Diversity and distribution of the Myristicaceae family of plants in terra firme and seasonally flooded forests in Madre de Dios, Peru
2007
Thesis
84
Texas Christian University
Fort Worth, USA
Los Amigos;plants;Myristicaceae;geographic distribution;habitat preferences;trees;permanent plot
The diversity, richness and abundance of the Myristicaceae family of plants were assessed in a tropical moist forest in Madre de Dios, Peru. There were 15 species among three genera, Iryanthera, Otoba and Virola at the Los Amigos Conservation Concession. Using a novel mapping technique, geographic coordinates were assigned to 9026 individual trees (≥ 0.5 m in height) in approximately 30 hectares of forest. All mapped trees were identified to species, and measured for biometric parameters such as DBH (diameter at breast height) and height, and a voucher specimen was collected with duplicates deposited at various herbaria. These georeferenced data were used to analyze preferred association with one of the two major habitats, seasonally flooded forests (SFF) and terra firme forests (TFF), and used to analyze spatial patterns of distribution adhering to either a random, uniform or clumped distributions.