 species of Vibrionaceae. Due to the difficulty of designing universal primers that can amplify the genes for MLSA in every Vibrionaceae species, some clades had yet to be defined. In this study, we present a better picture of an updated molecular phylogeny for 86 described vibrio species and 10 genome sequenced Vibrionaceae strains, using 8 housekeeping gene sequences. This new study places special emphasis on (1) eight newly identified clades (Damselae, Mediterranei, Pectenicida, Phosphoreum, Profundum, Porteresiae, Rosenbergii, and Rumoiensis); (2) clades amended since the 2007 proposal with recently described new species; (3) orphan clades of genomospecies F6 and F10; (4) phylogenetic positions defined in 3 genome-sequenced strains (N418, EX25, and EJY3); and (5) description of V. tritonius sp. nov., which is a member of the “Porteresiae” clade.
ISSN: 1664-302X

hal-01546980
http://hal.upmc.fr/hal-01546980
DOI : 10.3389/fmicb.2013.00414

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Public Library of Science
Résumé : The analysis of fine-scale spatial genetic structure (FSGS) within populations can provide insights into eco-evolutionary processes. Restricted dispersal and locally occurring genetic drift are the primary causes for FSGS at equilibrium, as described in the isolation by distance (IBD) model. Beyond IBD expectations, spatial, environmental or historical factors can affect FSGS. We examined FSGS in seven African and Neotropical populations of the late-successional rain forest tree Symphonia globulifera L. f. (Clusiaceae) to discriminate the influence of drift-dispersal vs. landscape/ecological features and historical processes on FSGS. We used spatial principal component analysis and Bayesian clustering to assess spatial genetic heterogeneity at SSRs and examined its association with plastid DNA and habitat features. African populations (from Cameroon and São Tomé) displayed a stronger FSGS than Neotropical populations at both marker types (mean Sp = 0.025 vs. Sp = 0.008 at SSRs) and had a stronger spatial genetic heterogeneity. All three African populations occurred in pronounced altitudinal gradients, possibly restricting animal-mediated seed dispersal. Cyto-nuclear disequilibria in Cameroonian populations also suggested a legacy of biogeographic history to explain these genetic patterns. Conversely, Neotropical populations exhibited a weaker FSGS, which may reflect more efficient wide-ranging seed dispersal by Neotropical bats and other dispersers. The population from French Guiana displayed an association of plastid haplotypes with two morphotypes characterized by differential habitat preferences. Our results highlight the importance of the microenvironment for eco-evolutionary processes within persistent tropical tree populations.
ISSN: 1932-6203

hal-01608324
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01608324
DOI : 10.1371/journal.pone.0182515
PRODINRA : 403154
PUBMED : 28771629

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Royal Society, The
Résumé : International audience
To forecast marine disease outbreaks as oceans warm requires new environmental surveillance tools. We describe an iterative process for developing these tools that combines research, development and deployment for suitable systems. The first step is to identify candidate host–pathogen systems. The 24 candidate systems we identified include sponges, corals, oysters, crustaceans, sea stars, fishes and sea grasses (among others). To illustrate the other steps, we present a case study of epizootic shell disease (ESD) in the American lobster. Increasing prevalence of ESD is a contributing factor to lobster fishery collapse in southern New England (SNE), raising concerns that disease prevalence will increase in the northern Gulf of Maine under climate change. The lowest maximum bottom temperature associated with ESD prevalence in SNE is 128C. Our seasonal outlook for 2015 and long-term projections show bottom temperatures greater than or equal to 128C may occur in this and coming years in the coastal bays of Maine. The tools presented will allow managers to target efforts to monitor the effects of ESD on fishery sustainability and will be iteratively refined. The approach and case example highlight that temperature-based surveillance tools can inform research, monitoring and management of emerging and continuing marine disease threats.
ISSN: 0080-4622

Droits : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
hal-01282834
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01282834
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01282834/document
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01282834/file/20150208.full.pdf
DOI : 10.1098/rstb.2015.0208

