Therany Gonzales - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Therany Gonzales
bioRxiv, 2021
In a time of rapid global change, the question of what determines patterns in species abundance d... more In a time of rapid global change, the question of what determines patterns in species abundance distribution remains a priority for understanding the complex dynamics of ecosystems. The constrained maximization of information entropy provides a framework for the understanding of such complex systems dynamics by a quantitative analysis of important constraints via predictions using least biased probability distributions. We apply it to over two thousand hectares of Amazonian tree inventories across seven forest types and thirteen functional traits, representing major global axes of plant strategies. Results show that constraints formed by regional relative abundances of genera explain almost ten times more of local relative abundances then constraints based on either directional or stabilizing selection for specific functional traits, although the latter does show clear signals of environmental dependency. These results provide a quantitative insight by inference from large-scale dat...
Scientific Reports
Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, but the estimated species richness is very much de... more Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, but the estimated species richness is very much debated. Here, we apply an ensemble of parametric estimators and a novel technique that includes conspecific spatial aggregation to an extended database of forest plots with up-to-date taxonomy. We show that the species abundance distribution of Amazonia is best approximated by a logseries with aggregated individuals, where aggregation increases with rarity. By averaging several methods to estimate total richness, we confirm that over 15,000 tree species are expected to occur in Amazonia. We also show that using ten times the number of plots would result in an increase to just ~50% of those 15,000 estimated species. To get a more complete sample of all tree species, rigorous field campaigns may be needed but the number of trees in Amazonia will remain an estimate for years to come.
Scientific reports, Jan 17, 2018
Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used in ecology and conservation. Presence-only SDM... more Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used in ecology and conservation. Presence-only SDMs such as MaxEnt frequently use natural history collections (NHCs) as occurrence data, given their huge numbers and accessibility. NHCs are often spatially biased which may generate inaccuracies in SDMs. Here, we test how the distribution of NHCs and MaxEnt predictions relates to a spatial abundance model, based on a large plot dataset for Amazonian tree species, using inverse distance weighting (IDW). We also propose a new pipeline to deal with inconsistencies in NHCs and to limit the area of occupancy of the species. We found a significant but weak positive relationship between the distribution of NHCs and IDW for 66% of the species. The relationship between SDMs and IDW was also significant but weakly positive for 95% of the species, and sensitivity for both analyses was high. Furthermore, the pipeline removed half of the NHCs records. Presence-only SDM applications should consider th...
Scientific Report, 2019
Several mechanisms have been suggested to explain monodominance but a full understanding has yet ... more Several mechanisms have been suggested to explain monodominance but a full understanding has yet to be achieved. Monodominance remains a topic of intensive research with controversial findings e.g.15,16. The term ‘classical monodominance’ was introduced by Peh17 and is defined as the occurrence of monodominant forests with environmental conditions similar to those of adjacent mixed-forests. Several studies, however, have revealed environmental differences between these forests, previously undetected. For example, soil nutrient or moisture availability may vary between monodominant and mixed forests10,11,13,18–21. Conversely, other studies have indicated that soil characteristics cannot alone explain monodominance.
bioRxiv, 2021
In a time of rapid global change, the question of what determines patterns in species abundance d... more In a time of rapid global change, the question of what determines patterns in species abundance distribution remains a priority for understanding the complex dynamics of ecosystems. The constrained maximization of information entropy provides a framework for the understanding of such complex systems dynamics by a quantitative analysis of important constraints via predictions using least biased probability distributions. We apply it to over two thousand hectares of Amazonian tree inventories across seven forest types and thirteen functional traits, representing major global axes of plant strategies. Results show that constraints formed by regional relative abundances of genera explain almost ten times more of local relative abundances then constraints based on either directional or stabilizing selection for specific functional traits, although the latter does show clear signals of environmental dependency. These results provide a quantitative insight by inference from large-scale dat...
Scientific Reports
Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, but the estimated species richness is very much de... more Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, but the estimated species richness is very much debated. Here, we apply an ensemble of parametric estimators and a novel technique that includes conspecific spatial aggregation to an extended database of forest plots with up-to-date taxonomy. We show that the species abundance distribution of Amazonia is best approximated by a logseries with aggregated individuals, where aggregation increases with rarity. By averaging several methods to estimate total richness, we confirm that over 15,000 tree species are expected to occur in Amazonia. We also show that using ten times the number of plots would result in an increase to just ~50% of those 15,000 estimated species. To get a more complete sample of all tree species, rigorous field campaigns may be needed but the number of trees in Amazonia will remain an estimate for years to come.
Scientific reports, Jan 17, 2018
Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used in ecology and conservation. Presence-only SDM... more Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used in ecology and conservation. Presence-only SDMs such as MaxEnt frequently use natural history collections (NHCs) as occurrence data, given their huge numbers and accessibility. NHCs are often spatially biased which may generate inaccuracies in SDMs. Here, we test how the distribution of NHCs and MaxEnt predictions relates to a spatial abundance model, based on a large plot dataset for Amazonian tree species, using inverse distance weighting (IDW). We also propose a new pipeline to deal with inconsistencies in NHCs and to limit the area of occupancy of the species. We found a significant but weak positive relationship between the distribution of NHCs and IDW for 66% of the species. The relationship between SDMs and IDW was also significant but weakly positive for 95% of the species, and sensitivity for both analyses was high. Furthermore, the pipeline removed half of the NHCs records. Presence-only SDM applications should consider th...
Scientific Report, 2019
Several mechanisms have been suggested to explain monodominance but a full understanding has yet ... more Several mechanisms have been suggested to explain monodominance but a full understanding has yet to be achieved. Monodominance remains a topic of intensive research with controversial findings e.g.15,16. The term ‘classical monodominance’ was introduced by Peh17 and is defined as the occurrence of monodominant forests with environmental conditions similar to those of adjacent mixed-forests. Several studies, however, have revealed environmental differences between these forests, previously undetected. For example, soil nutrient or moisture availability may vary between monodominant and mixed forests10,11,13,18–21. Conversely, other studies have indicated that soil characteristics cannot alone explain monodominance.