The Janzen-Connell hypothesis is among the most important theories put forward to explain species coexistence in species-rich communities. However, the relative importance of Janzen-Connell effects with respect to other prominent mechanisms of community assembly, such as dispersal limitation, self-thinning due to competition, or habitat association, is largely unresolved. Here we use data from a 24-ha Gutianshan subtropical forest to address it. First we tested for significant associations of adults, juveniles, and saplings with environmental variables. Second we evaluated if aggregation decreased with life stage. In a third analysis we approximately factored out the effect of habitat association and comprehensively analyzed the spatial associations of intraspecific adults and offspring (saplings, juveniles) of 46 common species at continuous neighborhood distances. We found i) that, except for one, all species were associated with at least one environmental variable during at least one of their life stages, but the frequency of significant habitat associations declined with increasing life stage; ii) a decline in aggregation with increasing life stage that was strongest from juveniles to adults; and iii) intraspecific adult-offspring associations were dominated by positive relationships at neighborhood distances up to 10 m. Our results suggest that Janzen-Connell effects were not the dominant mechanisms in structuring the spatial patterns of established trees in the subtropical Gutianshan forest. The spatial patterns may rather reflect the joint effects of size-dependent self-thinning, dispersal limitation and habitat associations. Our findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the relative importance of Janzen-Connell effects in influencing plant community structure under strong topographic heterogeneity.
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