A Guide to Caribbean Vegetation Types: Preliminary Classification System and Descriptions Written by Alberto E. Areces-Mallea, Alan S. Weakley, Xiaojun Li, Roger G. Sayre, Jeffrey D. Parrish, Camille V. Tipton and Timothy Boucher Edited by Nicole Panagopoulos A Guide to Caribbean Vegetation Types: Preliminary Classification System and Descriptions Copyright © 1999 The Nature Conservancy. Reproduction of this publication for educational or other non-commercial purposes is authorized without prior permission of the copyright holder. Reproduction for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without prior written permission of the copyright holder. Cover by Margaret Buck Production by Nicole Panagopoulos The mission of The Nature Conservancy is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. Table of Contents Acknowledgments .................................................................................. 1 Executive Summary .............................................................................. 3 Chapter One .......................................................................................... 9 Vegetation Classification and Vegetation Mapping of the Caribbean Islands—A Review Background .......................................................................................... 9 General Classification Systems Applicable to Caribbean Tropical Vegetation ....................................................................... 10 Major Vegetation Classification Systems and Vegetation Maps for the Greater Caribbean .................................................... 11 Major Vegetation Classification Systems and Vegetation Maps for Islands or Groups of Islands .......................................... 14 Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao .................................................................. 14 Bahamas (Including Turks and Caicos) .................................................. 14 Bermuda ................................................................................................. 14 Cayman Islands ...................................................................................... 14 Cuba ........................................................................................................ 15 Hispaniola ............................................................................................... 16 Jamaica ................................................................................................... 17 The Lesser Antilles ................................................................................. 18 Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands ......................................................... 19 Trinidad and Tobago .............................................................................. 21 Chapter Two ........................................................................................... 23 The International Classification of Ecological Communities (ICEC) Overview .............................................................................................. 23 Classification Units versus Mapping Units .......................................... 24 Chapter Three ....................................................................................... 25 Standardized Terminology for Classifying Vegetation Chapter Four ......................................................................................... 41 Vegetation of the Caribbean Islands: Formations Conclusion ............................................................................................. 55 Appendices Appendix One .................................................................................................. 59 Vegetation of the Caribbean Islands: Descriptions of Alliances and Associations Appendix Two .................................................................................................. 137 Caribbean Vegetation Classification References Appendix Three ............................................................................................... 163 Members of the Caribbean Vegetation Ecology Working Group Acknowledgments The project team would like to extend our thanks to the many individuals and institutions which have made the production of this work possible. Our appreciation goes to The New York Botanical Gardens, the International Institute of Tropical Forestry, the United States Geological Survey, Neil Sealey, Ethan Freid, and the Departamento de Inventario de Recursos Naturales (DIRENA, a government mapping agency in the Dominican Republic) for their help in providing maps. John de Freitas, Director of the Netherlands Antilles Conservation Data Center, supplied important data for the Lesser Antilles, and Dayle Barry and Stevie Henry of the U.S. Virgin Islands Conservation Data Center furnished essential data on the Islands. Members of the International Institute of Tropical Forestry who made the October 1998 workshop a success are: Ariel Lugo, Bill Edwards, Olga Ramos, Carlos Rodriguez, and Janet Rivera. Larry Tieszen, Eric Woods, and Zhiliang Zhu of the EROS Data Center and Gina Green, Carol Mayes, and John Tschirky of the Caribbean Division of The Conservancy have provided significant support throughout the project. Thanks also to Bruce Potter and Jean Pierre Bacle of Island Resources Foundation, who provided support at the project concept phase. Eva Vilarrubi, also from The Conservancy, and Margaret Buck provided assistance in the publication of this document. We would especially like to thank Susan Vidal and Ken Gorton, who were instrumental in the compilation of the island maps. Lastly, we would like to commend the support provided by the Caribbean Vegetation Ecology Working Group, for their help at an October 1998 workshop in refining and correcting our earlier maps, and sending in subsequent corrections from their respective institutions. The members of this group include: Alberto Areces-Mallea The New York Botanical Garden Dayle Barry U.S. Virgin Islands Conservation Data Center Luis Beltrán Burgos Puerto Rico Natural Heritage Program Tim Boucher The Nature Conservancy Gary Breckon University of Puerto Rico Biology Department Daniel Dávila Casanova Puerto Rico Natural Heritage Program Olasee Davis University of the Virgin Islands William Edwards International Institute of Tropical Forestry Julio C. Figueroa Colón International Institute of Tropical Forestry Ethan Freid Miami University of Ohio Elanor Gibney Virgin Islands specialist Stevie Henry U.S. Virgin Islands Conservation Data Center Richard Howard Harvard University Herbaria Duane Kolterman University of Puerto Rico Biology Department Xiaojun Li The Nature Conservancy Eric Lindsay Department of Planning and Natural Resources—U.S. Virgin Islands Kevel Lindsay Island Resources Foundation Carol Mayes The Nature Conservancy—U.S. Virgin Islands Rudy O’Reilly USDA Natural Resources—Conservation Science Jeffrey Parrish The Nature Conservancy George Proctor U.S. National Herbarium, Smithsonian Institute Vicente Quevedo Bonilla Puerto Rico Natural Heritage Program Olga Ramos International Institute of Tropical Forestry Gary Ray Virgin Islands specialist Enrique del Risco Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales—Cuba Carlos Rodriguez International Institute of Tropical Forestry Roger Sayre The Nature Conservancy Susan Solander U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Larry Tieszen EROS Data Center, USGS Alan Weakley The Nature Conservancy Contact information for this group can be found in Appendix Three. This publication was made possible through support provided by the Office of the Environment, Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, U.S. Agency for International Development, under terms of Grant No. LAG-00-A-95-00026-00. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Executive Summary Background Stretching almost 6,800 km. and composed of a chain of over 1,000 islands, the West Indies have been and continue today to be a center of evolution and ecological diversity. Their geologic histories are varied: some islands are young and still actively volcanic, others older uplifts of fossilized coral reefs, others are but vestiges of once massive volcanic mountain chains which formed large land masses that have been at varying times interconnected and isolated. This complex history has led to the presence of many unique vegetation types which provide habitat for an astonishing diversity of flora and fauna, some of which is endemic to the region, and an alarming proportion of which is also highly threatened. Ultimately, our ability to protect this vast array of species and communities is dependent at the coarse level on our ability to target and conserve representative examples of these vegetation types. Conserving biological diversity at the level of natural communities is an important complementary approach to single-species conservation efforts because natural communities contain important assemblages of species and the habitats that support these species. Improved conservation of the distinct natural vegetation types that occur on Caribbean islands is greatly facilitated if these vegetation types are accurately understood, described, and mapped in a manner that is accepted and respected by the diversity of countries, cultures, and peoples that make up the Caribbean today. The Caribbean Vegetation Classification and Atlas Project has been a key step towards