Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T21:58:01.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Metacommunity structure of tropical forest along an elevation gradient in Puerto Rico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2008

John A. Barone ,
John Thomlinson ,
Pedro Anglada Cordero  and
Jess K. Zimmerman
John A. Barone*
Affiliation:
Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Studies, University of Puerto Rico, P.O. Box 21910, San Juan PR 00931-1910, USA
John Thomlinson
Affiliation:
Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Studies, University of Puerto Rico, P.O. Box 21910, San Juan PR 00931-1910, USA
Pedro Anglada Cordero
Affiliation:
Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Studies, University of Puerto Rico, P.O. Box 21910, San Juan PR 00931-1910, USA
Jess K. Zimmerman
Affiliation:
Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Studies, University of Puerto Rico, P.O. Box 21910, San Juan PR 00931-1910, USA
*
1Corresponding author: John A. Barone, Department of Biology, Columbus State University, 4225 University Ave., Columbus GA 31907-5645, USA. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

The development of metacommunity theory, which suggests that the diversity and composition of communities is influenced by interactions with other communities, has produced new tools for evaluating patterns of community change along environmental gradients. These techniques were used to examine how plant communities changed along elevation gradients in montane tropical forests. Two transects of 0.1-ha vegetation plots were established every 50 m in elevation in the mountains of eastern Puerto Rico. The transects ranged from 300 m to 1000 m asl and 400 m to 900 m. In each plot, all free-standing woody stems greater than 1 cm in diameter at 130 cm in height were marked, measured and identified. Additional data on three similar transects were taken from the literature. The upper or lower boundaries of species ranges were significantly clumped along all five transects. Coherence, a measure of the number of gaps in species distributions, was also significant across all transects, and three transects showed significant, albeit low, nestedness. Four sites had significant species turnover. These results suggest that metacommunity techniques can be useful in searching for patterns of community change present in montane tropical forests.

Keywords

coherenceelevationmetacommunitymontane communitiesnestednessPuerto Ricospecies boundaries
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 24 , Issue 5 , September 2008 , pp. 525 - 534
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