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD BioMed Central
Résumé :  
absent
ISSN: 1471-2148

hal-01032078
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032078
DOI : 10.1186/1471-2148-10-202

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Recent studies have shown that accounting for intraspecific trait variation (ITV) may better address major questions in community ecology. However, a general picture of the relative extent of ITV compared to interspecific trait variation in plant communities is still missing. Here, weconducted a meta-analysis of the relative extent of ITV within and among plant communities worldwide, using a data set encompassing 629 communities (plots) and 36 functional traits. Overall, ITV accounted for 25% of the total trait variation within communities and 32% of the totaltrait variation among communities on average. The relative extent of ITV tended to be greater for whole-plant (e.g. plant height) vs. organ-level traits and for leaf chemical (e.g. leaf N and P concentration) vs. leaf morphological (e.g. leaf area and thickness) traits. The relative amount of ITV decreased with increasing species richness and spatial extent, but did not vary with plant growth form or climate. These results highlight global patterns in the relative importance of ITV in plant communities, providing practical guidelines for when researchers should include ITV in trait-based community and ecosystem studies.
Ecology Letters

hal-01237101
https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01237101
DOI : 10.1111/ele.12508
PUBMED : 26415616

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley-Blackwell
Résumé : International audience
Understanding the distribution of genetic diversity in the light of past demographic events linked with climatic shifts will help to forecast evolutionary trajectories of ecosystems within the current context of climate change. In this study, mitochondrial sequences and microsatellite loci were analysed using traditional population genetic approaches together with Bayesian dating and the more recent approximate Bayesian computation scenario testing. The genetic structure and demographic history of a commercial fish, the black scorpionfish, Scorpaena porcus, was investigated throughout the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The results suggest that the species recently underwent population expansions, in both seas, likely concomitant with the warming period following the Last Glacial Maximum, 20 000 years ago. A weak contemporaneous genetic differentiation was identified between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. However, the genetic diversity was similar for populations of the two seas, suggesting a high number of colonizers entered the Black Sea during the interglacial period and/or the presence of a refugial population in the Black Sea during the glacial period. Finally, within seas, an east/west genetic differentiation in the Adriatic seems to prevail, whereas the Black Sea does not show any structured spatial genetic pattern of its population. Overall, these results suggest that the Black Sea is not that isolated from the Mediterranean, and both seas revealed similar evolutionary patterns related to climate change and changes in sea level.
ISSN: 1471-8278

hal-01330323
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01330323
DOI : 10.1111/mec.13616

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : In the tropical rainforest of Amazonia, the factors driving the evolution of tree species remain poorly understood, and the relative influence of neutral and adaptive processes is continuously debated. In particular, local habitat patchiness draws much attention, as profound changes in the structure and composition of forest communities occur among micro-habitats. Thus, micro-environmental variations related to topography have frequently been invoked as drivers of adaptive radiation leading to sympatric speciation in Neotropical trees. On one hand, the hypothesis of local adaptation has never been investigated at the intra-specific level, i.e. within species currently undergoing population differentiation; on the other hand, many tree species are genetically structured over local scales due to neutral processes, mainly limited gene flow (caused by restricted pollen and seed dispersal). In this study, I used populations of a common tree species of the Guiana Shield - Eperua falcata (Fabaceae) - to study how neutral and adaptive processes shape the distribution of genetic diversity across forest landscapes characterized by local micro-habitat patchiness. I asked three main questions by combining both phenotypic (quantitative genetics) and molecular (population genetics) approaches: 1) How is the genetic diversity structured in forest landscapes of French Guiana? 2) Which evolutionary drivers are relevant to explain the structure of genetic diversity at local scale? 3) Does local adaptation contribute to structure genetic diversity within continuous populations?
En forêt tropicale humide Amazonienne, les facteurs gouvernant l'évolution des espèces d'arbres restent peu connus et continuellement débattus. En particulier, les micro-variations environnementales attirent beaucoup d'attention car elles induisent de profondes modifications de structure et composition des communautés. Les variations micro-environnementales associées à la topographie ont couramment été évoquées comme facteur de radiations adaptatives chez les espèces d'arbres. Cependant, l'hypothèse de l'adaptation locale n'a jamais été testée au niveau intra-spécifique chez les arbres de forêt amazonienne alors que l'on sait que la diversité génétique des arbres tropicaux est couramment structurée à faibles échelles spatiales par des processus neutres (en particulier du fait de restrictions de flux de gènes). Dans cette étude, j'ai étudié le processus de différentiation génétique d'une espèce d'arbre (Eperua falcata, Fabaceae) dans les paysages forestiers de Guyane française grâce à la combinaison d'une approche phénotypique (génétique quantitative) et d'une approche moléculaire (génétique des populations). Je me suis attachée à répondre à trois questions principales : 1) Comment se distribue la diversité génétique dans les paysages forestiers de Guyane française ? 2) Quelles forces évolutives sont impliquées dans le processus de différentiation génétique à faible échelle spatiale ? 3) Est-ce que le processus d'adaptation locale contribue à structurer la diversité génétique à faible échelle spatiale ?
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00967318

