Back to Search Start Over

Importance of topography for tree species habitat distributions in a terra firme forest in the Colombian Amazon.

Importance of topography for tree species habitat distributions in a terra firme forest in the Colombian Amazon.

Authors :
Zuleta, Daniel
Russo, Sabrina E.
Barona, Andrés
Barreto-Silva, Juan S.
Cardenas, Dairon
Castaño, Nicolas
Davies, Stuart J.
Detto, Matteo
Sua, Sonia
Turner, Benjamin L.
Duque, Alvaro
Source :
Plant & Soil. May2020, Vol. 450 Issue 1/2, p133-149. 17p. 3 Color Photographs, 2 Charts, 1 Graph.
Publication Year :
2020

Abstract

Aims: To test the relative importance of topography versus soil chemistry in defining tree species-habitat associations in a terra firme Amazonian forest. Method: We evaluated habitat associations for 612 woody species using alternative habitat maps generated from topography and soil chemistry in the 25-ha Amacayacu Forest Dynamics Plot, Colombian Amazon. We assessed the ability of each habitat map to explain the community-level patterns of species-habitat associations using two methods of habitat randomization and different sample size thresholds (i.e., species' abundance). Results: The greatest proportion of species-habitat associations arose from topographically-defined habitats (55% to 63%) compared to soil chemistry-defined (19% to 40%) or topography plus soil chemistry-defined habitats (18% to 42%). Results were robust to the method of habitat randomization and to sample size threshold. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that certain environmental factors may be more influential than others in defining forest-level patterns of community assembly and that comparison of the ability of different environmental variables to explain habitat associations is a crucial step in testing hypotheses about the mechanisms underlying assembly. Our results point to topography-driven hydrological variation as a key factor structuring tree species distributions in what are commonly considered homogeneous Amazonian terra firme forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
0032079X
Volume :
450
Issue :
1/2
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
Plant & Soil
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
143855299
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-018-3878-0