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Specific gravity of woody tissue from lowland Neotropical plants: differences among forest types
Author(s) -
Casas Luisa Fernanda,
Aldana Ana María,
HenaoDiaz Francisco,
Villanueva Boris,
Stevenson Pablo R.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.1002/ecy.1786
Subject(s) - liana , biomass (ecology) , ecology , allometry , epiphyte , tree allometry , tropics , woody plant , habitat , specific gravity , geography , biology , biomass partitioning , geology , mineralogy
Wood density, or more precisely, wood specific gravity, is an important parameter when estimating aboveground biomass, which has become a central tool for the management and conservation of forests around the world. When using biomass allometric equations for tropical forests, researchers are often required to assume phylogenetic trait conservatism, which allows us to assign genus‐ and family‐level wood specific gravity mean values, to many woody species. The lack of information on this trait for many Neotropical plant species has led to an imprecise estimation of the biomass stored in Neotropical forests. The data presented here has information of woody tissue specific gravity from 2,602 individual stems for 386 species, including trees, lianas, and hemi‐epiphytes of lowland tropical forests in Colombia. This data set was produced by us collecting wood cores from woody species in five localities in the Orinoco and Magdalena Basins in Colombia. We found lower mean specific gravity values in várzea than in terra firme and igapó .