**6. References**


what we found in El Triunfo. These results suggest that secondary forest at El Triunfo could

The patterns on species diversity and species replacement along a successional gradient we obtained from this study would be of great help to design sound strategies for Cloud Forest restoration. This is very important since little is known on Cloud Forest dynamics and

We are thankful to El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve personnel for granting permits to work in the reserve. This research is part of the Cloud Forest Restoration Project funded by

Arreola-Muñoz A.V., G. Cuevas-García, R. Becerril-Macal, L. Noble-Camargo and M.

Bazzaz F.A. (1975). Plant species diversity in old-field successional ecosystems in southern Illinois. *Ecology* Vol. 56, No. 2, (Early Spring 1975), pp. 485-488, ISSN 0012-9658 Bazuin T., E. Gerritzen, and K. Stelma. (1993). Structure analysis of an Andean oak forest in

Breedlove D.E. (1981). *Flora of Chiapas. Part I. Introduction to the Flora of Chiapas*. California

Cayuela L., D. J. Golicher, J. M. Rey Benayas, M. González-Espinosa and N. Ramírez-

Challenger, A. 1998. Utilización y conservación de los ecosistemas terrestres de México:

CONABIO. (2008). *Capital Natural de Mexico. Volumen I. Conocimiento actual de la biodiversidad*.

Connell, J.H. (1978). Diversity in tropical rain forests and coral reefs. *Science*, Vol. 199, No.

Denslow, J.S. (1980). Gap partitioning among tropical rainforest trees. *Biotropica,* Vol. 12, No.

Ferrusquilla-Villafranca, I. (1998). Geología de México. In: *Diversidad Biologica de Mexico:* 

Altamirano. (2004). El medio físico y geográfico de la Reserva de la Biosfera El Triunfo, Chiapas. In: La Reserva de la Biosfera El Triunfo, tras una década de conservación. Pérez-Farrera M.A., N. Martínez-Meléndez, A. Hernández-Yáñez and A.V. Arreola-Muñóz (Eds). pp. 29-52, Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de

the south-west Colombia. Thesis. Larenstein International Scchool for Higher

Marcial. (2006). Fragmentation, disturbance and tree diversity conservation in tropical montane forests. *Journal of Applied Ecology,* Vol. 43, No. 6. (December 2006),

pasado, presente y futuro. Comisión Nacional para el Uso y Conocimiento de la Biodiversidad, Instituto de Biología de la UNAM y Agrupación Sierra Madre S.C.

Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad. ISBN 978-607-

*Origenes y Distribucioón.* T. P. Ramamoorthy, R. Bye, A. Lot, and J. Fa, (eds).

because this habitat is considered one of the most endangered all over the world.

Chiapas. México. ISBN:968-5149-34-8, Tuxtla Gutiérrez

Agricultural Education Agricultural Education Velp. 64 pp

Academy of Sciences, San Francisco California. ISBN 094-022-8009

be more diverse than primary forest.

CONACyT–FOMIX-CHIAPAS: CHIS-2007-07-77710**.** 

pp. 1172-1181, ISSN 1365-2664

ISBN 970-900-0020, México City.

4335 (March 1978), pp. 1302-1310, ISSN 1095-9203

2, (June 1980), pp. 47–55. ISSN 1744-7429

Instituto de Biologia, UNAM, Mexico City

7607-03-8, Mexico City.

**5. Acknowledgement** 

**6. References** 


Rzedowski J. (1996). Análisis preliminar de la flora vascular de los bosques mesófilos de montaña de México. *Acta Botanica Méxicana,* Vol. 35, pp. 59-85, ISSN 0187-7151

**7** 

*1,2India 3Sri Lanka 4,5Germany* 

**Spatial Patterns of Phytodiversity - Assessing** 

Patterns in vegetation can be expressed through the variation in species composition between plots, which has been termed 'beta-diversity' by Whittaker (1960, 1972). The general importance of beta-diversity has been emphasized in recent years (e.g. Gering et al., 2003; Olden et al., 2006; Sax and Gaines 2003; Srivastava 2002). However, even though Legendre et al., (2005) postulate that "beta diversity is a key concept for understanding the functioning of ecosystems, for the conservation of biodiversity, and for ecosystem management", implementation is still scarce compared to measures of species richness, alpha-diversity and its derivates (but see e.g. Condit et al., 2002; Kluth and Bruelheide, 2004;

However, the term 'beta-diversity' is not very clear and has multiple meanings (e.g. Jurasinski and Retzer, 2009; Lande, 1996; Qian et al., 2005). Most often 'beta-diversity' is defined as the compositional similarity between vegetation samples (sites, habitats, plots) expressed through (dis)similarity or distance measures. Generally, compositional similarity decreases with distance between plots. This phenomenon is called 'distance decay' of similarity (Tobler, 1970) and can be seen as a characteristic of all geographic systems. Nekola and White (1999) investigated species compositional similarity between fir and spruce stands across North America (Qian et al., 1998, 2005) and concluded that distance decay of similarity might be useful as a descriptor of diversity distribution as well as for the study of factors influencing the spatial structures of communities. The few comparative studies investigating distance decay for more than one group of organisms show that it heavily depends on organism groups as well as on the region under study (Ferrier et al., 1999;

Although it is far from being well covered, the spatial change in species composition has received some more attention in recent years (Jurasinski and Retzer 2009). The phenomenon

**1. Introduction** 

Pitkänen 2000).

Oliver et al., 2004).

**Vegetation Using (Dis) Similarity Measures** 

S. Babar1,2, A. Giriraj3,4, C. S. Reddy2, G. Jurasinski5,

*3International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo* 

A. Jentsch4 and S. Sudhakar2

*4University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth 5University of Rostock, Rostock* 

*2National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad* 

*1University of Pune, Pune* 

