Publications
| Title: | Plant diversity scaled by growth forms along spatial and environmental gradients. A study in the rain forests of NW Amazonia |  |
| Authors: | Duque Montoya, Alvaro Javier | |
| Year: | 2004 | |
| Inside: | Tropenbos PhD Series 1 | |
| Publishing Country: | the Netherlands | |
| Abstract: | The major goal of this thesis was the study of the spatial distribution and abundance of different growth forms of tropical rain forest plants, at different spatial scales, in relation to their ecological response to major environmental gradients in methodological NW Amazonia. Basic knowledge of the distribution of individual species and species assemblages is necessary for the conservation of the Amazonian rain forests. Amazon forests are well known for harboring a high plant biodiversity. However, it is still not clear which mechanisms address the species assemblages and the distribution patterns of different growth forms at different spatial scales. In this study, new insights into comparative environmental control on herbs and woody understory plants, tree, epiphytes and lianas species composition at different spatial scales are presented. These main issues were addressed with a new series of well distributed high resolution relevés of terrestrial vascular plant species composition. These were sampled along the principal environmental gradients in a wide rain forest area in Colombian Amazonia, and adjacent (Amazon) areas of Ecuador and Peru. This study is one of the few at plot level in Amazon forests, which compares different growth forms, including (near)-total epiphyte species, in relation to environmental control in one survey design. As the study is limited to NW Amazonia, humidity (in terms of total annual rainfall) and geomorphology is quite similar between sample sites, thus allowing a more robust analysis of the effect of finer environmental variables as soil elemental contents. | |
| ISBN: | 90-5113-072-4 | |
| ISSN: | ||
| Tropenbos: | Yes | |
| Downloadable: | Yes | |
| Possible to order: | Yes | |
| Price: | on request | |
| Language: | EN |
