Plant composition associated with environmental gradients in tropical montane forests (Cueva de Los Guacharos National Park,Huila, Colombia) |
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| Authors: | Cecilia M Prada Pablo R Stevenson |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Laboratorio de Ecología de Bosques Tropicales y Primatología, La Macarena Ecological Research Center, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia;2. Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, U.S.A |
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| Abstract: | Niche differentiation among tropical forest plants can generate species turnover along gradients of soil, topography, climate, and land use history. In this study we explore the relative importance of these variables as drivers of floristic composition in Cueva de Los Guacharos National Park. We established twenty 0.1‐ha plots, within which trees, lianas, and shrubs (diameter ≥ 2.5 cm) were censused. We selected plot locations in primary and disturbed forests, and we measured topography and soil variables. Despite their structural similarity, primary and disturbed forests differed floristically, and also differed in environmental variables measured. A NMDS ordination showed that variation in the floristic composition across plots is highly correlated to the exchangeable acidity, elevation, temperature, and magnesium availability. Variance partitioning analysis shows that together spatial and environmental variables explain 24.2 percent of the variation in species composition. ‘Pure environmental’ variables were more important in explaining compositional variability than ‘pure spatial’ processes (9.8% and 1.4%, respectively). Residual variance may be attributed to stochastic process or non‐measured biotic effects. |
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| Keywords: | environmental variables geographic distance human disturbance limited dispersal variable partitioning |
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