Flooding affects plant-plant interactions in tree seedlings from fertile Amazonian floodplains, Brazil

Several hypotheses try to explain the factors that limit the distribution of tree species in wetlands. Among them, the stress-gradient hypothesis states that interspecific ecological interactions (facilitation and competition) vary inversely across abiotic stress gradients, with facilitation being more common under conditions of high abiotic stress than under more benign conditions. We investigated the effects of ecological interactions on the biomass of two native tree species, Crateva tapia (highly flood-tolerant) and Hura crepitans (low flood tolerant) exposed to different experimental flooding conditions in a greenhouse. Individual and paired plants were submitted for 120 days to four treatments: (1) non-flooding and non-ecological interaction; (2) flooding and non-ecological interaction; (3) non-flooding and ecological interaction; (4): flooded and ecological interaction. Flooding reduced biomass allocation in H. crepitans. C. tapia biomass was reduced by interspecific interaction with H. crepitans. Flood and interspecific ecological interactions together facilitated the accumulation of biomass in H. crepitans. Our results support the stress-gradient hypothesis, showing that in a flooded environment, the species with low tolerance to flooding (H. crepitans) is favored by the presence of other species. Additional tests with other species can confirm whether this is a pattern that helps explain the establishment of tree species in wetlands.