Assessing community assembly in a Papua New Guinea forest using spatial and phylogenetic

turnover

Gaurav Kandlikar, John Vincent, and George Weiblen

University of Minnesota, Dept. of Plant Biology

Outline

• Global patterns of biodiversity• Characterizing a Papua New Guinea forest• Phylogenetics • Future research

Photo: Wanang plot, CTFS

Photo: Wabikon Lake plot, CTFS

23 forest plots16 countries> 75 institutions8,500 tree species3 million trees

Global Forest Observatories: an international network

monitoring the health of forests

Forest dynamics plots

• 50 hectares (1 ha = 100m x 100m)

• all woody stems >= 1 cm DBH tagged, mapped, measured, and identified (“census”)

• plot recensus every 5 years• enables cross-continental

tropical forest comparison

Photos: Google, J B Vincent

Botanical Progress at Wanang

• 50 ha with trees tagged, mapped & measured• 31 ha data-based identified to species• 171,858 stems in 31 ha• 30 ha including >500 species

Images: New Guinea Binatang Research Center

A Field Guide to PNG trees

Relational Databasestaxon name image local name local usemap

taxon name

map

image

local name

local use

Mallotus peltatus Bambusa forbesii

Ficus concocephalifolia Ficus hahliana

Celtis latifolia

What explains the spatial patterns of different tree species?

A

B

C

D

E

Phylogenetics

• Phylogenies help us interpret complex patterns

• Simple metrics of biodiversity (eg. species richness) ignore evolutionary relationships

Swenson et al. 2012

Estimating a phylogeny

Phylogeny of PNG trees

Photo: T.J.S. Whitfeld

Expanded phylogeny

Mahogany trees

Future directions

Ficus concocephalifolia Ficus hahliana

Relationship of Ficus species

Summary

• One forest on one island has >500 species of trees

• Different species of trees tend to grow in different parts of the forest– Why?

• To what extent does the evolutionary history of a species explain its distribution?

Acknowledgements• Dr. George Weiblen• John Vincent• Erin Treiber• UMN Office of

Undergraduate Research

Questions?