Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-17T05:03:29.964Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Geomorphic control of rain-forest floristic composition in French Guiana: more than a soil filtering effect?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2015

Stéphane Guitet ,
Vincent Freycon ,
Olivier Brunaux ,
Raphaël Pélissier ,
Daniel Sabatier  and
Pierre Couteron
Stéphane Guitet*
Affiliation:
IRD, UMR Amap, TA A51/PS2, 34398 Montpellier cedex 5, France ONF, R&D, Réserve de Montabo, BP7002, 97307 Cayenne cedex, Guyane Française
Vincent Freycon
Affiliation:
CIRAD, UR BSEF, Campus de Baillarguet, TA C37, 34398 Montpellier cedex 5, France
Olivier Brunaux
Affiliation:
ONF, R&D, Réserve de Montabo, BP7002, 97307 Cayenne cedex, Guyane Française
Raphaël Pélissier
Affiliation:
IRD, UMR Amap, TA A51/PS2, 34398 Montpellier cedex 5, France
Daniel Sabatier
Affiliation:
IRD, UMR Amap, TA A51/PS2, 34398 Montpellier cedex 5, France
Pierre Couteron
Affiliation:
IRD, UMR Amap, TA A51/PS2, 34398 Montpellier cedex 5, France
*
1Corresponding author. Email: stephane.guitet@cirad.fr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

The influence of geomorphological features on rain-forest diversity has been reported in different Amazonian regions. Soil filtering is often assumed to underlie the observed geomorphic control on the floristic composition but other hypotheses related to biogeography or long-term forest dynamics are also possible. We tested relationships between geomorphology, soil properties and forest composition in French Guiana rain forest using a recent geomorphological map and a large dataset comprising 3132 0.2-ha plots and 421 soil cores. Soil properties were characterized by laboratory analyses and by field descriptions indicating drainage capacity and classification according to the World Reference Base (WRB). The influence of soils and geomorphology on beta-diversity was tested using variance partitioning and ANOVA-like tests. Our results confirm the hypothesis of a strong relationship between geomorphological landscapes and soil properties. Soil filtering significantly influenced the abundance of more than 40 species or groups of species. However geomorphic control of forest composition involves much more than the effects of the soil, which only explain a minor part of the broad-scale patterns of forest diversity related to geomorphological landscapes. These results reinforce the alternative hypotheses linking geomorphological landscapes to long-term forest change under the control of historical processes that shaped forest diversity.

Keywords

beta-diversityedaphic filterfloristic compositiongeomorphologylimited dispersiontropical forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 22 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

