Monteverde : Ecology and Conservation of a Tropical Cloud Forest

Table 9.3. Tree families with percentage of mean total basal area (BA) and mean density

(numbers of individual trees per hectare).

Stem Size Class

Family

Annonaceae

Apocynaceae

Aquifoliaceae

Araliaceae

Arecaceae

Asteraceae

Bombacaceae

Boraginaceae

Cecropiaceae

Celastraceae

Clusiaceae

Cunoniaceae

Cyatheaceae

Ebenaceae

Elaeocarpaceae

Euphorbiaceae

Fabaceae

Flacourtiaceae

Hippocrateaceae

Icacinaceae

Juglandaceae

Lauraceae

Malpighiaceae

Malvaceae

Melastomataceae

Meliaceae

Moraceae

Myrsinaceae

Myrtaceae

Nyctaginaceae

Piperaceae

Proteaceae

Rhizophoraceae

Rubiaceae

Rutaceae

Sabiaceae

Sapindaceae

Sapotaceae

Simaroubaceae

Solanaceae

Staphyleaceae

Symplocaceae

Thymelaeaceae

Tiliaceae

Urticaceae

Verbenaceae

2-10

% BA

1.9

1.2

0.5

2.3

10.6

0.5

1.7

0.9

t

t

28.7

0.1

2.4

5.4

1.1

0.1

2.4

6.2

1.2

0.9

1.9

6.0

2.5

2.0

1.7

0.2

t

10.5

0.5

0.8

0.7

0.7

t

3.4

0.2

0.1

0.3

0.4

cm

N

14

21

7

86

161

11

18

18

4

4

164

4

25

71

25

4

50

121

18

25

50

89

54

18

36

11

4

196

4

18

21

14

4

121

4

4

7

4

10-30

% BA

l.l

0.4

0.5

0.4

0.1

4.4

4.8

0.4

10.9

0.2

3.7

0.2

1.2

0.6

6.0

3.2

0.9

6.3

3.3

9.5

M

1.4

10.5

0.5

0.4

0.1

7.5

0.2

1.1

0.4

1.5

0.3

0.9

0.3

0.4

4.6

1.8

cm

N 4 2 2 1 3

27

13

1

32

1

17

1

13

3

27

11

3

18

13

27

36

5

30

3

1

1

37

2 3 1 3 1 2 1 3

18

3

>30

% BA

1.5

1.3

1.6

2.4

3.3

0.4

0.2

2.2

1.6

3.2

4.1

t

0.3

33.9

2.1

1.4

4.2

15.2

0.9

2.6

0.3

0.7

1.0

4.0

0.5

3.4

0.2

0.5

6.3

0.2

0.5

cm

N

3

2

6

7

10

1 1 2 1 3 8 1 1

3Z

6 7 9 4 5 5 1 3 3 7 1 3 1 1

10

1

1

All Stems

% BA

1.5

0.1

1.2

0.1

0.1

0.6

1.9

2.2

3.9

0.4

0.5

2.0

0.7

t

1.4

0.1

3.6

3.9

t

0.2

0.2

30.9

0.1

2.1

2.2

4.7

13.7

1.9

2.3

t

t

0.3

t

1.6

0.8

3.7

0.5

3.1

t

0.1

t

0.3

0.3

5.6

0.6

0.6

N

21

23

4

8

89

188

30

26

60

2

22

7

177

4

1

28

101

44

4

54

1

176

18

44

84

134

63

53

44

11

4

2

1

236

9

28

23

20

4

121

1

7

6

13

26

8

Underlining indicates the dominant three families for each category, t = trace (less than 1% of the basal area; Nadkarni

etal. 1995).

Dominance was imposed by different taxa at the
two sites. At Barva, the dominant family was Euphor-
biaceae (14.5% of basal area), whereas this taxon com-
prised only 1.1% of the total basal area at our site. The
dominant family at Monteverde, Lauraceae (31% of
total basal area), comprised only 5.8% of the basal area

at the Barva site. These differences may be due to

different forest disturbance regimes. The dominant

trees at Barva tend to be early gap colonizers, in con-

trast to the primarily long-lived primary forest trees

that dominate in Monteverde. The much higher basal

area (2.5 times greater) in Monteverde versus Barva

317 Ecosystem Ecology and Forest Dynamics