Myers Ronald L
Rev Biol Trop. 2013 Sep;61 Suppl 1:5-24.
It is well known that most forests in humid tropical lowlands are species rich, and the popular view is that most species are represented by only a few individuals. Despite this common understanding of high richness and low species dominance, within humid tropical regions there are extensive forested ecosystems composed by only few species. These nearly monospecific forests usually occupy poorly drained soils and, except for the mangroves, are quite understudied. In this paper, I review the literature and my own field notes on more than three years studying the structure of palm swamps in Caribbean Costa Rica and Florida to describe some of the major vegetation associations in wetlands dominated by palm species in the Neotropical Region, although I also include some information about similar systems in the Old World Tropics. I mention the most abundant species that compose those palm dominated swamps and -whenever possible- describe forest structure, known distribution, and uses.
众所周知，潮湿热带低地的大多数森林物种丰富，普遍的观点是大多数物种仅由少数个体代表。尽管对高丰富度和低物种优势度有这种普遍认识，但在潮湿热带地区内，存在仅由少数物种组成的广阔森林生态系统。这些近乎单种的森林通常占据排水不良的土壤，并且除了红树林外，研究相当不足。在本文中，我回顾了文献以及我自己超过三年研究加勒比地区哥斯达黎加和佛罗里达州棕榈沼泽结构的实地记录，以描述新热带地区以棕榈物种为主的湿地中的一些主要植被群落，不过我也纳入了一些关于旧世界热带地区类似系统的信息。我提及构成那些以棕榈为主的沼泽的最丰富物种，并尽可能描述森林结构、已知分布和用途。
