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Nature Research, Nature Communications, 1(6), 2015

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7857

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Hyperdominance in Amazonian forest carbon cycling

Journal article published in 2015 by Sophie Fauset ORCID, Michelle O. Johnson, Manuel Gloor, Emanuel Gloor, Timothy R. Baker, Abel Monteagudo M., Roel Jacobus Wilhelmus Brienen, Ted R. Feldpausch ORCID, Gabriela Lopez-Gonzalez, Yadvinder Malhi, Hans Ter Steege, Nigel C. A. Pitman, Christopher Baraloto, Julien Engel ORCID, Pascal Petronelli and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

While Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, the abundance of trees is skewed strongly towards relatively few 'hyperdominant' species. In addition to their diversity, Amazonian trees are a key component of the global carbon cycle, assimilating and storing more carbon than any other ecosystem on Earth. Here we ask, using a unique data set of 530 forest plots, if the functions of storing and producing woody carbon are concentrated in a small number of tree species, whether the most abundant species also dominate carbon cycling, and whether dominant species are characterized by specific functional traits. We find that dominance of forest function is even more concentrated in a few species than is dominance of tree abundance, with only ≈1% of Amazon tree species responsible for 50% of carbon storage and productivity. Although those species that contribute most to biomass and productivity are often abundant, species maximum size is also influential, while the identity and ranking of dominant species varies by function and by region. (Résumé d'auteur)