A checklist of the vascular plants of the lowland savannas of Belize, Central America

Goodwin, Zoë A.; Lopez, German; Stuart, Neil; Bridgewater, S.; Haston, Elspeth; Cameron, Iain; Michelakis, Dimitrios; Ratter, J. A.; Furley, Peter A.; Kay, Elma; Whitefoord, Caroline; Solomon, James C.; Lloyd, Adam J.; Harris, David J.

doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.101.1.1

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Pine (Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis) forms low density wood clusters (10%-~65% canopy cover) within the savanna landscape, while other woody vegetation, such as Palms (Acoelorrhaphe wrightii) and shrubs (Byrsonima crassifolia), are often evident and usually scattered through the grass landscape [40]. The national ecosystems map of Belize classifies the lowland savannas into three UNESCO classes ( Figure 1C and Figure 1D).…”

Section: Description Of the Lowland Savanna Ecosystemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local-Scale Mapping of Biomass in Tropical Lowland Pine Savannas Using ALOS PALSAR

Michelakis

Stuart

Lopez

et al. 2014

Forests

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Fine-scale biomass maps offer forest managers the prospect of more detailed and locally accurate information for measuring, reporting and verification activities in contexts, such as sustainable forest management, carbon stock assessments and ecological studies of forest growth and change. In this study, we apply a locally validated method for estimating aboveground woody biomass (AGWB) from Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array-type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) data to produce an AGWB map for the lowland pine savannas of Belize at a spatial resolution of 100 m. Over 90% of these woodlands are predicted to have an AGWB below 60 tha −1 , with the average woody biomass of these savannas estimated at 23.5 tha −1 . By overlaying these spatial estimates upon previous thematic mapping of national land cover, we derive representative average biomass values of ~32 tha −1 and ~18 tha −1 for the previously qualitative classes of "denser" and "less dense" tree savannas. The predicted average biomass, from the mapping for savannas woodlands occurring within two of Belize's larger protected areas, agree closely with previous biomass estimates for these areas based on ground surveys and forest inventories (error ≤20%). However, biomass estimates derived for these protected areas from two biomass maps produced at coarser resolutions (500 m and 1000 m) from global datasets overestimated biomass (errors ≥275% in each dataset). OPEN ACCESSForests 2014, 5 2378The finer scale biomass mapping of both protected and unprotected areas provides evidence to suggest that protection has a positive effect upon woody biomass, with the mean AGWB higher in areas protected and managed for biodiversity (protected and passively managed (PRPM), 29.5 tha −1 ) compared to unprotected areas (UPR, 23.29 tha −1 ).These findings suggest that where sufficient ground data exists to build a reliable local relationship to radar backscatter, the more detailed biomass mapping that can be produced from ALOS and similar satellite data at resolutions of ~100 m provides more accurate and spatially detailed information that is more appropriate for supporting the management of forested areas of ~10,000 ha than biomass maps that can be produced from lower resolution, but freely available global data sets.

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Section: Description Of the Lowland Savanna Ecosystemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local-Scale Mapping of Biomass in Tropical Lowland Pine Savannas Using ALOS PALSAR

Michelakis

Stuart

Lopez

et al. 2014

Forests

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“…The parent materials represent various phases of siliceous alluvium eroded from igneous crystalline and sedimentary rocks of the Maya Mountains, possibly late Tertiary‐Pleistocene in age (King et al., ; Wright et al., ). This ancient detritus is believed to have been deposited as outwash over the undulating northern and central plains (Figure b) and is coincident with areas of characteristic savanna vegetation (Goodwin et al., ). The deposits overlie weathered limestone at extremely variable depths giving a range of soils supporting typical savanna to semi‐evergreen forest, depending upon the proximity of the calcareous parent materials to the surface (Figure a).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The nature and spatial variability of lowland savanna soils: Improving the resolution of soil properties to support land management policy

