Changes in Plant Community Diversity and Floristic Composition on Environmental and Geographical Gradients Author(S): Alwyn H
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Changes in Plant Community Diversity and Floristic Composition on Environmental and Geographical Gradients Author(s): Alwyn H. Gentry Source: Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 75, No. 1 (1988), pp. 1-34 Published by: Missouri Botanical Garden Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2399464 Accessed: 02/09/2010 07:33 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mobot. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Missouri Botanical Garden Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. http://www.jstor.org Volume75 Annals Number1 of the 1988 Missourl Botanical Garden CHANGES IN PLANT AlwynH. Gentry3 COMMUNITY DIVERSITY AND FLORISTIC COMPOSITION ON ENVIRONMENTALAND GEOGRAPHICALGRADIENTS 2 ' This and thefollowing five papers comprisethe proceedings of theMissouri Botanical Garden's 33rd Annual SystematicsSymposium-Species Diversity. The symposiumtook place in St. Louis, Missouri on October 10 and 11, 1986. 2 I thankthe National GeographicSocietyfor a seriesof grants that supported much of the research summarized here. Collectionof theMadagascar data set was funded by the World WildlifeFund. The coastal Colombianand Ecuadorian data sets and some of the Amazonian Peru data weregathered incidentalto fioristic projects funded by the National Science Foundation. Additional Peruvian data sets werefunded by USAID (DAN-5542-G-SS- 1086-00) and the Mellon Foundation; study of the Tambopata treeplots was in part funded by a grantfrom the SmithsonianInstitution to T Erwin. The data setsfrom eastern Brazil and Paraguay weregathered as part of an NSF-sponsoredmonographic study of Bignoniaceae (BSR 83-05040, BSR 86-07113). The Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, data were obtained as an OTS class project; the Los Tuxtlas,Mexico, data came from a similar class projectfor the UniversidadNacional Aut6nomade Mexico; parts of the Colombiandata weregathered as a project of the CursoPos-Grado de Botdnica of the UniversidadNacional de Colombia.Among the manyfriends and colleagues who collaborated in gathering the data summarizedhere were R. Neumann, R. Palacios, C. Crist6bal,and A. Schinini (Argentina);K. Kubitzki,M. Fallen, H. Popppendieck, and W. Lippert (Germany); J. Miller,D. Faber-Langendoen,E. Zardini, and C. Burnett (U.S.A.); C. Ramirez (Chile); E. Lott (Mexico); D. Stevens,P. Moreno,and A. Grijalva (Nicaragua); H. Cuadros, E. Renteria,A. Cogollo,M. Monsalve,A. Juncosa, C. Restrepo,J. Ramos, P. Silverstone,and 0. de Benavides (Colombia); C. Dodson (Ecuador); B. Stein, R. G. Troth-Ovrebo,and P. Berry (Venezuela); F. Ayala, C. Dtaz, R. Vasquez, N. Jaramillo,D. Smith,R. Tredwell, K. Young,and D. Alfaro (Peru); A. Peixoto and 0. Peixoto (Brazil); V Vera,J. Ddvalos, and S. Keel (Paraguay); G. Pilz (Nigeria); D. Thomas (Cameroon); L. Dorr, L. Barnett, and A. Rakotozafy (Madagascar); J. Connell and J. Tracy (Queensland); J. Tagai (Sarawak); G. McPherson (New Caledonia); and V Kapos (Jamaica). Additional original data using the same or comparable techniqueswere made available by E. Lott (Mexico), D. Lorence (Mauritius), and J. Miller and P. White (U.S.A.). I also thankR. Perrozzi, S. McCaslin, G. Fulton, and especially J. Millerfor computationaland technical expertise,E. Zardini for help in thefield and withthe illustrations,and J. Hall and D. Thomasfor providingAfrican data. I thankS. Hubbell, T. Givnish,L. Emmons, P. Ashton,P. Raven, and D. Thomasfor reviewcomments. 3 MissouriBotanical Garden,P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, Missouri 63166, and WashingtonUniversity, St. Louis, U.S.A. ANN. MISSOURI BOT. CARD. 75: 1-34. 1988. 