1. New World palm (Arecaceae) species richness in relation to mean climate variables
University of Arizona
Semester Project, ATMO 529
Brad Christoffersen
December 05, 2007

2. Outline Background & Motivation Methods of Analysis Upcoming Results
Summary

3. Background and Motivation
A little about palms:
Family: Arecaceae
Diverse habitats and hence morphologically diverse
Key terms:
Species Richness (or Alpha diversity) – The number of species in a given area.
Beta diversity – Change in species composition across a landscape from one area to another.
Why study species diversity in a spatial context?
Insight into how limiting factors control evolutionary processes of speciation and extinction.
Provides basis for development of conservation areas.
Extensive body of theory from community ecology.

5. Methods of Analysis Palms dataset: Climate data: Plant rooting depth:
What: 1x1 degree grid of presence/absence data for 547 species of palms.
Spatial Extent: New World
Calculated species richness by grid cell.
Climate data:
What: CRU TS x0.5 degree grid of monthly precip and average temperature
Spatial Extent: Brazilian Amazon
Plant rooting depth:
What: Maximum Plant Available Water (PAW), from Kleidon et al. 2002

6. Methods of Analysis Palms dataset (Henderson et al. 2005):
Structure into presence/absence for the 547 species.
Convert to relative abundance (0-1)
EOF analysis of the matrix.
Examine spatial pattern correlation among climate and dominant species range modes.

9. References
Henderson, A., G. Galeano, and R. Bernal Field Guide to the Palms of the Americas. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.A.
R Development Core Team (2007). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN , URL
Fields Development Team (2006). fields: Tools for Spatial Data. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO. URL
Ter Braak, C. J. F. (1986) Canonical correspondence analysis: A new eigenvector technique for multivariate direct gradient analysis. Ecology 67: