Tropical rainforests harbor a particularly high plant diversity. We hypothesize that potential causes underlying this high diversity should be linked to distinct overall functionality (defense and growth allocation, anti-stress mechanisms, reproduction) among the different sympatric taxa. In this study we tested the hypothesis of the existence of a metabolomic niche related to a species-specific differential use and allocation of metabolites. We tested this hypothesis by comparing leaf metabolomic profiles of 54 species in two rainforests of French Guiana. Species identity explained most of the variation in the metabolome, with a species-specific metabolomic profile across dry and wet seasons. In addition to this "homeostatic" species-specific metabolomic profile significantly linked to phylogenetic distances, also part of the variance (flexibility) of the metabolomic profile was explained by season within a single species. Our results support the hypothesis of the high diversity in tropical forest being related to a species-specific metabolomic niche and highlight ecometabolomics as a tool to identify this species functional diversity related and consistent with the ecological niche theory.

CREAF Cerdanyola del vallès 08193 Catalonia Spain

CSIC Global Ecology Unit CREAF CEBAB CSIC UAB Bellaterra 08193 Catalonia Spain

Global Change Research Institute Czech Academy of Sciences Bělidla 986 4a CZ 60300 Brno Czech Republic

INRA UMR EcoFoG CNRS Cirad AgroParisTech Université des Antilles Université de Guyane 97310 Kourou France

Laboratoire Ecologie évolution interactions des systèmes amazoniens Université de Guyane CNRS IFREMER 97300 Cayenne French Guiana

University of Antwerp Department of Biology BE 2610 Wilrijk Belgium

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Leaf metabolic traits reveal hidden dimensions of plant form and function

Metabolome-Wide, Phylogenetically Controlled Comparison Indicates Higher Phenolic Diversity in Tropical Tree Species

31P-NMR Metabolomics Revealed Species-Specific Use of Phosphorous in Trees of a French Guiana Rainforest