Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, USA.
San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, Escondido, California, USA.
Ecology. 2023 May;104(5):e4022. doi: 10.1002/ecy.4022. Epub 2023 Mar 28.
Phenology has long been hypothesized as an avenue for niche partitioning or interspecific facilitation, both promoting species coexistence. Tropical plant communities exhibit striking diversity in reproductive phenology, but many are also noted for large synchronous reproductive events. Here we study whether the phenology of seed fall in such communities is nonrandom, the temporal scales of phenological patterns, and ecological factors that drive reproductive phenology. We applied multivariate wavelet analysis to test for phenological synchrony versus compensatory dynamics (i.e., antisynchronous patterns where one species' decline is compensated by the rise of another) among species and across temporal scales. We used data from long-term seed rain monitoring of hyperdiverse plant communities in the western Amazon. We found significant synchronous whole-community phenology at multiple timescales, consistent with shared environmental responses or positive interactions among species. We also observed both compensatory and synchronous phenology within groups of species (confamilials) likely to share traits and seed dispersal mechanisms. Wind-dispersed species exhibited significant synchrony at ~6-month scales, suggesting these species might share phenological niches to match the seasonality of wind. Our results suggest that community phenology is shaped by shared environmental responses but that the diversity of tropical plant phenology may partly result from temporal niche partitioning. The scale-specificity and time-localized nature of community phenology patterns highlights the importance of multiple and shifting drivers of phenology.
物候学长期以来一直被假设为生态位分离或种间促进的途径，这两者都有助于物种共存。热带植物群落的生殖物候表现出显著的多样性，但许多群落也以大型同步生殖事件为特征。在这里，我们研究了这些群落中的种子脱落物候是否是非随机的，物候模式的时间尺度，以及驱动生殖物候的生态因素。我们应用多元小波分析来检验物种之间以及跨时间尺度的物候同步与补偿动态（即一种物种的下降被另一种物种的上升所补偿的反同步模式）。我们使用来自亚马逊西部高度多样化植物群落的长期种子雨监测数据。我们发现，在多个时间尺度上都存在着显著的整个群落的同步物候，这与物种之间的共享环境响应或正相互作用一致。我们还观察到了在具有相似特征和种子扩散机制的物种（同科）内的补偿和同步物候。风传播的物种在~6 个月的尺度上表现出显著的同步性，这表明这些物种可能共享物候生态位，以适应风的季节性。我们的结果表明，群落物候受共享环境响应的影响，但热带植物物候的多样性可能部分源于时间生态位的分离。群落物候模式的特定于尺度和时间局部性强调了物候的多种和变化驱动因素的重要性。
