U.S.-Ecuador Doctoral Dissertation: Large-scale Tree Species Distributions and Habitat Associations in Amazonia; Testing Theories of Tropical Forest Community Structure

9813827Terborgh这个美洲项目奖将资助Nigel Pitman先生在杜克大学John Terborgh博士的指导下，进行一项关于亚马逊地区大型树种分布和栖息地关联的研究。他们计划对厄瓜多尔亚马逊流域一个非常多样化的森林进行多尺度的调查，目的是与秘鲁亚马逊流域一个较少多样性的森林的现有调查数据进行比较。这两个地点在土壤、海拔和降雨量方面大致相当，尽管秘鲁地点的气候更具季节性，而厄瓜多尔地点的树种明显更丰富。该项目的目标是产生关于热带森林多样性的足够信息，以确定为什么靠近赤道的热带森林比其他地方的热带森林更多样化，以及一个物种的个体与单一森林类型的联系是否比在随机分布下的预期程度更高。来自已标准化分类鉴定的地块的数据将用于分析。该项目将为研究过的两个最丰富的植物群落提供α、β和γ多样性的估计。它将为热带树木群落如何运作的想法提供新的大规模测试。它还将提供有关数百种单个树种的丰富度和分布的基本信息，这些信息将对负责保护这些快速消失的生态系统的自然资源保护主义者和管理人员有直接的帮助。* * *

9813827TerborghThis Americas Program award will fund a dissertation enhancement grant for Mr. Nigel Pitman, under the direction of Dr. John Terborgh, Duke University, for a study on large-scale tree species distributions and habitat associations in Amazonia. They plan a multi-scale inventory of a very diverse forest in Amazonian Ecuador, designed for comparison to existing inventory data from a less diverse forest in Amazonian Peru. The two sites are roughly equivalent in soils, elevation, and rainfall, though the climate at the Peruvian site is more seasonal while the Ecuadorean site is significantly richer in tree species. The goal of this project is to generate enough information about diversity of tropical forests to determine why tropical forests close to the equator are more diverse than those elsewhere, and whether individuals of a species are associated with a single forest type to a higher degree than would be expected under a random distribution. Data from plots in which taxonomic identifications have been standardized will be used for the analyses. The project will provide estimates of alpha-, beta-, and gamma-diversity for two of the richest plant communities ever studied. It will provide new large-scale tests of ideas about how tropical tree communities function. It will also provide basic information about the abundance and distribution of hundreds of individual tree species that will be of immediate use to the conservationists and managers charged with preserving these fast-disappearing ecosystems. . ***