Donoghue

Furley

Stuart

et al. 2019

Soil Use and Management

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A fresh approach is presented to address the increasingly urgent need for alternative land management strategies in savannas. We illustrate how fine‐scale information of soil characteristics can be used to enable a more precise delimitation of sites suitable for different forms of land stewardship, including agro‐pastoral activities, forestry, biodiversity and tourism. By collating data from previous soil surveys, and augmenting this with targeted new surveys, we produce the first national data set of soil properties for the lowland savannas of Belize. Most of these soils are typical of savanna soils worldwide, that is acidic (mean surface pH = 5.7), nutrient‐poor (mean surface total exchangeable bases [TEB] = 3.4 cmol kg−1) and coarse‐textured (mean surface clay = 13.0%). Nevertheless, there is a marked spatial variability across the country in these soil properties. Some soils exhibit unusually high subsurface clay fractions (max = 73%), whilst other sites have exceptionally high pH in lower horizons (max = 8.4). Cluster analysis is used to group sites with similar soil properties. Across 79 sites, there is a clear division between soils with high clay percentages and those with coarser textures. These are sub‐divided into five groups based on further differences in parent material, chemical properties and site characteristics. Mapping the locations of these groups enables more specific land use recommendations to be made. This ability to make targeted land use recommendations from fine‐scale soil information represents an advance over the previous national land use policy, where all savanna lands were considered unsuitable for any form of agriculture. This approach could be applied to marginal savannas worldwide.

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“…La flora leñosa registrada denota una afinidad neotropical típi-ca de hábitats inundables, ya que comparten Table 1. los géneros de mayor dominancia (e. g. Byrsonima, Cameraria, Crescentia, Dalbergia, Haematoxylum y Terminalia) con sabanas y bosques inundables de tierras bajas en Centroamérica y Brasil (Ellison, 2004;Junk, Piedade, Wittmann, Schöngart, & Parolin, 2010;Goodwin et al, 2013). La estructura del BTI estudiado se caracterizó por la dominancia de las clases menores de diámetros y de alturas, lo cual es similar a lo reportado para la mayoría de bosques tropicales del sureste de México y Centroamérica (Pennington et al, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionunclassified

Diversidad, estructura y afinidades florísticas de un bosque temporalmente inundable de la Península de Yucatán

Albor-Pinto

Tun‐Garrido

Ortíz-Díaz

2017

RBT

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Diversity, structure and floristic affinities of a temporarily flooded forest of the Yucatan Peninsula. Temporarily flooded forests (TFF's) are among the most endangered tree communities in Southeast Mexico and in a contradictory way among the least known in terms of their diversity. Therefore, the aim of this study was to characterize the richness, diversity (Shannon-Wiener) and dominance (relative importance value; RIV) of a TFF of the Yucatan Peninsula, and evaluate its floristic affinities with other TFF's and upland forests (UF's) of Southeast Mexico. A sampling method based on 10 quadrants of 10 x 20 m (2 000 m 2 ) was used to record all woody individuals with diameter ≥ 1 cm and height ≥ 1.5 m. A floristic similarity analysis was used including 192 genera of woody plants belonging to TFF's and UF's of the Yucatan and Tabasco TFF's. A Mantel correlation test was performed to determine if the geographic distance has effect on the floristic similarities between TFF's and UF´s of the Yucatan peninsula. The TFF under study was characterized with a low level of diversity (2.79) and species richness (56), and a high dominance level (52.3 % of RIV in five species). Dominant species such as Haematoxylum campechianum, Dalbergia glabra, Cameraria latifolia, Byrsonima crassifolia, Crescentia cujete and Terminalia buceras showed a floristic neotropical affinity typical of floodable habitats. The structure of the community was characterized by an inverted "J" pattern for the distribution of individuals in the diametric and height classes. The high density of woody lianas, mainly of Dalbergia glabra (22 % of the recorded individuals) suggested an optimal state of conservation of the studied area. The floristic similarity analysis revealed that most of TFF's in Yucatan Peninsula were grouped with high similarity (55 %) independently of the adjacent UF's; however, TFF´s resulted similar among them (36 % similarity) when compared with TFF's from other regions (16 % similarity). According to the Mantel test, the similarity between sites is not influenced by its geographical proximity (r = -0.098, p>0.05). This emphasizes the need to generate conservation strategies for the TFF's of the Yucatan peninsula independently from other regions of Southeast Mexico. Our results suggest that the TFF of the studied region has a similar diversity from other TFF's in Southeast Mexico, a different floristic composition compared with adjacent UF's and a structure with an optimal conservation status, characteristics that indicate their importance for the regional flora conservation. Further ecological studies are needed to build a solid foundation for management and conservation for the TFF's. Rev. Biol. Trop. 65 (3): 868-880. Epub 2017 September 01.

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A checklist of the vascular plants of the lowland savannas of Belize, Central America

Cited by 19 publications

References 14 publications

Local-Scale Mapping of Biomass in Tropical Lowland Pine Savannas Using ALOS PALSAR

Local-Scale Mapping of Biomass in Tropical Lowland Pine Savannas Using ALOS PALSAR

The nature and spatial variability of lowland savanna soils: Improving the resolution of soil properties to support land management policy

Diversidad, estructura y afinidades florísticas de un bosque temporalmente inundable de la Península de Yucatán

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