Fire in gallery forests

Historical records of burning, field observations, and a manipulation experiment were used to evaluate the extent and impact of fire in a system of gallery forests in the Mountain Pine Ridge savanna, Belize. The outer boundaries of gallery forests are fire-prone zones, but fires rarely intrude into these forests. This is attributed to the existence of fire-tolerant trees in the outher zone, which preserve a forest interior of low flammability. Occasional fire incursions are patchily distributed and partially inhibited by slope convexities. Intrusions consumer litter and root mats and destroy seedlings and samplings, but create a wide variety of subsequent light regimes depending upon the degree of canopy destruction. At most sites, partial canopy cover persists and seedlings of a subset of forest tree species establish preferentially. Early survivorship of these seedlings is comparable to those established in undamaged forest. Where canopy opening is severe, a secondary succession is initiated, with large numbers of herbaceous plants deriving from the seed bank. Gallery forests contain core zones into which fire very rarely intrudes, and peripheral zones that experience fire incursions that are peripheral zones that experience fire incursions that are patchily distributed in space and time. In the latter zones fire incursions play a role comparable to that of canopy gaps in continuous forests, but also create a unique class of micro-habitats to which a surset of tree species is specialized. The fire regime over the recent past in this gallery forest system appears to have had an enriching, rather than a depauperizing, effect on the forest communities, and such systems represent plausible refugia for forest species in fire-prone landscapes

Elevational patterns in the vascular flora of a highly diverse region in southern Mexico

We examined general and family-specific patterns of vascular plant richness along a large elevational gradient (0–3,670 m a.s.l.), assessed the continuity of these patterns and analysed their potential underlying causes in a high diversity region of the Sierra Madre del Sur, Oaxaca, Mexico. We used a vascular plant database constructed previously. The gradient was divided into 18 200-m elevation belts. To examine elevational patterns of richness, we used both observed and estimated (interpolated) species richness, as well as genus and family observed richness, for each belt. A generalised linear model (GLM) was used to assess the effect of altitude on area-corrected species richness (standard area = 100 km2), and a numerical classification of the elevational belts based on species richness was performed. Overall, richness at the three taxonomic levels decreased with elevation, but some individual families departed from this pattern. A sharp drop in species richness was observed at 1,800 m, and the dendrogram separated two elevational floristic groups at this elevation. The GLM revealed a significant negative effect of elevation on species richness. Despite this overall decreasing pattern for vascular plants along this extensive gradient, an examination of some family-specific patterns revealed the existence of other elevation–diversity relationships, indicating taxon-specific responses to elevation. The most noticeable discontinuity in species richness, at ca. 1,800 m, is likely related to a critical temperature isocline

Heterogeneity of xerophytic vegetation of limestone outcrops in a tropical deciduous forest region in southern México

The heterogeneity of xerophytic vegetation developing on limestone outcrops immersed in a tropical deciduous forest matrix was studied in Nizanda (S Mexico). The study units comprised three clearly distinct communities based on their physiognomy and substrate, representing a gradient of edaphic aridity: (1) xerophytic scrub (XS) (2) tropical deciduous forest on rock (TDFr) and (3) tropical deciduous forest on deeper soil (TDFs). Structural and floristic variables were gathered in nine 100 m(2) plots by community. In the 0.27 ha sampled 211 plant species were recorded. Total floristic richness by community decreased with increasing edaphic aridity: 159 species in TDFs, 107 in TDFr, and 36 in XS. Although significant differences were observed between the three communities for only four structural variables (total and upper stratum species densities, and relative monocotyledon density and cover), other variables confirmed the differences between the two forest communities and the XS (total and upper stratum cover, density, and basal area). TDFr and XS also differed from TDFs with respect to lower stratum species density, and absolute monocotyledon density and cover. The results showed the importance of monocotyledons and the prevalence of clonality in TDFr and XS. A comparison between limestone outcrop and inselberg vegetation indicated a virtual absence of therophytes, graminoid herbs, cryptogamic crusts, and desiccation-tolerant and carnivorous plants in the former, whereas the prevalence of monocotyledon mats, and xerophytic and succulent plants is the most striking similarity between these rocky environments. Xerophytic vegetation of limestone outcrops in Nizanda may be seen as analogous of relictual communities that existed during a northbound migration of Neotropical flora, towards the and zones of North America