T1.4 Tropical heath forests

T1. Tropical-subtropical forests biome

Profile summary

Full profile at https://global-ecosystems.org/explore/groups/T1.4

Brief description

These structurally unique forests are restricted to less fertile soils on acidic sandy substrates best known in Amazonia and Southeast Asia. They are characterised by high densities of low, slender trees that allow light penetration to an open forest floor covered with mosses. They have low productivity compared to other tropical forests, with a limited diversity of plants and animals forming a simple foodweb, including amphibians and reptiles.

Key features

Low closed-canopy evergreen forests in warm wet climates on low-nutrient substrates, structurally simple cf T1.

Overview of distribution

Amazon basin, southeast Asia, possibly Congo basin.

Map description

Terrestrial ecoregions containing major or minor occurrences of this ecosystem functional group were identified by consulting available ecoregion descriptions (Dinerstein et al. 2017), global and regional reviews, national and regional ecosystem maps, locations of relevant examples, and proofed by expert reviewers. Consequently they are coarse-scale indicative representations of distribution, except where they occupy small ecoregions. Ecoregions were mapped at 30 arc second spatial resolution..

Map code and version: T1.4.web.orig v2.0.

Version history

Profile versions

v2.1 (2022-04-06): DA Keith; RT Young; A Etter.¹
v2.01 (NA): NA.
v2.0 (2020-07-03): DA Keith; RT Young; A Etter.
v1.0 (2020-01-20): DA Keith; A Etter.

Available maps

Read more details about the current map versions here.

Indicative Map (code: T1.4.IM.orig, version v2.0)
Web navigation (code: T1.4.web.orig, version v2.0)

Read more details about older or alternative versions of maps for this functional group.

Web navigation: requires review (code: T1.4.web, version v1.0)
Indicative Map: requires more work (code: T1.4.IM.orig, version v1.0)
Indicative Map: discarded (code: T1.4.IM.mix, version v1.0)
Web navigation: requires review (code: T1.4.web.orig, version v1.0)

References

Main references

References used in the different versions of the profiles.

Adeney JM, Christensen NL, Vicentini A, Cohn-Haft M (2016) White-sand ecosystems in Amazonia. Biotropica 48: 7–23. DOI:10.1111/btp.12293
Ashton PS, Seidler R (2014) On the forests of tropical Asia: lest the memory fade Kew Publishing: Kew
Fortune C, Paine CET; Fine PVA, J. B. Kraft NJB, Baraloto C (2014) Environmental factors predict community functional composition in Amazonian forests. Journal of Ecology 102, 145-155. DOI:10.1111/1365-2745.12160
Miyamoto K, Wagai R, Aiba S, Nilus R (2016) Variation in aboveground stand structure and fine-root biomass of Bornean heath (kerangas) forests in relation to altitude and soil nitrogen availability Trees-Structure and Function 30, 385-394
Miyamoto K, Rahajoe JS, Kohyama T (2007) Forest structure and primary productivity in a Bornean heath forest. Biotropica 39: 35–42. DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2006.00231.x

Map references

References used in the different versions of the maps (current and discarded).

Dinerstein E, Olson D, Joshi A, Vynne C, Burgess ND, Wikramanayake E, Hahn N, Palminteri S, Hedao P, Noss R, Hansen M, Locke H, Ellis EE, Jones B, Barber CV, Hayes R, Kormos C, Martin V, Crist E, Sechrest W, Price L, Baillie JEM, Weeden D, Suckling K, Davis C, Sizer N, Moore R, Thau D, Birch T, Potapov P, Turubanova S, Tyukavina A, de Souza N, Pintea L, Brito JC, Llewellyn Barnekow Lillesø JP, van Breugel P, Graudal L, Voge M, Al-Shammari KF, Saleem M (2017) An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience 67: 534–545. DOI:10.1093/biosci/bix014. Data-set available on-line
Tuanmu, M.-N. and W. Jetz (2014) A global 1-km consensus land-cover product for biodiversity and ecosystem modeling Global Ecology and Biogeography 23(9):1031–1045 DOI:10.1111/geb.12182

Footnotes

This is the current version available at official site.↩︎