Post-drought community turnover and functional redundancy in a tropical forest understorey

Drought events are increasingly frequent, threatening the biodiversity of tropical forests. The understorey comprises a large fraction of the total plant species richness of these systems with the presence of Individual plants of some highly diverse Angiosperm families are patchily organized in the understorey of these communities. Here we quantified the effects of a drought on abundance and functional structures and on the ecosystem functioning of these patches Rubiaceae assemblages along a topographic gradient. We show that swarms of species can maintain biological diversity and stability in ecosystem functioning under drought in the understorey of a tropical forest. (Published in Journal Vegetation Science; Funded by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Espírito Santo, FAPES).

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