Biogeosciences www.biogeosciences.net 1726-4170 1726-4189 6 11 2009 10.5194/bg-6-2719-2009 http://www.biogeosciences.net/6/2719/2009/ http://www.biogeosciences.net/6/2719/2009/bg-6-2719-2009.html http://www.biogeosciences.net/6/2719/2009/bg-6-2719-2009.pdf 2719 2731 2009-11-30 Multi-scale comparisons of tree composition in Amazonian terra firme forests E. N. Honorio Coronado eurihc@yahoo.com T. R. Baker O. L. Phillips N. C. A. Pitman R. T. Pennington R. Vásquez Martínez A. Monteagudo H. Mogollón N. Dávila Cardozo M. Ríos R. García-Villacorta E. Valderrama M. Ahuite I. Huamantupa D. A. Neill W. F. Laurance H. E. M. Nascimento S. Soares de Almeida T. J. Killeen L. Arroyo P. Núñez L. Freitas Alvarado Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana, Av. A. José Quiñones km 2.5, Iquitos, Peru Earth and Biosphere Institute, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK Center for Tropical Conservation, Duke University, Durham, USA Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR, UK Proyecto Flora del Perú, Jardín Botánico de Missouri, Oxapampa, Peru Finding Species, 6930 Carroll Ave., Suite 600, P.O. Box 5289, Takoma Park, MD 20912, USA Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana, Iquitos, Peru Missouri Botanical Garden, c/o Naturaleza y Cultura Internacional, Loja, Ecuador Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Manaus, Brazil Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, 66.040170 Belém, Pará, Brazil Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International, Washington D.C., USA Museo Noel Kempff Mercado, Santa Cruz, Bolivia Herbario Vargas, Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Cusco, Peru We explored the floristic composition of terra firme forests across Amazonia using 55 plots. Firstly, we examined the floristic patterns using both genus- and species-level data and found that the species-level analysis more clearly distinguishes among forests. Next, we compared the variation in plot floristic composition at regional- and continental-scales, and found that average among-pair floristic similarity and its decay with distance behave similarly at regional- and continental-scales. Nevertheless, geographical distance had different effects on floristic similarity within regions at distances <100 km, where north-western and south-western Amazonian regions showed greater floristic variation than plots of central and eastern Amazonia. Finally, we quantified the role of environmental factors and geographical distance for determining variation in floristic composition. A partial Mantel test indicated that while geographical distance appeared to be more important at continental scales, soil fertility was crucial at regional scales within western Amazonia, where areas with similar soil conditions were more likely to share a high number of species. 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