Back to Search
Start Over
Annual Rainfall and Seasonality Predict Pan-tropical Patterns of Liana Density and Basal Area
- Source :
- Biotropica. 42:309-317
- Publication Year :
- 2009
- Publisher :
- Wiley, 2009.
-
Abstract
- We test the hypotheses proposed by Gentry and Schnitzer that liana density and basal area in tropical forests vary negatively with mean annual precipitation (MAP) and positively with seasonality. Previous studies correlating liana abundance with these climatic variables have produced conflicting results, warranting a new analysis of drivers of liana abundance based on a different dataset. We compiled a pan-tropical dataset containing 28,953 lianas (Z2.5cmdiam.) from studies conducted at 13 Neotropical and 11 Paleotropical dry to wet lowland tropical forests. The ranges in MAP and dry season length (DSL) (number of months with mean rainfall o100mm) represented by these datasets were 860‐7250mm/yr and 0‐7mo, respectively. Pan-tropically, liana density and basal area decreased significantly with increasing annual rainfall and increased with increasing DSL, supporting the hypotheses of Gentry and Schnitzer. Our results suggest that much of the variation in liana density and basal area in the tropics can be accounted for by the relatively simple metrics of MAP and DSL.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Ecology
Species diversity
Tropics
15. Life on land
Seasonality
Biology
medicine.disease
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Basal area
Liana
Abundance (ecology)
Dry season
medicine
Precipitation
Physical geography
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
010606 plant biology & botany
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00063606
- Volume :
- 42
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Biotropica
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........abbaa061c0186a41f367162e8f6cb842