ARRIAGA, L. 2000. Types and causes of tree mortality in a tropical montane cloud forest of Tamaulipas, Mexico. Journal of Tropical Ecology 16:623–636.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ASHTON, P. S. 2003. Floristic zonation of tree communities on wet tropical mountains revisited. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 6:87–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
AUERBACH, M. & SHMIDA, A. 1993. Vegetation change along an altitudinal gradient on Mt. Hermon, Israel – no evidence for discrete communities. Journal of Ecology 81:25–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
AUSTIN, M. P. 1985. Continuum concept, ordination methods, and niche theory. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 16:39–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
AUSTIN, M. P. & SMITH, T. M. 1989. New model for the continuum concept. Vegetatio 83:35–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BAYNTON, H. W. 1968. Ecology of an elfin forest in Puerto Rico. 2. Microclimate of Pico del Oeste. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 49:419–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BEINROTH, F. H. 1982. Some highly weathered soils of Puerto Rico. I. Morphology, formation, and classification. Geoderma 27:1–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BRISCOE, C. B. 1966. Weather in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico. Institute of Tropical Forestry Research Paper ITF-3. Institute of Tropical Forestry, Rio Piedras.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BROWN, S., LUGO, A. E., SILANDER, S. & LIEGEL, L. 1983. Research history and opportunities in the Luquillo Experimental Forest. General Technical Report No. SO-44. U. S. Department of Forestry, Southern Experiment Station, New Orleans. 132 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CLEMENTS, F. E. 1916. Plant succession: an analysis of the development of vegetation. Carnegie Institute of Washington, Washington. 512 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CLEMENTS, F. E. 1936. Nature and structure of the climax. Journal of Ecology 24:252–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FERNANDEZ-PALACIOS, J. M. & DE NICOLAS, J. P. 1995. Altitudinal pattern of vegetation variation on Tenerife. Journal of Vegetation Science 6:183–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FONTANETO, D., MELONE, G. & RICCI, C. 2005. Connectivity and nestedness of the meta-community structure of moss dwelling bdelloid rotifers along a stream. Hydrobiologia 542:131–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FOSTER, D. R., FLUET, M. & BOOSE, E. R. 1999. Human or natural disturbance: landscape-scale dynamics of the tropical forests of Puerto Rico. Ecological Applications 9:555–572.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
GARCÍA-MONTIEL, D. C. & SCATENA, F. N. 1994. Effect of human activity on the structure and composition of a tropical forest in Puerto Rico. Forest Ecology and Management 63:57–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GLEASON, H. A. 1926. Individualistic concept of the plant association. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 53:7–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GRUBB, P. J. 1971. Interpretation of the “Massenerhebung” effect on tropical mountains. Nature 229:44–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
GRUBB, P. J. 1977. Control of forest growth and distribution on wet tropical mountains: with species reference to mineral nutrition. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 8:83–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GRUBB, P. J. & WHITMORE, T. C. 1966. Comparison of montane and lowland rain forest in Ecuador. II. The climate and its effects on the distribution and physiognomy of the forests. Journal of Ecology 54:303–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HAMILTON, A. C. 1975. Quantitative analysis of altitudinal zonation in Uganda forests. Vegetatio 30:99–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HAMILTON, A. C. & PERROTT, R. A. 1981. Study of altitudinal zonation in the montane forest belt of Mt. Elgon, Kenya/Uganda. Vegetatio 45:107–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HEMP, A. 2006. Continuum or zonation? Altitudinal gradients in the forest vegetation of Mt. Kilamanjaro. Plant Ecology 184:27–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HOAGLAND, B. W. & COLLINS, S. L. 1997. Gradient models, gradient analysis, and hierarchical structure in plant communities. Oikos 78:23–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HOLYOAK, M., LEIBOLD, M. A. & HOLT, R. D. 2005. Metacommunities: spatial dynamics and ecological communities. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 520 pp.Google Scholar
KAPPELLE, M., VAN UFFELEN, J.-G. & CLEEF, A. M. 1995. Altitudinal zonation of montane Quercus forests along two transects in Chirripó National Park, Costa Rica. Vegetatio 119:119–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KITAYAMA, K. 1992. Altitudinal transect study of the vegetation on Mount Kinabalu, Borneo. Vegetatio 102:149–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KUSCH, J., GOEDERT, C. & MEYER, M. 2005. Effects of patch type and food specializations on fine spatial scale community patterns of nocturnal forest associated Lepidoptera. Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera 38:67–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LEIBOLD, M. A. & MIKKELSON, G. M. 2002. Coherence, species turnover, and boundary clumping: elements of meta-community structure. Oikos 97:237–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LEIBOLD, M. A., HOLYOAK, M., MOUQUET, N., AMARASEKARE, P., CHASE, J. M., HOOPES, M. F., HOLT, R. D., SHURIN, J. B., LAW, R., TILMAN, D., LOREAU, M. & GONZALEZ, A. 2004. Metacommunity concept: a framework for multi-scale community ecology. Ecology Letters 7:601–613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LIEBERMAN, D., LIEBERMAN, M., PERALTA, R. & HARTSHORN, G. S. 1996. Tropical forest structure and composition on a large-scale altitudinal gradient in Costa Rica. Journal of Ecology 84:137–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LOVETT, J. C. 1996. Elevational and latitudinal changes in tree associations and diversity in the Eastern Arc mountains of Tanzania. Journal of Tropical Ecology 12:629–650.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LOVETT, J. C. 1998. Continuous change in Tanzanian moist forest tree communities with elevation. Journal of Tropical Ecology 14:719–722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MARTIN, P. H., SHERMAN, R. E. & FAHEY, T. J. 2007. Tropical montane forest ecostones: climate gradients, natural disturbance and vegetation zonation in the Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic. Journal of Biogeography 34:1792–1806.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MCGRODDY, M. & SILVER, W. L. 2000. Variations in belowground carbon storage and soil CO2 flux rates along a wet tropical climate gradient. Biotropica 32:614–624.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MCINTOSH, R. P. 1967. The continuum concept of vegetation. Botanical Review 33:130–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MCINTOSH, R. P. 1975. H. A. Gleason – ‘individualistic ecologist’ 1882–1975: his contribution to ecological theory. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 102:253–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PIELOU, E. C. & ROUTLEDGE, R. D. 1976. Salt marsh vegetation: latitude gradients in the zonation pattern. Oecologia 24:311–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RICHARDS, P. W. 1952. Tropical rain forest: an ecological study. (First edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 450 pp.Google Scholar
RICHARDS, P. W. 1996. Tropical rain forest: an ecological study. (Second edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 599 pp.Google Scholar
SCATENA, F. N. & LARSEN, M. C. 1991. Physical aspects of Hurricane Hugo in Puerto Rico. Biotropica 23:317–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SHIPLEY, B. & KEDDY, P. A. 1987. Individualistic and community-unit concepts as falsifiable hypotheses. Vegetatio 69:47–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SIEDERS, V. M. 1971. Geologic map of the El Yunque quadrangle, Puerto Rico. Miscellaneous Geological Investigation I-658. U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey, Washington.Google Scholar
SILVER, W. L., LUGO, A. E. & KELLER, M. 1999. Soil oxygen availability and biogeochemistry along rainfall and topographic gradients in upland wet tropical forest soils. Biogeochemistry 44:301–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SOKAL, R. R. & ROHLF, F. J. 1995. Biometry. (Third edition). W. H. Freeman & Co. New York. 887 pp.Google Scholar
THOMPSON, J., BROKAW, N., ZIMMERMAN, J. K., WAIDE, R. B., EVERHAM, E. M., LODGE, D. J., TAYLOR, C. M., GARCÍA-MONTIEL, D. & FLUET, M. 2002. Land use history, environment, and tree composition in a tropical forest. Ecological Applications 12:1344–1363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VÁZQUEZ, G. & GIVNISH, T. J. 1998. Altitudinal gradients in tropical forest composition, structure and diversity in the Sierra de Manantlán. Journal of Ecology 86:999–1020.Google Scholar
WALKER, L. R., BROKAW, N. V. L., LODGE, D. J. & WAIDE, R. B. 1991. Ecosystem, plant and animal responses to hurricanes in the Caribbean. Biotropica 23:313–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WEAVER, P. L. 1991. Environmental gradients affect forest composition in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico. Interciencia 16:142–151.Google Scholar
WHITTAKER, R. H. 1967. Gradient analysis of vegetation. Biological Reviews 42:207–264.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
WHITMORE, T. C. 1984. Tropical rain forests of the Far East. (Second edition). Clarendon Press, Oxford. 352 pp.Google Scholar
WOLDU, Z., FEOLI, E. & NIGATU, L. 1989. Partitioning an elevation gradient of vegetation from southeastern Ethiopia by probabilistic methods. Vegetatio 81:189–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WRIGHT, D. H. & REEVES, J. H. 1992. On the meaning and measurement of nestedness of species assemblages. Oecologia 92:416–428.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
ZIMMERMAN, J. K., EVERHAM, E. M., WAIDE, R. B., LODGE, D. J., TAYLOR, C. M. & BROKAW, N. V. L. 1994. Responses of tree species to hurricane winds in subtropical wet forest in Puerto Rico: implications for tropical tree life histories. Journal of Ecology 82:911–922.CrossRefGoogle Scholar