Floristic Composition, Diversity, and Biomass of a Protected Tropical Evergreen Forest Belize

Abstract

A challenge in community ecology is the development of ecosystem baselines, allowing the assessment of the variation in the ecological dynamics through different temporal and spatial scales. To our best knowledge, no studies have been carried out in seasonal evergreen forests of Belize to establish a baseline for future monitoring. Hence, a floristic study of the woody plant species diversity and composition was carried out at the Billy Barquedier National Park (BBNP) to develop an ecosystemic baseline for the assessment of the originally implemented conservation strategies. A thorough floristic survey was performed from May to August 2015 in 42 rectangular plots (500 m 2) randomly allocated along the 100 to 500 m elevation gradient of the BBNP. Species richness, diversity, composition, and aboveground biomass were assessed. Likewise, information of a series of indicators on protection and risk situation (e.g., IUCN Red List of threatened species, CITES categories), and restoration for each relevant species are also provided. The BBNP is an important forest with 67 woody species distributed in 30 plant families. Terminalia amazona and Corozo palm Attalea cohune are the most important species in the reserve, in terms of abundance, frequency, and biomass. A clear trend between biodiversity metrics, elevation, and aboveground biomass was noted. This study contributes to understand relevant ecological topics as well as provides key elements for the management and conservation of the BBNP area and Belize.

Influence of soil physicochemical parameters on species composition and structure in the Togo Plateau Forest Reserve in Ghana

“…The statistical parameters including mean, minimum, maximum, standard deviation and coefficient of variation (CV) of the 16 soil physicochemical parameters was obtained using ANOVA [13]. To compare means of vegetative parameters (density, richness, Shannon Diversity, Evenness and BA) along the plateau and across the study communities, SPSS (p>0.05, p>0.01) was used [5]. The influence of soil physico-chemical properties on species composition and structure was determined employing Canonical Correspondence Analysis using R-Software Version 4.0.3 [5].…”

“…To compare means of vegetative parameters (density, richness, Shannon Diversity, Evenness and BA) along the plateau and across the study communities, SPSS (p>0.05, p>0.01) was used [5]. The influence of soil physico-chemical properties on species composition and structure was determined employing Canonical Correspondence Analysis using R-Software Version 4.0.3 [5].…”

“…This may be due to the communities exhibiting a distinct soil types that result in habitat differentiation [2]. Soil characterization have been well documented as the main factor that influences plant diversity in landscapes [7,14,5,8]. Trees for instance have been documented to have a strong positive correlation with diversity under favourable environmental conditions [8].…”

“…Soil physico-chemical parameters and vegetation are reportedly linked [7,14,5,8], in the sense that soils play a major role in the heterogeneity of habitats, thus contributing to physiognomic differentiation of vegetation and ultimately changes the composition and structure of species across landscape sites [6,14], and also gives support (moisture, nutrient, and anchorage) for vegetation to thrive. Vegetation however, provides protective cover for soil, suppresses soil erosion, and helps to maintain soil nutrient through litter accumulation and subsequent decay (nutrient cycling) [7,14,11].…”

“…Vegetation however, provides protective cover for soil, suppresses soil erosion, and helps to maintain soil nutrient through litter accumulation and subsequent decay (nutrient cycling) [7,14,11]. Soil-Species correlation studies must be the first step in understanding the diversity and ecology of plateau ecosystems [1,5], because knowledge of the diversity and ecological needs of the species will provide a clue in developing the species particularly species growing in special locations across plateau fringed communities [8,14]. And also aid in the soil-vegetation ecosystem model development [10,13].…”