Aggregated adult-recruit spatial pattern of Shorea species explained by dispersal limitation process

Abstract

Aggregated spatial patterns are commonly observed in tropical rainforests and studying mechanisms related to them advances the understanding of species coexistence in plant communities. Bivariate spatial patterns of recruits relative to conspecific adults of six Shorea species, Shorea affinis, S. congestiflora, S. cordifolia, S. disticha, S. megistophylla, S. worthingtonii, which is one of the dominant genera in the lowland rainforest, Sri Lanka were studied using the data from four censuses (1996, 2001, 2006 and 2011) of a 25-ha Sinharaja Forest Dynamic Plot. Dispersal limitation, i.e., adults serve as cluster centers of recruits was assumed during the analysis. Since adults are aggregated, the univariate simple and double cluster Thomas processes were fitted to the adults’ pattern, and the most parsimonious model was selected based on the minimum AIC value.