New World palm Arecaceae species richness in relation
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New World palm (Arecaceae) species richness in relation to mean climate variables University of Arizona Semester Project, ATMO 529 Brad Christoffersen December 05, 2007
Outline • • Background & Motivation Methods of Analysis Upcoming Results Summary
Background and Motivation • A little about palms: – Family: Arecaceae – Diverse habitats and hence morphologically diverse • Key terms: – Species Richness (or Alpha diversity) – The number of species in a given area. – Beta diversity – Change in species composition across a landscape from one area to another. • Why study species diversity in a spatial context? – Insight into how limiting factors control evolutionary processes of speciation and extinction. – Provides basis for development of conservation areas. – Extensive body of theory from community ecology.
Methods of Analysis • Palms dataset: – What: 1 x 1 degree grid of presence/absence data for 547 species of palms. – Spatial Extent: New World – Calculated species richness by grid cell. • Climate data: – What: CRU TS 2. 1 0. 5 x 0. 5 degree grid of monthly precip and average temperature – Spatial Extent: Brazilian Amazon • Plant rooting depth: – What: Maximum Plant Available Water (PAW), from Kleidon et al. 2002
Methods of Analysis • Palms dataset (Henderson et al. 2005): – Structure into presence/absence for the 547 species. – Convert to relative abundance (0 -1) – EOF analysis of the matrix. • Examine spatial pattern correlation among climate and dominant species range modes.
References • Henderson, A. , G. Galeano, and R. Bernal. 1995. Field Guide to the Palms of the Americas. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, U. S. A. • R Development Core Team (2007). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3 -90005107 -0, URL http: //www. R-project. org. • Fields Development Team (2006). fields: Tools for Spatial Data. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO. URL http: //www. cgd. ucar. edu/Software/Fields. • Ter Braak, C. J. F. (1986) Canonical correspondence analysis: A new eigenvector technique for multivariate direct gradient analysis. Ecology 67: 1167 -1179.
