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Copyright by Yung-Ho Ophelia Wang 2011 Copyright by Yung-Ho Ophelia Wang 2011 The Dissertation Committee for Yung-Ho Ophelia Wang Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: FOREST DIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION IN THE WESTERN AMAZON BASED ON TREE INVENTORY AND REMOTE SENSING DATA Committee: Kenneth R. Young, Supervisor Kelley A. Crews Jennifer A. Miller Sahotra Sarkar Nigel C. A. Pitman FOREST DIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION IN THE WESTERN AMAZON BASED ON TREE INVENTORY AND REMOTE SENSING DATA by Yung-Ho Ophelia Wang, B.S.; M.S.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December, 2011 Dedication To my loved ones and the Amazon. Acknowledgements First, I would like to acknowledge the extraordinary guidance from my committee chair Kenneth R. Young. Ken has provided intellectual and practical advice and support of the highest quality to make this dissertation possible. I could not have accomplished this without Ken’s patient help. My committee members have also played important roles in providing ideas. Kelley A. Crews introduced me to the world of digital landscape and object-based image analysis. Jennifer A. Miller inspired me regarding spatial point pattern analysis and species distribution modeling. Sahotra Sarkar taught me habitat suitability modeling and concepts of systematic conservation planning, and Nigel C. A. Pitman shared great tree inventory plot data from northeastern Ecuador. I would also like to thank Rodrigo Sierra for providing logistics support and sharing remote sensing and GIS data, as well as Oliver Phillips for sharing tree inventory plot data from northern Peru to make this dissertation work possible. The tree inventory work in southeastern Ecuador would not have been accomplished without Milton Tirado’s expertise of Amazonian trees, permissions from La Nacionalidad Achuar del Ecuador and La Nacionalidad Shiwiar del Ecuador, and the logistics support by EcoCiencia in Ecuador. Members of the Yutsuntsa, Juyuintsa, and Sawastian communities provided great hospitality and field guides. My colleagues from the University of Texas have been incredibly helpful. Michael Ciarleglio played an important role in collaborating with me for the zonation map design. Santiago Lopez provided aerial photographs and precious opinions regarding data analysis. Lars Pomara shared GIS data and helped greatly with clarifying data analysis methods. Manuel Peralvo, Mariana Montoya, and Julio Postigo shared GIS data and precious experiences v in working with indigenous communities. Mario Cardozo has been extremely supportive of me in graduate school as well as being my best friend. I would also like to thank all the staff from the Department of Geography and the Environment for their amazing administrative support. A considerable amount of the writing of this dissertation took place after I began working as a Research Associate at Northern Arizona University. I am deeply thankful to my mentor Brett G. Dickson for his great understanding and support of my dissertation work, and to members of the Lab of Landscape Ecology and Conservation Biology for their friendship. My thesis advisor from the University of Illinois, Carol Augspurger, introduced me to the wonderful world of Neotropical forests and tropical plant ecology. Carol is not only a great teacher, but also a great mother-figure, a close friend, and a role model. I could not have accomplished this much in life without her. My family in Taiwan has always given me unconditional love and support (both financial and spiritual). I appreciate how much my family cares for my physical and mental health and wants me to maximize my potential and pursue my goals. It is a real sense of accomplishment to know that I made them proud. I have only been able to visit Taiwan every two to three years but I have learned to appreciate my family increasingly with every new day. My old friends from Taiwan, California, Illinois, and Texas are essential to me and I am who I am today because of their great emotional support. Clayton Chase has become my most important cheerleader in all aspects during this dissertation work. He has always been there for me as a listener and provided emotional refuge as well as being a tremendous helper. This research was funded in part by the Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation, the Dorothy and Jim Doyle Scholarship from Texas Exes at the University of Texas, the Tinker Summer Field vi Research Grant from the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas, the Veselka Travel Grant and the Donald Brand Predissertation Fellowship from the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas. vii FOREST DIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION IN THE WESTERN AMAZON BASED ON TREE INVENTORY AND REMOTE SENSING DATA Publication No._____________ Yung-Ho Ophelia Wang, PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2011 Supervisor: Kenneth R. Young This dissertation contributes to debates in conservation biogeography by examining the spatial heterogeneity of local and regional tree diversity feature using ground and remotely sensed data, and by taking approaches to design a spatially explicit landscape zonation map for future conservation planning in western Amazon, one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth. Fine scale tree diversity and conservation-related studies took place in tropical rainforests in southeastern Ecuador, whereas coarse scale tree diversity research was conducted using data from eastern Ecuador and northern Peru. The lack of species assemblages within three 1-ha tree inventory plots in southeastern Ecuador and the weak correlations with biophysical environment implied that neutral processes may contribute to species diversity. In contrast, differences in species assemblages between plots corresponded to relative geographic locations of the plots, indicating that geographic distance or dispersal limitation may play an important role influencing diversity patterns at a regional scale. viii Species of high local abundance was found in 1-ha tree inventory plots in western Amazon. Changes in density of locally abundant species between western and eastern plots indicated that some species may have limited distributions. Shifts in species dominance and the significant relationship between floristic variation and geographic distances between plots implied dispersal limitation. Variation in rainfall showed significant relationship with species composition. Therefore, dispersal limitation and precipitation seasonality are potentially the most significant factors that contribute to spatial differences in tree diversity in western Amazon. Characteristics of canopy shadows and palm stem density based on fine-resolution aerial photographs were characterized as exploratory analyses to extract alpha and beta diversity features using remotely sensed data. A zonation map design using multispectral habitat classification and other remote sensing data performed well in its spatial arrangement when potential indigenous land use was integrated. Based on the results of analyses for conservation biogeography, this dissertation concludes that local and regional tree diversity may be influenced by dispersal limitation and seasonality, and that the application of remote sensing for biodiversity conservation is feasible in very species- rich forests. ix Table of Contents List of Tables ....................................................................................................... xiv List of Figures ...................................................................................................... xix List of Illustrations ............................................................................................. xxiv Chapter 1: Introduction ...........................................................................................1 Conceptual approaches ...................................................................................3 Conservation biogeography and biodiversity ........................................4 Conservation biogeography ..........................................................4 “Why are there so many species in the tropics?” ..........................5 Challenges and opportunities: conceptualizing a multi-scale hierarchy ............................................................................12 Challenges and opportunities: challenges in biodiversity studies .........................................................................................14 Challenges and opportunities: adopting new techniques ............16 Biodiversity conservation and systematic conservation planning .......20 Challenges and crisis for biodiversity conservation ...................20 Systematic conservation planning ...............................................22 Study objectives ............................................................................................27 Specific questions and hypotheses ................................................................27 Chapter 2: Study area ............................................................................................31 The Ecuadorian Amazon ...............................................................................31 Climate .................................................................................................36 Topography ..........................................................................................39
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