TROPICAL GALLERY FORESTS

Savanna gallery forests in Belize and Venezuela support both local tree species densities that are comparable to those of continuous tropical forests in the region, and floras that are characteristic of these forests. Species coexistence is mediated by a large suite of mechanisms including occasional incursions of savanna fires. A forest-edge community fo fire-tolerant trees is important in preserving micro-climatic stability of the forest, but appears to be gradually destroyed when fires become too frequent. The existence of these long-isolated, but floristically rich, forest patches indicates that the loss of plant biodiversity is not an inevitable consequence of forest fragmentation. We suggest that gallery forests could have been an important refuge for tropical forest species during Pleistocene aridity, and could play a similar role during future periods of human deforestation.