title: Specific gravity of woody tissue from lowland Neotropical plants: differences among forest types.
abstract: Wood density, or more precisely, wood specific gravity, is an important parameter when estimating aboveground biomass, which has become a central tool for the management and conservation of forests around the world. When using biomass allometric equations for tropical forests, researchers are often required to assume phylogenetic trait conservatism, which allows us to assign genus- and family-level wood specific gravity mean values, to many woody species. The lack of information on this trait for many Neotropical plant species has led to an imprecise estimation of the biomass stored in Neotropical forests. The data presented here has information of woody tissue specific gravity from 2,602 individual stems for 386 species, including trees, lianas, and hemi-epiphytes of lowland tropical forests in Colombia. This data set was produced by us collecting wood cores from woody species in five localities in the Orinoco and Magdalena Basins in Colombia. We found lower mean specific gravity values in várzea than in terra firme and igapó.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Ecología de Bosques Tropicales y Primatología, Fundación Natura Colombia, Universidad de Los Andes, 111711, Bogotá D.C, Colombia.
authors.forename: Luisa Fernanda
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Casas
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Ecología de Bosques Tropicales y Primatología, Universidad de Los Andes, 111711, Bogotá D.C, Colombia.
authors.forename: Ana María
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Aldana
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Ecología de Bosques Tropicales y Primatología, Universidad de Los Andes, 111711, Bogotá D.C, Colombia.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Henao-Diaz
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Dinámica de Ecosistemas Tropicales-GIBDET, Universidad del Tolima, Ibague, 111711, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Villanueva
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Ecología de Bosques Tropicales y Primatología, Universidad de Los Andes, 111711, Bogotá D.C, Colombia.
authors.forename: Pablo R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Stevenson
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D065928:Forests; D010802:Phylogeny; D010944:Plants / Q000737:chemistry*; D013046:Specific Gravity; D014329:Tropical Climate; D014934:Wood
keywords: aboveground biomass; biomass Magdalena basin; biomass Orinoco basin; neotropical woody tissue; plant functional trait; specific gravity flood plain; specific gravity terra firme; wood density; wood specific gravity