Published December 9, 2025
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Species functional traits affect regional and local dominance across western Amazonian forests

Creators

  • 1. Departamento de Biología, Área de Botánica Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Madrid Spain
  • 2. Autonomous University of Madrid
  • 3. Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Cambio Global (CIBC‐UAM), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Madrid Spain
  • 4. AMAP University of Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD Montpellier France
  • 5. INRAE
  • 6. University of Montpellier
  • 7. Departamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Madrid Spain
  • 8. Instituto de Investigación en Cambio Global (IICG‐URJC), Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Madrid Spain
  • 9. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of California California Los Angeles USA
  • 10. International Center for Tropical Botany at the Kampong Institute of Environment, Florida International University Miami Florida USA
  • 11. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Panama City Panama
  • 12. Université Libre de Bruxelles Brussels Belgium
  • 13. Université libre de Bruxelles
  • 14. School of Biological Sciences, Life Science II Southern Illinois University Carbondale Illinois USA
  • 15. Institute of Botany, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna Austria
  • 16. Department of Biology Lewis and Clark College Portland Oregon USA
  • 17. School of Geography and Planning University of Liverpool Liverpool UK
  • 18. University of Liverpool
  • 19. School of Geography University of Leeds Leeds UK
  • 20. University of Leeds
  • 21. School of Geography and Sustainable Development University of St Andrews St Andrews UK
  • 22. University of St Andrews
  • 23. Department of Biology Aarhus University Aarhus Denmark
  • 24. Aarhus University
  • 25. Department of Biology University of Turku Turku Finland
  • 26. Programa Restauración de Ecosistemas (PRE), Centro de Innovación Científica Amazónica (CINCIA) Madre de Dios Tambopata Peru
  • 27. Peruvian Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (PCBC) Loreto Peru
  • 28. Man and Biosphere Programme, UNESCO Paris Île‐de‐France France
  • 29. Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana Iquitos Peru
  • 30. Department of Integrative Biology University of California Berkeley Berkeley California USA
  • 31. University of California, Berkeley
  • 32. Escuela de Ingeniería Forestal, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Agrarias, Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza de Amazonas (UNTRM) Chachapoyas Peru
  • 33. Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana Iquitos Peru
  • 34. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas Universidad de los Andes Bogotá Colombia
  • 35. Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco Cusco Peru
  • 36. Estación Biológica del Jardín Botánico de Missouri Oxapampa Peru
  • 37. Department of Biology and Florida Museum of Natural History University of Florida Gainesville Florida USA
  • 38. University of Florida
  • 39. Department of Geography University College London London UK
  • 40. University College London
  • 41. Universidad Nacional de la Amazonia Peruana Iquitos Peru
  • 42. School of Geography and the Environment, Environmental Change Institute University of Oxford Oxford UK
  • 43. University of Oxford
  • 44. NCX San Francisco California USA
  • 45. Bioversity International Rome Italy
  • 46. Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina La Molina Peru
  • 47. Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Exeter Exeter UK
  • 48. University of Exeter
  • 49. San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research Escondido California USA

Description

Abstract Several studies have documented dominance by few species in Amazonian forests. Dominant species tend to be either locally abundant (local dominants) or regionally frequent (widespread dominants) but rarely both (oligarchs). Here, we explore relationships between dominance and functional traits. We ask whether: (i) dominance is associated with specific functional profiles and (ii) dominance patterns (local vs. widespread dominants) are associated with different functional traits. We combined census data from 503 forest inventory plots across four lowland forest habitats in western Amazonia with trait information for ~2600 tree species, encompassing data collected in the focal plots and data from published sources. We considered traits that relate to leaf, wood, seed and whole‐plant strategies: specific leaf area (SLA), leaf area (LA), N content per unit leaf mass (LN), wood density (WD), seed mass (SM) and maximum diameter at breast height (DBH max ). Our results reveal that dominant species display different trait combinations depending on the habitat type. Taller dominant species exhibit higher regional frequency, associated with higher dispersal ability and lower local abundance, likely due to negative density dependence. Greater SM contributes to higher regional frequency of dominant species via greater dispersal by birds and mammals and seedling survival. Finally, traits related to resource conservation strategies, such as lower SLA, LA, LN and greater WD, favour higher local densities across most habitats, while the opposite pattern was linked to higher regional frequency. Synthesis . Our findings reveal that (i) dominance is associated with different functional traits depending on the habitat type, and (ii) different functional trait values define distinct dominance patterns. Our study exemplifies the potential of trait‐based approaches to illuminate the ecological mechanisms that may underlie dominance in tropical forests. Finally, accounting for both local abundance and regional frequency when studying dominance is likely to improve our understanding and forecasting of how different species will respond to global change drivers in western Amazonia.
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