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Diversity and distribution of lianas in Yasuní, Ecuador

Abstract:

Based on intensive inventories of lianas in Yasuní National Park and the Woarani Ethnic Reserve of lowland eastern Ecuador, this chapter describes the taxonomic diversity and species abundance of climbing plants in one of the mega-diverse regions of the neotropics. It presents a comparative analysis of surveys in order to show that rank order among the 10 dominant species is not consistent across even small areas of high diversity forest in western Amazonia. Several of the dominant species in the Yasuní region are dominants elsewhere in the neotropics, suggesting a potential role for wide ecological tolerances among some of the dominant species. The chapter considers the two best inventories of lianas in Yasuní, both in terms of sample size and in quality of taxonomic identification. The data suggest that the average geographic range of a dominant species in Yasuní is larger than for a rare species.