Demographic tradeoffs can allow for species coexistence by reducing fitness differences between species. The empirically ubiquitous growth-survival tradeoff accurately predicts a linear successional trajectory with ‘fast’ species that grow quickly but survive poorly dominating early succession and ‘slow’ species that grow poorly but survive well outcompeting in later succession. An orthogonal dimension, the stature-recruitment tradeoff, encompasses two additional demographic strategies. The short-lived breeders (slb) that grow and survive poorly are distinguished from the long-lived pioneers (llp) that grow and survive well by their recruitment performance, with slb’s having relatively high and llp’s having relatively low recruitment rates.

Despite a collective acknowledgment of the significance of the growth-survival and stature-recruitment tradeoffs, the mechanisms that allow for the maintenance of these strategies along Neotropical forest succession are not quantified. With this project, I’m interested in answering the following question: Can the coexistence of different demographic strategies observed in the Neotropics be maintained through gap dynamics and height-structured competition for light?