Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:35:34.707Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Plant successional pathways on Puerto Rican landslides

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Randall W. Myster  and
Lawrence R. Walker
Randall W. Myster
Affiliation:
Institute of Tropical Ecosystem Studies, University of Puerto Rico, P.O. Box 363682, San Juan, PR 00936, USA.
Lawrence R. Walker
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To study regeneration on landslides, we counted the number of woody stems at least 1 m tall in 2 m × 5 m permanent plots on Puerto Rican landslides for 5 y and generated successional pathways for all plots in 16 different landslides using principal components analysis (PCA). PCA separated plots well, with early successional plant species (Cecropia schreberiana, Schefflera morolotoni, Alchornea latifolia, Gonzalagunia spicata) positively associated with axes I and II, and the negative portion of axis II associated with a mix of those species and mid-successional species (Inga vera, Piper glabrescens). Pathways generally showed (1) a positive association with axis I in early succession, (2) a negative association with both I and II later in succession, (3) little evidence of a decrease in the rate of succession, and (4) a lack of convergence of pathways over the 5 y of our study.

Keywords

Luquillo Experimental Forestprincipal components analysisconvergencesuccessional rateCecropiaScheffleraAlchomeaGonzplaguniaIngaPiper
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , March 1997 , pp. 165 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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

Austin, M. P. 1977. Use of ordination and other multivariate descriptive methods to study succession. Vegetatio 35:165–175.Google Scholar
Crow, T. R. 1980. A rainforest chronicle: a 30-year record of change in structure and composition at El Verde, Puerto Rico. Biotropica 12:42–55.Google Scholar
Dalling, J. W. 1994. Vegetation colonization of landslides in the Blue Mountains, Jamaica. Biotropica 26:392–399.Google Scholar
Devoe, N. N. 1989. Differential seeding and regeneration in openings and beneath closed canopy in sub-tropical wet forest. PhD dissertation, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.Google Scholar
Ewel, J. J. & Whitmore, J. L. 1973. The ecological life zones of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. U.S. Forest Service Research paper lit-18. Institute of Tropical Forestry, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico.Google Scholar
Fernández, D. S. & Myster, R. W. 1995. Temporal variation and frequency distribution of photosynthetic photon flux densities on landslides in Puerto Rico. Tropical Ecology 36:73–87.Google Scholar
Fetcher, N., Haines, B. L., Cordero, R. A., Lodge, D. J., Walker, L. R., Fernández, D. S. & Lawrence, W. T. 1996. Responses of tropical plants to nutrients and light on a landslide in Puerto Rico. Journal of Ecology 84:331–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
García-Montiel, D. C. & Scatena, F. N. 1994. The effect of human activity on the structure and composition of a tropical forest in Puerto Rico. Forest Ecology and Management 63:57–78.Google Scholar
Garwood, N. C., Janos, D. P. & Brokaw, N. 1979. Earthquake-caused landslides: a major disturbance to tropical forests. Science 205:997–999.Google Scholar
Guariguata, M. R. 1990. Landslide disturbance and forest regeneration in the upper Luquillo mountains of Puerto Rico. Journal of Ecology 78:814–832.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guariguata, M. R. & Larsen, M. C. 1990. Preliminary map showing locations of landslides in El Yunque Quadrangle, Puerto Rico. U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 89–257.Google Scholar
Hartshorn, G. S. 1980. Neotropical forest dynamics. Biotropica 12 (suppl.):23–30.Google Scholar
Hill, M. O. & Gauch, H. G. Jr. 1980. Detrended correspondence analysis: an improved ordination technique. Vegetatio 42:47–58.Google Scholar
Horn, H. S. 1976. Succession. Pp. 253–325 in May, R. M. (ed.). Theoretical ecology. Saunders, Philadelphia. 489 pp.Google Scholar
Hubbell, S. P. & Foster, R. B. 1986. Biology, chance, and history and the structure of tropical rain forest tree communities. Pp. 314–329 in Diamond, J. & Case, T. J. (eds). Community ecology. Harper and Row, New York. 665 pp.Google Scholar
Hupp, C. R. 1983. Seedling establishment on a landslide site. Castanea 48:89–98.Google Scholar
Liogier, H. A. & Martorell, L. F. 1982. Flora of Puerto Rico and adjacent islands: a systematic synopsis. Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, PR.Google Scholar
Lugo, A. E. 1970. Photosynthetic studies on four speices of rain forest seedlings. Pp. I 81–102 in Odum, H. T. & Pigeon, R. F. (eds). A tropical rainforest. Office of Information Services, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.Google Scholar
Lundgren, L. 1978. Studies of soil and vegetation development, on fresh landslide scars in the Western Ulugura Mountains, Tanzania. Geografiskaannaler 60:91–127.Google Scholar
Myster, R. W. & Fernández, D. S. 1995. Spatial grandients and patch structure on two Puerto Rican landslides. Biotropica 27:149–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myster, R. W. & Pickett, S. T. A. 1990. Initial conditions, history and successional pathways in ten contrasting old fields. American Midland Naturalist 124:125–133.Google Scholar
Myster, R. W. & Pickett, S. T. A. 1994. A comparison of rate of succession over 18 years in ten contrasting old fields. Ecology 75:387–392.Google Scholar
Pickett, S. T. A. & White, P. S. 1985. The ecology of natural disturbance and patch dynamics. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida. 472 pp.Google Scholar
Pielou, E. C. 1984. The interpretation of ecological data: a primer on classification and ordination. Wiley, New York. 263 pp.Google Scholar
SAS 1985. User's Guide: Statistics, Ver. 5. SAS Institute Inc. Cary, NC. 956 pp.Google Scholar
Smith, R. F. 1970. The vegetation structure of a Puerto Rican rainforest before and after short-term gamma irradiation. Pp. D 103–104 in Odum, H. T. & Pigeon, R. F. (eds). A tropical rainforest. Office of Information Services, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.Google Scholar
Sousa, W. P. 1984. The role of disturbance in natural communities. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 15:353–391.Google Scholar
Viera, I. E. P. 1986. Tree regeneration in two tropical rain forests. MS thesis. Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras.Google Scholar
Waide, R. B. & Lugo, A. E. 1992. A research perspective on disturbance and recovery of a tropical montane forest. Pp. 173–190 in Goldammer, J. (ed.). Tropical forests in transition: ecology of natural and anthropogenic disturbance processes. Berkhauser-Verlag.Google Scholar
Walker, L. R. 1994. Effects of fern thickets on woodland development on landslides in Puerto Rico. fournal of Vegetation Science 5:525–532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, L. R. & Neris, L. E. 1993. Posthurricane seed rain dynamics in Puerto Rico. Biotropica 25:408–418.Google Scholar
Walker, L. R., Zarin, D. J., Fetcher, N., Myster, R. W. & Johnson, A. H. In press. Ecosystem development and plant succession on landslides in the Caribbean. Biotropica.Google Scholar
Wartenberg, D., Ferson, S. & Rohlf, F. J. 1987. Putting things in order: a critique of detrended correspondence analysis. American Naturalist 129:434–448.Google Scholar
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 of tropical tree life histories, foumal of Ecology 82:911–922.Google Scholar