Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:21:06.744Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Modern Pollen-Rain Characteristics of Tall Terra Firme Moist Evergreen Forest, Southern Amazonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

William D. Gosling
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK
Francis E. Mayle
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, UK
Nicholas J. Tate
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
Timothy J. Killeen
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International, 2501 M Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20037, USA Museo de Historia Natural “Noel Kempff Mercado”, Avenida Irala 565, Casilla 2489, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Abstract

The paucity of modern pollen-rain data from Amazonia constitutes a significant barrier to understanding the Late Quaternary vegetation history of this globally important tropical forest region. Here, we present the first modern pollen-rain data for tall terra firme moist evergreen Amazon forest, collected between 1999 and 2001 from artificial pollen traps within a 500 × 20 m permanent study plot (14°34′50″S, 60°49′48″W) in Noel Kempff Mercado National Park (NE Bolivia). Spearman's rank correlations were performed to assess the extent of spatial and inter-annual variability in the pollen rain, whilst statistically distinctive taxa were identified using Principal Components Analysis (PCA). Comparisons with the floristic and basal area data of the plot (stems ≥10 cm d.b.h.) enabled the degree to which taxa are over/under-represented in the pollen rain to be assessed (using R-rel values). Moraceae/Urticaceae dominates the pollen rain (64% median abundance) and is also an important constituent of the vegetation, accounting for 16% of stems ≥10 cm d.b.h. and ca. 11% of the total basal area. Other important pollen taxa are Arecaceae (cf. Euterpe), Melastomataceae/Combretaceae, Cecropia, Didymopanax, Celtis, and Alchornea. However, 75% of stems and 67% of the total basal area of the plot ≥10 cm d.b.h. belong to species which are unidentified in the pollen rain, the most important of which are Phenakospermum guianensis (a banana-like herb) and the key canopy-emergent trees, Erisma uncinatum and Qualea paraensis.

