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Modular, hollow culms of rain-forest bamboos explain their persistence across a wide range of light environments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2018

Junichi Fujinuma Open the ORCID record for Junichi Fujinuma [Opens in a new window] ,
Matthew D. Potts ,
Abd Rahman Kassim ,
Rhett D. Harrison ,
Abd Razak O.  and
Takashi S. Kohyama
Junichi Fujinuma*
Affiliation:
Tropical Biosphere Research Center, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa, Japan903-0213 Department of Forest Sciences, P.O. Box 27, FI-00014, University of Helsinki, Finland Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan060-0810
Matthew D. Potts
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Abd Rahman Kassim
Affiliation:
Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, 52109, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Rhett D. Harrison
Affiliation:
World Agroforestry Centre, East and Southern Africa Region, 13 Elm Road, Woodlands, Lusaka, Zambia
Abd Razak O.
Affiliation:
Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, 52109, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Takashi S. Kohyama
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan060-0810
*
*Corresponding author. Email: juni.fujinuma@gmail.com
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Abstract:

Tropical bamboos persist in a wide range of light conditions and quickly respond to changes in light availability. However, the mechanisms underpinning this ability remain unknown. In order to test the hypothesis that the modular and hollow culm architecture of bamboos explains their performance in a wide range of light environments, we determined the allometric relationships of two dominant bamboo species of the upper hill dipterocarp forests of Malaysia, Gigantochloa ligulata (n = 29) and Schizostachyum grande (n = 25), via destructive sampling. We also monitored biomass turnover of bamboos and woody trees in 24 permanent plots (1.92 ha in total) over a one-year period. Compared with woody trees, bamboo culms attained 1.5 times the height and their clumps supported four times as much total leaf area at the same above-ground biomass. In addition, at a given height, bamboo clumps had six times larger crown projection area than trees while having a similar amount of total leaf area per unit of crown projection area. Finally, bamboos’ biomass turnover rate was three times higher than trees, and G. ligulata increased its specific rate of biomass increase after canopy disturbance, while trees decreased. We conclude that the unique architecture of bamboos allows them to persist under closed forest canopy light conditions and to respond to gap formation via high biomass turnover rate.

Keywords

allocationallometryclonal plantclumping bamboocoexistencedemographymorphologysympodial branchingtropical forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 1 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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