Gallery forest types and their environmental correlates in a Colombian savanna landscape

Abstract

J. 2005. Gallery forest types and their environmental correlates in a Colombian savanna landscape. Á/ Ecography 28: 236 Á/252.Savanna regions may contain significant areas of forest, usually in riparian environments. We described forest composition and quantified environmental variables for 80 plots in the watershed of the Yucao River (2550 km 2 ), a tributary to the Meta River (Orinoco basin) in the eastern plains of Colombia. The total sampled area of 3.2 ha contained 147 tree species (110 genera and 45 families) with diameter at breast height /5 cm. The families represented by most species were Leguminosae (15 species), Arecaceae (11 species), Rubiaceae (9), Chrysobalanaceae (7), Euphorbiaceae (7), Melastomataceae (7) and Myrtaceae (7). Although most of the tree species have wide distribution ranges in humid neotropical forests, and few are endemic to the region, comparison with other neotropical forests suggests that the combination of taxa is characteristic for neotropical gallery forests. Cluster analysis allowed the definition of five forest types. They show important differences in a number of environmental variables, especially those related to inundation regimes and soil properties. Canonical correspondence analysis indicates good correlation of the first ordination axis with the size of the stream with which the forest is associated, the height to which the water rises during floods and variables related to soil fertility. The second ordination axis differentiates between soils with high or low water content in the dry season, high or low organic matter content and low or high bulk density. The results demonstrate the role of spatial variability and interactions of floodplain morphology, hydrological regime, and soil properties in structuring this important riparian community. E. J. Veneklaas

Tree Species Composition, Structure, and Aboveground Wood Biomass of a Riparian Forest of the Lower Miranda River, Southern Pantanal, Brazil

“…In seasonally flooded Neotropical forests, richness and composition of arboreal comunities vary along the flooding gradient with its associated geomorphologic and pedologic variables, e.g., in the Orinoco basin (Godoy et al 1999), in Amazonian floodplain forests (Ferreira 1997;Wittmann et al 2006a), and in riparian forests of Neotropical savanna (e.g., Cerrado) regions (Oliveira-Filho et al 1994;Metzger et al 1997;Veneklaas et al 2005). Structure and biomass of these forests is linked to the topographic position of forest stands and varies as a function of site colonization, stand age (forest succession) and frequency of natural habitat disturbance (Salo et al 1986;Terborgh and Petren 1991;Worbes et al 1992).…”

Caída y descomposición de hojarasca en los bosques ribereños del manantial de Cañaverales, Guajira, Colombia

“…Estos albergan gran variedad de especies vegetales protectoras, proporcionan refugio para diversos organismos, retardan el escurrimiento (Depettris et al, 1992;Ceccon, 2003), modulan el balance entre erosión y sedimentación, participan en la acumulación y transferencia de nutrientes, constituyen la solución más eficiente para reducir la contaminación difusa (Naiman et al, 2005;Veneklaas et al, 2005), entre otras funciones (Klinge et al,1983;Herrera, 1985).…”

Características funcionais de folhas de sol e sombra de espécies arbóreas em uma mata de galeria no Distrito Federal, Brasil

“…A disponibilidade de água para as plantas de mata de galeria é bastante variável e as características físicas dos solos determinam diferentes graus de umidade, ocorrência e duração do período de alagamento (Veneklaas et al 2005). Porém, há uma tendência de menor variação sazonal na disponibilidade hídrica nas matas de galeria do que nas áreas de savana circundantes (Oliveira-Filho & Ratter 2002); isto se deve não só a maior proximidade de fontes de água, mas também à maior quantidade de matéria orgânica nos solos, o que confere geralmente uma estrutura física com maior capacidade de retenção de água e de capacidade de troca catiônica (Haridasan 1998).…”