Dominance and Distribution of Tree Species in Upper Amazonian Terra Firme Forests

Amazonian forests are the largest and most diverse in the tropics, and much of the mystery surrounding their ecology can be traced to attempts to understand them through tiny local inventories. In this paper we bring together a large number of such inventories scattered across immense areas of weste...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology (Durham) 2001-08, Vol.82 (8), p.2101-2117
Main Authors: Nigel C. A. Pitman, Terborgh, John W., Silman, Miles R., Núñez, Percy, Neill, David A., Cerón, Carlos E., Palacios, Walter A., Aulestia, Milton
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amazon basin
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biodiversity
Biological and medical sciences
Biological taxonomies
Concepts and Synthesis: Emphasizing New Ideas to Stimulate Research in Ecology
Conservation biology
Ecology
Ecuador
environmental heterogeneity
Forest ecology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Manu National Park (Peru)
Peru
Plant ecology
Rainforests
rarity
Species
Street trees
Synecology
Terrestrial ecosystems
tree oligarchies
Trees
Tropical forests
Tropical rain forests
tropical trees
Yasuní National Park (Ecuador)
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Summary:Amazonian forests are the largest and most diverse in the tropics, and much of the mystery surrounding their ecology can be traced to attempts to understand them through tiny local inventories. In this paper we bring together a large number of such inventories scattered across immense areas of western Amazonia in order to address simple questions about the distribution and abundance of tropical tree species in lowland terra firme forests there. The goal is to describe patterns of commonness and rarity at local (1 ha), landscape (∼ 104km2), and regional $(>10^6 km^2)$ scales, and to fuse the results into a more complete picture of how tropical tree communities are structured. We present estimates of landscape-scale densities for ∼1400 taxa, based on data from tree plots scattered over large tracts of terra firme forest in eastern Ecuador and southeastern Peru. A database of morphological, ecological, and other traits of >1000 of these species compiled from the taxonomic literature is then used to explore how species that are common in the inventories differ from species that are rare. Although most species show landscape-scale densities of
ISSN:0012-9658
1939-9170
DOI:10.1890/0012-9658(2001)082[2101:DADOTS]2.0.CO;2