Tolerant and intolerant species partition by required gap size

Evidence

Species responses to gap size form a gradient. At one extreme are tolerant species, whose life cycle usually includes a lengthy suppressed sapling stage. These species, e.g., sugar maple, yellow buckeye, beech, and hemlock, are adapted to alternating periods of growth and suppression, and therefore seem especially able to benefit from small but repeated disturbances. They can also grow well in some larger gaps. At the other extreme are intolerant species, e.g., tuliptree, which can grow very rapidly in large gaps but cannot grow in small gaps and cannot withstand suppression. These species are therefore restricted to gaps large enough to preclude closure by lateral extension growth or by previously suppressed saplings. — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 232

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lays out the tolerance-gradient concept anchoring cove-forest regeneration — essential reference vocabulary distinguishing the two adaptive strategies.
• XREF: connects to: Frequent gaps selected long-lived clonal forest herbs for gap-response ability — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1476; Mimicking natural mixed gap sizes reproduces primeval composition — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 262; Unrelated sessile communities obey the same disturbance-diversity rule — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 300 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Mimicking natural mixed gap sizes reproduces primeval composition #expands (0.80) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 262
• Frequent gaps selected long-lived clonal forest herbs for gap-response ability #expands (0.75) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1476
• Unrelated sessile communities obey the same disturbance-diversity rule #expands (0.75) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 300
• Similar species can only coexist by diverging in some essential ecological way #expands (0.70) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 362