Palm functional trait responses to local environmental factors in the Colombian Amazon

Abstract Functional traits play a key role in driving plant community effects on ecosystem function. We examined nine functional various palm (Arecaceae) species and their relationships with moisture, tree-fall gaps, slope, forest type at 29 transects (500×5 m) the northeastern region of Colombian Amazon. Redundancy analysis mean trait values within plot weighted by abundance Pearson correlations were used to evaluate between environmental factors. The composition was correlated local factors, which explained 23% variance. detected dominance tallest palms soils high moisture floodplain forests (p ?0.05). Palms relatively long leaves dominant flooded forests. Acaulescent small slopes, terra firme forests, long-petioled gaps. number seeds per fruit not any variable. Thus, hydrology is one main drivers neotropical communities scale, segregating tall competitive evasive strategies from understory palms, are mainly stress tolerant.