Climate and competition affect growth and survival of transplanted sugar maple seedlings along a 1700-km gradient

Rachel C. Putnam, Peter B. Reich

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Plant species distributions, broadly shaped by climate, may also be constrained by other species. The degree to which biotic factors affect range limits is unclear, however, and few experimental studies have investigated both biotic and abiotic factors across and beyond a species’ range. We examined seedling survival and net growth for three years in contrasting canopy type (closed canopy vs. gap) and neighbour density (clipped versus unclipped) environments for northern, central and southern populations of sugar maple (Acer saccharum) representing a climate-of-origin gradient, experimentally planted from Arkansas, USA to Ontario, Canada at ten forested sites along a 1,700 km transect spanning beyond the species’ range. We hypothesized that each population’s highest survival and growth would occur in its region of origin, with poorer performance in areas cooler or warmer. Refuting this hypothesis, seedlings of all three populations had greater growth and survival in sites increasingly warmer than their point of origin, although they did show poorer growth and survival at increasingly colder sites. We also hypothesized that maple survival and net growth near and beyond range margins are constrained primarily by cold temperature limitation in the north, where we expected neighbors to facilitate survival, and by competition in the south, where we expected to enhance survival and growth by reducing neighbour density.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)130-157
Number of pages28
JournalEcological Monographs
Volume87
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2016 by the Ecological Society of America. This paper is made available in Western Sydney University ResearchDirect in accordance with publisher policies. [The Author may post the work in a publicly accessible form on his/her personal or home institution's webpages.]

Keywords

  • climatic changes
  • competition
  • growth (plants)
  • sugar maple

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