Type
Special issue articles
Copyright
University of Washington

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

Behling, H., Negrelle, R.R.B., and Colinvaux, P.A. (1997). Modern pollen rain data from the tropical Atlantic rain forest, Reserva Volta Velha, South Brazil. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 97, 287299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burbridge, R.E., Mayle, F.E., and Killeen, T.J. (2004). Fifty-thousand-year vegetation and climate history of Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, Bolivian Amazon. Quaternary Research 61, 215230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bush, M.B. (1991). Modern pollen-rain data from South and Central America: a test of the feasibility of fine resolution lowland tropical palynology. The Holocene 1, 162167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bush, M.B. (1995). Neotropical plant reproductive strategies and fossil pollen representation. The American Naturalist 145, 594609.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bush, M.B., and Rivera, R. (1998). Pollen dispersal and representation in a neotropical rain forest. Global Ecology and Biogeography Letters 7, 379392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bush, M.B., and Rivera, R. (2001). Reproductive ecology and pollen representation among neotropical trees. Global Ecology and Biogeography 10, 359367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bush, M.B., Moreno, E., de Oliveria, P.E., Asanza, E., and Colinvaux, P.A. (2001). The influence of biogeographic and ecological heterogeneity on Amazonian pollen spectra. Journal of Tropical Ecology 17, 729743.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colinvaux, P., De Oliveira, P.E., and Moreno, P.J.E. (1999). Amazon Pollen Manual and Atlas. Harwood Academic Publishers, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Colinvaux, P.A., De Oliveira, P.E., and Bush, M.B. (2000). Amazonian and Neotropical plant communities on glacial time-scales: the failure of the aridity and refuge hypotheses. Quaternary Science Reviews 19, 141169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, M.B. (1963). On the theory of pollen analysis. American Journal of Science 261, 897912.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faegri, K., and Iversen, J. (1989). Textbook of Pollen Analysis. Blackburn Press, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Gauch, J.H.G. (1982). Multivariate Analysis in Community Ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
W.D., Gosling (2004). Characterisation of Amazonian forest and savannah ecosystems by their modern pollen spectra.Unpublished PhD thesis,Department of Geography. The University of Leicester, .Google Scholar
Gosling, W.D., Mayle, F.E., Killeen, T.J., Siles, M., Sanchez, L., and Boreham, S. (2003). A simple and effective methodology for sampling modern pollen rain in tropical environments. The Holocene 13, 613618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gullison, R.E., and Hardner, J.J. (1993). The effects of road design and harvest intensity on forest damage caused by selective logging: empirical results and a simulation model from the Bosque Chimanes, Bolivia. Forest Ecology and Management 59, 114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haffer, J. (1969). Speciation in Amazonian forest birds. Science 165, 131137.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haffer, J., and Prance, G.T. (2001). Climate forcing of evolution in Amazonia during the Cenozoic: on the refuge theory of biotic differentiation. Amazoniana 579607.Google Scholar
Hair, J.F. Jr. Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L., and Black, W.C. (1998). Multivariate Data Analysis.5th editionPrentice and Hall, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Hastenrath, S. (1997). Annual cycle of upper air circulation and convective activity over the tropical Americas. Journal of Geophysical Research 102, 42674274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janzen, D.H. (1975). Ecology of Plants in the Tropics. Arnold, London.Google Scholar
T.J., Killeen (1998). Technical Reports: vegetation and Flora of Parque Nacional Noel Kempff Mercado. In: T.J., Killeen, T.S., Schulenberg (Eds.), A Biological Assessment of Parque Nacional Noel Kempff Mercado, Boliva. Conservation International, Washington D.C.., pp. 61111.Google Scholar
Killeen, T.J., and Schulenberg, T.S. (1998). A Biological Assessment of Parque Nacional Noel Kempff Mercado, Boliva. Conservation International, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Killeen, T.J., Garcia, E.E., and Beck, S.G. (1993). Guia de Arboles de Bolivia. Herbario Nacional de Bolivia and Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri.(958 pp.)Google Scholar
Killeen, T.J., Siles, T.M., Grimwood, T., Tieszen, L.L., Steininger, M.K., Tucker, C.J., and Panfil, S. (2003). 16. Habitat heterogeneity on a forest-savanna ecotone in Noel Kempff Mercado National Park (Santa Cruz, Bolivia): implications for long-term conservation of biodiversity in a changing climate. Bradshaw, G.A., Marquet, P.A. How Landscapes Change: Human Disturbance and Ecosystem Fragmentation in the Americas, Ecological Studies vol. 162, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg.285326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krzanowski, W.J. (2000). Principles of Multivariate Analysis: A Users Perspective (Revised edition). Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Litherland, M., and Power, G. (1989). The geological and geomorphic evolution of Serrania Huanchaca (Eastern Bolivia): the “Lost World”. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 2, 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marengo, J. (1995). Deep convection over the tropical South American sector as deduced from ISCCP-C2 data. International Journal of Climatology 15, 9951010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayle, F.E. (2004). Assessment of the Neotropical dry forest refugia hypothesis in the light of palaeoecological data and vegetation model simulations. Journal of Quaternary Science 19, 7 713720.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayle, F.E., Burbridge, R.E., and Killeen, T.J. (2000). Millennial-scale dynamics of southern Amazonian rain forests. Science 290, 22912294.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mayle, F.E., Beerling, D.J., Gosling, W.D., and Bush, M.B. (2004). Responses of Amazonian ecosystems to climatic and atmospheric carbon dioxide changes since the last glacial maximum. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London B 359, 499514.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McGarigal, K., Cushman, S., and Stafford, S. (2000). Multivariate Statistics for Wildlife and Ecology Research. Springer, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, D.M., Dinerstein, E., Wikramanayake, E.D., Burgess, N.D., Powell, G.V.N., Underwood, E.C., D'Amico, J.A., Itoua, I., Strand, H.E., Morrison, J.C., Louks, C.J., Allnutt, T.F., Ricketts, T.H., Kura, Y., Lamoreux, J.F., Wettengel, W.W., Hedao, P., and Kassem, K.R. (2001). Terrestrial ecoregions of the world: a new map of life on Earth. BioScience 51, 933938.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
S.N., Panfil (2001). Late Holocene and Savanna Diversity and Dynamics across an Amazonian Ecotone.Unpublished PhD thesis,The University of Georgia, .Google Scholar
Panfil, S.N., and Gullison, R.E. (1998). Short term impacts of experimental timber harvest intensity on forest structure and composition in the Chimanes Forest, Bolivia. Forest Ecology and Management 102, 235243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pennington, R.T., Prado, D.E., and Pendry, C.A. (2000). Neotropical seasonally dry forests and Quaternary vegetation change. Journal of Biogeography 27, 261273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roubik, D.W., and Moreno, P.J.E. (1991). Pollen and Spores of Barro Colorado Island. Monographs in Systematic Botany 36, Missouri Botanical Garden (268 pp.)Google Scholar
Stockmarr, J. (1972). Tablets with spores used in absolute pollen analysis. Pollen et Spore XIII, 4 615621.Google Scholar
ter Braak, C.J.F. (1986). Canonical correspondence analysis: a new eigenvector technique for multivariate direct gradient analysis. Ecology 67, 11671179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weng, C., Bush, M.B., and Athens, J.S. (2004). Holocene climate change and hydrarch succession in lowland Amazonian Ecuador. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 120, 7390.Google Scholar