Articles | Volume 18, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-1525-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-1525-2021
Research article
 | 
03 Mar 2021
Research article |  | 03 Mar 2021

Factors controlling the productivity of tropical Andean forests: climate and soil are more important than tree diversity

Jürgen Homeier and Christoph Leuschner

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Cited articles

Arbuckle, J. S.: IBM SPSS Amos 24 User's Guide, IBM, Chicago, USA, 2016. 
Aiba, S., Takyu, M., and Kitayama, K.: Dynamics, productivity and species richness of tropical rainforests along elevational and edaphic gradients on Mount Kinabalu, Borneo, Ecol. Res., 20, 279–286, 2005. 
Ashton, P. S.: Floristic zonation of tree communities on wet tropical mountains revisited, Perspect. Plant Ecol., 6, 87–104, https://doi.org/10.1078/1433-8319-00044, 2003. 
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Short summary
We studied aboveground productivity in humid tropical montane old-growth forests in two highly diverse Andean regions with large geological and topographic heterogeneity and related productivity to tree diversity and climatic, edaphic and stand structural factors. From our results we conclude that the productivity of highly diverse Neotropical montane forests is primarily controlled by thermal and edaphic factors and stand structural properties, while tree diversity is of minor importance.
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