NNT : 2013LORR0188
tel-00967318
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00967318
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00967318/document
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00967318/file/THESE_Louise_Brousseau.pdf

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag
Résumé : The area of forest plantations is increasing worldwide helping to meet timber demand and protect natural forests. However, with global change, monospecific plantations are increasingly vulnerable to abiotic and biotic disturbances. As an adaption measure we need to move to plantations that are more diverse in genotypes, species, and structure, with a design underpinned by science. TreeDivNet, a global network of tree diversity experiments, responds to this need by assessing the advantages and disadvantages of mixed species plantations. The network currently consists of 18 experiments, distributed over 36 sites and five ecoregions. With plantations 1-15 years old, TreeDivNet can already provide relevant data for forest policy and management. In this paper, we highlight some early results on the carbon sequestration and pest resistance potential of more diverse plantations. Finally, suggestions are made for new, innovative experiments in understudied regions to complement the existing network.
ISSN: 0044-7447

hal-01204232
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01204232
DOI : 10.1007/s13280-015-0685-1
PRODINRA : 324368
PUBMED : 26264716

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD MDPI
Résumé : International audience
ISSN: 2072-4292

hal-01429052
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01429052
DOI : 10.3390/rs4103244

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer International Publishing AG.
Résumé : International audience
Underwater Seascapes. From geographical to ecological perspectives

hal-01429034
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01429034
DOI : 10.1007/978-3-319-03440-9_16

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé : 1. Niche theory proposes that species differences underlie both coexistence within communities and the differentiation in species composition among communities via limiting similarity and environmental filtering. However, it has been difficult to extend niche theory to species-rich communities because of the empirical challenge of quantifying niches for many species. This has motivated the development of functional and phylogeny-based approaches in community ecology, which represent two different means of approximating niche attributes. 2. Here, we assess the utility of plant functional traits and phylogenetic relationships in predicting community assembly processes using the largest trait and phylogenetic data base to date for any set of species-rich communities. 3. We measured 17 functional traits for all 4672 individuals of 668 tree species co-occurring in nine tropical rain forest plots in French Guiana. Trait variation was summarized into two ordination axes that reflect species niche overlap. 4. We also generated a dated molecular phylogenetic tree based on DNA sequencing of two plastid loci (rbcL and matK) comprising 97% of the individuals and 91% of the species in the plots. 5. We found that, on average, co-occurring species had greater functional and, to a lesser extent, phylogenetic similarity than expected by chance. 6. We also found that functional traits and their ordination loadings showed significant, albeit weak, phylogenetic signal, suggesting that phylogenetic distance provides pertinent information on niche overlap in tropical tree communities. 7. Synthesis. We provide the most comprehensive examination to date of the relative importance of environmental filtering and limiting similarity in structuring tropical tree communities. Our results confirm that environmental filtering is the overriding influence on community assembly in these species-rich systems.
ISSN: 0141-6707

hal-01032423
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032423
DOI : 10.1111/j.1365-2745.2012.01966.x