Wood density variation in Neotropical forests Page 1 1 Regional and phylogenetic variation of wood density across 2,456 neotropical tree 2 species 3 4 Jérôme Chave1,*, Helene C. Muller-Landau2, Timothy R. Baker3, Tomás A. Easdale4,**, Hans 5 ter Steege5, Campbell O. Webb6 6 7 1 Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité Biologique, CNRS UMR5174, Université Paul Sabatier 8 Bâtiment 4R3, 31062 Toulouse, France 9 2 Dept of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 1987 Upper Buford 10 Circle, St. Paul, MN 55108 USA 11 3 Earth and Biosphere Institute, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, 12 UK 13 4 Laboratorio de Investigaciones Ecológicas de las Yungas, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, 14 Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, CC 34, CP 4107 Yerba Buena, Argentina 15 5 National Herbarium of the Netherlands NHN, Utrecht University branch, Heidelberglaan 2, 16 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands. 17 6 Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, 22 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA 18 19 * Corresponding author. Email:
[email protected] 20 ** Present address: School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, 21 Gwynedd LL57 2UW, Wales, UK 22 23 Abstract length: 294 words. Wood density variation in Neotropical forests Page 2 24 Abstract 25 Wood density is a crucial variable in carbon accounting programs of both secondary and old- 26 growth tropical forests. It also is the best single descriptor of wood: it correlates with 27 numerous morphological, mechanical, physiological, and ecological properties. To explore 28 the extent to which wood density could be estimated for rare or poorly censused taxa, and 29 possible sources of variation in this trait, we analysed regional, taxonomic, and phylogenetic 30 variation in wood density among 2,456 tree species from Central and South America.