BAIZE, D. & JABIOL, B. 1995. Guide pour la description des sols. Techniques et pratiques. INRA, Paris. 375 pp.Google Scholar
BARALOTO, C., HARDY, O. J., PAINE, C. E. T., DEXTER, K. G., CRUAUD, C., DUNNING, L. T., GONZALEZ, M. A., MOLINO, J. F., SABATIER, D., SAVOLAINEN, V. & CHAVE, J. 2012. Using functional traits and phylogenetic trees to examine the assembly of tropical tree communities. Journal of Ecology 100:690–701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BLAVET, D., MATHE, E. & LEPRUN, J.-C. 2000. Relations between soil colour and waterlogging duration in a representative hillside of the West African granito-gneissic bedrock. Catena 39:187–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BORCARD, D., GILLET, F. & LEGENDRE, P. 2011. Unconstrained ordination. Pp. 115–151 in Borcard, D., Gillet, F. & Legendre, P. (eds.). Numerical ecology with R. Springer, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BOULET, R. 1983. Organisation des couvertures pédologiques des bassins versants. Pp. 23–52 in GERDAT, (ed.). Le projet ECEREX (Guyane). Analyse de l'écosystème forestier tropical humide et des modifications apportées par l'homme. ORSTOM, Cayenne.Google Scholar
CHUST, G., CHAVE, J., CONDIT, R., AGUILAR, S., LAO, S. & PEREZ, R. 2006. Determinants and spatial modeling of tree beta-diversity in a tropical forest landscape in Panama. Journal of Vegetation Science 17:83–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
COUTERON, P. & PÉLISSIER, R. 2004. Additive apportioning of species diversity: towards more sophisticated models and analyses. Oikos 107:215–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
COUTERON, P., PÉLISSIER, R., MAPAGA, D., MOLINO, J. F. & TEILLIER, L. 2003. Drawing ecological insights from a management-oriented forest inventory in French Guiana. Forest Ecology and Management 172:89–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FAYOLLE, A., ENGELBRECHT, B., FREYCON, V., MORTIER, F., SWAINE, M., REJOU-MECHAIN, M., DOUCET, J. L., FAUVET, N., CORNU, G. & GOURLET-FLEURY, S. 2012. Geological substrates shape tree species and trait distributions in African moist forests. PLoS ONE 7:e42381.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
FERRY, B., FREYCON, V. & PAGET, D. 2003. Genesis and water regime of soils on a crystalline base in French Guiana. Revue Forestière Française 55:37–59.Google Scholar
FIGUEIREDO, F. O. G., COSTA, F. R. C., NELSON, B. W. & PIMENTEL, T. P. 2014. Validating forest types based on geological and land-form features in central Amazonia. Journal of Vegetation Science 25:198–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FINE, P. V. A., GARCIA-VILLACORTA, R., PITMAN, N. C. A., MESONES, I. & KEMBEL, S. W. 2010. A floristic study of the white-sand forests of Peru. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 97:283–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FORTUNEL, C., PAINE, C., FINE, P. V., KRAFT, N. J. & BARALOTO, C. 2014. Environmental factors predict community functional composition in Amazonian forests. Jounal of Ecology 102:145–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FRITSCH, E., BOCQUIER, G., BOULET, R., DOSSO, M. & HUMBEL, F. X. 1986. Transformation systems in a ferrallitic mantle in French Guiana. Structural analysis and representation. Cahiers ORSTOM., Pédologie 22:361–395.Google Scholar
FRITSCH, E., HERBILLON, A., DO NASCIMENTO, N., GRIMALDI, M. & MELFI, A. 2007. From Plinthic Acrisols to Plinthosols and Gleysols: iron and groundwater dynamics in the tertiary sediments of the upper Amazon basin. European Journal of Soil Science 58:989–1006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GUITET, S., CORNU, J. F., BRUNAUX, O., BETBEDER, J., CAROZZA, J. M. & RICHARD-HANSEN, C. 2013. Landform and landscape mapping, French Guiana (South America). Journal of Maps 9:325–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GUITET, S., SABATIER, D., BRUNAUX, O., HERAULT, B., AUBRY-KIENTZ, M., MOLINO, J. F. & BARALOTO, C. 2014. Estimating tropical tree diversity indices from forestry surveys: a method to integrate taxonomic uncertainty. Forest Ecology and Management 328:270–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GUITET, S., PÉLISSIER, R., BRUNAUX, O., JAOUEN, G. & SABATIER, D. 2015. Geomorphological landscape features explain floristic patterns in French Guiana rainforest. Biodiversity and Conservation 24:1215–1237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HAFFER, J. 2008. Hypotheses to explain the origin of species in Amazonia. Brazilian Journal of Biology 68:917–947.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
HAMMOND, D. S. 2005. Guianan forest dynamics: geomorphographic control and tropical forest change across diverging landscapes. Pp. 343–379 in Hammond, D. S. (ed.). Tropical forests of the Guiana shield: ancient forests in a modern world. CABI Publishing, Wallingford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HARDY, O. J., COUTERON, P., MUNOZ, F., RAMESH, B. & PÉLISSIER, R. 2012. Phylogenetic turnover in tropical tree communities: impact of environmental filtering, biogeography and mesoclimatic niche conservatism. Global Ecology and Biogeography 21:1007–1016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HAUGAASEN, T. & PERES, C. A. 2006. Floristic, edaphic and structural characteristics of flooded and unflooded forests in the lower Rio Purús region of central Amazonia, Brazil. Acta Amazonica 36:25–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HIGGINS, M. A., RUOKOLAINEN, K., TUOMISTO, H., LLERENA, N., CARDENAS, G., PHILLIPS, O. L., VASQUEZ, R. & RÄSÄNEN, M. 2011. Geological control of floristic composition in Amazonian forests. Journal of Biogeography 38:2136–2149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
HOLLANDER, M. & WOLFE, D. 1973. A distribution-free test. Kruskal–Wallis. Pp. 115–120 in Hollander, M., Wolfe, D. & Chicken, E. (eds.). Nonparametric statistical methods. J. Wiley & Sons, New York.Google Scholar
IUSS (Working Group WRB). 2014. World reference base for soil resources 2014. International soil classification system for naming soils and creating legends for soil maps. World Soil Resources Reports No. 106. FAO, Rome. 181 pp.Google Scholar
