A Synecological Classification of Tropical Terrestrial Ecosystems: A first approach

Abstract

Classification of terrestrial ecosystems is a very important task in the understanding process of vegetation patterns. It is a tool of mathematical organize the available information in understandable entities without loosing the perspective of the whole. The proposed classification method provides, in quantitative terms, a classification of ecosystems (associations) found within a life zone in sensu Holdrige.It is based on the assumption that plants are the best environmental indicator available to research, and that this fact can be used, through the method of synecological coordinates, for practical purposes. The method was used with 19 tropical premontane moist forests plost in Costa Rica. This life zone was characterized according to moisture, nutrient, heat, and light synecological coordinates, and particular ecosystems of associations were determined. The results were the ones expected for empirical knowledge.