UTRECHT, Netherlands – Dutch scientists have found the distribution of trees in the Amazonian rain forest is far from haphazard and might fill specific environmental niches.
The researchers say various factors, such as soil fertility and dry season length, produce gradients of species, suggesting the trees have evolved in a particular manner. Hans ter Steege and colleagues at the Netherlands Institute of Environmental Biology and National Herbarium reached their conclusion by Hans ter Steege analyzing forest inventory records taken from seven of the nine countries with territory in the Amazon basin and Guiana shield.
They found one plant family, the Fabaceae, particularly dominant in the Guiana shield, had been thought to have thrived as the result of root adaptation to poor soil. But the new study suggests the plants grow well in areas of low disturbance, where there is little opportunity for new trees to grow, perhaps because they produce an unusually large amount of seeds.
The research appears in this week's issue of the journal Nature.