High tree alpha-diversity in Amazonian Ecuador

✍ Scribed by Renato Valencia; Henrik Balslev; Guillermo Paz Y Miño C

• Book ID: 104626219
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 488 KB
• Volume: 3
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0960-3115
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00115330

✦ Synopsis

In a 1 ha square plot of terrafirme forest at 260 m elevation in Amazonian Ecuador, all trees with diameter at breast height (dbh) />5 cm were studied. There were 1561 individuals, 473 species, 187 genera and 54 families. Of these, 693 individuals, 307 species, 138 genera and 46 families had a dbh i>10 cm. This is the highest number of tree species ever recorded for a tropical rain forest sample of this size. In both dbh classes, the most species-rich families were: Fabaceae sensu lato (including Mimosaceae and Caesalpiniaceae), Lauraceae and Sapotaceae; the most species-rich genera, were Pouteria, Inga and Protium. The vertical space was partitioned among species: 166 species were found only in the 5-10 dbh cm class and were mostly sub-canopy treelets, and 307 species with dbh t>10 cm were mostly large canopy trees.