PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 19: Biodiversity
Wednesday, August 10, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Constructing localized species pools to test dispersal limitation in woody plants of the southeastern US.
Gramling, Joel*,1, Jobe, R. Todd1, 1 Univeristy of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
ABSTRACT- Species diversity has long been viewed as a fundamental ecological property. Many determinants of local species diversity have been proposed. Proponents of neutral theory have suggested that observed patterns of local species diversity are the result of dispersal limitation and local extirpation as opposed to local ecological interactions. We tested the relative contribution of dispersal limitation to local species diversity using 2499 study plots (each covering a 1000 m2 area) from across the southeastern United States. Digitized range maps for woody plant species were incorporated into a geographic information system. We utilized a method for constructing a unique pool of available species for each local study site. Each study plot was assigned a potential woody plant species richness value summed from all the species ranges that intersected its plot location. We found no significant relationship between potential woody plant richness for a site and the observed woody plant species richness or the observed total plant species richness at a site. Our results suggest that dispersal limitation of woody plant species is not deterministic of 1000 m2 plant species diversity in the southeastern US.
Key words: Species pool, Dispersal, Plant diversity, Species richness