Plant Community Structure, Fire Disturbance, and Recovery in ...

Contributions to the Study of Biological Diversity Vol. 3
CHAPTER 2
PLANTS OF THE WAINI PENINSULA IN REGIONAL
AND GLOBAL CONTEXT
INTRODUCTION
The conservation value of a particular
natural site may be derived not just from its
species composition, but from the contrast of
the species of the site with those of adjacent or
related localities. This chapter investigates
relationships between the Waini Peninsula flora
and the species of nearby plant communities,
the species of the Northwest District of Guyana,
and the species of the adjacent Venezuelan state
of Delta Amacuro. The phytogeographic
affinities of the Waini Peninsula flora at the
regional, continental, and global scales were
explored through classification of species
distribution ranges. Those comparisons also
served as an example of the state of botanical
knowledge on lowland forests in northeastern
South America. Comparisons of Waini
Peninsula plant communities were made with
two coastal plain plant communities in the
Northwest District near Santa Rosa, as
documented by van Andel (2000a).
Comparisons were also made of the Waini and
Northwest District floras with the flora of the
neighboring coastal Venezuelan state of Delta
Amacuro, with the goal of understanding the
level of diversity between the sites. This has
implications both for the direction of additional
basic research and ideally in the design of
protected areas in the region. Finally, a regional
and global phytogeographic analysis was made
for the Waini flora. The questions addressed here
include to what degree the flora of the Waini
Peninsula is unique in relation to neighboring
ecosystems, to all of Guyana, to the Guiana
Shield region of northeastern South America,
and to broader biogeographic areas. At the larger
regional scales, the question is asked whether
such coastal plain environments of the Guianas
should be considered as part of the Guiana
Shield flora or as units of a distinct Neotropical
or Caribbean coastal flora. It is of interest
whether additional botanical collection activities
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such as undertaken in this relatively lowdiversity
region of South America can add
significantly to botanical knowledge.
Comparisons of species checklists covering
areas of intermediate size have been used
recently to analyze similarities and differences
among sites that are candidates for protection
or under consideration for additional detailed
investigations (Clarke & Funk 2005; Clarke et
al. 2001a; Kelloff 2002; Kelloff & Funk 2004).
That approach relies only upon species presence
and absence, allowing what may be an early
opportunity for biodiversity analysis. Such
qualitative data are frequently the only available
information covering large parts of tropical
South America. While ecological plot data sets
can be very useful for detailed quantitative
analyses, they have been available to date for
small to moderately sized plots that are widely
separated (Condit et al. 2002; Pitman et al. 1999;
Pitman et al. 2001). As an alternative, qualitative
species list-based data are comparatively easily
compiled from existing publications such as
regional florulas. Those sources can be
augmented by data from the large, though often
incompletely utilized reservoirs of information
held in the world’s herbaria (Funk 2003a, b).
An important condition for validity of all scales
of comparison is standardization of the
biodiversity data utilized. This greatly facilitated
by the availability of computerized
nomenclatural databases, and for botanical
research in particular, nomenclature including
complete, linked synonymies. All of these data
sources and data quality tools require substantial
investment to create, maintain, and apply.
STUDY SITES AND
BACKGROUND
The study site on the northern portion of
Guyana’s Waini Peninsula is described in detail
in Chapter 1. Other localities mentioned in the
text or from which data were utilized are