Changes in composition, diversity and structure of woody plants in successional stages of tropical dry forest in southwest Mexico

Abstract

We analyzed the changes in composition, diversity and structure of trees and shrubs along a successional gradient in southwest Mexico. The early stages were dominated by typical pioneer species but species of mature forests were present throughout the chronosequence, and therefore the species plant distribution between stages may be explained by the initial floristic composition model. Because sites from all stages had similar number of species, our study does not support the intermediate levels of disturbance hypothesis. Contrary to the patterns observed in other dry forest, the mature stages presented a relatively simple structure complexity compared to that of intermediate forests. This resulted from a few dominant species which are usually present in mature forests with some degree of perturbation. According to the polyclimax hypothesis, diversity of the mature forests appears to be influenced by local soil conditions, microclimates and biotic factors. Our study supports this idea because local conditions vary between sites and the dominant species of the late stages were different between stands. The conservation and management plans should be directed to different successional stages and not only to single patches in order to ensure the conservation of regional biodiversity.