2 Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden ABSTRACT Trendsin communitycomposition and diversityof neotropicalforests as measured by a series of samples of (1) plants 2 2.5 cm dbh in 0.1 ha, (2) plants over 10 cm dbh in 1-ha plots, and (3) completelocal florulas are analyzed as a functionof various environmentalparameters. These trendsare also compared with those found in similar data setsfrom other continents. Altogether the basic 0.1-ha data sets are reportedfor 87 sites in 25 countrieson six continentsand several islands. New data fromten 1-ha treeplots in upper Amazonia are also compared witheach otherand withsimilar data fromthe literature.Some noteworthytrends include: (1) Lowland neotropicalplant species richnessis generallyfar moretightly correlated with precipitation than with edaphic factors. (2). The nearly linear increase of lowland neotropicalplant species richnesswith precipitation reaches an asymptote(community saturation?) at about 4,000 mmof annual rainfall. (3) Althoughthe species representedin adjacent foresttypes on differentsubstrates may change dramatically,diversity- tends to change relativelylittle in upper Amazonia. (4) The species presentat differentsites are verydifferent but thefamilies representedand theirdiversities are highlypredictable from environmental parameters. (5) On an altitudinal gradient in the tropical Andes thereis a sharp, essentiallylinear decrease in diversityfrom about 1,500 m to near the upper limitofforest above 3,000 m. (6) Thereis no indicationof a "mid-elevationbulge" in diversity, at least not in the sampled habit groups. (7) Even near timberline,montane tropical forests are as diverse as the most diverse temperateforests. (8) Moist subtropicalforests are markedlyless diverse than their inner- tropical equivalents,but dry subtropicalforests in Mexico are apparently richerin species than inner-tropical dryforests. (9) CentralAfrican forests are about as species rich as neotropicalforests with similar amountsof precipitation,but forests in tropical WestAfrica are relativelydepauperate. (10) Tropical Australasianforests are no more diverse than equivalent neotropicalforests; the world's highest tree species diversity-is in upper Amazonia, not Southeast Asia. (11) Contraryto accepted opinion, equivalentforests on the three continents are similar in plant species richness and (with a veryfew notable exceptions) fioristiccomposition but are markedlydifferent in structure.The predictabilityof thefioristic compositions and diversitiesof tropicalforest plant communitiesseems strong,albeit circumstantial,evidence that these communitiesare at ecological and perhaps evolutionaryequilibrium, despite indicationsthat certain aspects of theirdiversity are generated and maintainedstochastically. Comparisonsof the species richness (or have reportedthe firstcomparable data set otherfacets) of differentforests or different fortropical forests (Gentry & Dodson, 1987a, vegetationtypes are oftendifficult because of b). A standardizedsampling technique that the dissimilarityof the availabledata. In trop- includesonly plants - 2.5 cm in diameterin ical Asia there is a wealthof data for trees 0.1 ha has also been developed and applied in largesample areas (Ashton,1964, in press; to a seriesof tropicalforests (Gentry, 1982b, Whitmore,1984; Proctoret al., 1983; Kar- 1986b; Lott et al., 1987; Stallingset al., in tawinataet al., 1981) but fewpublished data press; Lorence & Sussman, 1988); the on nontrees. In the Neotropics there are methodologyfor obtaining these O. -ha sam- several local florulas(Croat, 1978; Dodson ples, each the sum of ten 2 x 50 m belt & Gentry,1978; Janzen& Liesner, 1980; transects,is discussed in detail elsewhere Dodson et al., 1985), but untilrecently there (Gentry,1982b, in prep.). The primarydata have been no tree-plotdata fromhigh diver- set on which this paper is based are these sityregions based on reliableidentifications. 0.1-ha samples,which are now available for Africahas far more extensivecoverage by 38 lowlandneotropical sites, 1 1 montaneneo- regionaland country-widefloras but no local tropicalsites, and 13 subtropicaland 9 tem- florulasnor large-plotdata fromhigh-diver- perate-zonesites in theAmericas. Similar data sityregions. sets are available from6 sitesin tropicalAf- Recently,a series of 0.1-ha samples of rica, 3 sitesin tropicalAustralasia, 2 sitesin manyof the world'smost diverse extra-trop- Europe,and fromseveral tropical islands: New ical plantcommunities has been accumulating Caledonia, Madagascar, Mauritius,Jamaica (e.g., Naveh & Whittaker,1979; Cowling, (Tables 1, 2; Fig. 1). Supplementarydata are 1983; Peet & Christensen,1980; Rice & taken fromlocal florulasin the Neotropics Westoby,1983; Eiten, 1978). Elsewherewe (Dodson& Gentry,1978,1988; Croat,1978; Volume 75,-Number1 Gentry 3 1988 Plant CommunityDiversity FIGURE 1. Locations of study sites. Dots = 0.1-ha samples (see Tables 1, 2). Arrows=