FOR201H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Musanga Cecropioides, Seed Predation, Pioneer Species
Document Summary
For210h1: lecture 5 - tree autecology and its importance to tropical conservation. Tree successional status - pioneers and late-successional trees: Autecology: is ecology dealing with individual organisms or individual species of organisms. How trees go about in different ways. Ecologically similar species occur in different regions. There has been convergent evolution of tropical pioneers. The cecropia is the archetypal pioneer tree species. Pioneer species can"t survive in the shade. 100 million hectares are designated as indigenous territory in the brazilian amazon. Pioneer species have a photosynthetic capacity 2-5x higher than late-successional trees. Negative photosynthetic rates are when co2 is being released at higher rates than oxygen is being produced. Carbon must accumulate in order to trees to grow. Melastomataceae is a troublesome tropical invasive species in the world. Brazil nuts are produced by late-successional seeds. Agouti rodents are an important seed predator of brazil nuts. Seed predators become a problem with large seeds.
