Fig 1.
The study site is located at the experimental station of Paracou (5°18’N, 52°55’W), French Guiana, in a lowland tropical rainforest. Six 6.25-ha control plots (small black squares) spread over an area of ca. 50 km2 were considered in this study. Source of maps: SIG data of EcoFoG (Cirad Guyane).
Table 1.
Characteristics of environmental variables mapped to test species-habitat associations.
Fig 2.
Correlation plot between environmental variables.
The color of the circles indicates the sign of the correlation (highly positive in black to highly negative in light grey), while the size of circles indicates the level of statistical significance of the association test (the lower the p-value, the bigger the circle). Environmental variables are: wetness index (Wetness), available phosphorus content (P), flow accumulation (FlAc), base-cation saturation ratio (BS), local slope angle (Slope), absolute elevation (AbsEl), Al exchangeable (Al), H exchangeable (H), relative elevation (RelEl) and total C content (C).
Table 2.
Frequency of species-habitat associations.
Fig 3.
Species-habitat associations with respect to relative elevation from the nearest stream and local slope angle.
Each axis represents the strength of the species-habitat association measured as p-values of Monte Carlo tests of species density and environmental raster maps correlations based on an image synthesis technique (see Methods). P-values are indicated in log scale with a sign indicating whether the correlation with the environmental variable is positive or negative. Grey lines correspond to absolute p-value of 0.05. Species’ codes are given in S1 Table. Encircling lines delineate four different species groups (see Text).
Fig 4.
Species-habitat associations and functional strategies.
X-axis represents maximum diameter of each species. Y-axis represents the strength of the species-habitat association measured as P-values of Monte Carlo tests of species density and relative elevation from the nearest stream raster maps correlations based on an image synthesis technic (see Methods). P-values are indicated in log scale with a sign indicating whether the correlation with the environmental variable is positive or negative. Pearson's r indicates the correlation between species values on x- and y-axis, while Wilcoxon's W is performed between tree diameter maximum of congeneric species pairs with contrasting habitat preferences, linked by dark lines. Species’ codes are given in S1 Table.