LEGENDRE, P. & LEGENDRE, L. 1998. Numerical ecology. Second English edition. Developments in Environmental Modelling Volume 20. Elsevier, Amsterdam. 853 pp.Google Scholar
LEIBOLD, M. A., HOLYOAK, M., MOUQUET, N., AMARASEKARE, P., CHASE, J. M., HOOPES, M. F., HOLT, R. D., SHURIN, J. B., LAW, R., TILMAN, D., LOREAU, M. & GONZALEZ, A. 2004. The metacommunity concept: a framework for multiscale community ecology. Ecology Letters 7:601–613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MIGON, P. 2009. Are any granite landscapes distinctive of the humid tropics? Reconsidering multiconvex topographies. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 30:327–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MORNEAU, F. 2007. Effet d'un gradient d'engorgement hydrique sur la structure et la dynamique d'une forêt tropicale humide. Paracou (Guyane française). PhD thesis, ENGREF, Nancy. 241 pp.Google Scholar
MUNOZ, F., RAMESH, B. R. & COUTERON, P. 2014. How do habitat filtering and niche conservatism affect community composition at different taxonomic resolutions? Ecology 95:2179–2191.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
PAGET, D. 1999. Etude de la diversité spatiale des écosystèmes forestiers guyanais. PhD thesis, ENGREF, Nancy. 155 pp.Google Scholar
PÉLISSIER, R. & COUTERON, P. 2007. An operational, additive framework for species diversity partitioning and beta-diversity analysis. Journal of Ecology 95:294–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PÉLISSIER, R., DRAY, S. & SABATIER, D. 2002. Within-plot relationships between tree species occurrences and hydrological soil constraints: an example in French Guiana investigated through canonical correlation analysis. Plant Ecology 162:143–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PÉLISSIER, R., COUTERON, P., DRAY, S. & SABATIER, D. 2003. Consistency between ordination techniques and diversity measurements: two strategies for species occurrence data. Ecology 84:242–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PHILLIPS, O. L., VARGAS, P. N., MONTEAGUDO, A. L., CRUZ, A. P., ZANS, M. E. C., SANCHEZ, W. G., YLI-HALLA, M. & ROSE, S. 2003. Habitat association among Amazonian tree species: a landscape-scale approach. Journal of Ecology 91:757–775.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
QUESADA, C., LLOYD, J., ANDERSON, L., FYLLAS, N., SCHWARZ, M. & CZIMCZIK, C. 2011. Soils of Amazonia with particular reference to the RAINFOR sites. Biogeosciences 8:1415–1440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RÉJOU-MÉCHAIN, M., PÉLISSIER, R., GOURLET-FLEURY, S., COUTERON, P., NASI, R. & THOMPSON, J. D. 2008. Regional variation in tropical forest tree species composition in the Central African Republic: an assessment based on inventories by forest companies. Journal of Tropical Ecology 24:663–674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RÉJOU-MÉCHAIN, M., FAYOLLE, A., NASI, R., GOURLET-FLEURY, S., DOUCET, J. L., GALLY, M., HUBERT, D., PASQUIER, A. & BILLAND, A. 2011. Detecting large-scale diversity patterns in tropical trees: can we trust commercial forest inventories? Forest Ecology and Management 261:187–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RÉJOU-MÉCHAIN, M., MULLER-LANDAU, H., DETTO, M., THOMAS, S., LE TOAN, T., SAATCHI, S., BARETTO-SILVA, J. S., BOURG, N. A., BUNYAVEJCHEWIN, S. & BUTT, N. 2014. Local spatial structure of forest biomass and its consequences for remote sensing of carbon stocks Biogeosciences Discussions 11:5711–5742.Google Scholar
SABATIER, D., GRIMALDI, M., PREVOST, M. F., GUILLAUME, J., GODRON, M., DOSSO, M. & CURMI, P. 1997. The influence of soil cover organization on the floristic and structural heterogeneity of a Guianan rain forest. Plant Ecology 131:81–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SOLLINS, P. 1998. Factors influencing species composition in tropical lowland rain forest: does soil matter? Ecology 79:23–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SOMBROEK, W. 2000. Amazon landforms and soils in relation to biological diversity. Acta Amazonica 30:81–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
STROPP, J., VAN DER SLEEN, P., ASSUNÇAO, P. A., DA SILVA, A. L. & TER STEEGE, H. 2011. Tree communities of white-sand and terra-firme forests of the upper Rio Negro. Acta Amazonica 41:521–544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TER STEEGE, H., JETTEN, V., POLAK, M. & WERGER, M. 1993. Tropical rain forest types and soils of a watershed in Guyana, South America. Journal of Vegetation Science 4:705–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TER STEEGE, H., ATDN (Amazon Tree Diversity Network) & RAINFOR. 2010. Contribution of current and historical processes to patterns of tree diversity and composition of the Amazon. Pp. 349–359 in Hoorn, C. & Wesselingh, F. (eds.), Amazonia, landscape and species evolution: a look into the past. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
THOMAS, M. F. 2012. Geodiversity and landscape sensitivity: a geomorphological perspective. Scottish Geographical Journal 128:195–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TORRENT, J., SCHWERTMANN, U., FECHTER, H. & ALFEREZ, F. 1983. Quantitative relationships between soil color and hematite content. Soil Science 136:354–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VLEMINCKX, J., DROUET, T., AMANI, C., LISINGO, J., LEJOLY, J. & HARDY, O. J. 2015. Impact of fine‐scale edaphic heterogeneity on tree species assembly in a central African rainforest. Journal of Vegetation Science 26:134–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WIENS, J. J. & GRAHAM, C. H. 2005. Niche conservatism: integrating evolution, ecology, and conservation biology. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 36:519–539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WILLS, S. A., BURRAS, C. L. & SANDOR, J. A. 2007. Prediction of soil organic carbon content using field and laboratory measurements of soil color. Soil Science Society of America Journal 71:380–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WITTMANN, F., HOUSEHOLDER, E., PIEDADE, M. T., DE ASSIS, R. L., SCHÖNGART, J., PAROLIN, P. & JUNK, W. J. 2013. Habitat specificity, endemism and the neotropical distribution of Amazonian white‐water floodplain trees. Ecography 36:690–707.CrossRefGoogle Scholar