In ecology and conservation biology identifying keystone species and quantify their population is very important. Even, the study of their role in the habitats to maintain overall niche interaction is very imperative for species level conservation program. is their any standard tools for quantifying their population and role within a forest ecosystem?
In my opinion, first list the potential keystone species with critical criteria, select the key stone species second and locate the potential habitats in a map. Third map out the selected key species, then do inventory with standard methods.
It is important to know, how big the area? According to me, the most simpler and handy method is calculating the IVI for various tree species. To know their role in the ecosystem, it is important to have secondary information about associated fauna and climatic variables.
Hi Koushir,
As Nishith pointed out, a simple estimation of IVI could solve your problem since it involves abundance and also biomass, so, at the end you will rank the tree species according to their "volume" in your forest. Then, several options could work to make this more complex, depending on what do you want (or what do people in your location take care about this particular forest). the first thing i think are native (endemic) species, the most rare and also the most used; you seek for keystone species, but kestone species are, in certain way, circumpstantial, and could be justified from very different contexts
As source of fruits and flowers, some trees are the main support of nutritional resources for several species (particularly in summer), as well, structurally complex trees (taller and sinuous trunks for example), would provide microhabitats and support for more species (epifitic plants) A count of inter-specific interactions could help here, also the "volume of resource" in terms of flowers, nectar, fruitsetc...). this is particurarly important if there are animals (in some IUCN risk-category) that only fed certain tree resource.
Functional traits are also a way to characterize the variability of niches that are included in thelocal tree-community, the idea is to conserve species from all the identifyed functional groups (nitrogen-fixers, pollinator refugee, gap-pioneers, ec...)
Finally, species with local antropogenic uses are important just for that, and they have the unique value that people already knows them and are prone to help in their conservation. A popular "good-feeling" with some tree species of the forest could be exploited "politically" for the managment and conservation of that ecosystem.
At the end, good keystone species are those that allows you to negotiate economic resources for conservation and management actions, in most cases the ecological value of the species talk by itself, but not always.
Dear all, in one hectare of old-growth amazon forest we can have around 300 species,
most IVI studies are at genus level.
Size of species also vary, in one hectare in Manaus you may found 5 individuals above 70 cm in DBH,
believe that the hyperdominance described by Ter Steege 2013 can give you some direction
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